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No Bully sequel, judging by the numbers
Despite a strong first month in sales (estimated at 250,000 units worldwide) that was backed by critical acclaim, Bully's popularity at retail has quickly dwindled. Wedbush Morgan Securities Managing Director of Research Michael Pachter projects Bully will peak around 800,000 units sold; generating roughly $24 million in revenue. While that might sound rich, Pachter calls it a wash for Take-Two. "I would NOT expect a sequel," Pachter emphasized to GamePolitics.If Jimmy Hopkins' video game career is indeed one and done then it would go against Rockstar's standard practice (presumably encouraged by Take-Two). The developer has always molded its titles into series; The Warriors being the only Rockstar game that has yet to be revisited* (sequels to Manhunt & Red Dead Revolver are in the works). At the very least, we would expect Bully to be ported to PSP.*A PSP port of The Warriors is in the works.
Capcom bringing GTA San Andreas to Japan
With controversy having cooled, Capcom has reached a deal with Rockstar to localize, publish, and distribute the PlayStation 2 version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in Japan. The release is scheduled for January, a full 27 months after the game's initial debut in North America. What's with the delay? Guess car jacking and gang banging doesn't move units at quite the same pace in Japan.
L.A. Noire: Rockstar's latest is a black & white mystery
Rockstar has unveiled L.A. Noire, a period piece developed by Team Bondi, a new Australian studio founded by Brendan McNamara (The Getaway). Set in 1940's L.A. (before the freeways), L.A. Noire explores a series of gruesome murders through the eyes of, we assume, a detective.We've eyed a 37-second teaser, which sweeps through an eventless urban street scene, while a horn whines a sleepy jazz tune. We suspect, like The Getaway, Noire will be less open-ended than GTA and will rely on cinematic elements to keep gamers interested. While billed as a "next-generation" title, Rockstar has not specified platforms.
Rockstar's Soft Serve tour in Philly tonight [update 1]
Rockstar's "art, music, video & clothing installation" is going down in the City of Brotherly Love today at Jinxed Clothing, on 4th St. just south of South St. Not sure what to expect? Check out pictures from the Miami, Orlando, and Tampa stops. Not helping? Check out the featured artists who'll be, uh, arting at the event. Still not sure? There's going to be Table Tennis tournaments. Yup, the show isn't just about the uber-hip art world, but it's also about the uber-nerdy video game world and, try as Rockstar may to meld the two, we're like oil and vinegar, baby! We'll come together for little events like this, then be on our separate ways, back to our artist's communes/parent's basements respectively. As soon as I can figure out what time things are supposed to go down, I'll update the post and let y'all know. Philly Weekly has a writeup of the event listing 7pm as the start time and $0 as the cost. Anyone planning on attending? Want to meet there and beat my ass at Table Tennis? [Update: added event details.]
Rockstar presents "an art, music, video & clothing installation"
The bad boys at Rockstar sent word of their latest and greatest: "a traveling group art show that features all sides of the art world, including but not limited to: painting, music, video, screen printing, drawing, wheat pasting, clothing, photography & more." So, just art and fashion and music, brought to you courtesy of Rockstar Games? Of course that's not it, there's also going to be "a fast-paced and action packed tournament courtesy of Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis." The "installation" winds its way across the country, hitting hot spots like Columbus and Louisville, ultimately ending in The Town That Loved E3, Los Angeles. A notable omission: hipster-haven and Rockstar's 'hood, New York City. No bother here, I'll hit up the Philly show and embarrass the Joystiq name with my sorry Table Tennis skills ... I'm not even color-blind.
Colorblind gaming or: Table Tennis is impossibly hard!
