It looks like the exclusive practices for developers and publishers is still going strong. Not that anyone should expect it to die out. Publisher THQ has announced that the first DLC map pack for their upcoming title Homefront, developed by Kaos Studios, will be debuting on Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE. Following in the footsteps of Call of Duty, in a path that many gamers may not be a fan of.
THQ has partnered up with Microsoft to bring the upcoming title’s first DLC to the Xbox 360 first. But, that’s not all. Major Nelson, or Larry Hryb, at the THQ presse event for the game itself announced that the deal extended to all future DLC made available for the game. That means if Kaos Studios adds anything to the game after launch, it will be made available on the 360 first.
To sweeten the deal for 360 owners, a single map, called “Suburbs” will be an exclusive to the Xbox 360 version. This map will be available at the launch of the game, but won’t be available for anyone who purchases the game for the PlayStation 3. Homefront will be released on March 8, 2011, and will retail for $59.99.
Bulletstorm is one of those rare titles that, even if you see all the videos and read all the reviews on it, you still need to actually play it to get a sense of what the game is about, and why it’s so unique in its place amongst all of the other First Person Shooter (FPS) titles out there. From developer People Can Fly and published by EA Games, Bulletstorm is a shooter that mixes in over-the-top action, along with plenty of creative combinations that players can use to score points.
EA has officially announced that gamers will get their shot at trying out the game before it hits retail shelves in late February. The title will hit both Xbox LIVE Worldwide and Sony’s PlayStation Network in the United States on the same date: January 25th, which is a Tuesday. The demo will feature a single “snippet” of Echo Mode, which is a competitive addition to the title that will pit gamers against their friends, as they try to rack up the highest score. They’ll be able to do that with the “skillshot” system, which is a classy title for stringing together kills with over-the-top actions, and combinations.
The demo will be made available for PlayStation Network users in Europe on January 26th. There’s no mention of a PC demo coming any time soon, unfortunately. The game will officially ship on February 22nd, 2011, and have a price tag of $49.99 for the standard edition. But, if you opt-in for the Epic Edition, you’ll have a chance to play Gears of War 3 online Beta. Full press release below.
Press Release
Epic Games and EA Kick-Start the New Year With a Demo for Bulletstorm
Get a Taste of One of 2011′s Most Anticipated Games Starting on January 25
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– People Can Fly, Epic Games and Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced a demo for Bulletstorm, the highly anticipated new action shooter from the makers of the award-winning Gears of War and Unreal series of games. Starting on January 25, the demo will give players a taste of the guns, action and attitude Bulletstorm has to offer, with Entertainment Weekly describing Bulletstorm as “an intense, outrageous shooter,” and Seth Schiesel from the New York Times stating, “the name should say it all; big guns, lots of lead and over-the-top mayhem.”
Bulletstorm ships with three game modes: the pulp sci-fi, single-player campaign; Anarchy multiplayer mode; and Echo mode, a unique experience that tracks and compares players’ scores while they play through locations found in the campaign. The Bulletstorm demo introduces a slice of Echo mode in which players traverse a collapsed building on the deadly paradise planet Stygia as ex-Dead Echo leader Grayson Hunt. Players will utilize the “Skillshot” system in Bulletstorm as they crush enemies in increasingly creative ways to rack up points using an arsenal of powerful weapons, from a futuristic assault rifle called the Peace Maker Carbine, to the Flail Gun, which fires two grenades linked by a chain, and the Screamer, a powerful revolver that turns enemies into human fireworks.
From highest score to total number of skillshots performed, players can compete with their friends for bragging rights in Echo mode as they decimate enemies with over-the-top combat moves using some of the most innovative weapons ever seen in a first-person shooter. With more than 45 skillshots in the demo, players are encouraged to “Kill with Skill” in Bulletstorm, finding stylish and ever imaginative ways to take down anyone that stands in their way. The Bulletstorm demo also allows players to unlock platform-specific upgrades* to use in the game’s Anarchy mode, from the Crimson Leash to Stealth Armor, when they purchase the full game.
The Bulletstorm demo will be available for download January 25 on Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace Worldwide and the PlayStation®Network in North America. The demo will be available on January 26 on PlayStation®Network in Europe. Poised to be one of 2011′s most original games, the Bulletstorm Epic Edition will be available for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and grant early access to the Gears of War 3 beta as well as additional bonus content in-game**. The Bulletstorm Limited Edition will be available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC and will also offer additional bonus content in-game**. Bulletstorm will be available on Feb. 22, 2011 in North America and Feb. 25, 2011 in Europe. For more information on Bulletstorm, please visit www.bulletstorm.com and www.facebook.com/bulletstorm or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bulletstorm.
