Ubisoft's executive director Alain Corre has said that Wii titles which simply copy products already on the market have no chance of selling.

Speaking in a exclusive interview published today, Corre said that there is still room for innovation in the crowded Wii market, and he's confident the company's upcoming fitness title Your Shape can distinguish itself from products such as Wii Fit and EA Sports Active.

"The Wii market still has huge potential you just need to find the right angle and be different enough and innovative enough to please people," offered Corre. "There are hundreds of games and if yours is a 'me too' title it will drown before even existing."

"If you can surprise the consumers, if you can innovate and bring something new and fresh then you have huge opportunities. We're trying to do that and we have a lot of hope with our fitness game Your Shape."

Your Shape will be bundled with its own camera to track player movement and according to Corre, will appeal to those intimidated by traditional control methods.

"For the first time we'll be able to offer a camera with the package and players won't need a controller in their hand. The possibility is to open up interactive entertainment to a new population who have previously been afraid of any controllers."

For similar reasons Corre is excited by the new motion control peripherals revealed at E3 by Sony and Nintendo, believing that with new genres and technology new consumers will be attracted to gaming.

"It's a revolution because we've always been used to controllers and now you either don't have one at all you have something that isn't intimidating. It's something we have to integrate, and invent games that we have never experienced before.

"And hopefully it will grow the industry and make more consumers come to games because we are getting closer to them and there are less and less barriers to playing. Ultimately that will expand the videogame industry in the next ten years." he added.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...isting-ubisoft ...

Well known’ developer working on another Duke Nukem game, set for release ‘mid-2010’

Publisher Take-Two has signed an agreement with a ‘well known’ studio to develop an unannounced Duke Nukem game, according to a GamePolitics report, despite the fate of the current Forever project suspended in legal flux.

Court documents filed last week by former Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms – in response to Take-Two’s stern lawsuit documents – provide a number of counter-claims against the suing publisher.

The developer claims that Take-Two agreed to forward over $2.5 million to help fund the development, but only after the publisher met with 3D Realms to review the status of the game.

This allegation is likely intended to counter Take-Two’s insinuation that 3D Realms was failing to successfully develop the project. As Take-Two also claims it had provided that $2.5 million advance, 3D Realms is therefore suggesting the publisher must have been satisfied with progress of the game; a sentiment nowhere to be seen in Take-Two’s statement.

However, 3D Realms’ statement goes on to say that repayment of that advance would come from one, or two, sources:


“Repayment of the $2,500,000 was to come from royalties generated by sales of the DNF game and/or a new Duke Nukem-based game being developed in parallel by a separate well-known game developer under contract with Take-Two.”

This game is not thought to be the Duke Nukem Trilogy, which is not being published by Take-Two. It means that there could be another Duke Nukem game in development.

3D Realms goes on to allege that it was not given a deadline for Duke Nukem Forever back in October 2007. “However, the development agreement for the new Duke Nukem-based game (not to be confused with the DNF game) being developed by the separate game developer scheduled the new Duke Nukem-based game to be completed by mid-2010.”

The developer goes on to claim that the $2.5 million advance was only due to be reimbursed to Take-Two if, and only if, “the DNF game was not commercially released before October 22, 2012.”

3D Realms adds that, under such circumstances, the amount owed back from the advance would be deducted by “royalties from sales of the new Duke Nukem-based game.”

No verdict on the matter has been reached. In regards to the alleged new Duke Nukem game, Develop has contacted the parties involved for comment.

http://www.developmag.com/news/32231...in-development ...

Region-free Xbox 360 copies of Atari's PS3-only game won't dent sales, according to retail
Following confirmation that the US 360 edition of Ghostbusters will be region free, retail does not expect a rush to cash in on imports owing to the game's UK PlayStation exclusivty.
The game debuted at number four in the ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack All Formats Top 40 this week.
Though there is still a trade in import games on the High Street, retailers who choose to sell non-EU products can still face legal consequences.
“Any retailer selling imported games breaches copyright if the product is not licensed for sale in the UK,” explained ERA’s Kim Bayley. “The likelihood of ‘being caught’ would depend on the copyright owner knowing that the retailer was selling it.
“If this is the case it is for the copyright owner to take action against the importer. We would encourage all retailers to compete on a level playing field. However, we would also encourage publishers to make product available should there be retail demand.”

