While it is known today for Halo, Bungie first made its bones in the mid-90s with Marathon, an acclaimed trilogy of first-person shooters originally released for the Mac. Today, the revered developer revisited their past. Superannuation has reported that Bungie has filed a new trademark registration for Marathon.
Because this could understandably fuel a great deal of speculation, let's be clear about exactly what this means: Bungie has filed a new trademark registration for Marathon. That's all we know for now. Sure, it could mean that a new Marathon game is in the works, supporting a popular rumor that emerged following the ending of Halo 3 on the Legendary difficulty setting. But it could also mean that Bungie simply wants to maintain the trademark out of simple nostalgia for one of its earliest accomplishments. Right now, it's far too soon to know anything other than Marathon® is now the property of Bungie.
I would prefer to see gameplay, but hopefully the upcoming Brink from Quake Wars developer Splash Damage will deliver a multiplayer experience as diverse and exciting as what's on display in this latest cinematic trailer.
While it is not one of my rare must-haves, Brink is one of those games that I am intensely curious about, and am crossing my fingers that it will deliver the goods and live up to its potential. Of particular interest to me is the game's complete merging of single-player and multiplayer experiences: whether you are playing by yourself or with a full party, the game plays exactly the same. Rather than having a single-player campaign and a separate multiplayer mode, Brink is designed with a consistent structure that doesn't change because it's being played by more than one person. It's an interesting premise, to say the least.
For the first time since 2007, the Xbox 360 came out victorious against the Wii. The last time that happened, a little game called Halo 3 was releasing. Seems like the Xbox 360 could have had a sales boost due to the release of Bioshock 2, which came in number one on the software top ten list. Overall though, retail sales in the U.S. video game market are down 15 percent, falling to $1.26 billion from $1.48 billion.
"Sales came in slightly better than we anticipated (privately, we were forecasting down -19 percent)," says EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich. Divnich also noted that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 hardware sales exceeded expectations. "Of course, stronger hardware numbers do influence software numbers as PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware purchasers typically purchase at least 1 software SKU attachment," he added.
While the Xbox 360 version of Bioshock 2 topped the software list, the PS3 version was nowhere to be seen. It was not all bad news for the PS3 though. PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain came in at number ten on the list, selling 219,000 copies in five days. We will see if the momentum keeps rolling for Quantic Dream's latest. And in another small victory, the PS3 version of Dante's Inferno outsold the Xbox 360 version 242,000 copies to 225,000.
Continue reading after the break for the complete rundown of hardware sales as well as the top ten list for software.
After taking a year off to create The Beatles: Rock Band, Harmonix is back to focusing on the next evolution of the Rock Band series. Today they announced (via their Facebook page) that Rock Band 3 is in development and that we should be able to play it this Fall.
"Harmonix is developing Rock Band 3 for worldwide release this holiday season! The game, which will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts, will innovate and revolutionize the music genre once again, just as Harmonix did with the original Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Stay tuned for more details!"
Rock Band 3 will be the second Rock Band game released this year. Green Day: Rockband will be releasing in the Summer with the option of importing the songs into your overall Rock Band music library. Seems like a no-brainer that Harmonix will let you import all your Rock Band 2 tracks (for a small fee of course) once Rock Band 3 is released. We will update you when more information is announced on this.
The Beatles: Rock Band added three-part vocal harmonies to the mix. What kind of direction do you feel the series should take now? What improvements would make Rock Band 3 a day one purchase for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Move over Billy Mitchell and Steve Weiebe - there's a new king in town. According to record-keeping organization Twin Galaxies, newcomer Hank Chien has taken the Donkey Kong world record with a new high score of 1,061,700. The record was set during a 2 hour and 35 minute play session at an arcade cabinet in New York.
