Archived News:
THQ confirms plans for Homefront 2 to Eurogamer, in spite of today's news of the closure of KAOS Studios, who developed the original Homefront, a first-person shooter which has sold at least one million units. Today's news includes word that THQ Montreal is assuming "product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise," so presumably they will be developing the sequel. Here's word from THQ's Danny Bilson: "Everything we learned from [the original] you'll see executed in other games going forward, and including that franchise going forward. We'll have some really interesting announcements in the future about the future of that brand."
The Bethesda Blog reveals that Bethesda's sites were the latest victims in the recent rash of data breaches on gaming websites. Here's word: Over the past weekend, a hacker group attempted an unlawful intrusion of our websites to gain access to data. We believe we have taken appropriate action to protect our data against these attacks. While no personal financial information or credit card data was obtained, the hackers may have gained access to some user names, email addresses, and/or passwords. As a precaution, we recommend that all our fans immediately change passwords on all our sites — including our community forums, statistics site, and here on the blog.
If your username/email address/password is similar to what you use on other sites, we recommend changing the password at those sites as well. As we don’t know what further plans the hackers may have, we suggest that you keep an eye out for suspicious emails and account activity.
Perhaps responding to backlash about preorder items for Battlefield 3, the Battlefield Blog has a FAQ on the Physical Warfare Pack and Back to Karkand pre-order items. They make a point of explaining that the Physical Warfare Pack shouldn't influence game balance in DICE's upcoming military shooter sequel: Q: Is the Physical Warfare Pack available in all regions, or just in the UK?
A: It will be available worldwide at select retailers. It was first announced in the UK. Exact details for other countries and retailers will be announced at a later date.
Q: Will Physical Warfare Pack imbalance the game?
A: The three exclusive items in the Physical Warfare Pack were specifically chosen not to be overpowered or imbalance or break the game in any way.
Q: Why do I want the Physical Warfare Pack?
A: Owning these items will give you a more varied arsenal, but it will not give you a significant advantage on the battlefield.
Gamasutra has May U.S. physical game sales figures from industry analysts NPD Group. Following a surprisingly strong showing in April, word is total U.S. sales for May were down 14 percent to $743.1 million USD, which NPD calls the lowest recorded monthly retail performance in years. "Keeping in mind that these sales figures represent just the new physical portion of the market for video game hardware, software, and accessories and not the growing portion of the industry that is comprised of digital format content distribution, May 2011 was the lowest month of sales for the industry since October 2006," explains NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "A light slate of new releases is at the heart of this month's performance."
Activision's Dan Amrich blogs about the strong response to beta signups for Call of Duty: Elite, the recently announced paid service connected to the Call of Duty series of military first-person shooters (thanks VG247). He also reveals the beta should commence in the middle of next month, saying: "More than 2 million gamers have signed up at callofduty.com/elite so far — and they hit that number in less than two weeks. That should give the dev team at Beachhead plenty to work with to kick off the beta, which officially starts July 14."
There are numerous reports circulating saying preordering Batman: Arkham City from Best Buy will receive a playable Robin character. We finally found where this is mentioned, as there's a pop-up on the search results on their site reflecting this, as word is: "While supplies last, pre-order the game for an exclusive downloadable Robin character. Play as Robin in two challenge maps." Presumably there is at least one person out there who would find this a preferable option. Chris O'Donnell? Maybe Burt Ward.
Minecraft originator Notch Tweets about sales of the indie sensation: "2.5 million sales! That's as much as Diablo 1 and FarCry, according to Wikipedia." On a related note, there's a video interview with Notch on PC Gamer where they spoke with him at E3. Along the way he expresses his ambition to make his game more of a game: "Reviewing Minecraft now would be kind of unfair because there are things we want to fix before then… I want to make Minecraft feel more be more like a game – so you can actually win it."
A new Fall of Earth trailer offers a cinematic from Mass Effect 3, the next installment in BioWare's action/RPG series. As can be inferred from the title, the clip shows the epochal events leading to the climax of the trilogy which call on Commander Shepard and his crew to save the Earth. The embedded clip follows. Continue here to read the full story.
- Homefront on Impulse. Save 20%.
- Shadow Harvest- Phantom Ops on Steam. Save 75%.
