Latest Gear Live Videos
Japan To Get Black DS Lite
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Announcements, Nintendo DS,
Europe’s lock on the Jet Black DS Lite will end soon. On September 2, the black version of the handheld will be available in Japan at 16800 Yen, according to an article from Famitsu. This will make the fifth color to launch in Japan, after the Noble Pink DS Lite becomes available on July 20. Meanwhile, gamers in the United States have to content themselves with one color. The US eventually saw the release of different color versions of the original DS; hopefully Nintendo will bless North America with other options for the DS Lite soon. Impatient gamers can still order other colors from Play-Asia.com for about a $50 price penalty.
Read More 
| Famitsu
Advertisement
Mac Gamers Get Digital Game Downloads
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Internet, PC,
Mac gamers jealous of the ability of PC users to buy games without any physical ownership can now join in the fun. While gamers on the PC have been able to utilize services like Valve Software’s Steam and Real Network’s RealArcade, until now there has not been an equivalent service for the Mac. Long time Windows game port factory Aspyr has announced the Gamerhood, a direct download service for the Macintosh. Aspyr’s press release suggests that software from casual games to the top of the line offerings will be made available for download. Parents will probably welcome the ability to lock out games based on ESRB ratings. There will also be some convenience gained by the ability to run games without the physical media. However, if games require network authentication when run, this could make times without Internet connectivity frustrating. Aspyr promises further details in the next few months, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Full Press Release after the jump.
Click to continue reading Mac Gamers Get Digital Game Downloads
Does Blu-Ray Matter For Games?
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Editorial, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
Andre Vrignaud, who works in Microsoft’s Game Technology Group kicks off a new blog this week. Among his first posts is an entry questioning Sony’s assertion that Blu-Ray will be necessary for the next generation of gaming. He references a quote from Sony’s Kaz Hirai, stating that the new games could require as many as 40 to 50 gigabytes, which would theoretically necessitate the amount of storage that Blu-Ray can offer.
To counter this, Vrignaud cites a report from Gamesfirst that claims that Xbox game sizes have only increased 77% since the console’s launch in 2001. According to their survey, the “average size of Xbox games in 2001 was 1.81 gigabytes…3.2 gigabytes by 2005.” Average, though, is not the same as the maximum size. Among the largest games on the Xbox were Halo 2, Jade Empire, and Ninja Gaiden Black. On the Xbox 360, one of the larger games is Rockstar’s Table Tennis, weighing in at over 7 GB.
While game size grew 77% on the Xbox, consider the Playstation 2. When the Playstation 2 launched, a majority of the launch titles were CD based, maxing out a 700 MB. Now, a majority of the PS2 games are DVD titles. Among the largest titles are Metal Gear Solid: Subsistence and Xenosaga II. Games like Grandia III have had their releases split across 2 DVDs. If one adds that one extra year as a data point, game sizes have grown at an even larger rate than suggested by Gamesfirst. The Playstation 2 model suggests that while not everyone will take advantage of all the space available, some of the high profile games will.
There are some other considerations that may have made developers try to stay under 4.7 GB, rather than take advantage of a full dual layer disc capacity. Dual-layer disc manufacturing increases cost. While not a huge factor on the Xbox or the Xbox 360, on the Playstation 2 this is a fairly large difference. This may have been a factor in Game Arts deciding to split their game across two DVD-5 discs instead of a single DVD-9.
Another factor would be layer changes. In a game with discrete levels that load, this might not be an issue, but with larger game worlds that stream content from the disc, this can become problematic. Consider the issue with the Prey demo on the Xbox 360; on the PC, the demo weighed in at about 450 MB. The Xbox 360 was almost 200 MB larger, mainly because of file management issues with optical drives. With Blu-Ray, these issues are mitigated somewhat. There are still layer changes, but with 25 GB per layer, this is less of an issue.
While game textures and code may not increase heavily, one would expect cut scenes file sizes to balloon out heavily on the Playstation 3. The higher resolutions that are supported by the console will require higher file sizes. While cut scenes are considered the bane of many gamers, something to skip through, they are going to be a source of content bloat. The Blu-Ray format will handle this better, and with greater fidelity than a DVD-9.
So, at the Playstation 3 launch, content formats won’t matter that much. It will take time for developers to adjust to the new format. But considering the life-cycle of previous consoles and the fact that content tends expand to fill available space, one would expect content size capacity to make a difference after a few years. 40 to 50 GB games may not be commonplace. It is more likely that gamers will see games hovering around the 10 to 15 GB mark, assuming the Playstation 3 gains enough market-share to make developing this exclusive content worthwhile.
