DICE has said that PlayStation 3 gamers will be able to get in on the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo fun from February 4.

Here's the word:

STOCKHOLM, Feb 03, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- DICE, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced that the PlayStation(R)3 computer entertainment system players in North America will now have access to the Battlefield: Bad Company(TM) 2 demo* on February 4.

Available via the PlayStation(R)Network, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has been recognized by critics worldwide for its incredibly detailed, huge sandbox environments, vehicular warfare, destruction, and squad play. Its dedicated servers that allow for smooth, seamless online play help it stand above the competition.

The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo features Port Valdez, a new vehicle focused map where up to 24 players can compete against each other in the game's Rush multiplayer mode. Players have access to five land and three air vehicles including Main Battle Tanks as well as the fast-moving Quad Bikes and Mobile Armored AA.

The fight is also packed with plenty of infantry combat fought alongside the waterline towards a great oil industrial landscape in the Alaskan mountains.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be in stores on March 2, 2010 in North America and March 4, 2010 in Europe for the Xbox 360(R) videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 and the PC.

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

Sega has revealed Tournament of Legends, a Wii exclusive from The Conduit developer High Voltage.

By the sound of the PR, it's an arena-based fighter "featuring a host of fighters based on legends from world mythology: the Minotaur, a powerful Gladiator, a mighty Valkyrie and others".

Weapons and magic also play a prominent role, and it's out in May. No claim that it'll look as good as a 360 game this time though, thank goodness.

Interested? Here's the full PR:

SEGA Europe Ltd. and SEGA of America, Inc. are excited to announce a new project in partnership with developer High Voltage Software - Tournament of Legends. Exclusive for Wii, Tournament of Legends is scheduled for release in May 2010.

Tournament of Legends offers a 3D fighting experience for one or two players, featuring a host of fighters based on legends from world mythology: the Minotaur, a powerful Gladiator, a mighty Valkyrie and other well known and awe-inspiring characters. Take these fighters to epic battles in fantastic fighting arenas where the combatants wield legendary weapons, launch magical attacks and dodge giant mythological creatures that protect their lairs. Master a range of incredible combat moves; including unleashing a man-eating lion, summoning a deadly rain of arrows and throwing a nest of venomous snakes.

Tournament of Legends strives to offer even the most sophisticated Wii gamer a rich weapon fighting experience. Players will be able to switch weapons and enchantments with other characters, or compete in various Wii Remote/Nunchuk controller challenges which include dodging giant mythological creatures, or restoring health and armour during fights. The game also features an Interactive Training mode and supports the Classic Controller.

Tournament of Legends cinematic effects and graphics are fueled by the High Voltage Software Quantum 3 engine, specifically designed and optimized for Wii. Large 3D mythological fighters move fluidly while all fighting arenas, characters, and magical attacks are polished by advanced real-time lighting, blended animation, cinematic colour curves and more.

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

Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll will expand the fanbase for its long-running arcade-style puzzle franchise, thanks to Balance Board compatibility.
That’s according to Sega, which is holding high hopes for the upcoming Wii title, due for release on February 12th.
The firm believes the device’s accessibility will introduce the series to a whole new audience.
“This is the first time any game in the series has utilised the Balance Board, which opens up a whole new way to play,” Sega PR and marketing exec Kate Billingham told MCV.
“It’s going to broaden the reach of Super Monkey Ball games even further, and that can only be a good thing.”
The previous Super Monkey Ball released on Wii, Banana Blitz, sold through over 250,000 units, and Sega is hoping to top this with Step & Roll. To help boost the game further, the company has drawn up a targeted marketing push.

The majority of the campaign will be aimed at children, such as a partnership with popular kids’ site, Bin Weevils, which will host treasure hunts and launch parties.
There will also be contests, puzzles and ads in kids’ print press, as well as community-dedicated challenges targeting veteran fans through YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.
“We think Step & Roll is the most accessible title yet,” added Billingham. “The Balance Board element fits perfectly with the rolling gameplay mechanic and really brings the collection of puzzles to life.
“Super Monkey Ball has a strong heritage, and with every title the quality just gets better. If you’re a fan or a newcomer, there’s something to suit you.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37433/Bala...er-Monkey-Ball ...

