Sega becomes official partner of UK theme park; Sonic rollercoaster revealed
A Sonic-branded rollercoaster will launch at Alton Towers next month.
The rollercoaster is part of a three-year deal between Alton Towers and Sega, which will see the publisher hold exclusive video game rights at the resort. The Alton Towers Hotel will also feature a Sonic The Hedgehog themed room, which guests can stay in and play the latest Sonic games.
The rollercoaster is an updated version of Alton Towers’ Spinball Whizzer, and will be called the Sonic Spinball as of Saturday, February 13th.
“We are delighted to be working with Merlin Entertainments and Alton Towers Resort” said Sega UK marketing director Amanda Farr.
“Partnering Sonic with one of the UK’s most popular destinations for a family day out is a fantastic opportunity for people to engage, and have fun, with the Sonic brand. I’ll certainly be there at the launch of the rollercoaster to have my turn!”

Alton Towers’ sales and marketing director Morwenna Angove added: “It’s a great joint venture between the Alton Towers Resort and Sega. The affiliation of both brands will add to the great family offering at the Resort for kids seeking fabulous family fun and adrenalin addicted adults.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37269/Sonic-hits-Alton-Towers ...

Sony gives itself a distinct advantage over indie studios by waiting late to approve PSN projects, a leading UK developer has claimed.
Mark Morris, MD of British indies Introversion, claims that Sony’s tendency to bide time before approving PSN games means projects are at the point of no return by the time Sony begins its review process.
“With Microsoft your approval is given at the start, as long as you deliver what you said you'd deliver you're going to launch,” Morris told CVG.
“It's not like that with Sony. Sony's clearance for launch comes quite later and you have to invest quite a lot of time before you get it.
“That's a problem because it means you have to invest a lot of time and effort and then you're in a much weaker negotiating position because they could turn around and say 'we don't want it'.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...ating-position ...

Resident Evil 5 Alternate Edition is unaffected by the delay of the PS3 motion controller, says Capcom, because the game's compatibility was never announced in the West.

"Capcom has not announced any compatibility between Sony's motion controller and Resident Evil 5 in North America," the firm told Kotaku when asked if the game's release would be put back along with the wand.

"The release of this product will be unaffected by the delay in our territory and is still on track for a March 9 release with the individual pieces of downloadable content released prior," added Capcom.

So does that mean the Japanese version will have motion controls and the western version won't? Not good, if that's the case.

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

In what is sure to be a blow to the already beleaguered stand-alone GPS market, Nokia, the global leader in smartphone market share, has released a fully offline-enabled free GPS navigation and mapping application for its Symbian smartphones. Furthermore, the application also includes Lonely Planet and Michelin guides. Unfortunately, the N900, which is beloved by geeks for its Maemo Linux-based operating system, has not seen any of the navigation love so far. With Google's release of Google Navigation for Android smartphones, and now Nokia doing one better and releasing an offline-enabled navigation application, hopefully this is the start of a trend where this becomes an expected component of any smartphone.

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/...On-Smartphones ...

The vanilla model tops Japanese weekly hardware charts but PSPgo is left languishing
Sony’s PSP surged to the top of the weekly hardware charts in Japan this week, but Media Create’s official figures show that the picture is far from rosy for Sony’s enduring handheld in its homeland.
The PSP-3000, complete with UMD drive, shifted 71,186 units last week – beating the Wii (57,349), PS3 (35,156), DSi LL (30,418) and DSi (27,292) in the process.
However, it was a less successful week for PSPgo whose 2,027 sales leave it rock bottom in the charts, lagging behind the DS Lite (6,574), Xbox 360 (4,622) and PS2 (2,580).
Sony remains coy about the PSPgo’s overall performance since its arrival last October. It didn’t release any specific PSPgo sales numbers in its recent financial report, but declining PSP sales were pinned as the main cause behind the firm’s $1.3bn year-on-year revenue decline.
Critics have slammed the machine on many levels. Some retailers expressed concern about the machine’s lack of physical media drive, a move they saw as a threat to the boxed game business.

Others have criticised its £225 RRP while some have slammed the price of games on PSN, a point perfectly illustrated by the recent release of Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars on iPhone. The game will cost you £5.99 on Apple’s App Store. On PSN it currently retails for £29.99.
In a further indication that uptake may be below what Sony had hoped, despite claims to the contrary, the publisher recently extended its PSPgo Rewards promotion that entitles new owners to choose from one of three games for free upon purchasing the machine.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37270/Mixed-fortunes-for-PSP ...

