Analyst expects NPD slump to continue

Wedbush's Michael Pachter expects this week's sales data release to show July software, hardware sales down 7 percent; NCAA expected to lead pack with 800,000 sold.

After a big April in which Mortal Kombat and Portal 2 helped push sales up 20 percent, the US game industry entered its summer doldrums a bit early, posting double-digit declines in May and June. With the industry-tracking NPD Group expected to release its sales figures for July later this week, one analyst is predicting a third straight month of losses, albeit with a smaller overall shortfall.

Pachter thinks NCAA Football will repeat as the July sales champ.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter sent out a note to investors this week with his expectations for the NPD's figures, saying he expects software sales to be down 7 percent to $375 million, with EA's NCAA Football 12 leading the pack with 800,000 units sold. Last year's installment of the Electronic Arts pigskin sim also topped the NPD Group's July 2010 software charts.

Beyond NCAA Football, Pachter tapped The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Infamous 2, and L.A. Noire as continued strong sellers, with Nintendo's 3DS remake and the Rockstar-published detective thriller each notching another 250,000 copies sold. Pachter did not put a number on his expected sales total for Infamous 2.

As for hardware, Pachter also expects the number of systems sold to be down 7 percent year-over-year, partly because last July saw retailers selling through older versions of the Xbox 360 in the wake of the redesigned console's debut. Sales of the DS, PSP, and Wii are also expected to be weak in light of those systems' successors already being on the market (the 3DS) or on the way (the PlayStation Vita and Wii U).

"We continue to believe that sustained software sales growth will remain elusive until hardware sales rebound for an extended period of time," Pachter told investors. "In our view, given the 3DS's weak debut and the limited impact from May's Wii and June's DS Lite price cuts, a rebound is unlikely to happen until Microsoft and Sony cut the price of their consoles."

Pachter said Microsoft and Sony will likely consider cutting the prices on their consoles for the holidays, but he noted that strong Xbox 360 sales for most of this year might give Microsoft the luxury of pushing any such drop until 2012.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

GameFly goes downloadable

By-mail rental service rolling out PC, Mac client this holiday season, offers "unlimited PC play" with 1,500 games for subscribers; beta starts September 8.

GameStop made its digital presence known when it purchased Impulse and Spawn Labs earlier this year, later rolling out their own digital storefront. Now, another video game retailer is ramping up its digital presence. GameFly today announced it will launch a new digital client this holiday season.

A peek into GameFly's new digital client.

Leading the feature set of the new GameFly digital client is the "unlimited PC play" option. A subscriber-exclusive, this feature allows paying members to download and play as many PC and Mac games as they wish. GameFly said its digital catalog will launch with 1,500 titles, and that the library will grow moving forward.

The GameFly digital client will also afford users the ability to manage their queues for game rentals, preorder upcoming games, purchase used games, and read industry news, as provided by the GameFly-owned publication Shacknews.

The closed beta for the new GameFly digital client will launch at a Los Angeles event on September 8. All who attend will earn a code for themselves and a friend. Gamers who can't make it to the event can sign up for a beta token at GameFly's website.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Team Bondi selling studio, IP - Report

L.A. Noire developer's assets scooped up by Mad Max director's multimedia production firm; all employees offered jobs with acquiring outfit.

The reputation of L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi was tarnished earlier this year when employee complaints about abusive working conditions and credits omissions drew the attention of the International Game Developers Association. At the time, one of Team Bondi's senior-most developers said the studio would learn from its mistakes, but the company might not have the chance.

L.A. Noire is the only game in Team Bondi's six-year history.

According to a Develop report, "a source close to the matter" has told the trade publication that Team Bondi's intellectual property and assets have been sold to Sydney-based multimedia production firm Kennedy Miller Mitchell. The firm--cofounded by Mad Max director George Miller and frequent producing partner Doug Mitchell--is currently working on the film Happy Feet 2 and in pre-production on Mad Max: Fury Road. Its game-making arm, KMM Games, is producing the game adaptation of Happy Feet 2.

