All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

#valve The recently launched "Mann-conomy" for Team Fortress 2 has quickly become a profitable venture for the community modelers who cranked out new weapons, hats and accessories for Valve's game. Valve just sent out royalty check to creators... and they're big. More »

We track the ascent of one of today's biggest and most important developers.

We track the ascent of one of today's biggest and most important developers.

The listing doesn’t actually say that this is the 25th Anniversary Edition, but what else could it be? A Virtual Console release with all this 25th Anniversary stuff going on wouldn’t make too much sense.

And your mother told you video games were a waste of time! Valve has announced that user-created items in the new Team Fortress 2 Mann Co. Store have brought in positively massive royalties for five contest-winning Steam community members. The five community members included in the initial run of the Mann Co. Store -- Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm -- all received royalties ranging from $39,000 to $47,000 after the first two weeks of sales.

Payments were arranged to be deposited directly into each users PayPal account, but their account limits were exceeded "within days." Though Valve worked out other payment methods for three of the creators, two of them personally flew to Seattle to pick up their checks directly from Valve.

The company points to the success of Mann Co. Store as an example of what can be achieved with its new peer-to-peer marketplace, which can be implemented in any Steam game. Said company head Gabe Newell, "Platforms that enable this kind of peer-to-peer exchange of virtual goods and services are going to be enthusiastically received." You can say that again.

In other news, we are -- all of us -- in the wrong line of work.

During GDC Online, Blizzard's Battle.net project director Greg Canessa presented a "postmortem" for the latest version of the service, which enables online play and discussion for Blizzard's titles, most recently StarCraft 2. Speaking to Joystiq before the talk, Canessa was happy to discuss the recent past of the service with us, and talk a bit about the future.

Battle.net is in use by all 12 million World of Warcraft players, three-plus million StarCraft 2 players, and other users, but it recently came to the attention of an even larger audience when controversy arose over Blizzard's decision to implement Real ID, requiring users to identify themselves by their real names on Battle.net. Forum users did not respond kindly to the sudden and mandatory attachment of their real names to their comments, flames and LOLcats, and that part of the plan was cut, with Real ID still being implemented in non-forum features.

"The vision behind Real ID," Canessa said, "was to maintain parallel levels of identity: we have that sort of anonymous character level of identity, and then that Real ID tier that spans games, and there are incremental features that you get for being part of the Real ID community. The vision for that spanned games, got into cross-game chat and so forth. In reality, the in-game social suite was very popular, the cross-game chat that we did, the stuff within StarCraft 2.

We track the ascent of one of today's biggest and most important developers.

#salesget Pokemon Black and Pokemon White continue to be super effective at maintaining a stranglehold on Japan's software sales charts, easily moving past 4 million copies sold overseas and handily defeating Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Wii. More »

Etrian Odyssey 3 (Japan) - 140k (130k expected) SMT Strange Journey (Japan) - 150k (150k expected)

Top Row Anbu Kakashi, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Asuma, Sakura, Naruto, Sai, Yamato, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Hurenai Second Row Kabuto, Anko, Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Sasuke, RANDOM CHARACTER BOX, Itachi, Kakuzu, Hidan, Deidara, Sasori, Hiruko Third Row Yugao, Tenten, Neji, Lee, Guy, Kakashi, Killer Bee, Kisame, Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, Chiyo, Baki Fourth Row Minato, Sage Naruto, Raikage Check out a video of Sasuke and Itachi [...]

We like our ModNation tracks short and sweet, but we're sure you'll have your own ideas for next week's "Stunt Pack" DLC -- free for two weeks. The pack's complete contents, including all the parts we didn't use, are posted after the break.

#nbajam Well, that's what we get for trusting a retailer listing. GameStop said NBA Jam on the Xbox 360 and PS3 was due Nov. 16; today, EA Sports' formal announcement says the game hits shelves Nov. 17 - a Wednesday. More »

What surprises will be in store at this year's show?

Does THQ's latest reek of awesomeness?

