General gaming |
- Nintendo's E3 Showing Big in Japan
- Eiji Aonuma Wraps Up Zelda: Skyward Sword's E3 Showing
- Yasumi Matsuno Hints at His New Level-5 Project
- Elder Scrolls Developer Bethesda Softworks Turns 25
- Strategy RPG Pioneer Yasumi Matsuno Jumps to Level-5
- Hackers Targeted Sony Because it Protected its IP, CEO Says
- The 1UP Community Reacts to the California Video Game Law
- Taiwan Animation Sums Up the Supreme Court Decision
- PlayStation Plus is One Year Old, Subscribe and Get Free Time
- Uncharted 3 Beta is Live, Naughty Dog Aware of Connection Issues
| Nintendo's E3 Showing Big in Japan Posted: 29 Jun 2011 07:06 AM PDT The publisher, which formally announced the Wii U and announced updates to a lot of their core franchises at E3, took the top place in a poll run on Famitsu's website that asked readers which company put on the strongest overall presentation at the show. President Satoru Iwata won top marks as the person who had the greatest impact on this year's E3, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was the E3 title that Japanese gamers are looking forward to the most. However, even though Nintendo is still number-one in Japanese gamers' hearts, the nation's game-industry analysts weren't so kind to them. "Nintendo's stock price plummeted after the Wii U announcement, partly because of 3DS sales falling below expectations," SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Eiji Maeda told Famitsu. "I also think that while the E3 presentation explained the device well, the mainstream press just described it as a 'tablet controller' and didn't make a great effort to push the value of it. It was a lot easier for people to get the impression that Sony was trying hard with the PS Vita, especially on the price." |
| Eiji Aonuma Wraps Up Zelda: Skyward Sword's E3 Showing Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:30 AM PDT - In this game, Zelda starts out as a childhood friend of Link's -- and not royalty. "She's not a princess this time," Aonuma said, "which is something I'll pretty much have to put forth right now in order to talk about this title. She's a childhood friend, but she goes away in the midst of the game and it's Link's job to search for her." - The starting plot unfolds quite a bit differently from other Zeldas. "This game's plot is something like a school drama, you could say," Aonuma noted with a laugh. "The flying sequence at the E3 demo is Link competing against his classmates. One of them looks kind of a like a bad guy, as you saw, and he shows up in other ways in the game too, since he has a major thing for Zelda." |
| Yasumi Matsuno Hints at His New Level-5 Project Posted: 29 Jun 2011 05:27 AM PDT "Just kind of clicked" might seem like a tenuous reason for Matsuno to join Level-5 after over 20 years in the game business, but the timing might be more apt than you'd expect. "There are several reasons," he said, "but one lies in how charming I think Level-5 is as a business. I've been playing their games, so I'm familiar with the unique touch they put in them. Another reason is that I think Level-5 and I share the same vision on where we want to go. If you keep making things in the same style as time goes on, then I think you miss out on the younger audience, and that's something Level-5 really understands. Something I've noticed at my age is that my nieces, my nephews, and my friends' children don't play my games. I ask them what they do play, and it's always Inazuma Eleven. I really do want to have kids like that playing my games, and being able to work with Hino and an outfit with real solid ideas about that audience is something I have a serious ambition for." So what is Matsuno working on, exactly? He and Hino aren't talking much yet, although they did release a couple of concept illustrations in this week's Famitsu -- including a lineup of characters that look a lot like your typical strategy-RPG class units. "The idea here is that if someone told me to make a new Ogre, then this is what I'd do," he said. "I've had the core idea around for about a decade now -- I've refined it over the years, but the core has always been the same, something I thought I'd enjoy playing myself." |
| Elder Scrolls Developer Bethesda Softworks Turns 25 Posted: 28 Jun 2011 06:36 PM PDT The company responsible for The Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3, Wayne Gretzky Hockey, the very first Terminator game, and many more titles is 25 years old today. Bethesda Softworks got its name from the city of Bethesda, Maryland, where it was originally located. (It has since moved to the nearby city of Rockville.) It got started in 1986 with Gridiron, a football sim. From there it would move on to make a series of hockey games starring Wayne Gretzky and the very first licensed Terminator game. |
