February 18th, 2010
Living in Australia doesn’t do much for your gaming habits. It is the only Western country not to have an 18+ age restriction for video games, even though it has one for films. This effectively means that any game that would normally get an 18+ age restriction is effectively banned Down Under, and to get a game released means that studios need to make extensive changes to their games if they want Australian sales.
The Aussie government recently started looking at the possibility of an R18+ rating, which the public seems to like. In fact, a recent poll showed that up to 97% of people want that rating added. But there are still some members of the Australian government that oppose the idea, including the Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson.
“Their vote is hardly likely to hinge on the ‘right’ to score gamer points on the computer screen by running down and killing pedestrians on the pavement, raping a mother and her two daughters, blowing oneself up in a market, cutting people in half with large calibre shells, injecting drugs to win an athletics event or killing a prostitute to recover the fee one just paid her. (Welcome to the world of R18+ computer games),” he said recently. A little alarmist, perhaps…
Gamers in Australia have been making their disapproval of his stance known in the worst way possible. See, defending the right to play violent video games through threats of violence hardly shows a level of sanity that the opponents of such a right would appreciate. And Atkinson believes that he and his family are more at risk from gamers than bikers (who he has also angered) thanks to some very stable elements having made threats against him.
“I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me and are running a candidate against me,” Atkinson said on ABC TV’s Good Game.
“The outlaw motorcycle gangs haven’t been hanging around my doorstop at 2am. A gamer has,” he added. He also claimed that a threatening note from a gamer was left on his doorstep one morning. Hardly the way to go about convincing him, folks…
Another Attorney-General made it into the news lately, this time from the USA. The US Attorney-General has announced that he will be backing the formation of a special task force put in place for the protection of intellectual property.
This task force will work with local, state and international law enforcement agencies to combat piracy on a number of fronts, including video games. This may result in more death threats, we’re sure, but at least only from pirates.
Tags: Attorney General, australia, game ratings, pirate, USA
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February 16th, 2010
“As you may know, the PlayStation 3 120 GB is in great demand. In an effort to provide as many customers as possible with the opportunity to purchase PlayStation 3 120 GB, we are limiting the total number of [...] units that can be purchased. As a result, each household may only purchase one PlayStation 3 120 GB unit.” That’s a quote from the Amazon.com website, and it’s indicative of what may happen in the near future.
See, it seems that the PlayStation 3 Slim has struck it big with consumers. An undeniably nicer price point has a lot to do with it. In fact, the unit outsold the Xbox 360 in the US in December of last year… 1.36 million PS3s sold, compared to 1.31 million Xbox 360s. 0.05 million may not seem like a lot when the overall figures are considered, but this could mark a turning point in the somewhat mythological Console Wars. And, with both units claiming an extended lifecycle, and preparing to release motion-sensitive hardware, it’s going to get interesting.
The problem arises from the fact that Sony somehow didn’t see it coming… at least, that’s how it appears. The company is saying that there might be a shortage of PlayStation 3 hardware in the near future. This could impact their performance in the race, of course, with sales figures being pulled down if Sony cannot supply the growing demand for the unit.
“We’re working very hard with our retail partners to meet consumer interest, but the demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months,” the company’s senior director of corporate communications, Patrick Seybold, said, according to GamesIndustry.biz.
The fight for second place (because Nintendo’s Wii is firmly entrenched in the first place spot) has just got more interesting…
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December 15th, 2009
The Spike Video Game Awards show is turning into quite an extravaganza, with so many celebs and new announcements that people almost forget about the awards. This year saw new game announcements that included a sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, Star Wars: Force Unleashed II and Green Day: Rock Band.
New trailers were also shown for Halo: Reach, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, UFC Undisputed 2010, Crackdown 2 and the new Medal of Honor.
As for the awards… the list of winners follows:
- Game of the Year: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Studio of the Year: Rocksteady Studios
- Best Independent Game Fueld by Dew: Flower
- Best Xbox 360 Game: Left 4 Dead 2
- Best PS3 Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Best Wii Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- Best PC Game: Dragon Age: Origins
- Best Handheld Game: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
- Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter IV
- Best Action Adventure Game: Assassin’s Creed II
- Best RPG: Dragon Age: Origins
- Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Best Individual Sports Game: UFC 2009 Undisputed
- Best Team Sports Game: NHL 10
- Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 3
- Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
- Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero
- Best Original Score: Halo 3: ODST
- Best Graphics: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Best Game Based On A Movie/TV Show: South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!
- Best Performance By A Human Female: Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- Best Performance By A Human Male: Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Best Cast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Best Voice: Jack Black in Brutal Legend
- Best Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
- Best DLC: Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
- Most Anticipated Game of 2010: God of War III
Tags: game of the year, spike awards
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December 10th, 2009
It seems that Microsoft has backed the right horse in the form of Turn 10. The Forza Motorsport 3 developers have, yet again, produced a game that is proving to be very popular. With the release of the ‘Hot Holidays’ DLC pack, they have announced a few numbers that show the popularity of the game.