Develop's source states that all Team Bondi employees have been given the choice of moving to work at Kennedy Miller Mitchell or accepting a severance package. It's unclear if KMM plans to have Team Bondi continue to exist as a label. However a transfer of ownership to KMM plays out, it won't include the L.A. Noire name, as that intellectual property is owned by Rockstar Games.

For more on L.A. Noire, check out GameSpot's review.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad delayed to September 13

Tripwire Interactive's PC first-person shooter pushed back two weeks to give developer time to add "extra polish."

The lines of battle constantly shift, and Tripwire Interactive's wargame Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad maintains that trend. The publisher today announced the game will miss its August 30 release date and instead arrive on September 13 exclusively on the PC.

The heroes of Stalingrad aren't quite ready to pull the trigger.

In a statement, the publisher said the additional two weeks of development time will allow the studio to "get it right and add the extra polish the game (and the players) deserve."

As its name implies, Heroes of Stalingrad takes place in Stalingrad, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The game's single-player campaign has gamers completing alternating missions as Russians and Germans. The title also sports a multiplayer component, where players can duke it out in three distinct game modes: Territories, Firefight, and Countdown.

For more on Heroes of Stalingrad, check out GameSpot's latest hands-on preview with the game.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

DC Universe Online consolidating servers

SOE folding 26 current game platforms into four "megaservers," grouped by platform and region beginning today.

Server consolidations have become a normality following the launch of most massively multiplayer online games, as game populations stabilize following the initial release hype. Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online will be no different, as the company announced through the game's official website that it will be consolidating gamers onto four "megaservers" beginning today.

No word yet on whether the server consolidations will yield Bizarro superheroes.

Prior to the consolidation, DCUO's server count stood at 26. The merger combines servers by region and platform, with the US and Europe each getting their own PlayStation 3 and PC servers. SOE expects to merge the European PC servers today, which will take offline all of the DCUO platforms being consolidated for approximately 10 to 14 hours.

US PC servers will follow on August 10, and a day later SOE will bring down the US PS3 servers. The consolidation will conclude on August 15, when the European PS3 servers are all merged. The studio also noted that with the consolidations, gamers will be able to engage in player-versus-environment and player-versus-player combat all on one server.

SOE expects gamers to benefit from these server consolidations in a number of ways. Namely, the developer said that players will be able to interact with a much larger pool of fellow supers and will consequently have more people to participate in alerts, duos, and raids with. An increased population will also lead to a spike in the number of items at the in-game broker, SOE said.

There are some drawbacks, however. SOE said that it has changed some players' names and leagues to prevent duplication on the new servers. Name changes were implemented through "the fairest system possible," and those affected will also have the chance to pick a new moniker for free, should they disapprove of the one they were assigned.

For more on DC Universe Online, check out GameSpot's review.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

SingStar: Back to the 80s tuning up this Christmas in Europe

Sony bringing new PlayStation 3 karaoke SKU to retail this holiday season; 30 songs to be named later; North American release uncertain.

Sony's SingStar karaoke game franchise has welcomed dozens of themed iterations since its inception. Titles in the series have ranged from band-specific entries focused on Abba and Queen, to country, Disney, and pop genre packs. Now, the franchise is returning to an era it has already waded into: the 1980s.

SingStar is singing like its 1985 with the new SKU.

In a post on the European PlayStation Blog, Sony announced SingStar: Back to the 80s for the PlayStation 3. Due out this Christmas in Europe, the game will pack in 30 "massive hits" from the 1980s. No songs were named, but Sony said it plans to announce the entire tracklist at a later date.

No mention was made of a North American release date for SingStar: Back to the 80s, and as of press time, Sony had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment.

SingStar: Back to the 80s isn't Sony's first foray into music from that period. SingStar: The 80s was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2007 and featured songs from Alice Cooper, Dolly Parton, The Cure, Duran Duran, and more.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Battlefield 3 to have 10X the unlocks of Bad Company 2

DICE says upcoming game to be "deepest shooter" the developer has ever created, with weapons, attachments, gadgets, awards, and service stars earned over time.

