Joystiq

Capcom expects Lost Planet 2 to sell 3.7 million units in second half of fiscal year

Capcom's recently published financial report for the first half of the current fiscal year contains some fairly gutsy estimates for sales expectations of the developer's upcoming titles -- for instance, the report anticipates selling 300,000 copies of Resident Evil 5 Alternative Edition by March 31, 2010. However, the company expects one game to be its biggest blockbuster by a fairly enormous sales margin: Lost Planet 2, which, according to the report, will sell 3.7 million copies in the second half of FY 2010.

That's a fairly monumental increase compared to the sales statistics for the original Lost Planet, which has sold 2.28 million units life-to-date according to VGChartz. Don't get us wrong -- we've enjoyed what we've seen from the game thus far. However, if Capcom's hoping to approach that target, it may want to consider tossing some Pokémon in there. Perhaps a cameo by Master Chief, too, for good measure.

Read: Capcom Results of Operations and Strategies report (.PDF)

Final Fantasy XIII character progression system explained

by Griffin McElroy { 6 days ago }

Though the effeminate hairstyles have managed to stay in tact as the Final Fantasy franchise has evolved, one element seems to change from game to game: The character progression system. From Materia to Guardian Forces to the Sphere Grid and plain ol' leveling up, the series has introduced some novel forms of strengthening your characters. It sounds like Final Fantasy XIII will be no different -- according to the latest issue of Shonen Jump, the RPG introduces a new progression system called "Crystalium."

Andriasang laid out the gist of how the system operates -- instead of gaining experience from battles, players earn "Crystal Points," which they can then spend on new abilities and stat boosts which are arranged on a circular chart. As you progress down one of the chart's specialization trees, you unlock stronger abilities; Fire leads to Fira, and so on. Sounds a lot like the aforementioned Sphere Grid -- but we suppose we'll have to wait until we get our hands on the game before we can make a more insightful assessment.

Chet Faliszek crushes Left 4 Dead 2 DLC rumors

by Griffin McElroy { 6 days ago }

Remember those pair of error messages that a few folks found in the demo for Left 4 Dead 2, referecing "Miracle" and "Apocalypse" DLC? Yeah, those ain't no thing. At least, not according to Valve's Chet Faliszek, who recently addressed the error messages while speaking at the Eurogamer Expo. "What, those error messages?" he reportedly said, "Why, those ain't no thing."

Of course, Kotaku's slightly more accurate transcription of this quote had Faliszek saying, "if you're reading in the forums and you're reading about the 'Miracle' DLC or whatever, that's test code." He added, "to get tested through Microsoft certification we had to do test scenarios with DLC. We haven't actually come out internally with what we're going to do yet." Hmph. We liked our version better.

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is filled with the spirit of All Hallows' Eve

by Griffin McElroy { 6 days ago }

We tend to treat Halloween like any other holiday when it comes to post content -- it's basically an excuse for us to bombard you with topical links to our favorite holiday-themed corners of the internet. Like this one! And this one. And this one! Let's not forget this one. And ... well, no, that's one's just inappropriate. Y'know what? We're going to leave it at four. That's a pleasantly round number.

You know what else is a good number? Seven. Hey, that's how many webcomics we've got lined up for your perusal below! Check them out, vote for your favorite in the poll after the jump, then tell us what strips we may have missed out on in the comments section. Happy Halloween!

Zombie Attack (Brawl in the Family)
Move Over Teen Wolf (Virtual Shackles)
Cabela's Tetris (Of Noobs and Men)
The Big Long Persona 4 Comic Part Two (Hiimdaisy's Livejournal)
Gun Lust (Nerf Now)
Anti-GBA Micro (Digital Unrest)
Babicide (Penny-Arcade)

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Hungary spanks America in Dragon Age: Origins contest

by Griffin McElroy { 6 days ago }

The dust from the 24-hour Dragon Age: Origins Warden's Quest tournament has begun to settle, and the sleep-deprived, blood-soaked winner has been declared: The team representing the nation of Hungary. The Hungarians trailed in the rankings until the fourth round of the contest, when they rallied to pass the BioWare Community team (who finished in second place). We guess you could say they were just Hungarier for victory than everyone else.

