Behind the Scenes with Sony's Killzone 2 (PS3)

AMSTERDAM--Guerrilla Games, acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in December 2005, resides in a cavernous, five-story historic bank in downtown Amsterdam. There's even a safe in the basement where the servers are kept cool. But the developer behind the Killzone franchise, gave a small contingent of game editors carte blanche access to their upcoming game, and first PlayStation 3 title -- Killzone 2.

Listening to some of the taglines for the new game like "Our war, their planet," which sets up the large-scale planetary invasion of Helghast for the single-player campaign, and it becomes obvious that Hollywood has had a major influence on the team. During a presentation, Hermen Hulst, managing director of Guerrilla Games talked about the "journey through a hostile world where he wants gamers to feel unwelcome, and be part of big set pieces, dramatic events, and engage in a Hollywood-size experience."

Mathijs de Jonge, creative director, showed off the evolution of the Killzone game engine that powers the new game. He said the goal was to bring to life great special effects like those seen in films like Saving Private Ryan.

"One of the big things about our engine is the lighting system," said de Jonge. "We're able to apply lights post-process and it allows us to use an infinite number of lights, where most engines stop at three sources of light. This allows for a level of detail not seen before in any Killzone game."

A separate team worked on the artificial intelligence that powers the assorted Helghast enemies as well as the buddies who help the player through the journey. Rob Heald, AI designer, said the PS3 offers each AI a much wider range of on-the-fly options.

"The advanced processing power results in more intelligent AI across the board," said Helad. "As a result, players will see a greater range of animations. Each individual enemy is able to do things like jump over objects, use doors and ladders and have intelligent reactions to dynamic things that happen on the battlefield."

In addition to creating proprietary technology to power Killzone 2, the team made sure to take in other game experiences and keep an open eye to other sources like films, books and architecture.

"When you're working on something like Killzone 2, which takes a lot of long hours, you don't get to play many games through to the end any more," said Hulst. "What we do here every Friday night is put the directors in the exterior house (an isolated home behind the bank equipped with plasma TVs and PlayStation 3s) and have FragFest at 5 pm. We have some beers and watch movies like Apocalypse Now or play the newest games like Resistance 2. We get to play together with the guys and break down the new game with the technology guys. We look at the effects and the gameplay. Gaming is as much a profession today as it is a hobby."

That same exterior house was loaded with single-player campaign levels -- all 10 scenarios from the Killzone 2 were playable for the first time. Highlights include a level on a moving train in which the wind affects the player's ability to target enemies. Another challenge that gamers will need to overcome are the Elite Shock Troopers, the best of the best in the formative Helghast army. These soldiers do more than just toss back grenades; they'll come at you with a knife as a last resort.

Hulst promises that the final challenge in Killzone 2 will be "more intense than anything you've seen before, more enemies than ever before," and while details are currently under NDA, the action towards the end of the game has been elevated to a new level.

Inside the main studio building, Guerrilla set up eight PS3s for online multiplayer action. The new game supports up to 32 players and will ship with eight maps. What separates Killzone 2 multiplayer from other games is five different mission types that players can change on-the-fly within a single match, which completely changes the strategy of a game. Angie Smets, senior producer in charge of multiplayer, said that the online game will not only change from round to round, but within each round.

"In the Create Game screen, players can select a preset like Warzone, which is everything on (all five mission types and eight maps), or he can go to a Customize Game screen and just play team deathmatch," said Eric Boltjes, senior online game designer. "We go even deeper and allow the player to just have medics in a match or turn off scouts completely. We allow players to create sniper rifle only games. You can turn off friendly fire. You can even add bots if you don't have enough friends to play. After tweaking this, you can save the preset so you can jump back into that game type at any time."

Smets said that Assassination mode is quite popular with the team. This mode chooses a single opposing player as the target that everyone on your team has to kill and everyone on the other team has to protect. The target has 30 seconds to set up defenses and then you're told where he is and that you have to kill him.

"There's also something scary about seeing you as the assassination target. It's a real adrenaline rush."

"People set up turrets and mines around the player to make sure he doesn't die," said Smets. "There's also something scary about seeing you as the assassination target. It's a real adrenaline rush."

Smets is overseeing the extensive community site, Killzone.com, which will host leaderboards, tournaments and enough statistics to satisfy the most diehard of gamers. In addition, the site offers developer stories, blogs and a place where players can create their own page and link with friends. Like Insomniac Games' recent Resistance 2, community will remain a major focus for Guerilla once the final game is completed.

