Remember the furore over Madworld in August? Mediawatch UK were at the centre of it, after their director complained that it would wreck Wii’s family image. Now they’re complaining that gamers aren’t happy about their moral compass.

In their autumn newsletter, the watchdog pointed fingers over all the “hostile emails” they received:

“Within hours of these remarks being published a rain of hostile emails from gamers poured into our office telling us to ’shut the f*** up’, suggesting that we have ‘got our knickers in a twist’, demanding, as though we were on trial for an heinous crime, to know
what right we had to impose our ‘narrow minded bigotry’ on them and stopping them playing an ‘adult’ game of their choice.

“Others, of a more sober character, asked reasonably why we should be so concerned about games when there was so much violence in films and on television! We were also accused us of being ‘cowards’ for not responding properly to belligerent strictures and one ‘emailer’ observed glibly that “violent acts are not a symptom of video gamesand films, but rather the human condition”. Another said: ‘If you don’t like violent content, don’t view or use it’.”

He then complained about feature artcles in the gaming press were responsible for “grossly exagerrating the significance of our comments”. But surely that’s what Mediawatch want isn’t it? Surely they are doing this to get their voice heard and get games banned?

They are right in that abusive emails aren’t doing the gaming community any favours, but it’s telling that the only respondents that appear to come off well in their eyes are the ones who said ‘yes, games are bad — but TV and film are worse’.

Source: Mediawatch (via GP)

Everyone knows Sony is pretty duff at doing anything with any sense of expediency. Now Sony UK managing director Ray Maguire has admitted as much — but has reiterated that PS3 is only just starting to get going.

It all sounds a bit like the tortoise and the hare. Is he going to mention the ten-year cycle?

Speaking to GI.biz, Maguire said:

“Yes, we might take a bit longer sometimes to bring a product to market, but when we do, we bring you the most powerful gaming platform ever to hit – and it will be something that will around for a very long time.

“It’s nowhere near even halfway through its lifecycle, and I could argue that some other competing formats are on their way down right now.”

He could argue, but actually he doesn’t provide anything to back up this prediction. Instead he uses Home to make a point about quality control, quipping that Sony hasn’t worked out how to “have a child in less than nine months”.

“Getting it right is more important than getting it out quick, and I think it’s very difficult to make that decision, to hold something up, but again I think it was the right decision to make sure that we were defining along the line where it is that we’re trying to go to.”

That’s quite an interesting assertion following the release of LittleBigPlanet and all the hurdles it’s had — not least the obviously incomplete moderation process.

Last week, Maguire claimed that third-party devs would start developing multiplaform titles for the PS3 and then ‘downgrade’ them to others. What are the bets for next week’s Maguire Missive folks?

Source: GI.biz

Sega’s unhyped tactical rpg only went on sale yesterday in the US — it’s been out in Europe for a week — but we’ve already been promised that DLC from Japan will make it over to both territories.

The first is an extra hard skirmish mode, while the second, a new mission, turns the storyline on it’s head: The original campaign has you defending your homeland (Gallia) from invasion. Now you get to lead that invasion yourself.

Based on this article from Famitsu the new mission is rather meatier than its name implies, boasting three original battles, new story sequences and new voice acting. If special conditions are met (we don’t know what they are yet) you’ll be rewarded with Selvaria’s special gun, Ruhm (’glory’ in german) which you can also use in the Gallian battles.

No word on price yet, but Valkyria Chronicles’ US producer, Christopher Kaminski revealed on the official Playstation blog we’ll be getting both early next year.

Sources: Official Playstation blog, Famitsu (thanks Siliconera)

It was out on hold after EA deemed PS3 “too exotic and tough” to develop for, but it seems like they’re ready for another crack at it. Producer David Silverman has announced that people are already working the PS3 version. And it isn’t just a port.

Silverman says it was delayed until the Xbox 360 version shipped because EA LA was concerned that they couldn’t keep the quality up, but he reckons it will be worth the wait for PS3 owners.