"I remember the exact day I knew I could get the world record: September 13, 2009," Chien said in an interview with Twin Galaxies. "That was the day I first broke a million on Donkey Kong to reach 1,037,700. I didn't even realize how close I was to the world record. I was going on a business trip that day and had a flight to catch, but I had about two hours to kill and figured I had enough time for one game. So I fired up my Donkey Kong machine - I wasn't recording of course - and on my first game, boom! Too bad getting 1,000,000 takes about 2 1/2 hours. Still, I caught my flight without getting any speeding tickets, but I realized I couldn't speed and text."
Chien says that he started playing the game after seeing the popular documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. That documentary ended with Weibe overtaking then record-holder Mitchell. Mitchell then took the record back with a score of 1,050,200 which stood for three years until Chien showed up on the scene.
Did you really think you could escape from Lady Gaga? Not content with her songs taking over pop radio, she is now coming to conquer the Rock Band universe. Harmonix and MTV Games announced today that a four-pack of the pop diva's songs will be added next week to the Rock Band Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
"Lady Gaga Pack 01" will include "Bad Romance," "Just Dance," "Monster" and "Poker Face" for $6.99 over PSN and 560 points over XBLA. You can also purchase individual tracks for $1.99 (160 points) or 200 Wii Points. Additionally, a special version of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," made famous by South Park's Eric Cartman, will also be available in the Rock Band Music Store next week.
So we all know what this means right? You need to keep your girlfriends and wives away from your consoles next week. This is not a drill. Bad, bad things could happen...
What would the launch of a new Battlefield game be without server issues? They seem to go hand in hand. Many players (myself included) hoping to hop in over the weekend and take Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for a test spin, had to deal with occasional server shutdowns - the latest taking place this morning at 9:30 AM PST. DICE has released an update on these server issues via the official Battlefield blog.
"All teams are actively engaged in diagnosis and remediation. We are adding additional services to alleviate load. Despite having a major infrastructure in place, the peak traffic this weekend has been huge, 400% higher than any other Battlefield's peak simultaneous users. The teams will continue to monitor the services closely. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates on the latest developments as they are relevant."
The Xbox 360 and PC communities seem to have been the most severely impacted. The service is being restarted for both while they are closely monitored. The PS3 experienced a "brief outage, but has quickly recovered and the service is functioning properly at this time."
Such a shame. A series that focuses on multiplayer as its main component and this always seems to happen. It took a couple days for Battlefield 1943 to function properly when it was released over XBLA and PSN this past summer. Hopefully we will see a quick turnaround this time also. There are soldiers down that need my excellent medic skills. If only I could get to them...
You may have heard a story last year about a female Xbox Live member who was banned from the service after identifying herself as a lesbian in her gamer profile. Apparently, some gamers found her honesty offensive, and Microsoft couldn't allow that. At the time, Microsoft defended its disregard for freedom of speech as a part of its policy that forbids profiles disclosing any details regarding sexual orientation.
Now, over a year later, it looks like Microsoft is finally ready to embrace diversity. According to Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten, a new policy now allows gamers to freely disclose their race, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation in their profiles.
"Under our previous policy, some of these expressions of self identification were not allowed in Gamertags or profiles to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs," said Whitten. "However we have since heard feedback from our customers that while the spirit of this approach was genuine, it inadvertently excluded a part of our Xbox LIVE community."
So basically what he's telling us is that the old policy was intended to protect people from questionable content because they assumed it was harmful rather than truthful. Now they're saying it's okay to be honest. Took them long enough.
The time to bust out that companion cube Halloween outfit for celebration is upon us. We can now officially confirm that Portal 2 will indeed be available this holiday season. Valve was nice enough to send us a press release with that tidbit of news (and little else). No story hints, no screen shots, no SKUs -- just confirmation that Portal 2 is being worked on. With Valve though, little else is needed. But lucky for us, GameInformer Magazine also revealed its April Cover today. Would you look at that: some Portal 2 goodness.