Last month, publisher Electronic Arts said preorder tallies for Battlefield 3 are currently tracking 10 times higher than predecessor Battlefield: Bad Company 2. However, reservation totals aren't the only area upon which Battlefield 3 is growing tenfold over its predecessor.

Battlefield 3 will continue to be fun in 2013, says DICE.

According to the latest Battlelog update, Battlefield 3 features 10 times as many in-game unlocks as Bad Company 2. These items include weapons, weapon attachments, gadgets, awards, service stars, and what DICE calls a "huge unlock tree" for vehicles.

DICE believes this in-game content surge will make it so players "will have as much fun with the game in 2013 as on launch day."

Battlefield 3 is due out on October 25, 2011, on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. It is the first core installment in the series since 2005's PC-exclusive Battlefield 2. Further, Battlefield 3 for the PC will not arrive on Steam and will "probably" charge secondhand users for online play.

For more on the upcoming shooter, check out GameSpot's latest preview of Battlefield 3.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 crossing over to PS Vita - Retail Radar

Amazon France lists product page for unannounced port of fighting franchise; Capcom says it has made no announcements.

Last month, Capcom Europe COO David Reeves said the publisher has at least four games in store for Sony's upcoming PlayStation Vita. One of those may have come to light today, as Amazon France has posted a product page for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds on the new handheld (as spotted by Gematsu).

Like a tiny Phoenix, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 may get a second life on Sony's new handheld system.

Amazon France has a decent track record with product leaks for high-profile titles for Sony hardware. Last year, the retailer broke word of Uncharted 3, Team Ico Collection, and Ubisoft's PlayStation 3-exclusive high-definition Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia trilogies before their official confirmation. However, instead of offering the game for preorder, Amazon France's Marvel vs. Capcom 3 PS Vita page simply notes the title is not in stock currently and the retailer doesn't know when it will be.

When contacted by GameSpot for comment, a Capcom representative merely said, "We have made no announcements at this time."

Interestingly, the Amazon France listing is for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, not its recently revealed update, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Set for release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 this November, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will include a dozen new characters, eight additional stages, and a variety of gameplay tweaks and new character moves.

For more on the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3, check out GameSpot's review. For more on Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Take-Two sales sink 12% in June quarter

Publisher posts $8.7 million loss on revenues of $334.4 million in April-June period; Red Dead Redemption franchise sells 11 million.

Take-Two did not solve the case of sinking sales in its latest quarter. Despite strong sales of L.A. Noire, the New York City-based company today reported its first-quarter 2012 financial results, saying that in the April-June period the publisher posted a 12 percent revenue dip.

Take-Two predicted a revenue drop for the quarter, and that's just what it got.

Net revenues for the quarter came in at an expected $334.4 million, down from the $375.4 million it posted a year ago. The company also reversed last year's profit during the quarter, posting an $8.7 million loss for the period. This marks a sharp decrease from the $27.4 million in profit Take-Two made during the period a year ago.

In a postearnings call this afternoon, Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick elaborated on sales of individual titles. He said the "Red Dead Redemption franchise" has sold to retailers 11 million units. This figure includes sales of the stand-alone Undead Nightmare disc, which went on sale at retail last November, but not digitally distributed copies of the game.

As for the zombie add-on, Zelnick said the Undead Nightmare pack has sold in 2 million units at retail. He did not reveal how many copies of the add-on were sold through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Zelnick also touted sales of NBA 2K11, saying the basketball sim has sold 5.5 million units to retailers during the quarter.

Last week, Gearbox Software officially announced Borderlands 2, which Take-Two will publish. Now it appears that the "no-brainer" sequel was just that. Zelnick confirmed during the call that the original Borderlands has sold 4.5 million units since its debut in 2009.