“We’re looking at doing some really cool things with the PS3 version. Since it is shipping later we’re putting in a lot of cool content and really taking advantage of both the 1080p nature and the high-defness of Blu-Ray and also the fact that it can hold just so much more space.”

Hopefully this will be a bit more than shinier cutscenes - but Silverman wouldn’t be drawn on anything else, adding that he had “already said too much”. What a tease.

Source: Videogamer

Time to stir up some more patriotism! The Suffering: Ties That Bind, Rise & Fall: Civilization at War and Area 51 — a rather inspired choice — all up for grabs as the US Air Force dangles the carrot.

There’s no pretence here: a prominent link to US Air Force marketing site tells you this is an attempt to reach potential recruits. Mercifully you don’t have to sign-up for anything, but the games are full of ads, which is setting off some downaloaders’ anti-virus software. Conspiracy theorists best avoid, or don their tin foil hats.

I can’t see the logic in sponsoring these games — all over two years old — in the week we get sequels to Resistance and Gears, but free is free i guess. Download them here.

Source: GP

The boss at Sony Computer Entertainment UK believes that third party developers will start developing multiplatform titles with the PS3 in mind and downgrading them to other consoles. But is he right?

Speaking over on videogamer.com, Maguire says:

“I think we now have an install base which is big enough for any third party to want to develop for. Now the decision making part of development is which do you lead your development on?

“Is it easier to lead with the most powerful, both in terms of AI and graphics, i.e. PS3 and then just remove part of the functionality for the processors that aren’t quite as strong? I would imagine that’s very much part of the thought process now from a studio development point of view.”

I’m not entirely convinced that this is the developers point of view yet. There’s nothing wrong with the PS3 install base, but it after the latest round of 360 price cuts and — at least in the UK — an incessant campaign of TV ads it is getting trumped at retail.

In the last week Red Faction: Guerrilla developer Volition revealed that they had so many problems developing for the console they had to bring in someone from Sony to help keep it on schedule. Also this week, Red Alert 3 has landed on PC, and will be out soon on Xbox 360. it was originally announced for PS3 as well, but was cut after they discovered it was “exotic and tough” to develop for.

This represents the bulk of developers at the moment it seems. For every dev like Konami or Media Molecule that is really committed to push what PS3 can achieve, there are a score more who look at the larger install base of Xbox 360, factor in the reduced development time, and come realise they’ll be quids in. More so if they follow the template Eternal Sonata has laid down. When it moved to PS3, it boasted new characters and extended chunks of plot, bringing with it the opportunity of secondary sales to the same gamers.

Much as I love the PS3 — and this isn’t intended to be fanboy baiting — I can’t help but think that to achieve this Sony either need to cut the price to encourage sales or (more plausible) provide more help to developers. Kojima only achieved what he did with Metal gear Solid 4 after getting early access to PS3 before the console launched after all. What do you think readers?

Source: Videogamer.com

Publishers are pleading UK retailers not to start a price war. It’s a serious request, but some retailers can’t help taking the piss. And I’m not talking about obscenely low prices.

Several UK supermarket chains have waded into the games retail business, bringing with it a string of aggressive pricing campaigns. Non-specialist entertainment and homewares retailer Woolworths recently got involved, cutting Wii hardware bundles by £20.

A Woolworths spokesman told MCV earlier today:

“We are always looking for ways to cut prices on our games.”

They weren’t joking. Woolworth’s website now boasts ‘Cheap Charts’ where you can nab a bargain all for two pence cheaper than specialist retailer GAME.

Titles include Haze, Condemned 2 and Mass Effect. It seems a flagrant attempt to hook consumers, most likely the ones buying Christmas gifts, who wouldn’t usually go to a specialist retailer. Calling it the Cheap Chart might have done it, but showcasing a two-pence saving is embarrassing. How can anyone think they are getting a sweet deal? The same section also boasts token one and two pound discounts.

This tomfoolery aside, the price wars are a serious issue for publishers, and there are larger price cuts being made. Activision’s UK MD Andy Brown told MCV:

“We recognise the short-term pressure on retail, especially if we are on the edge of a recession. But I believe retailers should drive growth by developing improved in-store solutions, rather than forcing the prices down.