America, however, must have only been slightly peckish, ending up with a disappointing ninth place (or next-to-last place) finish, and getting eliminated in the third round of the competition. This might be a small blow to our egos, but hey -- at least we're still better at dragon slaying than the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Booyah!

[Via Kotaku]

Happy Halloween! You're banned from Xbox Live.

by Griffin McElroy { 6 days ago }

We hope your recent forays into piracy merely involve you donning a hook and eyepatch for a debaucherous costume party, or else you likely received a message from Microsoft like the headline of this post. The company recently dispatched a wave of bans to owners of modded Xbox 360s who've been playing pirated copies of games. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to IGN that "we have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs."

The spokesperson went on to explain that this batch of console bans wasn't conducted on any particular time frame, and that the company was merely following up on its standing policy against piracy. In other words, Microsoft isn't trying to ruin your Halloween weekend -- it just, you know, worked out that way.

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And the winner of the Pumpkin Carving Contest is ...

by Griffin McElroy { 7 days ago }

It was a hard fought battle with 120 contenders, but the grand prize winner of Joystiq's Annual-ish Pumpkin Carving Contest 2009 is ... Antonio F.! His conceptualization of the Worgen starting zone from the upcoming WoW: Cataclysm expansion is one of the most impressive gourd-based works of art we've ever seen. We imagine you guys feel the same way -- this pumpkin placed first in the poll by a huge margin, garnering 3,303 votes!

The first prize winner, with 2,309 votes, is Dennis C.'s equally well-rendered rendition of the Borderlands box art, which we've posted after the jump. Congratulations, you two -- and a heartfelt thanks to everyone who took the time to send in their lovingly crafted Jack O' Masterpieces! We'll be emailing the winners shortly to inform them about receiving their bounty; for the rest of you, have an unbelievably happy Halloween!

Gallery: The 2009 Joystiq Pumpkin Carving Contest

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Sims 3 price dropped to $30 for one day only

by Griffin McElroy { 7 days ago }

The streak of brief yet impossibly frugal discounts continues! Until the end of the day, EA is selling The Sims 3 for the price of $29.99 -- a full twenty bucks off the standard cost of the game. Maxis' life simulators tend to retain their launch price long after hitting store shelves, so if you want to grab the title on the cheap, today might be your only chance for quite some time. Act quickly, though! We're losing daylight.

Random House teases first few pages of Elder Scrolls novel

by Griffin McElroy { 7 days ago }

Are you in the mood for some reading that's a bit heavier than the video game news post you're currently digesting? We suggest you check out this Random House page to read an excerpt from the first chapter of the Elder Scrolls-based novel, The Infernal City. The few pages of text introduce us to what will likely be the book's plucky protagonists, Annaïg and Mere-Glim.

It's a pretty intriguing kick-off for the novel's plot -- however, the excerpt doesn't exactly sound like our usual experience in the Elder Scrolls world. See, in our version, the heroes would systematically rob everyone on the planet blind, and then, once bored with that, would just start killin'. It may not win any Pulitzers, but at least it's authentic.

AO-rated PC version of Manhunt 2 releasing next week

by Griffin McElroy { 7 days ago }

If you thought Manhunt 2 had reached the pinnacle of mature content in video games, you better guess again. The controversy-garnering title will be re-released on Direct2Drive next week for $29.99 -- only this time around, it's packing an AO rating. As those who lived through Mahuntgate surely remember, that was planned to be the original rating for the game, before the ESRB rolled up, and was all like "what? You want to stick shards of glass into another man's ear? No. No, sir."

