Welcome to another instalment in our weekly news digest where the team at PSU Towers picks our favourite slices of gaming gossip from the past seven days, before proceeding to offer our two cents on each story for good measure.
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Final Fantasy Versus XIII absent from Square’s E3 2012 line-up
At this point in time, it shouldn’t really surprise anyone that Final Fantasy Versus XIII – the long delayed PS3-exclusive title first announced in 2006 – isn’t showing up at E3. After all, we’ve been waiting for new footage of the game for over a year now, and even then details were only trickling in. However, the game’s absence is more unsurprising given the fact the game only entered full production in September 2011 – over five years since its unveiling. Part of me feels like it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine the game skipping this generation altogether, but it’s pretty obvious Square is intent on making this a PS3 game. One thing’s for sure though, it’ll turn up in the console’s twilight years, so hopefully it’ll be worth the wait. Still, it’s not all bad – Square’s got a meaty line-up for E3, so be sure to tuck into it.
Activision confirms development of Family Guy game, coming this fall
Amazon has been on the ball as of late when it comes to leaking unannounced games, and this week’s confirmation of Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse by Activision comes only days since the game was outed on the retail giant’s website. Great news for fans of the U.S. comedy no doubt, which is loved by millions of viewers worldwide, including the staff of PSU.com Towers. Indeed, it seems to be a good time for comedy fanatics, with South Park also receiving the videogame treatment later this year. Details on the Family Guy title are being kept under wraps, though we’re promised to see ‘some of the series’ most iconic and memorable moments’ in all their uncut glory, so it’s certainly sounding pretty promising.
EA confirms new Dead Space, Need for Speed
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 months or so, the confirmation of a third Dead Space title shouldn’t come as a surprise at all. Rumors have been circulating on a new sci-fi horror outing for a good while now, with the logo for the game supposedly leaking on Israeli TV as far back as summer 2011. However, EA’s officially sealed the deal this week during an earnings call, confirming a new Dead Space game will be on shelves by March 2013. The same goes for a fresh Need for Speed game, which again, isn’t all that shocking in this day and age of triple-A sequels and annualized franchises. Anticipation for Dead Space 3 in particular is pretty high, especially here at PSU.com, and we’re eager to see what Isaac Clarke is up against next, and more importantly, how developer Visceral Games intends on injecting something fresh into the mix so it’s not another re-run of the previous game. On a more personal note, I’m hoping for more claustrophobic environments and a sense of a foreboding dread ala Dead Space 1, and less on the high-octane set-pieces from the sequel. Not that Dead Space 2 was bad – far from it – but it was more action horror while the original was classic survival horror at its very best. We want more of the latter, please.
Resistance: Burning Skies to feature soundtrack from Dead Space, Gears of War composer
Gameplay and graphics typically get most of the attention when we’re soaking up a new videogame, but the contributions of the accompanying soundtrack are perhaps just as important to our enjoyment, even if we’re not always consciously aware of it. Indeed, this is especially true of cinematic experiences such as Dead Space and Resistance, which is why we’re chuffed to hear that the upcoming Resistance: Burning Skies will feature a score penned by the immensely talented Jason Graves and Kevin Riepl. Between them, these musical giants have scored triple-A titles including Dead Space and Gears of War, and will be teaming up to provide the soundtrack for Burning Skies on PlayStation Vita. A match made in heaven as far as we’re concerned, and perfectly fitting to the adrenaline-fuelled antics of the Resistance series. You won’t be disappointed.
BioShock: Infinite was unequivocally one of the most anticipated games of the year, and news of its October release had us practically foaming from the mouth. Unfortunately, 2K confirmed this week that the game has been elbowed out of 2012, and will now release worldwide on February 26, 2013. So, that’s another four months of waiting to endure. A crushing blow for all those looking forward to it, but good news in the sense Irrational will be beavering away durin those extra months to provide us the best BioShock experience to date. We’re still none the wiser as to how PlayStation Move support will be implemented into the experience, but hopefully that will come to light soon enough. Sadly, as if news of a delay wasn’t difficult enough to bear, creator Ken Levine also indicated we won’t be seeing Infinite at E3 or Gamescom, so we’re not too sure when we’re going to get to go hands-on with the shooter. The wait’ll be worth it though, make no mistake. Interestingly, analysts have already jumped on board the news with their belief that the game has been moved to accommodate a certain Grand Theft Auto V…
Modern Warfare 3 PS3 bundle coming soon
Need to move a few more consoles this summer? Then bundle your platform with the latest Call of Duty title, and look forward to doing a Scrooge McDuck dive into the money bin. That’s exactly what Sony’s doing this May 25, with the platform holder confirming it’ll be releasing a new PS3 bundle featuring Modern Warfare 3. The best part is it’ll save you a few hard-earned cents too, with the pack retailing for $299, plus you get a meaty 320GB hard drive for your troubles too. An ideal choice for new adopters and probably a decent introduction into the world of online gaming, seeing as how Call of Duty remains one of the most popular multiplayer titles available on current-gen consoles.