“The overall strategy needs to be sustainable.”

At least you can’t fault the two-pence initiative on that front.

Sources: MCV, Woolworths

Bungie have confirmed that the line “Maddie, where are you?” – which we spotted in the new Halo 3 campaign trailer released yesterday – is not related to missing British toddler Madeleine McCann.

Over on Bungie.net, writer Luke Smith said:

“As always, all of the characters in our games are fictional. Any similarities between real life and the characters in our games are purely coincidental.

“That said, this is both an unfortunate and untended [sic] coincidence.”

Which is what was expected, and mercifully the mainstream rags haven’t picked up on it. But do you believe it’s genuine or a sly bit of PR?

Following a 12-hour countdown, Bungie has posted a 60 second teaser trailer for their new Halo game – “a new Halo 3 campaign experience”.

The CG trailer is massively cryptic.  Seen through the eyes of the Superintendent, an apparently abandoned cityscape gets bombed to hell and back and left in a smoky ruin. Though close up, these ‘bombs’ are pods.

But that’s pretty much it, aside from the the ‘Prepare to Drop’ tagline and the Halo 3 logo. We only know it’s a campaign by helpful description from Xbox Live Marketplace. What we can tell from the trailer however:

00:09 – Well, that’s a pod alright
00:13 – Notice the evacuate sign on the left… and in small letters under it: “City of New Mombasa”
00:36 – For one frame “Maddie, Where Are You” appears. Speculation about that is rife across the web that this ia a reference to missing schoolgirl Madeleine McCann. We can’t imagine it being true, but can’t recall any Maddie from Halo either…
00:36 again – The Flood are almost certainly involved. ”Danger: Flood Zone” appears in the next frame. It’s a fair guess this isn’t a public maintenence issue.

Naturally, more predictions are already being made, but it’s all conjecture. Cast your bets.

But only on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. DICE announced today that Mirror’s Edge will ship for consoles on November 11, with the PC version to appear later this winter.

The game’s prologue – a tutorial and early chunk of the single-player story – will be released as a demo through Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store at some point before the game’s release. And if you’re keen enough to pre-order Mirror’s Edge, from the 26th September you’ll be given a code to unlock a time trial mode in the demo too.

Source: DICE

It’s nothing to do with penis monsters. No, today’s scapegoat is evolution. One militant creationist – who describes herself only as a “good Christian woman” – has set up a blog to campaign against Spore. Did we also mention that Will Wright is evil and that she’s killing EA on the stock market? I’m not joking.

The site, Anti Spore, only appeared in the world on 8 September, after its creator’s son asked for a copy of the game. She regales:

It looked innocent enough at first and has “E for Everyone” ESRB rating.  But don’t be mislead, apparently ‘everyone’ means everyone they want to teach evolution to.

This entire game is propaganda aimed directly at our children to teach them evolution instead of creationism.

I created this blog to find support for and follow my progress in letting Electronic Arts know that their biggest attack on Christian values to date will not be tolerated.

We can not allow the gaming industry to invade our homes and poison the minds of our children.

After all, their billions in revenue and all the advertising in the world are no match for the power of God.

Ironically, Anti Spore is very much moving into realms of propaganda itself. Remember that Will Wright chap? GCW does. She used to like him. Now he’s evil.

He created Sim City, a fantastic game that celebrated the earth that God created for us and allowed you to use all your God given abilities to make an ideal society. But if you ever felt like you had too much power, God would come in with a tornado or an earthquake and put you back in place.

You would think that as a member of the Episcopal Church, a smart man like Will Wright would not be capable of creating Spore. However, we must be reminded that the Episcopal Church is the only church in America that ordains homosexuals on a regular basis.

It goes on. GCW feels sick that none of the 8,500 EA employees had “enough Jesus” to make a stand against Spore, despite the rather obvious fact that most of them will have had nothing to do with it. But perhaps the biggest point of misguidedness came in a post on 9 September, when she noted that EA’s stock dropped.

“Today EA’s stock is down almost a dollar. I hope that the information about Spore I am making available helped in some small way.”

