In what would be an unprecedented merger/buyout, there is chatter on Wall Street that Microsoft is in talks to buy Electronic Arts. As you know, EA is the largest game development studio and has been gobbling up smaller companies as well. There is no concrete evidence that this deal is going to happen, but sources say there is definitely “chatter” out there. EA’s share price jumped 4% and Microsoft 0.9% amidst this chatter. IF this were to ever happen, would MS close out sales on its franchises to Sony such as Madden, or would it only allow certain titles to be mulitplatform and keeping the rest for itself?
This price drop, if it happens at all, will not be as clear cut as the rest. Recent reports show that Wal-Mart had suggested that they will be having roll back prices on the Nintendo Wii. What that price was, no one knows. Now, a leaked Toys R Us ad suggests the price will drop to $199.99. Hmm. Consumers will surely jump at the bit to get a Wii for under 200 bucks, but did it really even need a price drop? Granted the Wii is nowhere near the Xbox 360 and PS3 on the sheer technology scale, but people have been buying it at alarming rates. In a capitalistic economy, things are only worth what people are willing to pay and it seemed the Wii was selling just fine. However, when the two other juggernauts dropped their prices, Nintendo seemed to fall in line to stay in favor with the consumer. I am eager to see if this will boost Nintendo sales and if it will detract from the other consoles in a crowded holiday market during an economic downturn.
As I was reading through my rather extensive and scary list of site feeds yesterday evening, I stumbled upon this post up over at Scrawl. One of their writers works at GameStop and had a visit from their friendly neighborhood Sony rep recently. I would advise against taking this as fact until we hear something more official, but the Sony rep was reported as pointing out that both a price drop and backwards compatibility for our sleek, sexy PS3s are coming soon.
This really doesn’t strike me as surprising, considering all the talk about Sony patenting Emotion Engine emulation technology (this is what is under the hood of a PS2) for integration into the PS3’s cell processors via a firmware update. Could this be the fruits of Sony’s labor? If this is indeed the case, let’s just hope Sony’s definition of “soon” isn’t the same as Blizzard’s.
Blizzcon 2009 is fast approaching, but who needs Blizzcon to start spreading rumors of the next World of Warcraft expansion? Apparently not the “source” over at WoW.com, which has it on “good” authority that the next expansion to Blizzard’s cash cow MMO will be World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. This is likely based on the trademark Blizzard filed a while back for that name. Also of note is the rumor of two new races – Goblins for the Horde and Worgen for the Alliance. If this is true, it dashes my past hopes that if the goblins were ever made playable, you would be able to choose which faction they would join after a Death Knight type of introduction story.
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Yes, I am obsessed with the Persona games. Perhaps too obsessed. But, then I think about how great the games have been recently, and that makes me proud of my obsession. So, trust me when I say I’m all over these rumors of a new, current generation Persona title. The last two critically praised Persona games have been on the PS2, even when the current generation was in full swing. I really can’t blame Atlus for this – the PS2 is still an awesome system for niche RPGs and provides cheaper production costs. When the games were released, it proved one thing – last generation games can still best the majority of current generation titles.
Will we be seeing a Persona 5 on the PS3 or Xbox 360? Most likely. I’ll go so far as to say I’m pretty sure the game is in development as I write this. A month or so ago, there was mention of the game in a rather odd place – a Japanese pachinko site. Now, a most solid method of confirming the game’s existence has come to light – the official Japanese PlayStation site. According to Scrawl, a new “creator interview” was posted that had Shoji Meguro saying Persona 5 is in development for the PS3. The site even listed him as the producer for the title. While I wouldn’t bet on Sony exclusivity at this point, it does seem like the mention of this game is legit, whether it was intentional or not.
Here’s hoping I’m right in believing that a new Persona game is in the works. I’m anxious to see what Atlus can do with the franchise on a current generation console.
How short is too short? I’m not referring to wangs this time, but campaign length. Gamers flew through the single player campaign in Halo 3. People had beaten the game by the time I woke up to go to work the day after launch. All sauced up on Mtn. Dew Game Fuel, gamers bought the game at midnight, and had beaten it before McDonald’s opened for breakfast. As you all can attest to, beating Halo 3 on Normal and Legendary are two completely different animals. Running and gunning on the highest difficulty setting will leave you fragged, tagged and tea bagged. With Halo 3: ODST only mere months away, (fuck yes) gamers are getting the impression of a short campaign and they are none too pleased, especially with the “expansion” now garnering a $60 price tag.
