The stories for this week:
- Dark Void Delayed This Week
- WET Dated This Week
- Brutal Legend's Release on October 13 Probable
- EA Draws Line in Sand with UFC's Dana White by Signing Fedor
- Quiet Week in Releases
Dark Void Delayed This Week
Last week was full of games being given dates of release, this week there was one major game pushed back and one major game dated. All in all, not a bad week. In this section we’re going to talk about the game that was delayed: Dark Void. To be honest I am quite surprised by this since Capcom allowed the game to be shown off on Alienware’s new m17x laptops at E3 (seen in this video taken by Colony of Gamers’ Psykoboy2 while at E3). Now, the game had a retail date, meaning the date Gamestop was giving it, of September 22. That’s the same day Halo: ODST drops. The game looked and sounded pretty far in development, so I’m not sure why it is being pushed back into First Quarter 2010.
Then again, maybe the poor sales of Bionic Commando and the new Monster Hunter game here in the Western Hemisphere made Capcom think they should push this back in order to give it a good amount of advertising. Dark Void certainly sits in the same kind of realm as Bionic Commando, a game that really never hit anyone’s radar even though I personally think it is a good game.
Source: me
WET Dated This Week, Bethesda Developer Goes to 343 Industries
Bethesda’s upcoming game, WET, has been given a release date of September 15 putting it at odds with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Scribblenauths. Your wallet will most likely be pained that day. WET looks interesting from what I have seen of it.
The other news is something I came across while looking through news items. Gavin Carter, a producer for Bethesda who worked on most of their major games lately, has departed to go cross country and join 343 Industries in Washington along with the likes of Ryan Payton, who is well known as the American force behind Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3, and Frank O’Conner who was formerly with Bungie. 343 Industries is the new company that will oversee all Halo products, whether they be games or other ventures.
Source: me
Brutal Legend's Release on October 13 Probable
The judge tasked with overseeing the Activision case against Double Fine ruled he was not inclined to delay the release of Brutal Legend. The case will start again on August 6 and should give the lawyers on both sides plenty of time to create their arguments. The game isn’t in the full clear for October 13, but it is looking like that part of the case will not be ruled in the favor of Activision. The money part of it will still proceed on probably. Double Fine also announced through their lawyer that the gold master of the game will be delivered to Electronic Arts on August 8. I would guess that is to put it through QA as well as start the manufacturing process for the release in two months.
Source: Associated Press
EA Draws Line in Sand with UFC's Dana White by Signing Fedor
Unless you’re into Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting, this probably isn’t a story fo you. EA is going to be releasing a game called simply MMA sometime in 2010. When UFC’s owner Dana White heard about this he went ballistic and said he would blacklist any fighter from UFC who signed on with EA’s game since UFC itself has a vested interest in THQ’s game that uses their fighters and sold millions of copies. This week EA announced three signings, one of which was a former UFC fighter who got kicked out.
The biggest signing though was Fedor Emelianenko, the highest ranked fighter by Sherdog. UFC has been attempting to get Fedor signed for their roster so he can take on the current heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar at some point. He is currently the WAMMA heavyweight champion. It will now be interesting to see if White follows through on his threat of blacklisting any fighter who signs on with EA or not. He wants Fedor badly and he may have to eat his words. We shall see. I would expect for this to only be the opening salvo in the battle as it sounds like EA will have a lot of top talent signing onto the game.
Source: Joystiq
Quiet Week in Releases
Another relatively quiet week unless you are into the EA release of G.I. Joe: The Movie tie-in games coming out this week. Oh yeah, there is the Hannah Montana PSP Lilac bundle out this week too! On the serious side there is East India Company and the final Fallout 3 DLC, Mothership Zeta.
Source: me