Guerrilla Games will support clans from the outset with the ability to participate in clan tournaments for up to 256 clans. Like a game of poker, each clan player will have to wager some clan valor into the pot and the winner will divide the spoils. These points can be used as currency within the game universe.

"Every aspect of Killzone 2 has to be just right," said Smets. "We began testing multiplayer two years ago. It's that extra level of polish that will separate this game from other titles."

SOURCE:PCWORLD.COM

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Chart Toppers: Fallout 3 Sets the World on Fire (XB360)

Bethesda's reinvention of the classic Fallout IP took the game industry by storm in October with well over 600K sold in the U.S. alone. Fallout 3 is blowing things up in a good way.

by David Radd on Wednesday, December 03, 2008

The success of certain games cannot simply be measured by their sales level – a good example being the Fallout franchise. The series, which under Interplay had two official incarnations and two spin-offs, was acclaimed for its unique setting, mature dialog, and yes, genuine ROLE-PLAYING that allowed for a wide variety of choices and moral outcomes. Years after the games' release, players still tracked down copies of Fallout 1 and 2 to get a taste of the post-apocalyptic RPGs. The devotion the games inspired made the general fandom reluctant to accept the canon validity of the side-story Fallout Tactics, while Fallout: Brotherhood of the Steel was met with downright hostility by many.

So with that in mind, some were openly skeptical when Bethsoft acquired the IP rights to the Fallout franchise from Interplay. While the developer has an acclaimed background in RPGs with the Elder Scrolls franchise, none of the principle developers of the old Fallout titles would work on Fallout 3, and retro-future America is about as far from the fantasy realm of Tamriel as can be imagined. Still, the game hit store shelves in October and was quickly accepted, if not by the fandom, then certainly by the gaming public at large. We take a closer look at the game's early success.

That's worth a lot of caps
According to The NPD Group, Fallout 3 was the third and fourteenth best selling title overall for the month of October. This made the game the third best selling PS3 SKU and second best selling Xbox 360 title. It was also the best selling PC title overall during the same period. Fallout 3 sold a total of 610,000 copies during October, and 375,000 of those copies were on the Xbox 360.

Sales for the game have been good intentionally as well, with Chart Track reporting that Fallout 3 debuted at number one in the U.K.. These sales results put the game above the first month results of Bethsoft's last big release, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblvion, which sold a little over a half million units its first month. If early reports are to be believed, Fallout 3 has already outsold all previous incarnations of the franchise combined.

No doubt driving some of these sales were the extensive offerings for consumers. Bethesda went all out with a Collector's Edition that featured a bonus "making of" DVD, a concept art book, and a five-inch Vault Boy Bobblehead in a "Vault-Tec" lunchbox and a Survival Edition that also includes a model of the PIP-Boy 3000 that functions as a digital clock. The U.K. also got a Limited Edition that had a Brotherhood of Steel Power Armor figurine.



SOURCE:gamedaily.com


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Gaming 'Addiction' Can Be Blamed on Parents, Society, says Clinic Founder

Video game addiction may not be a true addiction after all, according to Keith Bakker, the founder and head of Europe's first and only clinic to treat gaming addicts. Video game "addiction" is certainly not unique to Europe. In fact, there have been many cases in Asia of MMO gamers getting ill or even dying because of compulsive and continuous playing of online games in Internet cafes.

Nevertheless, Bakker, who has treated hundreds of young gamers at The Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam since it opened in 2006, has told the BBC that he believes gaming "addiction" is really more a social problem than it is a psychological one.

Although abstinence-based treatment models have had very high success rates for people at the clinic who also exhibit other addictive behaviors such as drinking and taking drugs, Bakker thinks that this kind of cross-addiction affects only 10 percent of gamers. For the rest of the "gaming addicts," who spend four hours a day or more playing games, Bakker doesn't see addiction counseling as the solution.

"These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies," Bakker noted. "But the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem."

"This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today," he added. "Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication."

Indeed, one 18-year-old gamer being treated at the clinic in Amsterdam said he was spending at least 10 hours a day playing Call of Duty 4 because he never got the help he needed from his parents or his teachers at school.

