Playstation University: Laughter is probably the best thing to expect after watching the latest commercial from Kevin Butler’s long line of "VP of X" advertisements. Not only does Butler step into the future to show you PlayStation Move, but he takes a terrific jab at Project Natal and let’s you in on who wins the World Series (hint: It isn’t Joe Mauer)
Platform-specific games are beginning to fade away, according to Sony, with the future of gaming looking set to becoming platform agnostic.
Sony and Microsoft have built up a loyal following of fans who bought their console because of the games available, but Sony’s VP of publisher relations sees this trend slowing down.
Rob Dyer, SCEA’s senior VP of publisher relations has said that while Microsoft is more likely to attract third-party developed exclusives such as Mass Effect, it doesn’t have enough first-party studios delivering the same level of content as Sony.
CVG: Sony believes that the best is yet to come from PS3 – and that it will only really ‘push the boundaries’ of what is possible from the machine in years to come.
SCE Worldwide Studios Europe VP Michael Denny said today that he believes PS3’s hardware will eventually be pushed by a game in the same way that God Of War II pushed PS2 to the max.
Sony’s senior VP of marketing and PSN boss Peter Dille says they’re closing in fast on Microsoft and the Xbox 360; won’t need 10 years.
While not predicting anything, says Dille, "we’ll pass them" and adds Microsoft missed their opportunity to "sprint as far ahead" as possible.
Patrick Klepek of G4TV writes: Outside of tech demonstrations and modifications of several existing Xbox 360 games, we haven’t seen what Project Natal is capable of. Microsoft is keeping those games under wraps. But speaking with Capcom’s VP of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson at CES last week, I learned about Capcom’s potentially ambitious plans for one Project Natal game.
In a recent interview with Play3, Sony’s Senior VP of Product Development, Shuhei Yoshida said that the PlayStation 4 will use optical storage discs like Blu-Ray for blockbuster games. This was surprising considering Sony’s digital push with UMD-less PSPgo, and the trend the gaming industry has shown toward digital distribution.
EA have decided to jump back on a bandwagon that they started a long time ago and give Medal of Honor a modern update.
The latest game in the WWII series will jump forward in time to present day Afghanistan. Players will take control of a special operations agent from Tier 1, an agency directly under control of the National Command Authority that takes on only the most dangerous missions. EA promises that the game, which is inspired by real events, will provide the most authentic experience of today’s elite soldiers.
The game’s Executive Producer, Greg Goodrich said, “When we first set out to reinvent Medal of Honor, we wanted to stay true to its roots of authenticity and respect for the soldier but bring it into today’s war. The Tier 1 Operator is the most disciplined, deliberate and prepared warrior on the battlefield. He is a living, breathing, precision instrument of war.We are honored to have the rare opportunity to work closely with these men to create a game that shares their experience.”
What is most promising about the game is it will be a collaborative effort between EA LA and DICE with EA LA taking the reigns on the single player and DICE handling the multiplayer.
Sean Decker, VP and General Manager of EALA added, “We are so proud to bring together two powerhouse development teams to make this game a reality; EA Los Angeles and EA DICE. Medal of Honor promises to be an unforgettable entry in the modern shooter genre.”
Rob Pardo has been speaking about the prospects of Blizzard’s much talked about RPG Diablo III hitting the shelves in the next 12 months. The answer seems to be an emphatic no.
Speaking to Techland recently, Blizzard’s Executive VP of Game Design ruled out the possibility of Diablo III being released in 2010. “We always announce all of our games too early,” Pardo added, speeaking of Diablo III’s unveiling at Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational in 2008. “We realize that and go, ‘You know what? Next time we’re not going to do that.’ And then we always fail at that. But I’d rather fail at that than fail at making the game great. I think it’s safe to say that, yeah, (Diablo III) is not going to be out next year.”
It’s not all bad news for fans of the Diablo franchise though. Pardo goes on to affirm that rather than rushing to meet concrete release dates, Diablo II will be out when its ready and not a minute before.
“We’re definitely not fiscal calendar-driven,” he said, “and we know that our fanbase is not going to hold us to a fiscal calendar. With (2007’s World of Warcraft expansion) Burning Crusade, we missed Christmas by about three weeks. We could’ve shoved it out the door, but we decided we didn’t need to get it into stores for Christmas. We just needed it to be great and our playerbase is going to buy it whenever it hits the shelves.”
At least one half of the games industry’s largest publisher can see sense. Perhaps Bobby Kotick can take a leaf out of Rob Pardo’s book.