Pity she hasn’t been looking beyond her remit to notice that the knock-on from EA’s SecuROM DRM in Spore and Red Alert 3.

It’s a corporate shafting dressed up like an act of goodwill. Following the Spore DRM backlash, EA had the smarts to head off any possible speculation about Red Alert 3. It will feature the same SecuROM protection, but give owners two extra activations before they have to ring up EA customers services and try their best not to sound like a pirate.

Chris Corry, Red Alert 3 premier executive producer, posted on the EA forums earlier today:

In the case of Red Alert 3 (and all PC titles coming out of EA), we will use SecuROM – the same copy protection that the EALA RTS group has used on our last three titles. This time around, however, the copy protection will be configured to be more lenient than we’ve supported in the past.

In a separate post, he added:

You can uninstall/reinstall on the same machine multiple times (no OS change, no hardware change) without risking anything. And in fact simply reinstalling your operating system would not generally require you to use an additional license either.

But if you reinstalled the OS and made a variety of other hardware changes all at the same time, that would appear to the SecuROM system like a new machine and you would need to use a new license at that point.

So good news if you like keeping your hard drive free of games you don’t want to play. But lets say that – as Corry puts it – life happens, and you max out your five installs. On several occasions he promises that customer service will grant additional authorizations on a case-by-case basis with good reason. The problem is customer services aren’t paid to think, they’re paid to follow a script.

The larger question looms – should consumers have to risk anything after they’ve paid full price for a game? The concept of ownership here is being translated into one of extended rental – while pirates keep the DRM-free version as long as they choose.

For EA’s part, the announcement is rather smart. Everyone who cares about being treated like a pirate or concerned about the invasive nature of SecuROM will get their ire out of the way early – probably leaving sites like Amazon free of the damning reviews plaguing Spore.

Source: EA forums

WWGFD? Ask him. Judging by this pic from CERN he’s already watching over us. Which is just as well, since the research centre is due to switch on its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tomorrow – possibly recreating Half-Life’s Black Mesa balls-up within the month.

This actually couldn’t come at a better time. Some people are so fearful of CERN creating a black hole underneath the France/Switzerland border that a legal challenge was mounted in the European Court of Human Rights earlier today. The court has already denied an injunction to prevent the LHC being turned on at all. Now critics have alleged that the experiment itself violates the human right to life.

At least with this picture, both they and the judges will know that the ultimate safeguards are in place. Doubly so if anyone has had the common sense to pass on Reddit’s crowbar.

Source: Popgive

A Canadian woman has praised Grand Theft Auto for giving her daughter the presence of mind to rescue the entire family after their car crashed.

Eleven year old Audrey Plique led her dazed parents and two siblings from the wreckage after it rolled over.

“She just knew, from playing Grand Theft Auto,” said mother Karen Norris. “She saw on there that when a car rolls over, it can blow up. She knew that could happen to us.”

So GTA might just be recognized for doing some good in the world. It sounds like a great feel-good story–- but it’s a double-edged sword.

We suspect that the kid learned to not leave people in peril from TV, or even from her own common sense. Also, if you take this story at face value, GTA is responsible for changing the behaviour of an impressionable person.

This is the exact assumption made by people who take any “GTA made me do it” crime story as gospel, and there are far more of those stories out there. Hold this up as a banner reinforcing the good of games all you want, but ultimately it’s reinforcing the negative.

Source: The Times of Ottawa

Speaking at Tecmo’s Autumn Conference, new president Yasuharu Kakihara has revealed that Team Ninja are not only still together following Itagaki’s departure, but that they’re very busy indeed.

Three new titles are being worked on, but there’s no word on what they are. It’s a bit too soon for Ninja Gaiden 3, but it’s about time for Dead or Alive 5, isn’t it? He did however bring up Team Tachyon’s Rygar: The Battle of Argus– more details about it will be revealed at TGS 2008.

President Kakihara also engaged in a formal bit of corporate back-slapping, affirming that Tecmo is a world class developer and would be aiming to expand in the future. Though I’m not sure dreams of expansion are going to sit with Square Enix.

