Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like a golden hued Nintendo 3DS. But this isn’t just a special coat of paint. What you see above is a special 25th anniversary limited-edition Cosmo Black 3DS marked with the Hyrule emblem and gold-colored embellishments! So if you’re a Zelda fan and still haven’t jumped to buy Ninty’s latest handheld, this is it. The Zelda-themed 3DS comes bundled with the Ocarina of Time 3D game and costs $199.99. It hits store shelves tomorrow, November 23, Turkey day. Also coming out of the gate tomorrow and at the same price point is a Flame Red 3DS bundled with the recently released Super Mario 3D Land game.
Infinity Ward’s latest first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launched one week ago on November 8 and on that day the game sold over 6.5 million units in North America and the UK generating over $400 million in sales. MW3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Does this all sound familiar to you? Well that’s because this is the third consecutive year that the Call of Duty franchise has set day one launch records across all forms of entertainment. It started in 2009 when Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million copies and generated $310 million in sales; and then it happened again the very next year when Black Opssold 5.6 million copies and made $310 million.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick shared his enthusiasm about the franchise’s success in a press release. “We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories. Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings,” two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.”
Before the fall dashboard updates arrives to Internet-connected Xbox 360s, Microsoft flipped the switch on updating its Xbox website. The homepage has been revamped to feature content in the “Metro”-style layout that is coming to Xbox and with Windows 8. The “My Xbox” section of the website has been renamed “Social” and this is the new destination where gamers will go to login to their Xbox Live profiles away from the their consoles. The updated Xbox Live portal is organized in four categories. Home gives gamers a quick glimpse at their recent activity, their friends’ recent activity, online friends, messages, Xbox Live events and related news. Friends provides a list of all your Xbox Live friends, online and off. In Messages you can read and send messages to your friends. And in the Activity section you can view your recent activity, out of your friends who recently played the games you did, and you can view all of your played games, achievements, and gamerscore information. Also in this section you can set Beacons, a marker that notifies your friends that you want to play a certain game with them. You can have up to three Beacons active at a time, and you can add custom descriptions. For example, you can set a Beacon for Halo 3 and add a description like “Let’s play from 7-10 PM.” No matter where you navigate in Social, your avatar will follow you, as will links to view your account, redeem codes, add Microsoft Points, view your Download Queue, and visit your profile. In addition to updating the My Xbox section of the site, Xbox Live members can now browse, preview, and download media such as movies and TV shows in a browser and this content will be attached to your Live account; this means that all downloaded media can be viewed on any PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone that your Live account is connected to. Check out the new Social portal at Xbox.com right now!
Here it is, the first look at Rockstar’s latest project, Grand Theft Auto V. We’ve all been anticipating this since the video game developer hinted at its arrival in the form of an image. Check it out above, then read on.
In an official press release, it is confirmed that Grand Theft Auto V is currently in full development and Rockstar North– GTA series creator–is leading the charge. The game will take place in the fictional “city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches in the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created.” Rockstar is keeping mum about the game’s plot. The PR only goes so far in saying this: “A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present-day Southern California.” Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser adds, “Grand Theft Auto V is another radical reinvention of the Grand Theft Auto universe. We are incredibly excited to share our new vision with our fans.”
After watching the trailer there are a couple things we can speculate. First, it would make sense that the narrator is the protagonist of the game and what we know is that he is a father in pursuit of a better life; he wants to be “a good guy for once, a family man.” Now even though the trailer features one narrator, it does jump around between various characters. Whether or not this means the game will have players jumping in and out of the shoes of more than one character is still up in the air. But it’s certainly fun to speculate. Mission-based gameplay is expected, while multiplayer co-op is on every one’s wish list. A release date has not been set, but I’d say it’s safe to assume a holiday 2012 launch. Once again, stay tuned.
This week Sony announced an overhaul for PlayStation Home, an avatar-based gathering place for the PS3 gaming community. The new Home experience revolves around the following new “genre-based districts”: Action District (a gathering place for hardcore gamers), Sportswalk (for sports fanatics), Adventure District (for Uncharted 3 fans), Pier Park (for arcade gameplay), PlayStation Home Theater (features videos tailored specifically for PlayStation gamers), and PlayStation Home Mall (sells avatar items and other downloadable content). Along with a new futuristic Hub and an integrated Activity Board, the upgraded Home will offer up a slew of free-to-play game titles “based
upon a freemium business model” including a FPS called Bootleggers ’29, a racer RC Rally, and a puzzler Cogs. For a quick preview, jump after the break to watch a video tour of the revamped virtual hangout; the full PR is pasted directly below it. After that, fire up your PS3 and roam free!
We all know the Kinect motion sensor was created to work in tandem with Microsoft’s video game console Xbox 360 to reinvent and enhance the gaming experience by “making you the controller.” But shortly after the device hit the market the open source community (read: hackers) cracked open the magical sensor and figured out ways to make it useful beyond the realm of gaming. Kinect hacks became so popular that I thought it’d be neat to highlight some of the most inventive ones in a post titled “Kinect, hacked” last December. Rather quickly Microsoft caught wind of all the amazing ways people have tinkered with their sensor and they shared plans to release a Kinect SDK into the wild that would give the general public official access to Kinect APIs and other developer tools. In a blog post today Microsoft executive Frank Shaw announced that the SDK is coming in 2012. In his own words:
To further fuel innovation and imagination, we will offer a Kinect for Windows commercial program early next year. We recognize the intense commercial interest in harnessing the capabilities of Kinect, and are working with a wide range of companies and developers to create a great set of tools and APIs. In fact, our commercial pilot program has already received more than 200 applications from top companies in more than 20 countries spanning 25 unique industries, eager to explore the possibilities of Kinect beyond Xbox 360!
