At the same BMO Capital Markets' conference last week in New York where he gave an update on upcoming GTAIV DLC and Chinatown Wars, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick offered a glimpse further down the road. In his "Negative Approach" blog for cnet, Dave Rosenberg related these remarks from Zelnick:
The Holy Grail is taking a business, already a very large and successful business that's focused on packaged goods... and turning that into a subscription business or a semi subscription business where we have an ongoing relationship with consumers, giving them products that they want. Who's better positioned to do that than the company that has the top franchises?
It isn't much of a stretch here to start connecting the dots. The Grand Theft series definitely fits the bill as a "successful business that's focused on packaged goods," and it's also the top of their franchise properties. And though delayed, the DLC plan for GTAIV offers an ideal test run for a "semi... More »
Before even receiving a set release date, GTA: Chinatown Wars, the upcoming GTA installment for the Nintendo DS, has joined the ranks of GTA IV PC and Xbox 360 downloadable content as delayed.
At a press conference today, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed GTA IV DLC’s delay rumors stating that it may arrive as late as Spring 2009.
Zelnick also stated that Chinatown Wars isn’t scheduled to be released in the first quarter of the 2009 fiscal year (January 2009) as initially expected, but will arrive within Q2 2009, which ends in April.
The infamous Xbox 360 "red ring of death" (indicating a failed unit) has caused Microsoft - and its customers - untold pain in the three years since the console's launch in 2005, and cost it $1.15bn (£738m) last year.
Microsoft has never said publicly why the console was plagued with faults: it seems that poor production quality was at the heart of the failures - an all-round problem with no single cause except impatience on the company's part as it tried to become the leader in videogame consoles.
It was an ambitious attack. Microsoft's engineers started working on the Xbox 360 at least a year after Sony's engineers began work on the PlayStation 3, yet wound up shipping a year earlier. With the first Xbox, the company lost $3.7bn (£2.3bn) over four years, mostly because costs of the box - particularly its hard drive - were too high.
Bill Gates didn't really care about the losses; that was simply the ante for getting into an exciting ne... More »
Last month Eastasiasoft said their space shooter Söldner-X was on target to become a PlayStation Network download in October... which apparently is no longer the case.
To quote: Since it’s the last week in October I thought we would see it on this Thursday’s PlayStation Store update. After searching their forums I discovered this was not the case.
Himmelsstürmer, a Forum Moderator there explains as follows, “The game will be pushed back to a late November release. A news update will follow shortly.”
So there you have it, no Söldner-X in what's left of this month folks.
Many users live with boot problems or re-install Windows and start again, but there is a better way. If you learn what happens during the boot process then you'll be able to diagnose and fix any issues that might arise.
The BIOS
The boot starts with your PC's BIOS, which grabs its settings from CMOS RAM before initialising your video adaptor and any expansion cards. A Power On Self Test does basic hardware checks, tests your RAM if required and usually delivers a single beep to indicate that everything is working.
If there's a problem at this point then the BIOS will display an error message or issue a number of beeps; check your motherboard manual to figure out what they might mean. If it's accessible, launch your BIOS setup program to confirm that no settings have been changed. If they have, this could mean that your motherboard's CMOS battery has failed, in which case you'll need a replacement.
As many of you may have already heard (or heard and then fist clenched your pre-order receipt in utter fury) the release of LittleBigPlanet on PS3 has been delayed worldwide due to it containing references to the Qur’an, the central religious text of Islam.
The official word about the incident from Sony is as follows: “During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an. We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused.”
Head scratching, knee-jerk reaction? We certainly thought so, and it seems that we’re not alone. We recently received a phone call from Mr Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, and he was simila... More »
The advertisement (pictured below) which can be found in the Japanese Magazine "DeGenki PlayStation" this morning states the following:
"CLOUD MESSAGE... Coming Soon"
But what can that "CLOUD Message" be exactly?
Can it be hiding an announcement of a much-anticipated Final Fantasy 7 remake, or just a delayed promotion for Advent Children Complete which will be released next March in Japan (with a Final Fantasy XIII demo, and an exclusive Pack including the Blu-ray film and a PlayStation 3).
One has to wonder, who is the best person to announce such a remake.. Cloud, don't you think?
According to many reports (including several in our own Forums HERE), retailers including WalMart and Target have been selling copies of LittleBigPlanet despite the game's official launch being delayed due to the alleged offensive material included.
Needless to say, it's probably best to call your local store up before you rush out to grab a copy though. ;)
To quote: It seems that two huge retailers seem to have missed the boat on the recall, namely Wal-Mart and Target. That’s right, I just picked up my copy of LittleBigPlanet at midnight here in my hometown. A quick phone call to all the surrounding cities’ superstores brought similar responses. It’s for... More »
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