Source: Inside Games (translated by Google)

Square Enix has confirmed it has approached Tecmo’s board to make a friendly takeover – and it’s doing it for the good of Japan, by the sound of the official spiel.

The JPY 22.3 billion (USD 205 million) offer comes off the back of Itagaki’s departure and president Yoshimi Yashuda’s resignation, which Square Enix believes have left the company rather vulnerable. Apart from all the usual guff about how brilliant and beneficial the move would be, their statement included the following:

“The game industry in Japan is standing at a critical juncture whether it continues to be a centre of the video game industry in the world, or not.”

“Tecmo is a group of excellent creators with proven track-record in the global market, which is a precious human resource of Japan. We, however, cannot be optimistic about the future of this significant resource, given the current circumstances.”

Tecmo have until September 4th to decide. If they accept, they’ll be getting the same deal as Taito, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix but keeping their own organization and brand. If not, Square Enix has stated it will not pursue a hostile takeover – so it won’t turn into a protracted mess like EA’s attempts to acquire Take 2.

Of course, this isn’t going to be as altruistic as it appears. If Final Fantasy XIII breaking exclusivity tells you anything, it’s that Sqaure Enix wants sales in the Western markets. Sales that Tecmo could easily supply with future installments of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden.

You might have thought Will Wright might have pulled a facepalm when people started creating genitalia based creatures. Not so – he thinks they’re ace.

“When you give players creative control, you have to expect they’re going to do the unexpected,”

says Wright, though I would argue that creating a walking phallus is far from surprising.

“It’s amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren’t messing up the experience for others.”

Wright also revealed that possible console versions wouldn’t be direct ports, but would be tied to each platform’s strengths – arguing that the difference between a keyboard, controller, and Wii remote was case enough. He also mused on the possibility of a sequel, even though the full game hasn’t been released yet.

“I don’t think we could design a sequel to Spore until the fans showed us what they like,” he says. “I think there’s going to be a fair amount of learning over the next few months. What’s important for me is what sort of stories the players are using the game to tell. Games that have the longest legs are the ones with the most narrative density.”

Best hope the players can get past this particular brand of storytelling.

No matter how much you love RPGs, grinding often turns into a majorly time consuming pain in the ass. Good old Namco Bandai knows how you feel – so it’s going to let you buy character levels for Tales of Vesperia as DLC.

While that seems rather handy if you’re regularly getting pasted, you can’t help but feel this rather defeats the point. Really, what you are doing is paying Namco Bandai once to buy the game, then paying them a bit more so you don’t have to play it so much.

How far can you go down this path? Chances are in a month you will be able to pay to simply watch the ending as DLC and decide right off the bat if you want to invest your time finding out how it happened.

Still, at least it’s more useful than Oblivion’s horse armour. Here’s the DLC list:

- LV Up +10 (1) 300 Microsoft Points
- LV Up +5 (1) 200 Microsoft Points
- 300,000 Gald (1) 300 Microsoft Points
- Skill sets 80 Microsoft Points
- HP Recovery Cuisine Recipe Set 100 Microsoft Points

Source: Kotaku

The conversation I envisaged at Taito about this tribute, celebrating 30 years of Space Invaders, never happened it seems – parent company Square Enix has come out of the flutter, claiming the exhibit at Leipzig was planned without Taito’s knowledge or consent.

But they didn’t pass comment on the art’s message. According to their press release:

“Taito is seriously considering all available options–including legal actions against the infringer and, if necessary, the Games Convention exhibitor involved–in order to end this unauthorized and impermissible misuse of the Space Invaders content and to protect Taito’s intellectual properties.”

It’s since come to light that the Computer Game Museum in Berlin, which is running the exhibit, didn’t see fit to get sign off for the project. From their own website:

“Note: The artwork “invaders!” is not approved by Square Enix/ Taito.”

No doubt that will come back to bite them if Taito decide to unleash the lawyers.

“What do you think would be best to celebrate 30 years of Space Invaders? Oh I know, let’s go to Leipzig and parody the destruction of the World Trade Center!”

