Infinity Blade Conquers $10 Million

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Epic Games has announced that their iOS studio Chair has seen its Infinity Blade title eclipse $10 million in revenue. This mark was reached in just six months, a time that saw the release of two free expansions: Infinity Blade: Deathless Kings and Infinity Blade: Arena.

“It’s exciting to see the market so quick to embrace a premier handheld gaming experience such as Infinity Blade, and we couldn’t be happier with the warm reception”, said Donald Mustard, creative director of Chair Entertainment. Furthermore, Apple has created an exciting, developer-friendly environment for iOS that has opened up many new doors for us.”

“Infinity Blade‘s success proves that triple-A gaming experiences can be hugely successful on iOS and that there is a valuable, pent up demand for premium content like this,” said Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder of Epic Games. “We have been licensing Unreal Engine 3 very affordably to developers large and small for all kinds of games and applications and we’re looking forward to our licensees achieving spectacular results of their own.”

PS Vita Planned As $249 From Beginning

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One of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of E3 was the revelation that the PS Vita would be priced as low as $249. According to SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, that was a goal of the company from the start.

“Going through the PlayStation 3 experience was difficult for all of us involved,” said Yoshida. “So when we started working on PS Vita three years ago we set goals, and one of those goals was to hit the $249 price point, 249 from the very, very beginning. That was springtime 2008.

“The difference was the timing of the Worldwide Studios’ and game team’s involvement in the process. We were involved in Vita development before we made the decision on what kind of CPU and GPU to use, he added. “That shows how long we’ve been involved and we were there all the time when the SCEI hardware guys got their hands on the components. In the past, up to the PlayStation 3, they kept everything behind closed doors, even from ourselves, and making decisions based on their inspirations from a mostly hardware engineering standpoint.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Final Fantasy Reaches Nine Figures In Shipped Games

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Square Enix has announced that the Final Fantasy franchise has seen over 100 shipped units worldwide. The latest entry in the franchise, Final Fantasy XIII-2, is being showcased at E3.

“We are extremely proud of what the Final Fantasy franchise has achieved over the years and continue to be extremely excited about the future, said Yoichi Wada, president and CEO of Square Enix. I would like thank all of our fans, partners and development teams for their support.

Xbox Live Presented Problems For Dust 514, Says Producer

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Developer CCP surprised many when it revealed that not only would Dust 514 be a free-to-play shooter, but it would be exclusive to the PS3. Producer Thomas Farrer defended the decision not to release the game on PC, saying they didn’t want to cannibalize their user-base, and said that PSN was ultimately the best choice over Xbox Live.

“Most of Dust is running on our own technology, it’s running on our own super-computer,” said Farrer. “And Sony is a lot more… open, shall we say, to allowing you to do those things.”

Farrer also noted the necessity of player anonymity given the skullduggery of sister title Eve Online. “It may seem silly, but on Xbox Live your identity is your Xbox Live identity. In the Eve universe, having people not know who you are is quite important.”

He didn’t say, however,that they never considered an Xbox Live version. “I don’t think it’s about saying we ‘couldn’t’ do it. I think some of the challenges we’d meet would be tricky. It’s nice to work on one platform rather than two, because it means you don’t have to make any awkward compromises, technically.”

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Make Your Own Operation Red River Trailer

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In a partnership with Intel and Roxio, Operation Flashpoint Red River has launched a destination website and Facebook tab {link no longer active} challenging fans to make their own trailer. On the Theater of War site fans can start their mission and drag gameplay clips, transitions, music and sounds to craft the ultimate trailer. Facebook connect-enabled, a user can pull in a photo to claim bragging rights on each clip for the director. Once completed, fans can save their creation to the gallery and share with their friends. Grand prize includes a complete Medion PC rig with the highest end Intel and Nvidia processors, blu-ray player and runners up receive Roxio game capture software and copies of the game.

InFamous 2 Interactive Trailer Puts The Choice In Your Hands

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Part of the official website for InFamous 2, an interactive trailer {link no longer active} allows fans to explore the living world of Empire City and the colorful characters that battle on the streets. After hitting play, fans can click on several hot spots in the video and explore deep content in a comic book style. Each hot spot adds additional video content to the ongoing narrative showing off gameplay moves, weapons and style.

Activision’s Kotick: Retail ‘Critically Important’ For Gaming Industry

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The last few years had seen the rise of digital distribution platforms for the gaming industry. However, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sees retail as having an important role for gaming for the foreseeable future.

“Retail is going to play a critically important role in the future success of entertainment,” said Kotick. “When you see people lined up at store before a launch, that in itself creates the popular cultural awareness. I don t think the theater experience you have in a store is going away anytime.”

Kotick also confirmed that there will be special collectors editions of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, reinforcing the importance of retail for the company. Meanwhile, Kotick also briefly addressed the mobile and social game spaces.

“We view social and mobile as an opportunity,” Kotick said.

Source: CNBC