A lot of us are taking for granted the arrival of Sony and Microsoft’s new system, which are both presumedly coming out of the end of the year. And while Nintendo already released their next-generation system last year — with the Wii U — they haven’t lived up to their own sales expectations. But most of us figure that the PlayStation 4, along with the next Xbox, will sell a higher quantity of systems.
But if you were the CEO of the biggest game publisher on Earth, you would have your reservations about these new systems selling like hotcakes in the upcoming years. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that you been seeing a steady decline in sales, and that Nintendo couldn’t convince the number of customers they wish to see purchased their console and handhelds these last few years.
There’s definitely been a blow back in the video game industry, and Activision boss Bobby Kotick is worried that trend will continue in this upcoming generation. (more…)
By now you’ve heard the streets of Steelport are somehow going to be more insane then the previous Saints Row games.
The developer, Volition, built a demo for PAX East attendees which featured aliens, superpowers, a Dubstep gun and more. Up top is that very demo that was shown at the convention.
While the action looks chaotic, and at times ridiculously fun, I’m not entirely sure this fourth installment will hold my attention for very long. Volition clearly wanted to step up the pandemonium atmosphere that they built on from the third version of the series, but it also looks like they neglected creating a lot of fresh things, including the map.
Saints Row IV will be out for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on August 20.
Curious about how Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag will look on the next-generation of systems? Well Ubisoft and Sony has given us a glimpse of just that, in the video above.
Sony has released a video called ‘Conversations with Creators,’ which has a bunch of developers and programmers from Ubisoft, spewing why Assassin’s Creed 4 on the PlayStation 4 will be a step above the PS3 version, and I think most of us already understand why. So I’m not sure who they’re are trying to convince. (more…)
Undoubtably Will Wright is a pioneer in gaming. He is the definition of interactive entertainment innovation. Being the creator of SimCity, the Sims and Spore, Wright’s stature in video games is only held by a few people in the industry. When he develops something, people play it, and it usually change the future of video games.
Will Wright ended his long-term relationship with EA a few years backed, and embarked on starting up new companies. One of these studios is Stntertainment, and he’s been working closely with them in developing a brand new gaming experience, which he elaborated to attendees at the Game Horizon Conference in the UK. (more…)
This is certainly not the first time this is ever happened; someone taking a tune from today and remixing it into an 8-bit song. YouTube user Floating Point did just that with Daft Punk’s newest single “Get Lucky,” and boy does it just work.
Daft punk is known to take sounds like they were from an decade or two ago, but somehow makes it into a fresh beat. So combine that music philosophy with 8-bit chip-tunes, and you get something that you’ll actually blast in your headphones.
Nintendo’s future is getting bleaker and bleaker by the minute. DICE’s technical director Johan Andersson has tweeted that next-generation games running the studio’s Frostbite 3 engine, will not be making an appearance on the Wii U console.
“[Frostbite 3] has never been running on WiiU,” EA DICE’s technical director Johan Andersson posted on Twitter. “We did some tests with not too promising results with [Frostbite 2] & chose not to go down that path.”
As of right now, Electronic Arts — owns the studio DICE — has only confirmed one video game in 2013 using the Frostbite 3 engine. Unfortunately for Nintendo, it’s the publishers most anticipated game, which is Battlefield 4. (more…)
The last few months, EA has had some problems. And I’m assuming they would just like to forget about, them but they can’t. Now the company has confirmed additional layoffs for an “organizational update.” On the company’s official website, they posted the following statement:
“In recent weeks, EA has aligned all elements of its organizational structure behind priorities in new technologies and mobile. This has led to some difficult decisions to reduce the workforce in some locations. We are extremely grateful for the contributions made by each of our employees – those that are leaving EA will be missed by their colleagues and friends.”
“These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us.”
A few weeks ago, the company reduced the workforce, and also released a small number of employees back in February. (more…)
If anybody really cares, EA has announced the cover athlete for Madden NFL 25. And for the first time it’s not going to be a current player, but a Hall of Famer, who Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders.
