Final Fantasy XIII is Square Enix's next blockbuster release, coming out in March

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.

The characters from the first Left 4 Dead game will return in the form of DLC

Valve has announced the first piece of downloadable content for Left 4 Dead 2, with a little bit of information that will certainly please fans of the game.

The DLC entitled “The Passing”, is a new campaign set after the events of “Dead Centre” features a cross-over between Ellis, Coach, Rochelle, and Nick (L4D2) and Bill, Francis, Zoey and Louis (L4D1). Valve had hinted at something like this, and while players are still controlling the new characters, it could make for an interesting plotline.

“The Passing” should be released in “Early Spring 2010″, and no information has been released about pricing just yet.

At the Eurogamer Expo on Saturday we spoke to Chet Faliszek in a Q&A regarding Left 4 Dead 2 and it appears that the DLC options found in the Left 4 Dead 2 demo were just placeholders for testing that were supposed to have been removed before the demo hit.  We got our hands on the title and found it extremely fun and is still as intense as before.  Expect some Zombie slaying fun shortly.

The Eurogamer Expo currently in it's second year is in London for the next two days

Almost 2000 people queued up at 11 o’clock this morning to get into the second Eurogamer expo in London where many of this year and next year’s new releases are being shown off to the public.

After a successful two days at the Royal Armouries in Leeds the expo has moved down to the Old Billingsgate building in London for today and tomorrow. Late announcement Battlefield Bad Company 2 features alongside titles such as Mass Effect 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Left 4 Dead 2 that are playable at the Expo.

Over a the EA’s TGS (Tokyo Game Show) press event tongues are already wagging and Valve’s lead designer, Kimberely Swift, has announced that Xbox 360 and PC gamers who have pre-ordered Valve’s next big hit will be able to downloaded the demo next month, on October 27th.

So you had better get those pre-orders in now folks!

The Australian government department in charge of censorship supplied the following reasons:

“The game contains realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence which is inflicted upon “the Infected” who are living humans infected with a rabies-like virus that causes them to act violently” The ruling goes on to say that “However, it is the use of the “melee” weapons such as the crowbar, axe, chainsaw and Samurai sword which inflict the most damage. These close in attacks cause copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations and limb dismemberment as well as locational damage where contact is made to the enemy which may reveal skeletal bits and gore.”

In Australia, games rated more than 15+ are effectively banned.

Unless you’ve been disconnected from the Internets for the past six months, it’s likely you’ve heard about the large group of people unhappy with Valve’s decision to release a sequel to Left 4 Dead. The main gripes of this group are:

• The release of Left 4 Dead 2 as a stand-alone sequel will split the communities and decrease the quality of multiplayer gaming.
• The announced content of Left 4 Dead 2 does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead.
• Left 4 Dead has not yet received the support and content which Valve has repeatedly stated will be delivered.
• The release of Left 4 Dead 2 will make Left 4 Dead an obsolete purchase and inferior piece of software after only one year since release.

In the latest news, Valve has flown two of the group’s moderators to their Washington headquarters, putting them up in the Hyatt and giving them the full guided tour.

Amazingly, the representatives seem to now be more happy about the prospect of Left 4 Dead 2 after their encounter with corporate hospitality:

“Things seemed balanced and ‘tight’ and did not feel like a rushed job. While we were visiting their offices we personally witnessed what can only be called a small army of artists, coders, mappers hard at work, which explains the rapid transformations in artwork that we’ve all seen.”

“What we can say with confidence is that the quality of gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2 is not in question; and it will only get better.”

The 41,846 other members of the boycott group don’t seem to agree, surprisingly, and the word “sellout” seems to appear often in their comments.

Valve wants to sell us user-created mods on Left 4 Dead 2, with all the money made going back to the creators of that particular mod.

“We’ll have to filter them, we can’t allow any copyrighted materials, so it’s going to have to go through a process. But we’re hoping perhaps we can shepherd the really popular campaigns onto 360. And you know, if they are a paid system, perhaps that could go back to the authors. I think that would be a great story.”

So, shmucks like you and me make these mods, Valve release them as if they’re DLC and we get all the credit and the money? I’m down with that.

If this goes ahead, I doubt we’ll be seeing good old Shaun running around, or even a naked Zoe, but all the ingredients are in there for some crazy yet originate ideas.

Check out the full article here.

Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to Valve's award winning co-op zombie shooter

Another game being shown off at PAX in Seattle was Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2. They were showing the third of the five new campaigns, entitled “Dark Carnival”.

They are also showing off a new special infected, this quote taken from ComputerandVideoGames.com:

“Valve is also unveiling a new Boss infected monster coming in the full version of Left 4 Dead 2. Known as “The Jockey” this is the third new Boss infected from L4D2 revealed thus far (the Charger was revealed at E3, The Spitter at Comic Con). The Jockey lets you attack lone Survivors and wrestle control of their movement away from them-into fire, off ledges, or straight into the middle of a zombie horde. “

You can watch a two minute gameplay clip of the new campaign here