All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Pack your bags -- we're going back to Empire Bay.

PopCap Games and Taito announced a partnership this morning that would oversee the launch of a new "dedicated mobile social game service" in Japan. The service is named, appropriately enough, Pop Tower. The service will add an "all-new metagame with RPG elements" to several of PopCap's titles (Bejeweled, Chuzzle, and Zuma were all named), unifying multiple PopCap properties under one persistent leveling system.

Beyond unnamed new modes being added and the RPG metagame, additional "social elements" will give players the opportunity to communicate with friends. As we've come to expect with most games moved from the Western market to the East, microtransactions will play a major role in the monetization of Pop Tower's titles, allowing for the purchase of "in-game virtual goods and premium service options." And hey, if that means we can play as Björn the Unicorn across multiple PopCap titles and persistently level him up, consider us sold.

#facebook Rare has built and launched a Kinect Sports application for Facebook, which will keep track of players' league results, allow them to issue invitations and be invited to others, and collect video highlights in a single place. More »

The world tour starts in your hands.

Take-Two Interactive's first "social network game," Civilization Network, will arrive on Facebook in 2011. The release window was confirmed by Take-Two's soon-to-be CEO (currently the company's Executive Chairman) Strauss Zelnick during today's BMO Capital Markets digital conference.

As for a glimpse of what Civ addicts are in for, Zelnick stated that we should see the product "relatively soon." Civilization Network's production has been quiet for quite some time, with no update to the game's Facebook page -- you know, the platform the thing is going to be on -- since May. When we contacted 2K Games about a status update last month, we were told the game was still in development and that there would be "more details to come in the future." So, apparently, the future is kinda now.

Nothing better to grab your gaming attention than a bright-red endcap featuring the brand-new Red Wiis. They’re just so pretty to look at, aren’t they?! Thanks to Lord Timotheous for the heads up!

During today's presentations at the 18th Annual BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment Conference, GameStop head chairman Dan DeMatteo (alongside CEO Paul Raines, CFO Robert Lloyd, and investor relations director Matt Hodges) spoke to the future of the top video game retailer in North America. After detailing cannibalistic markets (terrifying!) and market share (isn't business about taking, not sharing?) for 25 minutes, the crew finally got to the Q & A session, where one audience member stood up and asked DeMatteo to clarify GameStop's DLC distribution agreements with Microsoft and Sony.

"I won't get into the details of the agreements, but obviously we get paid for selling the digital content. We get paid less than what we would get paid for a typical new game [retail game], because we don't have inventory carrying costs, shipping costs, etc. But needless to say, we believe it will bring operating margins similar to new games," he responded, indicating a perhaps unsurprising low return on in-store DLC sales. Still, DeMatteo sees good reason for continued sales of digital content.

"We see it as additive. It's additive for us. It's additive for Sony, for Microsoft, and it's additive to the publisher. The amount of add-on content now being developed for the big games is just phenomenal. You got a new level coming out for Halo: Reach in December, we have new Call of Duty map packs coming after launch, etc. We look at our ability to sell that to the original consumer -- given that we know who bought the original copy -- to be extremely strong," he explained, referring to his company's ability to track individual customer's purchases via the Power Up Rewards card. And in the coming years, GameStop intends on becoming a much larger player in the digital realm. We expect to have market share of DLC much like we have market share of boxed product," he assured attendees.

#review For ten bucks more than the cost of a Wii Remote Plus you can pick up the new Nintendo controller with a copy of FlingSmash, Artoon's paddle-ball platformer. Is it worth it? Let's see. More »

Shoot for the moon but fall a bit short in this rocket-propelled freebie.

#clips This is how you bring down the Megacopter in Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 - hang on its undercarriage, blast away at the engines and then - jump on a plunger so it shits out a clown car? More »

#thq Wii hit de Blob is going 2D, HD and stereoscopic 3D when the globose, paint-drenched hero makes his way to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next year. THQ's Blob also has a few new tricks, including one that made 3D Metroid games more fun. More »

#teammeat Minecraft guy and Captain Viridian of VVVVVV are known to be two of three playable characters exclusive to Super Meat Boy's upcoming PC version. Team Meat teased the third today; looks like the guest star's game name rhymes with Shmachinarium. More »

This Japanese ad for Call of Duty: Black Ops, featuring Ravex and Namie Amuro's "Rock U", might seem to prove that J-pop and the military don't mix. But, then, the Japanese Coast Guard provides a pretty convincing argument to the contrary. See the ad after the break.

We're giving away two awesome games and talking Black Ops.

Josh Howard spoke at the IGDA Leadership Forum last week, specifically about how to keep a team motivated throughout the dev cycle. However, on the minds of almost everyone attending was the closure of Realtime Worlds and APB: All Points Bulletin -- which has since apparently been purchased -- a game that the introduction to Howard's speech called an "ambitious" title.

"Ambitious is a polite way of putting it," said Howard, who served as executive producer on the ill-fated MMO. "If something fails, it's ambitious. If something succeeds, it's just a big hit." But, as he strayed away from APB: All Points Bulletin and got to the meat and potatoes of his chat -- a discussion on leadership solutions for development managers -- Howard did eventually come back to the MMO to talk a bit about how he felt the morale of the team was negatively affected over the course of development.

#capcom With ten installments of the main Mega Man series and several spinoffs, it's hard to tell one evil Robot Master from the next. That's where Udon's Mega Man Robot Master Field Guide comes in. More »

The official site for de Blob 2 has opened up, and it’s got a fair share of content. We’ve actually already posted up the screens and trailer, but now you can get some info on the story as well. The site also links into the official Facebook page for de Blob 2, which [...]

This game will turn you into an atheist.

Toronto, ON – Nov 11, 2010 – MEGA MAN is beloved the world over as one of the most recognizable icons of gaming. However, it’s not just the blue bomber himself that fans love, but also the seemingly endless stream of evil robot bosses who try to stop Mega Man from foiling Dr. Wily’s [...]

#comics Maybe the assassins are the bad guys? More »

THQ president Brian Farrell has some bold ideas about the future of the gaming industry's profitability. While speaking at the recent BMO Capital Markets Conference, Farrell explained, "What we're thinking about the business is we're turning it on its head a little bit," later adding, "It's not, 'how high a price can we get', but 'how many users.'" Farrell then described THQ's vision for capitalizing on that policy: As revealed in September, THQ hopes to launch the next entry into the MX vs. ATV series at a lower price point, and rely on DLC to bring in the big bucks.

"When we launched [MX vs. ATV] at $59.99, we'd do some units, and then when we brought the price down to the mass market-friendly price of $39.99, it would just pop," he explained to the conference's attendees. "So the thinking this time is, let's initially launch at $39.99 ... It's a AAA title, at that price point, but then with a series of DLC so people can extend their experience." The company's strategy makes a lot more sense, now. See, before, we just thought they were dropping the MSRP because they wanted to do a nice thing for us.