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PlayStation Now gets Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect 2, more next month
EA will bring games from its catalog to Sony's video game streaming service PlayStation Now starting next month. As of December 2, five of EA's games will be available to stream starting "around $1 per day," according to PlayStation Blog. The games being added to PlayStation Now are: Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 3, NBA Jam On Fire Edition and Bejeweled 3. Sony kicked off the open beta for its PlayStation Now service in July on PS4 before rolling its open beta phases out for PS3 in September, later arriving on Vita as well as PS TV in October. The streaming service will reach Europe in 2015, with the UK slated to get access to the first beta in the region. EA continues to find ways to leverage its catalog on digital platforms, as it kicked off its own subscription-based service on Xbox One in August, EA Access. Sony previously evaluated EA Access and determined that it "does not bring the kind of value PlayStation customers have come to expect," leading to the service's Xbox One exclusivity. [Image: EA]
PS Plus in July: Towerfall, Muramasa, Dead Space 3
July is soon to arrive, and with it comes six games for PlayStation Plus subscribers to freely download. Falling in line with the program's rule changes introduced in late May, the six games are split evenly among PS4, PS3 and Vita, though some are Cross Buy-compatible. Leading the group on PS4 is Towerfall: Ascension and Strider, followed by Dead Space 3 and Vessel for PS3. The two Vita games going free this coming month are Doki-Doki Universe and Muramasa Rebirth. The former is Cross Buy-enabled, so PS4 and PS3 owners will also have access to the game, whereas Muramasa will only be available for free in North America. European PS Plussers will instead receive Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Heavy discounts for the six games will available as of July 1, so those that haven't picked up June's free games should do so this week before it's too late. [Image: Capcom]
gdgt's best deals for September 30th: Fujifilm FinePix JX650, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX80 cameras
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our friends at sister site gdgt track price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's top deals include a pair of well-regarded cameras that help casual photographers get professional-looking pictures with ease. The Fujifilm FinePix JX650 is a bargain-basement option, while those looking to spend (and receive) a bit more can opt for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX80. Hoping to grab one or the other? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list -- every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
PSN Tuesday: FIFA 14, Girl Fight, free Rayman Origins on PS Plus
This week's PSN update has been issued, offering a fresh cornucopia of digital wares for your leisurely consumption. Both FIFA 14 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 are available for download, though only the former is available across multiple platforms: PS3, PS Vita (a re-skin) and PSP. Kung-Fu Factory's Girl Fight steps into the PSN ring today and The Mark of Kri joins the ranks of PS2 Classics. PS Plus members can download a free copy of Rayman Origins on the PS Vita today. The routine round of discounts have also been extended to PS Plus, with this week's deals highlighting Limbo, Worms Revolution and more. Price drops have also been extended to Dead Space 3 and pretty much the entire Assassin's Creed series – all of which you can pore over in the full list over on the PlayStation Blog.
Weekend deals include Ni No Kuni, Dead Space 3, XCOM: Declassified
The school season is just starting for some, but GamerDeals has round up evidence that Best Buy and Amazon have no intentions of encouraging good study habits. Best Buy's sale has Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Halo 4, Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 for $19.99 apiece. Company of Heroes 2 has its sights aimed at $40, while Tales of Xilia can be had for $50. Amazon's offerings include The Bureau: XCOM Declassified for $40 on PS3, 360 or via Steam key. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist can be snatched away in the night for $50 on PS3, 360, PC or Wii U. There's also a slew of Sims 3 expansions priced from $13.99 to $29.99, in case you need more content for the addictive virtual life simulator.
Humble Origin Bundle launches with Dead Space 3, BF3, Burnout Paradise Ultimate, Mirror's Edge and more
Huh, well would you look at that! It's a Humble Bundle, only it's made entirely out of EA games. Weird! Specifically, a dollar or more will net you Dead Space, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space 3 and Medal of Honor. Paying above the average (currently hovering around $5) also unlocks Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 "+ Starter Pack." Steam keys are available for Dead Space, Burnout Paradise, Crysis 2, Medal of Honor and Mirrors Edge, while the rest of the games on offer can only be delivered as Origin codes. Unlike most Bundles, however, which are split three-ways between a charity, the publisher/developer and the Humble folks, the Humble Origin Bundle is only being split between charities and the Humble Bundle organizers – EA takes no cut. The Humble Bundle folks have already tweeted that this bundle has surpassed $100,000 faster than any other in its history, so things seem like they're off to a good start for a good cause.
EA: Dead Space team working on something new, series not dead
Despite being "an important IP to EA," there is no new Dead Space game in development; instead, Visceral Games is working on something else right now. "Is that team working on a Dead Space game today? No they're not," EA executive vice president Patrick Soderlund told Eurogamer at E3 last week. "They're working on something else very exciting. You have to think of it from that perspective. Is it better to put them on the fourth version of a game they've done three previous versions of before? Or is it better to put them on something new that they want to build, that they have passion for?" This isn't the end for Dead Space, however, as Söderlund reiterates that it's "a brand that is close to Electronic Arts' heart." "I am of the utmost opinion that we have to put the best possible games in the hands of our fans," Söderlund added. "How you get to a great game, the first thing you need is a great development team that have a passion for building what they're building. That's a simple parameter. Everything else follows. Money, time, everything else follows. It's less relevant. That's ultimately how you get success. It's as simple as that." Dead Space 3, which launched earlier this year, failed to meet EA's sales expectations at launch and has had fewer sales than Dead Space 2.
