According to the November 2007 issue # 76 of the Official Xbox Magazine Sony has secured the next Grand Theft Auto, which would be number 7 in the series, to be a true exclusive to the Playstation 3.
"Rockstar really wanted to make a game that you can truly only do on PS3, harnessing the power of the Cell and Blu-ray disc and this deal lets them do just that" as said by Sony's Michael Shorrock in a statement to the press. " We handed Rockstar a signed blank check because we were short sighted enough to let Grand Theft Auto's exclusivity get away from us. Oops!"
Looks like the Xbox fans may be out of luck when it come to the next installment of Grand Theft Auto. If they do release a 360 version it sounds like it would have to be on multiple dvd discs if the game truly takes advantage of Blu-ray.
One thing is for sure. This will be interesting to watch play out. Stay tuned!
Annual pre-"Black Friday" bargain hunting has started among predatory shoppers, and we're already reaping the benefits of shoppers' insane vigilance. This detail from a Sears ad has revealed two new DS hardware configurations. We already knew of the gold Phantom Hourglass box, but this is the firmest confirmation we've seen from an actual retailer.
More interesting is the reveal of a metallic pink Nintendogs: Best Friends Edition bundle for $149.99. We don't know if this is a Sears exclusive, but the little ad clipping makes no mention of exclusivity. We doubt it, since one of our intrepid commenters hinted at exactly this hardware for GameStop as well. A new hardware bundle for a two-year-old game? Seems ludicrous on the outset, but it'll probably sell a (few million) bundle(s).
When I found out that DivX was going to be supported on the PS3, I was pretty much floored by the announcement. I can see lots of reasons why Microsoft would want to add DivX to the Xbox, but with Sony’s studio assets, I never expected them to embrace the format.
While there is no way for me to know what really motivated Sony, I do have my suspicions.
On a basic level, Sony obviously adopted DivX as a competitive strategy for the console market. Announcing support for a popular codec among hardcore gamers, makes a lot of sense, especially going into the holiday season. Whether or not Microsoft ends up adding DivX to the Xbox 360, Sony’s support for DivX will certainly provide a boost for the console.
On the surface, this explanation seems to make a lot of sense, but the tin-foil hat part of me, can’t help but wonder, if this really had more to do with Blu-Ray.
The current state of the HDTV DVD market is a mess. The Blu-Ray and HD-DVD... More »
We sit down for a chat with Itagaki. New screens, gameplay footage and a video interview.
"Ninja Gaiden is a franchise that was born on Xbox... this is our mainstream. It's only natural that the sequel should be on Xbox 360," Tomonobu Itagaki says through a translator to the small, but crowded, audience gathered to listen to him speak about the upcoming Ninja Gaiden 2. IGN is the only media outlet in the room; the crowd comes from a small army of Microsoft marketing and PR agents eager to listen in. That's because Microsoft announced at this year's Tokyo Game Show that it would be publishing Ryu Hayabusa's next adventure for Xbox 360, ensuring its exclusivity.
What followed was a wonderfully candid discussion about what went right with Ninja Gaiden, what could have been done better and what we can expect in 2008 for Ninja Gaiden 2. Xbox Live details, multiplayer modes, gameplay nuances and more were all on the table and you might be surprised by some of the response... More »
PS3 to live 10 years: Sony's Dille on firmware updates, Competition & More
With the holiday shopping season about to be in full swing, we sit down with the big three console makers, get their thoughts on their 2007 year, why consumers should want their respective console this year, plans for after the new year and much more.
We wrap up our series with an interview with Sony’s senior vice president of marketing, Peter Dille. While Sony may be in third place in the console horse race, behind Nintendo and Microsoft, don’t count it out yet. As Dille is quick to point out, the PlayStation
3 is holding its own when it comes to core features and exclusive titles. While Microsoft grabbed headlines after grabbing previously exclusive PS3 titles like Assassin’s Creed and Virtua Fighter 5, you’re still only going to be playing games like Heavenly Sword, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Ratchet & Clank Future on Sony’s machine. We talked with Dille about ... More »
Typically, the Winter and Spring seasons are a slow time for the videogame industry. Not in 2008. The sheer number of high profile titles that got pushed from Fall 07 to Winter/Spring 08 is amazing. Sorry folks, your wallet won’t get a break. We take a look at all of the games that we know about coming in 2008 in our 2008 Xbox 360 Games Hype List.