How I would love to have sat in on that meeting when Taito decided that this was a good idea, let alone a fitting tribute to a classic title. But they did, and according to Kotaku you can see a non-interactive display of typical Taito invaders zapping the Twin Towers at Leipzig right now, apparently replete with leapers in all their 8-bit glory.

Yet it’s not meant to be a game – it’s an art exhibit.

It’s the work of French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley, who sees Space Invaders as a “social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power.”

Actually, I wish I was making this up. Taito have yet to comment. More on Stanley here.

Do you get excited by Wii? Not as much as five-year-old Archie Lovett in the UK it seems, who got onto his Grandfather’s eBay account, and promptly bid nearly £200,000 a secondhand console – more than 1,000 times above its retail price.

Gramps didn’t know anything about until he had an email from the seller asking for £197,654, who doubtless thought he had found a right mug. Oh how he must have cried as he let them back out of the deal.

What worries me is that both his mother and an eBay spokeswoman described the boy as ‘clever’. Which isn’t quite the word I’d use. Especially since he already has a Wii.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Sega has announced its Leipzig GC line-up, and they’re trying to make a song and dance out of Samba De Amigo. More interesting is the promise of the world premiere of a new title and the attendance of Headstrong Games on their booth.

Headstrong, rebranded from Kuju Entertainment at the end of July, is working on an as-yet-undisclosed Wii title for Sega, so it’s a fair bet they are not turning up to Leipzig just to soak up the atmosphere or see how it compares to E3.

So what could it be? Much as I would love it to be another Shenmue, it seems like it might be another Dreamcast classic – Jet Grind Radio. Sega filed this handy trademark, dated 24 July 2008, which gives us hope that they’re returning to the franchise.

They promise we’ll find out for sure before the event. Here’s the rest of their line-up, sadly devoid of any other Dreamcast greats begging for a resurrection:

Samba De Amigo
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Sonic Unleashed
Mario and Sonic at the Olympics Games (well it is that time of year)
Bejing 2008
Dinosaur King
Space Seige
Empire: Total War
Alpha Protocol
Mad World
Bayonetta (follow up to Golden Axe apparently)
Valkyria Chronicles
Stormrise

Man-on-top Simon Jeffrey has rounded on developers for drowning Wii in below-par tat, but is confident that publishers – starting with Sega, naturally – can put that to rights.

Chewing the fat over at Venture Beat, he says:

“There is a lot of crap coming out for the Wii in general. But if it’s not a good game, it doesn’t sell. That flood of crap will die down as publishers become more coherent.”

Let’s hope this isn’t a case of Simon Jeffrey misspeaking again. He also lets loose on the tug-of-war between Sony and Microsoft for Wii ‘graduates’, putting everyone’s favourite game – Mad World – on the frontline for reaching out to the more hardcore Wii audience.

“No one is doing that. With Mad World from Platinum Games, we are trying to show that millions of Wii gamers want to move on to mature games. They don’t have to have an Xbox 360 to do that.”

There’s more to come from Sega when it comes to Wii – Jeffrey just loves the accessories:

“We are fans of the Wii Zapper. Our Ghost Squad game keeps selling. We have more Zapper games going. The same for the Wii Balance Board, although we have nothing announced yet.”

Never say never. Nothing may be announced *yet*, but Leipzig GC is only round the corner.

For dedicated achievement whores who are strapped for cash but don’t want to sell their entire game collection, there’s a new option-– sell the time you spend playing them.

It’s widespread practice, it seems. Den of Geek has found an auction offering such services for Gears of War. The Ebay link is nowhere to be found, but plenty of others – like this one for Guitar Hero and another for Gears of War – are out there. A bit more digging and you can even pimp your gamerscore on a grand scale.

This works because you’re not actually selling your own achievements or gamerscore, which are technically property of Microsoft anyway. You’re selling your time to do it for someone else. All you need is their live ID and password.

Would I buy them off you? Probably not. Sure, having them all would look great, but it’s still someone else’s score. I’ll still be as good (or rather, as bad) as I was before I paid to have these false accolades bestowed on me. Still, plenty of people out there fed up of being a noob.

