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Blizzard classic Blackthorne now available for free download
Have you ever heard of Blackthorne? Originally released in 1994 for the SNES, this classic platformer was the one of the first titles to be released under the name Blizzard Entertainment. And now, it appears as though the game can be had for free. Head to your Battle.net account, and hit the Download Game Clients page, under the Games & Codes tab. At the bottom is a new section titled Classic Games, and Blackthorne can be downloaded for Windows absolutely free. So what is Blackthorne? Long ago on the planet Tuul, the people of the world were divided into two kingdoms -- the good Androth, and the not-so-good Ka'dra'suul. To make a long story short, the Ka'dra'suul were eventually transformed into monsters, and one of them decided to seize power and try to take over Androth. Enter Kyle -- the son of King Vlaros, ruler of Androth. King Vlaros decides to send Kyle to Earth in order to save his life. Twenty years later, Kyle is all grown up, a military mercenary, and discovers his unusual heritage through a series of strange dreams. And then Kyle happily returns to Tuul to kick some butt and save his people while working his way through a series of typical platform levels and puzzles and blowing away his enemies with a giant pump-action shotgun. Look, it may not be the most elegant of stories, but it was a really fun SNES title back in the day. The free download version has not been updated, and lives on in its raw pixel and MIDI glory, just in time for a bit of Halloween nostalgia. If you've ever wanted to get your hands on this title, go grab the free download and immerse yourself in the 90's for a few hours. I'll be over here, playing my childhood and keeping an eye out just in case Lost Vikings happens to pop up, too.
Nintendo's gunning for retailers, expanding eShop offerings for Wii U, 3DS
Nintendo is going to sell its 3DS and Wii U games through the eShop as well as on the high street. Concerned about the money wasted in "inventory," the company will let consumers choose where they get their fix from. The first two games to get the treatment will be New Super Mario Bros 2 and Onitore Brain Training (working title) for the handheld, with more expected in the future. As consumers transition to downloads, the company will keep its brick-and-mortar partners on-side by allowing them to sell "activation codes" to the digital titles -- although that does mean you'll have to drive down to Gamestop and back.
Amazon launches Mac Download Store with more than 250 titles
Yes, it's another store within a store at Amazon, this time a Mac Download Store. While software downloads certainly aren't anything new for the online retailer, the Mac store does actually boast a wider variety of titles than Amazon's Windows download section, including games like Dragon Age: Origins and Civilization V, and applications like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop Elements. All told, there's more than 250 titles currently available -- not exactly a rival to Apple's own Mac App Store, but a more than respectable start. Of course, no store launch is complete without a sale, and Amazon has kicked things off with two: a free download of Airport Mania, and $5 off your first paid download. Hit up the source link below to check it out.
Sony execs talk PlayStation Move expectations, PS4 details
The PlayStation Move is now less than a month from hitting stores shelves, and it looks like some Sony execs are already busy starting to manage expectations. Speaking with Eurogamer this week, Sony Computer Entertainment senior vice president Ray Maguire chose to compare the Move's launch to that of the EyeToy for the PlayStation 2, saying that "exactly as with EyeToy in the PS2 days, it's a product that needs to be sampled. You need to get your hands on it. You need to understand it. You need to try it." Maguire further went on to say he's "not particularly" expecting "massive" day one sales, but that he expects sales to grow as word of mouth spreads. In other PlayStation news, Sony's Kaz Hirai seems to have effectively ruled out a download-only future for the eventual PS4 in an interview with MCV, with him saying that a "digital future is over ten years away." Hirai then went on to note that "we do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope," and that "here's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium." No word if that also applies to Sony's future handhelds as well.
Sony's Andrew House: PSP Go launched in part to 'learn more about what the consumer wanted'
Sony's certainly been fairly candid when discussing the PSP Go in the past, but SCEE CEO Andrew House went quite a bit further than usual in discussing the download-only handheld with MCV recently. When asked if he considered the PSP Go to be a success, he responded by saying that it was "introduced in a mature lifecycle to learn more about what the consumer wanted," and that Sony has "definitely learned a lot," adding that "one of the reasons we launched PSP Go was to understand where that consumer behavior was going." He further went on to say that Sony was "getting signals from consumers that this was the kind of device that they wanted," but says that Sony needs to "recognize that consumers like their packaged media library." Does that mean a return to physical media for the eventual PSP 2? House unsurprisingly wouldn't say, but we have a feeling Sony will be getting plenty of questions about it at E3 next week.