Twelve pages will be dedicated to the sequel in the magazine's April issue. They promise to shed some light on new gameplay mechanics, new storylines and new twists. They also refer to Portal 2 as a "full-fledged, standalone sequel," implying a meatier campaign. Does this mean no The Orange Box 2? Probably, but Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is pretty much still a thing of myth at this point. But one can still dream....
Tomonobu Itagaki is back. Andriasang reported yesterday that the game designer as famous for his games as he is for his ego has settled his legal disputes with former employer Tecmo over unpaid royalties and is now ready to get back to work at the newly-formed Valhalla Studios.
In a two-page interview with seminal Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, the former Team Ninja leader has been rechristened Valhalla's chief technical officer, or CTO. He also confirmed that he is currently working on a new game, but remained exceptionally cagey about the project.
"At this stage, I cannot say," Itagaki said when asked for specifics. "However, I believe the game I'm working on now will be a little bit like nothing anyone has ever seen." Beyond this, he wouldn't even say who the game's target audience is: "If you ask who I've been developing for, it's for Earthlings."
Despite Itagaki's outspoken support for the Xbox and Xbox 360 in the past, he didn't even say what platform he was developing the new game for. "There could new hardware released in the future. Also, not just consoles -- I am interested in PCs," he said, displaying a substantial shift in his previous outlook.
But while Itagaki wouldn't open up about what the game is, he did say some things about what it probably is not. Displaying his characteristic confidence, Itagaki implied that the new game is probably not of the fighting variety. "At my previous company, I made the best fighting game in the world, Dead or Alive. Fighting games have once again reached a dead end, although to be honest, if there was no Dead or Alive, fighting games would have ended a long time ago," he said.
Back in January, Harmonix made tools availalbe so that artists could produce original songs which would then be availalbe via the Rock Band Network store. Today, the store finally launches and includes over 100 brand new titles! Most of these titles are priced around one or two dollars, and artists range from the Cherry Blossoms to Whiskey Daredevils.
Hit the break for the full list of Artists and Songs
It seems that this whole Infinity Wardmess is, most likely, going to be going on for a bit. Today, Jason West and Vince Zampella, former President and CEO of Infinity Ward, respectively, have filed a lawsuit against Activision. According to a press release from the law firm representing the former heads of the studio, they are claiming that Activision is refusing to pay them royalty payments, due as part of their contracts for Modern Warfare 2.
According to their attorney, Robert Schwartz,
Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual 'investigation' into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.
The suit includes many claims including "breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrong termination in violation of public policy, and declaratory relief".
Early rumors claimed that a large part of the dispute between the heads of IW and Activison was concerning royalties and this seems to confirm it.
Update: One crucial component of the lawsuit that was not mentioned initially in this article, however, is the fact that Zampella and West are also seeking "contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games." This means that West and Zampella might be seeking to create a Modern Warfare game without Activision. The implications of this are, to say the least, tremendous. The initial oversight was my fault and I wish to apologize for not highlighting it more as it is a key component to this story.
Today, we seem to have much more solid information about insanity that has been occurring at Infinity Ward. Today, in a press statement issued by Activision, the company confirmed that Jason West and Vince Zampella were no longer with Infinity Ward and that chief Technology officer Steve Pearce and head of production Steve Ackrich are leading Infinity Ward on an interim basis.
While we still do not have confirmation on the reasons for the departure of Jason West and Vince Zampella, it seems that it might have to do with the major announcement that Activision made just moments ago regarding a new direction for the Call of Duty franchise. Activision confirmed what most of us had suspected, that Treyarch would be releasing a new Call of Duty game this fall. It also confirmed that Infinity Ward would still be producing map packs for Modern Warfare 2 this year.
The big change, however, is the announcement that Sledghammer Games, a studio owned by Activision and headed by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey (both of whom, it should be noted, worked on a senior level on the original Dead Space), were going to be producing a new Call of Duty game in 2011. The game is announced to be a game in the “action-adventure genre”. While it has been rumored for some time that a new company would work on Call of Duty, this confirmation could give us some idea as to why West and Zampella are no longer at Infinity Ward.
