PS3 Screen

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec 09, 2008: Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) has released new details on X-Men Origins: Wolverine, whose titular hero is one of the most popular Marvel characters of all time. The video game, scheduled for release in May 2009, coincides with the global debut of Twentieth Century Fox’s release of its feature film, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, which is also based on the famous Marvel character.

From the award-winning studio Raven Software, the video game enlists players to experience the tormented origins of Wolverine, from his escape of the Weapon X facility to the jungles of Africa and beyond. The game is currently in development for the Xbox 360 TM video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION ® 3 computer entertainment system, Windows ® PC, Wii TM home video game system, Nintendo DS TM , PlayStation ® 2 computer entertainment system and PSP ® (PlayStation ® Portable) system, and is not yet rated by the ESRB.
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Paris, FRANCE — May 21, 2007 — Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that it is expanding its casual video game business. Ubisoft has made significant investments and formed an internal development structure dedicated to the creation of games for everyone. Among the first projects of the new team are the introduction of the new “My Coach” product line and the significant expansion of the already successful Petz® franchise.

“Ubisoft has a proven track record of publishing and creating video games for non-traditional gaming audiences, with multimillion-selling brands like Petz and Rayman,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “The timing is right for us to leverage our creativity and to open up the video games market to new consumers who will be attracted by content that can help them learn, grow and feel better in an entertaining way.”

Ubisoft’s new casual games structure will be led by Pauline Jacquey, executive producer of casual games at Ubisoft. Pauline joined Ubisoft in 1998, working as a producer on some of Ubisoft’s best-selling brands including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® and Rayman®. Ubisoft will also continue to partner with third-party developers to publish casual game titles for the mass market.

“Ubisoft’s vision for this business is unique,” said Pauline Jacquey. “We are developing projects that make people feel that playing games is worth their while, allowing them to spend quality time with family and friends, learn a new skill, or improve their daily lives.

By creating games with real-life benefits, we are creating games that appeal to everyone.”

The “My Coach” series of games will allow players to improve themselves and learn in an interactive and stimulating way. The first two games in the line are “My Word Coach” and “My Life Coach.” “My Word Coach,” is being developed in collaboration with linguists and will help players improve their verbal communication and vocabulary in a fun way. “My Word Coach” can be played alone or with friends on Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ and will be released in Fall 2007. “My Life Coach” is being developed in collaboration with a behaviorist. “My Life Coach” is a personal coach that gives anybody concerned about their well being the willpower they need to change their habits the way they want in a motivating and fun way. “My Life Coach” will be available for the Nintendo DS in Holiday 2007.

Ubisoft will also continue to grow its extremely successful Petz® line of games and allow young players to learn how to take care of that special cat, dog or horse on their Wii for the first time. The Petz series sold more than 3.5 million units worldwide in fiscal year 2006-07.

More About: Ubisoft, My Coach

Atari Announces the Ultimate Chapter in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Series

Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) one of the world’s most recognized brands and a third-party video game publisher, today announced that Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is in development for WiiTM and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 combines the lightning fast fighting and action that have made Budokai Tenkaichi 1 and Budokai Tenkaichi 2 the #1 fighting games of 2005 and 2006. Developed by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. / Spike, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is slated to release during the 2007 holiday season.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 delivers an extreme 3D fighting experience, improving upon last year’s game with over 150 playable characters, enhanced fighting techniques, beautifully refined effects and shading techniques, making each character’s effects more realistic, and over 20 battle stages. In addition, an improved control system for the Wii will allow players to easily mimic signature moves and execute devastating energy attacks as they are performed in the Dragon Ball Z animated series.

“Atari is incredibly excited to offer the ultimate chapter in the Budokai Tenkaichi series with over 20 new characters that have never been seen in any other DBZ video games such as Nail, King Cold and King Vegeta and battle stages that fans will love,” said Emily Anadu, Senior Product Manager, Atari, Inc. “Each year, the developers refine the game to bring fans closer to feeling like they are actually playing the show.”

In addition to the unprecedented number of characters and improved Wii control system, the environments have also been enhanced to feature day and night stages. The power of the moon in the night stages gives players additional ways to transform their characters and lets fans recreate some of their favorite memories from the show.

The immensely popular Dragon Ball Z® series is the gold standard of anime-based video games, with more than 25 different games and over 10 million units sold since May 2002.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is set for release this holiday season. For more information on Dragon Ball Z video games, please visit http://www.atari.com/dragonballz.

The Article:

GamesPress

More About: Dragon Ball Z, Budokai Tenkaichi 3

This is an excerpt from the Review of the Nintendo Wii game Spiderman 3 by AMN

Spider-Man 3 could have been another third-party smash for the Nintendo Wii with its creative motion controlled gameplay, but it’s many failings drag it down. There is genuinely good gameplay here, but it takes some patience and tolerance to get past and look beyond the many glitches and oddities. Swinging through the city is the most enjoyable part of the game, fighting enemies is an exercise in acrobatics, and the extra story elements slightly fill out the film’s plot. It’s those infuriating and frustrating glitches that taint the experience and show quite clearly just how much this game was rushed to stores to meet a marketing deadline. It’s quite a shame, as if the developers had been able to take the extra time needed to iron out the problems, Spider-Man 3 would be a must-buy. Instead it’s best as a rental or, better yet, picked up from the bargain bin at the end of the summer.

