The Tom Clancy franchise and new Wii title Red Steel has helped Ubisoft exceed expectations for the third quarter, with sales rising 24 per cent to EUR 311 million.

Total sales for the nine months to December 31 were up 22 per cent to EUR 483 million.

The publisher singled out the performance of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas and new Wii IP Red Steel, resulting in sales of EUR 16 million in Q3.

Next-gen titles accounted for 63 per cent of sales in the third quarter, up from 18 per cent in the previous year.

"We saw excellent sales for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas - which ranked as the third best-seller in December for the Xbox 360 system in the United States - as well as sustained success for Red Steel and Rayman, which have ranked number two and three in sales for the Wii in the US and Europe since the console launched," said Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft.

The decision to support the Wii with a large portfolio of titles in its first months of release has resulted in 21 per cent of sales for the third quarter, making Ubisoft the number one third-party Wii publisher in North America and Europe.

Ubisoft now has a market share of 29.2 per cent in Europe and 18 per cent in the US on Wii software.

Xbox 360 titles accounted for 28 per cent of sales, making the publisher the number two third-party publisher on the format in the US and Europe. The publisher has a market share in Europe and the US of 14.6 per cent and 13.4 per cent, respectively, for Xbox 360 titles.

Nintendo DS titles accounted for 9 per cent of sales in Q3, up from 5 per cent over the previous year.

Ubisoft is now expecting quarter four sales to reach EUR 152 million, up from last year's EUR 144 million.

"2007 will be the year of the next-generation consoles, with the ramp-up of the PS3 and Xbox 360 systems," said Guillemot.

"We will also see new consumers - particularly women - entering the market, drawn by the remarkable success of the Wii and the Nintendo DS. In 2007-08, Ubisoft will apply all of its expertise in order to leverage this full scope of opportunities, and thereby step up growth and considerably improve profitability."

Ubisoft's first-person shooter Haze, developed by Free Radical Design, will now be released in the fourth quarter, along with three new Wii titles.

via gamesindustry ...

Mediumguage has updated his text reader and file manager for the PSP to v2.8

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New release from Gamedev Brazil


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Its a Crazy glitch, but really could not be used effectively in real game, but fun if you want to mess around
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Not sure about that Online shop thats selling that game for so cheap? Have you used a great/terrible online shop and want to tell everyone?

Online Shops Reviews is a new section in the forums where you can post reviews and vote for online shops.

There are only a few shops there at the moment but more can been added on request

enjoy ...

via gamespot

Making a game based on a cult '70s film for modern consoles may seem like a tall order. Although today's audiences may not connect with its source material, Rockstar Games has managed to make 2006's The Warriors work. The PlayStation 2 and original Xbox title offered an updated twist on the old-school brawler formula and married it to the classic film. The game even went the extra mile and scored the participation of some original cast members to voice original content that expanded on the movie. The fine folks at Rockstar are bringing the console experience to the PSP with a portable version of the adventure for those who might have missed it. We had the chance to check out a near-final version of the game to see how it's shaping up on its new home.



The Warriors invade the PSP in a sharp-looking portable version of the console game.
If you're unfamiliar with the game or film it's based on, here's a quick primer on just what The Warriors is all about: The game is based on the 1970 Walter Hill movie that adapted Sol Yurick's 1965 debut novel. The movie and novel focus on a night in the life of a gang struggling to get back to its turf after being marked for an unpleasant death. And why is this gang marked for death? It seems that it has been framed for the murder of Cyrus, a gang leader who was attempting to unite the gangs under one banner to fortify their cumulative power into a formidable collective that could run the city regardless of police opposition.

Unfortunately, Cyrus is right in the middle of his pitch at a massive gang meeting in the Bronx--which draws representatives from every major gang in the five boroughs of New York--when he's shot. The real killer, not being a fool, quickly frames the unsuspecting Warriors, which subsequently leads to their being marked for a painful retribution. Outnumbered in an epic way, the Warriors have no choice but to make their way back to the Bronx by the only means open to them, the subway, which leads to the longest and most painful walk of their lives.

The game offers a hybrid experience that draws on material from Yurick's book and original content to tell a much more fleshed-out story. Though the Warriors' run from the Bronx to Coney Island is still a core part of the game, it's not the only story there is to tell. You'll play through levels based on the game, as well as flashbacks. The PSP version of the game will feature all the aforementioned content from the console game but with a tweaked delivery. You'll find everything from the console game, such as story and flashback levels, minigames, and multiplayer modes, all intact. The multiplayer modes will now support ad hoc Wi-Fi options for up to two players. In addition, the unlockable armies-of-the-night mode, a side-scrolling Double Dragon-esque homage, is open from the start. Outside of that, you won't find anything totally new or exclusive to Sony's handheld. However, Rockstar is hoping the game's $19.99 price tag helps make the game appealing to fans who are eager to take the action on the go or anyone who might have missed out on the console game.



