Gamernode: Latest PlayStation 2 News

IslandofRhodes.org is a developer commentary site

Today, the mysterious God of War 2-related website IslandofRhodes.org has been revealed as a developer commentary site. Up until now, there had only been a countdown holding the site's place.

The website only came into the public eye after a YouTube posting uncovered a well-kept secret in GoW2. If a combo count of 99,999 hits is reached, then the URL flashes on-screen. Yes, somebody actually achieved that feat.

The site offers videos of a few portions of the game, accompanied by narration from its creators. The focus is on the first level of the game, and some of the commentary is quite interesting. Fans who are interested should definitely check it out.

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Mr. Bean Video Game Being Developed

Blast! Entertainment, a UK game publisher, is reaching out to produce a new PS2 game based on the offbeat character made famous by English comedian Rowan Atkinson -- Mr. Bean. The Mr. Bean television show debuted in the 1990s and has steadily become a popular cult show in the UK and around the world in re-runs. The Mr. Bean character has already appeared in several films, and in 2002, a Mr. Bean animated series was produced. The cartoon show has proven to be a success, with 67% of UK children under the age of 11 viewing it regularly. The original Mr. Bean television show is still in syndication and is watched in many countries.

According to Gamasutra, the game will revolve around helping Mr. Bean solving puzzles, avoiding traps and locating his best friend, a stuffed animal named Teddy.

Blas...

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Mecenaries 2 Under Fire Once Again; Bono to the Re...

Even though Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is promising more action and zany explosions in its fictional game world, a small real-life war is brewing courtesy of the Venezuelan government. Reports first appeared back in May 2006, but today the Venezuela Solidarity Group is now seeking signatures to stop production of Mercenaries 2. So who is the unlikely recipient of the letter? None other than U2's Bono.

Why Bono? He is co-owner of Elevation Partners, the group who currently owns/merged Pandemic Studios (Mercenaries 2 developer) with RPG developer Bioware. The letter states numerous allegations towards the unreleased game, including the plot "in which the player leads a mercenary force into Venezuela with the objective of killing a 'power hungry tyrant' who has taken over the oil industry...

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Who Wants to Buy Take Two Interactive?

Take Two Interactive, the publishers of controversial games such as Grand Theft Auto and Bully, maybe putting up a "For Sale" sign outside its corporate offices soon if the recent turmoil continues, according to Bloomberg.com.

Take Two has been slammed with lawsuits, been investigated by the Federal Trade Commission for improper stock options schemes, pummeled to the ground by the press and politicians for the "hot coffee" incident, and found itself under fire for general mismanagement of the company. And now for the bad news--shareholders have staged a mutiny by announcing that they are planning to replace the current directors and managers. The company has had five straight quarters of losses, despite releases in the popular Grand Theft Auto series and Bully.

There have also been grumbling...

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God of War Movie Update

Back in October 2005, we reported that the PS2 action smash-hit game God of War would be heading to the big screen courtesy of Universal Pictures. In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with God of War creator David Jaffe, it is mentioned that the movie is still on track. A script has been written by David Self (Thirteen Days, Road to Perdition, and the upcoming Deathlok) and it'll be sent to "a huge-name director." In regards to whom Jaffe wants to see don Kratos' chains, "[Blood Diamond's] Djimon Hounsou as Kratos. Absolutely. You have to get past the fact that Kratos is Greek, but in terms of the way he looks and his acting ability and his physique--I can't think of a better choice."

The rest of the article discusses other subjects, including Jaffe's cancelled PSP title and his upcom...

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GDC: EA To Publish Harmonix's Next Game

During the ongoing GDC conference, Electronic Arts announced that it would be publishing Guitar Hero creator Harmonix's next game. Currently, information about the game itself has not been revealed or its intended target platforms. It's safe to assume that the game will be another rhythm music game, based on Harmonix's track record and EA's intention of entering the genre. (EA is also publishing Bizarre Creation's Boom Boom Rocket.) In previous press releases following Harmonix being dropped from development of Guitar Hero III, it had mentioned development of another music-based game project.

Back in May 2006, Activision announced its acquisition of Red Octane, publisher and owner of the Guitar Hero franchise, for over $100 million. Four months later, MTV announced its acquisition of Harmon...

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PS2 Sales Trounce Xbox 360, Wii in January

You would think that the only action in town, as far as game consoles are concerned, center entirely upon the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360. But looming in the shadows, quietly racking up impressive sales numbers is a game machine that--by industry standards--should have been retired by now. And to the surprise of many, the seven year old PS2 is still a hit, according to a story released by Reuters. American Technology Research noted, "Its continued success has not only been a surprise to Sony but to other hardware makers as well."

