The stories for this week:
- Midway Sale to Warner Goes Through, 2 Developers Given 60-Day Notice
- Left 4 Dead 2 Preorders Double Original in Same Time Frame
- Dragon Ball License Reverts to Namco Bandai
- Bigs 2 and Battlefield 1943 Next Week
- Happy 4th of July
Midway Sale to Warner Goes Through, 2 Developers Given 60-Day Notice
Seems as if Warner’s $33 million deal for Midway is going to go through and they will get the rights to Mortal Kombat and a few other IPs from Midway. The sad part is that two studios under Midway have been given a 60-day notice of closure. Midway Newcastle (Wheelman and Necessary Force, a game you may have seen recently) and Midway San Diego (TNA) have been given notice. Good news and bad news I guess, but the Midway nightmare may be close to being done now.
Source: Joystiq
Left 4 Dead 2 Preorders Double Original in Same Time Frame, More L4D DLC Coming
Valve’s Doug Lombardi has said that the preorders for Left 4 Dead 2 have been unfazed by the backlash given and the 37k+ boycott of the game after announcement at E3. In fact, preorders are currently running double what the original had in the same time frame before launch. Lombardi also announced that Valve is not leaving the original behind in the dust and that new DLC will be upcoming and should be announced as we move out of the summer season. Pretty cool if you ask me and I just don’t understand the hatred toward making another game given how successful the first one was. Maybe people should put their pitchforks down now since Valve says more content is coming.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Dragonball License Reverts to Namco Bandai
This may not be huge news to many, but you might be surprised how many copies the Dragonball games sell. I’m sure the amount has been going down as we move farther and farther away from the series end and the fact it is rarely shown on television in the United States anymore, but it is still a hot property if handled correctly. Atari has lost the license for the series back to Namco Bandai. Could this be a preview of what is to come from Atari as it loses one of its last major licensing deals? We shall see. The deal starts in 2010 for five years, although Namco Bandai also will be publishing the three games already in development for later this year.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Bigs 2 and Battlefield 1943 Next Week
Those are about the only two games out next week. The first one was pretty enjoyable baseball game when it first came out. Was kind of like Blitz, but played in baseball. Battlefield 1943 will be an interesting one. Coming out on XBLA and PSN first and PC months from now, it is a redoing of some of the maps from the game that started it all, Battlefield 1942. I’m excited about it, but would really like it out on PC at the same time.
Source: me
Happy 4th of July
Everyone have a Happy 4th of July weekend as we celebrate America’s 233nd birthday. How do I know that number? Well, 33 years ago today I was born into the world. Having my birthday on the 4th of July sometimes sucked when I was a kid. Most of my friends were out of town, up north at the cabin or what have you. If I had any birthday parties they usually happened on another day.
I look back on my life with video gaming and have come to the conclusion I have been playing them for at least 25 of the years I have been alive. Growing up in a relatively rural suburb of the Twin Cities most of my young life, I learned to play by myself a lot and rarely got the chance to play with friends.
Things like Live, PSN and even LAN gaming during college have brought me into the multiplayer and co-op world of today, however I still play mostly in the single-player world. I guess that makes me sort of an outsider on this site, although I am thankful that Nick (bapenguin) has allowed me to help with this site even though I contribute only a little while keeping Colony of Gamers going.
Have fun co-op gaming or spending time with your family this holiday weekend and we’ll catch you next week.
Source: me