You can’t throw around $300 million dollar bonuses without someone noticing. Tuesday, alleging that the creators of popular music game Rock Band had shipped defective drum pedals in a scheme “designed to deliberately cheat large numbers of consumers out of individually small sums of money,” lawyers for Kansas resident Monte Morgan slapped all four — Harmonix, [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, November 19, 2008
When GameTap discovered in early February that Electronic Arts had a secret division — codename Blueprint — designed to produce games leveraging the power of social networking havens like Facebook, we were interested. Weeks later, when Variety uncovered that the division housed the same development team reporting to Steven Spielberg, we were intrigued. Ditto for [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 18, 2008
When perusing news and reviews of Mirror’s Edge, one very often sees the phrase “Leap of Faith” invoked. It’s an easy joke to make, of course: The game’s protagonist is the slender, athletic Faith, and as the star of EA’s new parkour-based rooftop romp, she frequently is called upon to make improbable jumps — hence [...]
Continue reading...Friday, November 14, 2008
At the EA Studio Showcase in mid-August, DICE producer Ben Cousins presented a chart to attending press that depicted the full release schedule for Battlefield Heroes as a series of concentric circles. Starting with a close-knit closed beta, Cousins explained that EA’s first Free-2-Play shooter was currently expanding to include friends, family and journalists like [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, November 13, 2008
Though more than one CEO has cited an October retail slowdown in recent investor conference calls, such a slowdown happily does not seem to have afflicted the U.S. video game industry sales as a whole. Today, the NPD reports that game industry sales actually increased 18% year-over-year to $1.31 billion. The biggest winner, as usual, was [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, November 13, 2008
Twinkle twinkle little star… The airtight door seals behind you with the trademark whoosh of electric hinges, and you steal a glance left and right as quick as you can, your heartbeat audibly quickening. To your right, a dead end. Immediately, on instinct you press up against the wall. Walls are good. Walls are safe. Walls [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Update: Why EA would promise both PS3 and Xbox 360 owners fresh DLC, when everybody knows that Mirror’s Edge PS3 is getting the exclusive? We asked our friendly neighborhood EA representative. “It’s downloadable content for both platforms,” a spokesperson told GameCyte. While PS3 might well have some token exclusive DLC (just look at how EA is [...]
Continue reading...Monday, November 10, 2008
In my eyes, Dead Space is a superb survival horror game — and that’s thanks, in part, to its collection of exotic mining tools turned deadly weaponry. There’s just something about wielding a high-powered mining laser as an improvised pistol that adds tremendously to the immersive joy of the experience. Unfortunately, Dead Space kills a lot [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Following a reported $310 million dollar loss and the adoption of a “cost reduction plan” that laid off nearly 600 employees, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello told investors Thursday that while caution would be prudent in the short-term, he was bullish about EA over the long haul. “We’re not saying the sky is falling,” said Riccitiello. [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Since our last fateful glimpse at the Hellgate: London forums, Namco Bandai’s Diane “Tiggs” Migliaccio has made the message even clearer for those who stop on by via the creation of an official Hellgate: London Closing FAQ. Within, she asserts that: Hanbitsoft has the IP rights for Hellgate: London and has the rights to operate Hellgate: [...]
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Thursday, November 20, 2008
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