Around one in ten males and one in two hundred females are unable to discern the difference between some or all colors that other people can distinguish. Like most other people with the disability, I've been colorblind (or, to use the politically correct term, have had color sight deficiency) since birth. I find it hard, and sometimes impossible, to tell the difference between shades of red, green and brown, blue and purple and oranges and yellows. As my optician told me when I was young, this disability means that I can't work in a paint factory or be a pilot. What he didn't tell me was that I'd have trouble playing friggin' computer games! As you probably know, the Xbox 360 features several colored buttons. Usually I can tell the difference between these buttons (the problem isn't so bad that I can't tell the difference between the equivalent of red and green at traffic lights). However, there's one game that has caused a problem: Rockstar's Table Tennis. A fundamental part of the gameplay is being able to respond to the opposing player's spin on the ball. This is represented by one of the colors which are also found on the gamepad. Blue for left spin, red for right spin, green for forward spin and yellow for back spin. Unfortunately, I can barely tell the difference between the red, green and yellow on a standard definition display. On a high definition screen the green and yellow are still nearly identical to my eyes. This isn't usually much of a problem during normal play (besides, I can always just press the green button), but on the training levels where you are taught how to spin the ball, I found the task physically impossible. I literally had to guess which spin the computer was giving the ball! Table Tennis has the hardest training level of any game, at least for me. Since completing the training levels is an Xbox 360 achievement, it's also possibly the hardest achievement there is. It took me around 3-4 hours and dozens of reattempts to get the 5 points given to you after you complete training.
Table Tennis demo now available on Live Marketplace [Update 1]
If your eyebrow is still in a raised position with regards to Rockstar's foray into the explosive, prostitute-less world of Table Tennis, be sure to grab the newly served demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Coming in at 526MB, the curtailed code should give you fine opportunity to beat innocent balls senseless and engage in more back-and-forth whacking than a Sopranos episode. Feel free to gawk at the shiny graphics and the ball physics, but don't make the crucial mistake of forgetting to press the green button. You can be sure that Conrad's sister will capitalize and promptly crush your ego in the palm of her adorable hand. Update: Major Nelson made this addition to his blog: "Hey, I forgot to post that this is a limited time demo. (sorry about that) That means that you can only download it and play it until the end of August. After that...the title will not work, even if you have already downloaded it! So get it and play it while it lasts!" Looks like someone's worried the demo might be a little too good.
Get your Table Tennis (demo) on
As many of you have already pointed out, the Table Tennis demo has hit Marketplace (even in Europe). If you'd like a description of the game, please see the above picture. That's really all there is to it. Clean, simple fun. If you haven't tried it out, give it a spin and tell us what you think.Note: not available in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore or Taiwan.
Take-Two finally reaches resolution
The FTC has left the building! Take-Two wipes its brow in both relief and aggravation. According to the article at 1up.com, Take-Two and the FTC have taken care of all the issues and no fines were assessed. Looks like Rockstar can come out of the crawlspace and breathe easier.All is not pizza and wine (if anyone gets the reference, you are greater than gold), as a consent order was still issued to Take-Two. Basically, it means they can't misrepresent the content of their games (saying there is alcohol consumption in a game, but omitting drug use, for example) and they also have to create a personal reviewing committee to make sure they're in line with the ESRB. All is well for now, but if something like this happens again, the FTC will come back with all the might the law will allow. Still, congrats on getting out of the noose, Take-Two! Now then, about making us some PS3 games...
Rockstar loses many PR's, Marketers
Rockstar and their parent, Take-Two Interactive, have had a ton of hot coffee poured on their laps lately (pun intended) with the FTC investigating the sexy add-on to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, grand jury supoenas, closing of two corporate buildings, plummeting stocks and overall sadness. With all this junk going on, many people from Rockstar games have apparently dashed off in the night. Oddly enough, according to GameDaily BIZ who compiled a list of the employees that left, many were involved Public Relations or Marketing. The two are fairly related, the former more consumer oriented and the latter business, so what does this portend?Perhaps the end of Rockstar is nigh -- their "on the edge" style of gaming may finally have crossed the border and the employees know it. At least, those who have to talk to people outside of their walls. It will be harder to garner support for their games with all these issues arising, and these PR and Marketing people vacating is practically a guarantee that there is little support left for Rockstar. On a positive spin, perhaps Rockstar is cutting costs and eliminating shoddy employees. Will there be a GTA5? If the world backs off of gaming censorship, indeed.[edit: fixed an awkward sentence or two]
Imagine Publishing behind GTA4 hoax
QJ reports that they have discovered the nefarious creator of the fake GTA4 screenshot. It turns out that the infamous email from a "disgruntled Rockstar employee" came from the mail servers of none other than Imagine Publishing. Imagine is responsible for several UK gaming mags including X360 and Retro Gamer. So why in the world would a publishing company release a fake screenshot? I think QJ has the right answer: Imagine wanted a story for their next issue. What do you think? Was it a prank gone too far or a diabolical corporate scheme?
