Yorkshire Ripper using Nintendo console to keep fit whilst behind bars
High-security hospital Broadmoor – which is home to some of the UK’s most notorious killers – has issued 22 Nintendo Wiis to inmates in an effort to help keep them fit whilst they undergo treatment.
A source at Broadmoor claims that Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has been spied playing the bowling game on Wii Sports.
The Sun’s original story prefers to focus on the fact that £5,000 of taxpayer’s money has been splashed on the equipment. The paper also claims that inmates already have access to PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
“When you think of their crimes and the misery they have caused, you have to ask if it's right for society to pay to entertain them,” a source affirmed.
“This cash could have been spent improving care in the wider NHS. In the meantime all we hear is laughter as patients play with their new toys.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37003/Broa...iis-to-inmates ...

Natal's integration with Xbox Live will be "groundbreaking", claims Live general manager, Marc Whitten (he would say that though, wouldn't he?)

Speaking in an interview with Game Informer, the online boss said that like all of Microsoft's console features, Xbox Live will be at the core of Natal.

"Live is at the core of everything we do. I think you're going to see us doing the same thing with Project Natal," he said.

"We're continuing the journey of how do you make the user experience as simple as possible for the broadest possible audience. You probably saw a little bit in some of the videos we had at E3, I think you can see our passion and where we want to go.

"I think Natal is going to be a really magical thing and Natal plus Live is going to be groundbreaking. It's going to be groundbreaking in games and groundbreaking in the thing in how I think about entertainment."

There's no pricing or launch details for the 360 peripheral yet, but the Natal launch is rumoured to be happening in November with 14 launch games.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Activision, Microsoft and GAME charity drive reaps dividends for charity
Publisher Activision will, as previously pledged, donate £250k to charity War Child following the success of its Game for Good event in conjunction with Game and Microsoft early last month.
In total 1,019,088 gamers logged into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer mode on Xbox Live between Saturday December 5th and Sunday December 6th. Between them they racked up 4.2m hours of gameplay across 3m sessions.
“We would like to thank everyone that got involved with the GAME for Good weekend,” Activision UK MD Andrew Brown stated.
“The response from the fans was amazing and, as such, Activision is delighted to donate a pledge of £250,000 to War Child.”
 
War Child’s Ben Knowles added: “The Game for Good weekend has been very influential in engaging a large UK audience with the issues of the prosecution of war on children.
“Activision’s donation is a truly life changing sum for the thousands of children we support and protect in the world's harshest war affected countries, so we thank everyone that made the campaign such a success.”

Limited Edition War Child wristbands are still available in many branches of GAME.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/36995/MW2-...-for-War-Child ...

Ubisoft Pune finishes first full title, with the firm at concept stage for next
An upstart Ubisoft studio in the Indian city of Pune has become the nation’s first to fully develop a DS title.
Ubisoft Pune – situated in the state of Maharashtra – spent seven months developing the DS title 100 All Time Favorites.
The game, which in the UK is given the title Master All Classics, is a collection of timeless board and card games from around the world.
The studio was formed after Ubisoft purchased Gameloft’s Pune-based development studio back in 2008. When acquired, that studio had about 120 developers and testers, though Ubisoft Pune has far fewer in-house staff, with around 40 developers on-site.
The Pune office has acted as an outsource for various projects, including the XBLA and PSN title CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars.

Now with its first full DS project completed, the studio's head David Blanchard spoke optimistically about the firm's future.
“Here in Pune, we are trying to go in two directions to consolidate ourselves in the online and handheld space,” he said.
"The creativity of Ubisoft Group goes into creating new IPs on consoles, deliver high quality games, and build multiple experiences around new IPs.”
A CV by one of the studio’s designers revealed that the group is currently in the concept stage of its second major project.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-first-DS-game ...

Microsoft could be planning to bring Xbox Live gaming to Windows Mobile phones, as implied by a range of job adverts.

The company is seeking a principal program manager, software test engineer and senior software test engineer who can bring "Xbox Live enabled games to Windows Mobile", reports The Telegraph.

In particular, the focus will be on avatar integration, social interactions and multiscreen experiences, according to the ads.

Microsoft's Live Anywhere gaming initiative currently allows gamers to use their Xbox and PC accounts across both platforms as well as use Microsoft Points, but Windows Mobile has, so far, not been included in the service.

Last year Microsoft's Shane Kim spoke about Live Anywhere saying the company hadn't forgotten about the portable online market.

"We've chosen to focus on the living room experience from a hardware standpoint, if you will, but we're building a service in Live that will extend to other platforms. No question about it," he said.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...windows-mobile ...

SEGA is unlikely to follow up MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill with further mature Wii titles according to studio director Constantine Hantzopoulos following the poor performance of EA's Dead Space Extraction at retail.

Despite both SEGA titles meeting sales targets, Hantzopoulos indicated in an interview with the 1UP podcast the publisher is sceptical about releasing similar games in future.

"I have to say that it was a space that was open and we took a gamble on it," he said. "We did some research, it said there was an audience out there.