The company's sales sheet did see a burgeoning sector, however. Digitally delivered content accounted for $24.6 million in revenue during the quarter, marking a steep 49 percent increase from the year prior. Take-Two attributed this uptick to digital sales of Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Duke Nukem Forever, the Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise, and L.A. Noire.

Of note, Take-Two projected profits for its April 2012-March 2013 fiscal year to come in at $2.00 earnings per share. This guidance is well above the $0.10 to $0.35 EPS Take-Two expects to hit during its in-progress fiscal year, and it led one analyst to ask during Take-Two's postearnings call whether it can be assumed, given the EPS expectation, that a new Grand Theft Auto will arrive during the quarter.

Unfortunately, the executives did not take the bait, with Zelnick saying only that the publisher has a number of high-profile releases scheduled during the year and that Take-Two does not expect to be hampered by its MLB exclusivity contract. These titles include Borderlands 2, Spec Ops: The Line, and BioShock Infinite. During the fiscal year in which Red Dead Redemption was released, Take-Two posted EPS of $1.02 per share.

Take-Two said it expects revenues to come in at $1 billion to $1.1 billion for its in-progress fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

GREE, Inc. teams up with UltiZen Games

Biggest Japanese social network creator joins forces with biggest China browser/mobile game publisher.

Japanese gamers are no strangers to social network service GREE and its slew of social and mobile games. The company behind the service, Gree, Inc., recently partnered up with China's biggest browser and smartphone game publisher, UltiZen Games.

GREE + UltiZen Games = more social games than one can shake a stick at.

According to a recent press release from UltiZen's site, both companies entered into an agreement to acquire some of the shares of UltiZen for further business endeavors. UltiZen CEO Lan Haiwen said that the company will also be developing smartphone and mobile content for the service.

GREE, Inc. has a few high-profile developers and companies creating games under their partnership, which include Atlus, Hudson, and Comcept (Keiji Inafune's new company). Notable games that were recently on the social network site include Bomberman, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Hunter Zero, and Knights of the Crystals. UltiZen's contribution in game development includes World of Feng Sheng and casual game platform U-Pal.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Arkane, id, Insomniac devs share their origin stories

QuakeCon 2011: Harvey Smith, Raphael Colantonio, Matt Hooper, Marcus Smith discuss their gaming start and how roots shape their work today.

Who was there: At the QuakeCon 2011 panel, Harvey Smith, co-creative director at Arkane Studios; Raphael Colantonio, co-creative director and president of Arkane Studios; Matt Hooper, design director at id Software; and Marcus Smith, design director at Insomniac Studios all met to discuss their video game origins. The panel was moderated by Game Informer magazine's senior editor Andrew Reiner.

Arkane drew inspiration form 16th century London for Dishonored's setting.

What they talked about: Instead of being bitten by radioactive insects or inheriting magic rings, the four game developers at this panel each had an origin story rooted in long afternoons spent with the likes of Quake or Ultima. Reiner jumped straight to the heart of the issue by asking the panelist what games got them into the video game industry. Harvey and Hooper both cited the Atari 2600, saying it was a driving influence in their lives simply because of the joy they experienced by being able to interact with objects on a screen.

When pressed for specifics, Harvey chose Adventure on the 2600 because of the game's sense of exploration. Hooper chose Doom and Quake for largely the same reason. Sticking with the theme of adventure, Colantonio chose Ultima II as one of the early games that really hooked him on the medium, while Marcus decided to go ever further back with Pong. Despite having different selections, all of the panelists felt strongly about the feeling they had when exploring a new, in-game world for the first time. This could be in a 3D environment, or something as simple as a text-based adventure.

Moving toward the present, Reiner asked each panelist if becoming a game creator had changed the way they look at other video games. Harvey spoke first, saying that when you start making games you can't help but "raise the curtain" and analyze how certain sections are put together from a technical perspective. But he also made sure to add that this has never hurt his love for games.

Marcus also chimed in and said that he had been reverse engineering games even before he became a developer. In order to surmount Out of this World or the original Prince of Persia, it was almost necessary to draw out certain areas of the game and study how they were constructed.

