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The Week in Review news piece summarizes and highlights the most important gaming related news over the past week. This weekly article, in conjunction with the Rumor Round-Up, will keep you plugged in and in-tune. A new addition to the Storybook Series of Sonic titles is set to hit the Nintendo Wii in Spring of 2009. Sonic and the Black Knight will combine sword fighting goodness and the speed and platforming we’ve come to expect from Sonic. Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop was announced for Wii by Capcom. It will take advantage of the Wii Remote motion controls and allow gamers to hack and slash their way through the throng of Zombies the original was known for. Hopefully, Capcom can capture the same magic they did while translating Resident Evil 4 for the Wii. The new game will be available before the end of the year. Midway announced this week that they are planning on combining their Los Angeles and San Diego Studios into one super studio. Midway expects the merging of talent and resources to create better synergy and coordination. Best news of all, the merger will actually create job opportunities for game designers and programmers in the San Diego facility. Also, Midway announced a special three-pack of games, Mortal Kombat: Kollection , that will include Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. This new pack will release in September exclusively for PS2 and will sell for the paltry sum of $29.99. Microsoft announced at Gamefest 2008 that the Xbox Live Community Games project will expand with a marketplace for user-generated content. That’s right; members of the XNA Creators Club with the appropriate XNA toolset will be able to “sell and share in the profits generated by their unique creations.” These entrepreneurs will be able to sell their games at three different price points (between 200 and 800 MS Points) and will receive 70% of the total revenue generated. In an attempt to further accentuate the Wii’s capabilities and make it a more useful centerpiece of everyday life, Nintendo has added a new Channel for Japanese Wii consumers. The Wii Digital Camera Print Channel will let users print pictures, have them delivered to their homes, make high-quality photo albums, and even Nintendo-based “business” cards. WipEout HD, which has essentially been finished for a while now, cannot make it to market in its current state due to failing epilepsy tests. Unfortunately, it seems that the intense visuals, busy lights, and extremely high speeds are too much for consumers. In an interview with Forbes, Nintendo’s president and CEO, Satoru Iwata, is sorry that core Nintendo gamers feel as if they are being left out. Nintendo’s E3 Media briefing was seen as the weakest showing of all the Big Three, and it appeared that Nintendo is content to let casual games rule their home console and future plans. However, Iwata says that is not the case, and Nintendo wants to do away with “that misunderstanding by any means.” Click HERE for the entire quote. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has also re-confirmed that Nintendo is not only working on a storage solution but considers it “a mainstream problem.” We knew Nintendo had to address the issue, but we were concerned with how urgently they would do so. Click HERE to find out exactly what Reggie said. North American subscribers to Sony’s virtual magazine, Qore, will be given early access to Resistance 2 via a closed Beta. Apparently, parts of the single-player campaign and the massive multiplayer battles will be available for testing. Ubisoft announced that Naruto: The Broken Bond, the sequel to Rise of a Ninja, will be available this holiday season. However, you’ll have to own an Xbox 360 to be able to play it. That’s right; the game will be exclusive to the Microsoft home console . The San Francisco OPTX and the Birmingham (UK) Salvo are set to battle each other for video gaming supremacy. The winner will take home the title of CGS World Champion. The showdown will be televised live to an estimated audience of 450 million viewers worldwide. The championship will take place on Monday, July 28, 2008 at 10pm Eastern. Click HERE for more detailed info of broadcast schedule and featured games. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that they will be publishing a series of episodic video games based on the Watchmen universe. The content will actually be a prequel to the upcoming Warner Bros. film based on DC Comics’ graphic novel of the same name. The games are described as “mature action brawler(s)” and will be available for download via 360, PS3, and PC. On Bungie’s official site, it has been confirmed that three new titles are in development. The blog posting titillated fans by describing the projects as some being “familiar, some not.” It sounds like something Halo related is planned. Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week! |
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Square Enix.