The alliance of retail information providers in the US, UK and Japanese videogames markets made up of NPD, GfK Chart-Track and Enterbrain has released it calendar year numbers for 2009, showing an overall drop of 8 per cent in combined sales.

The UK was hit the hardest, with poor comparable sales on the DS and PlayStation Portable platforms resulting in a 14 per cent decline, while the US dropped 7 per cent and Japan fell by 2 per cent.

Meanwhile the PlayStation 2 platform continued to fall away, as expected, declining by 57 per cent year-on-year.

"For the UK videogame home console software market it is clear that current generation systems suffered slight negative growth overall in 2009, even though PS3 and 360 both enjoyed record volume (and value) software sales for the year, and were the only formats to exhibit positive growth over 2008," said Dorian Bloch, Business Group director at GfK Chart-Track.

"Growth on these platforms did not manage to offset the steep decline in PS2 software units (-67 per cent), which in real terms was close to a decline of 4 million units. Also, the incredible performance exhibited by Nintendo's Wii in 2008 meant that Wii units fell back 10 per cent, although remained the number one format in terms of units sold in 2009.

"Within the portable market, it is clear that this is the reason for the overall console software decline. Nintendo DS volume (and value) sales in 2008 reached a high point brought about by massive, record-breaking DS Lite sales, and the corresponding sales of hit titles such as Dr Kawashima, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, New Super Mario and Mario Kart DS.

"Rolling on to 2009 saw much lower DS hardware sell-through and no new must-have DS titles at the top of the charts, apart from Professor Layton and Pandora's Box. Sony's PSP suffered a similar fate, with few must-have titles arriving in 2009, and a continued decline in PSP hardware sales, ever since the sweet spot achieved in 2006 with the original PSP."

The picture in the US was somewhat less negative, with more titles released in the territory last year than in previous years - despite some evidence to indicate that the fewer the games released, the greater the average unit sales.

"With the huge investment needed to produce software for this generation's consoles, many publishers talk about releasing fewer titles each year which will allow their teams to better focus on maximising the success of each title," explained NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The theory is that this will produce more high quality games resulting in better sales. However, the year end data from 2009 shows us that the number of titles entering the market is still growing. 778 new titles were released in 2009, up from the 764 in 2008.

"So, while there has been no noticeable slow down in the number of titles launched each year, we do see some evidence of a converse relationship between the number of titles launched and the average unit sales of a title. When looking back at the past 7 years, we see that 2004 had the lowest number of titles launched, yet the highest average unit sales. On the other hand, 2009 had the most titles launched and average unit sales were lower than they've been since 2005."

Conversely, Japan's market - which has been in decline for some time - benefited from a series of strong DS releases.

"Japan's 2009 game software market was blessed with a string of Nintendo DS software hits during the period, including the trio of double-million-plus sellers, Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito, Pocket Monster Heart Gold/Soul Silver, and the year's most successful non-sequel, Tomodachi Collection, which sold 2 million units," said Mitsunobu Uwatoko, manager of global marketing at Enterbrain. "Moreover, Final Fantasy XIII, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Fit Plus, sold over a million each on top of the long-awaited New Super Mario Bros Wii selling over 2.4 million during its first month at retail.

"However, these titles could not manage to recover the losses experienced during the first half of the year, thus the annual total sales was slightly down."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ercent-in-2009 ...

Sony's senior VP of marketing and head of the PlayStation Network has said that Sony is now "breathing down the necks" of Microsoft in terms of console sales, and predicted that while the PS3 will fulfil its planned 10 year lifespan, the 360 won't be around for as long.

"We can be passionate fans, but I don't think they'll be around in 10 years so I'm very confident we'll pass them within that time frame," Peter Dille said in an interview with IGN.

