May 27, 2012
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The developers of the Max Payne series and the soon to be released and eagerly awaited Alan Wake, Remedy Entertainment, are treating all of us to a free game. Namely their old title Death Rally.
The game is compatible with modern versions of Windows and is a mere 42 MB download: http://www.remedygames.com/games/death_rally.html
Rumours are doing the rounds that EA’s Visceral Games studio is going to attempt a video game adaptation of Jack the Ripper next. The studio rose to fame with Dead Space, recently released Dead Space Extraction, is finishing up Dante’s Inferno and according to reports is moving ahead with Dead Space 2, so they are certainly keeping busy.
Superannutation picked up on a trademark issued by EA for something called The Ripper which ties in nicely with the Visceral rumour. It is obviously to early for any rumours, but it will certainly be interesting to see how Visceral plan to adapt the historical figure of Jack the Ripper and the fiction surrounding into a video game.
Game Sales in the first half of 2009 decreased by 4.6 percent in figures and 10.4 percent in value compared to the same period in 2008. Among the bestselling titles of the first six months’ include The Sims 3, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Wii Fit and SingStar Abba.
- The first six months show more positive trends with several games maintaining a high level of sales over a longer period. Not unexpectedly, advance bookings for upcoming games have provided indications that the next six months will be very strong. Many of the upcoming titles also have a long sales period to look forward to,” said John Häll, vice president of MDTS, which together with Spelplan-ASGD make up the Swedish games industry.
One major factor is price cuts and the introduction of new models. Price cuts to the PS3 and Xbox 360 have seen consumers who had initially been hesitant because of the economic situation biting the bullet to buy a new console. Even the price of the Wii is due for a drop at the start of October. This has led to increased game sales on the console with the trend expected to continue and make an impact in the autumn.
The statistics also show that PC gaming continues to remain the biggest format, despite the fact that digital distribution is not included in the analysis. Legal download services have presented a wider selection of directories to choose from, which has also led to a rapid increase in digital distribution. Swedish games industry has long term goals to integrate digital distribution into the statistics in the immediate future.
The stationary consoles, such as the PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 are relatively stable and primarily reduce its stake sales in value by around 13-15 percent.
- It is natural when cheaper editions of games are released, and that those who have already invested in the game with enhancements instruments, microphones and the like purchasing a new standalone game that is sold without these enhancements, “says Martin Lindell, an analyst at the Swedish games industry.
As a result of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony reluctance to provide sales figures for their respective digital distribution outlets that include Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare / Virtual Console and PSN, they have not been included in the statistics.
The portable gaming devices have taken a large step forward. Game sales of the Nindendo DS and PSP have both risen by around 30 percent. Behind the increases are new games like Pokemon Platinum for DS, as well as reduced prices on more established games like Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and the GTA series on PSP.
Kotaku have published some concept and plans for a game called Fortress from the now bankrupt Swedish game developer GRIN. They even claim is was a Final Fantasy game. While this may very well be true, independent sources have told Gamereactor that the last project GRIN were working on was indeed to be published by Square Enix, the thought of a Final Fantasy game made outside of Japan is a bit of a shock. However, it fits in with the little snippets we have heard of GRIN’s final project that apparently went into production late last year.
As the company was caught up in the financial turmoil last spring and lost contracts and subsequently had to close its Barcelona and Gothenburg facilities hopes were still high that Fortress would turn things around. However, the cash flow situation became unbearable during the summer as GRIN were unable to pick up a necessary second contract.
We are already well into September, but here is our preview of the main releases during the month. It’s a rather busy one compared to the last couple of months. See the video here.
When Stockholm based, Paradox Interactive released the source code to Europa Universalis II to the mod community they were hoping that some products would rise to the occasion and be good enough for a full release. The makers of For the Glory created a very popular mod called AGCEEP (Alternative Grand Campaign / Event Exchange Project) and were given the chance to create a full game with For the Glory.
Here are some of the features in convenient bullets:
- Play as one of over 190 countries on a map covering the entire world in the era spanning 1419-1819.
- Experience unparalleled historical immersion with over 10,000 historical events.
- Unprecedented levels of mod-ability – unlimited timeframe and up to 1,000 counties.
- Improved and modernized interface.
- Adapt your playing style to the personality of your nation’s various historical monarchs.
- The AGCEEP mod comes bundled with For The Glory.
Wii Sports Resort has relinquished its spot at the top of the Swedish gaming charts to The Sims 3. Further down the charts, Wolfenstein achieved decent sales results despite lukewarm scores.
Multiformat
1. The Sims 3 (PC)
2. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
3. Top Trumps: Horror & Predator (DS)
4. Wolfenstein (PC)
5. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
6. Hearts of Iron 3 (PC)
7. Prey (PC)
8. Call of Duty: World at War (X360)
9. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
10. Wolfenstein (X360)
11. Call of Duty: World at War (PS3)
12. World of Warcraft (PC)
13. Pokémon Platinum (DS)
14. Wolfenstein (PS3)
15. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
16. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
17. Wii Fit (Wii)
18. Spore (PC)
19. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (X360)
20. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
Last week, Stockholm based outfit, Paradox Interactive revealed that the next project from their internal team (who just finished Hearts of Iron 3) will be a sequel to the colonial era strategy title Victoria: Empire under the Sun.
The project was chosen after the Paradox community had a chance to vote on what the team should do next and CEO Fredrik Wester was not to happy with the outcome seeing as the original game failed to turn a profit. His promise to the community and the team is to shave his head if the game sells enough to break even.
Victoria 2 is targeted for release sometime in 2010.
In the wake of the trouble that culminated in Grin filing for bankruptcy on Wednesday a new studio made up of former employees at Grin’s Gothenburg studio (closed down in June). The company has 25 employees and has a stated intention to work on platforms such as iphone, PSN, PSP, and XBLA, in addition to working on “online components for AAA-titles”. Outbreak Studios will be attending Gamescom, but at this point it is unclear whether anything on the first project will be revealed at that time.
Rumours late last night state that Swedish game developer Grin, best known for the recently released Bionic Commando and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on PC, are in even deeper financial trouble than previously thought. According to several independent reports employees were told not to come to work today. It now seems Grin are on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.
Earlier this summer Grin closed down their Barcelona and Gothenburg offices making approximately 130 jobs redundant. It was made clear that times were grim as the employees were not given the standard three months notice. These measures would seem to have been in vain.
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