The discussion then turned to creating game worlds that feel alive. Colantonio said that it all starts with something grounded in reality that grows into something more supernatural. For example, with Dishonored, the team at Arkane started with 16th century London and then began layering on "what if" scenarios. But even though the end product is a world wildly different from our own, having that grounded starting point helped maintain a sense of cohesion--a feeling that the world makes sense within its own context.

Hearkening back to the original question, Reiner polled each of the panelists on what made certain games special. Harvey went first and talked about his experiences with Carrier Command growing up. He talked about how mind-blowing it was swapping between commanding the ship and piloting the smaller vehicles, and how all that came together to make a really immersive game. Colantonio was next and reflected on how impressed he was that the NPCs in the Ultima series all had daily routines they would follow and their patterns weren't just random.

Marcus was put on the spot and asked how Super Mario Bros. had influenced the development of Resistance. Speaking in broad terms, the developer stated that, while the Mario games are linear experiences, they don't force the player down one path or another. Instead they give the player some tools and have them approach the game's challenges in numerous ways. With Resistance, Marcus said, the team tried to do something similar. Finally, Hooper brought up Half-Life and talked about how developer Valve didn't feel as if they had to drag the player through every story sequence. They just presented their story and trusted that it was compelling enough to hold the player's attention.

After closing this topic, each member of the panel was asked to run through some of the modern games they felt were really shaping game development today. Bioshock, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Minecraft all came up as very well-crafted games. A brief talk on multiplayer favorites followed, before the floor was opened up for a QA session. When asked about why the industry doesn't see more games taking creative risks and breaking the mold, Hooper spoke up and said it's tricky when a large game can take hundreds of millions of dollars to make. He added that back in the early years of game development, taking these risks was easier since the amount of money, manpower, and time was lower.

Harvey chimed in and added that the "garage band groups" are still alive and well. He cited games such as Braid and From Dust as being smaller games that offered something really unique and was glad such games have so many distribution options in today's gaming market.

Quote: "If it wasn't for piracy, I wouldn't be in the games industry."--Marcus Smith, talking about his video game upbringing.

"I modeled a Pizza Hut."--Matt Hooper, talking about working with Doom's modding tools.

Takeaway: The panelists commented that they often get asked which games directly influenced the development of the ones they're currently working on. However, the truth is that isn't that easy to cite one specific game as a direct influence. Most of the time, it's only a small scene or gameplay feature, rather than an entire game, that really influences someone. And its these collections of tiny influences that guide and shape the games we play today.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

North Korea employing game hackers - South Korea

Seoul police charge five with breaching Lineage servers to facilitate bot farming, say operation funneled millions to communist government agents.

According to South Korean police, North Korea is getting into farming of a distinctly non-agricultural variety. The New York Times is reporting that Seoul authorities have arrested five people that they believe were running a conspiracy to hack into online games and run bot farms, with proceeds being funneled back to the North Korean government.

Lineage was one of the hackers' targeted games.

Police are charging the group with organizing a group of dozens of hackers and gamers to breach server security for online games like Lineage and Dungeon Fighter Online. Instead of bringing those games down or stealing user information, police said the hacking was done to allow the use of illegal automated 24-hour farming operations.

Resources from the bot-run accounts were then sold at real-money-trading sites. Authorities believe that over the course of two years, the group brought in roughly $6 million, more than half of which was transferred to accomplices in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. All five of the charged hackers graduated from North Korean universities and previously operated at a state-run computer center or a trading company believed to be part of a government agency that raises funds through illicit activities like drug trafficking and counterfeiting.

According to the report, North Korea denied involvement in the hacking "and accused Seoul of inventing a conspiracy."

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Maroon 5 frontman sues over Band Hero - Report

Adam Levine the latest to legally fight Activision over quibbles about in-game avatar activity in 2009 music game.

