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Rumor: Nintendo US Division To Move to NY or SF? Me: SF Please!
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Culture, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,
According to the online version of GameInformer Magazine, Nintendo employees were recently told that the company would be relocating, away from its current Redmond, Washington offices. According to the article:
Employees of Nintendo of America were told on Thursday that they would have to decide by June 1st whether or not they would be willing to relocate or accept a severance package. Our sources indicated these new offices would be opened as early as this Fall.
...
Both San Francisco and New York were pointed at as being the potential targets for new locations.
Personally, I think a move like this would make a lot of sense for the company. Redmond one day looked like it was going to become the next tech hotbed, but it’s so dominated by Microsoft these days that it’s hard to really make a presence in that area. Plus, the number of third-party publishers located in the bay area is staggering (just look on the case of your most recent game for an address, trust me…), so if Nintendo really is serious about courting third parties more actively, this would definitely give them a more hands-on way to do it. A New York office would also make a lot of sense given that, well, it’s New York and they’ve already got their only US store there.
My guess? IF they do move (and that’s a big “if”, they’ve been in Redmond for a long while)... they’re probably going to do both. I could see it easily being advantageous for Nintendo to have both an east coast and west coast operations branch. But if they HAVE to choose, my vote is for the SF Bay area. Having Nintendo so close to home would be sweet indeed.
Read More 
| GameInformer.com
Gallery: Rumor: Nintendo US Division To Move to NY or SF? Me: SF Please!
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Being A Halo 3 Extra
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Bungie, Culture, First Person Shooters,
Chris Anderson, Editor-in-chief at Wired Magazine, and GeekDad recently got a chance to record some of the voices for some of the “extras” in Halo 3. The GeekDad blog has full details, including a short video with Marty O’Donnell, audio director for Halo 3, but one can also get a glimpse at a couple of redacted script segments for the game. Of course, nothing major is revealed in the scripts, but there Commander Keyes and the Flood both get a quick mention. While the multiplayer aspects of Halo 3 have been getting a lot of attention, the storyline for the third game has been held very close to the vest by Bungie. With the cliffhanger ending of Halo 2, Bungie would seem to have a bunch of storylines to resolve if the upcoming game is to complete the trilogy.
Read More | GeekDad
Gallery: Being A Halo 3 Extra
Gamestop Offering 360 Elite Trade-In, Hasn’t Thought It Through
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Culture, Rumors, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Gamestop, always looking to keep their inventory of used systems and games well-stocked, will be taking the Xbox 360 Core, Xbox 360 Platinum, and original Xbox as trade-in credit towards purchase of a new Xbox 360 Elite (or other purchase). Thus sayeth Kotaku.com and other games websites in the area.
According to Kotaku, you’ll also be able to get a better trade-in deal on your used console… the Xbox 360 Platinum will get you $250 (normally $190), Core packs get you $200 (normally $140), and the lowly original black Xbox will get you $50. That all sounds like a pretty good trade-in deal for a new 360 ‘l33t, but we’ve gotta wonder how exactly Gamestop is hoping to help the droves of Premium owners that want to transfer their data from the 20GB drive to the Elite’s 120GB drive… will you have to sit there and wait for them to do it in-store? Or will they let you keep your 20GB drive for a deposit? Or will they somehow use the magic of the internets’ pipes to get your 20GB worth of Elder Scrolls saves and Xbox Marketplace purchases to you? What’s the deal here? So far, we’re waiting for details on how exactly this operation is going to work. My money is on “not smoothly”.
Read More | Kotaku.com
Gallery: Gamestop Offering 360 Elite Trade-In, Hasn’t Thought It Through
Hideo Kojima Talks Metal Gear
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Culture, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Third Person Shooters,
Hideo Kojima talked about the Metal Gear franchise through the years at the GO3 Expo in Australia. Gamasutra covered his speech, an interesting walk through game development starting from the 80s through to his work on Metal Gear Solid 4. From the MSX to the PlayStation 2, it seems Kojima has been bumping against the technological limitations of each platform while trying to refine and evolve his “hide and seek” gameplay concept from the original game. While he offered no real new footage from Metal Gear Solid 4, he did discuss where he wanted to take the conflict in the next iteration of the franchise.
