Scott Steinberg, Vice President of Product Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, recently sat down with GameDaily and chatted about Killzone 2, the latest in a long line of PS3 "killer apps."
According to GameDaily, Steinberg said that Killzone 2 is the "fastest SCEA PS3 title to break the 500,000 unit mark" and that it's the "highest selling SCEA PS3 title for the first 30 days out of launch." Impressive numbers to be sure, but notice the number of qualifiers that Steinberg used:
First of all, Killzone 2 is the fastest selling SCEA published title to reach 500,000 in sales. This means that other third party games, such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4, have likely sold faster than Sony's hugely hyped Killzone 2.
Secondly, Steinberg used the number 500,000 as his milestone mark. This implies that Killzone 2 hasn't reached 1 million in sales yet and that it is likely lagging well behind the sales numbers of "killer apps" on the Xbox 360 and Wii.
While the PS3 has slowly built up a respectable number of fantastic games, its sluggish sales numbers (for both consoles and software) still remain solidely in the back of the pack.
This also means the hype machine touting God of War III as "the game that will really put the PS3 over the top" should kick into gear any day now.
The story follows Harry Mason, who wakes up after a car accident to find that his daughter Cheryl is missing. Harry will wander the snowy streets of Silent Hill searching for answers of her disappearance, but when the world freezes over, he will need to escape the lumbering demons that haunt his steps.
Harry will need to navigate both worlds to discover the truth; not just about his missing daughter, but also the type of person he actually is.
Silent Hill's debut on the Nintendo Wii makes the fear more real than ever before. Players will be drawn into the mysterious town using the Nintendo Wii Remote as a flashlight and a cellphone as they search for clues. Choices they make will shape Harry Mason, as well as the people he meets and the places he visits. The enemies evolve as well, taking the form of the player's deepest fears. Silent Hill promises to be more terrifying than ever, bringing the fear to Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, and PSP.
* A re-imagining of the original Silent Hill that turns everything you thought you knew on its head. * The game watches you and adapts to your actions to create a unique experience to each player and intensify their fears. * Implementation of a cell phone as the user interface, which acts as a story telling device, map, puzzle helper, and camera that provides seamless flow with no interruption in gameplay. * New nightmare sequences focus on escape and evasion rather than direct confrontation. * Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will feature an all-new soundtrack by acclaimed series composer Akira Yamaoka.
A new Sega teaser website has appeared here Shining Force.
The launch date - 17 April 2009 doesn't mention what game or games it promotes...
Could it be a new Skies of Arcadia game or a new Shining Force title? Hope that it promotes ports of the existing Shining Forces games onto the new DSi platform are also being considered.
Sega trademarked the name Shining Force Cross last year so maybe that's a hint?
the arrival of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus today! Hardcore players will finally be able to take their fight on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and PSP (PlayStation Portable) system. Developed by Yokohama-based developer Arc System Works, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus is the definitive installment in the series and is widely cited as one of the most balanced fighters among its peers.
Sporting high-resolution graphics in 480P, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus marks the return of over 20 beloved characters from the Guilty Gear franchise, including Kliff and Justice! Fans of the series will be pleased to not only find all their characters available right off the bat, but will finally be able to uncover the rich stories of each character for the first time!
“With the inclusion of Kliff and Justice, a brand-new story mode, a re-tuned survival mode, and a team mode, be prepared for long nights of Guilty Gear action," said Michael Manzanares, Producer, Aksys Games. "I hope fans of the series will enjoy this title as much as we did working on it.”
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus Features
• 2 COMBATANTS RETURN TO THE BATTLE! Accent Core Plus marks the return of fan favorites Kliff Undersn and Justice, rounding out the cast of 25 playable characters.
• ALL NEW STORY MODE CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR GGXXACP! Discover the back story to all of your favorite characters in the Guilty Gear mythos, with fully-voiced dialogue.
• FIGHT TO SURVIVE! Level up your character's abilities and traits in the re-tuned Survival Mode.
• TEAM BATTLE ROYALE! Create a three-man team in Versus Mode to find out which characters are the ultimate Guilty Gear team-up.
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus has been rated T for Teen by the ESRB.
Chinese Democracy, the sixth and most recent album from Guns N’ Roses, will be released in its entirety to the Rock Band Music Store catalog of downloadable content on April 14, 2009.
The highly anticipated November 2008 release of Chinese Democracy was Guns N’ Roses’ first official music release in 15 years. It debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart, at #2 on the UK Albums chart and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on February 3, 2009. Chinese Democracy has already sold nearly three million copies.
Formed in the early 80s in Los Angeles, Guns N’ Roses has sold an estimated 100 million albums worldwide. The band’s 1987 major label debut Appetite for Destruction, featuring the hits “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” has sold in excess of 28 million copies and remains to this day the fastest-selling debut album in history.
