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Next Generation has posted a nice (although somewhat short) article on some games scheduled to come out this year on Microsoft consoles. In fact, 5 of the games are 360 titles while one is an original Xbox title that’s also coming for PS2. The list follows.
Xbox
Lost Odyssey
Full Auto
Halo 3
Gears of War
Elder Scrolls: OblivionsXbox
Black
While it’s unfortunate that the list isn’t any longer, each of those titles are expected to be big. Still, a lot more games are scheduled to come out this year on Microsoft consoles - especially the 360 - so do you think anything’s missing from the list?
Read More 
| Next Generation
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7 Year Old Finished 2nd In Halo Tournament
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Culture, First Person Shooters, Xbox,
If this doesn’t put a smile on your face and make you chuckle, nothing will. MLG has posted details of a gigantic Halo tournament in Chicago where a 7 year old, know as ‘Lil Poison’ finished in second! We can only imagine how horrible the gamers who lost to this kid felt…
Read More | MLG
Alternate King Kong: The Game Ending
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Action, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Ubisoft recently announced that its King Kong game has an alternate (happy) ending! Possibly to help boost sales, after already dropping the price of the game, the publisher has revealed that the game contains an alternate ending where Kong survives and is returned to Skull Island. We feel this announcement has been made partly due to all the talk of the game’s low replay value. However, in order to obtain the other ending, players will have to put in a bit more time - and since the game’s only $30, this new announcement may help increase sales.
So what’s the big guy have to say about it? (No not Kong, Peter Jackson!)
“I wanted the game to be able to take the audience a bit further than what the film could,” said Peter Jackson. “And the final climax of the game gave us an opportunity to do something that the film could not do, which was to have an alternate ending - obviously everybody pretty much knows how King Kong ends.”
Read More | GameDailyBiz
Next Generation has posted a chapter out of “Smartbomb”, a new book on the videogame industry. The chapter discusses why Microsoft made the Xbox in the first place and how it happened.
While this makes for an interesting read, it doesn’t come close to the detail of Dean Takashi’s “Opening the Xbox”. I read Takashi’s book shortly after its release and found it extremely compelling. In fact, I found myself rooting for the Microsoft guys working on the Xbox by the time I was done reading it. The book does a great job describing everyone involved, along with their strong dedication to succeed. I highly recommend this one if you haven’t read it yet.
And while I haven’t read Smartbomb in its entirety yet, I’ve heard it’s a great book - so if you’ve got some time on your hands pick it up as well!
Read More | Next Generation
Xbox Modders Could Face Jail Time
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, Xbox,
Three men were charged on Monday of copyright infringement for selling modified Xbox consoles. The machines sold aren’t licensed by Microsoft and have large hard drives. The units are able to copy and illegally play those copies of Xbox games. Due to the modifications, these modified Xbox units were being sold at a large premium over the standard Xbox MSRP. Two of the men are in their thirties, while the other is in his forties. You would think grown men would know better, but then again when there’s a profit to be made, someone is bound make it.
Read More | TechWeb
IGN’s Best of 2005 Awards
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PC, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360,
IGN recently posted its Best of 2005 Awards and honestly, we agree with most of the site’s choices. IGN’s broken the awards up by console and has created a whole slew of categories - it took a good amount of time just to see all of the different categories for each console. At any rate, a list of the big winners follows…
Click to continue reading IGN’s Best of 2005 Awards
NPD November Sales Numbers
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Not too many surprises in the November sales numbers. Xbox 360 sold around 326k but could have easily sold more had its supply been stronger. The PS2 still dominates the charts but console sales numbers are down compared to last year. We’re a little surprised to see the huge 4:1 tie ratio for Xbox 360 software. (The tie ratio refers to how many units of software are sold per machine.) Oddly enough, PSP sales numbers weren’t included in this analysis’ release.
In terms of the software sales numbers, Activision’s Call of Duty 2 leads the Xbox 360 pack despite an annoying bug. While Microsoft’s Perfect Dark Zero was the third best selling Xbox 360 game, consumers simply didn’t see it as the ‘killer-app’ that many originally hoped it would be. Meanwhile, Mario Kart DS made a fairly strong showing at #10 on the list - especially considering it’s a handheld title. The figures released are immediately below.
Xbox 360 = 326,000
PS2 = 531,000
Xbox = 197,000
GCN = 272,000
DS = 370,000 (approx)Xbox 360 software sales = 1.3 million units, Tie ratio of almost 4:1.
Overall software sales are down 18% over November 2004. Console software sales are down 33%, even with the Xbox 360 sales contribution.
Hardware sales are down 44% over last year.