"Call of Duty was somewhere I felt accepted for the first time in my life," he said. "I was never helped by my parents or my school. At the clinic I also feel accepted and have come out of myself. I liked gaming because people couldn't see me, they accepted me as my online character - I could be good at something and feel part of a group. I was aware that I played too much but I didn't know what to do. But it helped me because I could be aggressive and get my anger and frustration out online."

In light of Bakker's realization, the clinic has changed its treatment program to focus more on developing activity-based social and communications skills to help gamers rejoin society, the BBC said. "If I continue to call gaming an addiction it takes away the element of choice these people have," Bakker pointed out. "It's a complete shift in my thinking and also a shift in the thinking of my clinic and the way it treats these people."

source:gamedaily.com


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NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERCOVER™

Features

You never thought it would turn out like this—an all-out chase where you're the hunted. And the hunter. Now you must get behind the wheel and risk everything to infiltrate a ruthless international crime syndicate and take them down in Need for Speed Undercover. The man you're after is a maniac behind the wheel, and he's driving like his life depends on escape, which maybe it does. He's the one with all the answers you need, and you will track him down. Needless to say, that fleet of police cruisers in your rearview mirror won't make things any easier. It will take all of your experience—and every ounce of skill—to outrun the law, take down the enemy, and unlock the truth that puts an end to this chase once and for all.

* Deep undercover: Race into an action-packed story of pursuit and betrayal. Take on jobs and compete in races to prove yourself as you infiltrate and take down an international crime syndicate.
* Highway battle: Fight off the cops and others as you take down your prey in high-speed, high stake multi-car chases. New and vastly improved A.I. mechanics mean more aggressive and intelligent cops are focused on taking you out fast and by any means necessary.
* Open world: Tear across the massive highway system and discover the open world of the Gulf Coast Tri-Cities area, with three unique cities connected by an extensive highway system.
* Heroic driving engine: An all-new game engine lets you pull off amazing moves for the ultimate driving edge.

Need for Speed Goes Undercover:REVIEW

At A Glance

• We get behind the wheel and put the thrilling racer Need for Speed Undercover through its paces.

Electronic Arts' white-knuckle Need for Speed racing franchise rockets its way back onto Xbox 360® in Need for Speed™ Undercover, a refined amalgam of many of the series' best features, race modes, and presentation styles.

Put your foot on the pedal and go!

You play an anonymous undercover operative working in concert with the FBI to infiltrate an elite smuggling ring by proving your driving skills in daring races and hot police pursuits. Cause enough havoc and earn enough notoriety to earn your place in the smuggler's ring, and work your way to the top to bring the whole illicit syndicate crashing down.

The races, chases, and evasions take every opportunity to heighten the moment with the kind of outrageous action normally reserved for blockbuster movies.

Fast and Loose
Need for Speed Undercover is sweet arcade-style racing. Other than the licensed cars (such as an Audi 08 R8, Dodge Viper SRT10, McLaren '94 F1) and the modern cityscape, there is little to tie Undercover to reality, and that's a good thing.

You'll plow through police barricades largely unhindered, fly hundreds of feet through the air courtesy of a nitrous boost and conveniently placed ramps, slide effortlessly around sharp corners at suicidal speeds, and a great deal more besides. Undercover is all about the thrill. The races, chases, and evasions take every opportunity to heighten the moment with the kind of outrageous action normally reserved for blockbuster movies.

Go get 'em!

Heroic Driving
Of course, in order to pull off spectacular stunts and maneuvers, you need the proper tools, such as the game's Speedbreaker and Heroic Driving Engine. Speedbreaker allows you to tap X to slow down time, and increase your car's maneuverability. Bob and weave amid tight traffic and slip easily between cruisers in a barricade with Speedbreaker activated.

The Heroic Driving Engine helps you understand and easily execute moves like nitrous drifts, perfect cornering, 360-degree burnouts to confuse the cops, J-turns to evade them, and double-tap reverses to instantly send yourself hurtling backward in order to, say, get out of the way of a police cruiser trying to pin you against a wall.

Open Simplicity
Like many of the series' recent games, Undercover employs an open-ended system for joining events, allowing you to pick among your favorite race types to earn enough Wheelman Rep to unlock the next story-based mission.

That doesn't mean you need to spend a lot of empty time navigating the city streets. Instead, you can fast travel to any currently available event. Press down on the D-pad to load the closest available race, or bring up your GPS map and hand-select your next event to travel there in seconds.