Here is a recent interview with the developers giving insight to the campaign. I think the real issue is that no matter how long the campaign, there will be complaints of it being too easy and too short. The problem Bungie faces is that gamers are just way too fucking good at Halo. Take a look at World of Warcraft. The expansion pack was supposed to take months to complete. It took super guilds less than a weekend. Hopefully the landscape of playing as a normal soldier will add some depth and the new Firefight and multiplayer modes will keep us playing until Halo: Reach comes out a year later.
What is the one major technological advantage the PS3 has over the Xbox 360? Blu-Ray support. The built-in wifi is great and the ability to easily swap HDD is a plus, but the lack of Blu-Ray support on the 360 sucks. The last major designer to support the format is Toshiba, who will be making their own blu-ray player to be released this year. Toshiba was the maker of guess what, the HD-DVD drive we all bought before the format wars came to an end. MS has denied any hint of Blu-Ray coming to the 360 as an add-on or as a built-in drive for a new SKU.
I am very doubtful that this will ever come to light and I think that MS has conceded the fact that Blu-Ray is a Sony victory. However, now that MS’s closest tech supporter is going the way of the Blu-Ray, speculation will continue to mount. Expect word from MS soon on this one.
Words are flying around gaming circles about what could be a monster E3 event this year. People in the know are dropping little hints here and there and leaks are plentiful.
We’re hearing some things about Epic dropping a new unexpected title, what exactly might be going on with Kojima, some mysterious things from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, and some big things from Valve, just to name a few.
Whatever happens (and it’s all going to happen), make sure to keep your screens glued to Loot Ninja for the all the goods, plus our take on everything.
Rumors have been flying around the intarwebs about just what might be coming in Bioshock 2. We won’t 100% know for sure until more copies of this month’s Game Informer get sent out, but one person seems to have gotten their hands on a copy already.
It’s 10 years since the first game. The Big Sister returns to rapture, bringing back the Little Sisters with her. You play as the original Big Daddy. You can use the drill, the rivet gun, and you can still use plasmids.
The Big Sister is one of the surviving Little Sisters from the first game and she’s pissed. You go around as the original Big Daddy taking out other Big Daddies to get to her. Along the way, you can either harvest or adopt Little Sisters, much like the first Bioshock.
So, how much of this is true? Since a few pictures of the magazine are included, I’d venture to say this is pretty close to true. Take it as rumor for now, though, until we get some better scans of the magazine.
We’re taking this one with a gigantic grain of salt, but it sounded fairly interested so we figured we’d share. A user on the GameTrailers forums says he has a friend in R&D at Sony and this friend shared with him all the stuff coming in firmware 2.7 for the PS3. Here’s the feature list:
Friends List:
- Voice Messaging is now available as an alternative to text after selecting a user on the friends list. Voice message recordings are capped at 30 seconds.
- Home Integration: Saved Playstation Home avatar photos can be selected as photo ID for Gamer Card/Friends List.
- Trophy number and Gamer Level are listed under Friend names for quick reference.
Gamer Card & Trophies:
- Gamer Card layout has been changed to more closely resemble the Playstation Store aesthetic.
- Past Trophy information can be viewed in detail by selecting “Recent Trophy History” option.
- Newly aquired trophies auto-sync in the background
- Server infrastructure for Trophies has been optimized. Resulting in faster retrieval time for Gamer Card and Trophy information.
In-Game XMB:
- Loading time for In-Game XMB has been drastically reduced, resulting in a more seemless in-game experience.
- “Theme settings” options while in-game is now available, allowing custom themes to be applied to the In-Game XMB.
- Internet Browser can now be accessed while in-game.
- Voice messaging and voice chat options can be used while in-game.
- Options that cannot be used in the XMB during game sessions are grayed out (but still selectable) to eliminate user accessibility confusion.
Misc:
- Other slight UI tweaks and enhancements.
Not anything overly crazy, so it’s definitely plausible. Having the Internet Browser available in-game does seem a bit of a wish, though, due to bandwidth issues. We’ll see what happens. Sony isn’t commenting on this rumor, as usual.
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