Next week’s Rock Band Music Store lineup will feature 13 songs from Chinese Democracy. With “Shackler’s Revenge” from Chinese Democracy already featured on the Rock Band 2 soundtrack, the DLC album includes the following tracks:
Tracks: Chinese Democracy
Better Street of Dreams If the World There Was a Time Catcher in the Rye Scraped Riad N’ the Bedouins Sorry I.R.S. Madagascar This I Love Prostitute
(All tracks are original master recordings)
The tracks will be available for purchase as an album or individual tracks for Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 system. The tracks will be available for purchase as individual tracks only for Wii.
Release Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 (Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360 and in-game Rock Band 2 Music Store for Wii ) Thursday, April 16, 2009 (PlayStation Store)
Abandon Interactive Entertainment announce the release of Freaky Creatures, the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game available on PC, MAC and mobile.
Freaky Creatures combines the best of online multiplayer gaming, collectible action figures, virtual worlds and social networking.
The Freaky Creatures experience begins with a starter pack that includes two action figures and a one gigabyte reusable flash drive that unlocks the Freaky Creatures universe. Each starter pack also comes with 50 different parts, 20 powers and four objects that can be placed into the creature’s lair.
Players can then bring their creatures to life online and customize them with rare parts and powers to create one out of 3.2 billion possible combinations. Once players have created their custom creature, they can jump straight into battle or build a lair within which they can care for their creature or hang out and socialize with friends. Gamers are encouraged to visit the community to personalize their homepage, play mini-games, join tournaments, check leaderboards, trade items, read animated comics, enter contests and much more in the ever expanding Freaky Creatures universe.
“From the beginning, Abandon has been committed to creating a multi-faceted entertainment adventure. We created an experience that is accessible to the amateur MMO player, but also offers enough in-depth gameplay to appeal to the hardcore gamer,” said Jamie Ottilie, President and COO of Abandon Interactive Entertainment. “As a completely unique and original IP, bringing Freaky Creatures to market has truly been a labor of love, and we’re thrilled to share the end result with the gaming community.”
In addition, Abandon Interactive Entertainment has teamed up with the Starlight Children’s Foundation to spearhead the launch of Freaky Creatures, donating a portion of the sales of Freaky Creatures starter packs to Starlight’s “Great Escapes” program benefitting local children’s hospitals nationwide. The foundation gives terminally ill children and their families the chance to partake in fun activities in a friendly, accepting environment, including movie screenings, circus trips, mother and daughter makeovers, sporting events, picnics and more.
For more information, or to purchase your very own Freaky Creatures starter pack, please visit http://www.freakycreatures.com.
Guitar Hero fans can now cast their votes online at GreatestHits.GuitarHero.com to determine the order in which songs will be revealed for Activision Guitar Hero Greatest Hits.
Guitar Hero Greatest Hits takes the most exciting, recognisable and fun to play music from genre-defining titles Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which were previously available for guitar-only in-game play, and delivers them as a compelling and dynamic full band experience.
Starting today, music and video game fans alike can visit GreatestHits.GuitarHero.com to cast their votes for which previous Guitar Hero game they would like the set list unveiled from first. Each week, a portion of the Guitar Hero Greatest Hits set list will be revealed based on which prior game captures the most votes.
Guitar Hero Greatest Hits feature the most memorable songs from Guitar Hero games together in one epic set list, including these tracks: • Guitar Hero
o “Killer Queen” – Queen o “I Love Rock N Roll” – Joan Jett and The Blackhearts o “Bark At The Moon” – Ozzy Osbourne
• Guitar Hero II
o “Them Bones” – Alice in Chains o “Killing in the Name” – Rage Against The Machine o “Message In A Bottle” – The Police o “Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas o “Free Bird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
o “I Wanna Rock” – Twisted Sister o “Nothin But A Good Time” – Poison
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
o “Barracuda” – Heart o “Through the Fire and Flames” – DragonForce
Turn down the lights, crank up the amps and prepare to command center stage as some of the most famous AND infamous tracks from Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock step into the spotlight in the most epic, full band jam session to-date - Guitar Hero Greatest Hits. The No1 best-selling video game franchise of 2008 presents the best of the best to music video game aficionados so they can join together for guitar, bass, drums and vocals in-game and rock to master tracks of their favorite Guitar Hero music.
Featuring 48 master recordings, Guitar Hero Greatest Hits delivers exciting online and offline gameplay modes including Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands,” which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online. Players’ rock n’ roll fantasies turn to realities as they create their rocker, compose original music and share it with the world through the innovative Music Studio, GHTunes and robust Rock Star Creator gameplay modes first introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour.
Telltale has announced that WiiWare sales of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, the first monthly episodic series on a console, have more than doubled since Nintendo's new storage solution was unveiled at the Game Developer's Conference in March.
The Strong Bad series began releasing episodically on WiiWare in August 2008.
