Gaming News - Page 1736

The news is grim for fellow Heavy Rain fans with developer Quantic Dream not interested in making a sequel to its multi-BAFTA winning PlayStation 3 crime saga. Quantic Dream studio boss David Cage confirmed the news at the BAFTA ceremony in London last night where the game picked up multiple awards.



Heavy Rain won awards for technical innovation, story and music - Cage also revealed that Quantic Dreams next game while "still very dark" will explore new territory. He goes on to say:

"We created the genre," he insisted, referring to Heavy Rain's brand of interactive storytelling.

Volition have come out and said that they still love themselves a bit of PC gaming lovin' even with the onslaught of other developers blaming piracy on PC for lack of sales. The THQ-owned studio has taken a different approach to it with Volition studio manager Eric Barker saying:

Let's make a game that's worth stealing, and then we'll worry about making sure they don't.

He continues with:

Some people say PC is dying. Some people say PC is the future, PC is the most variable, because it depends on what you've got under the hood. For us, the key thing was making sure the PC version was done in-house.

Microsoft have shown off its goal for its next-generation gaming platform, the video below is dated from May 2010 so it's quite a bit old now but it shows the direction Microsoft have in mind for their ever-growing gaming platforms. The video shows off some concepts and principals of what the WGX (Windows Gaming Experience) team hopes to achieve. We see a blend of Windows, Xbox and mobile platforms being merged into one.



The video shows off some Kinect action and gives a bit of hugging action toward PC too, remember Microsoft being quoted as "doubling down" on PC gaming. The companies WGX team which is comprised of all gaming-related attempts between Microsoft platforms has been quite hard at work, obviously. Let's hope that this work goes toward something new and exciting.

An hour ago, Sony announced they were joining the relief effort in Japan through a direct contribution interface within their PlayStation Network.



PSN users can find the donation page under "Aid Japan", listed under New Releases on the PlayStation Store. For your donation in the amount of $2, $5, $10, $25, or $50, Sony is offering a free PlayStation 3 Theme (around $3 value). All of the donations go directly to the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund via the American Red Cross.

With a multitude of ways to get involved, there is no reason you shouldn't take advantage of at least one of them.

Full text of the blog post is below:

It's been over a week since the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, inflicting serious loss of life and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. The Japanese people, together with support and compassion from the global community, are beginning what will be a long recovery process.

Sony Computer Entertainment's headquarters are located in Tokyo, and so we've heard firsthand of the disaster's impact from our colleagues and friends. As we here in America watch the tragic events that continue to unfold, you might be left thinking, "Is there any way I can help?"

Sony Group is aiding the recovery through financial contributions and donations of radios, batteries and other equipment that can be used in the relief efforts...

Crysis 2, the mega-visual FPS, is the first of the two installments to be released on consoles. A lot of people said Crysis 2 would never stack up to the PC versions, and that the PS3 version was underwhelming, but I had a hands-on look at Crysis 2 during the GDC in San Francisco, and didn't have a single complaint about the visuals, especially not the Passive 3D engine. A new multiplayer demo is now available on the PlayStation Network, so if you are one of the 41 million people that owns a PS3, you really can't miss out on this.



PlayStation Blog interviewed Nathan Camarillo, the Executive Producer of Crysis 2, who shared many insights on the upcoming game. As I had written before, one of the greatest things about Crysis 2 is the lack of 3D gimmickry in the game design, as Camarillo clearly states in the interview:

(Video and Full text of the Interview in the Full Story)

Much like the article we posted yesterday about Capcom, SEGA is donating to the Red Cross all of its proceeds from its Sonic iOS titles and the Football Manager Handheld game starting yesterday and continuing all throughout the week.



Like the Street Fighter IV iOS download, SEGA is reducing their prices for the following games, all available on the App Store. The prices and links are below:

Sonic the Hedgehog 1 - 1.99

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 2.99

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - 3.99

Sonic Spinball - 0.99

Football Manager Handheld - 9.99

The reccent and tragic events of the 8.9 Japanese Earthquake hit very close to home for revered gaming giant Capcom. Though they have offices in bth Tokyo and Osaka, Capcom reported today that their employees are "safe and well", and that they very much appreciated all of the kind wishes and support in the aftermath of Japan's largest earthquake on record:

Thank you to everyone who has sent inquiries and wished us well during this crisis. We want to reiterate that all of our employees in the Osaka and Toyko regions are safe and well, and we thank everyone for their support.In response to recent events, Capcom will immediately donate 100 million yen to help victims of the earthquake and communities recover from this tragedy. For one week from today, March 15, Street Fighter IV on iPhone will be available for 99cents/115yen, and all sales of the title during this period will be donated to support earthquake relief activities. Capcom will also suspend operations or shorten operating hours as necessary at amusement arcades and other business sites that are located in areas served by Tohoku Electric Power and Tokyo Electric Power. In addition, Capcom will refrain from holding special events. Again, thanks to everyone who has supported Japan during this difficult time, and please help to spread the news about relief efforts.

You hear that people? Download Street Fighter IV RIGHT NOW

Five years ago this week, what would be the very successful Social Media site Twitter blossomed into existence. March 21, 2006 saw the world's first tweet.



You only get one!

To commemorate Twitter's fifth birthday (5 years in this social media ecosystem is an eternity), Twitter posted a plethora of interesting stats regarding then and now:

[From Twitter's Blog]

#tweets
3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year's Day.

#accounts
572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees
8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

This morning, Hasbro (King of Toys) and Jagex, creators of RuneScape, announced a strategic development agreement on releasing a Transformers massivley-multiplayer-online-game.



CEO of Jagex Games Studio Mark Gerhard said in a press release,

"TRANSFORMERS is one of the most iconic brands in the world and we are delighted to team up with Hasbro in order to bring our shared vision to reality. There is a huge appetite for an online TRANSFORMERS game and we will utilize every bit of our development and publishing expertise to deliver a dynamic and action-packed game that TRANSFORMERS fans will find irresistible."

Damn straight you will, Mark. The backlash from a shitty Transformers game is going to be a lot worse than the backlash for a shitty Transformers Film.

Get excited though- the game debuts sometime in 2012 (hopefully before the world ends).

I am absolutely riddled with DINOBOT fever. Here's hoping.

Thought the iPad 2 lines/delays were a travesty? Quit whining, you knew it was going to happen anyway. Instead, imagine for a moment that you had pre-ordered one of the most acclaimed fighting game's amazing sequel back in January and had still not received it by mid-to-late February? Wouldn't you expect that benevolent game-making enterprise to give you something for your troubles?

Despite initial shipping issues back in February, Capcom has been very generous in its apologies (check out the 3rd entry down in that last link), according to recent Capcom blog post:

We've been working on this for a while now and some of you may have thought we'd forgotten about you.

We've put together something we hope will help make up for the delayed delivery of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. A free copy of the really tasty Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Signature Series Strategy Guide by BradyGames! It's 400 pages of full color MvC3 goodness.

We're still working out the logistics but look for more information coming to the email address you used to place your order.