David Braben may have warned that the UK is the most expensive place in the world to make games, but this year’s Develop awards showed that the country has no shortage of talent. Grand Theft Auto IV developer Rockstar North led the pack with awards for visuals, audio, and in-house development, and parent company Rockstar Games took the overall grand-prix prize. Other notable winners included best use of a license for Traveller’s Tales with Lego Indiana Jones, and Nintendo won the publishing-hero award. Read more…
According to Guy Cocker
According to the NPD Group’s year-end figures, the US retail gaming industry took in $18.85 billion during 2007. That’s nearly twice the Motion Picture Association of America and Nielsen EDI’s record-setting US box office take of $9.6 billion for the year. The gaming industry even surpassed DVD sales in 2007, reported to be $16 billion by the Digital Entertainment Group and $15.9 billion by Adams Media Research.
Sony officially outlines medal-based leveling system for its console; trophies not retroactive, background music game-specific; full video demo inside.Following a spate of leaks last week, Sony has officially announced that the PlayStation 3’s trophy system will arrive on July 2 as part of the 2.40 firmware update. As had been rumored, the system will eschew its Xbox Live-style cumulative numerical score, instead adopting a four-tiered approach that bestows four kinds of awards: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Read more…
According to Tor Thorsen
Guns of the Patriots shoots to the number one spot in the Land of the Rising Sun, shifts just under 500,000 in its first week on sale.
It wasn’t quite a million sold on day one, but Konami must still be quite pleased with last week’s sales figures in Japan for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
After going on sale in the country on June 12, the game debuted at the top of the software charts for the week of June 9-15. So far, 464,926 copies of MGS4 have been sold, which means that it’s almost halfway to Konami’s milestone.
Hideo Kojima’s PlayStation 3 exclusive also boosted sales of the console itself. They were up from 10,856 the week before by almost seven times to 75,311. Read more…
According to Emma Boyes
Undisputed to bring more than 80 MMA stars to the Xbox 360 and PS3, with create-a-fighter and career modes in tow.
It’s been well over a year since THQ announced its plans to make Ultimate Fighting Championship games, but the only details known about the publisher’s first entry into the Octagon were that it would arrive on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the spring of 2009. Today the publisher revealed a few more specifics about the game, including the full title and first features.
When it arrives next year, UFC 2009 Undisputed will feature more than 80 licensed fighters pulled from all five of the league’s weight classes. For players who can’t find the perfect combatant in that roster, THQ is including a create-a-fighter option as well as a career mode to help take a rookie scrub all the way to the UFC Hall of Fame. Read more…
According to Brendan Sinclair
Came across a good story in the NYT via Valleywag on Gamestop.
“Everyone argued that games would be distributed online … but these guys stuck to their game plan.” That’s true, but GameStop’s success is mostly due to the nascent state of digital distribution. Broadband is still too slow, and console hard drives are still too small. Those limitations hinder the sale of full-length, multiple-gigabyte games. GameStop’s success has been a matter of luck as much as timing. Playing videogames has grown as a mainstream obsession even faster than the broadband pipes that were supposed to make GameStop’s business model obsolete. That, and it’s still really hard to download a Wii.
It’s true that the conventional wisdom of a store beating out the digital distribution model is strange, but that’s exactly what’s happened here.
PLAY