Android appears to be providing a challenge to iPhone in North America. Its share of ad requests was just four per cent in Q1 2009.
The December 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report breaks down requests by region, manufacturer and OS in its network of more than 15,000 mobile websites, iPhone, Android, and webOS apps.
Here are the main regional splits:
Asia: Nokia continues to be the leading manufacturer with 53 per cent of requests in Q4 2009. iPhone had a strong Q4 and doubled its share of smartphone requests to 27 per cent.
Eastern Europe: Nokia’s share decreased to 35 per cent in Q4 2009. Apple, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung devices generated 23 per cent, 12 per cent and nine per cent of requests, respectively. Eight of the top 10 smartphones in the region were Nokia devices.

Latin America: Apple led with 39 per cent, Nokia had 15 per cent and Sony Ericsson had 11 per cent of device requests. RIM had three of the top 10 smartphones in the region.
North America: In Q4 2009, Apple lead with 40 per cent followed by Samsung with 17 per cent and Motorola with 11 per cent. The iPhone generated 54 percent of smartphone requests in Q4 2009. Android share grew throughout the year reaching 27 per cent in Q4 2009, by far the highest penetration in any region.
Oceania: Apple’s share is a massive 92 per cent.
Western Europe: iPhone and iPod touch generated more than half of total requests from the region at the expense of Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/35749...urge-across-US ...

Bayonetta game director Hideki Kamiya has hinted as to what we could expect from a seemingly likely sequel.

"We obviously have love for the work we have created, so I don't see anything wrong with Bayonetta 2," Kamiya told Game Informer, following the astonishing critical success of PG's mental demon slayer.

But Kamiya wouldn't simply want to do more of the same. "Personally, I'd like to approach the world of Bayonetta from a different angle, in the form of a spin-off."

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

The PSP has continued its reign on the Japanese software and hardware chart according to the latest figures, with Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep holding the top spot in the software chart and the PSP console topping hardware sales for a second week running.

The game sold 177,000 units over the week, beating the second place game New Super Mario Bros Wii - with 139,000 sales - by a considerable margin.

A new entry took third place in the form of Capcom's Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles.

Two further new entries also made debuts into the top ten - Tekken 6 on PSP, which entered at six, and Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku, which entered at number seven.

The rest of the top ten were all hangers-on from the previous week. Friend Collection remained near the top at number four - down from three - and Wii Fit Plus dropped one place to five.

In the hardware chart, the Wii came out second to PSP with sales of 57,349 - down from 76,772 the week prior. PlayStation 3 also saw a considerable sales drop at number three, with 35,156 units sold compared to 61,591 the week before.

Sales of the DSi LL overtook those of the DSi through the week, while the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PSPgo all remained in their last week places.

The Japanese software chart for the week ending January 17 was as follows:

01 Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP)
02 New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii)
03 Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii)
04 Friend Collection (DS)
05 Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
06 Tekken 6 (PSP)
07 Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku (DS)
08 The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
09 Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
10 Inazuma Eleven 2: Threat of the Invaders - Fire (DS)
The Japanese hardware chart for the week was as follows:

01 PlayStation Portable - 71,186
02 Nintendo Wii - 57,349
03 PlayStation 3 - 35,156
04 Nintendo DSi LL - 30,418
05 Nintendo DSi - 27,292
06 Nintendo DS Lite - 6574
07 Xbox 360 - 4622
08 PlayStation 2 - 2580
09 PSPgo - 2027

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...apanese-charts ...

Naughty Dog and Sony's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has received an unprecedented 15 nominations for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

Voted for by industry professionals, multiple nominations also go to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from Activision, Eidos' Batman: Arkham Asylum, EA's Brutal Legend and Sony's Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time.

The Academy has also created three new awards this year: Portable Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Social Networking Game of the Year.

"The experiences that today's games offer certainly explains why consumers of all ages are spending greater amounts of time in these fantastic worlds," said Joseph Olin, president, AIAS. "This year's crop of finalists demonstrates the craft and talent of the Academy's members and their continued quest to create new worlds to explore."

The Awards will take place at DICE next month in Las Vegas on February 18, and a full PDF of the nominees can be seen here. Highlights follow:

Overall Game of the Year:

Assassin's Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Action Game of the Year:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Prototype
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Shadow Complex
Casual Game of The Year:

Drawn: The Painted Tower
Flower
Flight Control
Plants Vs. Zombies
Scribblenauts
Role Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year:

Borderlands
Champions Online
Demon's Souls
Dragon Age: Origins
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Social Networking Game of the Year:

Bejeweled Blitz
Farmtown
FarmVille
Restaurant City
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:

Demon's Soul's
Farmville
Flower
Scribblenauts
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Adventure Game of The Year:

Assassin's Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ds-nominations ...