Videogame News, this week

[BRP]

Microsoft

- Microsoft announced they would distribute on-demand movies and TV shows on Xbox Live beginning November 22, 2006. Players can purchase and download on-demand contents from Xbox Live Marketplace, the service will be available in US only, and eventually expand to other countries. There will be over 1000 shows available, 200 of them will be available in 720p HD resolution. Six content providers will be available at the beginning: CBS, Turner Broadcasting, Warner Bros., Paramount, MTV (Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, VH1, etc) and UFC.

- Microsoft revealed more details on the on-demand movies for Xbox Live:

* TV programs will be buy-to-own, remain on your Xbox 360 hard drive
* Movies will be remained in the hard drive up to 2 weeks. Once user begins watching the movie, it will be automatically be deleted after 24 hours. Users can view the movie as often as they like in the period
* Full-length HD movies will be around 5GB each. Movies can be played while downloading
* Microsoft does not have current plans to upgrade the existing 20GB hard drive. However in future there maybe external hard drives available.
* Price of the shows are not yet determined

- Here is a list of movies and TV programs to be available on Xbox Live Marketplace before the end of this year:

* Adult Swim - Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
* CBS - CSI, Survivor, Star Trek
* Comedy Central - South Park, Chappelle's Show
* MTV - The Real World, Pimp My Ride
* Nickelodeon - Avatar: The Last Airbender, SpongeBob SquarePants
* Nicktoons Network - Skyland, The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival
* Paramount Pictures - Nacho Libre, Jackass: The Movie
* Spike TV - Carpocalypse, Raising the Roofs
* Nascar.com - Race Rewind
* UFC - The Ultimate Fighter, UFC: All Access
* VH1 - Breaking Bonaduce, Hogan Knows Best
* Warner Bros. Home Entertainment - The Matrix, Superman Returns, Batman Forever

- Microsoft has released the highly anticipated FPS Gears of War today, they expect to sell over 1 million copies worldwide by the end of this year.

- Tecmo announced they have shipped 1 million copies of Dead or Alive 4 for Xbox 360 worldwide, 450,000 copies in US, 500,000 copies in Europe and 100,000 copies in Japan.

- Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 lineup at the upcoming Games Japan Festa 2006 in Osaka between November 11 - 12 in Japan.

* Gears of War (Microsoft)
* Blue Dragon (Microsoft)
* Chikyuu Boueigun 3 (D3)
* Culdcept Saga (Namco Bandai)
* DOA Xtreme 2 (Tecmo)
* Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom)
* Need For Speed Carbon (Electronic Arts)
* Super Robot Taisen XO (Banpresto)
* Vampire's Rain (AQ interactive)
* Viva Pinata (Microsoft)
* World Soccer Winning Eleven X (Konami)

Bethesda announced they will release the extension pack The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Knight of the Nine for Xbox 360 on November 21, 2006, the pack can be downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace, for 800 Microsoft Points.

Sony

- Engadget has revealed some technical details on PlayStation 3.

* The PS3 BluRay drive is quieter than the DVD Drive on Xbox 360
* Standard PC USB keyboard and mouse works on PS3 via Plug n' Play, but Bluetooth keyboard and mouse do not work
* PS3 only recognizes EyeToy camera, not other USB webcams
* Sony does not have plans to have a VGA out option for PS3
* PS3 can support up to 7 wireless controllers
* Sony does not plan to release a Sixaxis controller with built-in vibration
* PS3 can play custom sound tracks in a game, using the built-in Media Playback software
* Some PS3 games can be installed onto the hard drive to shorten load times. For example, the load time of Genji: Days of the Blade has reduced from 12-15 seconds to 3-4 seconds. The cache can be removed at anytime.
* You can only send text messages to other users on PlayStation Network, voice or picture messages are not yet available.

- Dengeki magazine reported that Square Enix is working on a new graphic engine for PlayStation 3 called the White Engine, which will be used for Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and other future titles. At present Square Enix is trying to finish version 1 of the engine. Further improvements and optimizations will be made to the White Engine over time.

- Square Enix announced they have shipped 1.5 million copies of the PS2 RPG Final Fantasy XII in US, the game was released on October 31, 2006. The Final Fantasy series has sold more than 68 million copies worldwide.