| Strategy RPG Pioneer Yasumi Matsuno Jumps to Level-5 Posted: 28 Jun 2011 06:19 PM PDT Yasumi Matsuno, creator of Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre and the Final Fantasy Tactics series, has reportedly taken a new job with Level-5, the Fukuoka-based publisher of both hardcore RPGs (White Knight Chronicles) and more casual stuff like Inazuma Eleven and the Professor Layton series. Matsuno was personally invited to the outfit by Level-5 founder and president Akihiro Hino, who said it'd offer the designer an opportunity to work on stuff he's never had a chance to before, according to Famitsu. While neither Hino nor Matsuno commented in depth on what they might work on, Hino stated that it won't take two years or so for the next Matsuno project to come out and that it could be "something that the nieces and nephews of Matsuno fans might also enjoy." |
| Hackers Targeted Sony Because it Protected its IP, CEO Says Posted: 28 Jun 2011 05:25 PM PDT "We believe that we first became the subject of attack because we tried to protect our IP [intellectual property], our content, in this case videogames," he said earlier today, Reuters reports. Sony is hardly the only company to have been attacked by hackers in recent months. A number of videogame companies have been hacked, although none of them can compare with the PSN breach which saw millions of users' data compromised. |
| The 1UP Community Reacts to the California Video Game Law Posted: 28 Jun 2011 04:39 PM PDT The Supreme Court passed a 7-2 vote in favor of video games yesterday, saying that "Video games qualify for the First Amendment protection." Similar to other forms of protected entertainment such as books, movies and plays, video games also qualify for "the basic principles of freedom of speech." The topic of selling violent video games to persons under 18 has always been a heated topic but here are some of the arguments that have stemmed from the 1UP Community as a result of the yesterday's outcome. It's not too late to participate in the discussion! Be sure to stop by the Supreme Court Violent Games Ban Ruling thread on the 1UP Boards and let your opinion be heard. |
| Taiwan Animation Sums Up the Supreme Court Decision Posted: 28 Jun 2011 04:33 PM PDT Yesterday's decision by the Supreme Court to strike down the California videogame law that would ban the sale or rental of violent videogames to minors is no different. The video above was posted on NMA World Edition's YouTube page today and features all of the ridiculousness we've come to expect, including the justices firing assault rifles, Justice Antonin Scalia firing guns into the air along with two children, and then him yanking an issue of Penthouse out of a young man's hands. One thing that's not covered in the video is the response by the bill's author, California Senator Leland Yee. He suggested that the Supreme Court had sided with the likes of Wal-Mart and corporate interests over children and indicated he would look to find a way to reintroduce the law that would be constitutional. |
| PlayStation Plus is One Year Old, Subscribe and Get Free Time Posted: 28 Jun 2011 03:40 PM PDT From now through Monday, July 11, anyone who signs up for or renews their Plus subscription will be entitled to free Plus time. Buy a three month package ($17.99) and you'll get one free month, or pick up a full year ($49.99) and you'll get three extra months for free. Sony is currently offering anyone who had a PSN account prior to the April breach a free 30-day subscription to Plus (or 60 days for existing Plus members). You can pick that up now from the PlayStation Store and see what it's like before the July 11 deadline for this deal is up. |
| Uncharted 3 Beta is Live, Naughty Dog Aware of Connection Issues Posted: 28 Jun 2011 02:59 PM PDT As it is a beta, things aren't off to a completely smooth start. There have been numerous reports of players being unable to play because of connection errors ("Connecting..." and "Error initializing session manager" seem to be the most popular of the bunch; I've personally been getting the latter) and Naughty Dog says it's "aware and getting things back up." On Twitter, it says it's working to get things back up "ASAP." "A lot of people hitting our servers is precisely what one of the things we're looking forward to as part of this Beta," community strategist Arne Meyer wrote in the comments of the PlayStation Blog earlier today. "We believe we've got a setup that will handle a huge amount of traffic, but I know we definitely want to test server load." |
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