Plants vs. Zombies gets iPhone release date

Ever since PopCap announced that Plants vs. Zombies was coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch, gamers have patiently waited to tackle the zombie invasion when it came to their mobile device of choice. Until now though, nobody knew when that invasion would hit. Thanks to a new trailer from PopCap Games, we can officially confirm that iPhone fanatics should be able to get their hands on Plants vs. Zombies next Monday, February 15.

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Mad Catz reports growing profits, hints at new
Super Street Fighter IV joystick

Accessory company Mad Catz released its earnings report for the third quarter of its fiscal year (ending December 31, 2009), with numbers that suggest its wares are selling like mad. Net sales came to $48.8 million, which is "the second-best quarter of sales in the company's history." Profits increased 51 percent over the same period in the previous fiscal year, a change Mad Catz attributes to its movement out of low-price controllers and into higher-end specialty accessories. Hello $150 FiightStick!

In its announcement, Mad Catz also listed the controllers and accessories it plans to ship in the near future. In addition to the new Super Street Fighter IV "Tournament Edition S" FightSticks (pictured above), the release also reveals plans to sell a new Super Street Fighter IV edition of the standard FightStick. It's as of yet unconfirmed if the standard stick will be given a new layout and shell like the superified Tournament Edition stick, or merely new artwork.

Mad Catz reports growing profits, hints at new Super Street Fighter IV joystick originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Level-5 Developing Unannounced Wii Title, Dragon
Quest

Could Level-5 be developing a new Dragon Quest for Wii?

During a recent prospective employees event, Level-5 president Akihiro Hino revealed the company is currently developing a new previously unannounced title for Wii.

Level-5 has a long history with developing the Dragon Quest franchise, previously releasing Dragon Quest VIII and IX. Speculation now says there is a good chance the company could be continuing the franchise, creating a new Dragon Quest just for Wii.

Hino also announced the company is also working on a previously announced PS3 title.

Details on just what title Level-5 plans to bring to Wii are said to be revealed with an official announcement soon.

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Teen gamer motivates adult gamer to get a life

Adult gamer, Jim Fredrickson, 33, is getting a life, thanks to the online prodding of teen gamer, UB3RNOOb_PwN3r.

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http://www.pwnordie.com/2010/02/09/teen-gamer-motivates-adult-gamer-to-get-a-life
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Dantes Inferno launches today with a new
developers diary

by: Tina Amini
NEWS - For Dante’s Inferno’s launch date, EA and Visceral invite you to the 9th circle where hell is frozen over.

The developer’s diary also touches on some of the criticism the game has been getting over “desecrating” the original poem. You can hear some of their refutations of such claims and the reasoning behind their defense in the video below.

Happy launch date. Who plans on picking up the game?



video details and more



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Ubisoft's Guillemot not trippin' about franchise
fatigue

Ubisoft's current focus to iterate its "major franchises" seems to expose its key brands to franchise fatigue and, with it, dwindling sales -- just look what happened to sales of Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk when Acitivsion implemented a similar strategy. However, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot remains unconcerned about so-called franchise fatigue, as he emphasized today that the publisher's goal is to "increase and come out more often" with games.

Speaking during a financial earnings call for investors, Guillemot expressed his belief that Ubisoft has taken plenty of time to develop the next installments in the Driver, Ghost Recon, Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell franchises -- development time that will ultimately result in more iterations in less time, in turn improving brand visibility and training consumers to expect these franchises more often, and plan their gaming budgets accordingly. He also pointed out that sales of these upcoming titles should boost sales of their franchises' legacy games.

Of course, with that said, Guillemot re-emphasized that quality is still important and that the company has invested (and continues to invest) in building game engines and tools that can be used for the next 10 years. The CEO noted that Ubisoft development teams our given enough time to ensure very high quality work, continuing that Ubisoft "takes those elements into consideration."

Ubisoft's Guillemot not trippin' about franchise fatigue originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Level-5 has surprises in store for Wii and PS3

Giving a speech at the deliciously-named C.C. Lemon Hall in Tokyo, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino revealed that the developer has unannounced Wii and PS3 games in the works.

The developer's current lineup is heavy on DS and mobile titles (including Professor Layton games, Ni no Kuni, and Fantasy Life), with one known console game: the followup to the PS3 role-playing game White Knight Chronicles. One of the unnamed Wii titles could be Inazuma Eleven Break, a console soccer RPG whose platform was never specified. Dragon Quest X, whose Wii development was confirmed by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, but whose developer was never named, is also a possibility. But this is all conjecture, since Hino said nothing other than that there were some new Wii and PS3 games.

[Via Andriasang]

Level-5 has surprises in store for Wii and PS3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ron (can I call you Ron You can call me... [From
Comments]

