RipTen Videogame Blog » BBC

Kinect’s Star Wars & Forza Titles Slated For Christmas 2011

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:05:47 +0000

Microsoft Kinect’s Creative Director, Kudo Tsunoda, recently revealed to BBC News that both LucasArts’ Star Wars Kinect exclusive and Turn 10 Studios’ Forza Kinect compatible title will not be hitting store shelves until the 2011 holiday season.

“We have a Kinect Star Wars game coming out for next holiday [Christmas 2011] … I think you could just easily imagine being a Jedi and using Kinect to make you feel you’re part of a Star Wars experience, building yourself up into a Jedi.”

“And another one next year is Forza, which is the best racing game of this generation of consoles… Those are the two games I’m most excited about.”

Much to Kinect we have. Wait, we shall.

Source: BBC News

APB Developer Realtime Worlds Facing Closure and Liquidation

Dave Oshry — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:34:58 +0000

The other day Ripten ran an editorial titled, “Is APB Already Dying?” Well it appears that we may have been more right than we knew.

The BBC Reported today that RTW has gone into administation (bankruptcy) and is seeking a bailout from anyone who is willing to invest in what is left of the company.

Joint administrators have been appointed and a consultation process on the future of the firm is under way. APB was five years in development but is thought to have failed to attract sufficient numbers of subscribers following mediocre reviews. Realtime Worlds made 60 staff redundant last week. Paul Dounis, of administrators Begbies Traynor, said: “We are currently involved in a consultative process with the 200 staff employed in Dundee.”

Realtime has main development operations in Dundee, Scotland and it’s head office and online operations are in Colorado. (Not Scotland)

These administrators will employ some of the 42 staff in the US to assist in selling the business.

Mr Dounis then added added that, “Our intention is to continue trading the company while we attempt to find a buyer which will safeguard the future of the business.”

He also hopes that any future buyer would continue to develop APB.

We’re holding our breath.

Read our previous editorial on the “death” of APB here.

LittleBigPlanet Controversy Makes BBC News

Patrick Steen — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:33:51 +0000

Mix Islam and entertainment to find the media lapping it up. Religious controversy sells, and even the BBC picks up on the trend.

We recently reported that LittleBigPlanet had been delayed due to its soundtrack featuring Qur’an references. It’s been a hotly discussed topic, some showing disgust, others sympathy. In the following BBC news clip Media Molecule’s Alex Evans explains how the matter was brought to their attention.

LitleBigPlanet will be available from the 27th October in the US, the 30th October in Japan, and the 3rd November in Europe. You can read my personal thoughts on the controversy in the comments section of our original report, with an extract here:

…Neither art nor entertainment should be censored for faith reasons, that is unless something is said which incites hatred. Not all Muslims find the combination of music and the Qur’an offensive, indeed there’s a whole genre of music doing just that.

The fact that the artist is Muslim is enough to illustrate that one forum poster saying they are offended by the use of words in a song which in no way attacks another human being, is not enough to justify the censoring of art or entertainment. If it offends you, don’t play the game. Or note that it offends you, and simply ignore it.

Since the national media, both the BBC and CNN, has picked up on the story, Chad Lakkis’ view that Sony was making a purely business decision could gain more significance. Perhaps Sony’s decision to recall the game was a publicity stunt to get LittleBigPlanet in the national media. It’s certainly a better tactic than buying a brief mention from British television presenter Jonathan Ross with knitted dolls that hardly resemble the lovable Sackboy:

BBC Blunder – Killzone 2 Footage Spliced Into Halo 3 Segment On BBC News 24

Drake Hess — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:24:26 +0000

How on earth does this happen by mistake? Answer, it doesn’t — and if it does someone should be made to answer. Yes, it is funny, but from a marketing stand point it is free publicity for Killzone 2, and one can only imagine that Microsoft is not happy about it. And from the other side of the fence, fans of Killzone 2 are probably upset that their graphics are being used to falsely promote Halo 3.

Right after the obvious Halo 3 portion you will see the footage from Killzone 2 clear as day. If you haven’t seen the video yet, check it out after the jump.

[youtube width="425" height="335"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1O7kLxKVcU[/youtube]