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Riccitiello: “We can take the lead.”
EA has revealed its out-there strategy to take the FPS crown away from Activision and its Call of Duty series: make a superior game.
EA boss John Riccitiello told Kotaku, “If I had to pick the story I’d like to play out next year it’s we ship a 90 [Metacritic score] and they ship an 85.
“What I’ve witnessed a couple of times in the games industry is the way you unseat a market leader is you make a better game a couple of times in a row.”
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Polyphony Digital’s PS3-exclusive sim racer makes long-awaited debut in Japan atop charts with 430,000 units sold; PSP leads hardware.
Considering its extended development time, Gran Turismo 5’s merely “great” critical reception may have left some fans of the series chagrined. And while the game’s US opening sales figures have yet to be announced, stat-tracking firm Media Create has delivered word on Gran Turismo 5’s first-week performance in Japan, revealing a speedy start for the PlayStation 3-exclusive simulation racer.
Gran Turismo 5 led the week of November 22-28 on Media Create’s Japanese software sales chart with a massive 430,707 units. The Polyphony Digital-developed racer was followed by two other debuts: Super Robot Taisen L and Mario Sports Mix. Namco Bandai’s mech-based strategy game sold 129,054 units for the DS, holding a hefty lead over Nintendo’s sports compilation for the Wii, which sold 84,983 units.
The final two debuts for the week came from Spike and Konami. Dangan-Ronpa is an anime-inspired action adventure for the PSP that sold 25,564 in its opening week, while Konami’s arcade baseball title Power Pro Kun Pocket 13 sold 24,717 units.
Nintendo’s 25th-anniversary tribute Super Mario All-Stars shifted 47,487 more units during the week, followed by fellow Japanese sales-chart staple Pokemon Black and White, which sold 43,227 on the week. The PS3 edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is published by Square Enix in Japan, sold 31,354 units, edging out Nintendo’s Super Kaseki Horida for sixth.
The PSP continued its strong run in Japan, leading the hardware chart for the week with 75,689 units sold. Gran Turismo 5 also appears to have provided Sony’s PS3 with a boost, as the system sold 68,840 units during the week. Nintendo’s DSi duo followed, combining to sell 54,918 units, while the Wii moved 41,267 systems. With no software titles in the top 10, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sold only 4,329 units during the week.
JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF NOVEMBER 22-28, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Gran Turismo 5 / Sony / PS3 / 430,707
2. Super Robot Taisen L / Namco Bandai / DS / 129,054
3. Mario Sports Mix / Nintendo / Wii / 84,983
4. Super Mario All-Stars / Nintendo / Wii / 47,487
5. Pokemon Black and White / The Pokemon Company / DS / 43,227
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops / Square Enix / PS3 / 31,354
7. Super Kaseki Horida / Nintendo / DS / 26,195
8. Dangan-Ronpa / Spike / PSP / 25,564
9. Power Pro Kun Pocket 13 / Konami / DS / 24,717
10. Wii Party / Nintendo / Wii / 24,525Hardware:
PSP – 75,689
PS3 – 68,840
Wii – 41,267
DSi LL – 28,370
DSi – 26,548
Xbox 360 – 4,329
PSP Go – 1,675
DS Lite – 1,539
PS2 – 1,332Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Big in Japan Nov. 22-28: Gran Turismo 5” was posted by Tom Magrino on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:31:52 -0800 -
Publisher nails down launch date for Xbox 360 mental minigame collection Body and Brain Connection.
The Xbox 360 Kinect camera peripheral can see how players are using their bodies, but Namco Bandai wants to use it to see how players are using their minds. The publisher has announced a February 8 North American release date for Body and Brain Connection, with a February 11 debut in Europe, where the game will be called Dr. Kawashima’s Body and Brain Exercises.
Body and Brain Connection includes 20 minigames designed to test players’ math skills, memory, reflexes, and other capabilities. For example, one such game has the player point out matching pairs from a field of shapes, while another asks players to use their arms to sort toy cars on the move, re-routing them onto color-coded tracks.
While the game isn’t part of Nintendo’s Brain Age franchsie (despite the association with the bespectacled face of that brand, Japanese neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima), it will still assign players a brain age and allow them to track their progress. The game also includes a multiplayer mode allowing up to four players to compete for the lowest brain age or best performance on a specific minigame.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Namco Bandai Kinects bodies, brains Feb. 8” was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:27:39 -0800 -
Team 17 bug blast sees belated release.
Alien Breed 2: Assault arrives on PlayStation Network next week, developer Team 17 has confirmed.
The game, which launched on Steam and Xbox Live Arcade back in September, will be available for
8.99 / £7.19 on 8th December.It’s well worth the outlay if mindless top-down bug evisceration is your scene – Eurogamer’s Kristan Reed awarded the second slab of Team 17’s retro revamp a hearty 7/10.
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Console-quality titles just five years off?
Web browsers, not home consoles, will be the true next-gen gaming platform, according to former Sony president Phil Harrison.
Speaking at the Italian Videogame Developers Conference in Rome, as reported by Develop, the industry veteran asked the crowd whether they believed they would ever see a Modern Warfare 2-calibre game running in a browser.
“I think the answer is yes,” he said. “I think in the next five-to-ten years we will easily get this level of game inside a web browser, on your mobile platform, on your iPad, and we will be able to deliver that level of immersion to any kind of screen.”
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Twisted Pixel creating a sequel for next year with new leading character; platforms not announced.
Twisted Pixel’s ‘Splosion Man debuted in July of 2009. It won warm reviews , and most recently ‘sploded to the top of the Xbox Live Arcade sales charts thanks to a hefty Black Friday discount. Now, the Texas-based studio is back for more fiery action.
Twisted Pixel today announced Ms. ‘Splosion Man, due out in the fall of 2011. The studio was light on details in the announcement, and did not note a price or platforms for the game. The original ‘Splosion Man released exclusively on Xbox Live Arcade.
The game’s announcement trailer shows Big Science lab technicians successfully capturing the ‘Splosion Man from the original game. In their elated excitement, one of the scientists stumbles into a bottle, which proceeds to fall from its ledge and create the pink-bodied, yellow bow-wearing Ms. ‘Splosion Man.
For more on ‘Splosion Man, check out the Twisted Pixel post-mortem on the title, as well as GameSpot’s review.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Ms. ‘Splosion Man exploding in 2011” was posted by Eddie Makuch on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 09:14:11 -0800 -
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Mad Catz aware of peripheral availability issues.
The Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro-Adapter will be released in the UK “late next week” for around £34.99 / 39.99, Mad Catz has told Eurogamer.
Mad Catz, Harmonix’s official partner when it comes to Rock Band 3 accessories, said the MIDI Pro-Adapter will be available to buy from “all leading online retailers”.
The PlayStation 3 and Wii version of the adapter will be released first, then the Xbox 360 version “shortly after”.
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US-based League Of Legends developer looking to fill over 100 roles.Riot Games, the developer and publisher of free-to-play MMORPG League Of Legends, is aiming to double its workforce.
Speaking to Develop, Marc Merrill, president of Riot Games, which also has offices in Ireland, said the company is looking to “add more than 100 people to Riot Games”.
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New LCD model combines videogame console and television features, a sign of things to come?Sony’s KDL22PX300 Bravia television has a PS2 built into the bottom of the stand and comes complete with a controller for the system and support for Bravia internet features like iPlayer and Lovefilm.
The 22-inch display, HD-ready TV retails for £199 and launches at the end of a year that has seen building momentum for services like Apple TV and Google TV.