Now, we can’t control if games get delayed or cancelled or the developer flip-flops exclusivity on us.
This is just a forward looking article based on what we know now on what we can expect in 2008. Also, this is not every single game that has been announced, just the ones that we are looking forward to. There is surely a lot that we don’t even know about yet, but there are still more than 60 huge games coming in the next 12 months. And even better, many of these games will likely be out before Summer!
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom
NFL Tour
Burnout Paradise
Bully
Culdece... More »
We love the Xbox 360. We really do. It has top games, a great online service, and it’s reasonably priced. In fact, last week we identified the 10 things the Xbox 360 does right. Yet we are not blind to its faults. There are many things it does wrong – dead wrong. Rising from a sea of quibbles are the following ten complaints. Serious complaints.
If Microsoft is to realise its grand corporate vision of total media dominance, then it’s going to have to stop doing things wrong, and start doing them right.
These ten points would be a great place to start.
1. Mass storage
This was a giant leap backwards for the Xbox 2.0 – baffling, and widely decried. The first Xbox had an internal HDD as standard, and that was great. There was just the one SKU that all developers could optimise their software for.
By making the hard drive an optional extra, Microsoft threw the development community into disarray.
The year is at a close, which means the Blend Games staff will gather this weekend to drink cheap whiskey and discuss gaming in 2007. At some point a list of our favorite games for the year will come out of the ordeal, but before we get to that it’s time to look forward.
After all, it was nice playing Warhawk but it’s no time to get complacent with our gaming. There’s a brand new stack of titles just itching to be played. Hopefully none of them have any debilitating diseases that will require daily cream application.
2007 gave everyone a great year; everyone except Sony. Jack Tretton of SCEA has said in recent interviews that 2008 will be the year of the Playstation. With a bundle of new titles and many exclusives making their ways to the big George Forman Grill by Sony in 2008, they might be right. I’m not a gambling man, but I’m hoping that this year will bring people to hold their heads up high and say, “Yes! I own a PS3.” Here are a few gam... More »
Now that the year 2007 is nearly over and with 2008 just around the corner we really need to think about something. If you are interested in the console war at all you may know the Sony PlayStation 3 is the most expensive console out there (yes the X360 Elite is $50 more than the 40GB PS3, but the 80GB PS3 is also $50 more than the elite) and because of this the PS3 is in last place in overall sales (there are also more reasons why, but this is one of the main reasons why).
Now this does not mean that the PS3 is not selling anything at all, this only means that all of the PS3’s that have been sold from around the world have not been matched with the Nintendo Wii’s and the Microsoft Xbox 360’s. Right now the PS3 has sold 7.77M, the Wii has sold 17.07M, and the Xbox 360 has sold 14.07M (according to VGChartz). Now, if things keep going this way, they might lose this war.
Another thing that is the cause of being last is that the PS3 has had many exclusive... More »
With release dates slipping as titles need ‘further development time’ and louder groans from coders regarding the trials of contemporary CPUs, we look at how the increasingly contradictory nature of development – with studios asked to make one game for a variety of different machines – has impacted the industry...
Looking at the current state of the game market, it’s clear that the development sector is having a serious problem with multiplatform development.
Staggered releases have become more common: it’s not unusual to see a PS3 version of a title ship a week or two after its 360 counterpart. But it can be even more severe than that – some titles are appearing on some formats months after they’ve appeared on another, with slippage as developers continually shift attentions between platforms impacting production schedules.
In addition, more and more developers are starting to speak out on the difficulties of being multiplatform d... More »
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