Beaterator coming to iPhone this fall

Rockstar Games will bringing Beaterator to the iPhone and iPod touch this fall. Developed by Rockstar Leeds, the studio behind Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Beaterator is a portable music-making application that allows people of all musical backgrounds and ability to create world-class beats and songs. The game is being built with the help of hip-hop sensation Timberland.

Previously announced for the PlayStationPortable system, Beaterator promises thousands of loops and sounds made by both Timbaland and Rockstar, and gives users the power to make professional-level music using their favorite portable device.

You can learn more about Beaterator by checking out www.rockstargames.com/beaterator. I sense that DJ Ryan will be pleased by this news.

Paul Eibeler joins Southpeak Board of Directors

SouthPeak Interactive announced that former Take-Two president and CEO Paul Eibeler has joined its Board of Directors. Paul Eibeler is best known for his leadership at Take-Two Interactive. As President and CEO, Take-Two grew from $250 million in revenue to over $1.3 billion during his tenure. Key titles, selling upwards of a million copies, included the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Max Payne, Midnight Club, Sid Meir’s Civilization, BioShock, and the development of 2K sports including products for NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB.

Eibeler has held management positions at Impact International and Acclaim Entertainment prior to joining Take-Two. He was also a member of the Microsoft Xbox launch team. Presently he is chairman of Cokem International, a leading interactive software distribution company.

BioShock 2 pushed to 2010

Take-Two Interactive announced that BioShock 2 has been pushed to 2010, and as a result, it has revised revenue and earnings guidance for fiscal 2009. Ain’t that a b*tch?  BioShock 2 has been moved from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2010 (FY 2010 begins in November of this year), “in order to provide additional development time for the title,” said Take-Two in a press release this afternoon. As a result, Take-Two updated third quarter and fourth quarter fiscal 2009 guidance to reflect “reduced sales of catalog products and lower than anticipated initial retailer orders of new releases.”

“We recognize that our revised outlook for the balance of fiscal year 2009, due to both internal and external factors, is a disappointment.,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two. “That said, we concluded that moving the release of BioShock 2 into fiscal year 2010 was the right decision for the product. We believe the result will be a more compelling consumer experience and a better performing product in the marketplace. At the same time, near term retail conditions have proven to be more challenging for our business than the assumptions built into our prior outlook. We remain confident in the long term potential for Take-Two’s business, and our ability to capitalize on that potential through our exceptional creative talent and solid balance sheet.”

While expectations for 2009 have been lowered, 2010 expectations are high because Take-Two has a ton of sequels coming out next year including BioShock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption.

3DRealms comments on closure, lawsuit

3DRealms issued a statement this week addressing it’s closure and offering a rebuttal to Take-Two Interactive’s lawsuit alleging breach of contract related to Duke Nukem Forever. The statement, at face value, sheds some light on just what rights the creators of Duke Nukem Forever hold. The first thing worth noting is that 3DRealms claims that the company has not closed, despite notes on the company’s official web site, insider information and multiple news reports.

“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing,” the company said in a statement. “3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.”

What the company will be able to accomplish without any funding, developers, a less-than-stellar public image and a pending lawsuit seeking $20 million in damages for “breach of contract,” is in serious doubt.

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GTA: Chinatown Wars Predictions

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars may very well sell two million units in the United States, according predictions from an analysts at Cowen and Company. According to analyst Doug Creutz the game should do very well among hardcore gamers who already own a DS and early reviews will probably help sales.

The review data is based on whatever formula Metacritic uses to determine scores to work within their system. Metacritic has the game at 95 percent, based on reviews by Gamepro, Eurogamer and Games Radar. Look for our review soon - but don’t look for our review there anytime soon - our scoring system doesn’t break down well in such a system..

“Although the handheld platform has a younger-skewing installed base, we believe many core gamers own the DS,” wrote Cowen’s Doug Creutz in an note to investors. “The strong critical rating will likely increase the game’s chances of becoming a commercial hit.”

It makes sense, given that there are few DS games geared towards that hardcore, mature demographic. We’ll let you know just how well the game does in a couple of months I guess.

Take-Two Hit with $50M Q1 Losses

It looks like the 2009 fiscal year is getting off to a rough start for Take-Two. Addressing investors this week, the company posted its first quarter numbers and revealed that it has taken a loss of $50 million, up from the $38 million loss posted during the same period last year. Ironically, the company’s actual revenue was up for the quarter, up roughly 7 percent from $240.4 million last year to $256.8 million for this most recent quarter. The loss for the quarter in spite of higher revenue was blamed on the higher than expected costs related to “unusual legal matters” related mainly to the attempted takeover by Electronic Arts, business reorganization, marketing, and R&D costs.

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GTA IV: The Lost and the Nude

Update: The ESRB responded to our request for clarification on a couple of issues related to the rating for The Lost and the Damned. When asked about whether or not the ratings board saw the full frontal male nudity in in the DLC prior to its release and if it thought it put the game beyond the threshold of a “Mature” rating, ESRB spokesperson Eliot Mizrachi offered the following response:

“This content was disclosed and found to be consistent with the game’s Mature rating; however, it did prompt the assignment of a content descriptor for ‘Nudity.’”

So, while some may find this content a bit of a surprise, at least the ESRB knew about it in advance and rated appropriately. I guess Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two have learned a lesson from all the nonsense surrounding “Hot Coffee.”

Original Story: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned is out as we’ve already mentioned but people aren’t necessarily only talking about all the new characters, multiplayer modes, weapons and vehicles found in this DLC. No, they are also talking about a cutscene in the game that involves full frontal male nudity. That’s right, one of the characters in the game shows you what he has to offer unabashedly and without shame. The sad part is that the dude he’s having a conversation with doesn’t blink as this nude man chats him up.

 While this cutscene is amusing on so many levels, it also raises a few questions: did the ESRB see this clip when it rated the game “M” for “Mature” (it does list nudity in the game’s descriptor)? Does an extended look at a man’s junk constitute an “AO” rating and how will the mainstream media portray this clip once it is out there? We’ll let you judge for yourselves - follow this link - but keep in mind that it is intended for mature audiences and is appropriately age gated.

Both the ESRB and Rockstar Games are unavailable for comment at this early hour but we hope to get a responsefrom both later today.