Gamernode: Latest Industry News

Kojima working on new video game and it's not MGS

The gaming world is waiting anxiously for the arrival of Metal Gear Solid 4. Hideo Kojima, the creator of the series has been cranking the popular franchise out for years. But Konami may have let a little secret out inadvertently while speaking to Japan's Nikkei website. 

Konami president Fumiaki Tanaka revealed that Kojima is working on a new game that has nothing to do with Metal Gear Solid. The information immediately posed questions on what sort of game he was working on but Tanaka said he couldn't review any further details on the project and that a formal announcement wouldn't be coming this year.

Most likely we won't really hear any more information about this new game project until the dust settles after Metal Gear Solid 4 is released to the public sometime in June.

Until then the rum...

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Mike Huckabee--Rock Band and Guitar Hero star

Well, Republican Party presidential candidate Mike Huckabee threw in the towel last week and for many of his supporters, it was a sad day indeed. He made his concession speech, waved goodbye to the audience, and took his staffers back to Little Rock, Arkansas where they relaxed by playing Rock Band.

That's right sports fans, one of the presidential candidates is actually a gamer. Not only does Huckabee play Rock Band, he also likes to play Guitar Hero too.

In a day and age where practically every politician can hardly wait to blame video games as the source of all evil in society, it's pretty refreshing to see a politician that actually doesn't mind making it public that he likes video games.

Imagine, we could have had a president of the United States that actually was a gamer. Well, maybe t...

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Analyst: PS3 will kill the 360 in Japan this year

It looks like the PS3 has finally made it back from the dead according to analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan. Not only is the PS3 alive and well he thinks that it will outsell the 360 in Europe and the US and basically kill off the Xbox 360 in Japan this year.

"Sony gains a huge competitive advantage when HD monitor sales pick up at holiday, as I expect retailers to push PS3 as a Blu-ray player to anyone buying an HD monitor. By year-end, I think PS3 will outsell the 360 in the US by a little. PS3 will likely outsell the 360 in Europe by 20-40 percent, and will kill 360 in Japan."

Ever since the original Xbox showed up in Japan, Microsoft has been on a mission to try to crack into the market of the Land of the Rising Sun. With the launch of the 360, Microsoft was hoping that they co...

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Allez Cuisine! Iron Chef game cooks this summer

It all started so innocently about five years ago. I was talking to a friend about how I liked to watch cooking shows on Saturday mornings on the public broadcast system.

He said, "Then you've got to see Iron Chef on the dish!" I asked him what that was and he almost fell on the floor. "You don't know what Iron Chef is?" "No," I said. He told me it was a contest between two chefs. It didn't sound too exciting but he loaned me a tape full of episodes. After seeing the shows, I was hooked.

The episodes I saw on the videotape were from the original Japanese Iron Chef program. Since then the idea has jumped across the ocean and is now called Iron Chef America. It doesn't have Chairman Kaga in it with all his frilly outfits but his nephew, Mark Dacascos, does a pretty good job as the chairman o...

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Books... for more than stacking

It seems like once a week we're hearing about studies proving that video games cause people to do violent things or video games don't cause people to do violent things. Well the, soon to be released, book Grand Theft Childhood sheds some light on the whole 'study' thing.

Aside from most of the studies pulling their focus groups from 18-24 year olds, they also tell you that most studies only test gamers for 15 minutes. A 20-year old plays a game for 15 minutes and we're supposed to tell if that affected his whole life? I think that's ridiculous. And so does Grand Theft Childhood.

Grand Theft Childhood questions these short studies and their relevance to people who weren't asked to play video games, but wanted to play video games. They also wanted go into the study with objectivity, not s...

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PoP movie filming in June, Kunis cast in Max Payne...

The upcoming Prince of Persia movie is set to begin filming this summer in Morocco, according to GameSpot. British director Mike Newell, as previously reported, will direct the film project.

Based on a script by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) with input by game series creator Jordan Mechner, I'm intrigued on the directions the film will take.

Parkour, or free-running, has been featured in a few films recently, so I'm wondering if Newell will incorporate it into the film due to the Prince's famous acrobatics.

In related video game turned-to films news, Mila Kunis (That '70s Show, Family Guy) has been cast to star opposite Mark Wahlberg in the upcoming Max Payne film. Director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, Flight of the Phoenix, The Omen) will helm the film project.

Kotaku is sho...

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Hollywood director seeking game development

Film director Gore Verbinski certainly has made himself well-known within the Hollywood landscape. With such films like The Mexican, The Ring and all three Pirates of the Caribbean under his belt, Verbinski is now thinking of getting into game development.

