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Atari halts NWN1 support, in financial ruin
Just a few days after the announcement of the latest Neverwinter Nights premium module, Infinite Dungeons, Neverwinter Nights Vault is reporting that Atari has ceased support of the popular Dungeons & Dragons RPG. This means no more patches or premium modules for the original game, leaving the planned sequel to Witches Wake in limbo.According to NWN module producer DLA, Atari contacted developer BioWare right before E3 with news that patches and premium content would no longer be authorized. A DLA blogger also has some details on Atari's related financial woes:"Atari is in a financial crisis and appears to be unable to meet all of its liabilities as they become due. Their principal line of credit has been cancelled and their secured lenders are turning hostile (When the secured creditors are girding for battle - you know it's bad). At the same time, many of their unsecured creditors are going unpaid. This means they have not paid most of their developers the royalties owing to them on published SKUs Atari has sold in previous quarters."This doesn't sound good for the publisher formerly known as Infogrames, and while they may deserve credit for supporting NWN for nearly four years, that's not nearly as long as the decade of support Blizzard has given Diablo. A previous Atari D&D title, Temple of Elemental Evil, was also plagued with poor support, which ruined an otherwise solid RPG experience. Atari no doubt wishes to focus its efforts on Obsidian's upcoming NWN2, which DLA hints might be rushed out the door this September in an attempt to hasten cash flow. As a fan of the series, I hope this isn't the case, and Atari at least allows BioWare to continue releasing patches for the original NWN as needed.
Gaming in West Africa: Only 7 years behind
To cut a long story short and to create a forced feeling of mystery and intrigue, I'll simply point out that, on my way back home from E3 last week, I was stranded for 24 hours in Senegal, a quaint little country situated in Western Africa. And by "quaint little country", I really mean a place that technology actively flees from in blind terror. When my laptop attempted to find an active Wi-Fi hotspot, canned laughter could be heard emanating from somewhere in the universe. And so, with Guitar Hero controller strapped to my back (simultaneously a piece of carry-on luggage and a bold image), I began to explore the vast and largely undeveloped wasteland that was the country's...airport building. Leave it to a gaming nerd to find a store selling games in such an obscure place. Judging by the veritable cornucopia of new releases lining the shelves, the country's gaming scene is sure to take off. Some of the games burning up the Senegalese sales charts include: Fifa '99 (don't worry, it plays the same as this year's version) Shadow Warrior Star Wars: Behind the Magic (which isn't even a game) Pong I would have taken the time to pre-order a Sega Saturn at the counter, but the French language barrier proved to be insurmountable. I'll be better prepared next time I get stranded here.
NWN2 preview and movies from E3
Forgotten Realms fanboys should circle September 19 on their calendars. This is the day Dungeons & Dragons online gaming returns to its most successful setting, after a year of toiling in the Eberron universe. The Neverwinter Nights 2 E3 trailer is available on GameSpot, along with some updated gameplay footage from the show. IGN also had a chance to preview some of NWN2's new features last week with Feargus Urquhart. Taking a page out of the KOTOR 2 playbook, you will be able to directly control two NPCs who will be influenced by your decisions, good or ill. The Baldur's Gate pause feature has also been added to assist with issuing commands to your party. Stay tuned for more information as the launch date approaches.
Atari slashes current gen prices
Beginning next month, Atari will cut prices for all of their current gen console and Game Boy Advance titles. The new $19.99 retail price will also apply to many of the publisher's PC releases. Now you can pick up Indigo Prophecy, Driver: Parallel Lines, and Marc Ecko's Getting Up for twenty bucks each, although games such as Demon Stone have been available at this price point for a while.
Limited-edition t-shirt for readers at E3
Peter got one (it'll show off those tattooed pipes right nicely). Now you can get one too, if you stop by the AOL booth at E3's West Hall today between 11 AM PDT and 12 PM PDT. We will only be handing these shirts out for one hour or until supplies last (whichever is shorter). Please keep this our little secret, as we want this to be a reward for Joystiq readers, not any old random schwag hunter.
Lumines Live to hit Xbox Live Arcade
Peter Moore just announced that Tetsuya Mizuguchi's formerly PS(P and 2)-exclusive title, Lumines, is heading to Xbox Live Arcade in the form of Lumines Live. What's new? The music-heavy title will feature Warner Music Group's content integrated into the game. Their example showed a Madonna video playing behind the game. Sony got to borrow some XBL action, all Microsoft's doing is playing catch-up.
Confirmed list of Wii games?