User-Created Pursuit
You might not have to spend time cruising Tri-Cities if you don't want to, but it does give you the opportunity to start up a thrilling impromptu police pursuit. Cause mayhem on the streets by speeding, wrecking, and demolishing city property, and police dispatch will take notice of you, sending cruisers and even choppers to put a stop to your antics.

Once you're sighted, the pursuit is on. You must successfully evade capture with an eye-popping combination of heroic driving maneuvers, shortcuts, snaking through barricades, sliding around spike traps, and even triggering environmental traps to take out your pursuers. For example, knocking out the supports holding up a load of massive concrete pipes will send them scattering across the road, disabling any nearby cruisers.

A double-tap reverse may be in order.

Race Types
While the police pursuits are both exhilarating and a welcome return to classic Need for Speed action, Undercover really earns its stripes with its variety of race types. And we're not talking just the classic Sprint (point A to B) and Circuit (lap-based) races.

Highway Battles are high-speed affairs made all the more visceral by displaying the action from a first-person-camera on the hood of your car for some serious rim-rattling action. These battles require you to overtake your competitor and either put 1,000 feet of distance between you and them, or simply maintain your lead when the timer expires.

Cost to State races put your destructive skills to the test as you are given a set dollar amount of destruction to achieve by crashing through anything and everything, disabling police cruisers, setting off environmental traps, and wrecking other cars.

Then there's the Xbox LIVE® multiplayer modes like Cops N' Robbers which puts players in control of the pursuing cops as well as the fleeing robbers who are racing to deliver a package before they're caught.

Live Action Story
Undercover also brings back live-action cinematics to the franchise with real actors in real settings to give the crime drama proceedings a realistic feel. Plus, who wouldn't rather look at the real Maggie Q and Christina Milian in action instead of their virtual models?

Need for Speed Undercover for Xbox 360 brings arcade racing back to the fore in such streamlined fashion that you'll never find yourself more than a few seconds away from the action you crave. Get your lead foot ready. You'll need it.

Article by Ryan Treit

SOURCE:XBOX.COM

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Nintendo to Launch New DS With Camera, Music Player

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service


Nintendo plans to launch a new version of its popular DS portable gaming device with a camera and music player function, according to a report in the Sunday edition of The Nikkei Business Daily.

The new version will have better wireless capability for connecting to the Internet and will cost under ¥20,000 (US$189), the report said. It will be offered first in Japan, it said.

Nintendo was not immediately available for comment.

The company is scheduled to present an unnamed "new product" at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday and speculation has been rife that it would be a new version of the DS.

The DS first went on sale in 2004 and a second version, called the DS Lite, debuted two years later in 2006. Both have sold extremely well with worldwide sales of the DS products at 77.5 million units as of the end of June this year.

In Japan, a total of 23 million of the devices have been sold in the country -- roughly one for every fifth person -- but in recent months sales have started to slow. In the April to June quarter Nintendo sold 580,000 units in Japan versus 2.1 million in the same period of 2007 so analysts have predicted a refresh of the DS might be coming to stimulate sales.


For the current fiscal year to the end of March 2009 Nintendo predicts it will sell 28 million units of the DS.


source:pcworld

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Blockbuster Lineup for 2008 Announced by Microsoft

San Francisco, California—Today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2008, Microsoft provided an exciting glimpse at what promises to be another landmark year for games and online entertainment on Xbox 360® and officially announced the launch of Gears of War® 2, exclusively for Xbox 360 this November.

Providing a dramatic close to Microsoft's GDC keynote address, the


lead designer of Epic Games, Cliff Bleszinski announced that the epic saga of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad continues exclusively on Xbox 360 this fall with Gears of War 2. This highly anticipated sequel to the 4.5 million-selling blockbuster Gears of War delves deeper into humanity's struggle for survival against the nightmarish Locust Horde, and promises to take high-definition visuals to a whole new level.

"Gears of War 2 is an even bigger, better, and more badass experience than the first game."
— Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Games

Fable 2 Pub Games
Acclaimed developer Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios also took the stage to showcase exciting new multiplayer features for Fable® 2, introducing dynamic cooperative play, a first to the franchise. Molyneux also announced that later this year, and before the launch of Fable 2, you can get a sneak peek at the game's world when the Fable 2 pub games debut as a stand-alone download on Xbox LIVE® Arcade.

