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Enter the fantastic world of Narnia once again in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian".
As the sequel to the smash hit "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", the second installment of the Narnia franchise will give players the freedom to explore the deep universe even further while controlling various characters including all of the Pevensie children, Giants, Centaurs and Caspian himself.
Can you restore Prince Caspian to his rightful place or will you fall under the onslaught of the dark forces? Prince Caspian is the new weekly special, available at an unbeatable bargain price of US$ 9.90 only. The game is region free.
I'm making this weekend a Demon's Souls weekend. Now that the holiday review season is dying down, it's time to play a little catch up.
So into the Nexus I will go, armed with my Knight and a heavy dose of fear, as I harvest souls for the long-delayed Kotaku review of From Software's PlayStation 3 sleeper hit. As a chaser, I plan to let go with a little more Left 4 Dead 2, my multiplayer game of choice. I've enjoyed my time with Modern Warfare 2, but I like laying waste to zombies with my friends.
How about yourself? Will you leave any helpful warnings for me in Demon's Souls? Perhaps be the Ellis to my Coach? Or do you have alternate gaming plans this weekend?
Were you negatively affected by the recent ban on Xbox Live for modifying hardware you own? Did you modify yours for homebrew or altering things you paid for and not to engage in piracy? Abington IP would like to hear from you and may be able to help. From that page: 'If you are an Xbox Live subscriber, had your modified Xbox console banned from Xbox Live, were not refunded a prorated sum for the time left on your subscription, or have experienced other problems as a result of being banned, and would like to participate in a class action against Microsoft, please submit your information below.' Someone is finally standing up for the legitimate hobbyists. Should Microsoft worry?
Live is streets ahead of rivals’ services following social media additions, says company
Microsoft has claimed that it is “continually keeping ahead” of its rivals’ online services with additions to Xbox Live.
The firm this week added social media services such as Twitter, Facebook and music portal Last.FM to Live – as well as HD movie streaming service Zune.
However, Facebook arrived on PS3 on Wednesday, as Nintendo launched its own version of the BBC iPlayer on Wii.
“We were the first to really understand the power that an online, live service has and bring it to life for millions of gamers – and now we’re the ones evolving it beyond gaming,” UK Xbox boss Neil Thompson told MCV.
“There are lots of clever companies out there doing interesting things on their platforms, but it’s our job to keep ahead of them, and constantly innovate. We’re keeping that pace going and will continue to do so.
“Xbox Live is flying at the moment – in the UK especially. Live is a killer weapon for us in terms of our line-up.
“When we first got into the console business, we understood that the elements that were going to define success in this business were really software and services. We knew that the hardware component was important, but really wasn’t the vital thing.”
The Zune service is a particularly intriguing addition to Xbox 360 – introducing a premium video experience with instant-on HD and surround sound.
Microsoft told MCV that the service was a way to build awareness of the Zune brand – but was not an indicator that it had plans to introduce Zune hardware to the UK.
“Zune is a pivotal element to our whole entertainment offering and a brand we’re going to keep building on,” added Thompson.
Xbox 360 owners with Xbox Live Silver membership will be granted free access to all Gold member features from November 25 to November 30 in Europe, as Microsoft continues to promote the service's new features.
A similar promotion is planned for all other Xbox Live regions between November 20 and 23 according to comments made by Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hryb on his Major Nelson blog.
The offers have been extended in the wake of a suite of new features and application for Xbox Live, giving Silver members (who do not pay a subscription fee and usually only have access to store features) the chance to use online multiplayer, Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, Netflix, Sky Player, Halo Waypoint and 1 v 100.
The promotion also follows an attempt by Microsoft to ban modified console from accessing Xbox Live, with rumours of up to 1 million users having been banned - leading to a sudden surge in second-hand sales of modded Xbox 360s.
This week’s UK software sales have skyrocketed 198 per cent to £103.1 million. It is comfortably the highest weekly figure of the year and isn’t far off 2008’s Christmas week, when £112.8 million went through UK games retailer’s tills.
Unit sales also leapt up, rising 123 per cent to 3,422,625 games sold.
The highly anticipated arrival of Modern Warfare 2 drove the sales. The game grossed £67.4 million, almost two thirds of the weekly value. Meanwhile, 1.78 million units were snapped up, which was over half of all games sold last week.
