Activision Buys Rights To Crazy Bones Games

Activision have apparently snapped up the rights to make games based on GoGo’s Crazy Bones toys in the hope that it will be able to rival the Pokémon games.

Crazy Bones are very popular amongst young children (apparently this is the case in America also) and so Activision would be hoping that any video-games based on the toy franchise would be able to replicate the popularity, and so provide competition for the all-conquering Pokémon.

Personally, I thought the Crazy Bones craze had died down (I collected them myself many years ago) but Activision is not one to invest in something that isn’t going to make them money. I’m not sure that it will rival the insane popularity of the Pokémon games, but it could potentially come close.

Mario and Sonic Capitalise on Winter Olympics

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games has followed in the footsteps of its predecessor in utilising the publicity and hype of the real thing to boost its sales.

The combined sales of the Wii and DS versions has reached 6 million worldwide since its release back in October. SEGA will be very pleased with the extra sales that come around the time of the actual Olympic games as people get into the Olympic fever.

Having watched some of the Winter Olympics myself the game does interest me slightly. However, the thought of trying real-life skiing or snowboarding would be much more appealing to me…

X10 News: Halo Reach Beta Dated

Fresh from the X10 event in San Francisco, Bungie and Microsoft have unveiled the date for the much anticipated Halo Reach Beta.

Owners of Halo 3: ODST will be able to get their hands on the Reach Beta starting May 3rd 2010, providing that they still have the disc. Players will be able to access the beta through the ODST menu. Bungie have also released the cover art as well as minor details on the first map: “Powerhouse”. Expect more details to surface in the next few days. In the mean time, here’s a post on Bungie.net with more details: Bungie.

Also from the X10 event, Microsoft has announced release dates for Alan Wake (finally), Splinter Cell Conviction (again, finally), Lost Planet 2 and Dead Rising 2. The first 3 will all be out by May, with Dead Rising set for an August release. They also announced some Xbox Live Arcade releases including Perfect Dark, and confirmed that Fable III will be out this holiday season.

I’m sure you’ll hear more from us if any more big news comes out of there (Natal anyone?).

Square Enix Reports Large Profits; EA Announces Q3 Losses

Square Enix recently reported rather sizeable profit increases on a year-on-year basis, with increases in the many billions of Yen.

They have stated that their operating income increased by 68% from the previous year, to 21.4 billion yen and that net sales for the period were up 30% to 135 billion yen. Square obviously have the release of Final Fantasy XIII in Japan to thank for a lot of that, as well as Arkham Asylum which sold very well. This is pretty good news given the current economical climate and all that stuff that I am not going to pretend to be knowledgable about. Still, good to hear that a company is doing well.

At the same time, EA has announced a loss in quarter 3 of its fiscal year, despite various big-name titles. Games such as Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age and even FIFA 10 were not enough to stop the company from seeing a decline in profits from the previous holiday period.

However, with Dante’s Inferno already out as well as the massive Mass Effect 2, I don’t think it will be anything major to worry about for EA. With ME2 topping all the sales charts, it’s already looking like a good start to 2010 for the publishing giants.

New Prison Break Game Screenshots Looking Good

Deep Silver, the team behind the upcoming Prison Break game have recently released a handful of new screenshots as well as launching a new website.

The game is titled Prison Break: The Conspiracy, and is based on the popular TV series starring Wentworth Miller. It is set to hit the streets on March 26th and has been fairly quiet in terms of information until fairly recently. You play as Tom Paxton, a company agent sent inside Fox River Penitentiary to observe Michael Schofield (the main protagonist of the TV series).

The new screenshots look very promising, and if the game can live up to the standards of the show, then this could be a very great game indeed. Obviously similar titles have not exactly turned out to be 90+ on MetaCritic, but I retain a fair amount of optimism about this one.

Screens:

Schofield

Lincoln

T-Bag

Schofield, T-Bag and Abruzzi

Bellick

And here’s the official website

Last Chance to Get NBA Live 07 Achievements

The last big effort to get the achievement for having 1000 players online simultaneously on NBA Live 07 will be held tomorrow by Xbox360Achievements.org.