During a visit to the Today Show, Tony Hawk advised risk-taking dream-seekers to "stay true to what you love doing, because you'll make it -- and it'll be great." Behind him, wobbling atop the Shred board, Al Roker realized that he had in fact veered dangerously off course from his chosen path.

#podcast We invite you to listen to the newest episode of Kotaku Talk Radio right here, or download the one-hour show to your favorite MP3 player. This is an experimental episode. More »

Man, Nintendo got on that email fast. They announce the bundles earlier today and now they have promo emails! Thanks to Pellican for the heads up.

#crime A man has reportedly set fire to and barricaded himself within a Roseville, California GameStop location, claiming to have possession of a gun in a stand-off with local police. The Westfield Galleria at Roseville has been evacuated. More »

Digital distributor GOG recently acquired yet another classic title, capable of devouring entire portions of your day wholesale for meager sums of money: Triumph Studios' turn-based strategy sequel Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne. For those not in the know, the game sees you building a kingdom and exploring ancient, dangerous lands -- only this time around, you're not a disembodied, floating hand, but a wizard. Based on the title, we're assuming a seated wizard.

The game, which was originally released in 2002, comes packed with some desktop wallpapers and an official soundtrack -- a tidy little bundle that's available now for $9.99.

Our editors discuss how Ninja Theory's follow-up to Heavenly Sword measures up.

Fresh new shots from the 10 minute gameplay demo.

#gameface Randy Couture (left) and Fedor Emelianenko (right), cover stars of EA Sports MMA, have never fought in real life. They battled in-game at a launch event Tuesday, with the big Russian taking bragging rights. [Image via EA Sports] More »

The title “Heroes on the Move” has always been a working title for our upcoming Spring 2011 PlayStation Move crossover game. When we debuted the game at E3 this summer, the game was still in its infancy and we couldn’t wait to show you a sneak peek. Since then, we’ve been unveiling bits and pieces of the game at Gamescom, PAX Prime, Tokyo Game Show, and most recently at New York Comic Con where we unveiled the title’s new official name, PlayStation Move Heroes. Same great cast of characters, same great PlayStation Move action, just a new official name.

Our developers, Nihilistic Software, also joined us at our NY Comic Con event to demo some of the new gameplay we’ve been working on. Check out the video above as Robert Huebner, Studio Director for Nihilistic Software, and Andrew Woodworth, Producer for SCEA, play through a new mission and discuss how they’re leveraging the accuracy and precision of the PlayStation Move to develop PlayStation Move Heroes.

Keep your eyes on the PlayStation.Blog as we update you with additional info on the story, co-op mode, and a sweet pre-order deal!

#impressions To video games, Cabela's means The Gun, the pump-action piece of plastic with which you mow down herds of deer and squadrons of waterfowl. Yet it's never appeared for any Cabela's game on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Until now. More »

Index Holdings, parent company of Atlus, has released its financial results (PDF) for its fiscal 2010, which ended August 31. Things are looking rosy for Atlus USA, thanks largely to the dark and depressing Demon's Souls, which the company points to as a major factor in raising profits. Index Holdings reported that Atlus USA made ¥3.299 billion ($40.7 million) in sales for the year, up from ¥2.732 billion ($33.6 million) in 2009. More importantly, the company posted an operating income of ¥407 million ($5 million), which compares very favorably to last year's loss of ¥104 million ($1.2 million).

Hey Atlus, how about we celebrate by shifting Demon's Souls to white tendency for a little while? Please?

A Netflix app that will allow movie streaming on Nintendo's Wii, without the need for a pesky disc, is available now on the Wii Shop Channel. The Netflix channel is free and streaming comes at no extra charge as part of most Netflix rental plans.

Today also marks the launch of the PS3's Netflix app, which supports 1080p HD output, 5.1-channel surround sound, subtitles and alternative audio tracks. Finally, Xbox 360 owners should receive an update to their Netflix app with the fall update. Isn't it nice to put aside those fanboy squabbles for a change, knowing that everyone can watch hours of television on their video game systems without even touching a disc?