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Capcom Profits Up Over 400%
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo DS, PSP, Xbox 360,
Gamasutra reports Capcom’s good news - the publisher’s profits have quadrupled as Resident Evil 4 sells three million copies.
The company also suggested that the release of the Xbox 360 and success of the PSP and Nintendo DS had helped to drive year end sales – in marked contrast to the comments from many other Western publishers. The company also emphasized an increased focus on mobile phone games and merchandise, toys and publications in the future.
Oddly enough, Capcom attributes part of its success to Xbox 360’s release, which differs from how other publishers have looked upon the somewhat limited 360 release. Additionally, profits are up thanks to DS and PSP game sales.
Read More 
| Gamasutra
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Evil Avatar has shares details of a Full Auto Review.
Now here is a game that’s likely to split reviewers down the middle. Full Auto doesn’t quite feel finished, there are problems with using custom soundtracks and the Xbox Live hosting screen is very hard to read on standard definition televisions. Yet despite these problems there’s a really fun game that combines elements of Burnout and SpyHunter here.
I mostly agree with the above comments from my impressions of the demo. While I recognized I played just a demo and not the final game, I came away with mixed feelings. The game didn’t seem polished or really ready for release, but its concept was pretty cool. Hit the link below to then make the jump to the review. The game was given a 7 out of 10.
Read More | Evil Avatar
Xbox News reports that a DOA4 patch should be coming out this Februrary.
[The patch] would correct some of the data save problems and smooth out some of the balance between characters.
We’re glad developers are able to get patches out their to fix their games but is this becoming a problem? Similarly, Activision recently released a problematic COD2 - that locks up at times and has issues with multi-player. Are developers becoming too reliant on being able to patch games as they have in the PC market? Would they be more willing now to ship a glitch-filled product than before?
Read More | Xbox-News
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According to Major Nelson’s blog, the following is a list of the top ten most popular games played on Xbox Live last week.
1) Halo 2
2) Call of Duty 2
3) Perfect Dark Zero
4) Dead or Alive 4
5) PGR3
6) Need for Speed Most Wanted
7) Battlefield 2: MC
8) Madden NFL 06
9) Full Auto Demo
10) Madden NFL 2006
Firstly, is anyone surprised to see Halo 2 on top? With no real strong competition, it’s not much of a shocker. However, it’s good to see the newer Xbox 360 titles covering a good reminder of the list. I’m a bit surprised to see the Full Auto demo up there, but then again, the demo’s free and gamers are looking for more content. Unfortunately though, the Full Auto demo isn’t very hot and early word says the full version of the game is lacking.
Read More | Major Nelson
360 Game Football Manager 2006 Requires Hard Drive to Play
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Sports, Xbox 360,
An upcoming SEGA title, Football Manager 2006, will require the 360 HDD to play. If you take a look at the link, you’ll notice that the game is actually European football - soccer to those of us stateside. So while it looks like the title isn’t official for the U.S. market, I’d still expect it to come out here. At any rate, the HDD-required goes against what Microsoft previously said when the company announced it’s dual SKU strategy. If you can recall, Microsoft explicitly said that you wouldn’t need a hard drive to play any games. Whoops.
Read More | GamersReports
Sega Dreamcast Games on Xbox Live Arcade?
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Retro, Rumors, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
According to a Microsoft insider, you can expect to see upwards of 50 Dreamcast games show up on XBLA within the next couple years. The insider also suggests that a group of games will be released at a time and will retail for $10 each.
While this is just a rumor, we’re buying it. It makes a lot of sense, and we could definitely picture Microsoft and SEGA working something out. Now we’re just waiting for Crazy Taxi…
Read More | Xbox 360 News
Crystal Quest Hits Xbox Live Marketplace
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Strategy, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
For those of you who wait with baited breath for new games to spend your Microsoft Points on, Crystal Quest has just been released on the Xbox Live Arcade. This was a game originally played on the Mac, but that was many moons ago. The pleasure of downloading Crystal Quest will cost you 400 points.
Read More | Major Nelson
EuroGamer has posted an interview with the creator of Geometry Wars, Stephen Cakebread. If you’ve been hooked on the $5 Xbox Live Arcade title, you may just have to check out the interview.
Interestingly enough, Cakebread’s high score is 2.1 million - which certainly isn’t the highest worldwide. The current high is actually 12.8 million, which makes Cakebread’s score seem pretty small. 2.1 million isn’t easy to obtain by any means - I finally purchased the game last weekend and am working towards passing 500,000. The article does a good job of talking about why so many people have become insanely addicted to the game.
But why is Retro Evolved popular? What’s so special about it? Many games do the things it does. Perhaps the difference is that it appeals on a number of levels. One person who thinks so is Leo Tan of PR firm Barrington Harvey, who despite having no association with Microsoft or Bizarre Creations is well known in trade circles for going around telling everyone how great Geometry Wars is, and how he’s got the “UK games industry high score” of 970,360. The interesting thing is that he doesn’t play it just to lord it over us. “I love the sound, the insanity, the borderline nature of trying to stay alive. It’s an assault on the senses. Turn the volume up, the lights down and get an excessive amount of caffeine and chocolate by your side,” he says, soundbiting us a little in the process.
If you don’t have an Xbox 360, you absolutely need to take Geometry Wars for a spin if you haven’t yet. It’s absolute bliss.
Read More | Eurogamer
360 Burnout Revenge Coming March 7th
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Driving, Release Dates, Xbox 360,
Gamespot reports that EA’s 360 version of Burnout Revenge will be released in just a little over a month. We already know the game looks hot but we’re honestly a little skeptical about how the overall game will turn out - after all, gameplay still matters in the next-gen!
In the meantime, we’re hoping EA releases a demo of the game on Xbox Live.
Read More | Gamespot
The Evolution of Controllers
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Retro, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Revolution Advanced has put together an extremely comprehensive feature on the history - or rather evolution - of video game controllers. The article spans from the Atari 2600 controller all the way to the Nintendo Revolution remote control. It’s almost hard to believe how far controllers have come since the industry’s inception - but then again, technology has really advanced over the years. On second though, the controller featured at the bottom of the list, the Revolution controller, is arguably one of the simplest controllers ever made. Thoughts?
Read More | Revolution Advanced
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