Read More | Gamasutra
Gallery: Hideo Kojima Talks Metal Gear
GTA IV Trailer Now Online
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Adventure, Culture, PlayStation 3, Simulation, Trailers, Xbox 360,
Rockstar Games officially released the first teaser trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV. Scheduled to ship on October 16th, the game will be the first entry in the series for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The trailer gives a brief, but detailed look at the updated look for Liberty City, and the focus this time appears to be on a Russian immigrant character. Beyond that, it is hard to get a feel for where Rockstar is taking the sandbox game series, particularly story and gameplay-wise. One can get glimpses of the product parodies that gamers have gotten used to for the game, but beyond that, the trailer does it’s job – whet gamer’s appetites for more to come.
Read More | Rockstar Games
Gallery: GTA IV Trailer Now Online
Mario And Sonic Finally Meet
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, SEGA, Sports, Wii,
Nintendo and Sega today announced that two icons of past console wars, Mario and Sonic, will be teaming up for a licensed game set at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Titled Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the new title will be available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS. No official pricing or launch date was set for the titles, but additional details have been revealed in an interview held between Sega and Nintendo representatives and N’Gai Croal at the Level Up blog. While the interview tends to focus a little more on the rivalry between the two companies, a few nuggets of development information can be found. First, while Sega will apparently be handling the development of the game, Shigeru Miyamoto will be overseeing the development process to some degree. Also, Sega’s Sonic Team apparently will not be involved, which may be a good thing given the spectacularly bad reviews that Sonic on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 received. This mascot match-up has been a long time coming; here’s hoping it lives up to the hype.
Nintendo and Sega’s press release continues after the jump.
Click to continue reading Mario And Sonic Finally Meet
Read More | Level Up
Gallery: Mario And Sonic Finally Meet
Despite reports of low turnouts at midnight launch events for the PlayStation 3 in Europe, Sony managed to break records for console sales during its opening weekend, moving over 165,000 units in the UK. ChartTrack in the UK believes that this sells through approximately 75% of the initial launch allocation for the UK, and surpasses all other console launches in the territory, including the Wii and the Xbox 360. Gamasutra also reports on UK software sales for the opening weekend, with Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm taking spots one and two in the top ten. Of course, launch weekends are generally for the hard core; generally the first couple of million consoles sold are the easiest. Time will tell how Sony’s console does as its purchasing demographic shifts.
Read More | Gamasutra
Gallery: Playstation 3 Sells 165K in UK
The Ready At Dawn game studio had already made a name for itself with the impressive Daxter release on the PSP when rumors started swirling that the studio would be tasked to develop the portable version of the God of War franchise. Eventually, the rumors proved true, and now Gamasutra has interviewed Didier Malenfant about the company. Malenfant and Gamasutra discuss the ins-and-outs of the PSP platform (Ready at Dawn finds the 222 mhz default CPU speed most limiting), original vs licensed IP, and the Daxter and God of War engines. Gamasutra also covered the recent phenomenon of reverse ports going from the PSP to the PS2; Ready At Dawn left open the possibility of seeing Daxter hitting the PS2.
Read More | Gamasutra
Gallery: Ready At Dawn Talks PSP, Daxter, God of War
“Understanding Games” Blows Our Minds
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Culture, Internet, Music, Strategy,
Those have you that read Scott McCloud’s tome Understanding Comics should know exactly what to expect from Understanding Games. Like Understanding Comics, Games teaches readers about videogames as a form of media, using the media itself to spread the message. Much like Understanding Comics used the power of comics to explain the rules, history, and theories behind comics, Understanding Games is a web-based flash animation / game that uses gaming to teach you about game design, game theory, and user expectations. And like any good videogame, it teaches you the rules as you “play” it, demonstrating that whoever the soon-to-be-famous creator is, they have a firm handle on how to make a great game… oh yeah, and the music is pretty great too.
Click below for Episodes 1, 2, and 3 in Understanding Games. We can only hope this tome continues to grow more over time!
Read More 
| Episode 1
Read More | Episode 2
Read More | Episode 3
Gallery: “Understanding Games” Blows Our Minds
New Line Grabs Gears Of War Movie Rights
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Xbox 360,
Variety today announced that New Line studios won an auction for the feature rights to Microsoft’s Gears of War. The auction included a treatment by writer Stuart Beattie, who previously wrote Collateral and Derailed and has a writing credit for the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. A rights purchase is pretty far from a done deal for a movie in Hollywood terms, so this may or may not hit the theaters any time soon, and Gears, while involving, didn’t really have a strong story. Its still early, but it doesn’t look like this will be the movie that transcends the video game to film stigma.
Read More | Variety
Gallery: New Line Grabs Gears Of War Movie Rights
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