Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Brian Bishop
Xenoblade Chronicles to hit US shores in 2012
If there’s one thing I appreciate in this world, it’s a good RPG, and according to our Scottish cohort Andrew, Xenoblade Chronicles is a DAMN good RPG. But it was always a point of sadness for me knowing that Nintendo had no plans to bring what was apparently one of the best JRPGs of the year, if not the generation, to US shores. Well, it turns out plans have been made.
Xenoblade Chronicles will hit US shores in the Spring with a retail price of $49.99, and the only place you’ll be able to find it is at your local GameStop (or GameStop.com).
Whether or not Nintnedo’s decision to localize this game is a result of Project Rainfall, which was an initiative from a large group of American gamers who were campaigning for the localization of Xenoblade Chronicles (along with other Japanese/European-only releases The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower). So far, Nintendo hasn’t announced any plans to localize the other two games.
I, for one, am giddy as a Japanese schoolgirl over this news, and I know I’ll be at GameStop for the midnight release of what is apparently one of the best RPGs of our time.
Posted in News, Wii
Tagged Xenoblade Chronicles
Xbox 360 has record week after Black Friday
The Xbox 360 has been out for seven years now, and a long and great seven years it has been. But with rumors of the upcoming “Xbox 720,” you would think that sales of the system would start to drop off. Well, as the Black Friday sales numbers show, this isn’t even close to true.
Xbox 360 community rep Major Nelson reported on his blog that the Xbox 360 had it’s biggest sales week EVER, selling a grand total of 960,000 consoles, 800,000 of which were sold within a 24 hour period, presumably on Black Friday.
“Xbox 360 was among the best-sellers at Best Buy this Black Friday, and is a testament to the continued popularity of the gaming category this holiday,” said Chris Homeister, senior vice president and general manager of Home Entertainment at Best Buy.
Another impressive sales figure was the amount of Kinect sensors, bundled or otherwise, that were sold. A grand total of 750,000 sensors were purchased last week.
This is all exemplified by the news that at a Walmart in the Southern California area, a lady used pepper spray to get through a large crowd in order to reach the last of some Xbox 360 systems, so it seems Microsoft’s system has some life left in it after all, enough life to clear out a Walmart, at least.
Bethesda programmed Morrowind, Cyrodiil into Skyrim
When I first picked up The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I realized that this was the way I wanted to play Elder Scrolls. I only wished that I could return to the lands from the two previous games, Morrowind and Cyrodiil, with Skyrim’s engine. Well, maybe we won’t have to wait that long for an official way to do it.
On the tumblr site PPSh-41, the owner of the site, Jesse, has used the noclip setting in the PC version of the game to go outside Skyrim’s boundaries. There, he found that the worlds of the previous two games were actually IN the game. Sadly, these lands were in a dramatically lower resolution, lower scale, and not functional or playable in any form.
Why is it there? I would like to hope that maybe Bethesda has some big plans for Skyrim DLC in the future to include the worlds of the previous games. Of course, this could also just be the attention to detail that Bethesda is known for in it’s games, or just throwing in a nice little easter egg for those who were curious. Either way, it’s a rather exciting prospect.
Once again, the tumblr article with pictures and analysis can be found here: PPSh-41.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Skyrim ships more than 7 million critically acclaimed copies
When I went to pick up my copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at a midnight release party I got there three hours early and I was STILL 150th in line at the store here in Phoenix. By 11:30, the line was in the 400s. It was then that I knew that Skyrim had one of the biggest openings of the year, and as it turns out, I was right.
A press release from Bethesda parent company Zenimax today revealed that seven million copies of their latest Action RPG/Soul-Consuming-Fantasy-Life-Simulator have been shipped to date, equaling about $450 million in revenue. Within 48 hours of it’s release on 11/11/11, more than 50% of all the shipped copies were sold, and massive re-orders for the game through many outlets are already expected. On Steam, Valve’s computer game distribution service, it was reported that over 280,000 players were playing the game simultaneously, shattering the previous record.
In addition to the huge sales numbers, Zenimax stated the game has seen “perfect” reviews from more than 50 outlets.
“Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda Game Studios have crafted a very special game,” said Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO of Zenimax media, “Anticipation for Skyrim has surpassed any game in our company’s history, and we are pleased that sales and reviews have reflected the quality and hours of amazing gameplay it provides.”
I for one have already thrown around 40 hours into this game, and think that this praise is, indeed, warranted. Now if you will excuse me, this news post is cutting into my precious adventuring time.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Persona 4 stage play hitting Japan in March
Atlus’ RPG/school sim Persona 4 has been seeing a lot of attention lately in it’s home country of Japan. At the Tokyo Game show this year, two new games in the franchise were announced, Persona 4: The Golden for Vita and Persona 4: Ultimate Mayonaka Arena for Xbox 360/PS3. Even an anime based on the series, called “Persona 4: The Animation,” has begun airing in Japan and is on episode six.
The video game is breaking some entirely new ground as well… ground in REAL LIFE. The new production company Marvelous AQL has greenlit Visualive Persona 4, a stage play based on the popular video game. The play is set to run from March 15, 2012 through the 20th at the Sunshine theater in Tokyo.
The voice actor for Teddie (Kuma in the Japanese version) is even reprising his role from the video game on stage.
[Source: Anime News Network]
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS2
Tagged Persona 4, Persona 4: Arena, Persona 4: The Golden
Sony’s UMD Passport program allows users to play PSP games on Vita
Sony realizes those tiny, tiny discs you have that you use in your PSP shouldn’t become obsolete when the Vita comes out. The company has announced a “UMD Passport” service in Japan, which basically allows PSP owners to play their PSP games on their Vita… for a nominal fee.
A similar system was considered when the PSP Go was released, but now it appears that players will be able to swap their UMD discs for digital downloads. The system works when a user downloads an app to their PSP called “UMD Registration Application.” Then, they put a UMD into the system, it will connect to the PSN, allowing them to purchase the game for what Sony says is “a reasonable price.” Then, when the Vita launches in Japan on the 17th of December, the PSP games can be transferred over to Sony’s newest handheld.
Currently, there are a whole slew of companies offering their games up for transfer (currently 200 titles from 40 publishers) with transfer prices ranging from 100 yen ($1.29) to 2400 yen ($31.00). Some of the titles confirmed to be available for transfer are Persona 3 Portable (for 1500 yen), Guilty Gear: Judgement (for 500 yen) and Gran Turismo (for 1300 yen).
[Source: Kotaku]
Wii U might support multiple tablet controllers
With the rise of online multiplayer gaming, sometimes I wonder about the loss of the days where four people could sit in a room and get some game on together. When Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference revealed that the Wii U would support only one controller per console, I thought this was the beginning of the end of single console multiplayer, and it made me sad.
But Nintendo says that they are working on it. A source that chose to remain anonymous told Develop that Nintendo is working to bypass the coding restrictions the system had in order to allow two controllers to work on the same system. But the source also said that we aren’t going to be having four controllers on the system like the old days any time soon. Apparently, it’s just outside of the systems capabilities to have more than two tablet controllers. The Wii U will suport four Wii Remotes in addition to the tablet controller for multiplayer.
Either way, Nintendo said last month that the Wii U would be shown in it’s final form at E3 2012, so our speculations will become reality by next year.
Ubisoft is in command of Assassin’s Creed movie deal
Hollywood and the video game industry don’t mix, it’s almost a fact. When video games cross into movie territory, we get things like House of the Dead and that Super Mario Bros. movie that still haunts my nightmares.
Just last year, Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia franchise opened in theaters to a lukewarm critical and commercial reception, but Ubisoft has another acrobatic franchise that they hope to bring to theaters: Assassin’s Creed.
Sony Pictures has just signed a deal with Ubisoft to bring their stealth/action franchise to the big screen. Ubisoft had a big caveat though: They want control of everything. And the unprecedented deal does seem to give Ubisoft control of everything including the script, casting, budget and the release date.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is huge, with combined franchise sales reaching above 30 million copies, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations dropping next week. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Assassin’s Creed movie will be another unfortunate game-to-film adaptation or whether it makes a killing at the box office.
[Source: New York Magazine]
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Assassin's Creed