GAME CASA .NET

Analyst predicts 3DS could cost over $250 — Gamespot

Nintendo’s glasses-free three-dimensional portable, the 3DS, walked away with the Best of Show accolade following the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo. In fact, anticipation for the handheld is so pronounced that industry analyst Michael Pachter thinks Nintendo can charge more than it ever has before for a piece of hardware and remain financially viable.

Nintendo raising the stakes with its new system?
According to the Wedbush analyst, the 3DS and its games are “revolutionary” enough to warrant elevated price tags at retail.

“We view the 3DS as a revolutionary device, and expect its launch to spur hardware and software sales,” Pachter told video game Web site ComputerAndVideoGames. “Due to the unique 3DS experience previewed by Nintendo at E3 this year, we believe Nintendo will be able to sell millions of units even at a price of upwards of $250.”
In addition to the system, Pachter believes the system’s software lineup will increase average software prices over its predecessor.
“From a software perspective, we believe Nintendo will be able to increase DS software prices, from a blended average of around $25 today to over $29 next year,” he added.
The 3DS is currently scheduled to be released in early 2011. If the 3DS launches at $250, it will debut at $100 more than the original DS did in 2004.

GameCasa Note: $250 for 3DS? The XBox360 Elite with Kinect bundle is gonna go for $299 alone. And with the 3DS games to rise in price to perhaps $50, this might be a tough sell

Saturday at Comic-Con Capcom and Namco teamed up for a surprising announcement. The two developers are collaborating to produce Street Fighter X Tekken. It is exactly what it sounds like: a fighting game that pits the characters from Street Fighter against those of Tekken. The fighters will all retain their signature moves. Note that it is not called Street Fighter vs. Tekken. The title is pronounced Street Fighter “Cross” Tekken.
During Capcom’s Comic-Con panel, both a trailer and a gameplay demonstration were shown. The trailer showed Ryu meditating in a dojo when Kazuya Mishima from Tekken bursts through the door, ready to kick some ass. After the Street Fighter X Tekken logo was shown, the classic Pac-Man cut scenes were recreated with Mega Man chasing a ghost across the screen and then running the other way followed by Pac-Man.
Then Yoshinori Ono from Capcom and Katsuhiro Harada from Namco played against each other in a quick match. During gameplay, Ryu called in Chun Li to help him out and Kazuya called in Nina Williams for a ridiculous team-up attack. They fought on a futuristic battlefield with giant mechs roaming in the background. The game was running on a PlayStation 3. Visually, it looked very similar to Street Fighter IV with 2D gameplay and 3D rendered character models.
Street Fighter X Tekken is being developed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. When will it be out? Capcom says “not for a while.” Namco also said it is creating its own version of the game, Tekken X Street Fighter, but details on that aren’t available at this time.

Stabbing at Comic Con 2010 – Man stabbed in face with pen at Resident Evil panel–San Francisco Chronicle

Out in San Diego, the biggest comic book convention of the year is taking place. As expected, a lot of gaming news was held from E3 to be announced at this event. Mostly to do with the games based on comic book properties that are coming out. Images posted on Marvel’s website tonight confirm The Mighty Thor and Amaterasu, the star of 2006′s PlayStation 2 hit Okami, have been added to the growing collection of stars for Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In a video preview yesterday morning, four new characters were added. They include Chun-Li from Street Fighter, Trish from Devil May Cry, Doctor Doom, and the Super-Skrull. Here’s a preview video.

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Big Thrills lets gamers put their tracks into the game – literally. — RedLynx



Gamers demanded it, and today RedLynx delivered, finally revealing Trials HD – Big Thrills, the hotly anticipated next expansion pack for its best-selling, award-winning Xbox LIVE Arcade game. “Ever since we released the first Trials HD expansion, gamers have demanded more,” said Antti Ilvessuo, the game’s lead designer and creative director of RedLynx. “They email us every day, they post on our message boards, and lately they’ve started calling my house and chasing me down the street,” he said. “With this announcement, I can now emerge from hiding and get back to making games.”