Here’s the ad as posted on Den of Geek:

GEARS OF WAR – ACHIEVEMENT GLITCH!

The following auction is for the following achievements to be unlocked on your xbox 360 account :

SERIOUSLY… – 50G

All weapon achievements, including sniper, hammer of dawn etc.

Once payment is recieved., please send me the following details :

Your Gamertag, Email & Email Password.

And we will discuss a convenient time for both of us on when i should do it

Once recovered, i will have finished in around 15 minutes

After the achievements are unlocked on your profile, i will delete your account from my hard-drive and email you so that you know i have finished.

MediaWatch UK, self-appointed guardians of decency in entertainment, have suddenly registered Wii’s Mad World on their radar – and they’re not too chuffed about it.

“I hope the British Board of Film Classification will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification,” says John Beyer, MediaWatch UK president. “Without that it cannot be marketed in Britain. What the rest of the world does is up to them. We need to ensure that modern and civilized values take priority rather than killing and maiming people.”

“It seems a shame that the game’s manufacturer have decided to exclusively release this game on the Wii,” he added. “I believe it will spoil the family fun image of the Wii.”

It’s not really a shame though, because Wii is in need of more decent third-party titles. Meanwhile, UK national the Daily Mail has got hold of this and is now in hysterics, claiming that parents are “horrified” yet they utterly failed to consult any parents on the matter. Great journalism, that.

They also hail it as the “most violent videogame ever”, conveniently forgetting they paid Anne Diamond for her opinion of Resident Evil 4. She came up with the corking, “This game shouldn’t be sold, even to adults. It wallows in violence for violence’s sake.” She’ll probably expect Platinum Games and Sega to face charges themselves if she gets hold of MadWorld.

I think it’s kind of funny, then I think it’s kind of sad. I’m not surprised at this line from the paper, which is by far the most sensationalist and inaccurate of all the UK nationals, but the watchdog shows itself up something famous.

They clearly haven’t registered the imminent release of Manhunt 2 in the UK (28 August) which is far more violent, far more graphic, and so far hasn’t destroyed the Wii’s image in the US. Nor have they considered that MadWorld is pretty much a guaranteed 18. They don’t seem to be content unless the BBFC’s is anything other than a banhammer.

Nintendo, surprisingly, takes a more balanced approach. “Wii appeals to a wide range of audiences from children and teenagers to adults and senior citizens, anyone from five to 95, as such there is a wide range of content for all ages and tastes available,” says a spokesman, who craftily qualifies this justification with, “The game is not made by Nintendo but by Sega.”

Source: Daily Mail

Microsoft marketeer Albert Pennello claims that they didn’t have to line Square Enix’s pockets to break FFXIII’s exclusivity – the publisher was attracted by the success of 360.

The global marketing director claimed that “a publisher like Square can’t ignore” the size of its install base.

“I think the most obvious reason that [Square Enix] made the announcement is just looking at the success of our console. I mean, we’re the leading console on a worldwide basis, we’re more than double the install base on the US.”

“I think it’s easy to assume that something is going on behind the scenes, I think the more obvious answer is we’re doing really well and the game creators want their games to be where the most people and the most consoles [are], and right now that’s the Xbox 360.”

Notice how he craftily avoids mentioning Japan though.

Source: Mundorare (via Videogaming24/7)

It’s not just Marky Mark who considers the Wii to be a bit of a novelty. Xbox VP (and former CEO of Nintendo Europe) David Gosen has slammed Wii for its gimmicky approach when it comes to controllers – notably Wii Fit’s balance board as being little more than a set of “digital bathroom scales”.

Asked about Microsoft’s concerns when it came to creating new peripherals, he praised Nintendo’s success with Wii, but warned they were treading a fine line.

“I think sometimes there is a thin line between gimmick and great gameplay. We’ve seen some research that says 60 per cent of people who bought a Wii Fit play it once and don’t play it again. So we have to get the balance right, because what we are doing is bringing new consumers into the market for the first time in their lives sometimes – and we have to treat them with respect.”

