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:
- PSP2 Outed by Netherrealm?
- APB Meets Quick End
- Epic Mickey Dated
- Tokyo Game Show Announcements
- Civilization V Only Notable Game This Week
PSP2 Outed by Netherrealm?
Sony probably isn’t too happy about this if it turns out to be true. Netherrealm (the Mortal Kombat reboot) developer Shaun Himmerick was quoted in an interview with IndustryGamers that they have a PSP2 in house and are looking at the possibility of porting the game to it. He notes that the platform is “pretty powerful”. Many people thought Sony would announce the PSP2 at this week’s Tokyo Game Show, but that didn’t happen. Now the cat is probably out of the bag…how will they respond?
Source: Colony of Gamers
APB Meets Quick End
Somewhat of a surprise since I am guessing there are still a good number of paid subscriptions out there for the game, it was announced that APB was being terminated as a game immediately. We all know about the problems surrounding Realtime Worlds, but EA has decided to pull the plug. There is also word that many companies are interested in buying the IP for APB, including Gears of War developer Epic.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Epic Mickey Dated
I’m a big Disney fan and enjoy picking up the “higher class” games they put out or license out their characters like in the Kingdom Hearts series. I’ve been interested in Epic Mickey since first word came out about it in GameInformer magazine. Now the release date for this Wii-exclusive game has been given out. It will come out in Europe on November 25, the UK on November 26 and here in North America on November 30.
To me the fact they are bringing it out over here after Thanksgiving and not the week of Thanksgiving could be a bad omen for how the game plays. I certainly hope that I’m incorrect, but why wouldn’t you take advantage of Black Friday with this game? I realize Donkey Kong Country Returns comes out that week, but wouldn’t there be a given sales increase with releasing this at the same time? Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m fearful for this game now.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Tokyo Game Show Announcements
There were a lot of announcements this week at the Tokyo Game Show, but I will only hone in on a handful of them. Capcom showed off the rebooting of the Devil May Cry series, now simply called DmC and developed by Ninja Theory, the makers of Heavenly Sword. I don’t like Dante’s new look and think it strays too far from the original character, but what do I know? They also announced an epilogue for Dead Rising 2 coming to XBLA only called Case West which will see you playing co-op with the first game’s protagonist Frank West. No word on when this will be out or how much it will be, but given that Case Zero was such a success, I can’t see why this one won’t be either if it’s at a meaty price point.
Sony trotted out a few big announcements as well. The long rumored HD collection of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus was finally announced and will include 3D. The games will run at a solid 30fps and it looks quite nice. Expect to see it in the Spring of next year. I want to note I love both games and think this is a worthy pickup both for those that played it and those that haven’t. Along with this they showed off a new trailer of Team ICO’s The Last Guardian and announced a Holiday 2011 release. The game looks beautiful and the really sad thing is that we all know the beast is going to die in the end and our hearts will be torn asunder given Team ICO’s previous releases.
There were other announcements, but these were the ones that most excited me.
Source: me
Civilization V Only Notable Game This Week
Very odd at this point in the year that Civilization V is given a clear week to release in. There’s a lot of buzz about the game and I’m really not surprised given how much each of the previous games have sucked up my time. Wish I had the money to purchase the game, but it’ll have to wait a bit unfortunately. I know this game is going to be awesome, but will it be better than Civilization IV? I don’t know, but that game was awfully good.
Source: me