The long list of music artists to sue Activision over its Guitar Hero games has grown this week with Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine claiming Activision exploited his likeness in 2009's Band Hero. He joins a bevy of other big-name artists suing Activision that includes No Doubt, The Romantics, Axl Rose, and Courtney Love.

Levine isn't too pleased with Activision.

Levine's suit, which was obtained by The Wrap, alleges Band Hero takes advantage of the singer's likeness beyond the extent to which he agreed. Levine is suing for fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, violation of the common-law right of publicity, and unfair business acts or practices. According to the report, Levine is seeking "unspecified damages."

Levine was motion-captured for the game and appeared in it singing Maroon 5's smash hit "She Will Be Loved." This much he agreed to. However, Levine claims he was not informed that his avatar could be used in the game to sing other bands' songs.

Additionally, Levine's suit against Activision claims the publisher requested the permission for this "expanded use" from other artists, who were compensated at a greater level when Levine was not.

For more on Band Hero, check out GameSpot's review.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Dragon Age Legends dev joins BioWare label - Report

Casual-focused studio EA2D renamed BioWare San Francisco following company-wide reorganization.

Reorganizations typically come with their share of causalities, but it appears Electronic Arts' is more about shuffling around than paring back. Following on from yesterday's announcement that saw the publisher raise Frank Gibeau to EA Labels president and Peter Moore to COO, Gamasutra reports that EA2D has been placed under Dr. Ray Muzyka's BioWare label, with the studio being renamed BioWare San Francisco.

Mirror's Edge 2D is one of a handful of free games EA2D has released.

EA2D has focused on creating casual games since its formation, with notable releases including the free-to-play browser-based game Mirror's Edge 2D and Dragon Age Journeys. The studio has also dabbled in Facebook games with Dragon Age Legends, as well as the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network with Fancy Pants Adventures.

It is unclear how the change will impact development at the newly named BioWare San Francisco. EA had not responded to a request for comment as of press time.

BioWare now counts six studios under its umbrella, with the developer also maintaining Canadian outfits in Edmonton and Montreal, as well as shops in Austin, Texas; Fairfax, Virginia; and Galway, Ireland.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Evolution 2011 tournament scores more than 2 million unique viewers

Viewers consume 1.9 million hours' worth of live stream and archived content.

With the Evolution Championship Series 2011 done and dusted, some figures have now been released that show just how popular the annual fighting game tournament is. The official website of the event recently announced that the Evo World Finals this year had more than 2 million unique viewers tuning in on the live stream, which was hosted on Ustream.tv.

International pro-level 2D fighting + live stream = megaton views.

Audiences consumed over 1.9 million hours of video content, both during the event and during the "after hours" showcase. The average time a viewer tuned in was 55 minutes. The live stream was done by the collaborative efforts of fighting game sites iPlayWinner, Team Sp00ky, Offcast, and FinestKO. The live stream was also viewable from within PlayStation Home.

The event itself was held at the Rio Hotel, Las Vegas. The winner of the Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Grand Finals was Keita "Fuudo" Ai, who used Fei Long. The winner of the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Grand Finals was Jay "BOX Viscant" Snyder, who used a team consisting of Wesker, Haggar, and Phoenix. In addition, gamers got to see a variety of panels, ranging from Namco Bandai to an interview of Daigo Umehara conducted by Seth Killian.

Check out GameSpot's article on all of the coverage related to Evo 2011.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Rugby World Cup 2011 scrumming September 6

HB Studios dates upcoming tournament-themed game for next month on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup kicks off on September 9 in New Zealand, but gamers won't need to trek there to immerse themselves in the tournament. 505 Games today sent word that HB Studios' Rugby World Cup 2011 will arrive for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 6.

The game hits shelves three days before the tournament starts.

The game will retail for $50, and players eager to try the title can grab a demo on Xbox Live today. Rugby World Cup 2011 has players picking one of 20 national squads, advancing through the tournament in hopes of eventually winning the final and hoisting the coveted Webb Ellis trophy.