Dead Space 3 sales below EA expectation, pace slower than sequel at retail
Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen stated during the company's year-end financial call yesterday that Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 didn't meet sales expectations, but avoided providing any sales numbers. We do know EA planned on a strong showing at launch of Dead Space 3, since Dead Space 2's launch beat the original game two-to-one, according to the company. Data provided by NPD reveals DS3 didn't even perform as well as DS2 at retail. A straight comparison of Dead Space 3 versus Dead Space 2 'at the same life stage' would be difficult, since DS2 launched late in January of '11 and DS3 came out in early February this year. "Dead Space 3 units sales were only two percent lower than Dead Space 2," NPD told us, comparing the per day average. Although the latest sequel's retail performance didn't meet the publisher's forecast, EA emphatically denied in early March that production of Dead Space 4 had been cancelled.
Tomb Raider, Hitman headline Origin sale in US and Europe
As part of an ongoing sale, EA has dropped the price of several downloadable titles on Origin, offering up to 50 percent off of recent releases such as Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution.Through April 30, Origin users can pick up a digital copy of Tomb Raider for $25, or for just a few bucks more they can snag the DLC-bundled Survival Edition. Hitman: Absolution is currently priced at $20, and a discounted selection of EA-published games (including Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3) is also up for grabs. A full list of featured games is here.Players in Europe can also get in on the action, as Square Enix reports regional price drops for Tomb Raider, Hitman and the Limited Edition of Sleeping Dogs.
Dead Space 3 Awakened DLC review: Event horizon
Note: This review concerns events that happen after the ending of Dead Space 3. As such, it discusses elements that may spoil the story for those who haven't finished it. You have been warned. Dead Space 3's "Awakened" DLC was pitched as a couple of different things. It was to serve as an epilogue to the game, presumably providing some clarity on the more nebulous plot points. It also promised to return players to the sort of horror that was more pronounced in the first two Dead Space games, a horror born of claustrophobia and psychosis.Awakened delivers on these two points to a certain extent, but much more so on the former.%Gallery-180986%
NPD: Dead Space 3 sold 605K in February
Dead Space 3's chart-topping debut in February amounts to 605,000 copies, the NPD told GameSpot, proving that February was a relatively slow month for video games in the US overall.Launch sales for the first Dead Space in the US came in at around 500,000. EA said Dead Space 2 approximately doubled that launch performance two years later – but regions were not specified for that, so it's hard to compare US performance.In any case, at 605K, that puts Dead Space 3 ahead of 1, and still part of a series of games that just don't seem to be massive hits at launch. A rumor from earlier this month, which EA denied, suggested that a proposed sequel was no longer in development.
PSA: Dead Space 3 'Awakened' DLC, MGR: Revengeance 'VR Missions' out today
March may be stuffed with new releases, but that won't stop Dead Space 3 or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance from chucking new content at your eyeballs today. The first to impact your irises is the story-continuing 'Awakened' DLC for Dead Space 3, and it's available now on XBLA for 800 MSP. It hits PSN and PC later today, priced $9.99.Also due on PSN later today are the 30 additional VR missions for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and they're completely free until April 3. In an odd twist, the DLC is exclusive to PS3 in the US and Canada for the time being, but outside those regions it's available now on XBLA for 240 MSP - a slice of curious console exclusivity to get the morning started.
Dead Space 3 'Awakened' DLC confirmed for March 12
EA reveals Dead Space 3 wakes up to its first DLC expansion on March 12, and it's coming to Xbox 360, PlayStaton 3, and PC for $10/800 MSP. As Visceral Games' Shereif Fattouh told us in our preview, 'Awakened' serves as a continuation of the game's story, providing "the real epilogue of some of the events that took place."
Dead Space 3's Awakened DLC trailer has a screw loose
Visceral Games' Shereif Fattouh says the 'Awakened' DLC provides "continuation" to Dead Space 3's story, and harkens back a bit more to the franchise's "claustrophobic, psychotic" themes. This trailer is less Armageddon and more Alien, that's for sure. Brace yourself and read our preview here.
