Kinect Star Wars – Launch Trailer

Kinect Star Wars is probably not going to fulfill the dreams of hardcore gamers for dynamic and fast-paced action, but it does look like it could be great fun for the family. Play as a rancor, participate in a pod race and have fun with another player!

Nintendo Loses Marketing Manager In U.K.

Rob Lowe, Nintendo’s U.K. marketing manager will leave the company to join BBC Worldwide as marketing director. He had been with Nintendo for eight years, and leaves not soon after marketing director and assistant general manager Dawn Paine departed the company in February after a decade.

“Rob has been a valuable member of the U.K. marketing team and whilst we are sad to see him go, we are proud to watch a member of our Nintendo family start a new chapter in their career,” offered David Yarnton, general manager of Nintendo U.K.”Rob leaves behind him a talented and exceptional team who will continue to deliver some of the industry’s strongest and most creative campaigns as we embark on an exciting year ahead.”

 

Mass Effect Charity Campaign Closes, Declares Victory

The Retake Mass Effect campaign raised $80,000 for Child’s Play, with 4,116 people contributing to the Mass Effect 3 charity drive seeking more details to the ending. However, the drive has closed at the request of Child’s Play to avoid any confusion over any connection between the petition and charity, but with BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka promising that future content will provide more clarity to the game’s ending, organizers believe the movement has succeeded.

“Make no mistake. This effort has been victorious. I have been provided many eloquent arguments against winding down the drive and I appreciate them. In the end, however, I believe that now is the time for this phase of the process to come to a close,” wrote organizer Robb. “Retake Mass Effect is not over by any means; Dr. Muzyka’s statement was welcome, but did not directly address our concerns. You have been heard. Now it is time to make sure they get the details right. My sincerest thanks to everyone who has supported this effort whether through donations, publicity, or kind words.”

Source: retakemasseffect.com

Rockstar Announces Max Payne 3 ‘Get Caught Dead’ Winners

Rockstar has revealed the three Social Club members who will see their names on a tombstone on the Max Payne 3 Cemetery multiplayer map. Lee Merryman, Raymond Lum and Vincenzo D’Agostino won the Get Caught Dead in the Max Payne 3 Cemetery online event.

“We’re especially happy to see good old Vinny (aka @VinnyNasty on Twitter) getting a chance to be represented in the game as he was a very active participant and strong contender in the #MaxPayne3 casting event we held earlier this year. Having been chosen at random amongst thousands of entrants, we’re glad to see the luck of the draw on the side of one of our most long-time Social Club members and hardcore Max Payne fans,” said Rockstar. “Speaking of the #MaxPayne3 Twitter gang cast of characters – stay tuned as we should be revealing how they look in the game within the next week . . .”

Source: Rockstar Games

Meet Up In The Lodge!

Welcome to the SSX RiderNet Lodge! You can find SSX riders from around the world to race, trick and survive with. Add your info to see the gamertags/PSN IDs of your fellow SSX fans, friend them, then hit the mountain together!

BioShock Director Moves On

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski left the BioShock movie project over budget and content rating issues. Now, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has indicated that he’s gone from the project too and it seems that the movie is unlikely to emerge from development hell.

“To be honest, by now, I’m completely out of that, and developing other stuff,” said Fresnadillo. “Right now it’s on hold. The studio and the videogame company, they have to reach some kind of agreement about the budget and the rating.”

Source: IndieWire

Angry Birds Space Not In Orbit Of Windows Phone Yet

Angry Birds is a hit on all mobile platforms that it’s available on, and Angry Birds Space is already a rousing success on Android and iOS. However, the newest version of Angry Birds isn’t on Windows Phone now and Rovio explained why.

“We’re the No. 1 app in the Windows Phone app store, but it’s a big undertaking to support it, and you have to completely rewrite the application,” said Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio’s chief marketing officer. “If you look at activations, Apple’s iOS and Android are clearly bigger than any other platform. We want to be on all screens, but we have to consider the cost of supplying the smaller platforms. With Windows Phone it’s a lot of work to technically support it.”

Rovio later said that Angry Birds Space will be coming to Windows Phone eventually.

Source: Bloomberg

Zynga Considering Xbox Support With Cloud Saves

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has indicated that the social game company is working on enabling cloud support for games like Words with Friends and FarmVille. He notes that this may one day include game consoles.

“Right now we are building back-end technology, so that your game state can be saved and served up in difference screens/devices,” Pincus said. “The interaction cues will take from the different devices. In other words, you can play a game on a computer and call it up on Xbox and you resume from the point you left off, except the game play will now be customized for the Xbox controller.”

Source: GigaOM

Resistance: Burning Skies Story Panels

Resistance: Burning Skies is the anticipated PS Vita game that tells the story of the Chimera invading the U.S. from a whole new angle. As New Jersey fire fighter and National Guardsman Tom Riley, your goal is to find your family at any cost.

Resident Evil — Why There’s More Action Now

Resident Evil has become more action heavy in its latest entries, and this has helped push the franchise to new sales heights. Resident Evil: Revelations producer Masachika Kawata implies that the market just isn’t there for survival horror the way there is for action.

“Especially for the North American market, I think the series needs to head in that [action-oriented] direction,” said Kawata.”RE4 started in that direction, and RE5 kept going in that direction. And I think that especially for the North American market, we need to keep going in that direction, and take that a step further.”

“Looking at the marketing data [for survival horror games] … the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell,” Kawata reasoned. “A ‘survival horror’ Resident Evil doesn’t seem like it’d be able to sell those kind of numbers.”

Despite this fact, Kawata said that there’s possibilities for different types of games in the series, outside of the main numbered ones. “I can’t really speak for Resident Evil 6, but I don’t think that it necessarily has to go all the way in that [action-heavy] direction, the Call of Duty direction,” said Kawata. “It doesn’t have to be a straight up shooter. But my impression is that Resident Evil 4 and 5 aren’t shooters, per se.”

“So we have our numbered series, and we can say we have a more adventure-oriented version, like a Revelations-style game. And we also have Operation: Raccoon City, which is a third-person shooter,” he noted. “So I think that by extending the market in this sense, we can still have the numbered titles keep their identity about what Resident Evil is supposed to be, but still expand and hit other markets as well.”

Source: Gamasutra