‘Max Payne 3′ Release Date Slips To May, ‘XCOM’ FPS To 2013
Mr. Maximilian Payne to be be delayed by two months although we won’t be seeing the FPS with little gray men till next year.
In an e-mail this morning, Rockstar PR announced that Max Payne three was moving from its initially-announced March 6th release date to Might 15th. The move actually places the bullet time shooter in Rockstar’s next economic quarter and fiscal year alongside XCOM, the shooter reboot of the long-operating method series. As an olive branch to gamers searching to pick up the special edition of the game, Rockstar has announced that they’ve pushed the deadline back to April 2nd so everybody has a likelihood to get the version of the game with the the most bells and whistles.
On the dollars and cents side of issues, this implies the firm will be reporting a net loss for the fiscal year which ends March 31st. Joystiq helpfully breaks this down, explaining that Rockstar’s initially-projected billion dollars in income is being reduced by about a quarter.
Although I get the Max Payne move by a couple of months, the full year delay of XCOM has set off a handful of warning bells—it had also been camping out on the March 6th date but it’s been a little although given that we’ve heard something new about the upcoming FPS. I won’t place any bets on any sort of lack of faith on the game, but this could mean that XCOM demands a bit a lot more time, generating its release date shift more development-minded than related to financial forecasts. Or Rockstar basically desires a major shooter release in 2013—it’s too early to say.
[Source: IGN Au]
Max Payne 3 Debut Interview
Sonic Generations Dates And Details
Sonic and, um, Sonic’s outing on 3DS has a confirmed release date for all territories. And yes, it’s in November! Also, there are killer whales.
Oh, November, you flagrant tease. And talking of teasing, now we’ve been assured that the worrying rumours of Sonic’s 3DS slippage have been put to rest, it’s nice to be able to receive confirmation from the likes of Joystiq that Sonic Generations is heading our way in due course. Just over a month, in fact!
- November 22nd for North America!
- November 25th for Europe!
And lo, there was much hedgehoggy rejoicing.
Catwoman DLC sneaks out of new copies of Arkham City *Updated*
There have been reports that players are receiving new copies of Batman: Arkham City packed with Catwoman DLC cards that have no code. This is a major deal, as the Catwoman DLC added a new opening to the game, as well as gameplay portions with the Cat that make up about 10% of the total game experience. Add to that the fact that Catwoman was a highly advertised part of the game, and there’s a recipe for trouble.
The problems don’t stop there though, numerous users are reporting issues redeeming the codes that actually were printed, and some codes for the myriad pre-order skins that were available are not properly redeemable as well (although how widespread the skin issue is has yet to be determined). Rocksteady has only issued a statement through the game’s twitter account so far, but no official word has come down about how things will be resolved.
By all accounts Arkham City is literally the greatest superhero game of all time (our impressions will be on the site in the coming days), but issues like this definitely mar what should be a flawlessly awesome event for gamers. Does this build a bigger case against Online Pass and Content locked behind DLC? Or is this a necessary evil?
Update: There has still been no official solution issued by Rocksteady, but Joystiq got a tip from a reader who received instructions from Warner Bros. customer service:
Microsoft Studios acquires Twisted Pixel
Twisted Pixel, the studio behind Xbox LIVE Arcade’s Ms. ‘Splosion Man and the more recent Kinect-enabled Gunstringer, has a new home. Microsoft announced today it’s purchased the Austin-based indie developer.
Speaking to Joystiq, Microsoft Studios general manager Matt Booty said Twisted Pixel’s unique character is what drew them to the studio, and they have no plans on changing it.
“Microsoft’s a very big company, and you’ve got Twisted Pixel, a relatively smaller developer,” said Booty. “We’re very invested that they get to stay who they are, and they get to retain the magic they’ve got as a smaller indie developer. We’d like to leave the golden goose alone, so to speak.”
According to Twisted Pixel CEO Mike Wilford, there will be one change, and that’s the scale of future projects.
“Ever since the very beginning we’ve done things our way, with our own sense of humor,” he said. “I think you’re going to see more of the same type of approach to our games, but with greater resources and time. You’re going to see us be able to make bigger games and richer games going forward.”
Silent Hill: Downpour Now Officially Delayed Until 2012
Well, it turns out the rumors were true. Joystiq is reporting that Silent Hill: Downpour has been delayed to Q1 2012. If you were planning on ditching your family Christmas get together to play the game, I’m sorry.
The game, which is totally not Alan Wake, was originally due to be released this fall. Amazon was the first to hint at a delay when they pushed the game’s expected release date back to March 31st, 2012. So either Konami has been keeping us in the dark for a couple weeks now, or Amazon has psychic powers. It’s likely the latter, as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Jeff Bezos set fire to a building with only his mind.
It’s not all bad in Silent Hill however, as this gives the publisher more time to release trailers set to the music of Korn. Wait, that isn’t a good thing?
Oh God, I’m so sorry.
Mashcast #20: Return of the Big Three
This week marks the return of the big three. No, we’re not talking Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. We’re talking Redding, Hill-Williams, and Santangelo. Besides celebrating ourselves we also talk about monetization before game design, the future of Mass Effect, lack of new IP, and Bethesda not being interested in social trends. All that plus more on this Mashcast.
Hosts: Jarret Redding, Robert Hill-Williams, Nick Santangelo
Theme: “Insert Coin” – Chris Geehan of Hyperduck Soundworks
Mashcast #20: Return of the Big Three by Mash Those Buttons
Question(s) of the Week:
What do you think is the best way to combat piracy?
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Next Dragon Quest Game Will be Revealed Next Week
Dragon Quest fans are going to want to keep their eyes planted on Square’s Ustream page at 1:00 am EST on September 5th. At that time, Square Enix will be conducting a live reveal of the next game in the hugely-successful JRPG series. Whether or not the publisher will be announcing an entirely new title or finally blowing the lid off of the previously announced Dragon Quest X is unclear.
The latter is possible because no screen shots, video or details whatsoever have been released from the Wii game. Adding credence to that theory is the announcement that a Dragon Quest X trailer will be bundled into Dragon Quest Anniversary Edition when it releases on September 15th.
[Source: Siliconera]
[Images via Final Fantasy Wikia and Joystiq Junkies.]