"I mean, we've got 31 million [units sold] worldwide right now - they've got 39 million [units sold]. I don't even need to go out 10 years. I'm not going to make any predictions for your interview today other than we'll pass them, but you look at where we are today and where they are today, and they had an opportunity to sprint as far ahead of us as possible when they had the head start.

"Well, we're breathing down their necks and they can see us in the rearview mirror and it's not going to take too long to pass them."

Speaking specifically about the PlayStation Network, Dille also backed up recent comments by Kaz Hirai that Sony was looking into charging for new additions to the service.

"It's been our philosophy not to charge for it from launch up until now, but Kaz recently went on the record as saying that's something we're looking at. I can confirm that as well. That's something that we're actively thinking about," he said.

Dille added that the company is pleased with how the PlayStation Home space is performing, saying that December saw the highest traffic yet for the service.

"The average time people spend in Home is about 60 minutes. If you think about that, it's a lot of time. I know you can sit down and game for hours and time gets lost. But think about watching a TV for a half hour or how much time you might spend on a website - there's are kind of bite-sized chunks of time. But to spend 60 minutes on Home is a pretty sticky experience."

People are also spending money in Home. Virtual items become profitable from the day they launch "because it doesn't cost a lot to create a virtual t-shirt," said Dille. And those items also become drivers for gaming content, he added.

"People walk around in Home and if they see someone wearing an artifact from Uncharted or God of War, they might ask, 'Where'd you get that?' and they might go back to that specific game space, learn more about it, become a fan of that game and then go buy the Blu-ray disc."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ng-to-pass-360 ...

via Eurogamer


Sony bigwig Peter Dille has explained that the real reason for PS3's slow start was poor levels of stock; the pump was "primed".
It's not a question of "if" the PS3 will overtake Xbox 360, Dille went on to say, but "when".
Sales of Sony's PS3 overtook Xbox 360 on a monthly basis in the US following the release of the PS3 Slim. There, in the whole of 2009, Microsoft's console finished just 400,000 units ahead of Sony's machine.

In Japan, there's a gulf between PS3 and 360. Sony's console now goes toe-to-toe with Wii, while Xbox 360 sells around 5000 a week alongside the PS2. To date, the PS3 has sold over 4.5m units in Japan, while the 360 has managed over 1m. ...

via Eurogamer


Microsoft appears to have no plans to release a 250GB standalone hard drive for the Xbox 360 in Europe.

Instead, the platform holder has reduced the price of the 120GB hard drive from £99.99 to £79.99 - "while supplies last".
We're not sure what "while supplies last means"; maybe Microsoft is clearing the way for a 250GB HDD. We'll look into it. ...

The excitement around Palm's new generation of webOS smartphones has ebbed somewhat since the Pre was hailed as a potential iPhone killer last year.
Even so, Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg thinks the company is set for another upswing this year, predicting that the company is being under-estimated by investors.
"If they can grow their installed base of users and keep the carrier momentum going, this value should become more apparent," he writes in a research note.
Goldberg also predicts that Palm will sell 7.3 million handsets in 2010, and then 11.3 million in 2011, fuelled by its upcoming launch with Verizon Wireless.
He also thinks that by the end of this year, there may be more apps available on Palm's App Catalog than are on BlackBerry App World - a more controversial assertion, given RIM's recent announcement that its developer community is now 200,000-strong.

However, Palm's success may not lead to a standalone future for the company. "There is real potential for Palm to be acquired in the next two years," writes Goldberg.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/35878...OS-renaissance ...

We've previously reported that Zelda Wii will be at E3 this year. Exciting enough, right? But now we know it's going to be playable at the show. Sweaty palms, anyone?

Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma has confirmed that he's looking to show off a hands-on demo at the June show - and that the title will only work with MotionPlus.

"I'd like to show something playable," Aonuma told that latest issue of Famitsu.

He added that the game would work exclusively with Wii MotionPlus. "It just feels so natural," added Aonuma. "Link's sword and the controller that you're holding become one."

Development is progressing, with Aonuma commenting: "We've progressed in development since last year. At present, the core areas have come into clear view."

However, the great man couldn't give a release window.

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