Games Industry Wire

Rejoice, Jade Empire Fans! Rumors have been doing the rounds about the possibility of a sequel to BioWare’s Xbox hit, “Jade Empire.” For years, people have predicted it would come and Ray Muzyka, co-CEO of BioWare, even spilled the beans of something coming back in 2005.
But I talked with someone who saw code for Jade Empire 2. It’s coming for the Xbox 360, and it’s real. It’s not much as far as scoops go, but I’m on vacation. What do you expect? Happy New Year.Jade Empire was BioWare’s second big game for the Xbox, following the exclusive Star Wars …read more

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Will Microsoft release a first-party motion controller for Xbox 360? Right now, The company isn’t talking.
“Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation. And I have nothing further to share,” a Microsoft official told Next-Gen on Friday, when asked if the company would be releasing a motion controller add-on.

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Over the past few months, we’ve all grown used to reports that sum up the DS’s dominance in Japan. That’s not to say we’ve grown tired of them, however, so here’s another pretty sweet stat: over the holiday period, the DS effortlessly flies past the lifetime sales of Sony’s PlayStation 2.

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The PlayStation 3 isn’t the only system getting some bundle love from Capcom. Microsoft Japan announced today the Xbox 360 Devil May Cry 4 Premium Pack, a hardware bundle that combines the 360 with the latest installment of Capcom’s dramatic action hack-n-slasher.
The Japan-only bundle includes a Xbox 360 Standard Model, which is the Japanese version of America’s Premium Pack, complete with a 20 gigabyte hard disk, wireless controller, media remote, HD AV cables and LAN cable. All hardware units in the bundle will have HDMI ports, so you’ll get to experience the included retail copy of DMC4 in digital bliss. …read more

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Sales of Sony’s PSP have more than doubled in Japan, with the console selling 184,610 units for the week ended December 16, compared to 91,481 units the previous week. The boost in sales comes without any significant new PSP software releases during the period, with only three games for the handheld in the top fifty best-sellers.

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As everyone expected, the merger between Vivendi Games and Activision that led to the birth of Activision-Blizzard, the new no.1 video game publisher in the world, didn’t sit too well with, now second biggest publisher, EA Games. So they’re thinking of solutions to get back in the top spot, and acquiring Take-Two Interactive seems to be their best bet.

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Last night in Garland, Texas, developer 3D Realms had its Christmas Party. According to the developer community manager Joe Siegler, the celebrations were like many previous events, full of mirth and merriment and (presumably) freely flowing beverages.
However, there was one major difference between this year’s 3D Realms bash and those previous. Apparently the evening revelry was capped by a brief teaser for the studios’ infamously delayed first-person shooter, Duke Nukem Forever.

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Electronic Arts has announced the impending arrival of a new entry in the Command & Conquer series, Tiberium, a first-person squad-based shooter that will hit the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC towards the end of 2008.
It marks the second time the series has departed from its real-time strategy roots, following 2002’s Command & Conquer: Renegade, a shooter which was met with a muted response. The new game has been subject to rigorous preperation, and promises a mix of tactical action and gunplay, with players in control infantry, armour and air squads in their travels through the Command & Conquer universe. …read more

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The January issue of Play magazine will unveil Lara Croft’s next adventure, possibly titled Tomb Raider Underworld. The issue was apparently made available as a digital download from Play’s website yesterday but has since been taken down.
Tomb Raider Chronicles got their hands on the issue before it was removed and have shared the first details — along with a cover scan that shows Play might be confused as to what a “next-generation console” is. Tomb Raiders Legend and Anniversary have both been released on current-gen consoles.

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The NPD Group today released sales data for the month of November 2007. As expected, both hardware and software sales were up for the month. Typically, November is one of the biggest months in video game sales, as publishers release their big holiday titles during it.
Check out both the hardware and software numbers below.

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