When Fable 2 launches, you'll have the ability to transfer currency earned in the pub games directly to your character in Fable 2. This unique and first-of-its-kind experience, which can be found only on Xbox LIVE Arcade, will give the millions of Fable fans all around the globe the opportunity to jump into the Fable 2 world with money already in the bank.


Ninja Cinema
Tomonobu Itagaki also revealed new Ninja Gaiden II game-sharing features, including "Ninja Cinema." This feature, available solely through Xbox LIVE, lets you record and upload your best ninja moves to Xbox LIVE for the world to see.


"To our team the original game was just a tease, the appetizer to the Gears of War characters and new style of gameplay. We were so amped to get to the next chapter, and dig deeper into the universe of this franchise," said Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer for Epic Games. "Gears of War 2 is an even bigger, better, and more badass experience than the first game, and we can't wait to get it in the hands of eager gamers this November."

Must-Have Xbox 360 Exclusives
This year, the hottest games will be found exclusively on Xbox 360, including the next chapters of top franchises such as Gears of War, Fable, and Ninja Gaiden, as well as new titles such as Too Human™.

* Gears of War 2 (Epic Games): Gears of War 2 is the sequel to the 4.5 million-selling blockbuster that redefined the third-person tactical action game genre. Gears of War 2 continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad in an epic saga of survival, loss and retribution. Developed by Epic Games exclusively for Xbox 360, Gears of War 2 launches this November.
* Fable 2 (Lionhead Studios): In addition to the dynamic co-op mode unveiled onstage, Peter Molyneux also announced that Carbonated Games is bringing the Fable 2 experience to Xbox LIVE Arcade. Before the game's launch, get an early taste of the Fable 2 experience and gain a head start on earning currency for use in Fable 2 by playing Fable 2-themed pub games, available for download from Xbox LIVE Arcade. The currency earned in these Xbox LIVE Arcade titles will let you to purchase items in Fable 2 when the game launches later this year.
* Ninja Gaiden II (TECMO/Team NINJA): Tomonobu Itagaki debuted several tantalizing new Xbox LIVE features of Ninja Gaiden II, including the ability to capture and share videos of your glorious battles via the Ninja Cinema feature and upload them to Xbox LIVE. Ninja Gaiden II launches worldwide this June.
* Too Human (Silicon Knights): Microsoft also showcased the epic action game Too Human from renowned Canadian developer Silicon Knights at a media event before today's keynote address. In Too Human, you are treated to a nonstop barrage of action powered by the seamless integration of melee and firearms combat, plus deep role-playing elements fueled by breathtaking visuals enabled by the power of Xbox 360.

With online multiplayer gameplay, content downloads, and ways to stay in contact with a global community, these forthcoming blockbusters harness the power of Xbox LIVE to create truly innovative and exciting entertainment experiences. Each game also comes packed with Achievements, so Xbox LIVE members can help add to the more than one billion Achievements already unlocked on the service to date.

Content Downloads
As with the Fable 2 pub games, content downloads in Xbox LIVE Marketplace give you the opportunity to customize and enhance your gameplay experiences. Since the service launched, Microsoft has seen more than $250 million in digital revenue from Xbox LIVE Marketplace through the purchase of more than 20 billion Microsoft Points.

Xbox LIVE members have been using a large portion of those Microsoft Points in Xbox LIVE Arcade, which is the premier destination for digitally distributed, high-definition original and classic games. With over 116 games to choose from on Xbox LIVE Arcade, everyone's invited to get instantly immersed in the fun.

Independent Developers
Xbox LIVE Arcade is also home to the world's most innovative independent developers, with more than 25 independent studios serving as the creative fuel behind the original games that represent more than a quarter of the Xbox LIVE Arcade library. The following titles represent a sample of games launching on Xbox LIVE Arcade in the near future from the world's leading independent developers:

* Braid (Number None Inc.): Developed by Independent Games Festival Winner and experimental game designer Jonathan Blow, Braid is a platform experience that bends all the rules with the manipulation of time. Braid will launch this spring.
* Castle Crashers (The Behemoth): Castle Crashers is the second title currently in development by award-winning independent developer The Behemoth, creator of Alien Hominid HD. The role-playing game (RPG) adventure will let up to four players hack, slash, and smash their way together through a visually stunning hand-drawn landscape. Castle Crashes launches this summer.
* Defense Grid: The Awakening (Hidden Path Entertainment LLC): Defense Grid: The Awakening is the definitive tower defense game experience designed specifically for Xbox LIVE Arcade and launches this summer.
* Go! Go! Break Steady (Little Boy Games): An Xbox LIVE Arcade exclusive, Go! Go! Break Steady is the debut title from independent developer Little Boy Games. The combination music and puzzle game combines break dancing with novel gameplay and launches this summer.
* Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (Hothead Games): The first video game collaboration between Penny Arcade creators Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and legendary game designer Ron Gilbert, Penny Arcade Adventures is an RPG-adventure game set in a highly stylized 1920s universe filled with bizarre characters, outrageous combat, and adult humor. The first episode of the game launches this summer.



source:XBOX.COM
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2008 Olympics Open in Beijing

The 2008 Olympic Games got underway on schedule at 8 p.m. local Beijing time, capping years of preparation and months of protests.

World leaders including China's President Hu Jintao, U.S. President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are attending the four-hour ceremony at Beijing's emblematic Bird's Nest Stadium, along with about 90,000 other spectators. Security is tight throughout Beijing, with personal and baggage scans at nearly all subway stations. Beijing's Capital International Airport closed to air traffic at 7:59 p.m.


China Mobile's wireless LAN (Local Area Network) service is being turned off at the Bird's Nest during the opening ceremony, but will be available at other Olympic venues and at centers being used by the international media. "WLAN service will not be provided during the opening and closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Thus Internet will not be accessible during the aforementioned ceremonies," China Mobile's service guide explained.

A representative from China Mobile's Olympic helpdesk, who declined to give her name, said it was for capacity reasons, not security. Reporters and Olympic officials will have access to wireline broadband connections provided by China Netcom, also an Olympic partner for the Beijing games.

Football (soccer) competitions for men and women actually began on Aug. 6, with many sports getting their start on Saturday, Aug. 9.

An hour before the opening ceremony began, Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders, RSF) staged an online protest alongside demonstrations in European and American cities, decrying the incarceration of bloggers, cyber-dissidents and journalists along with what it perceives as a lack of press freedom at the games.

By 7:15 p.m. Beijing time, RSF indicated that over 7,800 people were participating in the online demonstration. Waving in front of the virtual representation of the Bird's Nest were placards reading "Yes to sport, no to repression" and "No Olympic Games without freedom."

Although billed as a "High-tech Olympics," few new technologies are getting playing time over the 16 days. However, China's homegrown 3G (third generation telephony) standard, TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Multiple Access) is getting what appears to be a final trial with 15,000 Olympic officials, as part of a marketing push by China Mobile to launch commercial services later this year.

The Beijing Olympics run through August 24, with most events held in or around Beijing. Some events will be staged in other cities, such as equestrian events in Hong Kong, sailing in Qingdao, and football competitions in Qinhuangdao, Shanghai and Shenyang.


SOURCE:PCWORLD.COM

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Dark Knight Game Shelved at EA

Electronic Arts' Pandemic Studio was working on a Dark Knight game, according to an AP report. Gary Oldman, who plays James Gordon in the film, recently commented that he had recorded dialog for the game and had seen snippets of it in action. The licensed movie game was apparently canned due to quality concerns, the controversy surrounding star Heath Ledger's death, and less than optimistic sales projections.

Due to the reception that the Dark Knight film has gotten, however, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes a corresponding game released simultaneously might have sold 4 million units. That sales total would have racked up $100 million, with $70 million going to Electronic Arts and $30 million going to Warner Bros. These numbers assume a proportionate hit to other movie based games, such as Transformers, Spider-Man 3 and Iron Man, which have sold 2.6 million, 2.1 million and 697,000 units respectively, according to the NPD.

"I think publishers have concluded the only games that work are the surefire $500 million box office kind of games like Spider-Man and Shrek," said Pachter to the AP. "The Transformers game really surprised people how well it did, but the movie was big. I don't think they expected The Dark Knight movie to be this big."

EA's confidence in a Dark Knight game may have been rattled by the recent performance of some of their other DC Comic movie games. Superman Returns (which was delayed until the movie's DVD release) sold 705,000 copies and the Batman Begins game sold just 587,000 copies.



source:GAMEDAILY.COM

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