Nintendo

- Nintendo revealed new details on the Wii Virtual Console system:

* Virtual Console games can be saved into the 512 MB internal memory, or onto a SD Card.
* Wii maintains a list of all downloads, if you deleted the game by accident, you can download the same game again free of charge.
* Virtual Console games copied onto SD Card are secured, and will not be playable on any other Wii console except the console which they were downloaded.
* If your Wii console became defective, you can contact Nintendo customer service to retrieve the Virtual Console games
* GameCube games are part of the Virtual Console, GameCube games can only be played with a GameCube controller, not the classic controller.
* All Virtual Console games can be played with classic controller, GameCube controller or Wii remote.
* Each Virtual Console game will come with digital copy of the game manual.
* Virtual Console games are not region free, an American Wii cannot download foreign games from Europe and Japan.
* Wii points can be purchased online in the Wii Shop, you can have a maximum of 10,000 popints in an Wii account.

- Nintendo revealed that the company will ship 4 million units of Wii in the first six week of the launch in US, marking it one of the largest launch shipment in US. Nintendo explained that the demand is higher than the quantity and Wii will be sold out in many places.

New Super Smash Bros Brawl trailer
http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php? ... 4&type=mov

Two New Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess Trailers
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y88M-AQztl0 (maybe the game intro)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KqUqxVKd5q0




Sales

- Here are the latest Japanese console hardware sales for the week of Oct 23 - 29, 2006:

1. DS Lite - 158,681 [5,364,012] units
2. PSP - 25,908 [1,449,748] units
3. PlayStation 2 - 21,832 [1,195,782] units
4. GBA SP - 1,858 [208,442] units
5. Xbox 360 - 1,565 [84,949] units
6. GB Micro - 1,351 [130,683] units
7. GameCube - 644 [69,006] units
8. Nintendo DS - 114 [956,161] units
9. GBA - 15 [3,181] units
10. Xbox - 7 [1,696] units

- Here are the latest Japanese console software sales for the week of Oct 23 - 29, 2006:

1. Imasara Hitoniwa Kikenai Otona no Joushikiryoku Training DS (NDS, Nintendo) - 189,700 units
2. Pokemon Diamond (NDS, Nintendo) - 127,011 [1,498,210] units
3. Tales of the Tempest (NDS, Namco Bandai) - 88,137 units
4. Pokemon Pearl (NDS, Nintendo) - 85,530 [1,276,812] units
5. Utaware Rumono (PS2, Aquaplus) - 82,343 units
6. Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception (PSP, Namco Bandai) - 60,584 units
7. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood (PS2, Namco Bandai) - 34,070 units
8. Zaidan Houjin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Kounin: KanKen DS (NDS, Rocket Co.) - 31,108 [187,732] units
9. New Super Mario Bros. (NDS, Nintendo) - 30,885 [3,335,253] units
10. Ryuga Gotoku [PS2 The Best] (PS2, Sega) - 29,854 units

That is all.
source: [the-magicbox.com]

[Boyiee]

Great post, thanks. The last part with october sales kinda makes me think i was right about what the big sellers will be for november/december/christmas; Wii, DS Lite, Playstation Two.

[BRP]

I edited in one SSB:B trailer and two LOZ:TW trailers. The latter is especially good. It will be one of the best games ever, for sure.

[NynJa]

yuo forgot the biggest news of all

WII RELEASED NEXT WEEK
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Sonomaa]

Ive gotta wait to get my wii, curse you bills, CURSEEEE YOUUUUUU

[Lbelle]

My friend bought and beat Gears of War yesterday (9 hours? lawl)...I find that kind of disappointing since it was supposed to be some crazy monumental game.

In any event, great post!

[SephYuyX]

yuo forgot the biggest news of all

WII RELEASED NEXT WEEK
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Whats the date? I dont remember what it was. I have to see if the store it gonna do a midnight release.

[BRP]

yuo forgot the biggest news of all

WII RELEASED NEXT WEEK
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gee, maybe I should edit out "this week" in the title and add in "next week". Because this thread is about next week.

