via Games Industry


Analyst Todd Greenwald has backed current rumours doing the rounds that Microsoft will unveil a new motion sensitive controller for the Xbox 360 at E3.

He also said that it's expected Microsoft will slash USD 50 off the price of a Premium Xbox 360 this weekend, ahead of the annual industry showcase.

"The Xbox 360 price cut has essentially been confirmed by leaks from retailers at this point. We expect a USD 50 price cut on the Xbox 360 this weekend (from USD 349 to USD 299), prior to Microsoft's keynote on Monday morning," said the Signal Hill expert.

"We think the 360 has lost significant momentum to both the Wii and PS3, especially in Europe, and is in need of both a price cut and new features to bring in mainstream gamers beyond the Halo, Call of Duty, GTA crowd.

"Hopefully, Microsoft will have something else up its sleeve, such as a new motion-enabled controller (to better compete with the Wii)," he added.

He also expects Nintendo will announce something for the core gamers at E3 that may incorporate a new peripheral, similar to last year's introduction of the Balance Board for the Wii.

Sony is not expected to make an announcement regarding hardware prices, said Greenwald, as it continues to focus on profitability. ...

via Games Industry


Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G for the PSP is this year's biggest game so far in Japan, according to Famitsu.

The Japanese videogame magazine has published a list of this year's top ten selling games broadly dominated by titles for Nintendo consoles, which take up eight of the top ten spots, as reported by Kotaku.

Capcom's PSP title has sold 2,300,505 units so far, followed by Super Smash Bros Brawl at 1,666,323 units.

Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3 is at sixth place in the chart, with 576,437 units, after having been on sale for only a month.


The list of the top ten best-selling games in Japan for 2008 follows:

1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP) 2,300,505 units
2. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) 1,666,323 units
3. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) 1,526,664 units
4. Wii Fit (Wii) 1,443,167 units
5. Pokémon Ranger: Battonage (DS) 576,467 units
6. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) 576,437 units
7. Wii Sports (Wii) 544,958 units
8. Mario Party DS (DS) 497,547 units
9. Mario Kart DS (DS) 416,935 units
10. Wii Play (Wii) 411,416 units ...

via Computer and Video Games


Konami's Japanese website has updated its website to include Wii as a platform for Pro Evolution 2009.

Given that PES '08 is one of the best titles on the Wii, we're not surprised to see that an updated edition is on its way.

No other details are being given and Konami Europe remains tight-lipped. When the game was announced for PS3 and Xbox 360 last month, Konami promised that the latest version would contain a "stunning graphical update", as well as new moves and "innovative new control elements".

Whether or not these things will be applied to the Wii version is not known, especially as we suspect the 'innovative new control elements' have a lot to do with how well the Wii controls in 2008 were received. ...

via Eurogamer


Mega Man 9 will be sold for 1000 Wii Points in Japan, according to Famitsu (via Kotaku), which is about GBP 7 or EUR 10 in the real world.

Capcom wasn't immediately available to clarify European pricing for the game, which is due out in Japan in September.

Mega Man 9 is a 2D platform game not just in the same guise as the old-days NES versions, but designed to look a bit like one too.

As you can see from the screenshots, it's about as old-school as possible, and will adhere to the series' traditions of eight bosses to fight at the end of long platform levels.

Control will be by holding the Wii remote sideways like a NES pad. We're hoping to get a go on it at E3 next week - Capcom confirmed last night that it would be there along with many of its friends. ...

via Games Industry


Mobile games specialist Gamelion has been given approval by Nintendo to create games for the Wii, DS and WiiWare platforms.

The developer has previously worked on a number of high-profile licences by partnering with Electronic Arts, Namco Bandai and Sony Pictures.

"Working with Nintendo is a great opportunity for both our studios," offered Lukasz Szczepanski. "Wii and DS are both great platforms, allowing our developers to spread their wings and expand their creative side with new and innovative titles on both platforms."

The first Nintendo titles from Gamelion will be for WiiWare due early 2009. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Epic's Cliff Bleszinski has said that current control pads look like alien spaceships, and hopes the Microsoft's next Xbox will come with a pad with fewer buttons.

"I hope if there's a new Xbox that there'll be fewer buttons on the controller," he told us during a chat about Gears 2's multiplayer.

"This is purely me speculating in my own realm of game development, but if you look at a controller right now it looks like an alien spaceship," he added, going on to point at alternative methods of interaction.

"I think you could do things with a built-in camera or a little motion sensitivity. You look at the Wii controller with less buttons - they added functionality by doing waggle. Not a lot of games use the waggle well, but Super Mario Galaxy for example uses it perfectly. Zak and Wiki uses it rather well," he said.

"There are other ways of providing interactivity without having every single finger doing something at once on a friggin' controller."

So what should the hardware guys be doing in future, Cliff? "I've seen some prototype camera stuff that some friends are working on that can actually tell the depth of the world around the player, and can track individual finger movements and stuff like that. That's exciting stuff, and I think that's where it all needs to start going towards."

Look out for the full interview later today. In the meantime be sure to check out our hands-on impressions here, which also has new screens and in-game footage of Gears 2's multiplayer. ...

via Eurogamer


Damnation developer Blue Omega reckons there was "no frigging way" BioShock should have ended up being successful.

Game designer Jason Minkoff was comparing it to Damnation to illustrate that all you can do in the shooter genre is pour your heart into a project and hope it gets noticed.

"We're just making the best we can, because a good game is a good game. And if you make a good game, somebody is going to notice and somebody is going to play it," Jason Minkoff told Eurogamer on our trip to see Damnation.

"Take BioShock: no frigging way that thing should have actually worked out. Fantastic game, awesome design, and beautiful artwork, but the thing is a damn underwater Steampunk 1930s combo thing. How should that ever have done well?

"But it's a damn good game. They just put their hearts into it and happened to hit the mark. And that's what we're trying to do."

Minkoff went on to talk about the lottery of launching and finding you're maybe not in fashion that season, or launching and hitting it "right on the nose" and winding up as successful someone like Valve.

Whatever the result, Minkoff firmly believes a good game will not go unnoticed by a publisher and hey presto you get your next project commissioned.

Damnation is due out on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 this winter. ...

via Games Industry


Japanese RPG specialist Square Enix has confirmed support for Apple's iPod with the announcement of a brand new and exclusive role-playing game.

Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes goes on sale this week for iPod Nano, iPod classic and fifth generation iPod, and uses songs on the music player to determine in-game abilities and stats.

Developers and publishers already supporting the iPod include Harmonix, Sega, Gameloft and Electronic Arts. ...

via Eurogamer


Konami has updated Metal Gear Online with two free new gameplay modes: Team Sneaking and Headshot Only.

Team Sneaking lets all the members of one team play as a Snake-style secret agent, invisible unless spotted. Their objective is to infiltrate and attack their goal, but if the defending team spots them they will have to hide until a timer runs down.

Just like the single-player, then, except online. Some, like our own Dan Whitehead, would argue that there should have been more of that in MGO to start with. As he pointed out in his 7/10 review, MGO's Sneaking Mission - where one player plays as Snake - was the only real nod to the game's traditions.

The other mode, Headshot Only, should be self-explanatory. We hope anyway, or we've seriously misjudged our audience.

You can keep up with MGO's ongoing updates via Konami's official website, and we'll continue to note them here. After much faffing around downloading the PS3 2.41 firmware earlier we can also confirm that the above modes are available to European gamers, too. ...