Forty new levels
With forty new professional tracks lovingly crafted by RedLynx’s level designers, the new expansion will bring a whole new world of obsessive challenge and bone-crushing gameplay to the game’s large and loyal fan base.
User-Created content
Unique with this release, RedLynx will also include ten user-created tracks, fully credited and featured right alongside the professional levels created by RedLynx. Everyone whose track is included will in addition receive cash or prizes, as well as in-game credit.
“We’re thrilled – no pun intended – to present this contest with our partners at Microsoft,” said Tero Virtala, CEO of RedLynx. “We couldn’t think of a better way to give back to our fans than to give them the opportunity to have their work featured right alongside ours in the next expansion of the legendary Trials HD game.”
Cash prizes
Gamers can visit BigThrillscontest.com to view the rules, the prizes, and the process for submitting a track for inclusion in the Trials HD – Big Thrills expansion pack.

Trials HD – Big Thrills is scheduled for a fourth quarter release this year. The new expansion will include three new achievements, adding 50 more to the total Gamerscore points gamers can earn through Trials HD and its add-ons

Microsoft has announced several new product bundles that will be coming to market in the coming weeks and months. Even better, the company has finally offered an official price on both the stand-alone Kinect sensor and a bundled version that comes with a new Xbox 360. First up, the price. Kinect will have a suggested retail price of $149.99 (£129.99/€149.99 in Europe), as many online retailers have recently guessed. The news is that Kinect will be bundled with a free game, Kinect Adventures. All first-party Kinect games will have a suggested retail price of $49.99 (£39.99 in the UK) and Microsoft expects that to be the standard, though it is leaving third-party pricing up to those publishers. At least one third-party game will follow that standard. Microsoft has announced that Dance Central, from Harmonix and MTV Games, will also retail for $49.99/£39.99. For those new to Xbox 360, Microsoft will have a special Kinect console bundle available at the November 4 launch of the sensor. For $299 (or £249.99/€299.99 in Europe), the bundle will include an Xbox 360 console, the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures. The Xbox 360 will be the previously confirmed $199 redesigned Xbox 360, not the 250 GB model that has spurred sales in the past month. Microsoft has also announced the full details on that new Xbox 360 console model, which will be available August 3 in North America, August 20 in the UK and later in the month around the world. This version will have a 4GB internal flash memory, but no 250 GB hard drive. It still has a built in Wi-Fi N adapter, as well as all of the other bells and whistles of the 250 GB Xbox 360. The internal hard drive bay will remain, but will be empty at purchase. You’ll be able to tell the difference between this new 4GB console and the 250 GB version as the 4GB model will have a black matte finish as opposed to the glossy finish on the more expensive model. Again, this 4GB model will cost $199 in the US. Currently, there are no plans to sell the 250 GB hard drive that comes with the recently launched “slim” model separately. As for why Microsoft chose Kinect Adventures as the free game to include, Greenberg said it had a lot to do with offering something new. “It’s a great broad appeal game for existing and new buyers. It’s got more than 20 game modes, everything from River Rush to Obstacle Course…We did a lot of testing with consumers and we really felt like this title had a great broad appeal. It’s full body, it integrates voice. It’s great jump-in jump-out multiplayer. We think it’s a fun game to play for existing owners as well as new consumers…We thought about Kinect Sports, but we felt like Adventures was more new and unique.” Those who pre-order Kinect, either on its own or in the $299 bundle, will receive a download token for three additional exclusive levels for Kinect Adventures. The $299 bundle allows new consumers to get Kinect at a cheaper cost than those that buy everything separately. Greenberg noted this in saying, “That’s our primary focus, at least for launch, is the opportunity to expand the market.”