Ron (can I call you Ron? You can call me Dan. Nice to meet you!) as a gamer and a parent myself, I have to agree with you that violence in video games is glorified, but it also glorified in movies, comic books, and animation. Then again, sex is also glorified in these businesses. It is a business though, and glorified violence and glorified sex sells. Movies with crazy special effects like Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar... They sell. Or glorified martial arts movies these days with people flying around. Glorified entertainment of any kind is a seller, it is what captivates the audience.I do agree with studies that link kids playing violent video games to the very same kids acting out. Me and mom aren't together, and she lets the kids (8 and 9), play Gears of War. My son (8) has this belief that to resolve things in life, you just "kill" the opposition. Honestly, that scares me, and with good reason these days. When he's with me almost every weekend, I don't allow him to play violent games. I do speak up and explain "killing" is NOT how you resolve things. He was suspended from riding the bus twice back to back for beating kids up on the bus recently. First time was in direct control of the response. I grounded him for a day after talking to him about it. The day he got back on the bus, he did it again. Mom in control this time grounded him for a week. Hopefully he got the point about what is acceptable in games and what is acceptable in real life.However, where pornography is concerned (and I honestly have no interest in videos, I find them more humorous and silly), I can't say I'd rather they were watching porn. Granted, you did say "sex", not "porn" in the above. Which porn and sex while very much related, are also very different things. Porn doesn't go out if it's way to point out to practice safe sex, the risks involved from STDs, pregnancy, to a video being uploaded to the internet, or pictures to a cellphone.Yeah, I fully agree sex is natural and wonderful, and there's alot of hipocracy in how it's viewed in society. However, to say mainstream media runs from it? What decade are we talking about? TV commecials about viagra, cialis, enzyte, etc all over the TV. Hell, I was watching TV one night, and no joke, saw a commerical on a major TV station for a vibrator for women. As far back as I remember, late night TV had commecials for 800 and 900 numbers for phone sex. Since when in recent history do we shy away from it? Heck, we had a TV series call "Sex and The City."Worse than porn though, Japanese animated porn... Hentai. I have a massive collection of hentai actually. People complaining here that porn depicts this all screwed up needs to sit down and watch some hentai. Some of the most disturbing things I've seen are in hentai. I've never seen porn on HBO, or Cinemax that portrayed girls being raped in the worst ways imaginable then they end up liking the guy that did it, and help him rape other girls. You'll see that in plenty of hentai though! I'll leave it at that though, as there are crazy people out there who are trying to ban hentai and hentai games from being imported from Japan, and blame games like Rapelay on violent crimes. Riiiight. It's always the games (never the parents in control of what their kids do).In the end, it's about the context in which that which is being viewed is portrayed. A simple love/sex scene in a movie I do believe is far less harmless in comparison to say, Modern Warfare 2. If we're talking about say... Two famous movies for their content.. Natural Born Killers vs Showgirls... I might honestly go with Showgirls. Both movies have a purpose, and executes them quite well in ways. However, I'd say Showgirls is the lesser of the evils because it doesn't follow a path of "this is acceptable and this is OK." Infact, I would almost see it as "here's why you don't wanna grow up to be a stripper or a Vegas dancer!" Still, they will see neither, and I don't own either one. If it was say Friday The 13th vs a movie with you, Ron... It's Friday The 13th.However, as people do note, violence is in our human nature... As far as as history records, there has always been sex, and there has always been violence. It's almost as if we cannot have one without the other.Here we are, apparently civilized, and still in Iraq (I don't understand)... Still in Afghanistan (I fully understand). Kids get out of high school, join the military, a few months later they are grunts on the frontlines, ready to kill and be killed. Some enjoy the bloodshed, some don't. Military orders that are given that knowingly result in civilian deaths. We try to deny it happens though. We get involved in proxy wars that have gone in for centuries, and in so many cases for what? We then turn these wars into Friday night entertainment by making a movie about it, or a mini series about it. I mention this because I saw Black Hawk Down was on TV last night. Great movie imo, but I also force myself to remember such events really did happen. George Romero recently made a movie about how people are fascinated by violence, and compelled to look at it, document it, etc. Violence is natural, it is just repressed because it is not acceptable by civilized society and laws.So Ron, I mostly agree with you, but it also comes down to the context of the content being viewed, and the maturity level of those viewing it. And in either case of sex or violence, should parents for whatever reason allow their kids to view it in ANY context, it should be without question the responsibility of the parent to explain what acceptable and not acceptable in the real world. As for kids getting into the stuff without parents knowing, then those parents need to take more precautions and steps to ensure they can't do that. Most parents I think are too lazy to give a damn.Ron, if you're still reading, thanks for taking the time to read one of my excessive internet posts! I have written far more than I intended. I do have to say though, I was recently talking about you. In particular about how we live in a world where if you drop your pants and whip it out, you get paid. If I did that, people would run away screaming, and I'd be arrested. Seriously... I don't get it! :P~ Dan



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PAX East Gets Wil Wheatonized [PAX East]

Following up on his memorable keynote speech at PAX 2007, actor, writer, and starship sidekick turned planar traveller Wil Wheaton will deliver the keynote at the inaugural PAX East in March.

Star Trek references aside, Wil Wheaton 's unique position as both a top-notch geek and actor in one of the geekiest science fiction properties of all time, gives him a unique point-of-view into our culture. Because of this point-of-view, he's supremely qualified to talk about all aspects of gaming as well, and when he talks, it's generally a good idea to listen, if only for the sheer entertainment value. Wil will be on hand to deliver the keynote speech at PAX East on Friday, March 26th, likely hanging about until the show closes on March 28th.

"We've always considered Wil as the keynote speaker for PAX, so it's only appropriate he kick off the first PAX East," said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. "Wil is one of us. We accept him. Wil speaks to all gamers, from the console jock to the keyboard fanatic to the pen-and-paper devotees."

As an added plus, Wil can also save the PAX East ship should it run into trouble over the weekend.

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2010 video game release dates

Bioshock 2 - 9 Feb 2010AvP - 19 Feb 2010Battlefield Bad Company 2 - 5 March 2010God of War 3 -...Read the full post at www.gamezplay.org use the search option if there is no link above... [...]

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