Kotaku is reporting that an anonymous source familiar with the studio is claiming that IW has “long bristled at the notion of any studio other than IW making a Call of Duty game.” Tensions between IW and Treyarch have flared up in public on occasions, so it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that the idea of a new company working on the franchise would anger West and Zampella.
Moreover, it has been long rumored that IW wished to make a new franchise or a game set in the future. According to Kotaku’s source, Activision skirted the idea, which could also be a cause for the flare up.
Understand, though, information is still sketchy to say the least. If this is true, however, it could have a massive impact on the series as a whole.
Update: As this story was being posted, G4's Patrick Klepek (who, as a side, has been doing a fantastic job covering the IW mess) reported that an internal Activision memo is claiming that Infinity Ward will still be "central" to the Call of Duty Franchise
Infinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty's future and we rely on the combined talent, expertise and leadership of the team there for its success.
It’s been a fairly strange few days for the gaming world. With a hefty chunk of PS3’s unable to play games due to an internal clock error, I took that to be the high point for video game news this week. I was clearly wrong.
Last evening, reports began coming in from sources through G4’s Patrick Klepek that a group of “bouncer-types” had shown up at the offices of Infinity Ward, one of the two main companies handling the Call of Duty franchise for publisher Activision. Initial reports said that these people, when asked what their business was at the studio, refused to answer.
To add to the mess, studio heads, Jason West and Vince Zampella had been missing all day since a meeting with Activision. Sources had described the mood between Activision and Infinity Ward as “tense” recently.
Soon, however, some of the pieces began to fall into place. It was confirmed through Kotaku, as well as through NeoGAF, that Jason West’s Facebook status was listed as “Jason West is drinking. Also, no longer employed.” To add to the mess, the usually extremely talkative community manager for Infinity Ward, Robert Bowling, said, through his twitter, “I should also say, while I appreciate all the calls, tweets, messages and hearing my ringtone a lot. They're in vain - as I have no info.”
As of this moment, what we do know is that Activision filed an SEC report earlier today, claiming that the company was investigating two “senior employees” at the studio:
The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company.
At the moment, 1UP is reporting that a source from inside Infinity Ward is claiming that Activision is. “‘flexing their muscles’ against the studio, which is attempting to ‘push back against change.’” It seems that Jason West is, in all likelihood, one of the two, and it seems just as likely that the other is Vince Zampella, though at the moment we cannot confirm this.
We will, of course, keep you informed as more information becomes available on this massive story.
EA is really getting serious about day one DLC. Mass Effect 2 came out last month with the Cerberus Network as day one DLC to help persuade gamers to pick up a brand new copy of the game. They are set to repeat this method when Battlefield: Bad Company 2 launches on March 2nd.
Included with every brand new copy of BBC2 will be a VIP code to download two additional multiplayer maps; bringing up the total mapcount to 10. The two maps up for grabs are the Laguna Alta map playable in Conquest mode and Nelson Bay map playable in Rush mode. Those who enter the VIP code will also be eligible to download a second map pack being released in March at no extra cost.
"Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will redefine online modern warfare on March 2. We are deeply committed to the FPS community and Battlefield fans worldwide," said Patrick Bach, Senior Producer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. "These first two map packs are just the beginning. We're planning ongoing support for the community by always keeping the experience fresh and ensuring the best possible gameplay experience."
Those who plan on picking up a used copy of BBC2 in the future can download the extra maps for $15 via the in-game store.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is set for release on March 2nd (that's next Tuesday people!) for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Post Game Report Episode 94: I like to Move it - sugarfree - We're down to single digit days until PAX East and the enthusiasm smells like a brand new car. Excited? Before we get to Boston we have Episode 94 at...
Re: Resonance of Fate? - hellsing - Interested but I gotta see some reviews before I commit.
