Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
The stories for this week:
- Microsoft, Cirque du Soleil and MTV Combine for Pre-E3 Natal Presser
- Fallout: New Vegas Collector's Edition Unveiled
- Portal Free on both PC and Mac Steam Until May 24
- April NPD Numbers a Gut Shot
- Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, Split/Second, Prince of Persia Create a Glut This Week
Microsoft, Cirque du Soleil and MTV Combine for Pre-E3 Natal Presser
The Natal-only press conference on Sunday, May 13th has gotten much bigger with some news this week, although there is a tinge of disappointment as well. Cirque du Soleil will be present at the event showing off the movement abilities of the Natal supposedly. Should be very interesting if you’ve ever seen one of their shows live, on public television or on DVD releases. Along with this MTV announced they will be showing the conference, but 2 days after it actually happens on May 15th (why?). Along with this they also announced that SpikeTV would be showing the Microsoft Press Conference on May 14th live and commercial free.
Anyone else putting bets on whether Natal will be the final name of the peripheral? This whole thing is still a major question mark, but there is no doubt Microsoft is putting advertising behind it and there is the always rumored “big title” unveiling that will use Natal. Wonder what it will be…?
Source: Colony of Gamers
Fallout: New Vegas Collector's Edition Unveiled
Oh yeah, Collector’s Edition hoarders unite. The next Fallout game, New Vegas gets the CE treatment as well. Here are the contents:
♠ Seven “Lucky 7” poker chips, each designed to represent chips from the major casinos found on the New Vegas strip and throughout the Mojave Wasteland.
♠ A fully customized Fallout: New Vegas deck of cards. Each card in the pack has been uniquely illustrated to depict characters and factions found within the game. Use the cards to play poker, blackjack or Caravan, an original card game that was created by Obsidian especially for New Vegas.
♠ A recreation of the game’s highly coveted “Lucky 38” platinum chip.
♠ A hardcover graphic novel “All Roads” that tells the story of some of the characters and events that lead up to Fallout: New Vegas. “All Roads” was written by Chris Avellone, the game’s creative director, and created in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics.
♠ ‘The Making of Fallout: New Vegas’ DVD. This documentary DVD will contain exclusive video content, including interviews with the developers in which they take you from concept to creation and discuss topics such as story, setting, legacy of the Fallout franchise and more.
Here is a picture of the box as well. Fallout: New Vegas is due out this fall on 360, PS3 and PC and is developed by Obsidian Entertainment.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Portal Free on both PC and Mac Steam Until May 24
Along with Apple’s Mac computers finally getting the Steam download this week, the fantastic game Portal is available for free until May 24 on the service both on the PC and Mac side. If you haven’t played it before or are only a Mac user, I highly suggest you download Portal, it’s a fantastic game.
Source: Joystiq
April NPD Numbers a Gut Shot
April was just not a good month for gaming. All systems where down by at least 37% from March sales. Wii led the way for consoles, but it also had the largest drop at 50%. The 360 edged out the PS3 by about 4k units, but had a larger percentage drop from the month before. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction led the way in software sales with 486k sold on 360 with no sight of the PS3 version in the top 10. Super Street Fighter IV cracked the top 10 in the last spot as well. Just a bad month overall, but maybe May will see a resurgence with my next post.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, Split/Second, Prince of Persia Create a Glut This Week
Threat level redlines this week as a number of possible good games come out. First up is Alan Wake (read Co-Optimus’ review here). I just got my copy (also picking up the LE) and just started playing. I hope to have at least some time this weekend to play through it, but that isn’t looking so good.
Next up is Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption which will get its co-op on sometime in June. Until then you should be able to live with the single player experience because it will probably be huge.
Disney/Black Rock’s Split/Second comes out this week as well. The game looks like an interesting one for racing, but it does have Blur hot on its tail next week.
Finally, to go along with the release of the movie, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Co-Optimus’ preview here) comes out this week as well. I’ve always liked this series and although it isn’t continuing from the last game and instead resides in the Sands of Time era, it should be good fun if the game is anything like previous ones.
Next week is just as bad with Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Blur off the top of my head.
Source: me