Bringing horror out of stasis in Dead Space 3's 'Awakened' DLC
If there's any worry at Visceral Games over criticisms that Dead Space 3 strays too far from its horror roots, no one is talking about it. On the contrary, producer Shereif Fattouh seemed completely optimistic about the game's reception and its place within the Dead Space universe during a recent preview of the upcoming 'Awakened' add-on content."Whenever you release a title, you're gonna get the positives and negatives. We as a dev team are really proud of the game we made. We feel it was very true to the franchise and we're excited to put it out," Fattouh told Joystiq. "There are people that have criticisms, and that's everybody's right. For us, we put a lot of our heart and soul into the game and we feel it's enjoyable."Fattouh's description of Awakened paints the picture of a campaign add-on that hews closer to the spirit of previous entries in the series. The 'creep factor' was indeed high in our hands-on demo, which sends Isaac back to the CMS Terra Nova's Conning Tower, after it's been overrun by a Necromorph-worshipping cult of scarification practitioners. Strange symbols and unsettling altars that mash together human corpses with Necro parts line the walls."We had a vision for what we wanted to make with our DLC," Fattouh explained. "The nice thing about it is it kind of married into what some of the more hardcore community guys were asking for. They didn't feel that there was as much horror as they would have liked [in Dead Space 3]."%Gallery-180986%
Free for All: The continued standardization of selling power
Selling power is a much quieter controversy than it used to be. I've been in gaming long enough to remember when selling anything desirable at all was taboo. At the same time, it's always been OK to sell some things like subscriptions or special boxed editions, proving that MMO gamers and others are brilliant at segmenting their rage. If it's a cool, special box with a neat virtual item inside, it somehow does not fall under the same umbrella as selling powerful, useful items in game. I think it does. But geeks in general are good at justifying poor behavior if they get what they want; just ask the hackers and file-swappers. Still, it doesn't matter how we feel about selling power because the industry is already moving in the direction of selling power, lots of power. EA recently announced that every title it produces from now on will feature microtransactions. While that doesn't guarantee the sale of powerful items, I can promise that it will include some. This train ain't stopping. Sure, the console community seems a bit late to the party when it comes to the power-selling controversy, but that's likely because of MMOs' always-on multiplayer mode.
Report: Dead Space 4 canceled after Dead Space 3 sells below targets [update 3]
EA is effectively bringing an end to the Dead Space series after canning Dead Space 4 in pre-production, VideoGamer reports. According to the site, who spoke to an anonymous source familiar with the unannounced project, the publisher terminated the development of Dead Space 4 in light of Dead Space 3 failing to achieve its sales targets.VideoGamer's source claims EA executives informed Visceral Montreal last month of the cancelation along with details of the company's restructuring plans. Two weeks ago, EA did announce layoffs at its studios in Los Angeles and Montreal. The source also claims Dead Space 3 "was almost canceled" mid-development, and that EA told Visceral to bring in a wider audience than previous series entries did by focusing more on action than horror.EA believed Dead Space 3 could comfortably outsell its predecessors, with company CEO John Riccitiello saying he could see the game selling 5 million units. EA announced Dead Space 3 pre-orders were "outpacing" those for Dead Space 2 in January's earnings call, although the publisher didn't disclose by what margin.We've reached out to EA for comment.Update: "While we have not announced sales for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game and the franchise remains an important IP to EA," an Electronic Arts spokesperson informed Joystiq.Update 2: EA responded to IGN, stating the claims here are "flat-out not true" and that it's business as usual at Visceral Montreal right now.Update 3: To further clarify, EA sent us an additional statement. "These rumours are patently false. While we have not released sales data for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game and it continues to be an important IP to EA. Appreciate your help bringing down this baseless rumour."
Dead Space 3 price sliced to $32 on PC from GameFly
Despite only arriving on store shelves a month ago, Dead Space 3's price has been dismembered down to just $31.99, thanks to GameFly. Currently marked down to $39.99 on the retailer's site, using the coupon code "GFDMAR20" – which earns you 20% off PC titles – will slice off an additional $8 off at checkout.Because this is a digital PC version, remember that you'll need an EA Origin account and your PC will need to be connected to the Internet as you play. Still, there's no cheaper way to get into the game our reviewer called "an exciting, shocking and mammoth adventure through the ghostly, unvarnished segments of space."
See Zeus, Isaac Clarke throw down in PlayStation All-Stars
Sony will release downloadable characters Zeus and Isaac Clarke for PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale on March 19, along with a new stage that is a cross-over of MediEvil and The Unfinished Swan. According to a post on the PlayStation Blog from newly appointed Sony lead game designer Seth Killian, the stage will be free to play in online ranked matches, $1.99 to own.Both Zeus and Isaac are being offered gratis to those who purchase God of War: Ascension, available through an included voucher; or you can buy each combatant for $4.99 through PSN on March 19. Above, you can see Isaac battle back the madness – hop past the break if you want to see Zeus choke Sackboy.%Gallery-180147%
Rumor: Dead Space 3 Awakened DLC rouses March 3 [Update]
The first piece of Dead Space 3 DLC, 'Awakened,' could be stirring towards a March 3 release date. We know Awakened is coming sometime next month, but a post on the official Dead Space Twitter (now deleted, but screencapped after the break) in response to this tweet clearly noted a March 3 date. However, when asked about it later, another post reverted to the March release window, and "no precise dates" as yet.It seems there are crossed wires at whoever's in charge of the Twitter feed, and the date may well be a mistake - March 3 is a Sunday, which is a bit unusual for DLC - so take it with a pinch of salt. In any case, we've reached out to EA for comment.Update: An EA representative has told us that the company has "not announced a specific release date in March for Dead Space 3 Awakened."
