When you have one of the year's most anticipated games, you'll also have people who want to get their hands on it as soon as possible -- at any price or, in some cases, any risk. Such was the case with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year, and it's happening this year with Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is already making the rounds in bootlegged form.
Contrary to its approach to Modern Warfare 2's piracy, which was to seek arrests for anyone found selling illegal copies of the game, Activision is simply asking Black Ops pirates to cut it out, and quite politely it seems. VentureBeat has posted the story of one bootleg buyer who has uploaded a series of videos detailing being tracked down by the publisher's private investigators, IP Cybercrime, on YouTube. According to the article, rather than report individuals such as him to the police, IP the firm is requesting that they "stop selling and to tell them where they got their wares," adding that "Most of the pirates were scared, surrendered their game copies and cooperated."
That's not to say the investigators aren't willing to employ more serious methods in dealing with people who don't give in to the "good cop" approach. "One young pirate was being a 'wise ass' and adamantly refused to cooperate," VentureBeat reported. "So the investigators called his mother."
#clips
Sega is on a Dreamcast revival kick, re-releasing some of the console's greatest games, like Crazy Taxi and Space Channel 5, for current generation consoles. It also has this, a port of Chu Chu Rocket in the works for iPhone. More »
#blizzcon
Aiur Chef? Left 2 Die? StarJeweled? Blizzard DOTA? What's going on with the four new official game modes coming to StarCraft 2? These four visual guides will give you the skinny. More »
#clips
Not that I'm an expert in law enforcement policy, but Crecente and I are former cops reporters, and if the po-po PITted a McLaren MP4-12C going more than 100 mph in oncoming traffic, there'd be some badges on some desks. More »
#sports
Make stalking professional athletes a little more fun with Venus Williams' newest downloadable casual game, Venus: The Case of the Grand Slam Queen, which covers all aspects of stardom, from being "hounded" by creeps to fantastic fashion shows! More »
2K Games' Melissa Miller has been working in the games industry for nearly 10 years. In that time, she's helped ship both BioShock titles and a handful of licensed fare (Family Guy: The Game, among others). She even briefly worked on Borderlands.
Currently, she's a senior producer on Duke Nukem Forever -- a game laden with puerile boy jokes. At a recent press event, we asked Miller what it's like to be a woman working on a title that so blatantly relies on juvenile, sexist humor to engage players. She was quick to answer: "I think it's interesting, because I've definitely watched through the years: There's this attention to women in games, and I always got the sense that people felt like there should be something tangible that says, 'This is what we get (in a good way) when women are involved in games and part of making them.' And it almost seems like they were waiting for us to say, 'There are more unicorns and rainbows in games!'
"And I really feel very strongly that, despite gender, all you're bringing to the game is you; you're bringing your personality and your experience, and the things that are important to you -- that you would push for and so forth. I definitely, with Duke especially -- guess what? I'm not always gonna find the same things funny as other people, and I appreciate that. For me, I just wanna help these guys make the best game possible and do what I can."Three-breasted aliens and first-person-fellating be damned, Miller clearly wants Duke fans to love the game as much as she does -- and even to laugh. Miller's own take on the humor? "I think it's funny!"
Both Amanita Design and Minority Records have been receiving requests from Machinarium game owners longing for the vinyl version of the 14 song soundtrack that has already been out-of-print since the end of May. In between May and October, Machinarium game has been nominated for the Milthon European Games Awards, Develop Awards and most importantly [...]
During an interview with Joystiq at a Kinect pre-launch event in San Francisco, Microsoft Games Studios veep Phil Spencer told us that early retail indication for Kinect is showing strong interest in the new platform. "Pre-order numbers are good," he said. "The retail channel seems to be excited for what we're doing. We feel good about our supply that we can build. I imagine we're going to have to work hard to fill out the demand that's out there, is kind of our sense, but we're willing to work hard so that's fine."
It's good to hear Microsoft is willing to put the work in, since Ubisoft's VP of sales and marketing, Tony Key, thinks the device will be "sold out" at launch. You can look forward to our full interview with Spencer on Monday, which discusses everything from the upcoming Kinect launch to Xbox 360 S dominance in North America over the past four months, and even the PlayStation Move.
Let's dispense with formality, shall we? You want to watch the Demon Hunter trailer for Diable 3, and we want to help facilitate that desire. So here it is. Watch it. If you feel like it, watch it again. We won't mind. Just don't watch it with any demons in the room. It could get ... uncomfortable.
#piracy
On YouTube, in four parts, there is the tale of a man with military training and a $250 outlay spent on an illicit, leaked copy of Cal of Duty: Black Ops. He got busted by the piracy police and confesses. More »
Blizzard is building specialized environments into Diablo 3 just for the beating-to-death of your friends. During its BlizzCon keynote, the publisher revealed player-vs.-player battle arenas, which will be placed throughout Sanctuary. Unlike a lot of the content in Diablo 3, this won't be randomly distributed: "they're all unique, designed with differing amounts of terrain and cover."
Ranked battles will take place between two teams, with points awarded that translate to achievements and other bonuses. Other matchups, like one-on-one and self-assigned team combat, will take place out of the official ranking system. Oh, no, we just realized that Diablo 3 is a sport now.
Wow, this is the first time that a Nintendo of Europe site makeover has given me goosebumps. Hit the link below to see how the site has been transformed into a newspaper displaying Layton’s latest adventure. The paper spin-in combined with the fantastic Layton music is oh-so good.
Site here (thank ibbsters!)
The big, sweeping changes outlined in last week's Civilization 5 patch announcement were implemented earlier today. If a few unsightly code blemishes were standing between you and total multinational ascendancy, you should look into grabbing the patch. Check out the changes below!
uh oh they're calling mothers guys