Rugby World Cup 2011 won't be the only rugby game to hit store shelves this year, though. Sidhe's Rugby Challenge will arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC internationally this fall. A North American release has not been confirmed, but the developer did say "more information will be available soon."

For more on Rugby World Cup 2011, check out GameSpot's latest hands-on preview of the game.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

John Carmack Rages on at QuakeCon

QuakeCon 2011: id's technical guru gives QuakeCon a peek under the hood of Rage in opening-day keynote; Doom 3 source code release coming this year.

Who was there: The cofounder and technical director for id Software, John Carmack, once again delivered the keynote address at this year's QuakeCon 2011 convention.

John Carmack gets a bit technical with his Rage development talk.

What he talked about: Carmack was very excited to finally talk in-depth about the development of Rage, the upcoming postapocalyptic first-person shooter from the creators of Quake and Doom. "Rage is the most enjoyable id game we've ever made," he stated, adding that id attempted to distill everything that was iconic about its classic titles and adapt it for this new project--with some additions added in along the way. The result has been several years in the making, but Carmack feels it was worth it. "We hit everything we really set out to do with this game."

One of these objectives was to design a beautifully detailed game that would still look great across the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The designers wanted strict guidelines as to how large and how detailed they could make this world, Carmack said, but as a programmer, this is a really hard rule to set. He added that there are so many different variables between platforms, and even between sections of the game, that this was almost impossible to set. In the end, he told the designers, "I want to be pushed a bit," and he gave them some extra leeway. With a smile, he added that this was probably "a bad call."

There were many other trials and tribulations that crept up when working across three platforms. Carmack noted that it was frustrating at times knowing that the PC held nearly 10 times the power of the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 but that he couldn't use it. However, he also added that developing on the two consoles was simpler given their specifically defined hardware. "We were really using the PC as a muscular console [during development]," he added.

Every game that has come out of id has taken longer than the one before, Carmack said, and this is a problem. With that in mind, he went on to explain that, instead of putting all of their efforts behind working with the bleeding edge of technology, the focus should be on improving the programming code and technology id already has. "What we need to do next as game developers is start cranking the knobs that already exist," he said, "such as improving antialiasing, filtering, and texture density."

Want to play with Doom 3's source code? Carmack has got you covered.

There is also value in working within limitations, Carmack added, and one can learn things about efficiency when working under those conditions. If he had the time, Carmack said he would love to revisit the original PlayStation, or even the Atari 2600, and try coding a game for that platform just to see how it differed from today's standards.

He moved next to static code analysis tools as another great way to improve upon what a developer already has. These toolsets let his team analyze the thousands of lines of code they've written and quickly identify recurring problems. He noted that as developers add functionality to an established code base, things will break. This could be for a number of reasons, such as coding mistakes or shortcuts. The important thing is correcting these issues to build a more stable code base for the future.

Before opening the floor up for an extensive QA session, Carmack quickly noted that the source code for Doom 3 will finally be released before the year is out. He also urged other companies to release the source codes for their older games as well. Doing so would only help encourage the development of future coders in the video game industry. On the same topic, he also lamented the fact that most members of the mod community won't be able to make the most out of Rage's toolset given its complexity and the sheer size and scope of the software.

The floor was then opened up for QA. As part of that discussion, Carmack lamented the fact that id can't devote much attention to the Mac, Linux, and Android platforms. This was attributed to a simple lack of manpower on the developer's side. He also talked briefly about the status of Quake Live, which "has not been a business success," blaming the implosion of most in-game advertising agencies, which were going to be the game's primary source of income. "[Quake Live] is not terribly expensive to keep up and running," Carmack added. "We just don't know how to promote it now."

Quote: "I get asked a lot if I miss the old days with the smaller teams, and I tell people that I'm a remarkably unsentimental person; the best times are right now."--John Carmack on life.