Read More | Ozymandias
Pricing Announced For Street Fighter II, Pac-Man
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Retro, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
While Microsoft was unable to pull back their early Xbox Live Wednesdays announcement, there was one tidbit of information that was kept secret until the Summer of Xbox Live event in San Francisco. Left for the exclusive party was the pricing for the new games; Gamespot was able to get the details. Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting and Cloning Clyde will debut at 800 points, $10 at current marketplace pricing. Dedicated fans of Capcom’s fighting games will probably find their $10 well invested, assuming that lag is kept to a minimum in online play. Cloning Clyde will probably need a good demo to get sell through at its price point. Pac-Man, Frogger, and Galaga will all come in at 400 points, or around $5. Considering the number of games that usually make up the Namco Museum collections, this pricing seems a little high. Perhaps online play and enhanced graphics will make these worth the money. Microsoft also could not promise that Xbox Live Wednesdays would last beyond August 9. New Xbox Live Arcade releases have been spotty since launch. Having five weeks of uninterrupted new Xbox Live Arcade games is great, but it would be nice to have a more reliable stream of casual gaming experiences.
Read More | Gamespot
Good Taste Prevails, Sony Pulls Controversial Advertisement
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Culture, PSP, Release Dates,
Sony may think twice next time before it decides to post an edgy new PSP ad - after days of pressure, Sony has finally agreed to pull its controversial “White is Coming” PSP ad (as previously blogged about here). In a statement found on Reuters, Sony concedes:
“We recognise that the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising. As a result, we have now withdrawn the campaign.”
Personally, the phrasing of “concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising” seems a bit snarky to me - the Sony rep is obviously referring to the fact that while the ad was posted in the Dutch market, it seemed to raise the most ire here in the US. Still, I for one am glad that Sony can still admit its mistakes once in a while.
Read More | Reuters
Small Arms Debuts New Viral Achievement
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Fighting, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Small Arms, a shooter/brawler Xbox Live Arcade title due out later this year, has implemented a new kind of achievement. The achievement is titled “Six Degrees of Small Arms” and will spread through Xbox Live in a viral fashion. When the game is released, only four members of Gastronaut studios will have the achievement. The achievement will spread to anyone they play, and from that player to other opponents, and so on. This is an example of a great Xbox Live achievement and is miles ahead of the “get on the leaderboard” achievements we have been seeing so much of lately.
Read More | 1Up
Xbox Live Wednesdays Announced, Street FIghter II Dated
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Corporate News, Retro, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Earlier today Microsoft announced “Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays.” Basically, Microsoft is saying that we will be getting one new arcade game per week during the summer, each and every Wednesday. The initial five week run begins tomorrow at GMT 0800 starting with Frogger. That will be followed up by Cloning Clyde, Galaga, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, and Pac-Man. TThat’s right peeps - Street Fighter II finally has a release date, and it’s scheduled to drop on the Xbox 360 on August 2. Since the original post on Gamasutra, Microsoft has stated that the information will not be released until a later time. Thankfully The information is still available elsewhere on the internet.
Read More | Xboxic
DS Lite Moves 200,000 Units In Europe
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
While Nintendo’s first day sales figures for the DS Lite in Europe didn’t particularly amaze the gaming public, the handheld is selling in respectable numbers. Nintendo of Europe recently announced that in the ten days since launch, they have sold over 200,000 DS Lites in the UK. This has brought their total sales of DS and DS Lites in Europe to over five million consoles, and has pushed many of their software titles to similar success. For whatever reason, Nintendo has not done as well with the DS in Europe as in the US and Japanese territories, but it looks like they are making progress.
Read More | Nintendo of Europe
Sega Japan Announces Phantasy Star Universe Keyboard
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, MMORPG, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360,
According to a report by Japan’s Famitsu magazine, Sega of Japan is releasing a USB wireless keyboard for use with Phantasy Star Universe. The branded keyboard will work with both the Playstation 2 and PCs. The keyboard also ships with a “Guidebook for new Guardians” to help users navigate through the online lobbies and a driver disk for PC users. The keyboard will be available on August 31, in time for the Phantasy Star Universe launch. The price has been set at 8190 Yen, or roughly $72.
Interestingly, compatibility with the Xbox 360 was not listed even though the game has been announced for that platform. Given that Xbox 360 gamers playing Final Fantasy XI have found most USB keyboards to work, there shouldn’t be any compatibility issues with the Xbox 360 hardware. The Xbox 360 version of the game might not support keyboard communication at all; it will support chat over Xbox Live. If the Xbox 360 game servers are distinct from the PS2 and PC servers as rumored, keyboard support may not be necessary at all.
In addition to the new wireless keyboard, Sega also announced the availability of Phantasy Star Universe Score and Soundtrack CDs.
Read More | Famitsu
Gamecube Titles See Delay
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo Gamecube, Release Dates, Rumors,
While Nintendo’s Wii has been getting all the attention, there are still some high profile titles for the Gamecube coming down the pipe. Unfortunately for gamers, some of these titles may see a delay. Siliconera is reporting that Super Paper Mario and Donkey Kong Bongo Blast have both been delayed in Japan, with current release dates unknown. In the US, Super Paper Mario has also apparently been pushed back. Nintendo’s official US site and Gamestop are both still reporting the October 9, 2006, release date at this time.
Read More | Siliconera
Recent Galleries
Playfeed Categories
Playfeed Shows
Advertisement
© Gear Live Media, LLC. 2007 – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.