[GameRatty] tag: software

Spain, Germany - software sales

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:54:13 +0000

Spain

* 1. Wii Fit (Wii)
* 2. Beijing 2008: The Olympic Games (PS3)
* 3. Wii Play (Wii)
* 4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
* 5. Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)
* 6. Wall-E (DS)
* 7. Cooking Guide: Can’t Decide What to Eat? (DS)
* 8. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)
* 9. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (DS)
* 10. Buzz! Master Quiz (PSP)

Germany

* 1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
* 2. Wii Fit (Wii)
* 3. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (DS)
* 4. Mario Kart DS (DS)
* 5. Drakensang: The Dark Eye (PC)
* 6. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
* 7. Wii Play (Wii)
* 8. Dr Kawashima: More Brain Training (DS)
* 9. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)
* 10. Summer Athletics (Wii)

Link

Computer Games, Forever!

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:52:33 +0000

Do you think I am too enthusiastic sometimes? I do, I admit it, and I am not going to try to change that, as long as my heart will keep pumping. Why the title? Who’s threatening the computer games? EA’s approach to the digital future, as it became pretty clear in the online gaming research article we published last month. Now, it seems they are changing the direction…

…since now, the senior VP and general manager for European publishing in Europe at Electronic Arts, Dr Jens Uwe Intat, just told GamesIndustry.biz that we may still get those beautiful game packages for at least 20 more years. “On the specific question of where packaged goods will go - there are two factions, but I’m clearly in the camp that doesn’t think it’s going to go away before I retire. So that’s hopefully another 20 years or so…,” he said. Great, finally someone from EA who doesn’t want to kill the games as we know them and switch to digital distribution!<-180×150 Small Rectangle - right->

“The reason why I’m so convinced is that I’ve always been saying our software developers eat up storage space so much quicker than telcos can build distribution. You can always see technological quantum leaps in terms of digital distribution capacity, it’s all true, but if you see how those guys increase the size of games… it’s just unbelievable.”

He continued by saying that games will continue to grow in size as resolution and in-game worlds continue to grow, seeing this as the main reason for the need of a physical medium to distribute them. To be honest, that’s not what I wanted to hear, but it’s better than nothing. After all, the fact that packaged games won’t disappear makes me hope I’ll be able to grab some special editions in 2040, too, if everything goes well until then.

So…are you a fan of packaged games, or a digital distribution freak? Let us know what you think about this, because it’s a very interesting topic, in my opinion!

Flying Lab working on a flash-based kids MMO?

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Filed under: New titles, Casual, Rumors, Kids

Gamasutra, the well-known games industry news site, maintains a job service board on top of the numerous sites and services they offer. Job offerings, as you may be aware from previous posts to Massively, are often a good indication of what a company has up their sleeve - even if it hasn't officially been announced yet. Such is the case with a curious job posting from Flying Lab Software, the makers of the historical MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea.

According to the job post, Flying Lab is considering working on a Flash-based kids-oriented massively multiplayer game. The offering states: "Flying Lab Software is seeking an experienced Flash Game Developer to create casual Flash games for a children's MMO product (ages 8-12 yrs.)." It continues, "Flying Lab Software is currently expanding and supporting our recently released MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea, as well as working on several new MMO projects." We've put in a request for comment with the company, and we'll let you know as soon as we know more. The meat of the full listing is below the cut.

Continue reading Flying Lab working on a flash-based kids MMO?

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Nintendo Raises Forecasts on Wii, DS; Shares Surge

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:11:58 +0000

- full-year profit forecast by 26 percent (higher-than-expected sales of Wii, DS)
- Nintendo shares seeing biggest gain in nine months
- net income rises 59 percent to 410 billion yen ($3.8 billion)
- Nintendo set to overtake Sony as the world’s biggest game-maker, something that hasn’t happened in over 13 years
- Wii sales expected to rise 42 percent this year
- reversed projection that DS sales will drop
- Wii and DS sales doing very well in Europe
- nearly 80 percent of revenue is from overseas
- Wii sales expected to reach 26.5 million this year
- Wii software sales expected to increase 56 percent to 186 million units
- DS sales expected to reach 30.5 million this year
- DS software sales expected to increase 6.1 percent to 197 million units

Link

Walmart holds Green Gaming Summit - game devs should reduce power usage bycreating a way to save progress in games?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:44:53 +0000

Walmart wants the game industry to go as green as possible. I see that as a commendable goal. The issue is, it doesn’t look like Walmart is too familiar with the products they so readily promote. Check out one of their ideas for how the industry can reduce power usage.

Developing software and hardware that allows us to save the game so we do not have to leave it on would allow us to turn it off during a meal break or overnight without loosing our place. Additionally, come clever programming would allow the console to go into a lower power, standby mode when not in use.

Hmmm…something tells me that already exists. Perhaps I’ve been imagining game saves for the last…20 years or so.

Link

Gearbox President On Corrinne Yu Departure, Indicates Unannounced Project Isnt Halo 4

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:58:13 +0000

You can’t read the news lately without seeing Gearbox Software in the headlines.

From rumors of “Halo 4″ to the departure of the studio’s director of platform technology, Corrinne Yu, to Microsoft’s new team tasked with working the “Halo” brand, broken by Kotaku this morning.