A proclaimed gamer himself, Verbinski reminisced about his video game days, which go far back as the days of Pong. Unfortunately, his proclaimed film career made video gaming take a back seat.

Now he's developing a secret project that'll "apply his creative vision to the games business." Verbinski won't, obviously, reveal any details but he hinted that he wants to take different directions in his games.

"I want to come in from a completely different direction. I've had a tremendous experience in the film industry, taking knocks and figuring...

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Sin City game will follow books, not the film

The best thing that you can ever hope for a licensed game, is that it isn't tied to another product of the same IP. For instance when a game is based on a movie and has to ship at the exact same friggin' moment that the movie hits theaters.

When Red Mile Entertainment's Sin City releases in 2009, it will have had no such restrictions, but will be a wholly independent production of Frank Miller's graphic novel series. That's right, the comics, not the movie.

For one reason or another, Red Mile opted to buy the rights to the books, and not the movie. The rights to make a game out of the books probably cost them substantially less than the film rights considering they would have to compete with big bad publishers like EA and Activision. And as you may guess from their relatively unknown name, ...

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This week's NA game releases: 3/9 to 3/15

Of course, the biggest NA game release this week is Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. We gave the game a perfect 10 so it's surely a testament to not only Wii gaming, but to gaming itself.

Don't forget folks, there are other games coming out this week too. One game I have to give a nod towards to is Condemned 2: Bloodshot from Monolith Productions for PS3 and Xbox 360.

This creepy and melee-heavy action game sequel puts players back into the shoes of former detective turned crazy madman Ethan Thomas. The sequel also adds hands-to-hand combat, over 40 finishing moves, offensive combos and a freeform forensics system.

In addition, other notable games include Sam & Max Episode 204: Chariots of the Dogs for PC, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for Xbox 360, PS2, PSP and PS3, Final Fantasy Crystal Ch...

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Take-Two making severance plans "just in case"

We already know about the efforts by EA to buyout Take-Two. The advances of Electronic Arts was scorned by the Board of Directors of T2 and was rejected outright because the price wasn't right.

Electronic Arts offered $26 per share for Take-Two's stock but was rejected because it was considered too low in light of the upcoming release of the expected blockbuster hit, Grand Theft Auto IV.

Although the deal has fallen through, that hasn't stopped Take-Two from taking measures to take care of its employees in the event of it being sold.

Take-Two Interactive Software has put together a severance plan for employees just in case the company is bought and employees are fired in the process. For any executives that may be given the pink slip, the plan offers executives up to 1.5 times their salary f...

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Apple changes the face of gaming

Thursday Apple Inc. showed what their iPhone SDK (software developer kits) were capable of. And the world as we know it changed.

Apple has always been known for locking down their systems. No viruses, no spyware, nothing gets through with out the Apple seal of approval. It's the Apple manifesto. There's a sign that says that in front of 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino

I am a day one iPhoner. When it launched everyone was extremely excited about the possibilities, but also slightly worried that the system would be locked down for no one to play with. Well, World, worry no more.

In a keynote hosted by his Jobness the true power of the iPhone was revealed. In what would have made a horrible reality TV show, five developers were given two weeks to get an application up and running on the iPhon...

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Infogrames offers bid to acquire rest of Atari

It looks like Atari is finally on a path to resurgence, thanks partly in having Phil Harrison from Sony and newly appointed CEO David Gardner jumping on board. Parent company Infogrames clearly noticed the restructuring as well and offered to buy out the rest of Atari's stock to fully acquire the company today.

Owning 51.2% of Atari Inc's stock, Infogrames offered USD 1.68 per share for the rest of the Atari Inc stock it does not currently own. In response, Atari mentioned that a special committee of their board of directors will meet with advisors and discussion the acquisition proposal.

It definitely looks like Infogrames has some new plans for Atari, especially with some high-profiled business figures has now entered the picture. It was only nearly two months ago when Atari re-entered the...

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Finding racism in GTA

I was pointed in the direction of GamePolitics.com this morning, they had a piece about a blogger who has noticed quite a bit of racism in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. The writer, a schoolteacher in a New York City, seems only to be half clued in on the topic about which he writes.

To begin with he calls Grand Theft Auto "the only game of its type - a freeform adventure/third-person shooter/racing game set in a huge 'living' environment." He must not be aware of the word sandbox - as it is a term we have that designates more than one game.

He goes on to say that the main audience is "clearly suburban white males." Clearly? With the two of the recent GTA games (Vice City Stories and San Andreas) having black protagonists I don't really see it.

"I can not remember a single positive imag...

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Sony Ericcson to make PSP Phone?