Still on sale (previously reported). Continue here to read the full story.
THQ is in the process of shutting down New York-based KAOS Studios as well as its U.K.-based Digital Warrington studio, confirms Develop, saying some 46 staff have been put on notice. THQ has confirmed that its new Montreal studio will "take over product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise." Perhaps not coincidentally, today is the first day at THQ Montreal for Patrice Desilets, former Ubisoft Montreal creative director. In early March employees at KAOS expressed concern that they'd be forced to move to Montreal after Homefront shipped, and later that month KAOS suffered a round of layoffs.
Wizardry Online is a planned online installment in the classic Wizardry series of role-playing games, announces Japanese MMOG publisher Gamepot Inc. (not to be confused with GameSpot or GameStop), saying the game will launch for North American and European audiences next year. Here's word: “Wizardry Online hearkens back to the original allure of the groundbreaking Wizardry RPG series, but brings an updated flare for modern gamers,” said Shuhei Ueda, president of Gamepot. “Now, for the first time ever, players around the world can step into the impressive action and captivating lore of this world in a free-to-play, online format. We’re confident the return to hardcore role-playing elements will be a shot in the arm for gamers looking for a new challenge in the genre.”
Developed in conjunction with Japanese game studio Headlock Inc., Wizardry Online will offer multiplayer features new to the Wizardry series such as party play and player versus player (PvP) combat, while maintaining the classic style that the series is known for. Hardcore gamers will revel in the return of the complex dungeons that punctuated earlier iterations, and soon will find that the game is fraught with significant peril: Wizardry Online features permanent death, in which player characters can be removed from the game upon dying, creating a more immersive experience.
GfK Chart-Track offers the list of the top 20 bestselling PC entertainment titles in the U.K. for the week ending June 11. Duke Nukem Forever enters this week's chart at number one. MCV also has the U.K. all-platforms chart, and DNF is number one there as well.
Last summer is the tentative release window for Orcs Must Die! supplied by Robot Entertainment to Joystiq during E3. Word is the action/strategy hybrid is currently "likely" expected on Steam and XBLA in late August or Early September. They originally posted the game was expected in July, but later clarified the story. Thanks nin.
There's a user-created poll on the EA Forums reflecting unhappiness at plans to offer exclusive weapons as preorder bonuses for Battlefield 3, fearing the impact this will have on game balance in the upcoming military shooter sequel. As of this writing 94% of respondents say these exclusives are a bad idea, compared with 3% who feel it's a good idea. As a result, this post on reddit is attempting to coordinate a boycott to protest this.
The controversial premium Call of Duty Elite service is intended to "unite" the audience for the Call of Duty series of military first=person shooters, Activision explains to MCV. "[Look at] the sheer scale of the audience – and not just by any individual game," Activision's VP of digital Jamie Berger told them. "There are four Call of Duty games in the top ten most played on Xbox Live." Here's more: The number of people engaged made it clear to us that we had to step in and build something that was going to unite this audience. We’ve got this franchise that’s evolving but we weren’t allowing the player to evolve. We’re asking them to start all over again every year with each new game – and that can’t work.
So I think Elite is a recognition that we have 30m people worldwide doing something and we can’t just leave them to their own devices. We have to support them and get ahead of their needs, rather than always playing catch-up with them.
The promised closed beta testing of Indomitus is getting underway today, offering a browser-based MMORTS game. Here's word on the game's ambitious scope: The centerpiece of Indomitus is the unparalleled scale of city sieges. Capturing a city requires coordination and teamwork, and you'll have to fight for every inch you take. Millions of soldiers controlled by thousands of players will clash in the greatest battles of Indomitus.
Cities are shared by all members of a tribe in Indomitus, not just guilds, meaning a single city may have hundreds of players ready on defense and even more ready to send reinforcements at a moment�s notice. The largest battles may last for hours at a time!
Congrats to the Dallas Mavericks on their NBA championship. At one point this season after the Mavs completely dismantled the Knicks, I commented to a friend that if they could ever play as well in the playoffs as they always seem to during the season, they could be champs, and this year that's what they did. And then, of course, there's the schadenfreude of the Heat losing after LeBron alienated everyone outside of Miami with the way he decided to bring his talents to South Beach, but he seems well on his way to mending fences with the folks who once loved him.
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