The PS2 was second in sales for the month of January, only trailing Nintendo's Wii. The PS2 outsold the Xbox 360 and PS3 by margins of up to 40,000 more units. Not bad for an old timer in the game industry. The continued success of the PS2 is attributed to its relativel...

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Former Clover Employees Form New Studio

Clover lives again. In a blog post at Game|Life, it was made official that the recently closed Clover Studio will be resurrected as game studio SEEDS. The studio is independent of its former employer, and is currently without a publisher. The current list of employees is a who's who list of contemporary Capcom success:

Atsushi Inaba (Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe 2, God Hand)Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil series)Hideki Kamiya (Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe 2, Devil May Cry); Nao Ueda (Okami, Resident Evil 4)Yuta Kimura (Okami, Shadow of the Colossus), Mari Shimazaki (Okami) Masami Ueda (Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe 2)

After the closure of Clover Studio, most of the staff was integrated into the various internal Capcom teams, but some staff members expressed that they wished...

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Analyst Predicts No Sequel for Bully

Rockstar's Bully received accolades from many in the gaming press upon its release last October, but according to statements made by Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter, a sequel to the game is highly unlikely. His remarks were made to GamePolitics.

The controversial game was heavily protested by concerned parents and children's rights activists, who criticized the game for its seeming glorification of bullying. Rockstar delayed the game's release, leading some to believe that the postponement was used to modify the game's storyline.

Pachter's belief that Rockstar will not offer a sequel to Bully is based upon dwindling sales figures and a less than successful showing during last month's holiday shopping season. Pachter stated, "In November, Bully sold 105,000 units... My guess is tha...

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Sony Exec Says PS2 Isn't Ready to Fade Away

The effective useful life of a game console is usually six to seven years, but according to Sony's Simon Jeffrey, chief of software operations in the U.S., the PlayStation 2 may be going into a new phase of its life instead of quietly disappearing into the sunset. Jeffrey's remarks were made in an interview given to BusinessWeek.com.

Although the PS2 was released in 2000, the machine continues to be a strong seller. Jeffrey explained this success by pointing to the large user base the PS2 has been able to develop--over 111.1 million units worldwide--and Sony's unwavering commitment to the game console. He stated, "The PS2's very large user base is partly the reason. It's also that Sony is still actively building, promoting, and selling the PS2. At its current price--we expect another price ...

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PS2, PSP Sales Soar During PS3 Launch

Even though Sony's big debut of the PS3 took most of the spotlight during the Thanksgiving week, Sony's PS2 and PSP numbers should not be discarded. Sony's Dave Karraker is stating that PS2 hardware sales rose by over 115% and first-party software sales were up by 120.6% during the PS3 launch week this month. In addition, PSP hardware sales were up over 280%, with first-party sales jumping over 165%.

Karraker reinforced Sony's promise to ship a million PS3s by the year's end. He said, "Feedback from our retail partners is that demand is still incredibly high and that PS3s put on store shelves were quickly snapped up by holiday shoppers. We will continue to utilize airfreight delivery for the PlayStation 3 to assure a steady stream of systems for North American consumers through the end of...

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Major Playstation Magazine Closing for Good

One of the important influences in the video game publishing world, the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, will be closing its covers for good with the January 2007 issue. OPM covered everything related to the PS2 and was unique in that it offered a demo disk in each issue featuring media on upcoming games, behind the scenes features, and game demos. Ziff Davis, which is responsible for the publishing of OPM said, "The Game Group is laser-focused on continuing to expand its rapidly growing digital media presence and on further strengthening its multiplatform properties and powerful integrated network. As such, the Game Group has determined that Official U.S.

PlayStation Magazine, a property licensed from Sony Computer Entertainment America and limited to print, no longer fits its strategi...

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Tomb Raider: Anniversary Announced

Eidos Interactive announced Tomb Raider: Anniversary today, the next installment in the long-running action/adventure franchise. Details are scant as of now, but what is known is that the new game will use an enhanced version of the Tomb Raider: Legend engine. The press release mentions that Lara Croft will be pursuing the mystical artifact Scion, which was the focus in the original Tomb Raider game.

This may hint that the next game may be a pseudo-remake of the original game, but details are not known yet. Tomb Raider: Anniversary is set for release on the PC, PS2 and the PSP sometime in 2007. Crystal Dynamics, the team who developed Tomb Raider: Legend, will return to develop. They are currently working on the GameCube, GBA and DS version of Legend, which is set for release on November 1...

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Sony Online Retailers Worried Following Suits

The fallout over the recent closure of Lik Sang, an international online retailer of Sony hardware and software , has caused another online business to rethink and change its retail procedures.