We all knew that one day it was going to happen. Rumors have been floating around the internet about a possible Sony Ericsson PSP phone because of a patent application that Sony made for one. A few days ago another Sony patent application arose for the "orientation based multiple mode mechanically vibrated touchscreen display."

Sony has been working on these multifuntional ideas with full touchscreen at the same time Apple did. Sony Ericsson patent application was filed on August 30, 2006. Several months before the iPhone was introduced, and a week before the main iPhone patent application became public.

It could feature a full touch screen display, accelerometer or other orientation sensor, and a haptics feedback set-up, that can be reconfigured through software between PSP and phone funct...

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T2 CEO reaffirms stance against EA takeover

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is digging in his heels over this whole potential EA buyout scandal. The Hollywood Reporter recently interviewed him and naturally the subject of EA's buyout offer came up.

Zelnick was very unwilling to discuss the details of the trade, as is to be expected, but it's pretty easy to see through this tactic in order to get his true feelings on the matter. He also discusses gaming industry consolidation,and once again its very easy to derive his opinions on that too.

From his comments below, it almost seems as if Zelnick would reject futher advances by EA simply on principle that it's the best thing for the industry as a whole. I know that in general, gaming industry executives are a lot more laid back and concerned with the health of the entire industry, but this i...

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Burnout Paradise patch 1.2 details

While Burnout Paradise has received critical acclaim from many venues, the game still had its fair share of bugs in the initial release. Thankfully, Criterion is addressing the issues brought to their attention from the loyal fan base.

Dubbed Burnout Paradise V1.2, the patch is going to fix several problems with game while at the same time making the online experience not as buggy as it could be at times -- games locking up, a low count of servers, and VoIP should be hopefully fixed.

Below are the official patch notes for those who want to mull over the details.

- PS3 game can crash when a player is taken down and the player that has performed the Takedown leaves the game. - The game indefinitely displays "Connecting to Paradise City Servers" if it's having problems pinging the rebroadcas...

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EA tells Jack to mind his own business

Last week Jack Thompson sent a letter to EA (and every videogame publication he could cc) voicing his support for their attempts at a buyout of Take Two Interactive. He even offered to help in any way that he can.

Now EA has responded to Mr. Thompson, and the results are predictable, but in absolutely no way less entertaining.

Mr. Thompson,

We have received your letter to EA's shareholder site. In response to your offer to assist in the proposed acquisition of Take-Two, we would strongly prefer that you not get involved in this matter. EA is a strong supporter of creative freedom for game developers. We feel that your past statements - including false claims about content in our games - make any collaboration with you impossible.

Sincerely, Mariam Sughayer Sr. Manager Corporate Communication...

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1UP still has an extra life?

I have enjoyed the fine work of the 1UP Network for years now, as I'm sure many of you do. Which is why I was so saddened by the news that Ziff Davis Media, Parent Corporation of 1UP.com has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Simon Cox, VP of Content for the 1UP Network has written in his blog though that there may not be any reason at all to despair. He says that Ziff Davis has actually been quite a profitable company for years now, but the profits weren't enough to keep up with even payments on their 500 million to 1 billion dollar debt.

He says that once the company emerges back from bankruptcy in July that it will actually be a very solid and reliable company, with debt that will be of a reasonable and manageable size.

The best consolation in all of this is that 1up.com is actually one ...

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Magazine names top 50 game developers

It looks like one more internet forum debate topic can finally be laid to rest, because Game Developer magazine has released a list of the top 50 videogame development companies in the world.

The "Top 50 Developers 2008" report was compiled based on market and reputation data such as sales figures, review scores, and developer surveys taken via Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra.com. The first 20 can be found in the magazine's March 2008 issue.

Not surprisingly, Nintendo of Japan earned top honors, riding high on the success of their Wii and DS libraries. Call of Duty 4 developer Infinity Ward took the number two spot, and Blizzard Entertainment rode the World of Warcraft train into third place.

Here are the top 20 developers, according to the report; the complete list can be found at ...

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Turning Point is too "high concept" for reviewers

Everyone is bound to disagree with videogame reviews at some point. This is especially true if the game in question happens to be made by the company that you run, and the reviews in question happen to rate that game around the 45 percent mark.

In a recent interview, Spark Unlimited CEO Craig Allen adamantly defended his development team's recent release, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. He said that the game is too much of a "high concept idea" for the "core gamer," and that "if people look at it in the right way...they really enjoy what they see."

Unfortunately, Mr. Allen, arguing with review scores isn't going to change the inherent quality of a title. Somehow, Turning Point is obviously failing to be as enjoyable as most would hope.

As far as Turning Point's "high concept" goes, I thi...

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