MTV Multiplayer reached out to Gearbox president Randy Pitchford for his thoughts on Yu’s leaving, what that means for his company and how that relates to their ever-mysterious “big-ticket” (those are his words) new project.

Pitchford started teasing this “big-ticket” project back in February, saying that it’s “big” and he couldn’t “oversell this one.” Immediate speculation pointed to “Halo 4,” given Bungie’s newfound independence. Yu’s move to Microsoft only fueled the rumors.

“We are really excited about Corrinne joining Microsoft!” said Pitchford in an e-mail earlier today. “I expect her to bring a lot of passion and inventiveness on that side. I think there is a lot of value for everyone for this transition.”

“Meanwhile,” he continued, “Gearbox is really excited about the changes we’ve made to our Platform department in-line with finishing “Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway” in order for our platform engineers to support the multi-platform launches of “Aliens: Colonial Marines,” “Borderlands” and an un-announced big-ticket game.”

Pitchford dropped a number of hints about this “big-ticket” game to me. In the same e-mail, he described the very same project as:

* “an unannounced but unbelievable project in development”
* “the big unannounced shooter“

So, we now know Gearbox’s hidden project is a shooter — shock! — but Pitchford also implies it’s a multi-platform project. That doesn’t sound like “Halo 4″ to us. While that doesn’t mean Gearbox won’t work on the next “Halo,” this particular project doesn’t appear to be it.

What do you think?

Analyst: Blame Sony Japan for PSP slump

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Filed under: Sony PSP, Business

Das Gamer has posted a thought-provoking piece on the current (gloomy) state of PSP outside of Japan, where game releases on the platform can be heard grinding slowly to a halt. The site spoke with games industry analyst extraordinaire, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan, for his thoughts on the root cause(s) of the situation.

Pachter says that the platform's troubles began early on. "PSP struggled to have marquee titles at the beginning, and it's costing it in the long run." The recently announced "PSP Brite" will do little to help things, in his opinion. "Constant tech tweaks and upgrades might work for telephones, but they're not what gamers want," he said, adding "It creates confusion, and leaves many users with older models feeling inadequate."

The real problem according to Pachter, however, is general mismanagement of the platform out of Sony Japan, who he says is, "Instructing the US to play catch-up with Microsoft on Xbox Live, step up its online game with Home, offer movie downloads and push the Blu-ray home theater initiative just to begin with. Something had to give. The company has been spreading itself too thin." That "something," according to Pachter, is the PSP. It's a great piece of hardware, sure, but without key software titles - the lack of which at E3, apart from Resistance: Retribution, was staggering - it will continue to run on fumes. But for how long?

[Via PSP Fanboy]

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Sonys Stringer says R&D cash spent on PS3 wont be recouped as long as I live.

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:05:36 +0000

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer sat down with German based news site Welt Online and said that he doesn’t expect the $3 billion spent on R&D for the PS3 to be recouped by Sony anytime soon. When asked if the company would ever see any of the money that they initially invested in the console, Stringer’s reply was, “Not for as long as I live (laughs). It will certainly take some time.” He then goes onto to state that although the PS3 has been selling well as of late, things aren’t all roses and champagne: ”We currently have a production bottleneck with the PlayStation 3. You also know, however, that our business model is not perfect, and that we make a loss on every console we sell.”

Stringer doesn’t elaborate on just how much the PS3 is selling at a loss for, but speculation has put it to about $50-$100 per system. But the PS3 is far from being a liability for Sony. Stringer says that the company continues to earn money with games and those profits from software help to offset the hit they take on the hardware.

He also took some time to talk about Nintendo’s business model and the Wii stating, “The Wii is a well-made device that has found a new target group. For a while, we held the same target group with the SingStar karaoke game. But perhaps we neglected to pursue that avenue. The major difference lies in the fact that Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone, which may be a superior business model. But the Wii is not succeeding at our expense – it is not hurting us. We decided years ago to build a game console that offers much greater functionality.”

High Voltage Software aiming for a March release for The Conduit

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:07:30 +0000

High Voltage Software put out a press release in June. Included in the release was a launch window for The Conduit - Q1 2009. However, it looks like the specific month has been narrowed down for the game's launch window. When Gamereactor asked when The Conduit is scheduled to launch, Eric Nofsinger noted that the team is "looking at a March release of next year" for the game.

Steam adds Oddworld, Impulse adds titles from 2K Games, Corel applications

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:58:40 +0000

Valve has just sent us memo mentioning that two of Oddworld Inhabitants’ cult-classics are available on Steam right now: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. Each of the games can be had for $9.99 apiece ($8.99 until September 4) or can both be picked up in an "Oddworld Pack" for $14.99. I’d originally missed out on the early Oddworld games, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to give them a try.

On the Stardock side of things, it’s been announced that their digital download platform Impulse has entered into "phase two." Aside from adding some of 2K’s back catalog (Civilizations III, Shattered Union, Sid Meier's Pirates!, and Sid Meier's Railroads!) to the service, they’ve also set several new features live, such as their matchmaking tool ImpulseReactor.

Several software applications have also been added to Impulse, such as WordPerfect Office X4, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4, and AVG Anti-Virus software. I guess it’s just a part of making the service well-rounded.

Are any of these titles something that you might want to download?