Sony targets India with kabaddi game

Sony is teaming with Gameshastra to create Indian sports titles for the local market.

The format holder has already pledged support for the expanding Indian market, earlier this year signing 13 developers to create games specifically for Indian consumers.

"We feel that the Indian gaming market with its current growth has reached a level where a new concept like this can be tried and we expect it to do very well," commented Sony Europe COO Jim Ryan.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Gameshastra in this endeavour and have every belief that it will be a huge success."

The game will feature a number of sports including kabaddi, kho kho and guilli danda and will be released in Spring 2009.

"A typical Indian gamer is a city-bred youth who has no idea about traditional Indian games," offered Prakesh Ahuja, CEO of Gameshastra.

"These games have an inherent Indian rustic appeal to them which will be appreciated by Indian gamers if presented in an interesting format. We are confident that the old world charm of these games would appeal not only to people in India but also to the Indian diasporas worldwide."

Source: Games Industry

Crime could pay for Grand Theft Auto IV

CONTROVERSIAL video game Grand Theft Auto IV has been nominated for a top award at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival.
The game, created by Edinburgh-based company Rockstar North, is the latest in the long-running franchise which sees gamers given the chance to run around lavishly-created virtual cities carrying out all manner of criminal activities.

This latest instalment has earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours.

In its first day on release the game sold 3.6 million copies and earned more than £150 million.

At the Edinburgh awards, established to recognise innovation and design in video games, it will be up against the revolutionary Wii Fit, the incredibly popular Rock Band game and best-selling Halo 3.

The winner of the Edge Award will be announced on Monday, August 11

Source: The Scotsman

Cursed Mountain a survival Himalayas horror game on Nintendo Wii

Cursed Mountain, a survival horror game produced exclusively for Wii by their internal development studio and its partners.

Set in the late 1980s, gamers will take on the role of a fearless mountaineer as he climbs into the Himalayas on a quest to find his lost brother. As he ascends the mountain, he encounters an ancient curse: the souls of the people who died in that region are stuck in limbo, caught in the Shadow World. Villagers, pilgrims, mountaineers and Buddhist monks – dead but not yet reincarnated – are all that is left on the mountain. Terrible visions will disorient him, and ghosts and demons block his path. But the question remains – is his brother still alive?



Designed exclusively for Wii, Cursed Mountain features rich visuals and breathtaking views – set on the roof of the world in the life threatening death zone, the entire game world is visible from every level. The gesture-based combat system takes full advantage of the Wii motion sensitivity. Players will use the Wii RemoteTM to look around, sense the environment, climb and fight enemies.

"With a fresh setting, gloomy atmosphere and the innovative use of the Wii controls, Cursed Mountain will deliver a unique, terrifying game play experience," said Hannes Seifert, Managing Director at the Deep Silver development studio. "Deep Silver is confident that Cursed Mountain will help to further establish our international presence, and help expand the survival horror game genre on the Wii platform."

Final Fantasy XIII Demo For PS3 In Advent Children Blu-Ray!

It seems the PlayStation 3 will be receiving the first FFXIII demo in the form of a bonus on the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Blu-ray disc.

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Blizzard Shoots Down Fan Petition

Shortly after the screenshots of Diablo III hit the internet the inevitable complaints started. Many were upset about the lack of the light radius present in the other two games (although primarily in the original as it was a true ‘dungeon crawler’ in some respects while a vast majority of the sequel was outdoors) and the blue tinge to most everything. A petition was signed by around 50,000 fans and to their chagrin has been rejected by Blizzard. It seems that everyone working on the game likes the art style.

According to the developers they’ve gone this route for several reasons. First of all a level of ‘realism’ has been attempted by many games in the past years and some developers are beginning to avoid it, a perfect example being Team Fortress 2 which opts for a more deliberately cartoonish style. They wanted to make the game stand out from the all-bleak-grey titles like Gears of War. They have also said that since many of the monsters are dark in color themselves hordes of grey baddies running around grey backgrounds would make gameplay a little too stressful. They did say that the light radius effect might be popped in one or two places that it’s suitable though.

Source: Digital battle

Inside the development of Sega’s MadWorld

Out of the three games PlatinumGames announced I was most surprised by MadWorld. The noir style, the brutal controls and the extreme amount of gore aren’t common on the Wii. At E3 I watched a demonstration where I saw some of the gestures, but the presentation was terse so there wasn't much to report. To get find out more about MadWorld I spoke with Christopher Kaminski, Associate Producer at Sega.

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Onechanbara R - Bikini Zombie Slayer for North America

I saw Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers at E3, but it was just the Japanese version better known as Onechanbara R. We couldn’t play it either, but I know what to expect: slashing zombies with motion control. I don’t think many people are aware of that Onechanbara R is only a slice of the Onechanbara universe. Aya, the iconic protagonist in a bikini and cowboy hat, and Saki, the vicious looking girl in a school uniform, are the only two playable characters in the Japanese version. However, the Onechanbara series has many more playable characters like Anna who wields a pistol from Onechanbara VorteX and Reiko from The Onechanbara 2.



D3 Publisher is exploring options to see if they can add new characters in Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers which makes sense since Tamsoft has plenty of assets lying around. Nothing has been confirmed at this point, but D3 is also seeing if it’s possible to sneak in enemies and stages not found in the Japanese game. Let’s hope they pull something off.

Source: Siliconera

UK Government Proposes Guidelines For Rating Online Games

Settling the games-rating issues between the games industry and British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), UK government has proposed new set of guidelines to rate games.

The issue was sparked by Dr Tanya Byron’s report about the adverse effects of online content and games on kids, and thus, called for a better rating system for games.

Responding to Byron’s report, BBFC have put forth its own set of rules for rating games; as of now, games are being rated under the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system.

UK’s culture minister, Margaret Hodge, has announced new set of guidelines for rating games, which include combination of rules from both PEGI and BBFC systems; the government is also planning to establish an independent self-regulating body for the purpose.

“The games market has simply outgrown the classification system, so today we are consulting on options that will make games classification useful and relevant”, Hodge said.

Bowser's Minions Revolt

Mario's enemies aren't happy with their lot in life, and they're going to do something about it.

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Next Call of Duty Penciled In For 2009

You wouldn't be surprised to learn that "an all-new Call of Duty" title will be released in 2009, would you? Good, because that's exactly what's going to happen, according to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who talked up the next Call of Duty in a post earnings release con call.

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