One could never accuse Gran Turismo designer Kazunori Yamauchi of not being a perfectionist, considering the latest incarnation of the racing franchise has been in development since 2006. He recently tweeted that it always seems like the games are nowhere near finished.
However, he seemed upbeat about the project, and is likely to work up until release (November 2) on polishing it. “GT5 is getting to where it will be finished shortly,” he tweeted.
Source: Kotaku
Zynga has confirmed that it has purchased Unoh for what is believed to be $30 million, soon after a finance agreement with SoftBank. Also, Robert Goldberg will become CEO of Zynga Japan.
“We are going to bring a lot of resources to bear,” he said.
Unoh is one of the top social game companies in Japan with its games Machitsuku!, Band Yarouyo! and Kaizoku Chronicle. Zynga Japan will keep Unoh’s games on portals like Mixi, Mobage-Town and Gree and will localize Zynga titles for those social gaming sites and the mobile game market, which is expected to reach $1 billion in sales in 2010.
Source: VentureBeat {link no longer active}
The previous Red Faction games have all been about rebelling against an oppressive Earth government formed on Mars. Humans, however, are the least of your worries in Red Faction: Armageddon.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. As an online multiplayer remix of six previous Castlevania games, it’s an odd experiment for the franchise.
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The Resident Evil series of movies have been surprisingly successful, branching off of what the games created with plots that leaned more towards action than horror. Check out some of the images from the first three films, as it shows how Alice has progressed in this TV spot.
Viacom’s president and CEO Philippe Dauman has indicated that despite a tempestous economy “the overall advertising market continues to strengthen. He added that he expects growth for the U.S. ad market in the third quarter.
“Of course, we are not all the way back, but the horizon is brighter,” said Chairman Sumner Redstone of the economy and ad market.
Dauman also noted that they would appeal the decision against the company in the suit against YouTube. He said the decision was “inconsistent with rulings of other courts.”
MTV had the second consecutive year-over-year ratings growth, which benefited the advertising revenue. Also, the Rock Band division manged to lower its costs and post a better result.
Source: AdWeek {link no longer active}
AT&T has had exclusive deals to carry certain handsets, most notably the iPhone. While many have speculated that exclusivity could be at an end, a filing with the SEC indicated they didn’t expect any end to these exclusive deals to hurt their bottom line.
“We do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations,” said AT&T in the filing with regulators.
The company explained this by adding that 80 percent of its customers are under a business or family contract and aren’t likely to switch over, and they claim they carry a wide variety of phones, making one sort of phone less important. “Such arrangements may not provide a competitive advantage over time, as the industry continues to introduce new devices and services,” said AT&T of exclusive deals.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Namco announced recently that they are combining Namco Bandai and Namco Networks in order to combine the lessons the two divisions have learned. Namco Bandai has worked on the more core franchises while Namco Networks has focused on casual PC, mobile and iPhone games.
“The key reasons we are uniting these two companies (Namco Bandai and Namco Networks) are: Accessibility, sociability and open development,” said Carlson Choi, vice president of marketing for Namco Networks. “Bill Gates has talked about going from display to display and the content following you. For us, those are the types of visions we are going to try and deliver.”
“We strive to make games accessible to gamers across multiple platforms. Combining the companies’ deep pools of talent and resources is the best way for us to achieve our goal of broadening our consumer base,” said Kenji Hisatsune, President, CEO and COO of Namco Networks. “I am very excited about uniting these dynamic groups and look forward to delivering top-notch content that’s appropriate for multiple gaming platforms and communities.”
Source: Kotaku
Quake Live is id Software’s free-to-play shooter title, but they’re looking to incorporate subscription options. For the price of $24 to $48 per year, players can have access to “Premium” and “Pro” subscription options.
Premium includes new maps, a new game mode, the ability to form your own clan and exclusive premium level awards. The Pro level includes all of those options, plus the ability to invite standard players to premium maps and start your own server.
Screen Digest’s Piers Harding-Rolls is predicting that an HD compatible Nintendo Wii will release in the near future and that a true Wii successor will debut within 2-3 years. He thinks that the console will arrive before the next PlayStation and Xbox.
“We expect it to have a shorter lifecycle than the high definition consoles, says Harding-Rolls. “We’re actually pitching it for an end of 2012 Japan release and the rest of world in 2013.”
“Our forecast actually incorporates the idea that there will be an upgraded version of the Wii available,” he continued. “There is potentially significant movement to come from Wii pricing in the future. If you look at the handheld strategy they’ve got the DSi and the 3DS, so I think they’ve got room to have to this iterative version before a 2012 or 2013 release.”
Source: GI.biz