Takeaway: Building a game to work on three very different platforms was certainly a challenge for the venerable developer. However, despite all the time it took, Carmack seemed confident in the game's quality and in the lessons he and his team learned along the way. Their new goal is a faster development cycle that makes the most out of all the tools they've built over the years.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Criterion hiring for open-world racer on new platforms

Burnout, NFS: Hot Pursuit developer staffing up for follow-up to this fall's downloadable Burnout Crash.

Criterion Games graced the headlines last month when the developer announced Burnout Crash, a top-down racing game due out on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. With that game slated to ship this fall, it appears the developer is shifting to work on an open-world game that will appear on "new platforms."

Criterion is working on a new open-world racer and is looking for help building it.

A new career listing at Criterion for an AI Programmer (spotted by Videogamer) hints that the developer is creating an open-world racing game, like it did with Burnout Paradise. The job overview states, "Our current ambition requires an innovative programmer to deliver killer entertainment experiences with believable, open world AI Racing Drivers."

Additionally, another listing, this one for a Lead Software Engineer, hints that Criterion is bringing its new game to "new platforms." The overview of this position asks for a person "to help create a new extension to the existing Criterion team focusing on developing on new platforms."

As for what the new platforms might be, the next generation of systems is rumored to be announced next year. Additionally, there are still more near-term platforms Criterion has yet to appear on, such as the 3DS and the PlayStation Vita.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Nintendo Store Update: Mario's Picross

Game Boy puzzler leads 3DS eShop additions as DSiWare catalog expands by three, WiiWare storefront adds a color-based racer.

Tetris may be the archetypal Game Boy puzzler, but it wasn't the only successful brain teaser Nintendo produced for its popular portable system. Another such offering leads this week's additions to the company's downloadable storefronts, as Mario's Picross has debuted on the 3DS eShop.

Tiny pictures of ducks have never been so rewarding.

Now available for $4, Mario's Picross is a logic puzzle in which players must darken squares on a large grid to reveal hidden pictures. Gamers need to deduce which squares will need to be darkened based on a series of numbers running down the top and side of the grid, detailing how many consecutively darkened squares exist in each row and column. Mario's Picross includes more than 250 such puzzles for players to ponder.

The 3DS can also play this week's trio of new DSiWare additions. Combat-hardened action gamers can pick up Subdued Games' B Team Episode 2: Ice Venom for $8, while those looking for a less violent alternative can find it in the $5 Go Fetch 2, which has players controlling a puppy fetching tossed balls. Finally, Selectsoft is adding to the edutainment section of the DSiWare store with the $8 language software Play Learn Spanish.

Rounding out the week's offerings is Monochrome Racing on the Wii. Published by Nordcurrent, the $5 top-down racer has players upgrading colorful cars and tearing around black-and-white tracks strewn with power-ups. The game includes more than 80 tracks and 10 cars.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Treyarch developing Modern Warfare 3 for Wii

Black Ops developer behind the just-announced Nintendo iteration of November's Call of Duty.

During a postearnings financial call yesterday, Activision announced that a Wii version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 would arrive alongside the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC iterations on November 8. Today, the publisher revealed who exactly would be handling the project.

Treyarch is handling development of Modern Warfare 3 for the Wii.

Call of Duty: Black Ops shop Treyarch is developing the Wii version of Modern Warfare 3. The news comes from Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling, who announced the detail during a recent podcast with Activision social media manager Dan Amrich.

"The Wii has grown so much as a platform," Bowling said. "The great thing is Treyarch proved that you can have an awesome experience on the Wii with Call of Duty. They'll actually be handling that for Modern Warfare 3."

Treyarch is no stranger to developing Call of Duty games for the Wii. The Santa Monica studio was responsible for the Nintendo console iterations of 2009's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Reflex and last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Wii.

This move brings the number of development teams working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to four. Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games are working on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions of the title, while Beachhead Studios is handling Call of Duty: Elite, the social service behind the upcoming shooter.

Modern Warfare 3 picks up where Modern Warfare 2 left off, and it is set on a global stage. Players will fight on multiple continents in places like London, France, Germany, and New York City.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot