Today in Gaming News - July 5, 2011
by Keith Sadler, posted on 05 July 2011 / 2,323 Views
Here’s what’s in the news, today, that you should care about.
Certainly the most important bit of news today: emails were revealed which outlined the schism between Team Bondi and RockStar Games, detailing harsh working conditions during the development of L.A. Noire. Similarly, we also learn today that Rockstar will not publish Team Bondi’s next game.
Via press release we learn that all PSN and Qriocity services will be restored in Japan tomorrow (July 6, 2011).
New screenshots for ‘Old World Blues’ (new DLC for Fallout: New Vegas) are available via Bethesda Softworks (and pretty much everywhere else.) Travel past the age-gate and language selector to view them. The DLC will be available Tuesday, July 5, 2011
An interesting opinion piece was written today about the two First Amendment cases handed down by the Supreme Court last week. The first is that video games are protected speech. (The second involves Arizona’s campaign finance reform.) The author asserts that, for the dissenting opinion, the issue isn’t ‘speech’ at all, but initiation. Essentially, the dissenting argument is that when you are forced to move the plot along by committing an act of violence by an avatar which looks like yourself, you’re being ‘initiated into violence’ and that children ought to be protected from that. My personal opinion is that video games do a good job of keeping adult imagery out of the hands of children and video games ought to be able to tell adult stories. Adults also have a responsibility to regulate what children see.
Ubisoft says ‘Stop the Presses! The Rabbids hope you had a happy July 4!' Ubisoft has also announced new limited-edition merchandise for their popular games called UbiCollectibles available through their online store.
Auto Club Revolution will begin a closed beta sometime in July. To be a part of it, be sure you’re registered here. Jason Collins, product manager said; “The closed beta phase is when we start sending beta keys to those who have signed up to the waiting list, and will be the first showing of Auto Club Revolution to ‘real’ players. We’ll be inviting more people in gradually, so if you’ve joined the waiting list but don’t receive a key straight away don’t worry, as everyone who registers their interest will get a chance to join testing well before the start of open beta.”
New resources are available for Harry Potter: The Deathly Hollows Part 2 The Video Game. That’s what it’s called. Seriously. Head over here for pre-order info and all the available resources like trailers and screenshots.
The “2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry” report is out and it’s about as interesting as a poke in the eye. For those who lay awake at night dreaming of statistics, (VGChartz analysts, I’m looking at you) here you go. The average video game player is 37 years old. 42 % of video game players are women. Consumers spent 25.1 billion dollars on consoles, games, and accessories. Okay, that’s enough.
Batman: Arkham City is going to rock. Partly because Rocksteady today admitted fault in designing the level bosses, (for Arkham Asylum) which had superhuman strength for some reason. Arkham City will not make the same mistake.
New trailers are out for the HD remake of Shadow of the Colossus and Ico.
Titan Studios, which made Fat Princess, is now Carbon Games. They’ve made a leaner, meaner studio focused on experimentation and smaller, core titles. They’re also working on a new game!
Forbes talks to Nintendo USA CEO Reggie Fils Aime about the Wii U and get more information on the new console’s ‘flexibility.’ We still don’t have a firmer date for release other than “sometime after April 2012.”
Wedbush Morgan says Duke Nukem Forever sales could be half of what was expected; from 3 million to 1.5 million. Despite a definite ‘miss’ with Duke Nukem Forever , Michael Pacter had this to say: "Of the major publishers, Take-Two has had the fewest 'misses' in terms of game quality over the last two years, and as a result, delivered a profitable [Fiscal Year: 2011] without a [Grand Theft Auto] release. It has over a dozen core franchises, and if it can streamline development, can be expected to increase franchise releases to three or more per year."
An English language demo for Catherine will be available for download next week.
A video documentary about E3 is now available.
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