Manhunt 2 continues to instill fear in companies with “questionable” content in their video games. Senior Producer of Condemned 2, Constantine Hantzopoulos made this very clear when speaking to CVG about just how much attention he paid to the Manhunt 2 situation.
Absolutely it did. And one of the things I want to make clear is that [Condemned 2] does not take place in the real world. This is a fictional universe. That said we’re pretty cognizant of the ESRB and the Manhunt thing.I worked on [Indigo Prophecy] and had to cut the sex scenes out of the game for the US… It sucked because I don’t believe in that, right. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. We’re working closely with the ESRB to make sure everything goes through okay but there’s stuff we’ve cut already. There were things we were doing that even I couldn’t believe we were going to those places.
An example of what we cut would be putting someone’s head in a vice. That was too much, you know. There are also some decapitations we’ve lost…
[ Joystiq ]
Blizzard announced yesterday that World of Warcraft has broken the 9 million subscriber mark. That’s alot of people.
Most of its success can be attributed to its own magnetism given that prior to the release of the Burning Crusade, the expansion to World Of Warcraft, subscriptions were hovering somewhere around 8 million.
During last night’s Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary Party, Kojima Productions announced that there would be a Japan-only Closed Beta for Metal Gear Online.
The registration site for the beta is already up and running. This beta will be restricted to 3,000 players in Japan and will run from August 20 through September 3. Registration closes on September 6. If you live in Japan, you might want to get on that.
[ Metal Gear Online Beta Application ]
Just note that this comes from the Hollywood Reporter so be prepared to take it with an extreme grain of salt, but they claim that according to “sources” who come from the world of “retail”, the Xbox 360 will see a price cut of $50.
So just when will this particular price cut take place? According to Hollywood Reporter, exactly on August 8. These “sources” failed to identify specifically what model 360 would see a price cut, but we’re just going to guess they meant all of them.
Given the track record on prior rumors about a 360 price drop, we won’t even hold our breath here at TSS.
[ Kotaku via Hollywood Reporter ]
Variety magazine reports that Ubisoft is closing a deal with not only FOX for game based on the upcoming 2009 movie, James Cameron’s, Avatar, but also NBC’s winter blockbuster series, Heroes.
According to Variety, Ubisoft will announce details at this week’s Comic-Con about it’s Heroes based game.
[ Kotaku via Variety ]
Sony issued out a new firmware update yesterday for the PlayStation Portable. It is now at version 3.52.
Not much is included in this new update. “Support for PLAYSTATION®Network titles has been expanded”. Thats about all that is listed on Sony’s listing.
Of course what they aren’t telling you is that just like mostly every other update, security revisions were made. Homebrew just got less fun.
[ PSP Firmware Update ]
Three Speech, a UK-based PlayStation blog recently sat down with SCEE President, David Reeves (Pictured Right), the man who dropped the bombshell of the 60GB PS3 unit phase-out. Topics include the PS3 Price Cut, The UK Value Pack, his own perceptions on the PS3, and other things.
Q: So why didn’t we get a PS3 price-cut in the UK?
David Reeves: If you’re a consumer — and we introduced the PS3 in March for £425 or 599 Euros – let’s say you bought one at the end of April and have been using it, playing Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm. We’ve only been on the market for three and a bit months. Our thought process was: “Wait a minute – we’re actually not doing too badly – we’re not selling as well as Wii or DS – but seasonality-wise, compared to, say, PS2 at the same time we launched it in 2001, we’re actually doing quite well on a regional level”. It’s exactly the target that we sought. July is not really a gamers’ month unless you get a big, big title. So we thought if we reduced the price, we’d annoy a lot of people. We did think about it, but we also felt that it wasn’t doing that badly. In the US, they’ve been going for more than six months, so they took the decision that going down in price was a better thing to do than a value pack.
Visit Three Speech for the full interview.
Japanese PS3 owners woke up to the sight of a new firmware update for their PS3. Listed below are some of the details of just what new features arrive with it.
• Ability to rearrange games on the XMB
• Option menu now includes “eject disk”
• Press triangle to eject games/CDs/movies in the XMB
• XMB backgrounds
• Change the folder classification
• Emoticons
• Change CD output to 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz
• Force 24Hz output for Blu-ray over HDMI
• Change PS3 video settings in-game
• “Bit Mapping” in the “Music Setting”
• Save AVCHD type animations from a Memory Stick
• Change settings like upscaling while playing PS and PS2 games
• Add bookmarks
• Web browser security function in the browser’s tool section
• Avatar moves during audio visual chat
Ah, the three classic summer leisure activities: golf, pinball and battling hordes of evil creatures. Luckily, it’s Monday and once again Nintendo has you covered. Players can hit the crazy links with the spherical Kirby, become a pinball wizard or just enjoy an afternoon of helping good triumph over evil. So pour yourself a tall glass of lemonade and settle in for some classic gaming fun.
Three new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are available after the jump.
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PRESS RELEASE — Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced the worldwide availability of a new take on its classic Wing Commander™ franchise with Wing Commander Arena for the Xbox LIVE® Arcade this Wednesday, July 25. Up to 16 space pilots can take to the stars and blast opposing ships in a number of ways — single player, multi-team, multiplayer duel and multiplayer free for all.
Wing Commander Arena takes the classic space combat game in a much more action-oriented direction, where dueling teams can pilot up to eight ships, each with their own unique assets. With 16-player play, Wing Commander Arena offers the largest multi-player melee experience to date. Players can propel their ships through space, fire torpedoes and unleash deadly particle cannons as they try to climb the leader board.
“We’ve updated the Wing Commander series and brought it to a new platform, making it an action-packed, pure arcade style game,” said Sean Penney, EA Wing Commander Arena producer. “We’re redefining the Arcade multi-player experience – the adrenaline rush you get in a 16-player fight is an unmatched experience and gives those who remember the Wing Commander franchise a new way to experience it.”
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