Sony confirms ten free game offer for UK PSP Go buyers, North America gets less awesome deal
Well, we've got some good news and some less good news for potential PSP Go owners. The good news is that Sony has now officially announced the ten free game offer for PSP Go buyers in the UK, which is just as we had heard and is available in quite a few countries besides the UK as well (hit up the link below for the complete list). Not among those, however, is the United States or Canada, which is where the less good news comes in. While Sony has also announced a similar promotion for US and Canadian consumers, it only covers folks that buy a PSP Go starting today (not anyone that bought one after April 1st, as in the UK), and you'll only be getting three free games, not ten -- those include LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. What gives? We're not entirely sure, but the only other incentive Sony is offering for North America is a new line of "Favorites" titles that will be priced at $9.99 apiece.
Sony looks to boost PSP Go sales with ten free games -- in the UK, at least
We're not sure if this is the "relaunch" that we've been hearing about, but it looks like PSP Go buyers in the UK will soon have one big new reason to consider the UMD-less handheld -- Sony says that it'll be throwing in a whopping ten free game downloads with each system. That deal will apparently also apply to at least some existing PSP Go customers (those that registered their system after April 1st), and it looks like you'll get a surprisingly solid lineup of games, including titles like Little Big Planet, Gran Turismo, Wipout Pure, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Need for Speed Shift, to name a few. Unfortunately, there's no indication on when or if the promotion will launch over here, with SCE's UK sales director Mark Howsen only confirming that it will be rolling out in the UK "next month."
GameStop to start testing game downloads early next year
GameStop has been dropping hints about its digital download plans for a little while now, but it looks to have done its most extensive and official talking about the matter yet at the recent BMO Capital Management Digital Entertainment conference, where it confirmed that it will start testing the program "early next year" with kiosks in an unspecified number of stores. That program will apparently work in conjunction with services "such as Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live and Sony Corp's PlayStation Network," and will focus primarily on add-on content rather than full game downloads. Why's that, you ask? Well it seems that GameStop thinks "a large market for full game downloads is not imminent, (but) the add-on downloadable market will grow" -- a view that some would obviously beg to differ with.
Sony plans to keep PSP downloads at 'pricing parity,' whatever that means
Here's a great scenario for you, if you happen to be Sony's wallet: charge $250 for a handheld console without a physical game media option, and then charge on average $5 more for downloaded titles than they go for at retail, since you have zero competition in the download space. That seems to be SCEA's definition of "price parity" right now for the PSP, though in Japan downloadable titles have been on average slightly cheaper than their physical counterparts. Sure, it's rough on retailers if they have to compete with a lower-than-MSRP price coming straight Sony, but the likes of Amazon are already at below MSRP on plenty of titles, and we're not so sure consumers are going to take kindly to paying more for less (in the physical sense, anyway) after they already splurged hard on the PSP Go... not that they'll have much choice in the matter, outside of trying their luck at the old swap-a-roo. [Via Joystiq]
Full Xbox 360 game downloads arriving in August
Beginning in August, Xbox Live users will be able to download full Xbox 360 games to their consoles via the service. Microsoft made the announcement during a luncheon following its pre-E3 press conference. Similar to XBLA titles, new releases will be made available weekly for a price comparable to what the boxed version is selling for at retail. Once the service -- which is integrated into the Games Marketplace -- launches, 360 game download purchases can be made using Microsoft Points or using a credit card. Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Civilization Revolution were used as examples of titles that will be available via the service. The possibility to downloading games on a rental basis was brought up but not confirmed, with MS stating that it is always looking to evolve its services.
New tax set to raise costs of digital downloads
The Digital Distribution Tax has been around for a little while now. In fact, seventeen or more states have already adopted it, and more are considering it. Once upon a time, digitally distributed content, such as downloaded copies of WoW and its expansions, allowed customers to avoid the sales tax that they would pay if they bought a copy from a store. This proposed tax is poised to increase the costs of downloading music, books, videos, games, and other similar content. Wisconsin is one of the most recent states to hop on board, adding a 5% tax to digitally distributed goods. One of the opponents, State Rep. Scott Suder, commented, "it's basically taxing students to fill in the Doyle budget shortfall, and I think that's unfair." This tax will also affect families, and in these economic times, further taxing the people may not be the best way to drum up state funds. Steve Delbiano from NetChoice, which encompasses Ebay, Aol, Yahoo and many others, points out that this tax is anything but environmentally friendly. "With global warming and a world that's running out of oil, the last thing governments should do is add taxes on something that uses no oil and produces no carbon. A digital download is the greenest way to buy music, movies, and software, since it requires no driving to the store, no delivery vans, and no plastics or packaging."The ECA, or Entertainment Consumer's Organization, a voice for the people, is leading a campaign against this tax, rallying in New York, Washington and Mississippi.China recently chose a similar route. Instead of adding a sales tax, they imposed a 20% income tax upon digitally distributed goods, resulting in sweeping price increases. Unfortunately, this trend might be here to stay.
