Cammie Dunaway opened the event, greeting everyone in attendance at the Nokia theatre, Nokia Lounge and everyone watching at home. She talked about big surprises and little surprises and how today’s press event would deliver both. While there were some interesting announcements, I felt like Nintendo, despite leading in many of the categories it is competing in, really didn’t have any momentum by the end of its E3 press event.
(contributors: Hal Halpin, President, ECA; James Fudge, David Chapman)
We count down the top twenty-one news stories of 2008, though picking which were the very best proved to be a painful, gut-wrenching exercise. There were so many interesting stories this year; we watched the interactive entertainment industry grow - and then later - retract as the global economy wreaked havoc on every kind of business you can imagine; players got their first taste of WiiWare, Home and the New Xbox Experience; we watched as the big three slugged it out for North American supremacy in the latest round of console wars and we saw Blizzard dust off its classic franchises and move million of copies of its Lich King expansion.
Yeah, 2008 was a good year, but not without its share of triumphs, disappointments, joys and sorrow. Here are the stories that moved us, made us angry, scared us and made us think about the industry we cover.
We begin with #21 - #15, starting now. Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft says that TECMO/Team NINJA’s Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360 has sold over one million units worldwide. Not too shabby. One million fans have made the jump to the 360 to join Ryu Hayabusa in his epic quest to avenge his clan and prevent the destruction of the human race. In just a little over two months since its release in June 2008, Ninja Gaiden II has sold over one million copies worldwide on Xbox 360 and currently enjoys an average critics’ rating of 81 out of 100, according to Metacritic. Yeah, the whole Metacritic thing is real important. Right. Yeah.
Ninja Gaiden II is rated “M” for Metacritic’s approval. Check out the review that didn’t make it into metacritic - ours!
If you’ve bought Ninja Gaiden II for Xbox 360 and have already breezed through its original missions then you may be happy to hear that 25 new missions are on the way today. Woo Hoo! These new missions will be divided into two sets of missions: Karma and Survival. Survival missions are fast paced affairs where you must survive an ever-increasing onslaught of bad guys using only one weapon. Karma missions challenge players to get highest score possible.
All of these can be yours for 800 MS Points beginning today on Xbox Live Marketplace. Enjoy.
A quick check of the calendar shows that it’s the weekend, which means it’s time for all of you out there in Gamer Land to get caught up on the tidbits of news you might have missed this week on the Crispy Gamer site. I’ll be your tour guide once again this week, as we board the recap trolley, so buckle up boys and girls and be sure to keep your hands and feet securely inside the ride. And away we go ?
Okay, I’ve got a couple of issues with this one. For starters, all the news being reported is based on a leaked marketing report. That’s like handing out an Oscar based strictly on a spec script. The project may never see the light of day, and even if it does, there’s nothing saying the final product is going to look anything like the screenshot. Which leads me to issue number two ?
Don’t get me wrong, I think the Wii’s Mii avatars are cute and entertaining and all of that, but since when did Nintendo invent the idea of 3D avatars? These things have been around for more than a decade, even before Nintendo fans were playing on their Nintendo 64s. Now, does that mean there’s not some correlation between Microsoft working on an avatar system and the success of the Wii’s Mii feature? Of course not. But doesn’t Nintendo’s WiiWare service seem more than a little similar to Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade? MS Points, Wii Points. Second Life, Home. Pok?mon, Digimon. Yeah, for good or for ill, people borrow ideas from each other, but people tend to forget that just because you’re the most popular fad at the moment doesn’t necessarily mean you came up with the idea first.
Right about now, you’ve got to be wondering when EA’s going to give up on trying to acquire Take-Two and just move on. It’s kind of pointless to draw a line in the sand when everyone is pretty sure you’re just going to erase it and draw a new one. Anyone want to take bets on what’s going to happen on July 18th, when the NEXT deadline passes?
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There were a lot a sensationalistic stories today about Tecmo playing hardball with former employee and Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki. According to several stories, Tecmo filed a gag order on the now disgruntled employee, which would keep him from speaking to the media about aspects of the lawsuit he has filed against the company. According to those same reports, this would include talking about confidential insider information, talking about the business inside Tecmo in general, and making inflammatory remarks that have the potential to harm the company’s business.
A follow-up with Tecmo’s Kyoko Yamashita offered some further coloring on the story - including the fact that this gag order is not in effect yet:
“There are numerous sites reporting on each new action/movement regarding the two separate cases and as you can imagine, not everyone is 100% accurate. As for the gag order, from what we have been told (and read in Japanese), the order was filed but has not been issued yet. Hence, the order is not in effect ? yet. “
Tecmo also pointed out that - because this is about a pending lawsuit - chances are they will not be commenting on it any further in the future. No shock there.
Tecmo is not happy about the stories that are circulating around the internet about lawsuits, employees and .. well, fraud. The company issued a statement today denying key elements of these stories:
“On and around June 15, 2008, various websites in the US reported a rumor about ?dozens? of development staff members resigning and filing a lawsuit against Tecmo, LTD., following Tomonobu Itagaki’s departure from the company. The rumors are false and no such action is taking place at the company.
On June 16, 2008, two employees filed a lawsuit against Tecmo, LTD. with accusations of withholding overtime pay. Although a lawsuit was filed by the two employees, on April 1, 2008, Tecmo, LTD. did notify all affected employees that they would be appropriately compensated and is currently in the process of resolving the matter. There are several inaccurate reports stating that all 300 company employees are named in the lawsuit and the company would like to clarify that only two employees are involved in the suit.
In addition, there were reports that Tecmo, LTD., a publicly traded company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, withheld information from its shareholders regarding the lawsuit filed in May 2008 by Tomonobu Itagaki. The company has observed the provisions defined by the Exchange and has released information accordingly and in a timely manner.
It is unfortunate that false and inaccurate reporting of our organization and employees’ actions have caused some unrest among our development staff members. Tecmo, LTD. would like to assure its partners and loyal fans that its teams continue to focus and work on several projects to be released and announced in the future. The company is committed to providing high quality, entertaining products for our fans around the world.”
We’ll have more on this story shortly.
