12/29/08

Monday, December 29, 2008

Free video game magazine to download

Follow the link to download your free video games magazines (five so far) with reviews...

Saints Row 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Dead Space
de Blob + much more

Download them here...

Dead Rising video game rumored for PlayStation 3

Dead Rising, Capcom's Xbox 360 exclusive take on the classic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead, may be making its way to the PlayStation 3 after all.

On a recent holiday post at the official SCEA blog, Capcom's overseer of downloadable titles John Diamonon mentioned a secret surprise heading to the PSN, to celebrate the great reception the Capcom store has received. When a comment was made asking about Dead Rising hitting the store, John Diamonon replied specifically to it, hinting "Who announced it? Me? I don't think so!".

Capcom's official standpoint on the franchise is that the original was only Xbox 360 exclusive because the PlayStation 3 wasn't out at that point.

They further went on to say that any sequels would inevitably be multiplatform. And with rumors of Dead Rising 2 being in development constantly popping up, this would be a great way to catch PlayStation 3 owners up to the franchise. Expect to hear more on this soon.

Source: PS3 center

PS3 game White Knight Chronicles sells over 130,000 in first week

One of the most anticipated PlayStation 3 'exclusive' games White Knight Chronicles, even though the relatively low Famitsu review score knocked the hype level down a couple of levels.

Now, the latest rumor is that White Knight Chronicles has sold over 130,000 copies in its first week.

According to Kotaku, WKC did manage to sell this decent number after it first hit store shelves in Japan on December 25. This isn't quite the splash Sony and Level 5 were hoping it'd make, but considering that Famitsu analysis, they should probably be happy that a sub-30-scoring game didn't drive away most potential consumers.

In comparison, the biggest PS3 seller in Japan so far has been Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots with 476,000 copies sold, followed by Devil May Cry 4 with 212,000. However, those games came out in the first half of 2008 and WKC just released last week, so...if the number is indeed correct, 130,000 isn't bad. At some point, we do expect to hear a North American and European release date for this promising RPG, but we now have our reservations about its quality. Famitsu isn't the only source to issue some "meh" feedback for the game, so we may have to turn our focus to other titles in 2009 that absolutely guarantee greatness. It's a dog-eat-dog world in next-gen software land, and if you don't deliver...

For our part, we're hoping the game doesn't entirely flop in the other two major regions, just because it may discourage Level 5 from making another RPG. We know they're capable, and a little slip on WKC doesn't mean they should throw in the towel as far as we're concerned.

Source: PS Extreme

Facebook add social games

Fears that computer games are turning young people antisocial are being challenged by a new generation of "sociable" games which are played through the internet.

The rise of social networking websites such as Facebook has helped attract millions of people to games which they can play with their friends.

It could represent a major challenge to the makers of hugely popular video consoles such as the Nintendo Wii or the Xbox.

While the credit crisis has forced companies across the world to rein in spending, internet games developers have received a string of multi-million dollar investments in recent months allowing them to plan expansion at a time when other businesses are making cuts.

Playfish, a British company which provides mini-golf and bowling games among others on Facebook, has attracted 25 million registered users since it was set up a year ago.

Another game on the site, a social networking device called Kidnap!, attracted 2.5 million new players in the month of October alone.

Full post on The Telegraph here...

From Mercury news...

While the rest of us have been socializing on Facebook, Webs.com has been building a very interesting business. It has been creating free games on Facebook that have garnered a huge number of page views. WarBook, a role-playing game with no animated graphics, and other Webs.com games have generated a billion page views since the first game launched 90 days ago in August. The games are generating ad revenue with just about every view…

“We launched it and it’s exploding,” said Pishevar. “WarBook is getting 15 million page views a day.”…

… Street Race is a new SGN game that has no graphics. You simply sign up, get $1,000 in play money, buy a car, then race. In the race, you click on another user. Then nothing happens. Nothing. The next screen that comes up tells you if you won or lost, how much money you earned or lost, and the skill points you earned. As your skill points grow, you win more races and get more money to spend souping up your car. The social part comes in where you can get more money by inviting 20 friends to join…

It’s simple and easy. That’s why the game has gotten more than a million page views on its first day. You can play a round in about one second…

“We’re leveraging the social graph,” Pishevar said. “It’s gaming on tap. You use it as you need it. We are building the first social gaming network on top of the Facebook social operating system.”

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