Forza 3 sold more than 1 million units worldwide in the first month of its release. Additionally, more than 6.6 million hours of online play have been logged, in over 64 million sessions. Drivers in these online games have travelled more than 952 million virtual kilometres, collectively.
It seems that the franchise is delivering the goods. It will be interesting to see how the other exclusive (the long awaited new Gran Turismo game for PS3) fares in comparison.
Tags: forza, forza 3, Gamecca, Gamecca News, sales figures
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December 2nd, 2009
Project Natal is really big news, particularly if the system can pull off all the stuff that Microsoft are claiming it can do. And Microsoft aren’t the only company keen on the product – Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, recently told investors that the publisher is working on around 10 titles that make use of the system. While these titles are casual in nature, he also implied that Project Natal compatability would be built into other titles to some degree or another.
The first 10 titles are set to be released within the first six months after Project Natal hits the shelves – even though a firm release date hasn’t been issued by Microsoft yet. ”
We have around ten games that will come for Natal during the first six months of the launch of Natal, and we expect between four to five games for the new controller [from] Sony,” said Guillemot.
“That’s the picture at the moment; it can change in the next 12 months.”
Tags: Gamecca News, microsoft, project natal, ubisoft
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November 24th, 2009
The close relationship between movies and films – the one that produces generally lacklustre games based on films and often equally unspecial films based on games – is never going to end, by the looks of things.
Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment, hase aquired the rights to film (along with a partner) a big screen version of Capcom’s upcoming new IP, Dark Void.
Looks interesting enough, and may well make for a good sci-fi film. Chances are that Pitt himself will star in the film, which will be another cinematic feather in Capcom’s cap (joining the likes of the Resident Evil and lamentable Street Fighter films.)
“As a game, Dark Void was developed with a wide-screen mentality – a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale,” said Germaine Gioia, senior vice president of licensing at Capcom Entertainment. “Plan B recognised the potential of our newest property and are as excited about bringing Dark Void to life in cinemas as Capcom is to bring the interactive experience to home theatres.”
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November 23rd, 2009
AbingtonIP is a law firm that believes Microsoft messed with people when they banned a reported 1 million Xbox Live users who were using modded Xbox 360 consoles. The firm has set up an online form which will allow those affected by the ban to register, in order to take part in a class action law suit.
”Although modification of Xbox consoles is arguably against the terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft ‘conveniently’ timed the Xbox console ban to coincide with the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game and less than two months after the release of the very popular Halo 3: ODST game,” reads a statement on the AbingtonIP website.
“This ‘convenient’ timing may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had these Xbox console bans taken place at some time before the release of Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.”
“Additionally, sales of both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (published by Activision) and Halo 3: ODST (published by Microsoft Game Studios) would likely have been greatly diminished had the Xbox console ban occurred prior to the release of these games.”
The company is also claiming that Microsoft has affected XboxLive functionality that falls outside of the bounds of piracy, including downloadable content and Netflix, and that Microsoft gathered information about consoles without owner consent.
Tags: Gamecca News, microsoft, Xbox Live
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November 20th, 2009
The notoriously strict Australian ratings board refused classification for EA’s Left 4 dead 2, meaning that the game would be banned in that country. EA then made changes, in order to ensure that the game hits shelves in that country. Perhaps banning would have been better…
Reviews from Australia have said the game has been “butchered”, is a “hollow shell of a game” and “isn’t work the plastic it is printed on.”
Australia has a maximum age rating for games of 15+, and anything that doesn’t fall into that category gets the boot. Valve therefore had to make major changes to the game to get it released in that country, removing much of the blood, gore and violence from the zombie-bashing game.
It makes one glad to live in a country like South Africa… at least we got the proper version of the game here.
Tags: australia, ea, electronic arts, left 4 dead 2
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November 20th, 2009
If you’re looking for a cheap Xbox 360, you may want to avoid the sudden flood of second hand Xbox 360s available on sites like eBay and Craigslist. After Microsoft started taking actions against modded consoles, the numbers of second hand Xbox 360 units for sale on these sites has increased dramatically. The phrases “banned” and “100% working offline” in the ads for these Xboxes are a dead giveaway… they have had their Xbox Live functionality stripped because they were modified to play pirated software.
Microsoft took the bull by the horns recently, and banned what the company calls a ‘small percentage’ of the roughly 20 million Xbox Live users, because they were using modded consoles. The online functionality was removed from the consoles – they work offline, but they won’t get on to Live.
Unconfirmed rumours put the number of banned consoles at as high as 1 million.
Tags: banned console, microsoft, Xbox 360
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November 20th, 2009
The Los Angeles Times recently dropped a hint that a third development studio will be working on the Call of Duty franchise.
The paper gives no indication of who the studio might be, or how they would fit into the development picture. However, their report quotes a source “close to the company”, and hints at the possibility of a Call of Duty MMO title being in the works.
Activision have made no official comment about these rumours as yet.
Tags: Activision, Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2
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