Importing was a problem for the industry in the past, when European release dates would be months or even years behind those in the US and Japan. However, with global releases commonly now separated by just a matter of days, the import business is now more an online affair.
“Many retailers have long severed their relationships with potential Stateside suppliers or have no idea where to look, other than on consumer online stores,” Game Guide editor Chris Ratcliff told MCV.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34808/Impo...w-Ghostbusters ...

t's not news that the media you buy for both Kindle and Zune are protected by DRM. Readers are sending in stories of some of the ramifications of that fact. First, Absentminded-Artist notes an account at Gear Diary recounting what an Amazon rep told one user about download limits on Kindle books.
"One facet of the Kindle's DRM has reared an ugly head: download limitations. Upgraded your iPhone recently? Bought a new Kindle? You may not be able to reload your entire library. There's an unadvertised flag: 'You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn't say "this book can be downloaded this number of times" even though that limitation is there?' To which [the rep] replied, 'No, I'm very sorry it doesn't.'"
Next, reader Rjak writes
"DRM is a bad idea, poorly implemented. One of the many many valid reasons to drop Zune and it's marketplace is the DRM validation error you see below. The vast majority of the music I had purchased last year is completely gone. There's no refund, the music doesn't exist on the service anymore, the files are just garbage now. Here's the error (screen capture): 'This item is no longer available at Zune Marketplace. Because of this, you can no longer play it or sync it with your Zune. There might be another iteration of it available in Zune Marketplace.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/...ing-Into-Focus ...

Sprint requires your Social Security number in order to run a credit check before they will allow you to open an account, according to a store manager in Silver Spring, MD. Since Sprint is the exclusive carrier for the Palm Pre, if you are not willing to provide an SSN, you can't buy this product. I believe a full credit check for this level of consumer purchase is a clear example of overkill. I have supplied an SSN when buying a house and renting an apartment, but never for any other consumer purchase. I have purchased my cars with cash so far, so I don't have first-hand experience, but a car loan also seems to be an appropriate place to require an SSN for a credit check. At the very least, Sprint should have an alternative for people who don't want to give out their SSN. I also found the entire experience a powerful argument against exclusive license agreements

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/...o-Buy-Palm-Pre ...

A new study by Harris Interactive notes that currently, one in ten Americans (10%) own an HD DVD player, while just 7% own a Blu-ray player. Crazy, right? More Americans own HD DVD right now than the "winning" format, Blu-ray. If you think about it, that statistic isn't that shocking. When HD DVD was around, it was far and away the "budget" format for high-def. The players were cheaper, the films were cheaper. In other words, it was a format more ready to thrive in a down economy. Blu-ray was always viewed as a niche format for those absorbed in A/V, not the common man's format. The survey also found that on average, consumers purchased approximately 6 Standard Format DVD's in the last six months compared with 1 in HD format.

http://slashdot.org/story/09/06/22/1...ill-Own-HD-DVD ...

There have been no shortage of custom apps hitting the Pre already, including a number of old favorites, but all have required a little bit of roto-rooting ahead of time to lay the groundwork for such non-authorized code. That might change in the very near future thanks to the work of a trio of dedicated deviant coders going by the handles xorg, simplyflipflops, and Shaya Potter. Over the span of just a few days they managed to figure out how to package and sign custom apps in such a way that anything can be installed on a completely stock phone -- the only catch is they're waiting to see what Palm has to say about it before they release a full how-to. Since the company has its own plans of making most developers wait at least a few months before setting them free we can't imagine the response is going to be: "This is totally awesome, please tell the world our secrets." But, we'd be happy to be wrong.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/22/p...e-world-waits/ ...

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the highest rated video game in the history of the DS, is coming to the Playstation Portable, Take-Two Interactive announced this morning.

"We're proud to extend this truly unique handheld Grand Theft Auto experience to PSP and offer a downloadable version of Chinatown Wars for PSPgo," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "Rockstar Leeds has shown incredible talent in creating games that raise the bar in terms of depth and innovation on portables, and with Chinatown Wars we have a rich, fast-paced, and incredibly addictive entry into the series."

Despite record review scores, Chinatown Wars sold just 89,000 copies on the DS in it's first month on shelves, leading some to wonder if the DS was a good platform for mature gaming.

It will be interesting to see how Chinatown Wars sales compare on the PSP when it hits in North America and Europe this fall.

"Rockstar's work with the GTA series has been an enormous part of the success of PlayStation platforms," said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We're excited to welcome the critically acclaimed Chinatown Wars to the outstanding line-up of great games headed to the PSP platform this fall."

The game will be available as both a digital download on the Playstation Network and on UMD.

Source: Kotaku.com ...