EA had an online poll tournament which consisted of retired players versus current roster player. Barry Sanders edged out current Minnesota Vikings superstar Adrian Peterson, who just last year almost beat the single season NFL rushing record.
According to ESPN, Sanders won with 58% of the votes, which totaled up to be about 700,000.
Just like every year, the cover athlete will no way affect the actual gameplay of Madden. Which means, if you bought Madden last year, don’t expect a whole lot different except a few small changes. But you’ll be suckered in to still buying it… I probably will too.
Madden 25 will be in stores on August 27 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. No word if EA plans on releasing it for the next-generation of system, but I suspect they will.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is undoubtedly the biggest annual event for video games. It’s where all the game publishers and hardware manufacturers unveil their new products of the future. So this next piece of news is a little bit of a shocker, and while it makes sense, the report came out of left field.
Nintendo, who’s been at the convention since the beginning, has decided to change it up a little bit when it comes to their E3 strategy. The Japanese-based company has determined that the press conference that happens before the show floor opens, isn’t the best way to market their products. So instead, they’re going to replace that with other smaller events throughout the year, along with their Nintendo Direct feeds. (more…)
Activision has released a trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, to the Interwebs.
The trailer specifically shows off Michelangelo and some of the moves he is capable when gamers get their digital hands on the game. The game is clearly is a classic beat him, but combined into a 3-D world and well it does look hectic, the combat looks slow. And if the game is more than a few hours long, it might feel redundant. Of course this is all speculation from me watching the video. What the hell do I know?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows will be available as a downloadble game for the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network.
And a side note, when I was a kid I thought it would be awesome to be friends with the Turtles. But I’m older, and when I think about it, I think they would smell…Yeah! I’m pretty sure they would.
The next-generation Xbox will be unveiled on May 21 at the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, according to invites sent to the press today.
“A New Generation Revealed” which the invite is entitled, confirms Don Mattrick, President of Interactive Entertainment Business of Microsoft, along with the Xbox Team, will present “a special unveiling.” Which can only be one thing, a brand-new system. (more…)
An independently owned video game store called Game Underground, is just 20 mere miles away from where the Boston Marathon bombings occurred last week, which killed three while injuring hundreds
With Game Underground being in such a close proximity of the horrible tragedy that happened last week, the store felt the need to do their part in helping the victims and their families of the fatal bombings.
The store owner, Jamie York, came up with an idea called the “Marathon Stream to Help the Boston Marathon Victims.” (more…)
Dead Island Riptide has shipped and it is available in stores as I type. And Squire Enix has decided to release one last trailer for the game, to convince you to purchase it.
However, if you read the reviews first, before you watch this very last trailer, you might have already made your decision. The majority of critics are giving it medicare reviews, and it currently holds in the 60s at Metacritic. Which I’m sure most people would consider that a rental.
Remember when we all thought Dead Island was going to be an amazing new series, thanks to the first teaser trailer? Boy has that perception changed, eh?
A few weeks ago, before Batman Origins was officially announced in Game Informer, a tipster contacted Kotaku and told them about the game. However the website couldn’t verify the information so they decided not to report it.
Now since the game has been unveiled, the tipster once again told them a juicy tidbit about Batman Origins, and the site felt the mole was creditable enough. And just to make sure, the website has confirmation from a second source. (more…)
A spokesman for Harmonix has confirmed to Polygon that the Boston-based studio has released a handful of employees.
“We can confirm that a small number of Harmonix employees were let go today,” the spokesperson said. “This decision was made due to shifting staffing priorities for Harmonix’s multiple future projects.”
The company did not indulged when they said “shifting” “priorities.” Clearly the company is changing it up.
But their excuse is kinda lame, right? I’m pretty sire anytime there are cuts to any workforce, that generally means a company is shifting priorities. (more…)