"I won't comment about Nintendo, they did champion The Conduit as a 'this is a Nintendo game.' And, you know, I think they did okay by us. At the end of the day, I just think that you're seeing kids are skewing much younger towards next-gen.

"We put out some pretty decent content. I mean, House of the Dead: Overkill and MadWorld are great Wii games. They're both doing okay and at the end of the day we'll make our numbers - that's good. Conduit's done quite well for us. It's been slow burn. That’s the other thing you find out about the Wii. It's not necessarily first three weeks like most titles. And DS. It's a longer burn, actually.

"But that begs the question, are we going to do more mature titles for the Wii?" Hantzopoulos continued. "And it’s like, probably not. Look at Dead Space. We were stunned. That was my litmus test. Basically, it's like, okay, you got EA, who can put all the marketing muscle behind this, an established franchise that scored quite well on 360 and PS3. They should be able to actually hit this out of the park, right? We get numbers, real numbers aside from NPD, and I'm like, 'Woah'."

According to NPD figures, Dead Space Extraction sold 9000 copies in the US between its release at the end of September and the end of the NPD's reporting period in October.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-sega-unlikely ...

New Super Mario Bros Wii has topped the Japanese games chart over the Christmas holiday, with sales of 506,000.

Nintendo also took the number two and three positions with new release The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Friend Collection placing respectively.

Square Enix PlayStation 3 title Final Fantasy XIII was relegated from first to fourth place with sales of 189,000, despite first week shipments of the title topping 1.8 million.

In the Japanese hardware chart, Wii sales nearly doubled those of the PlayStation 3, totalling 215,129 units.

DSi fell into second place with sales of 113,984, and PlayStation 3 followed just behind with 110,519.

The PlayStation Portable also saw sales increase to 105,801, although the PSPgo managed just 4192 in contrast.

The full Media Create software chart for the week ending December 27 is as follows:

01 New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii)
02 The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
03 Friend Collection (DS)
04 Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
05 Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (DS)
06 Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
07 Inazuma Eleven 2 (DS)
08 Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
09 Taiko no Tatsujin Wii 2 (Wii)
10 Professor Layton and the Flute of Malevolent Spirits (DS)
The full hardware chart is as follows:

01 Nintendo Wii - 215,129
02 Nintendo DSi - 113,984
03 PlayStation 3 - 110,519
04 PlayStation Portable - 105,801
05 DSi LL - 81,430
06 DS Lite - 17,695
07 Xbox 360 - 6489
08 PSPgo - 4192
09 PlayStation 2 - 3747

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...japanese-chart ...

Activision has finished the year at number one with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has topped the chart for an eighth consecutive week.

Despite a 41 per cent drop in sales on the week prior, the game still fended off competition from number two game Assassin's Creed II to become the longest unbeaten chart topper in the all formats chart since Need for Speed: Underground 2 five years ago.

Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games took third position, climbing from number five, while Wii Sports Resort hung onto the number four position for another week.

Further down the top ten, Ubisoft's Just Dance achieved its highest place so far at number seven, climbing from number 12 with a sales increase of 10 per cent, and James Cameron's Avatar: The Game dropped two places to number 10.

The full Chart-Track all format top 20 for the week ending January 2 is as follows:

01 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
02 Assassin's Creed II
03 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
04 Wii Sports Resort
05 Wii Fit Plus
06 FIFA 10
07 Just Dance
08 New Super Mario Bros Wii
09 Mario Kart Wii
10 James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
11 Forza Motorsport 3
12 Need for Speed: Shift
13 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
14 Left 4 Dead 2
15 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
16 Batman: Arkham Asylum
17 Wii Play
18 Grand Theft Auto Episodes: Liberty City
19 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
20 Tekken 6

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...nsecutive-week ...

Japanese publisher Capcom has revised its financial forecast downwards following the delay in launching three of its key properties - Lost Planet 2, Super Street Fighter IV and Monster Hunter Tri (in the West).

The postponements were put made in order to "Avoid competing with the major titles that other companies plan to introduce in the fourth quarter; preserve the value of Capcom's titles and maximize sales volume; and expand the line-up of titles in the next fiscal year and afterwards," a company presentation noted.

The publisher reduced its revenue forecast down by almost a third, from JPY 95 billion (USD 1.0 billion) to JPY 65 billion (USD ), with the profit forecast slashed by over 76 per cent to JPY 2 billion (USD 21.5 million).

The videogames business was responsible for the vast majority of that revision - JPY 28.5 billion (USD 307 million) in total - although an updated forecast for the next financial year (ending March, 2011) notes expected revenues at the same level as previously forecast for this year - JPY 95 billion (USD 1.0 billion).

Capcom had expected to sell 3.7 million units of Lost Planet 2, 1.1 million units of Super Street Fighter IV and 500,000 copies of Monster Hunter Tri, while Dark Void underperformed based on estimates - it sold only 600,000 units compared to the 1.3 million it was expected to.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...product-delays ...