Disney offers an express ticket to the game grid for an unbeatable price. –IGN

Disney’s Tron sequel is not due until November, but with Comic-Con on the horizon, there’s no better time than now to fire another cylinder in the hype machine. Today, Disney’s Tron game went live in the App Store for a very attractive price: free.
Tron for the iPhone (there is not a native iPad version… yet) is an evolving suite. The first game within Tron is a tank battle contest. It plays not entirely unlike the tank sequence of the classic Tron arcade game. Viewed from a top-down perspective, you scoot around a series of mazes, blasting bugs with your cannons and grenades. However, this is just the single-player game. Tron includes a two-tiered multiplayer mode.
Within the tank battle, there is a basic deathmatch that pits tanks against each other. You just need to create a login (it’s totally painless) and then declare allegiance to a faction — more on these factions in a moment. Up to six players challenge each other in the arenas, maneuvering for better shots and collecting power-ups. Power-ups are key to victory, particularly the cannon upgrades. The normal cannon is not terribly effective. But as you grab power-ups, not only are the shots more powerful, but they also ricochet off walls. The cannon’s top upgrade level releases a rapid-fire volley of shots that ricochet off multiple walls. If you manage to grab it, you will be serious trouble to the other players.
The second tier of multiplayer is a little more ambitious. Once you pledge allegiance to one of the three factions — blue, green, orange — Tron keeps track of your participation. Your performance on the game grid is tallied and thrown into an overall faction rating. The three factions battle for dominance in Tron, although Disney has not made it clear yet what exactly will happen with this meta-level multiplayer challenge.
As mentioned, Tron is designed to evolve. Tanks are just the beginning. Expect to see an update of sorts later this week when Comic-Con officially kicks off. And as we move toward the box office debut of Tron: Legacy, look for additional games to appear inside this app, such as lightcycles.

Blizzard attempts to deter flame wars and trolling, but at what price?

Activision Blizzard, maker of World of Warcraft and other popular videogames, is drawing fire over its plan to require users of its discussion forums to start posting their real names.
Blizzard announced on Tuesday that it would begin introducing the “Real ID” feature to its official bulletin boards and the move to require real first and last names has drawn hundreds of comments, most of them negative. Blizzard said in a blog post that the change was intended to “help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.” “The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players,” it said. “However, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild,” Blizzard said. “Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before.” Most of the feedback from fans of Blizzard’s online role-playing games denounced the real names requirement. “I can’t even begin to fathom why you would do this,” wrote “Tophia.” “Even as someone who hates the fact that these forums are a joke and overrun with trolls and morons… I can’t stress enough how terrible a solution this is,” said “Whiplashr.” “I don’t want my real name out there.” “With this decision, you are going to alienate so many people from these forums. Myself included,” said “Pyrogx.” “I will never post in a gaming forum where my real name is displayed. Ever.” “Tacotruck” supported the move. “I look forward to this change. The trolling has always been terribly annoying on Blizz forums.” Blizzard is not the only online operation grappling with the question of anonymity on the Web. US newspapers have also been debating the practice of allowing anonymous comments and The Buffalo News announced last month it will begin requiring real names from people who want to leave comments on its website. more »

Rockstar Games announced today that four new downloadable content packs will be released on XBox Live and the Playstation Network beginning in August. But these won’t be free like the recent Outlaws to the End DLC pack was. The next DLC includes the arrival of additional weapons; maps; animals; new saloon games, and playable characters from the game’s predecessor, Red Dead Revolver. In August, the Legends and Killers Pack (800 Microsoft points or $9.99) will be released. This pack brings nine fresh maps to the game’s multiplayer competitive modes, eight new characters (from the previous Red Dead Revolver game) to saddle up as in multiplayer, a Tomahawk weapon, and more trophies/achievements to collect. I’m looking for the Donkey Punch achievement, where you have to punch a donkey to death. The Liars and Cheats Pack (800 MS points, or $9.99) adds goods for the title’s single- and multiplayer components. The content brings new multiplayer horse races with mounted combat, an Attack and Defend multiplayer mode, eight new multiplayer characters, and multiplayer versions of Liars Dice and Poker. The Liars and Cheats Pack also adds the explosive rifle, which can be used in both single- and multiplayer. It is unknown when this DLC pack will be released.
The Free Roam Pack, (price and release date unknown), expands the game’s Free Roam online component. The pack adds new Free Roam challenges, posse scoring and leaderboards, new “action areas” and “defensive placements,” as well as what Rockstar is calling new “anti-griefing” measures. The fourth and final pack Rockstar announced today is the Undead Nightmare Pack (800 MS points or $9.99).This content starkly differs from the others in that it is a ghoulish endeavor and a single-player test. The content brings an entirely new single-player adventure, with fresh challenges and quests. Additionally, it adds more animals to the game’s biosphere, new “dynamic events,” and eight new zombie characters for use in multiplayer. Rockstar promises additional details, including its release date in the coming months. My guess is we will see this DLC by Halloween. You can never go wrong with zombies. Hopefully though they won’t jump into the vampire craze.