Games Industry Wire

Dan Aykroyd, one of the actors from the original series of Shosbusters movies has publicly said that he will be lending his voice to a new Ghostbusters game. According to the Edmonton Sun he will not be doing the voice and motion capture until next year which means a late 2008 release for the game is possible but 2009 is probably more likely.
Gamespot, who also reported the news, had expressed doubts over who would be producing the game after videos of a pretty radical game based on the series surface on YouTube. The Edmonton report also revealed that Universal purchased …read more

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A few weeks ago I was talking about my unhealthy fetish with Nintendo DSs. I finally got my hands on a DS and played Brain age for the first time. It’s a really neat concept, to improve your brain age by doing simple arithmetic and other types of problems everyday. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
The DS phenom is taking affect in Japan with a 30 percent growth in the software gaming industry. However, the hardware market is still limp. The industry is waiting on the next generation of consoles to boost sales. I’m sure …read more

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There have been a lot of rumors flying around about how Sony will lose a hefty billion on the PS3. I’m not sure how legit that is, but I do know that Nintendo is reporting that they will not lose much at all on the Wii’s launch. Initially almost all game companies, that produce consoles, will lose money on launch to remain competitive. Usually companies incur those costs in hopes that the technology will become cheaper and they will make money on the games.
It seems, however, that Nintendo’s Wii will actually be profitable from the beginning. Though Nintendo does not …read more

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Just like the presidential bashing that happens during election year, the gaming industry disintegrates into verbal mish mash of bashing each others hardware, services, and strategies.

Microsoft is “flattered that they’ve followed our clear direction,” when referring to Sony. However, top MS execs still don’t understand PS3’s online strategy. MS execs see the service as hazy and not clearly defined.
Microsoft has room to criticize all other online services. Currently, they have the most advance, entirely seamless and only high definition online gaming service. Microsoft saw the market going in that direction and they made it happen.
Sony does have a long …read more

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After seven months of lackluster video game sales, the gaming industry reports that there is now a bright side. Video game sales rose %16 during the month of April to $699 million. With the beefed up shipments of 360s,  the price drop of the PS2, and E3 hype gamers went out in masses to get what they wanted, games.
This is a great sign. I’m sure Microsoft felt somewhat responsible for the horrible sales the past few months. Gamers were in a transitional stage. Gamers could not find a 360, yet Activision, EA, and other game developers were spending millions on …read more

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Majesco has rejected an offer from Trinad to purchase 2 million shares. Majesco believes that Trinad is seeking to gain control of the company, and Majesco insists that they have enough capital to continue to operate without that large investment.
In an open letter, Majesco claimed Trinad was “effectively seeking to acquire control of the company without paying any consideration, let alone a control premium, to our shareholders.”
Since Majesco is not in the best financial position but still rejected the offer, that was probably a very hard decision to make.
(Source)

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With the release of the Xbox 360, Xbox Live has become a significant part of the Xbox experience.
Microsoft released new numbers for their Xbox Live service. They claim that gamers have spent more than 1.5 BILLION hours gaming on Xbox Live since the launch in 2002. Halo 2 alone accounted for accounted for 500 million hours of the 1.5 billion. Now, however, the Xbox 360 is really showing us what online gaming is all about.
Around 60 per cent of Xbox Live account holders have used the Xbox Live Arcade, and more than 3 million games have been downloaded. On average, …read more

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According to Dean Takahashi, author of the forthcoming book” Launch of the Xbox 360,” Microsoft is launching in to the handheld gaming industry alongside Nintendo and Sony. Supposedly, J Allard is heading up the project now that the Xbox 360 is in cruise control. The device will allow users to watch movies, play games, and listen to music. With the launch of this product, Takahashi insists, Microsoft will also announce an itunes-like service to distribute music.
All this sounds real fun, but as most of us know, this has been speculated and shot-down before. So, is this real? I’m not …read more

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Ubisoft, I believe, has created the first killer app for the 360, Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter, and it seems that gamers are letting Ubisoft know the game is amazing.
Ubisoft’s shares have risen 4% on account of this one title for the 36O and Xbox. GRAW has sold over 240,000 in the US and 120,000 in the UK and, as of right now, is the fastest selling 360 game thus far.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft Chairman said, “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter had the best ever first-week sales performance for our company and is looking like a major commercial success.”
I love to …read more

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In a recent interview, Shane Kim, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, played down Sony’s announcement by saying, “For us, Sony’s announcement doesn’t change anything. We’ve had a very clear strategy for a long time now and we’re not going to change that. We’re not going to react to anything that they do.” He is merely assuring the public that Sony’s announcement has not changed Microsoft’s game plan, and Microsoft may still have a few tricks up its sleeves.
Kim also commented on the “worldwide” launch that Sony proposed. Kim knows the difficulty of launching a console worldwide; Microsoft tried, and …read more

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