We already knew Heavy Rain was an immediate success in the UK and a moderate hit in Japan. But with the game's quick disappearance from the NPD's monthly top ten in the U.S., we've been wondering whether the game's sales on this side of the ocean (which NPD pegs at just over 400,000 units so far) have lived up to expectations.
Well, "lived up to expectations" might be a bit of an understatement. At a GDC Europe talk this week, Quantic Dream CEO David Cage said Heavy Rain ended up selling "four times as many copies" as publisher Sony expected. "They were shocked. 'Oh my god, what happens?'" Cage said in his charmingly stilted English.
These unexpected sales presented a bit of a problem, Cage said, because the marketing spend for the game was based on the lowball expectation, not the surprisingly strong actual sales numbers. Still, Cage said Sony did a great job pushing the game in the States, especially considering the game's unorthodox concept and lack of a big franchise name, which led to some reluctance from distribution channels.
Cage said Heavy Rain has already sold 1.5 million copies (up from one million in April) worldwide and the game is on track to sell two million units by the first anniversary of its February release.
Sure, Dead Nation looks like a fun game, but we're not sure of its value as a zombocalypse survival tutor. Look at all the explosives they use in the trailer below! Don't they know that's a sure-fire way to get zombie gore in your eyes, leading to instant infection? That's bush league, guys.
#gamescom
The featured instrument of Rock Band 3 at Gamescom in Germany will be the one being added to the franchise, the keyboard. MTV Games let Kotaku try the keyboard in New York. It was mostly a good experience. More »
Dance Central is fun! But you already knew that, having read our extensive preview of Harmonix's Kinect launch game. What you may not have known is that it's hella fun once you add someone to compete against.
Dance Central's Battle Mode was easily the highlight of the many features showcased during a recent Harmonix preview event. In this mode, two players switch off during a song, and each attempts to best the other's score. The song routine is broken up into parts, and players are scored based on how closely they can mimic the on-screen moves.
Beyond a traditional points-based HUD, Harmonix has cleverly designed sound and environmental cues that indicate how your performance is going. If you're not quite hitting the moves, then the bass will start to drop out of the audio track and the game image will become washed out. However, nail a string of moves to earn a multiplier, and the bass will grow louder and eventually the entire stage will transform. In the demo we saw, the environment turned black as a laser show and stage lights kicked in. When you're doing well, you'll know it.
Dance Central has the high level of polish we expect from a Harmonix game and is shaping up to be the closest thing to Kinect's "killer app" at launch. Of course, what's a dance game without good music? Take a peek at the newly announced songs after the break.
#cave
Cave, the Tokyo-based developer behind oodles of shooting games, is bringing not one, but three shmups to the Xbox 360. That should keep you busy! More »
#europe
Kinect, the Xbox 360's motion-sensing camera controller, will be out in the US on November 5. But what about Europe? Europe, you won't have long to wait. More »
Americans anxious to get down to the business of paying money for a game should know that Bethesda has announced pre-order incentives for its upcoming Unreal Engine 3-powered fantasy RPG, Hunted: The Demon's Forge. Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Steam, Direct2Drive and GameStop will all offer specific bonus content, so head on past the break to get it all straight. (Why does buying a game have to be like this?)
Australia may get the press for censoring games, but Germany's been doing it for a while and it's a relatively common practice required to release most violent games in the country. At GDC Europe, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK), gave a very detailed explanation on how the organization goes about rating (and banning) games.
As the rules are government-enforced under criteria determined by the BPjM (German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons), any game that is judged by a panel to have extremely gross depiction of violence against human-life enemies, "autotelic" violence, complete lack of non-violent gameplay elements, unsanctioned killing or serious injury of innocent bystanders or children automatically gets the non-rating banhammer.
The USK representatives themselves clearly recognized the system isn't perfect, but noted that they have to follow the government rules; therefore, before ponying up the couple thousand Euro submission fee, many publishers preemptively provide an edited version of their games to the board. To check out the list of edited games yourself, go to USK.de, click on the last option in "Alterskennzeichen" and type "dt. version" under Titel.
#rumor
New Lucasarts president Paul Meegan certainly isn't wasting any time. Barely two months into the job and we hear he's already swinging the axe and cancelling high profile sequels. More »
Kinect will be ready to interface with European, African and Middle East body controllers on November 10. Microsoft announced the release date this morning in preparation for GamesCom, which kicks off tomorrow in Cologne, Germany. The Xbox 360 device will debut with "more than 15 exclusive Kinect titles," with Kinect Adventures bundled with the sensor for 150 Euros.
The launch games appear to be the same ones already announced for North America, where Kinect will launch on November 4.
#saintsrow3
Earlier this month, Saints Row 3 writer Steve Jaros contacted Kotaku about a Saints Row 3 auction for a good cause. And US$1,700 later, a winner has been decided. More »
Once again, the number of institutions offering gaming industry-centric courses has seen a significant year-over-year increase. According to a study from the Entertainment Software Association, game design, art and programming courses will be taught in 300 of America's colleges, universities and trade schools during this academic year.
Unsurprisingly, California plays host to a majority of these institutions with 40 in-state schools offering game programs, with New York and Texas trailing behind with 26 and 21 schools, respectively. We guess that's why most games take place in cities like Los Angeles, New York City and Fort Worth. (Wait, you've never played a video game set in Fort Worth? Dude, you need to get with the program.)
#halo
Microsoft has released a new trailer for Halo: Reach today, and it's continuing the franchise's recent tradition of eschewing pre-rendered cinematics in favour of real men being shot by real cameras. More »
#pc
Those of you still owning joysticks and jackets with elbow patches on them, today is your lucky day, because Microsoft just brought the Flight Simulator series back from the dead. More »
#gallery
Comiket, the twice a year comic book expo, was held over the weekend in Japan. Comic Market isn't only about comics. It's also about cosplay! More »
Toy Story 3 sales may be down 17 percent in the UK, but it still had enough buzz to remain atop the All Formats chart for another week. Red Dead Redemption rode hard and moved up three spots to second, while Dance on Broadway commanded the stage at third. Lego Harry Potter used "wingardium leviosa" to float up four spots and Art Academy used dark arts (and some heavy promotion, according to Chart-Track) to move up 23 spots to fifth.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 dropped to eighth, preventing it from overtaking Dr Kawashima (aka Brain Age) as the UK's "biggest unit seller" ever in the region -- oh well, there's always next week. Finally, the big premiere this week was Madden NFL 11, which took the ten spot. The American football title actually premiered at eighth in its previous iteration, but this time it was missing a Wii release.