Play-Asia.com has notified its customers that it will cancel all PlayStation 3 preorders. Their decision is related to last week,s announcement by Lik Sang regarding various legal actions brought against it by Sony Europe over the sale of PSPs outside of the Asia without the express consent of Sony. Products sold outside "legal" territories are considered to be "gray market, items.

Play-Asia.com notified their clients and informed them that "licensing and distribution limitations" were the reasons behind their change in policy. They stated that, "As a result, we are very sorry to let you know that w...

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Founder of Take Two Resigns

Take Two Interactive founder Ryan Brant has announced his resignation from the beleaguered game studio.

Brant has been on disability leave for a back injury since June. Brant,s company has been under a firestorm of bad publicity since the publication of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which included sexually explicit scenes hidden in the game. Take Two has maintained that the mini-games were never meant for public viewing, although the material was in the game. The incident has elicited a huge amount of negative publicity for the gaming industry, as well.

Take Two Interactive was also being investigated by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) over charges regarding business account abnormalities, stock price interference and inflating revenue figures. Take Two was fined $7.5 million...

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Analysts Predict Strong PS2, 360 Sales During Wii ...

The gaming world is still getting ready for the final releases of the last two next gen game consoles to hit the market-Sony,s PS3 and Nintendo,s Wii. However, analysts are expecting the two machines to not only be very popular during their initial launches, but will be extremely scarce as well. And the rarity of these consoles will have an interesting effect on sales; not for the PS3 and Wii, but for other game consoles. Larry Haverty, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Global Multimedia Trust, painted a rather bleak picture of the availability of PS3 machines during launch day. He told Reuters, "This is going to be the mother of all shortages."

Predictions of available Wii machines are only slightly less bleak.But in despite the bad news for would-be early adopters of the Wii and PS3, there ...

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Final Fantasy XII: Pirate's Edition

According to various reports, the English version of Final Fantasy XII has been leaked onto the internet in ISO form, and is being spread around by torrent sites. Comments on a Digg story seem to confirm that this leak is authentic, and this is indeed a leaked version of a game that wasn't slated to come out until the end of October.

GamerNode does not condone piracy in any way, shape or form, and we imagine that both Square-Enix and Sony are going to be none too happy about the news. The initial torrent seems to have been removed, but thanks to the very nature of torrents, it will be difficult to get rid of the leak altogether. Regardless of the fact that it isn't a simple, mainstream process to play the game (given that this is a PS2 title), leaks have caused problems in the past. Half-Li...

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THQ Gets Smacked Down In Copyright Suit

Game publisher THQ has found itself taken to the mat with a lawsuit filed against them by songwriter Michael Tumbarello. The suit alleges that THQ used one of Tumbarello,s songs, "King of the Mat," in SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006 without his consent. According to the lawsuit details, the snubbed songwriter had alerted THQ to their illegal use of his work in January of 2006, and asked the game publisher to stop the distribution of the game. THQ ignored his requests and continued to sell the game without compensating Tumbarello for the use of his song. He is suing for $3 million for copyright infringement, and no less than $3 million for each violation of misappropriation of property.

No word has come from THQ regarding the charges leveled against them or what actions they will take regarding the ...

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RedOctane Hot Over Copycat Guitar Controllers

RedOctane, the developers of the very popular game, Guitar Hero, is fired up over what it sees as blatant copyright infringement of its guitar controller. The suit, filed against The Ant Commandos, a California based company, alleges that the firm is guilty of trademark infringement, copyright infringement, false advertising, unjust enrichment, and deceptive trade practices among other charges. The controversy surrounds The Ant Commandos producing a series of guitar game controllers, wired and wireless, for the PlayStation 2. The lawsuit says, "Specifically, Defendants have copied the packaging of Plaintiffs' products and have used Plaintiffs' trademarks and copyrighted material in its packaging and advertising of its own products in an effort to cause confusion among consumers." RedOctane...

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Guitar Hero Going Multi-Platform

Activision has confirmed that its extremely successful Guitar Hero franchise will be coming to multiple formats in 2007. At present, Guitar Hero is only available for the PlayStation 2.CEO and chairman of Activision Robert Kotick revealed the news today at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XV Conference. Kotick stated that Guitar Hero, "was a great IP that was really in need of global distribution and the operating efficiencies that we could bring to what was a relatively small company. The long-term opportunities here include all sorts of product extensions--music downloads that are very high-margin opportunities--and we'll start with the launch of Guitar Hero 2 for the PlayStation 2 this fall. And you can expect next calendar year launches of Guitar Hero on every significant new format." Ko...

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