Rockstar has remained mum about what the new rating will entail, but our guess is that it will incorporate more graphic forms of violence, and perhaps a few extra dirty words. We've contacted Rockstar to get more specific details on the mature-r content, and to find out when we can expect the Early Childhood version of the game to hit store shelves.

[Via Big Download]

Grow a moustache for charity, end up in Red Dead Redemption

by Griffin McElroy { 7 days ago }

A classy gentleman never needs a reason to grow some over-lip facial hair -- however, Rockstar and the Movember Foundation are offering a pretty good incentive for you to grow a glorious moustache. While the latter is asking all applicable males to grow sweet handlebars to raise awareness and donations for men's health issues (primarily prostate cancer), Rockstar is offering the charity's mouthbrow-growing participants a rare prize: They can end as a character in Red Dead Redemption.

The charity event and contest kicks off tomorrow, so if you're interested in helping out, sign up on the Movember Foundation page, and on Rockstar's contest site. Oh, also, you're going to need to shave that sweet Fu Manchu you're already sporting, and start over from scratch. C'mon, you haven't seen your philtrum in like, three years. It misses you.

Readers pick best webcomic: Ambiguitas

by Griffin McElroy { 7 days ago }

We hate to drop spoilers on you guys, but we've gotta impart one important piece of information from Uncharted 2 before the above comic will make any sense: Nathan Drake is a straight up genocidal maniac. Now, this fact is never really explored by the game -- fortunately, Tycho and Gabe managed to expose his manslaughtering habits in last week's Webcomic Wrapup winner, "Ambiguitas." Remember, kids: Henchmen have families, too.

Second and third place went to 2P Start's "Scariest Boo Costume" and Virtual Shackles' "Groundhog Day in Hell," respectively. Got a strip you'd like to see in tomorrow's wrapup? Just drop a link in the comments, or send in a tip!

Namco announces 2.5 million shipped copies of Tekken 6

by JC Fletcher { 7 days ago }

Namco Bandai sent out a press release today boasting that it has shipped over 2.5 million copies of Tekken 6 worldwide. Now, we don't want to tell Namco how to do its job, but these shipment numbers tend to be more impressive when you give the game a week or so in stores, so we can more readily infer a connection between shipped copies and sold copies.

The portion of those 2.5 million earmarked for Europe, for example, just got there today, and it's only been in stores for around two days in North America. All we know based on this is that Namco expects to sell a ton of copies, not that it is selling a ton. Although we're sure it will.

Maybe that's the idea -- to build excitement about Tekken 6 by showing how confident the publisher is. To print up 2.5 million of the things (some of which come in totally huge boxes), Namco must really believe it's on to something!

Gallery: Tekken 6 (GamesCom 2009)

WRUP: Macro-miniaturization edition

by Alexander Sliwinski { 7 days ago }

We're still wrapping our brains around the DSi XL, the "bigger version of a smaller version of a smaller version of an originally bulky handheld." Surely there must be other examples of macro-miniaturization in technology, but we're hard-pressed to think of any immediately. Just keep an eye on that PS2, though -- the tabloids have been talking that it's looking mighty thin now. Or, perhaps, the PSP Go will get back that UMD drive.

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Buy 2 Wii games, get 1 free at Target starting Nov. 1

by Richard Mitchell { 7 days ago }

Seems like these buy 2, get 1 free sales are all the rage these days, as Target has just announced it will be hosting one starting November 1. Unlike the recent sales from Amazon, Toys R Us and Best Buy, Target's sale applies only to Wii games, though it's worth noting that it does apply to all of them. As Wii games tend to be significantly cheaper than 360 and PS3 games, this might be a good deal for the early holiday shoppers out there.

Target is also offering a deal on Band Hero starting November 3 and running through next week. Those that pick up any version of the Band Hero bundle ($199) will get a free $20 gift card along with it. That should be just enough to buy supplies for the Taylor Swift party you will no doubt be forced to throw.

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