GTA4: Girl Theft Auto [update 2]
According to 360Era.com this just might be a screen from Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV (click for an embiggened pic). Hmm, looks about on par with Table Tennis to me. So, is it real? Fake? Frankly, anything with a girl wielding a morning star has my approval. Update 1: It's fake. From Eurogamer: "Rockstar says that an image circulating around web-forums this afternoon, supposedly showing a TV screen running a debug version of Grand Theft Auto IV, is a hoax ... The image ... first showed up in the inboxes of various media organisations this morning under the subject line 'From a disgruntled ex-employee of Rockstar...' ... But that's not the case, Rockstar told us this afternoon. It really is a hoax." Man, fake news travels fast. This screen was circulated and debunked in a matter of hours. Simply amazing. Thanks, Josh. Update 2: It looks like QJ discovered the perpetrator behind this heinous crime. You won't believe who it is. Read the full story here.
GTAIV will share the Table Tennis engine
There's a rumor floating around these here internets suggesting that the next iteration of Rockstar's money-printing machine known as Grand Theft Auto will be using their own in-house RAGE engine (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine engine), recently seen in Table Tennis. Gamespot's Rumor Control traces the rumor to a TotalVideoGames.com post which mentioned, but neglected to link to, an MTV News report from over a month ago. That report stated, "The Rockstar reps explained that the game was running on RAGE, the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine. This is the graphics technology gamers are to expect from future Rockstar games, including the next GTA." I contacted MTV News' Stephen Totilo to see just how definite this was, and he returned, "I met with Rockstar publicists and producers for Table Tennis twice prior to the game's release. Both times they volunteered that RAGE would serve as the engine for all next-gen Rockstar games. 'Including GTA?' I asked both times. Including GTA they said both times." So there you have it folks. Following EA's acquisition of GTA's old-engine, Renderware, Rockstar has went and made their own. Sure, Table Tennis looks great but really, anything's better than the dated engine they're using now.
"Just press the green button", I said
"Just press the green button" Oh, those fateful little words. How naive I was to think that they wouldn't affect the ability that my sister was soon to display in a casual game of Rockstar's Table Tennis.
Metareview - Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Xbox 360)
When Rockstar announced their top secret new game, gamers were floored that the San Diego branch of the house that GTA built had traded in their baseball bats for ping pong paddles with Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. Big question is, how did they do with this smaller-scale, (relatively) budget-priced title? According to the reviews that are beginning to appear, pretty darned well. The complaints focus on the title's sparse feature set while the praise focuses on the Xbox Live integration and the tight, elegant gameplay. Seriously, read through the reviews if you have a particular affinity for the words "subtle" and "nuanced." According to the reviews, Table Tennis provides a streamlined sports sim that's short on features but full of subtle gameplay, reflected in the (next-gen) budget price of $39.99. IGN (78/100) - "If you want a table tennis game that's strictly focused on great mechanics and addictive gameplay, but that lacks a reasonable single-player mode and is shockingly sparse, Rockstar Presents Table Tennis is your game." GamePro (85/100) - "The best thing about the gameplay is that it's all about reflex and intuition -- accessible to all, but hard to master online competitive play. Setting up power shots, killer topspin, and hitting the corners of the table becomes easy in short amount of time. This game is an instant classic and is guaranteed to please the masses." Eurogamer (90/100) - "It's the sign of a great sports game when you can't think of anything you'd want to change in the next version. It doesn't need another version."
Rockstar's Table Tennis is no joke
Rockstar's second-floor party pad sits at the top of a long flight of stairs just off of Bowery in Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood. As I climbed those stairs on my way to an invitational afternoon of beer, food and Rockstar Games Presents: Table Tennis this Saturday, I half expected the door to burst open and a bunch of clowns to yell "April Fools!" It just didn't make much sense that famously reticent, infamously too-cool-for-the-media Rockstar had actually invited members of the press to see their latest game, nevermind a lowly blogger. But for once, they're probably happy to be talking about something other than whichever version of their marquee Grand Theft Auto series has been released, been hacked, been banned, been recalled, been reissued, been whatevered. Instead, when the door to the flat opened I was greeted by a bevvy of Rockstar marketers, three huge HD displays, and three Xbox 360s spinning a pre-release version of Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. Turns out the game is no joke and that Rockstar's serious about seeing that the game sees the exposure they believe it deserves.