The9 invests nearly $15 million into Red 5 Studios, Fire Rain
The9 didn’t have the best year in 2009 — Blizzard decided to take away its ability to run World of Warcraft in China, and as a result, the company reported a Cataclysmic drop in revenues. But the company doesn’t want you counting it out of the MMO game just yet: Reuters says that The9 has invested almost $15 million into the ailing Red 5 Studios (which, coincidentally, is staffed by some ex-Blizzard employees) as well as China-based developer Fire Rain. Last we’d heard of Red 5, it was working on some kind of fantasy MMO, though that may have since changed to an MMOFPS. There’s definitely an MMO game of some kind; The studio told our buds at Massively that even with The9′s help, the game will be aimed at a worldwide market, not just Chinese players.
Time will tell if The9 has a solid strategy to rebound after the big loss of WoW, or if it’s desperately trying to invest the last bit of capital to keep the company alive. Red 5′s work has always seemed interesting — here’s hoping this infusion is enough to get it to a worthwhile release.
The9 invests nearly $15 million into Red 5 Studios, Fire Rain originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nippon Ichi’s 2009 profits down 97.5%, dood!
The following news story woke me up in a hurry this morning on top of absolutely breaking my heart. Nippon Ichi software, the quirky little publisher famous for their super goofy anime inspired RPGs recently published their 2009 earnings report, and I truly thought it was a joke. It seems that Nippon Ichi has had a bad year so far. A really bad year. Like “so bad you’re jaw is gonna hit the floor” level bad. If you think I’m overselling this a little bit, think again as the Japanese publisher posted a 97.5% decrease in operating profits through the first three quarters of their 2009 fiscal year.
The company hasn’t been as active as they were in past years, primarily making games for the PSP. Their 2009 portfolio also includes many re-releases such as Disgaea 2 on PSP and Phantom Brave: we meet again on Wii, which probably didn’t do much to expand their audience. Not making matters any better, their only entry into the HD systems this past year was Cross Edge, which I think might be the worst game of this console generation. Now they only posted a decrease in profits, so the publisher could still technically profitable, but jeez does that look damning in print.
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The Grinder goes multi-platform, out in Halloween 2011
The Conduit developer High Voltage Software is becoming a multi-platform studio; the developer has revealed that their third internal intellectual property, the previously Wii-exclusive The Grinder, will also land on three other systems — PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Whether or not High Voltage is fully upgrading their so-far-Wii-focused Quantum 3 game engine to match the quality expected from games appearing on HD systems these days is unclear, though CEO Kerry Ganofsky did tell IGN that creating the “higher resolution art content” for the non-Wii systems is among the reasons the game won’t see release until Halloween 2011.
What the differences between the Wii and PC/360/PS3 versions more precisely are should arrive in the news burst surrounding the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next month.
As a whole, The Grinder sounds to be High Voltage’s biggest project yet. Among the things planned for the cooperative title are “a large gameplay experience … which includes a lengthy story mode,” “an experience system that promotes replayability” as well as post-release downloadable content and support with regular updates.
As chief creative officer Eric Nofsinger puts it, The Grinder allows High Voltage “to show off what our company can really do”.
Steam weekend deal: Far Cry series is half-off
The first Far Cry may seem a bit ancient if you’ve never played it before, but Far Cry 2 is still a very viable source for securing your quota of fun. Each are 50 percent off on Steam this weekend — Far Cry for $5 and Far Cry 2: Fortune’s Edition for $10.
If you’re wondering what all of the hullabaloo is about, this collection of words should help clear it up for you. Or you could just check out this image in our gallery. If you click through the images fast enough, it’s almost like you’re playing the game!
Steam weekend deal: Far Cry series is half-off originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dragon Age Awakening: now with creepy Children!
Felt like your copy of Dragon Age: Origins was missing something, eh? Say, maybe, slugs with demonically mutated children’s faces? Perfect — we’ve got just the trailer for you today, care of upcoming DA:O expansion Awakening, full of creepy-crawly things called “The Children.”
There’s not much in the way of an explanation of exactly what or why they are, but there are some pretty awful birth pods full of (presumably) amniotic fluid — well, y’know, evil amniotic fluid (they’re bad guys, after all). Hopefully the Children aren’t working in concert with that terrifying blue dragon we saw last week. Man, that’d be just the worst! Get fully creeped out by the trailer after the break.
Continue reading Dragon Age Awakening: now with creepy Children!
Dragon Age Awakening: now with creepy Children! originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dream-Build-Play puzzler Rotor’scope now on Xbox Live Indie Games
We got to check out Rotor’scope: The Secret of the Endless Energy at PAX last year, and it nearly broke our minds. Of course, our minds were quite fragile at that point, weakened by long nights of tireless writing and frequent coffee binges — still, the fact remains that Rotor’scope was one of the most original concepts for a puzzle game we’d played in a good long time. Fortunately, we now have the chance to give the game another go — it was recently added to the Xbox Live Indie Games platform for 400
($5).
Check out the Rotor’scope trailer after the jump to see the game’s cog-flipping puzzle mechanics in action and to get a sense of the title’s overarching story. With create-a-level modes, hand-drawn graphics and even some Facebook integration, it looks like you’ll be getting a lot of bang for your buck. Or five bucks, as the case may be.
Shortcut: Add Rotor’scope (trial / full game) to your Xbox 360 download queue [via Xbox.com]
Continue reading Dream-Build-Play puzzler Rotor’scope now on Xbox Live Indie Games
Dream-Build-Play puzzler Rotor’scope now on Xbox Live Indie Games originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Final episode of ‘Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian’ drops on Halo Waypoint tomorrow
Tomorrow, the final installment in Halo Waypoint’s ongoing four-part motion comic, “Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian,” will be available. The comic — which is written by Frank O’Connor and animated by ONE — centers around ODST Baird, last remaining human survivor on the UNSC ship Destroyer. Baird must stop the invading Covenant forces before they discover the location of Earth and all of its Burger Kings.
What? You didn’t know the Covenant loves their chicken parmesan sandwiches?
Final episode of ‘Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian’ drops on Halo Waypoint tomorrow originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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