Full Review 

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Nintendo announces second quarter Wii lineup, Pokemon Battle Revolution confirmed as first wifi title for the console:

REDMOND, Wash., March 7, 2007 – Wii™ owners of all ages have discovered the fun of playing with a group of friends in the same room. Now for the first time players can compete with one another near and far with Pokémon® Battle Revolution, a game of remarkable firsts:

* the first Wii game to include Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection play
* the first Pokémon game for Wii
* the first game to link Wii and the hand-held Nintendo DS™
* and the first Wii game that can be controlled using Nintendo DS

When Wii and Nintendo DS are linked, players can use their Nintendo DS units as controllers or import characters from the upcoming Nintendo DS games Pokémon® Diamond Version or Pokémon® Pearl Version. Pokémon Battle Revolution launches on June 25 exclusively for Wii and brings a dramatic new chapter to the Pokémon franchise, which has sold more than 155 million units worldwide. Pokémon Battle Revolution also serves as one of the standouts in Nintendo’s second-quarter launch lineup, which the company revealed today in conjunction with the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Pokémon Battle Revolution will be joined by Super Paper Mario™, the first Mario™ game for Wii; Mario Party® 8, a multiplayer party game; and Big Brain Academy™, a brain-training game that builds on the phenomenal success of the Nintendo DS brain games. These will add to the ever-growing library of Wii games, which will total more than 50 by the end of June. Nintendo DS fans will see the arrival of Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version, two surefire smash-hits.

“With strong third-party support, Wii and Nintendo DS have games on the way for both casual and veteran gamers,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “Our new ways to play have attracted millions of players around the world. This lineup demonstrates our commitment to leading the industry with the future of video gaming.”

Third-party publishers also have stepped up their support of both Wii and Nintendo DS, recognizing these systems as the hottest things going in the video game industry. The list of games for April, May and June includes the following:
Wii

• April 9 Super Paper Mario Nintendo
• April Prince of Persia Rival Swords Ubisoft
• April Bust-A-Move Bash Majesco
• April Bioncle Heroes Eidos
• May 15 Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Midway
• May 29 Mario Party 8 Nintendo
• May Tamagotchi Party On Namco Bandai
• May Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean at World’s End Disney Interactive
• May Escape from Bug Island Eidos
• May Spider-Man The Movie 3 Activision
• June 11 Big Brain Academy Nintendo
• June 25 Pokémon Battle Revolution Nintendo
• June Cosmic Family Ubisoft
• Spring Heatseeker Codemasters
• Q2 Legend of the Dragon American Game Factory
• Summer Shrek the Third Activision
• Summer Transformers the Game Activision

Nintendo DS

• April 22 Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl Nintendo
• May Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Buena Vista
• May Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu Atari
• May Pony Friends Eidos
• May Diner Dash Eidos
• May Touch the Dead Eidos
• June 4 Nintendo DS browser Nintendo
• June 4 Planet Puzzle League Nintendo
• June 11 Touchmaster DS Midway
• June Zendoku Eidos
• Spring Naruto Ninja Council 3 Tomy
• Spring Time Ace Konami
• Spring Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom Konami
• Q2 Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon Natsume
• Summer Shrek the Third Activision
• Summer Transformers: Autobots Activision
• Summer Transformers: Decepticons Activision

Game Boy® Advance

• Summer Shrek the Third Activision

Nintendo press room

More About: Nintendo, Wii lineup, wifi

This is an Excerpt of the Gamespy interview with Perrin Kaplan about the Wii Online

“I think you’re asking why we’re not following the other guys. And we feel that everyone has developed their own niche of expertise…We aren’t giving up on online games at all…massively multiplayer online gaming is probably not a direction that Nintendo will be going. I think that’s a niche area that other companies have more expertise in.”

“…worldwide online play is a priority for Nintendo and you will see it…I think if we had just taken the whole package, here are all the channels, here are all the online games, here are the Miis, the news, the weather, I just think it would have overloaded the mass consumer. So instead we began rolling everything out in a fashion where people can really understand it.”

“We expect for third-party games to get better and better, just like they are for the Nintendo DS. Now that the developers have more experience with the system, they have the ability to create something truly original…(regarding Wii Browser) I know that if you download the trial version, the full version will be free. So your readers should definitely make sure to get the trial version…(regarding Smash Bros) I can tell you that you’ll absolutely love it. There are some neat surprises.”

Full Interview

More About: Wii Online

From IGN Mailbag

“An interesting side note, developers tell me that third party SD card support may be out for launch. Most third parties apparently don’t have access to the Wii SD card bay yet, just as Nintendo has yet to provide libraries for online support. In short, it doesn’t look like we’ll be storing our third party game save files to SD card and bringing the data over to a friend’s house during the first couple months of Wii’s release.”

More About: Wii SD card, Wii

Accordint to Kotaku, various Some small developers have been receiving mysterious Boxes  containing complete Wii dev kits to create titles for the unique system.

This could prove essential to get as many developers and titles for the console with third-party games being a key factor for a successful sale

Nintendo had a little Q&A at the company’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing yesterday.

One of the things mentioned was the Nintendo Wii development kit for third party developers.

Nintendo said that they plan to get many more third party developers on board than they did with the GameCube, and they’ll do that by offering (very) low prices.

“Nintendo hopes to provide third-parties with development kits for as low as $1,732.“

More About: Nintendo Wii development kit, Nintendo, third party developers