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Movie Gallery, the parent company for brick-and-mortar game retailer/renter (and one of the few remaining chain competitors to GameStop/EB) received an extension on its $900 million restructuring loan as it continues to struggle in an increasingly difficult market. Movie Gallery also owns Hollywood Video and and eponymous stores. CEO Joe Malugen said, “Despite the challenging market conditions for Movie Gallery and the entire rental industry, we are continuing to work with our lenders and our outside advisors to help address the Company’s current financial situation. We plan to continue to operate the Company without interruption as we work through this challenging period.”
So clearly the word of the day is “challenging” but the company seems to be angling toward an acquisition or merger to overcome those challenges. So far they have had to close stores and reduce staff to try and meet financial obligations, and this new extension has given them until August 27th before the loan is considered defaulted.
Read More 
| CNN Money via Joystiq
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Console Downloads Feature Space Bounty Hunters and Also Giraffes
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Adventure, Nintendo, Platformers, Retro, Third Person Shooters, Virtual Console, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
People with virtual currency burning pixelated holes in their alternate reality pockets can check out the Xbox Live Arcade and the Wii Virtual Console this week for some new (or perhaps old) titles. The most exciting offerings this week look to be the Jeff Minter shooter Space Giraffe and the wonderful SNES classic, Super Metroid.
Click to continue reading Console Downloads Feature Space Bounty Hunters and Also Giraffes
Read More | Nintendo Press Release
Bioshock Arrives to High Praise
Posted by Max Dickey Categories: Action, First Person Shooters, PC, Reviews, Xbox 360,
With Halo 3 just a month away, its promotion and hype engines are running at an almost deafening volume. The buzz has been so loud that Bioshock, an Xbox 360 and PC shooter set amidst the ruins of a rapidly declining utopia, snuck up on us more or less under the radar. Now that it’s here, though, it looks like a sure winner, featuring a compelling story, unmatched graphics, and a fantastic overall experience.
Bioshock takes place in the underwater colony known as Rapture. Built as a haven for the best and the brightest members of society, Rapture has become a cesspool of insane former virtuosos who are all hopelessly addicted to a DNA-altering drug called Adam. Apparently not satisfied with their natural gifts, the denizens of Rapture used Adam to supercharge their intellects and multiply their talents. Unfortunately, everyone became dependent on the substance, and if one doesn’t get enough, he loses his mind and his face falls off. Sounds quaint, doesn’t it? As your character explores Rapture, he’ll run across a variety of violent junkies called splicers, as well as enormous armored supersoldiers called Big Daddies. While standard weaponry can hold off splicers, fighting Big Daddies is a strategic affair. Attempting a frontal assault is suicide, so your character needs to get smart and use the supernatural powers granted by Adam to take them down. Yep, you’re using Adam, too. Are you going to end up a hopeless, addicted mess like everyone else? Who knows, but the engrossing storyline has a fair share of twists that could lead you anywhere.
Bioshock hits stores everywhere tomorrow, so be ready. It looks to be one of the season’s best buys.
Read More | GamePro
EA’s Skate Demo Rescheduled
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Downloadable Content, Electronic Arts, Release Dates, Sports, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
After postponing the demo for their upcoming skateboarding game skate—originally scheduled for August 15—publisher EA has settled on Tuesday, August 21st as a new release date. One of the anticipated features of the game that was to be available on the demo is the video capture and upload capabilities. It was reportedly technical problems with this functionality that delayed the demo’s release in the first place, but EA believes they have hammered out the issues. This allows players to make video clips of their game play and upload them to share with other players online.
Skate is challenging the long-running and popular Tony Hawk skateboard series and is scheduled for release on September 12.
Read More | IGN
Eternal Sonata Conceived to Give Gamers a Taste of Culture
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Music, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360,
President of Tri-Crescendo, Hiroya Hatsushiba, based the curious concept of upcoming 360 role-playing game Eternal Sonata on a desire to bring the music of Frederic Chopin to a wider audience—in this case, gamers.
In the game, players exist in a dream world concocted by the composer as he lies on his death bed suffering from tuberculosis which took the life of the famed Polish composer at the age of 39. This dream world grants magical powers to those suffering from incurable illnesses. Chopin’s music is incorporated into the game as unlockable rewards for completing side quests.