"Nintendo's new solution really opens the door for players to add to their collection of downloadable games, which is critical for a series with multiple installments," says Telltale CEO Dan Connors. "This is a major step forward for episodic gaming. We're looking forward to even greater success on WiiWare with Strong Bad, as well as other projects."
Like a TV series, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is best enjoyed when the full five episode "season" is played in its entirety. Nintendo's new option to play WiiWare games directly from high-density SD cards gives customers a convenient way to enjoy this full-season experience.
Starring Strong Bad, the self-proclaimed "coolest person ever," and the rest of the characters from the popular Homestarrunner.com website, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is a series of comedy games that play like interactive cartoons. Each episode features a unique storyline penned by series creators Mike and Matt Chapman and the writers of Telltale's award-winning Sam & Max series. Arcade-style mini games, achievements, and the ability to email Wii™ friends from Strong Bad's laptop complete the experience.
The Strong Bad games can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel for 1,000 points each. For more information on Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People on WiiWare, visit http://www.telltalegames.com/strongbad/wiiware. The series is also available for PC from Telltale's website.
Telltale's episodic offerings are expanding to Xbox LIVE Arcade this spring with Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.
Capcom, confirmed that the highly anticipated Bionic Commando will be released on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment’s PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) this May across Europe with a PC version available in the following months. Reloaded for the latest generation of hardware, Bionic Commando sees the return of the ultimate fusion of man and machine who became a firm favourite with gamers around the world some 20 years ago with the release of the 8-bit original on the NES. Bionic Commando features Nathan Spencer (voiced by former lead singer of Faith No More, Mike Patton), as a government operative who, after distinguishing himself in a fierce conflict against the Imperials, is betrayed and falsely imprisoned by the very people he unquestioningly served.
Five years later, on the day he is due to be executed for his supposed crimes, an experimental weapon detonates in Ascension City, unleashing an immensely powerful earthquake coupled with a radiation shockwave that leaves the city in ruins, wiping out its populace. Military intelligence suggests that a large terrorist search force has moved in and occupied Ascension City, but as yet their motives remain unclear. With the terrain in ruins and the terrorists in control of Ascension City’s air defences the FSA has only one option open to them – the reactivation of Nathan Spencer.
Both the Bionic Arm and swing mechanic that made the original so unique make a welcome return. They have been upgraded to deliver a range of devastating attacks and allow Spencer to quickly traverse the game’s diverse environments. Players can harness the power of the arm in a variety of ways to take out enemies - launch huge boulders or cars; send them flying with a close-quarters uppercut; use enemies as a shield or whip them into the air transforming them into a human kite.
Bionic Commando is being developed in partnership with Swedish developer Grin, and provides a further example of Capcom’s strategy to work with the best developer talent, whilst maintaining the unique elements of creativity and approach to game design for which Capcom is renowned.
Japanese multi-platinum selling Monster Hunter Portable 2G will be coming to European gamers as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Since its release in Japan earlier this year, the game has shipped over 2.4 million copies, making it one of the most successful games on the PSP (PlayStation Portable). To date the Monster Hunter series has sold over 7.8 million units worldwide. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is scheduled for release across PAL territories this coming spring.
The epic Monster Hunter series is the leading PSP franchise in Japan becoming the fastest selling third party portable game on any format. More than just a game, Monster Hunter has become a social and cultural gaming phenomenon, giving rise to Monster Hunter festivals and seminars plus numerous merchandising lines. With the upcoming release of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite in Europe players will be invited to experience the thrill of the hunt with more action and combat than ever before.
“Monster Hunter’s success on the PSP in Japan is unprecedented,” commented David Reeves, President Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. “So it is great news that the latest instalment of the series will shortly be available in Europe and I am confident that its key tenet of social gaming that has made Monster Hunter so popular with Japanese gamers will resonate strongly with European PSP owners.”
With over 500 hours of gameplay and previously unreleased monsters, weapons and missions, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is set to be the biggest game of the series so far. Via Ad-Hoc functionality, players can experience the social gaming phenomenon that’s gripping Japan and adventure with up to three friends for a thrilling and savaging multiplayer hunting party. From devising the strategy to executing the attack, team play with your friends is going to be key to hunting down the ferocious beasts.
Monster Hunters can prepare for the ultimate fight with more than 2000 armour sets, 1500 weapons and 400 missions to choose and customise their characters from. Throughout the strategic gameplay players will be rewarded for their deep fighting combat sequences and tactics, encouraging them to seek out the more experienced Monster Hunters and team up in order to learn from their experience.
New to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is the fully customisable AI Felyne companion who will accompany players on quests and gather extra resources for the player. PSP owners may then share their companions with other players through ‘felyne casting’ with users transferring data through the PSP sleep mode.
Also new to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is the improved media install option where players can save the game to a memory stick, allowing the game to load from the memory stick and UMD simultaneously for faster loading times. Fans of the series will be pleased to hear that they can transfer their data from Monster Hunter Freedom 2 over to the new game.