Sony suffers big loss in FY2012 financials, PlayStation division down
When Kazuo Hirai took over Sony Corporation in early April, it was pretty obvious that he was taking the wheel of a ship with more than a few leaks in its hull, financially speaking that is. Sure enough, Sony posted a significant loss for its fiscal year 2012, with the company recording a $2.8 billion loss – for comparison, this time last year the firm posted a profit of $135 million. In regards to hardware sales, PS3 sank by 400,000 units year-on-year, while PS2 and PSP also suffered notable declines. Sony attributed much of its financial woes to the floods in Thailand last year. Still, with the company outlining its new business strategy last month, Hirai has the next quarter to presumably turn things around, with Sony focusing predominantly on three core areas: consoles, mobile and TVs. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.
PS Vita worldwide sales revealed
It’s been well documented that Sony has been struggling to flog PlayStation Vita’s in its native Japan following an initially positive launch weekend, with the handheld frequently being outpaced by its aging predecessor. In the west, it hasn’t publicly been revealed how well Sony’s new pocket brick has been performing, though we do know how well the device has been selling worldwide. Sony divulged global sales figures for PS Vita during its earnings call this week, confirming it has sold 1.8 million units since its inception in December 2011. To put this into perspective, the device had moved 1.2 million by the end of February this year, and these latest figures takes us up to March 31, 2012. So, if you extrapolate this, then PS Vita sold 600,000 units in March.
Resident Evil 6 to sell 7 million, predicts Capcom
Capcom’s banking on Resident Evil 6 making big bucks following its October 2 release, predicting the horror sequel will rake in 7 million sales worldwide. Not surprising, given that the game is arguably the most significant release on its release calendar for the rest of the year, and following Resi 5’s success is unlikely to disappoint at retail. Still, the publisher is still pretty optimistic about its other franchises, notably Devil May Cry and Lost Planet, which it expects to sell 2 million and 1.4 million units, respectively. It’ll be interesting to see how well both of these perform, as unlike RE6, they’re being handled externally by western studios – namely Ninja Theory and United Front Games. Of all the companies, the latter is probably the one with most to prove, as United Front doesn’t have the best track record, having been responsible for churning one of this generation’s weakest games in the shape of Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. Ninja Theory on the other hand did a bang up job of Heavenly Sword and Enslaved, though whether or not the general public will take to its unique interpretation of Capcom’s venerable hack-‘em-up remains to be seen.
Sony responds to April 2012 NPD data
It’s NPD time again, and that means Sony’s once again come out with its typical PR spin on the events, remaining ever ambiguous in regards to just how well its hardware has sold. Again, it’s trumpeting continued growth for the PlayStation brand, particularly PS Vita, which has apparently been met with demand from consumers thanks to new releases such as Mortal Kombat and social functions including Skype. Microsoft had the most reason to celebrate though, with Xbox 360 scoring its 16th month at the top of the hardware charts. Quite where PS3 places in all this is anyone’s guess, but hopefully the launch of the new PS3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 bundle will stimulate sales somewhat. Nonetheless, April was a pretty quiet month, with a significant decline in overall sales recorded. Software wise Prototype 2 was pretty much left unchallenged outside of causal-friendly Star Wars Kinect, which failed to beat the open-world sequel to the summit of the charts. Hopefully things will begin to pick up, though with the summer quickly approaching, it looks like it’ll be a rather uneventful period for the games industry until things pick up in the fall.
The Best of the Rest…
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City sells 1.7 million worldwide
EA set to invest $80 million in next-gen in FY 2013
Kingdom Hearts should return to consoles, says Tetsuya Nomura
Deus Ex, Conflict: Desert Storm 2 coming to PS Store
Beta for LittleBigPlanet Vita coming soon
Call of Duty Elite userbase tops 10 million
Peter Moore: Gamers still reluctant to buy digital goods online after PSN hack