Yes, this passed for a gang in the '70s, and we realize the similarities to the Village People lineup.
The game's presentation on the PSP offers an impressive approximation of the PS2 game. The stylized visuals have all made it over intact and do a good job of capturing the game's unique look. The audio also makes the trip over, offering all the sounds heard in the console game. We noticed a few rough spots in the game, such as ghosting when the action got hectic and some frame rate inconsistencies, which we hope are ironed out in the final version. However, for all intents and purposes, The Warriors on the PSP captures the sights and sounds of its console cousins and manages to keep the loads close to par as well, which is nice to see.

Based on what we played, The Warriors is a solid conversion of the console game to the PSP. If the rough spots we mentioned are smoothed over, the title should shape up nicely on the portable system. Though the game doesn't sport any truly new content, its adapted multiplayer modes and its ability to have the unlockable mode open from the start, as well as its price, should make it an appealing purchase for PSP owners who are hankering for something to play. The Warriors is slated to ship next month for the PSP. ...

Nataku has released has updated his Counterstrike game for the PSP to V1.0, heres whats new:

Well I've updated CSpsp to version 1.0. Here's a list of updates from the readme:


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When we put together our Top 100 Games of All Time list way back in 2005, Sid Meier's Pirates! sat confidently at number six. In our estimation, only two Mario games, one Zelda title, Tetris and Sid's own Civilization III have ever bested the classic adventure romp. The game first pulled anchor in 1987 and saw two overhauls in later years on the PC, first in 1993 with Pirates! Gold and then 2004's remake with Sid Meier's Pirates!, which also saw a release on the Xbox.

The franchise has now set sail on the PlayStation Portable with Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life. The game is something of a mix between the PC and Xbox versions, bringing back some of the features that were stripped down for the console release, while also tweaking some of the PC's aspects, like sneaking into town. The resulting game is a classic in the truest sense of the word, a title that adheres to everything that we've loved about the franchise for roughly 20 years now. The port (get it?) did take on a few rough edges in the translation, but on the whole, it's an experience that's not to be missed.

For those who have never played Pirates! on any of its released systems, you've missed out on one of the most open-ended sandbox games that's ever been released. You begin a career (of which you'll have many) by choosing your starting year, difficulty and allegiance, either the English, Dutch, French or Spanish. Most every action you perform will alter your standing with one or more of these countries. Attack one of your enemies and not only will your country begin rewarding you with a new rank, some loot and maybe even some land, but the attacked country and possibly even its allies will turn against you.

Once a country has you on its bad side, its ships may begin attacking you at open sea and it may block your entrance into its towns. Anger a faction enough and its town may even open fire if you approach its vicinity. One of the game's coolest elements is that the ownership of towns can and will change over time. You can attack and take them over for your own country, and the computer will fight amongst itself over time. Indian tribes can also take over villages, and rogue pirates can attack and pillage towns and leave them empty.

While this sounds like Pirates! is based entirely around battles, that's not the case at all. You can make a lot of money by trading goods amongst towns or selling off booty that you've picked up from other ships. Treasure maps and the like will make their way into your hands, and the governor's daughters are always looking for a dance partner and even husband. Should you have an aversion to open warfare, you can make an entire career out of simply trading goods and looking for lost treasures.

The most important aspect of any game of Pirates! however is the management of your fleet and crew. You can pick up new seamen by either taking some on after winning a ship battle or by recruiting them at a local tavern. If you win a battle without sinking a ship you can add that to your fleet, though you need to manage your total crew count with the required hands for each ship, possibly leaving you with a small crew on your lead battle ship. You also need to make sure that your crew stays happy, and the bigger the crew, the more likely they are to become upset with "the man" (a.k.a. you) and attempt to take him down (a.k.a. mutiny).

Pirates! can arguably be called a collection of mini-games. Each of the actions, like ship battles, sneaking into a town, swordfights and such, are reasonably basic if not strategic, making it a very easy game to get into. You'll need a lot of skill for many of these things at the highest level, but this is where most of your notoriety will come into play.

While all of these things are rather simple, most all of them were implemented almost perfectly in their original design, adding up to make the game larger than the sum of its parts. Should a number of these have fallen short in the PSP port, especially the bigger ones like swordfights and ship battles, then the game would have come apart at the seems. Luckily, Full Fat did a mostly great job in keeping them very much intact and most of them are identical to their PC counterparts.

Swordfights, ship battles and general navigation work perfectly with the PSP's controls as these are more action-oriented tasks, and each of them work exactly as you'd find on the PC. Most of the towns and their various buildings, like the governor's mansion, tavern, shipyard and such, all work exactly as they do on the PC as well. However, these menus (as you generally just manage things) leave something to be desired here as they're just text options and don't offer the flash or presentation that we had assumed we'd find on the PSP. For instance, while in the tavern all you get is a cheap-looking line of text at the bottom of the screen ...