We have our own list in the network for confirmed Wii titles, but this list posted over at Gamers Daily is too hard to pass up analyzing. Some of the titles are confirmed, some not so much, but all of them just ooze with possibility. For those of you with the clickophobia (how did you get here?!), the list has been recreated below. Who's looking forward to what? Who thinks the Kid Icarus rumors are BS? Super Mario Wii Super Smash Bros. Wii Metroid Prime 3 Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Wii Animal Crossing Wii Killing Day Splinter Cell 4 Madagaskar 2 Legend of Zelda Wii Mario Kart Wii Donkey Kong Wii The Darkness Possession Madden NFL 07 Suda51/Grasshopers Studio Title Minoru Nakai Title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Two Titles from "Artistic Quality" James Bond 007: Casino Royale Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Sadness Avatar: The Last Airbender Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Pangya Golf Elebits SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Red Steel Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting Spider Man 3 Raid Over The River Midway Wii Project Disney/Pixar's Cars TNA iMPACT! n-Space Wii Project Kid Icarus Wii Blitz Games Wii Project Camelot RPG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2007 Sonic the Hedgehog Wii Trauma Center Wii Cooking Title
Hot HOTPXL screenshot builds anticipation
Could this be the beginning of an Atari comeback? The screenshot above comes from upcoming Atari PSP game seductively titled HOTPXL. Think of it as a dirtier, grittier version of Warioware for the metropspexual set. It'll supposedly have hundreds of tiny (5-second) games and longer-form boss games infused with "digital street culture." Looks fun, sounds creative. Here's to hoping Atari delivers. Due this fall.
Speculative list of Wii games
With many titles sure to be announced at next week's E3 conference, here's a list of Wii games via Gamers Daily that are believed to grace the console or have been confirmed in one way or another. Let's hope they all see the light of day. From sure bets like Super Mario Bros. to wishful thinkers like Kid Icarus, what are you most anticipating?
Alone in the Dark to bite TV formula
Eden Games has decided to adopt an episodic format for its next-gen horror sequel, Alone in the Dark. The game will be chopped into episodes, each containing 30–40 minutes of gameplay that ends with a cliffhanger and a preview of things to come. In addition, each episode will be preceded by a brief video summary of previous events. Eden is hoping that this format, popularized by TV dramas, will get players "permanently hooked."Rather than digitally distribute each episode, the entire "season" with be packaged onto one disk. Players are free to play through multiple episodes in one sitting, but the idea is to approach the game in short bouts, as if following a weekly television series.It's different than what we've seen in most contemporary adventure games, which tend to mimic feature films, but Alone in the Dark is still biting from an established format. With that said, does the game industry need to stop holding the hands of the film and television industries and step, alone, into the dark?
How's that third-party Wii support coming along?
This week marked the launch of our new feature highlighting the third-party support for the Nintendo Revolution Wii. A lot has changed since monday, including the unveiling of the official name for Nintendo's next-generation offering. Reader response to the feature has been worse than their gut reaction to the renaming, but we persevere all the same and will continue to update the feature when new titles are announced. This week, 4 new titles were announced, including: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Elebits Madden NFL 2007 Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Tony Hawk: Downhill Jam We also received new information regarding Skatto Golf Pangya Revolution Wii. We will be updating this feature everytime new information is revealed on a Wii title, so be sure to check back often.
More DBZ Revolution news
An official press release describes our recent post about a new DBZ game coming to the Revolution. Officially dubbed Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2, the game is set for release later this year during the holidays and features a roster of over 100 fighters, 15 different environments, and over 9 game modes. In regards toward the control scheme of the Revolution's remote, nothing more is said beyond that the player will be able to use it to reenact some of the series' more noteworthy moves such as Goku's Kamehameha. Keep an eye on E3 for more information on this upcoming title.
Who's really going to support the Wii? [update 12]
It's obvious that Nintendo is going to support the Wii. After much speculation as to how the controller works (for the record: sensors placed in front of the TV detect the controller's motion, while internal sensors detect its tilt and yaw), many often speculate as to how one will use it, or who will support it. After all, what good is a console without third-party development? That is where this list comes in. This, we are hoping, will be the definitive list of titles that showcase the Wii's unique controller. We will be constantly updating this list with new titles and new information regarding listed titles. Sure, some lists out there are longer, but those lists are full of untitled projects with no information about the game whatsoever. We hope to provide you some tangible evidence of Wii titles and not just verbal commitments or praises by the developer community. This list will be presented alphabetical by game title. A few of the developers we've listed are independent and still lack a publisher; we have provided below (when possible) outlets by which publishers can contact these firms.
