Archive for January, 2009

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Nintendo DSi in North America by April 4th?


According to multiple IGN sources the Nintendo DSi will be available on the North American market the first half of 2009. Apparently a number of sources in communication with IGN have claimed that the DSi will be released April 4th 2009, and will be selling for $179.99.

Contrary to what we had heard from Nintendo in 2008, in which a North American release date was projected for Summer 2009, this date is much earlier in the year. The sources are said to be close to Nintendo, and reliable according to Matt Casamassina with IGN.  Matt is reliable as well as he has been backed by G4. Raymond Padilla (a writer for the feed) was quoted as saying “Brother Matt (am I the only one that calls him that?) has been covering Nintendo for more than a decade; his sources are plentiful and often reliable. Given his history and track record, there’s a good chance that the rumor is true.”

Although an April 4th release date seems unlikely, due to the fact that the DS is still doing very well in sales, the sources seem reliable. I personally won’t be getting my hopes up until I hear an official statement from Nintendo, which we will probably be getting soon since this rumor is spreading like wild fire.

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Andrew Lloyd-Webber Musicals Coming to Games

If you ever wished you could sing along side the Phantom of the Opera or belt out a classic song from Cats, then this isn’t the blog for you! Nonetheless a batch of classic musicals from the famed composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber will be making their way into the gaming industry, thanks to The Really Useful Group (that is really their name).

The group founded in 1977 manages all of Andy’s interests and they have been speaking to multiple video game developers, one of them said to be EA. The group is planning on developing multiple Webber titles into games (Oh goody) for consoles, PCs, and cellular devices.

There are two major reasons the group felt prompted to take a chance on the gaming industry; one was because of the growing popularity of video games with women and the other was because of the current popularity of music-themed video games.

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The 2009 Capcom Preview

More and more 2009 is looking like a good year! Capcom is part of the reason for this, as they will be releasing some big titles the first half of the year. Here is our preview of a few major titles that will be released from Capcom the first half of 2009.

ENJOY!

Link to video on YouTube

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Will Disney buy EA?

Disney Castle Nighttime
Since its stock has recently slumped, the uber successful video game publisher Electronic Arts is up for grabs and what major company would have the backbone to do so you ask?  Well Disney of course who else! Thanks to a Variety story a rumor cloud has started to swirl around the idea of Disney possibly buying EA.

Since EA’s stock is down 67% off its 52 week high, some analysts believe that it could be snatched up by Disney whose stock is slumping as well, just not quite as badly. Disney’s stock is down 37% off their 52 week high and since Disney has already shown a vast interest in the gaming industry – purchasing EA could just give the company the boost it needs.

Since video games are doing much better than film, music and other major industries right now, Disney could very well purchase EA so that they can get a bigger chunk of the cash cow. At this point this is only speculation, from what we have surmised, Disney has said nothing about an interest in acquiring EA but  some analysts think it could happen.

Here is the link to the story in Variety


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BioShock Could Have up to 5 Sequels

BioShock Emblem
Good news for FPS fans, Survival Horror fans, and most of all BioShock fans. In an interview with MCV Magazine, 2K President Christoph Hartmann said that the BioShock franchise could possibly have up to five sequels. Hartmann specifically said he was hoping to emulate Star Wars with the BioShock Franchise and that could mean that 2k could be going the prequel route as well as sequel.

Hartmann was quoted as saying, “For BioShock, because it’s so story driven, the question obviously arises: how long can you do it without turning into The Matrix,” he also went on to say “But, then again, look at Star Wars. It’s a fight between good and evil, just like BioShock. If we spin it the right way and get the right twist of innovation, we can make six parts of it, as Star Wars did.”

Although I am a big BioShock fan I do have concerns as to how they plan to make 5 sequels/prequels work. Sure Star Wars was successful with it’s six installments, but it is an iconic movie franchise, and BioShock is a video game franchise with a significantly smaller fan base. I am not saying I don’t think 2k can do it,  it just seems that at this point in time there is not that high of a demand for that many installments in the franchise.

Expect BioShock 2 Sea of Dreams for Xbox 360, and PS3 sometime in 2009, and as for the next installments, we will just have to wait and see.

Here is the link to the MCV Story

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The NBS 5 most popular video game stories of 2008

It’s been a great year for games and as we consider the past year, we would like to pause and reflect on the big stories that rocked NothingButSoftware. A year with upsets, surprises, and plenty of odd stuff; these are our top 5 picks for the most popular NothingButSoftware Stories of 2008.

Maple Story MMORPG

5.) Maple Story Murder
Simply because it was such an odd story it grew in popularity, and was even given a specific name for the incident “Maple Story Murder.” A story from the land of the rising sun in which a Japanese woman was jailed for deleting another persons character from the MMORPG Maple Story. As ridiculous as it sounds it is true, and it was one of the oddest stories we covered this year!



Mila Kunis on TV

4.) Mila Kunis WoW Confession
Apparently Mila Kunis is a big World of WarCraft fan, and the WoW community loves it! This story dropped during The Max Payne movie release when Mila’s popularity was already growing and this story boosted it even more, at least with wow fans.






Little Big Planet Sack Boy




3.) The Little Big Planet Recall
Most Likely the Biggest upset this year was the Little Big Planet Recall. When the release of this title was quickly approaching a sudden world wide recall was issued, because quotes from Islamic text could be heard in the video games background music. Sony decided to play it safe pushing the game back another week until the quotes could be edited out of the background music.



Street Fighter CHun-Li Image2.) New Street Fighter Chun-Li Pics
Although the New Street Fighter film seems like nothing to write home about, the buzz surrounding this film was quit popular here at NBS.  When the latest photo’s of Kristen Kreuk as Chun-Li were released we did a post on it and it became one of our most popular stories this year.




1.) F.E.A.R. 2 Weirdest Press Release Ever
F.E.A.R. 2 Alma
The oddest story we have covered this year, and most likely our most popular post in history the “F.E.A.R. 2 Press Release.” Although there is a lot of meticulous planning involved in a major press release this one takes the cake. The Entire F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin release was centered around targeting specific Video Game Contributors and sending them creepy unmarked mail, with locations to creepy destinations, to obtain creepy briefcases. Mike Fahey of Kotaku was one of these targets and he had to drive to a storage facility in the middle of the night on thanksgiving to pick up his briefcase. Inside the briefcase was nothing more then promotion material for a F.E.A.R. 2 event in New York, but all the mystery in just obtaining a briefcase of promo material was uber weird.