Last week everyone was talking about the comments made by Epic Games president Mike Capps. In all the discussion I missed one heck of a piece by fellow Texas resident Bill Harris. Bill puts aside the fact that some of these companies are pushing the envelope in terms of mistreating their own customers and digs into the economic relationship between the new game market and the used/rental game market.
He has some great points and it’s probably the most solid piece on the topic that I can point to when arguing that these coming changes are bad for the industry as a whole. You can read Bill’s article here.
Major Nelson just posted the weekly Live activity for the week of November 10th and Gears of War 2 is riding high at the top slot. Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 round out the top 3. Keep reading for the full list. READ MORE
Disney Interactive Studios has released the full track listing for their upcoming music and rhythm title, Ultimate Band. Below is the track list for the DS and the Wii versions of the game. Ultimate Band is slated to be released on November 25th and is rated E on the DS and E10+ on the Wii. READ MORE
The iconic yellow-border logo of National Geographic magazine will soon be seen on videogames.
The nonprofit institution, which started in 1888 as a society of explorers and geographers, announced the opening of its games division today, with former Take-Two and Bethesda Softworks executive Chris Mate as its vice president and general manager.
The new division, called National Geographic Games, will publish and develop games based on the kinds of historical, ecological and cultural themes tackled by the society’s famous magazine. Its first game will be Herod’s Lost Tomb, a PC and mobile Flash game based on the historical figure King Herod of Judea.
NGG has partnered with Namco Bandai and Sony to distribute National Geographic-branded games for consoles, handhelds, PC and mobile devices. This month, National Geographic: Panda will be released for the Nintendo DS and National Geographic: Africa will be published by Sony for an unannounced platform.
The National Geographic Society’s motto is “To increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world’s cultural, historical, and natural resources.”
Zapper, a game you probably don’t remember unless you love 3D Frogger clones, will soon be available for 1,200 MS points ($15 USD) as an Xbox Original. We love Frogger here at SBG, but we can’t help but think that this would work better as an XBLA release. $15 is a high price for a game from a generation back that nobody remembers – especially when HDD space is at a premium (most 360s still carry a 20GB HDD) and other XBLM offerings – even full games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night tend to center on the $10 price point.