Roger Avary to write/direct Driver movie
Remember when Silent Hill screenwriter Roger Avary said, during a recent interview with FiringSquad, "I'm currently adapting a game into a script for myself to direct. I'm not talking about it yet, but it's for Atari -- so you can imagine that it's like a dream for me." Now, if you're anything like me, you understood that he meant Pitfall and went to sleep sated with the knowledge that the original adventurer would star in his own feature film. I mean, what other property is Atari going to bring to the silver screen? Indigo Prophecy maybe ... or maybe that Getting Up movie that just got announced, though it already has screenwriters attached.Turns out Avary couldn't contain his exuberance and blurted out his project to FiringSquad after all; he will write and direct an adaptation of developer Reflection Software and publisher Atari's popular Driver series. No word on when this sucker is supposed to hit the pavement on production, but we imagine it won't be long before he starts singing again.
NWN2 new site, ship date
RPG fans will have much to crow about at the end of the summer because there are now two new alternatives to homework. Atari has announced that Neverwinter Nights 2 will ship in September, the same month as JoWood's Gothic 3. Neverwinter developer Obsidian has also launched the game's official site, where you'll find the usual content, in addition to the relocated forums. This should keep you busy until the holidays.
Dave Perry leaves Shiny to save Shiny
Following the news that Atari is looking to unload their internal development studios, the Orange County Register (reg. req'd... try Bugmenot) is reporting that Dave Perry, head of Atari's Shiny Studios, will step down to help facilitate the impending sale. Perry explains:"Atari can go ahead and sell Shiny, but I think I can help, too, because I'm on the board of a lot of things. I can bring a lot of parties to the table, and I can do that faster if I hit the streets myself... If I'm an employee of Atari, then I'd be stepping all over them. This way, I'm representing a buyer. I can act swiftly and get buyers on the table. I pitched Shiny last time and got $47 million."Dave's not abandoning his baby, he's trying to save it! Sure, Shiny's last couple games (Enter the Matrix anyone?) have been stinkers, but they're currently working on a sequel to the seminal Earthworm Jim. Someone better buy these guys, cause if they cancel Earthworm Jim...[Via Next Generation]
Atari needs to unload internal studios, cut jobs
After posting a net loss of $5 million in a weak 3rd quarter, which resulted in having their credit cut off, European publishing giant Atari is seeking to sell off its five internal development studios: Reflections in England (Driv3r), Melbourne House in Australia (Transformers), Paradigm in Dallas (Terminator 3), Shiny Studios in California (The Matrix), and Eden in France (V-Rally).Atari's CEO Bruno Bonnell said, "We have decided that we should refocus our creativity efforts on external studios rather than internal development. We will be looking to sell our studios, but that does not mean we're immediately putting a 'for sale' sign on them. They still have important projects to finish for us." Bonnell also confirmed there will be some job cuts as well explaining, "We have about 250 staff in the U.S and that is too many. There has to be some adjustment. There will be none in Europe though. They have been through that pain already."[Via Next Generation]
Metareview - Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure
Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is the latest urban action game. A mash up of Jet Set Radio, Prince of Persia, and Grand Theft Auto, there is hardly consensus on the controversial title. A look at some notables: Gamespot (87%) - "It's easy to look at a game that has a non-gamemaking fashion designer's name right in the title and assume that it's going to be some sort of flashy, style-over-substance licensed product, but Atari, The Collective, and Ecko have effectively teamed up here and put together a game that has plenty of flashy style, but is a quality game underneath all that flash." 1UP (70%) - "The worst thing a decent action game can suffer from is bad camera control, and this malady afflicts Getting Up... The game strikes a nice balance between fighting and tagging. Although frequent, the fighting winds up being secondary to advancing the story line. In some missions, it even works out better to evade authorities and simply complete your objective." GamePro (50%) - "Focusing the majority of gameplay attention on the actual art of writing, rather than on a hackneyed up-from-the-streets story, would have been a good start. And, regrettably for Ecko, development just couldn't work the kinks out of the shoddy Getting Up game engine. Frame rate consistently dips to horrific lows, and many in-game objects and actions break frequently during gameplay." The reviews criticize the tempermental camera system and technical glitches, while praising the title's quality voice-acting, solid soundtrack, and immersive graffiti culture. See also:Australia knocks down Marck Ecko's Getting UpMore Joystiq coverage of Getting Up
Screenshots: Test Drive Unlimited (Xbox 360)
Some new screens have surfaced for Atari's upcoming Xbox 360 racer, dubbed Test Drive Unlimited. In addition, the publisher has released the following gameplay details: More than 125 licensed and customizable vehicles Massively Open Online Racing (M.O.O.R.) via Xbox Live Unlimited number of players can be on the same island at the same time Voice support for up to seven other players With so many "perty" racing games being made available on the 360, which one are you most looking forward to?
New Test Drive Unlimited media
Here's a swift screenshot update: there are some great new images available to check out from Atari's Test Drive Unlimited, which is being developed by Eden Studios. This spring is the word on the release, so keep your eyes peeled for more information to surface soon.