November Top 25 Software Sales
US Top 25 Videogame Titles
Rank Title PublisherRank Title Publisher
1 XBX STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II LucasArts
2 PS2 STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II LucasArts
3 360 CALL OF DUTY 2 Activision
4 PS2 MADDEN NFL 06 Electronic Arts
5 PS2 WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2 THQ
6 360 MADDEN NFL 06 Electronic Arts
7 PSP GTA: LIBERTY CITY STORIES Take 2 Interactive
8 PS2 TONY HAWK AMERICAN WASTELAND Activision
9 GCN MARIO PARTY 7 Nintendo
10 NDS MARIO KART Nintendo
11 PS2 50 CENT: BULLETPROOF Vivendi
12 PS2 CALL OF DUTY 2: BIG RED ONE Activision
13 360 NEED FOR SPEED: MOST WANTED Electronic Arts
14 PS2 SOUL CALIBUR III Namco
15 PS2 DRAGON BALL Z: BUDOKAI TENK Atari
16 PS2 NBA LIVE 06 Electronic Arts
17 PS2 BLITZ: THE LEAGUE Midway
18 PS2 NEED FOR SPEED: MOST WANTED Electronic Arts
19 PS2 RATCHET: DEADLOCKED Sony
20 PSP STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II LucasArts
21 360 PERFECT DARK ZERO LTD ED Microsoft
22 PS2 SOCOM 3: US NAVY SEALS Sony
23 PS2 GUN Activision
24 PS2 THE MATRIX: PATH OF NEO Atari
25 XBX CALL OF DUTY 2: BIG RED ONE Activision
Source: The NPD Group/NPD Funworld, POS
Snoopy Comes Home To Fight Red Baron
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: PC, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox,
That’s right, your favorite beagle is coming to a home videogame console near you next fall. Out of the whole Peanuts bunch, Snoopy is certainly the coolest and it’s about time he’s the star of another videogame (see Snoopy Tennis, Snoopy Concert, and others.) But honestly, none of those games were very good.
What may be the biggest move for Snoopy in years is the fact that Namco is developing his new title, Snoopy vs. the Red Baron. Could any other developer be better suited to make this game? Probably not considering Namco has the Ace Combat series under its belt. Sure, Namco’s Star Fox: Assault wasn’t the greatest, but we’ve still got hope.
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron is coming for PS2, PSP, and Xbox. The game will also feature over fifty missions, and Peanuts stars including Charlie Brown, Linus, and Woodstock. This is a remake of the classic Atari 2600 game.
Read More | IGN
Ubisoft King Kong Interview
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Adventure, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Played the new King Kong game? It’s surprisingly good, even if it’s a little bit on the shorter side.
Considering that games based on movies usually don’t turn out this good, it’s interesting to take a look inside Ubisoft and see what made the game’s development special. GameDaily recently posted an interview with some members of the Kong development team that’s definitely worth checking out. In fact, here’s a Q&A excerpt:
BIZ: Obviously creating the official game for the movie is a huge undertaking. What steps were needed to ensure that production stayed on course?
Xavier: The main challenge is to work in parallel with a movie and a universe that is created as you are developing the game. You have to anticipate, to wait for assets to be delivered, and make sure you validate on a regular basis the different choices you make to make sure you are on the right track… while making sure everything still fits in your planning.
Peter J made us feel comfortable because he really did not want the game to be a simple adaptation of the movie but he sees the game as a sister or a brother to the movie and an expansion to his universe. That means he accepted (and was suggesting) differences between the movie and the game in order to meet our constraints and make the best game possible. We also worked with Philippa Boyens (co scenarist) to make sure we were respecting characters and tone.
You need a lot of exchanges, and we were lucky to go to New Zealand five times to breathe some of Kong’s air!
Five times to New Zealand?? If only we were so lucky…but then again, we could just boot up a copy of the game and find ourselves in a remote jungle without having to sit on a plane for hours on end.
Read More | GameDaily
December’s Upcoming Game Releases
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Release Dates, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Looking for some new games to spend your hard-earned money on? Well you’re in luck! What follows is a list of games that will be hitting retail shops between now and the end of 2005.
This Week:
Final Fantasy IV Advanced - GBA
Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku I & II - GBA
Chaos Field - GCN
Gauntlet Seven Sorrows - Xbox/PS2
Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play - PSP
Next Week:
Pocket Dogs - GBA
Samurai Showdown V - Xbox
Dead or Alive 4 - Xbox 360
Aside from Dead or Alive 4, it looks like there isn’t anything too excited due out for the rest of the year. Furthermore, will Dead or Alive 4 even come out this year? It’s slated to ship on December 21st, but it wouldn’t be that surprising if it were delayed again.
Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play could turn out to be a keeper, but we’ll hold judgment on it for now. And finally what the heck is Pocket Dogs? Dare it be a Nintendogs rip-off?
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