Today’s major releases should ensure another good week for games, with Assassin’s Creed II, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Left 4 Dead 2, F1 2009 and LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues due for release.
The PSP has retained its lead at the top of the weekly Japanese hardware sales charts, although sales were down over 2,500 units from the previous week to 45,197 (including 6,427 for the PSPgo).
Mirroring a slow week of software sales, all hardware formats saw a drop except for the PSP 3000, for which sales increased by 5,000 units. PSPgo demand though more than halved from the previous week, lowering the overall figure.
Combined Nintendo DS sales were 38,785 (including 5,036 for the DS Lite), down around 4,000 units on the previous week. PlayStation 3 sales were down by 10,000 units to a new total of 38,498. Wii sales fell by even more, down 11,000 units to 26,764.
Xbox 360 sales also dropped slightly to 4,124 units, while the PlayStation 2 remained almost static at 2,031 units.
01 PlayStation Portable: 45,197
02 Nintendo DS: 38,785
03 PlayStation 3: 38,498
04 Wii: 26,764
05 Xbox 360: 4,124
06 PlayStation 2: 2,031
The UK government intelligence agency in charge of signals analysis and information for the country's armed forces, GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), is to promote various career opportunities within the organisation on Microsoft's Xbox Live service.
The campaign will be run by GCHQ's marketing agency, TMP Worldwide, and will run for six weeks targeting 18-34 year olds, according to Marketing.
GCHQ is no stranger to using videogames as a medium for getting its career opportunities message out to people, with a similar in-game campaign run in 2007 with Ubisoft's Splinter Cell title increasing traffic to its website by over 500 per cent.
Microsoft's Neil Thompson has told GamesIndustry.biz that retailers must choose for themselves the price points they're going to set for the sale of videogames - but has issued a warning about the sustainability of some of the aggressive discounting seen recently for games such as FIFA 10 and - particularly - Modern Warfare 2.
"Retailers have to make their own decisions about how they price in the market," he said this week. "I suppose the challenge when retailers do go aggressive on pricing in the way that some people do: is that sustainable over the long-term both for the industry and for themselves? Retail just have to make their own decisions."
He added that there was also a danger, when the public can pick up key titles on release day for as little as GBP 25, that the issue of value was being distorted.
"As an industry, I think we want to ensure consumers understand the value of the products they're buying, because these products cost tens of millions of dollars to create," he explained. "So as long as people appreciate that and understand that, as I say retailers have to make their own decisions on pricing, but we do want to ensure the value is created in this industry and this industry has a long and fruitful future ahead of it."
Thompson, who was speaking at the launch of the new functionality for Xbox 360, which include Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm, also gave his thoughts on the way that Modern Warfare 2 caught the public attention with the controversy surrounding the game's terrorist scene.
"My view is it was an 18-rated game, it's a game designed for adults, it should be consumed by adults and as long as retailers are responsible when they're selling it to adults, and as long as parents are responsible in ensuring their kids who are under 18 don't get access to it and don't play it, then I think it’s a great product," he said.
"There are scenes in it that some people won't like, but you pay your money, you take your choice - as an adult - to make those decisions. And I think it was marketed in an appropriate way and it is appropriate content for an adult community."
Boutique law firm AbingtonIP is "investigating" what it considers the "convenient" recent Xbox Live bannings. The firm posits that the "tens of thousands" of banned Xbox Live subscribers who used modded consoles deserve recompense due to the timing of the action. The firm believes that said timing -- i.e., after Halo 3: ODST and shortly before Modern Warfare 2's releases -- was executed to net Microsoft as much money as possible out of potential Xbox Live subscribers before banning the modded devices. The class action lawsuit would attempt to obtain a refund for the prorated sums left on the banned Xbox Live subscriptions.
According to Joystiq legal columnist Mark Methenitis' analysis: "To me, this certainly sounds a lot like a cash grab directed at a company with deep pockets, but perhaps there are more facts than they are letting on." He explains that a user savvy enough to have a modded console would also know not to connect it to Live without "serious risk." Methenitis concludes, "If, in fact, Microsoft is inducing people to buy a service only to terminate them, then there's certainly a deceptive business practice concern. But this seems far more cut and dry than that."