Mass Effect Composer Jack Wall Confirms Departure

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Veteran movie composer Clint Mansell revealed recently that he will be scoring Mass Effect 3. Jack Wall, who composed the first two Mass Effect games along with Jade Empire, has confirmed that he’s not working on Mass Effect 3 and that there’s no hard feelings involved.

“I have had a great relationship with the folks at BioWare having done three games with them. We’re all still very good friends, so nothing dramatic,” explained Wall. “I think it was just time for a change. I’m so proud of the work I’ve done on the ME franchise and I so appreciate the kind words about those scores from people like yourself.”

“It was just time to move on. I’m working on some very exciting projects and look forward to when I can announce them, but also very much wish the dev team at BioWare all the best on ME3.”

Source: Eurogamer

Major Nelson Zings Kevin Butler

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Corporate spokesperson Kevin Butler recently made a ‘whoopsie’ when he retweeted a PS3 USB dongle ID generator key, misidentifying the code as something from Battleship. Director of Programming for the Microsoft gaming network Xbox Live Larry Major Nelson Hryb was obviously having some fun at his fake counterpart’s expense in a recent Tweet.

Anyone up for a game of battleship Hryb tweeted.

Source: Twitter

Duke Nukem Gets Balls Of Steel

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2K Games and Gearbox Software has announced the release of a special collector’s edition ofDuke Nukem Forever. Cheekily called the Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel edition, it will retail for $99.99 and be available exclusively at GameStop and Amazon for PS3, PC and Xbox 360.

Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel edition features a bust of Duke, certificate of authenticity, 100-page hardcover art book, postcards, sticker, comic book, paper craft, poker chips, mini-card deck, and dice with radioactive emblem. Oh, there’s also a copy of the game with the special Balls of Steel cover art.

The Guild Returns For Fifth Season

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Sprint and Microsoft have revealed that they have picked up the sponsorship with The Guild for its fifth season. Both have been sponsoring the web series since the second season and the series will again appear on Xbox Live, MSN Video and the Zune Marketplace.

“We’re lucky that we have such an eager fanbase and that our numbers have stayed so high,” said Day. “Partnering with Xbox increased our fanbase in a real way it introduced us to millions of people who never would have seen it before.”

The Guild was created by Felicia Day and is produced by Kim Evey, and the fifth season will involve a convention for the MMORPG they play and will have more brand sponsorships. “We haven’t really had success with brand integration aside from Microsoft and Sprint, who help us make sure their brands are visible but not obnoxious, said Evey. But the brands that we need now are brands which would sell their wares at a convention like this, and are willing to be in our show.

Source: Giga Om

NGP Will Coexist With PSP, Says Yoshida

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To many, the announcement of the NGP by Sony was a sign of the end for the PSP. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios, doesn’t see the original PSP going away any time soon, however.

“The NGP features everything Sony can and wants to do today,” he said. “It’s a platform looking forward with great ambition. It can’t replace a platform that has already been on sale for seven years now. In terms of pricing, we can’t sell the NGP for the same price as a PSP. The PSP has become very affordable and popular, especially with younger generations. I think the NGP needs time to mature and get adopted by users. So, for the time being, both platforms will coexist.”

Source: CVG

Namco: We Didn’t Find the Right Time To Release Enslaved

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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West managed to sell less than a half million units over the recent holiday season, falling far short of publisher Namco Bandai’s hopes. Despite the positive critical reception to the game, Namco thinks that the timing of the game’s release may have pulled it down.

“It’s an 80+ rated title [on Metacritic] it did extremely well from a game quality standpoint. At DICE… we got six nominations,” said Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing. “It speaks to the one element that is critical, which is the quality of the game.”

“To answer that question of the challenge of the unit number it really didn t do what we anticipated, he added. To be perfectly frank, I think as a company prior to us reforming this organization, going to market, I think the game went to market at a very busy season. It launched in the midst of a busy holiday season. Last year, there were like 4000+ games for consoles. We didn’t do a good job finding the right time for it because when you look at the quality of the game it speaks for itself. An 80+ rated game is guaranteed a hit. We got DLC that came out that got 10 out of 10.”

“Ultimately, I think that game had the quality needed to address the gamers. I think it s a matter of getting into the market at the right time, which is something you will see us do much better. Even this morning with some of the announcements, we re getting ourselves ahead of schedule letting you know when it’s coming and incorporating community communication.”

“When asked if Enslaved has a future,” Choi responded, “You tell me, do you think gamers want more I can assure you, a title like Enslaved, and every title we’ve worked on in the past we re going to re-examine them and say what is the potential for the game? We ve been doing a lot of studies, consumer engagement, and community engagement let s put it this way one of these days stay tuned there will be more news to come.”

Source: Siliconera

Activision May Be Eying Take-Two

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Activision recently applied severe cuts to their Guitar Hero business and canceled True Crime: Hong Kong when the game was far along in development, leaving some noticeable gaps in their release schedule. However, rumor has it that a merger with Take-Two might be in order, not unlike what the company did with Blizzard.

“There are very strong rumors amongst people at a very senior level within the global business,” said an anonymous senior executive. “But there’re not much more than that at the moment they are just rumours. And, of course, given Activision’s news this week, everyone is now looking to see what their next move is. But you can definitely put two and two together and make four-ish.”

One of Take-Two’s major shareholders has been said to be prepping the company for acquisition. Many of the larger talents at Rocktstar will see their contracts expire in 2012, it’s worth noting.

Source: MCV

PS3 Fake Ad: Kids At Play

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Ben McCambridge invested $6,000 in a concept for a PS3 ad, and the results are very professional looking for a first time director. If Sony ever picked this up they’d probably ditch the kids fist fighting and using guns, but the idea behind it is certainly solid.

 

PlayStation Move Heroes: Get The Story

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Something like a Super Smash Bros. for PlayStation characters, this trailer shows how all the characters in PlayStation Move Heroes ended up in the same crazy mixed up universe. What’s more, this confirms that James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Michael Erwin, Max Casella, Kevin Miller, and Matt Olsen are all back in their various roles for the game!

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