Considering the recent “are games art?” debate being held publicly between the likes of Roger Ebert and Clive Barker, perhaps the inclusion of already established artistic work can help lend some weight to Baker’s pro-art arguments.
Read More | Silicon Era
Wii Supply Problems May Not Be Fixed This Year
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Wii,
Despite being much harder to find throughout the year in retail outlets than the competitor’s next-gen console hardware, Nintendo‘s Wii may not see much improvement in availability until sometime in 2008. Nintendo originally planned to expand their production in June but were forced to delay their expansion plans due to tight supply of certain components coming from Taiwan-based suppliers.
Wii units are certainly far more available than they were shortly after launch but that may be related to the comparatively lighter demand; with the 2007 holiday season fast approaching and key titles like Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl expected before Christmas, this could mean another tough Christmas on shoppers with Wii systems high on their lists.
Still, Nintendo has not backed down on projections made in April of this year and in a statement to GameSpot said, “Nintendo has no revisions to announce to its most recent shipment forecasts at this time.” They originally predicted that they would sell 14 million Wiis this fiscal year.
Read More | DigiTimes via GameSpot
MTV to Invest $500 Million in Games Division
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Music,
Look no further for proof that the video game business is big business indeed. Media giant MTV has announced that it is sinking over a half billion dollars into the video game industry over the next two years.
“As we take our brands narrow and deep to serve our targeted, niche audiences, we’re putting well over $500 million behind building our games business across all of the brands in our portfolio,” explained MTV chairman and chief executive Judy McGrath.
MTV is set to make a big splash this fall when Rock Band is released. MTV/Viacom recently purchased Rock Band and Guitar Hero developer Harmonix, so the success of the game will greatly impact any of the network’s future gaming endeavors. In addition to the Harmonix acquisition, MTV/Viacom has snapped up Xfire and GameTrailers, quietly making itself a major player in the gaming scene.
Read More | GameDaily
Ratchet and Clank Future Officially Dated for October 23rd
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Action, Adventure, Platformers, PlayStation 3, Release Dates, Sony,
On the latest episode of its Full Moon Show Podcast, Insomniac Games has disclosed an official North American release date of October 23rd for Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. The game is the fifth installment of the popular action/platform series (okay, so Deadlocked was more of a multiplayer shooter), and first for the PS3. A real next-gen mascot platform game (movie licensed ones don’t count) has been a long time coming, but luckily we have Insomniac around to temporarily rescue us from the glut of dark and mature steroid-addled first person shooters.
Insomniac has promised that a PSN demo will arrive before the final game, but all we have as far as a timeframe is a painfully vague, “Near future.”
Read More | Insomniac Games
Tomb Raider Anniversary Wii Revealed
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo, Wii,
In this promotional trailer for the Wii version of Tomb Raider Anniversary, Producer Morgan Gray demonstrates some of the game’s Wii-specific motion controls. Using their Wiimotes, budding Lara Crofts will be able to “touch the game world for the first time.” Not in that way! No, instead players can use the controller as a pick-axe to remove obstructions or as a brush to clean off artifacts. Wiimote-specific control schemes for the various puzzles and combat sequences are obviously a given. All in all, this brief peek hints at motion control mechanics that are surprisingly well integrated with the core Tomb Raider gameplay. Gamers are understandably wary of some of these quickie PS2/PSP-to-Wii ports, but Tomb Raider Anniversary is one to keep an eye on.
Eidos has not given official word on a release date for the game besides “Coming Soon,” but we’re guessing it will hit in time for the holidays.
Read More | Tomb Raider Anniversary
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Gameplay Showcases Shooting
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: First Person Shooters, Nintendo, Trailers, Wii,
GameTrailers.com has footage of the gameplay from upcoming Wii game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption showcasing some of the heavier shooting action compared to previous Prime games. This is apparently a conscious decision by developer Retro Studios. Talking to EGM in their September issue, Senior Producer Bryan Walker said, “In the first two games, we never really concentrated on the shooting. The Wii controller allows the combat to be better, more intuitive, and I feel we could incorporate more of that into the game.”
Metroid Prime 3 is scheduled to be released on August 27.
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