* Content subject to availability.
** Conditions and restrictions apply. Whiles supplies last. See back of pack for details if and when available.
About People Can Fly
People Can Fly, an Epic Games studio, creates visually and technically superior action games for PC and console entertainment systems. Founded in 2002 and based in Warsaw, Poland, People Can Fly is developing “Bulletstorm,” an original, Unreal Engine 3-powered onslaught of ‘kill with skill’ gameplay and blockbuster moments to be released in 2011 by Electronic Arts. People Can Fly made its mark on the shooter genre with its award-winning “Painkiller” series of games for PC and Xbox prior to shipping Epic’s “Gears of War” for PC. Additional information about People Can Fly can be found at www.peoplecanfly.com.
About Epic Games
Founded in 1991 and based in Cary, N.C., Epic Games develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. Epic’s “Gears of War” series has sold more than 12 million copies and won more than 50 Game of the Year awards. Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 is the five-time winner and Hall of Fame inductee for Game Developer’s Best Engine Front Line Award. Unreal Engine 3 has also won three consecutive Develop Industry Excellence Awards, and consequently Develop magazine has dubbed it the number one game engine. Visit www.epicgames.com and www.unrealtechnology.com.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA Mobile™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, and POGO are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. “PlayStation” is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. People Can Fly and Bulletstorm are trademarks or registered trademarks of People Can Fly Sp z o. o. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Epic, Epic Games, Gears of War, Gears of War 3, Unreal, Unreal Engine, UE3, and Unreal Tournament are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
If you know a few people who haven’t jumped onto the Xbox LIVE Gold Membership bandwagon yet, and you feel like with a gentle nudge from you they just might, here’s your time to act. Not only because you’ll get even more friends to play your favorite online games together with, but also because Microsoft has just launched the Xbox LIVE Refer a Friend program, which means you’ll get a cool prize for getting one of your friends to sign up for Gold.
Microsoft’s new Refer a Friend program is meant to draw in more users to the Gold Membership plan, by rewarding those with a current gold membership for bringing more folks into the fold. The idea is that if you refer someone, and they successfully sign up for a Gold Membership, you’ll be provided with a “token.” Once you receive that token, you’ll be able to cash it in for a prize.
One reward provides you and your friend with 400 Microsoft Points, or 600 Microsoft Points depending on the amount of time the new Gold member signs up for. If you get someone to sign up, you can choose to have Microsoft pick an Xbox LIVE Arcade game for you and your friend to download. And finally, if you get a friend of yours to just try Xbox LIVE Gold with a promotional token, you’ll receive 200 Microsoft Points.
The promotion is set to end on July 1st, 2011, and people will be able to refer five friends every day until that date. As for the prizes themselves, referrers to the program will be eligible to win each of the four prizes only once until July 1st. The tokens will expire by December 31st, 2011, while the Microsoft Points received from the referral will expire by June 30th, 2012.
Further details about Microsoft’s CES 2011 announcements have leaked, with a new Xbox 360 social communication system called Avatar Kinect expected to make its debut this week. First spotted by Glimpsedog as a leaked snapshot of Microsoft’s keynote run-through, according to WinRumors Avatar Kinect uses the motion-gaming peripheral to control gamers’ Xbox LIVE avatars as they interact with each other.
The functionality will have its own area in Xbox LIVE, they suggest, similar to Nintendo’s Mii channel. Gamers will be able to interact with each other, have conversations and watch content or play games together. It will apparently take the form of an Xbox LIVE update, rather than a new, Kinect-specific game.
Microsoft is also expected to bring a selection of new tablet PCs on stage during its CES 2011 keynote, as part of the company’s attempt to win market share from the iPad. Meanwhile, there are rumors that a Windows TV STB to take on Apple TV and Google TV is also going to debut, as a sub-$200 box that will run a specially-modified version of Windows embedded.
