Despite failing to buyout Take-Two before mega-blockbuster Grand Theft Auto 4 was released, EA is still determined to assimilate the company. EA took out a loan; a big one. 1 billion U.S. dollars. They will have until August 9th of next year to repay the loan back plus interest, assuming they buy out the company in it’s entirety. The banks that lent the money are also on standby to provide further funding for EA’s conquest of Take-Two Interactive.
Source - Gamesindustry.biz
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Let’s set the record straight first. Kaz Hirai never says that Sony is or isn’t in very early development cycles of the next Playstation. Microsoft already confirmed the next Xbox, but Kaz thinks it’s best to focus on the current generation, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Kikizo recently interviewed the Sony front man and asked him about future console development and when we could possibly see the next Playstation.
To say, OK, what is the consumer wanting to do in interactive entertainment five years from now, what can we as a platform holder propose, if you will, to the consumers, to say maybe we should so this or that, and make sure that we keep the consumers engaged, and really also make sure that we are leading the market as opposed to following it. So discussions are happening all the time, about both our short term plans - what are we doing this fiscal year, next fiscal year - as well as, what is the world going to look like, what is the landscape going to look like five years from now, or ten years from now.
Hirai then goes on to basically make the point that we really should not be preoccupied with the next generation of consoles when the current generation has only just begun. Many great games have been announced for all of the current generation consoles and are still quite a ways off. Hopefully ones even greater will appear later in this generation’s life cycle.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Wednesday, the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Lee Terry (R-Neb). We’ve seen this before. Basically it’s purpose to stop minors from buying and renting games rated M or AO by the ESRB. If stores don’t check ID’s, they could be slapped with a $5,000 fine.
“The images and themes in some videogames are shocking and troublesome. In some games high scores are often earned by players who commit ‘virtual’ murder, assault and rape,” Terry continued. “Many young children are walking into stores and are able to buy or rent these games without their parents even knowing about it. Many retailers have tried to develop voluntary policies to make sure mature games do not end up in the hands of young kids, but we need to do more to protect our children.”
Not much different here from the amendments introduced at the state level, which are usually stricken down by judges because they are deemed unconstitutional. This is a federal bill, so it being ratified could affect retailers across the U.S.
Source - Variety
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Roy Taylor, who works at NVIDIA, recently told Eurogamer about the ever apparent problem with the PC game market and how he believes that people pirating the game are sucking the very life out of the industry itself. But he’s not going on one of those rants most industry figureheads do. He is truly disappointed with the said pirates because he realizes how passionate most PC gamers really are.
“One of the things that I find frustrating is that PC gamers tend to be very passionate, and they love the people that make great PC games. If you ask any PC gamer what they think of John Carmack, they’ll say he’s a hero. What do they think of Tim Sweeney? He’s a hero. Ken Levine is a hero. And yet many of them, sadly, will go and steal from them. I just don’t get that, I really don’t.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Could we be seeing Valve developed software on the Wii in the upcoming days ahead? Not any time soon, at least according to Doug Lombardi in a recent interview with CVG. He expressed the company’s desire to develop something innovative on the Wii for children, but clearly denies such a project actually exists.
“We all play the Wii a lot and we think that the proper way for Valve to approach the Wii would be to make something cool designed specifically for it.”
“I mean, I’m not making any announcements”, he continued, “but there’s a lot of desire internally to do something for kids, do something on the Wii.”
One of the most innovative developers of all time creating a game on the most innovative console? It seems like a perfect match. I hope these denials are as substantial as Orange Box’s initial release dates.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Some rather disappointing news for Retro fans. It has been confirmed that three key members of Retro Studios have departed from the studio. Mark Pacini, who was the lead designer, along with art director Todd Keller, and engineer Jack Mathews parted ways with Retro for unspecified reasons.
Some people are speculating that the three will start a new studio elsewhere. That would be interesting, especially if any video games they create are of the caliber of the Metroid Prime trilogy that they worked on at Retro.
Source - IGN
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Six Take-Two board members acquired more shares in the company today, in an attempt to strengthen its defense against Electronic Arts’ hostile takeover.
Hit the jump for more.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Tomorrow marks the start of the weekend, and Europeans should be pleased to know that quite a few new titles will be launching on the very same day.
Games such as Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Dawn of War, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates should be more than enough to keep you occupied for a while.
List after the jump!
Read the rest of this entry »
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
According to the latest figures from the NPD Group, space-strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire is not only doing well via download distributions, but it’s also rivaling titles such as Call of Duty 4, and World of Warcraft at retail.
Hit the jump for more.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Epic Games has teamed up with Valve to offer gamers its entire catalogue of Unreal titles on the latter’s content distribution service, Steam.
Already now you can purchase the following: Unreal Gold, Unreal 2: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor’s Choice Edition, and the more recent Unreal Tournament 3
What’s even more awesome, you can buy all of the above as an ‘Unreal Deal Pack’ for a mere $60.
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
If you’ve read news elsewhere in your typical media outlets, you’ve may have heard a bit about how the U.S.’s economy has been feeling a bit down. Sure, it might be slightly blown out of proportion, but when it comes to things like economic recessions, it can make a lot of people worried about the future. If you are a gamer, you shouldn’t have to worry about the games industry, at least according to an article that was up on Gamesindustry.biz this morning.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
John Riccitiello has responded to a Q&A request from Gamasutra regarding their recent offer to acquire Take Two for $26 per share (or $2 Billion). Apparently this news only became public after Take Two rebuffed the offer, with the deal evaporating EA’s pragmatic CEO decided to go public in an attempt to elicit shareholder pressure on Take Two’s Board of Directors.
Hit the link for more on the offer as well as EA’s opinions on Rockstar and the Take Two portfolio.
Via Gamasutra…
Hit the Jump for the Full Story
Loading ...
