According to NewMediaAge magazine, Nintendo has become the first ever consumer brand to disable user communication and feedback on the popular social networking site Bebo.
Nintendo has launched a major campaign for a game on Bebo, but has disabled the wall feature that allows fans to comment across the campaign pages.
EA admitted they were surprised by this move, as talking is what people do one these sites.
To quote: The move to silence users has been met with surprise by brands and agencies, which said it contradicts the very nature of social media as a communications medium.
Nintendo global policy bans all comments, blogs and forums on Official Nintendo online material.
Nintendo said it selected Bebo as it reflected the social aspect of the Animal Crossing game, but it's the first consumer brand to block communication features on the social network.
The campaign, which also includes display advertising ... More »
Update: The LBP 1.05 patch adds star ratings to levels - you can now see the current star rating of a level (providing it has enough feedback).
The LittleBigPlanet v1.05 patch for PlayStation 3 is now available. It went live last night and is just 15MB in size. There isn't any word on what is new, but we're sure it brings with it some fixes and minor improvements.
To quote: The Planetoid observatory has just seen that the Little Big Planet 1.05 patch is now live. It went live at around 11pm GMT / UTC and is a teeny tiny 15MB in size.
Like previous patches, there has been no official word on it so right now there is no news on just exactly what this patch contains. We’d put our money on it being some minor stability fixes, much like patches 1.01, 1.02, 1.03 and 1.04 did and they were all around the same size.
Media Molecule did, only a few hours ago, announce their commitment to improving key areas of the game: Searching, Mo... More »
Per Grace Chen (Senior Manager, PlayStation Store) today:
Hey, everyone. It’s time again for the weekly PlayStation Store update.
Qore Qore Annual Subscription ($24.99)
Qore: Presented by the PlayStation Network is a monthly interactive video production covering the world of PlayStation. Qore provides its audience with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to developers and their games, from both the SCE Worldwide Studios and the third-party community, where the audience member can freely navigate through the content.
File size: 1.34 GB
Qore Episode 07: December, 2008 (free)
Episode 07 (December 2008) of Qore: Presented by the PlayStation®Network is being offered to all PSN account holders, 18 and older, for free! (*PSN registration required. user responsible for internet fees.) Download now to see what all of the excitement is about!
File size: 1.34 GB
IGN has gone through Famitsu's 11-page feature on Final Fantasy: Dissidia and translated several new details recently.
Square Enix apparently considered putting a FFXII character in the game, but were concerned it would solidify "the character's image and skills in players' minds and thus affecting the main FFXIII".
Famitsu also revealed that gamers will be able to choose a Memory Stick installation of 245, 373, or 528 megabytes. Finally, Ikeda, the main programmer for the game, says that the 245MB install will allow "smooth battles."
To quote: If all that isn't enough to make you wonder how Square Enix is fitting Dissidia on one UMD, here's something that should do the trick. Famitsu also reveals that Dissidia has a "Command Battle" mode of play.
Here, the normal action-based battle system is replaced with a menu system, allowing players who aren't so hot on action games to still engage in combat.
They’re bum rushing again; a cascade of gnawing, screaming, snarling, sicken bodies fly through every open crevasse of a charming little house that has become a barricade of fortitude against the undead.
All this because one of our token heroes made a last minute smash and grab for some ammo, broke up the typecast quartet, and was welcomed by a sludge of zombie pheromone vomit to the face.
If Half-Life and its sequel spelled the advent of the videogame sense of the cinematic, capturing the filmic while never using its exact form, then Left 4 Dead runs with developer Valve’s legacy to uncultivated territory.
On the surface it’s what you’ve come to expect, with perfectly placed spectacle and the crescendos in pace to match. But Left 4 Dead also takes that cinematic inheritance a logical step further, by slyly inserting an omniscient Director who puppeteers and schemes to abash your foursome’s every cooperative move.
The US Producer of SingStar, Aaron Orsak, shared the following via PS Blog today:
With SingStar ABBA hitting the shelves today for PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2, we wanted to share with you some new SingStar updates.
We’ve been listening to your feedback over the last few months and wanted to let you know that we will be adding 60+ songs to the North American SingStore over the next few months.
We’ll be sure to keep you all posted as we begin rolling out new songs to the SingStore. In the meantime, here’s a highlight of songs to appear in the coming weeks:
• UB40 – ‘Red Red Wine’
• Billy Joel – ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’
• Chumbawamba- ‘Tubthumping’
• David Bowie- ‘Let’s Dance’
• Pink – ‘Get the Party Started’
• Queen- ‘The Show Must Go On’
• New Order- ‘Blue Monday 88′
• Men at Work - ‘Down Under’
• Star... More »
Prince of Persia Producer Ben Mattes took the time to answer several interesting questions regarding everything from combat to the game’s new art style on PlayStation 3. Here are some of them as follows:
Charliesdad asked: Wondering how you addressed the balance issues from earlier entries in the series. For example, Sands of Time was amazing, but going back to it recently the combat wore thin after a while (especially in the first big group fight) to be followed by long stretches of almost no combat. Does the new game fall on one side or the other or is there a middle ground that you all shot for and hit? And Demo tomorrow? Maybe?
Mattes: First, one of our main goals in combat was to make every fight grandiose and meaningful, to make every encounter feel more epic. Thus, we decided to make the new combat system a duel mode in which every enemy has special attributes, a unique personality, cool moves, and his strengths and weaknesses. ... More »
Microsoft once had a near monopoly on Web browsers with Explorer, so it comes almost as a shock to find that the Web browser most used to access Bruceongames is Firefox 3 and that even the undermarketed Chrome has made a significant impact.
When it comes to search Google always had the majority of the market but MSN now seems to have slipped away to nearly nothing. It doesn’t bring many people here.
You can forgive the above because Microsoft, famously, misunderstood the internet so came to it late. Operating systems are different though, Microsoft have owned this sector since MSDOS. But even here there are massive cracks appearing. By far the fastest growing section of the PC industry is Netbooks.
And the Linux derived Ubuntu has become a great success. Microsoft have fought back by bringing XP from the grave. But they are imposing stupid maximum system specifications that attempt to defy Moore’s law.
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