Oh yes, he just made a balance pun. He goes on to make the usual promises about Microsoft’s own efforts – “it’s going to be a truly game changing experience” darhling! – rounding off by claiming anything less revolutionary will end up unloved and collecting dust under the stairs.

So wait, why is he warning Nintendo they need to make more of their peripherals? After all, the sooner those gamers stow their Wii away the sooner they’ll be hungering for something a bit more hardcore. Like a 360, right?

Source: Develop

Following another games-made-me-do-it claim, the Thai Government has named and shamed the ten most violent games – one of which is over three years old. That’s probably because it nicked the list from an American prosecutor.

The Thai list published today includes the usual suspects: GTA, God of War, Manhunt, a couple of gangster ones… and Killer 7 for PS2 and GC.

The inclusion of the last title alone is enough to suggest that the list has been plagiarized from Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy, who published the same list (albeit in a different order) warning parents about what was suitable for their kids for Christmas in 2007. In fact the Thai Government doesn’t mention a single title, save GTA, which has been released in the last 12 months.

Is that significant? I think it is rather. It shows the Thai Government just had a massive knee-jerk reaction without giving the matter much thought. That much can also be ascertained from the source of the press release – the Ministry of Health. Unless the artwork is laced with poison or the boxes have extremely sharp corners, this doesn’t really seem like a health matter.

Then it comes back to the fact that nine of these games is probably still on sale – eight if you count the fact Killer 7 is more a bargain bin title. What’s the message here? If your loved ones play these games, watch out, they might kill you? If you buy this game, you’re practically embarking on a life of crime? It doesn’t wash.

Here’s the full list, as reported by Cnet Asia:

1- GTA
2- Man Hunt
3- Scarface
4- 50 Cent – Bullet Proof
5- 300
6- The Godfather
7- Killer 7
8- Resident Evil 4
9- God of War
10- Hitman

Main man Satoru Iwata lets slip that Wii Music is Nintendo’s last original idea for Wii. But he’s not worried about having to pile money back into R&D. There’s still most of the world to conquer.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Iwata explains that Wii Music is the culmination of everything that Miyamoto put in his proposal for the Wii.

“[Miyamoto] was saying that he needs to think up more ideas now,” he reveals. “Most of the ideas for accessories that we had initially come up with are out now. We might think up some more, and we might make them if we do, but we don’t have any plans to release a whole lot more.”

Which in one sense is rather good – Nintendo can focus on making the most of the peripherals it has rather than jumping from one novelty to the next. Or will they? Iwata has some ambitious ideas for the future.

“After we complete our mission in developed countries, then we’ll have to start thinking about how to make our products appealing in developing countries,” he says. “We’ll have a whole new dimension of issues to tackle like pricing, quantity availability and regional adaptation. We’re not going to meet our goals that easily.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

It was public demand that caused Capcom to port Okami over to Wii in the first place, but they won’t cave when it comes to a sequel-– it’s a dead franchise unless the first one starts paying the rent.

Capcom’s vice president of strategic planning and business development, Christian Svensson, addressed the idea of a sequel over on the Capcom Unity forums. It wasn’t pretty:

“I think we need a lot more people buying the current version before we seriously consider a sequel.”

How many more? He couldn’t say because investor relations haven’t released the worldwide sales figures. Part of the problem is that Okami has suffered much like Ico, being a critical hit with very little commercial push, something Svensson readily concedes.

“Retailers decide what to put on their shelf and how much of it,” he says.  “Obviously, we push as hard as we can to make that happen. Sometimes retailers opt to not take product or they take only a small quantity. And how good the game is, unfortunately, is only a part of the equation.”

Another part of that equation is marketing, which neither the PS2 or Wii version of Okami had very much of. Shadow of the Colossus certainly didn’t suffer the same fate as Ico after an ad campaign was put behind it, and it was every bit as outlandish as Okami.

That said, there’s no guarantee a sequel be very good anyway. Developer Clover Studios was shut down in late 2007. Its intellectual properties were absorbed back into Capcom, but its talent, sadly, was not.

Source: Capcom Unity forums