Crispy Gamer News

Well, if a company is going to make educational games, who better to do it than National Geographic? Earlier today, Ted Prince, chief operating officer of National Geographic Ventures and executive vice president of operations for National Geographic Global Media officially announced the formation of a new division, National Geographic Games, which will publish and develop games across major gaming console, handheld, online and mobile platforms.

National Geographic Games is led by a team of industry vets. Paul Levine, senior VP at National Geographic Ventures, will lead the new division. Chris Mate, formerly an executive at Take Two Interactive and Bethesda Softworks, has joined as vice president and general manager for NGG and will oversee and manage the group’s daily global operations.
(more…)

To show its continued support for Burnout Paradise through 2009, developer Criterion revealed yet another downloadable content pack in the works for the game today. Two weeks ago the company announced the Burnout Paradise Party Pack and last week the Burnout Paradise Legendary Cars Pack was detailed. This week Criterion reveals the Burnout Paradise Toy Cars Pack, offering players special edition Burnout collectibles.

Details on this unique DLC will be released soon on www.criteriongames.com but for now you can take a look at the screenshot on the left. The new DLC packs will be released sometime in Spring 2009.

Various luminaries in the video game industry are voicing “cautious optimism” when it comes to the holiday shopping season. Speaking at the BMO Capital Conference in New York yesterday, folks like Mindy Mount, CFO of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, are saying that the industry is looking solid going into the holiday shopping season. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America said during the conference that is would cut the price of the Wii to $250 and said he was “very optimistic.” Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, said video games are selling well at places like Wal-Mart and GameStop. He predicts a 20 percent increase in overall sales for 2008 and for 2009 to be a very good year.

Strauss Zelnick, executive chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, said overall holiday sales do not look very promising for companies that who do not have huge hits on the shelves. Naturally, he is referring to his own company. Finally EA Sports president Peter Moore is hoping that consumers come out to buy games. He has “cautious optimism” that everything is going to be okay.

If October’s hardware and software sales are any indication, then the video game industry will be in the black. Of course that all depends on consumer confidence; will Americans make the big purchases or will they head for the bargain bin to save some cash in these trying times. We will let you know in early December as the first numbers roll in from NPD Group.

Source: Reuters

The Xbox 360 price cut may not be helping Microsoft beat the juggernaut that is the Wii, but it is at least giving the company the power to take Sony’s PS3 to the woodshed. According to NDP sales data for the month of Oct., the Wii remained the top selling console with 803, 000 units, with the DS moving 491, 000 units. The Wii has sold more than 13 million units since its release in November of 2006. But the real story for the month was the Xbox 360 moving 371, 000 units, beating out the PlayStation 3 (190, 000), PlayStation 2 (136, 000) and even the PlayStation Portable (193, 000).

Of course, both Sony and Microsoft cannot seem to catch up with the Wii’s monthly sales, leaving both to fight over the scraps from the master’s table. That could change this holiday season, assuming consumer confidence is there in light of economic uncertainty here and aboard. Despite a down turn in other sectors in our economy, hardware sales were up a modest 5 percent to $494.7 million, from the same period a year ago.

Can’t get enough of Sackboy’s adventures in LittleBigPlanet? Well, on Thursday, the PlayStation Store will fill fans’ virtual closets with a collection of new items for Sony’s most fashionable mascot.

This week’s new LBP content includes a virtual zoo of animal themed costumes, including a frog (Lily Pad), an ape (Hugo), a penguin (Frost-E), and my personal favorite, a shark (Great Blue). The animal costumes will be available for $.99 each, or in a four pack for $2.99.
(more…)

Video game developer Vicious Cycle announced today that the company has entered into a partnership agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to provide its Vicious Engine middleware solution to game developers in India. Meant to help with SCEE’s ongoing strategy to build an audience for the PSP and PS2 in the region, the companies will make the Vicious Engine tools available for both platforms to further promote game development in South Asia.

“We looked for an all-inclusive game engine that provided flexibility and a rapid development cycle,” said Jim Ryan, COO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. “The Vicious Engine is both intuitive and easy-to-use, an excellent choice for our program in India.”
(more…)

It’s Super Tuesday today, and while most of the country is content to sit back and just watch electoral vote roll in on the tube, the folks at Sony have been keeping busy making sure our PS3 systems are ready and polished for our next
President of the United States … whoever that may be.

According to a post on the official PlayStation blog, Sony is releasing a minor update to the PS3 firmware, taking it up to version 2.52. For those thinking this update could be something major to compete with Microsoft’s upcoming New Xbox Experience, don’t get your hopes up.

The new PS3 firmware update addresses a couple of issues, tweaking the overall performance. The first change will improve the playback quality of certain PS3 format software (no specific titles were mentioned). The second issue fixes a text entry issue that occurs when using the on-screen keyboard, USB keyboard, or Bluetooth keyboard with some PS3 format software has been addressed.