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 »
Nimrod of Digiex.net (linked above) has shared a method to play System Link / XBox Live over 2 XBox 360 consoles with just one disc.
It could end with some pretty bad results so its not exactly an ideal solution, meaning the best solution may be to just buy two copies of the game.
However, to perform this method you will need a paperclip, the new NXE, a single copy of the game you want to play on Live/System Link and a steady hand. To quote:
Stage One: Install the game you wish on one of the consoles to the hard drive. You will be doing this on the console that will have its DVD drive emergency ejected.
Once installed launch the game and let the Xbox 360 check the disc in the drive and confirm its valid and allow the game to load.
Its IMPORTANT at this stage to wait for the DVD drive to fully spin down. If unsure, wait at LEAST 10 minutes to be safe. Feel the drive, and make sure the disc is NOT spinning.
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Gaming, like all mediums in existence, is constantly evolving. The Internet is almost unrecognizable from just 10 years ago.
Television programming has changed greatly, including such technologies as TiVo (DVR) and the unfortunate rise of reality shows on nearly every channel except Nickelodeon.
May God help us all. In the meantime, there are some trends we have noticed appearing in a lot of our favorite videogames, and those trends show a bright future for our favorite hobby. Some may disagree that these are good things, but they are indeed a part of gaming these days for better or worse.
5. Instant Co-Operative Play
Back in the day, co-op modes would typically split the screen in two in order to allow one player to move independently of the other. Split screens, however, were never very popular as they cut out the potential field of vision for both players and were often seen as a necessary nuisance. Since the Sega DreamCast... More »
Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer bristles every time he gets the question: Why can't the Japanese electronics giant be more like Apple?
The maker of the iPod, iPhone, and Mac computers consistently delivers supercool gadgets that are easy to use, while Sony sells music players, TVs, and cameras that get mixed reviews and often don't even work well with other Sony (SNE) products.
"Sony is a very big company," Stringer says by way of explanation. "Our toughest competitors are niche organizations."
Stringer is quick to admit, though, that Sony may face a troubled future if it can't rival Apple (AAPL) in creating simple software that makes its gadgets fun and in giving consumers easy access to music and videos.
Apple's iTunes store has long made filling iPods a cinch, but Sony's consumer electronics and PlayStation divisions have only recently started to integrate their offerings with those of the company's movie studio and... More »
Earliery today Namco Bandai announced DLC for Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm.
Now, IGN has made available a video review of it as follows:
Ultimate Ninja Storm is a, as I like to call it, "casual" fighting game that follows the first plot arcs of the anime series and gives players the chance to fight classic Naruto battles, play mini-games and roam the quaint streets of the Hidden Leaf Village.
The most obvious thing you'll notice about Ultimate Ninja Storm is the game's phenomenal visuals. While the environments are on the simpler side, the character animations are unreal.
The fluidity, attention to detail and even camera angles are executed with such expertise and palpable, Naruto-passion that you can't help but fall in love with how the characters move and fight. I would almost go so far as to say... More »
Red Faction: Guerilla's Associate Producer Sean Kennedy has admitted extra help was needed to bring the PlayStation 3 version up to speed with the Xbox 360 version.
Speaking to OXM, Kennedy stressed how hard Red Faction: Guerilla is pushing the current-gen technology and then says that the lack of memory on PlayStation 3 caused an additional headache.
"I mean, to be honest, we are pushing the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to the limits," he says. "I mean, not only has it been a balancing act making destruction work with the gameplay and making it all come together in a cohesive way that's fun but it's been a balancing act getting the game to run on the systems."
One little change and you're out of memory. When it comes to PlayStation 3, there's less memory to work with. We actually ended up hiring some from Sony to help us make our PS3 version.
Fortunately, they are the same. We've been able to make sure that PC, 360 and PS3 vers... More »
The term 'hacker' is perhaps not so accurate, but more and more forums are reporting stories of people whose PSN password suddenly changed and that with their credit card information, stored in the account, games are purchased by someone else.
With the numerous BETAs and codes which allow you to get additional content, there are a lot of people seeking access to these. They are sometimes fooled by others under false pretenses, and only their login and password to enter PSN is needed. Below is an example of someone who is trying to obtain someone's password to enter through the Home BETA.
People sometimes offer to 'swap' PSN games, however, if you have each other's account information you can download each other's games... this is not only illegal, but secondly someone can change your password so you no longer can access the account. Worse yet, others will be able to access your credit card information.
Sony nor their official developers will e... More »
Per Matt Morton (Associate Producer, SCEA-Santa Monica Studios) today:
Hi PixelJunkies! I’m Matt Morton, Associate Producer at SCEA Santa Monica Studio and I’ve had the great fortune of working on the PixelJunk series since the very first title, PixelJunk Racers. We’ve been working hard to keep spreading the PixelJunk Love (as Deb Mars calls it) and wanted to give you a heads up on the upcoming patch for PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Monsters: Encore.
Recently, Jeff Rubenstein got to visit Q-Games in Kyoto (the lucky so-and-so) and shot an interview with Dylan to talk more about the patch for PixelJunk Monsters. Check it out...
The patch will be releasing VERY soon, with Japan getting the first patch release on October 23. If all goes well with final testing, you will see the patch in SCEA and SCEE territories on October 30. If there are any delays to the above mentioned dates, we w... More »
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