Disney Interactive recently laid off 250 people due to the failure of Epic Mickey and other games they recently released, and now the news gets ever worse: the studio has confirmed that an additional 80 positions will be cut at their development houses. The goal is to cut operating costs by 25 percent in the division, which is going to be hard, considering that Disney Interactive employs some 3,500 developers, artists and software engineers.
Disney Interactive is undergoing a restructuring plan to turn the division into a profitable one. The layoffs are a part of that restructuring, but may we advise a simple plan to actually make great games that people would buy?
Warner Brothers Interactive and RockSteady Studios just released a brand new trailer of Batman: Arkham City, which shows the huge, colorful world of Arkham City, and of course, Batman kicking some ass. Batman: Arkham City moves the gameplay from Akrham Asylum into a whole city block which has been overrun by criminals, and it’s up to Batman to clean stuff up. We’ll see familiar foes such as Two-face and the Joker return in Arkham City, in addition to hundreds of their henchmen. The game is scheduled for release this Fall on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Of all the different game companies on the market, Bethesda is arguably one of the most creative. Not only has their entire line up of The Elder Scrolls pushed the boundaries of open world games, but their Fallout series has largely done the same. But, Bethesda isn’t all about open ended RPGs as they will also be bringing the first person shooter Prey 2 to market sometime in 2012 – which they have just announced today.
Being developed by Human Head Studios, Prey 2 is set to drop for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be many more details regarding the game other than the fact that Prey 2 will allow gamers to experience an open ended alien world like never before.
Sounds pretty awesome - we’ll keep you posted with further details
Zelda is one of the most well known video game franchises on the market. Of the franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64 is without a doubt one of the more popular entries. Due to this continued popularity, Nintendo will go on to port the game from the N64 to their brand new Nintendo 3DS handheld with a release slated for sometime this June.
In terms of new content, it’s already been noted that the game will include the Master Quest with nothing further being announced. However, it seems that we were wrong to assume that this is all Nintendo will be adding as the company’s Satoru Iwata has said the following:
“Of course, the Nintendo 3DS version of Ocarina of Time is crammed with interesting things that weren’t in the Nintendo 64 version.. but we’ll wait to talk about those [closer to] the release.”
So, what kind of content is Iwata talking about? We aren’t quite sure but knowing Nintendo it won’t be too much to ruin the classic but just enough to give returning gamers a whole new experience.
As we’ve said many times in the past Rovio’s Angry Birds has largely been the most successful game made for a smartphone platform of all time. Sure, there have been several hard hitting competitors that will look to take some of the hype away from Angry Birds but as of yet this hasn’t happened. In fact, Angry Birds has continued to grow starting first on Apple’s iOS and expanding to other platforms like Android, the PSP and even desktop platforms like OS X and Windows.
With so many different ways to hit the consumer, sales are sure to be huge, right? You betcha – Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka recently came forth during the SXSW event to tell us that collectively Angry Birds has been download over 100 million times. Not only has its Android version seen 30 million+ downloads but even the PSP version has topped its own respective charts.
While ti seems that Angry Birds is almost getting the Guitar Hero treatment, the near future seems very bright for the franchise and Rovio.
Japan may have gotten hit with a very bad earthquake and tsunami but at least there are a lot of lucky gamers that have their Nintendo 3DS to turn to. While the console doesn’t launch here in the United States until the 27th, Japanese folks have been enjoying it since the 26th of last month. While the handheld console managed to sell quite a few units on launch date, the hype seems to be continuing.
According to reports, Nintendo has managed to push an additional 200,00 units in its first full week on the market. In total, this puts Japanese 3DS sales right around the 400,000 mark – 374,764, to be exact.
Now all we have to do is wait and see how the Nintendo 3DS sells here in the United States to compare. I know I’ll be getting one, will you?
One of the more popular fighting games to hit the shelves as of late is none other than Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. If you couldn’t tell from the title (or haven’t played a Marvel vs. Capcom game in the past) the Capcom developed game allows you to choose your favorite Capcom characters such as Ryu and face off against your favorite Marvel characters such as Iron Man.
However, just because the game is on the market doesn’t mean the developers are done with the onslaught of content - not by a long shot. In fact it’s been known for a while that Capcom would get around to releasing the Shuma and Jill DLC for the game which, quite obviously, adds the characters Shuma-Gorath and Jill Valentine. Unfortunately it seems that the DLC has been delayed from March 15th to an unannounced date.
When the DLC does drop, however, you can expect it to be priced at 400 Microsoft Points or $5. We’ll keep you posted on a release date
Insomniac Game’s upcoming Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, will include stereoscopic 3D support according to Sony’s Jack Tretton, who unveiled the news at the currently undergoing SXSW event. The game joins a number of PS3 titles which support 3D, a list that keeps growing. It’s a lot easier of course when the PS3 is better equipped to handle 3D graphics than the Xbox 360 or Wii — the Wii can’t even deal with HD yet.
Ratchet & Clank 4, officially titled Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, will be released this fall, one of two PS3 exclusives coming from Insomniac. The other Being Resistance 3, which, as far as we know, doesn’t support 3D. Yet.
Portal 2 isn’t shy of eager fans out there who are anxious to get their daily dose of news regarding the upcoming Portal sequel. Well, here you have the entire opening sequence of the game, as presented and played at PAX. Of course, it’s not in the best quality, and we can’t really advise you to watch it all — instead of enjoying it when the game comes out. But who are we to deny you some Portal 2 news, anyways? Especially when it looks so good.
Sony has confirmed that it has cut funding to many of its European studios, and has canceled projects in development at their London Studio, Evolution Studios and Studio Liverpool. Sony cites the reason to shift money and developers to high-profiled first party titles like Killzone 3 and Little Big Planet 2, among others.
Sony’s London Studio and Studio Liverpool are best known for their development of SingStar and Wipeout franchises, while Evolution Studios are behind the popular Motorstorm franchise. All three studios have apparently had projects in development that have now been canceled. Sony did not state which projects were canceled and whether employees were shuffled around the studios or even let go.