It’s really great that Microsoft is acknowledging the open source tinkerers and giving them a means to further their creativity. Watch what the “Kinect Effect” has spawned over the last year in the video above. My favorite is the application created for hospitals in Spain enabling surgeons to scroll through medical images in the operating room with gestures so they could avoid the need to rescrub. Pure genius. To see more related videos head over to Microsoft’s Kinect Effect website.
Sony is giving its most loyal customers an opportunity to snag a PS Vita one week before the powerful handheld officially launches in North America on February 22. To get your sweaty palms and greasy fingertips on a PS Vita February 15, all you have to do is preorder the “First Edition Bundle” which comes with the Vita (3G + Wi-Fi model), a limited edition case, a 4GB memory card, and the Little Deviants game. The bundle costs $349.99 (that’s a hundred dollars more than the standalone 3G + Wi-Fi model) and it’s up for preorder now at select retailers including Best Buy and Amazon. Want a chance to play with the next generation portable before everyone else? This is it.
Today Rockstar Games uploaded this image to their official website. The next Grand Theft Auto is coming, and we’ll be able to preview the all-new open-world game in the successful, long-running franchise on November 2; according to that image a trailer will drop that day. Stay tuned.
The PlayStation branded 3D Display that was announced and detailed at Sony’s E3 press conference earlier this year now has an official release date. The PlayStation Blog reveals that the $499.99 set, which comes bundled with one pair of 3D Glasses, MotorStorm Apocalypse 3D-capable game, and an HDMI cable, will go on sale November 13. Early preorders offered a copy of Resistance 3 and Sony clarifies that if you put in an order on or before September 30, 2011 you will still be receiving that game. To refresh your memory, the 24-inch LCD display outputs 1080p HD picture and features 2D/3D support, high contrast (5000:1), a wide viewing angle (176 degree) and high response time (4ms GTG average) with a slim design, high quality sound with an integrated subwoofer, and two HDMI ports. And it’s got one really cool trick up its sleeve. Sony describes the SimulView feature like so: “This special two-player feature is unique to the 3D Display in that it significantly enhances two-player mode in select games. Ordinarily, two-player mode is played in split-screen format. With this unique two-player feature, each player gets their own full (2D) HD screen while wearing the 3D Glasses for the 3D Display.” The active 3D glasses contain the special sauce to perform the trick. Be aware that Sony will sell compatable 3D glasses separately at $69.99 a pop. If you want to learn more about the technologies powering the 3D Display head on over to the PS Blog where you’ll find an informative FAQ that should answer most, if not all, of the questions you might still have. Product images sit in the gallery below and an introductory video sits after the break.
President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America Jack Tretton announced that the PSP successor, the PlayStation Vita, will launch in the United States on February 22, 2012. This will follow the initial release in Japan on December 17. The PS Vita, with its 5-inch OLED screen, dual analog sticks, dual cameras, and front and rear touch panel and social networking applications like Facebook, foursquare, Skype, and Twitter, will sell in two SKUs: the 3G model (with AT&T support) will cost $299, while the WiFi-only version will go for $249. Now peep the packaging above and start saving!
The house that built Mario has gone ahead and slightly tweaked the exterior design of their family friendly console the Wii. The hardware refresh introduces a more streamlined look and is meant to sit horizontally rather than stand vertically. At the same time, Nintendo decided to drop GameCube compatibility meaning that the redesigned console will not be able to play GameCube games. The new bundle, which packs the newly configured Wii in black, New Super Mario Bros., a Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack CD, a black Wii Remote Plus controller, and a black Nunchuk will hit stores October 23. Now get this: there is no price drop and the Wii will continue to sell for $149.99. In a press release Ninty went on to state that the current Wii bundle (which includes Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk controllers, Mario Kart Wii, the Wii Wheel accessory, and GameCube backwards compatibility) will continue to sell at the $150 price point. So when you’re shopping this holiday season, make sure you get the right bundle! In this case, functionality trumps aesthetics especially if you have a solid library of GameCube games.
Ah we all knew this day would come. After proving himself worthy of rebooting the beloved video game franchise, Kevin Tancharoen has been given the reigns to direct a Mortal Kombat reboot feature film. Though his preview credits include Fame and Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, Mortal Kombat fans know that Tancharoen holds a special place in his heart for the violent and controversial game. In June 2010 a MK short film surfaced on the ‘Net and people went bananas. The nearly eight-minute long video Mortal Kombat: Rebirthreached millions of hits in a matter of days. Turned out that it was Tancharoen’s attempt to pitch a reimagined Mortal Kombat movie to the studios. Though he wasn’t immediately granted the rights to helm a movie early on, he was given the opportunity to produce a 10-part web series based in the MK universe. Apparently Mortal Kombat: Legacy and the rebooted video game that followed gained enough steam and attracted enough viewers/gamers to make Warner Bros. (New Line’s parent company) greenlight the movie with Tancharoen in the director’s chair. Oren Uziel (who collaborated with Tancharoen to make the short film) will pen the script. No word as to whether or not the actors in the web series (Michael Jai White, Jeri Ryan, Ian Anthony Dale, etc.) will reprise their role in the reboot feature film. In the end, Kevin’s wish was granted.
Update: Tancharoen shared his vision for the movie with EW. Choice quote right here: “Up to this point, we’ve only been talking ‘rated R.’ I like realistic takes on things, I like it when it’s a little darker and grittier. And I want the martial arts to feel real as opposed to balletic and super-choreographed. It needs to feel brutal, because that’s the nature of the video game itself.” As long as he can recreate what he did in the original short film (and with a much higher budget from New Line I’m sure he’ll exceed expectations) I trust Tancharoen will have no problem injecting new life into the aging, classic franchise.