My friend bought and beat Gears of War yesterday (9 hours? lawl)...I find that kind of disappointing since it was supposed to be some crazy monumental game.

I'd have to disagree with the reason for your disappointment. I mean, since when were FPSers were held by the standards of RPGs. Even if the single player mode was 30 hours long, people are still going to spend more time in multiplayer mode, by at least 100-fold.

[Lbelle]

Wii is out the 19th, PS3 the 17th

And of course he;s going to be playing multiplayer and co-op for the majority of his gameplay, but 9 hours for solo? Did they just run out of ideas??

[Huggo]

I'd have to disagree with the reason for your disappointment. I mean, since when were FPSers were held by the standards of RPGs. Even if the single player mode was 30 hours long, people are still going to spend more time in multiplayer mode, by at least 100-fold.

That's true. I mean, it's a shitty game to make an example of, but Halo 2. Nobody was satisfied with the campaign mode at all. But hey, the online is just packed all the time.

[Boyiee]

My friend bought and beat Gears of War yesterday (9 hours? lawl)...I find that kind of disappointing since it was supposed to be some crazy monumental game.

In any event, great post!

I agree with BRP, as i posted about the game in the "i almost threw up" thread.

The game IS monumental, if i didn't have a 360, i'd buy one to play it. I might loan my friend money for a 360 just for one more person to play with, it's that fun.

Xbox games usually aren't about single player, how long is halo's story mode? 5hours? Same with halo2 and those games were incredible online. It's all about playing it on Live, and this game makes the 360. To me it makes the 360 finally feel like next gen instead of just look like it. It also makes the 360's future promising, even more so with the news brp posted.

another note on those games... I never beat halo or halo2 lol. There was no point in playing other than co-op or online really.

[BRP]

I don't know, 9 hours doesn't sound too bad to me. It will take a true videogamer one day, a average gamer two or three days, and anyone else four to five days, but I think for a FPS, it might be just fine. As long as the story is somewhat interesting, isn't too cliche, and the game itself was fun, well what exactly is bad about it? Your friend did play 9 hours of a videogame in one day, I mean at some point you expect the game to go faster than it should. I think any longer than 9 hours on a FPS might even be too long. I guess a better complaint could be not enough "offline" content, like a "Challenge" mode that Perfect Dark for N64 had.

Anyway, I hope this doesn't become the standard, that FPS games will lose time on developing gameplay/mutliplayer, because they are forced to focus too much on the single player.

[Boyiee]

The story is actually really good, really fun, and it sucks you in. The voice acting is good too, honestly no real serious complaints from me... It's going to be big. It's just got that feel to it just like halo did. I dunno, i hated what halo2 started to become and have a friend that traveled to play in tourny's and this is just really releaving to see come to the xbox. It is alot different than halo, dont get me wrong, its weird adjusting too, but it definatly is one of the most fun games i've played, and the most fun on 360.

Here's a good example of its entertainment level; i turned off FFXII when i got my copy of GoW, and it's still off lol.

[BRP]

So is that, "Cover is important" stuff true, or it is a bunch of bull and the best way to win is to rush?

[PS. Surprised no one mentioned the new Zelda videos or Fox's big ass shoes].

[Sonomaa]

half life still wins for long story then super super long multiplayer shelf life

[Boyiee]

half life still wins for long story then super super long multiplayer shelf life

I always get bored of storys in FPS's. Excluding goldeneye.

[Not Kuno]

half life still wins for long story then super super long multiplayer shelf life

I always get bored of storys in FPS's. Excluding goldeneye.

Yeah I'd have to say Goldeneye wins that category. God that game owns.

[Alina]

1) GoW isn't a FPS

2) Even Jet Force Gemini took me longer than 9 hours

I'd rather have a longer single player game than have more multiplayer. I believe GoW only has three modes of that, too.

[Zigma]

good post ;]

[BRP]

Still surprised no one is mentioning how amazing the music is in the Zelda trailers... man.

Anyway, the whole Xbox360 on demand thing is pretty genius. It is such a good idea, I expect Sony to announce they are doing the same in the coming month.

EDIT: Or the details about the PS3 or Wii's VC. GoW is just one game ;o. I find the method of reducing load time by downloading the cache is pretty interesting.