Microsoft’s online gaming and media service, Xbox LIVE for the Xbox 360 is a place where gamers, and entertainment-loving folks in general can go and download all sorts of things to pass the time. A strong moneymaker for the Redmond-based company is Xbox LIVE’s Arcade, where developers and publishers can release “classic” titles, along with smaller games that may not be big enough to fit into a full “retail” package. Titles like Limbo and Monday Night Combat managed to garner plenty of rave reviews, and even some “best of” lists. But, there’s another section on Xbox LIVE that hasn’t received so much attention: Indie games. In fact, getting any kind of face time on Xbox LIVE for the Indie game developer has been sort of a rough patch recently.
Back at the beginning of November, Microsoft decided to shove the Xbox LIVE Indie Games section way, way into the depths of the Marketplace. No longer could you find it with a few flicks of a joystick. You’d have to go all the way into the “Specialty Shop,” and there you’d find your favorite “small-time” games. This didn’t sit well with the developers of these titles, and they made it apparent that they believed Microsoft was worried about these other games taking the limelight away from Microsoft’s cream-of-the-crop Arcade titles.
Microsoft eventually relented, and returned the Indie Games panel back to the main section of the Marketplace. However, it doesn’t look like that’s enough for some Indie game developers, as they still believe they do not receive the same treatment that Arcade developers get. The result? The Indie Games Winter Uprising. It started off from a pair of developers coming together to promote not only their titles, but other Indie games that they believed looked too good to pass up. After the Xbox LIVE Indie Games panel was moved into the Specialty Shop, a lot of developers started losing money as sales dropped suddenly. It was bad enough that, according to Robert Boyd, the development head of Breath of Death VII, “a lot of developers talked about quitting the service.”
That’s when Ian Stocker, the developer behind Soulcaster II, got in touch with Boyd and suggested that the two of them team up, more or less, to promote their games. Boyd was just about finished with Cthulhu Saves the World, and figured that it would be a good idea. He didn’t want it to just focus on their games, though, and suggested that they should widen their scope to include other top-notch Indie games. And that’s how the Indie Games Winter Uprising was conceived.
In total, there are 14 games that are part of the Winter Uprising. A few of them are already out, but most of them won’t be released until early 2011. What’s interesting, though, is the support that the Winter Uprising has received from Microsoft. After the company wanted to squander the service into the depths of the Marketplace, the Winter Uprising now has its own promotional panel in the main section of the Dashboard. It’s not just in the Marketplace — it’s right there in the front, where everyone can see. And, what makes it better, is that the idea for the large promotion was apparently Microsoft’s.
The developers taking part in the Winter Uprising are not only hoping that their games pick up in sales due to the promotion, but also that the overall traffic increases significantly into the Indie Games section of Xbox LIVE. One of the games, Epic Dungeon has already managed to sell over 10,000 copies. You can see the game in action below.
Redmond’s contributed two fresh game titles to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace in the last couple weeks, both at $2.99, that should keep you entertained for a few minutes at the very least: Rise of Glory and Revolution. The former is a World War I flight simulator that features both campaigns and single-mission modes; the latter is a little more abstract, featuring “machines” that need to be solved by placing cogs in the correct locations… so yeah, they’ve definitely covered the gamut here. It’s certainly good to see that Microsoft’s still putting its money where its mouth is with first-party titles for the platform — now it’s just time for a little Halo, if you ask us.
Head to head gaming between a Windows PC and a Windows Phone 7 smartphone is now on offer, though if you’re expecting high-tension Halo: Reach battles while you’re on the bus, you should probably lower your expectations. The first title to support cross-platform play has arrived in the shape of Game Chest: Chess, which unsurprisingly offers turn-by-turn chess games.
The $2.99 game uses a web-based interface for the PC gamer, with invitations to play handled by email. Although not the most exciting of titles, it’s the first in what Microsoft has promised will be a significant drive in Windows Phone 7 gaming.
Konami has confirmed with Eurogamer today the release dates of the highly anticipated return of the classic arcade game, this time in home-version form. For the Xbox 360 version, an exclusive release date of December 15th, that’s next Wednesday! Then for the Playstation 3 version, TWO MONTHS AFTER. What in the world? That is just crazy talk. That puts it in February of 2011, prices on either version are not yet confirmed. Backbone Entertainment studio is leading the production of this game, so it should run fabulously.
For those of you that don’t remember (or weren’t alive yet?) this is a game that basically used to be in every single arcade in the world, a giant machine with six joysticks and sets of buttons allowing you and your friends to concurrently control Cyclops, Colossus, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Storm and Wolverine. The game appears to be basically identical to the original arcade release, containing all the dastardly villains as bosses: Pyro, Blob, Wendigo, Mystique, White Queen, Juggernaught and Magneto.
