Take Two Interactive just released their financial report and had a 13.8 million increase in net revenue. Despite this, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick announced today that NHL 2K11 would not be coming to the Xbox or PS3 but instead only the Wii. “As far as (the) NHL, we’re taking a year off on PS3 and Xbox 360 to refine, redesign and re-think,” With the Olympic Gold Medal game recently between the United States and Canada, hockey seems to be at an high in North America. Now if you want to play some hockey, you’re going to have to play in standard definition and not the luscious 1080p that we all love.
[Via Joystiq]
Today Major Nelson and company announced their new Special Edition Console. It has the whopping 250 GB Hard Drive (currently only available in Special Edition Consoles) and 2 Wireless Controllers. This will only cost $399 which is a great price considering the Elite with a 120 GB Hard Drive is $299. It wouldn’t be the Splinter Cell bundle if it didn’t include the upcoming game Conviction. This is a great pick up for everyone, beginners and pros alike. After the break see the other high-resolution pictures.
[Via Major Nelson]
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In an SEC filing made this morning, Activision cited a human resources investigation.
The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company.
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Ever wonder how much you could earn by quitting your job and making sweet indie games for XBL? Using Major Nelson’s 2009 ranking, the guys in the XNA forums did a little digging and posted the results (cleaned up in this handy chart by the guys at gamerbytes.com). While most Top 20 games earned around $20,000, Jamezila’s I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 pulled in an astounding $112,000.
Developer Reedake2, whose Aquarium HD made #10 on the list, and whose new Creed Arena (reviewed by our own Allen Kim here) promises to do well in 2010, warned would-be designers not to get the wrong message. “Please don’t take this to mean that apps are an easy way to make money,” he said on the XNA boards. “We put an immense amount of time and polish into Aquarium HD (more so than a lot of games get), and that has been reflected in sales.”
If you can get 2 or 3 solid games a year out, the answer to the opening question may well be “quite a bit”. Of course if you are a clever marketer and can leverage that success into a little celebrity time on Jimmy Fallon and some invites to X11, then it’d definitely be worth while.
With today’s Microsoft X10 Event, the gaming community received word on some of the most anticipated games of the upcoming months. Information on highly awaited sequels such as Halo: Reach and Dead Rising 2 were revealed, along with newcomers such as Alan Wake, and even a glimpse at the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2: The Parish DLC. Hit the link below for more information.
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Xbox announced a few games today at their X10 event, see the full press rele
ase after the break as well as a few more pictures. We can also expect Final Fantasy and it’s Special Edition Console to be released on March 9 for $400. Other games announced at X10 include Fable III, the CES newly-announced Game Room, Halo: Reach, and the Xbox exclusive Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack.
[Via Gamerscore Blog and Major Nelson]
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That’s right. Before you freak out, none of their 2010 titles will be affected (for now). However, games as recent as Madden 2009 will be having their online multiplayer servers turned off. A customary move by EA, it’s somewhat surprising that they are cutting some of the titles off so quickly. Several Xbox 360 games will have their online multiplayer functionality stripped, including:
- UEFA Champions League 2007
- Facebreaker
- Fantasy Football 2009
- March Madness 2007
- NBA 2007
- NBA Street 2007
- NASCAR 2009 (Europe only)
- NFL Tour
- NHL 2007
- Madden 2007
- Madden 2009
All of the shutdowns will occur on February 2, 2010, so be sure to get your playing time in before then or pickup newer versions of the games.
There is a new King in the console market. The 360 has finally surpassed the PS2 in monthly usership. While this may sound like something very small, what it really does is show how far Microsoft has come. When the first XBox was announced, there were a lot of skeptics. Most people did not think it could compete against the PS2, let alone even think of Microsoft ever surpassing Sony in the console market. Now use is at an all time high for consoles and the 360 is at the top.
“Nielsen video game data released today shows that Video Gamers are playing more this summer than last. Total video game console usage minutes in June 2009 went up 21% from the the previous June. The average console gamer played 768 minutes on consoles during this year’s June reporting month.
Xbox 360 and PS2 are now neck and neck in terms of minutes played per month, yet June data shows Xbox 360 is the most active console, with the 6-month trend show Xbox 360 with the highest active users.”
Check out the Nielsen Study for a complete breakdown.
Yea the title’s right now you can follow http://twitter.com/msxboxlivejobs, http://twitter.com/msgamesjobs, and for the die-hard xbox360 fans here’s Major Nelson’s twitter: http://twitter.com/majornelson
The msxboxlivejobs and msgamesjobs accounts are tweeting open job positions.
That’s all for now, if I find any other good xbox 360 related tweeters I’ll pass the url’s on to you guys.
Sad news from the bay area today. Developer Crystal Dynamics let go close to fifty percent of its workforce due to the slumping economy and less than stellar sales of recent games. The team at Crystal Dynamics is responsible for the last round of Tomb Raider titles as well as the Legacy of Kain series and Project Snowblind among others. Though it sucks to hear news like this, the talent at Crystal Dynamics is sure to find bigger and better opportunities in today’s gaming landscape. Let’s hope management gets their act together and puts out a great Deus Ex 3 soon enough. In the meantime, I’ll be pouring one out on the pavement for the homies.
UPDATE: My bad everyone, looks like Deus Ex 3 is in Eidos-Montreal’s hands, not CD