The attempt will be held tomorrow at 6pm GMT (1PM Eastern, 10AM Western for the US) and was announced following the news that EA will be shutting down servers for many of its older sports games. This would of course mean that any achievements that require online play would become impossible to unlock.

So if you want to be one of the people who has this achievement before it’s too late, then head over to the thread on X360A.org here to learn what you need to do. I know I’ll be online (I haven’t bought the game for the occasion, I have actually had it all this time).

Good luck!

Xbox Live Marketplace Upcoming Releases

Major Nelson has posted another blog post detailing some of the biggest releases on Xbox Live Marketplace in the next couple of weeks.

There’s some cool stuff on there, like the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack 2 for those who didn’t buy ODST, and a few more Games on Demand, but the highlight for me has to be Splosion Man as the deal of the week. If you haven’t downloaded this neat little platformer already (why not!?) then 400MSP is an absolute steal. I would highly recommend at least downloading the trial with a view to a purchase, as it is probably one of the most fun games on XBLA.

Here’s the list:

Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week:

Feb. 1: Splosion Man, 400 Microsoft Points

Xbox LIVE Games on Demand:

Jan. 26: Dead Rising and Halo Wars

Feb. 2: Medal of Honor: Airborne

Xbox LIVE Arcade:

Jan. 27: KrissX, 800 Microsoft Points

Feb. 3: Chime, 400 Microsoft Points

Xbox Avatars Marketplace:

Jan. 28: Assassin’s Creed
Feb. 4 : Valentine’s Day and Carnival collections

Game Add-Ons

Jan. 27: Pinball FX Excalibur Table, 240 Microsoft Points

Jan. 28: Assassin’s Creed II: Battle of Forli, 320 Microsoft Points

Feb. 2: Halo 3 Mythic 2 Map Pack, 800 Microsoft Points

Mass Effect 2 DLC Details Surface

A few tasty details have surfaced in the last few days about the Mass Effect 2 downloadable content ‘confirmed’ to coincide with the game’s launch.

Well now they have been 100% confirmed, and there’s plenty there to look forward to. There will be an in-game portal for Mass Effect 2 where players can receive new pieces of DLC as well as news about the series. This feature will come in the form of a one-use redeemable code with new copies of the game. Players who buy the game pre-owned will have to pay a small fee.

There are a few pieces of downloadable content already published on Xbox Live, including weapons, armour and what I assume is a bonus mission, which you can get queued up to download ready for when the game launches. Here’s the list with links to their locations on Xbox Live Marketplace:

• Normandy Crash Site
• Collectors’ Weapon and Armor
• Terminus Weapon and Armor
• Blood Dragon Armor
• Inferno Armor
• Sentry Interface
• Umbra Visor
• M-29 Incisor Sniper Rifle
• Recon Hood

Plenty to look forward to on top of the game itself which is already averaging a 97 on MetaCritic, and launches at the end of this week.

Assassin’s Creed II First DLC Dated

The first piece of downloadable content for Assassin’s Creed 2 has now been dated and priced.

The DLC, entitled “Battle of Forli”, will be released on January 28th on both Xbox Live and PSN for 320MSP and £3.99 respectively. There will be new missions contained in the add-on, and it is to be followed up by a second piece of DLC, “Bonfire of the Vanities” next month.

Epic Have No Regrets About Making Gears MS Exclusive

Industry analyst Michael Pachter claimed in a roundtable discussion with GameTrailers that Epic Games “regret” making Gears of War a Microsoft exclusive franchise. He said that they were probably “itching” to bring the games to the PS3.

Well Mark Rein, Vice-President of Epic Games today responded to that claim, and denied it. He said that Epic has a “great relationship with Microsoft” and that they “have no regrets”.

Given that Gears of War is a massively popular franchise already (Gears 2 was behind only Halo 3 and the Call of Duty games in the top games on Xbox Live in 2009), it is hardly surprising that Epic would feel this way. Without the financial backing from Microsoft (remember that “Mad World” trailer for the first game?) it is highly unlikely that Gears would have met the success that it did.

Either way, if you’re waiting to play Gears of War on your PS3, don’t hold your breath…

« Previous Page — Next Page »