This game was part of a multiplayer trend almost two decades ago that also included games like The Simpsons, and Ninja Turtles in Time, basically all of which were completely amazing games – just so long as you were actually in the arcade playing them.
Will this particular oldie stay strong on consoles? We’ll see.
If you’re the sort of person who found yourself playing a game by yourself in the dark by the name of “‘Splosion Man” somewhere around the time of July 22, 2009, you already know of the intense joy you’ll be able to find in this game more than likely releasing through the same channel the original released (Xbox 360′s Xbox Live Arcade) sometime during the Fall of 2011. This is Ms. Splosion Man, a game where, like its predecessor, you’re basically ‘sploding things left and right. Check out the full hilariously comic press release! Well played, Twisted Pixel Games.
The plotline for this game is thus: scientists at “Big Science” have captured Mr. ‘Splosion Man, stopping him once and for all from destroying all their equipment with his ‘splosions. These scientists, celebrating in their ultimate victory, spill a bit of bubbly on a device that ultimately accidentally creates none other than a female version of ‘Splosion Man! So basically it’s ‘Splosion Man with lipstick and a bow on it’s head. Sound like any classic game expansion you’ve ever heard of? Look at this amazing teaser video, then read the excellent press release below.
BIG SCIENCE CAPTURES SPLOSION MAN, WORLD NOW SAFE FOREVER
Twisted Pixel Games Proud to Announce the World Won’t End in the Fall of 2011
AUSTIN, TX – December 2, 2010 – Twisted Pixel Games was pleased to announce today that their subsidiary, Big Science, has captured the Splosion Man and guaranteed the safety of all humankind. Many remember the terrifying events of July 2009: Splosion Man’s horrifying rampage through Big Science laboratories that meated hundreds of scientists and caused untold damage to their underground laboratories. Eye witnesses reported widespread destruction and a staggering number of t-bones and fillets left in his wake.
Today that ends, with Twisted Pixel releasing footage of the successful capture of the renegade experiment. The scientists speak with new-found confidence about their success. Says Dr. Wilson, “Even if some sort of newer, stronger, better threat were created, our newest security measures and fiendish traps would be more than enough to contain it. We’ve made incredible advances in our technology over this past year…. Not that there would ever be a use for any of it.”
Dr. Henry was quick to add, “Our lab, our equipment – everything has had functionality improvements and visual overhauls, and our company has expanded to some incredible new locations. It’s all pristine and beautiful – decadent environments that we are very happy no experiment gone wrong will ever rampage through.” Dr. Henry paused briefly before continuing, “I don’t even know why I’m mentioning that, because it’s 100% guaranteed that Splosion Man will never be a threat to us again.”
When asked if there was any risk of overconfidence amongst the scientists, Dr. Riley was quick to interject. “Why? What’s going to happen, some sort of freak accident in the after party that creates a “Ms. Splosion Man” mere seconds after Splosion Man’s capture? And then the Ms. Splosion Man goes on some monster tear in the fall of 2011? Yeah right. Not very likely.”
Twisted Pixel Games reiterates that despite the fact that nothing could possibly go wrong during today’s events, should any newsworthy event occur, they will release as much information as possible in the coming months.
About Twisted Pixel Games, LLC
Founded in 2006 by industry veterans, Twisted Pixel is the independent game development studio behind the 2009 IGF finalist and 2008 PAX 10 Audience Choice Award winning game The Maw for Xbox LIVE® Arcade, Steam, Greenhouse, and Direct2Drive. Their accomplishments continue with the successes of Splosion Man and Comic Jumper. Twisted Pixel specializes in character-driven, original IP titles that shake up what games are all about. Memorable characters, creative gameplay, and impressive presentation is our focus. Learn more at www.TwistedPixelGames.com.
Hanging out over at the Credit Suisse technology conference just yesterday was Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division CEO, mister Dennis Durkin. He had a rather interesting statistic to share with the audience: 50% of all Xbox Live users pay for a Gold Subscription. What that means is that, since there are around 25 million Xbox Live subscribers in the world, 12.5 million people pay $60 a year to be able to access its additional features.
Recently Microsoft increased the price of Xbox LIVE by a few bucks, amping US price up $10 from the previous $50 a year. Some of the features this additional yearly subscription affords you are online multi-player functionality, access to ESPN, and access to Netflix (in addition to whatever you pay Netflix.) Shouldn’t that stuff be… free?
