Cryoakira

Sony is of course talking about units sold to retailers.

They already did the same thing before :
14 January 07 : Sony said they sold 1 million PS3 in japan
8 June 07 : Media Create's datas (which take in account units sold to customer) say 910k PS3 sold in japan.

I know it won't happen, but it would be so good if nobody actually buy the maps and wait until september.
It would be a clear signal to MS & co.

I'm just so fed up with the XBLA which ask us to pay a fee so WE (US players, not MS) can ha ve the right to host the games. In Fact, MS should be paying us for that.

Comparing games and guns is just plain stupid.

The only and single purpose of a gun is to harm somebody (no matter if it's agression or self defense).

The purpose of a game is to have fun, tell stories and, sometimes, make you think about something (which might be controvertial).

Guns are NOT a cultural creation, they are killing tools.

And while you cannot blame weapons for this guy actions, you can certainly understand that if, instead of guns, he would have only access to a knife, the body count won't be the same. At all.

At some point, in the future, i'm really eager to see what will happen in the USA when the first "nuclear gun" will be available on every corner shop... Maybe this will settle the debate in a fast, definitive and efficient way.

Well, don't forget that E.A. registered last year the "System Shock 3" name as a trademark. I don't know if there is a game in development, but still, there might be legal issues that Take 2 wish to avoid.

Some ppl around here make crazy math.

1- GoW does NOT just cost 10 millions USD because this figure do not include the development cost of the engine (UE3).

2- At the opposite, the 20 millions of LP do include the dev cost of the Next-Gen capcom engine, that is also used for DMC4, for instance, and probably other projects.

3- The 20 millions in advertising are huge, but you have to realize it's not about one game, but about one FRANCHISE. There will be more Lost Planet episodes, and when the installed base of consoles will be twice (or more) what it currently is, there will be ROI.

It's pretty sad that the article does not explain how Famitsu work.
Here is a translation of what said a french journalist (Gregoire Helliot aka "Greg") who also used to work for Famitus Xbox (among other).

"
The scores of famitsu, how it works :

1) Famitsu is a weekly magazine. Thus there are 4 teams making one magazine per month, with one chief editor each.

2) Before starting testing a game, the chief editor and the reviewers have a meeting and discuss about the game. If the chief editor got special orders from the publisher (don't be to harsh or so) he tells them there.

3) The 4 reviewers play the game.

4) They go back to the chief editor the day the magazine is finished and discuss again. They each agree on the score they will give to the game.

5) The chief editor sends the scores to the publishers so they can comment about them.

6) If the publicher is not happy with the scores, he negotiates. For example : "All right, you are harsh on that one, but the next one you give me a free ad, ok ?"

There it is, it's not that difficult. I say "Famitsu" because I know it from the inside, but in Japan it works like that everywhere. The magazine get the images and infos MONTHS before the official press release, but wait for the publishers before doing anything with them. There is absolutely no research from them.

All the pages about a game are sent and verified by each publisher. If they do a feature about Devil May Cry, it will be checked by Capcom who will send back the page saying them to change a title or some texts...

I hope I did not destroy a myth"

And some might call it journalism...

I would like to see publisher stoping their marketing lies.
Stop showing COD2/GRAW/LP TV spot using cinematics wihtout saying the game won't look like that. (i know they won't, but many don't)
Stop putting screenshot from the X360 version on the Wii box of Far Cry.
Stop using photoshop on your screenshots

Why change something that perfectly describe it's concept.

The problem doesn't come from the word "game", it comes from the people that forget what "game" truly means in our society.
Games were often considered as rituals (even in the religion way), games were used in a way to reinforce social cohesion, games were used as a way to teach youngster about the rules of life/society, games were used to improves and challenge both physical and cerebral condition.

Games have been around each and every human civilizations, having a fundamental rôle.
It's only quite recently (2 centuries IMO) that this word lose the respect it deserved.

That
"gamers with standard TVs will see little difference in graphic quality over the previous system"
is the most STUPID comment i've ever read from analyst !
You don't need HDTV at all to see the incredible visual improvment between previous gen and new one.
It's like saying there wasen't any differences between PS2 and PS1 (or even Super NES while we're at it) because it was the same regular TV rez...
Somebody really needs to get a new job !

Please guys, try to get some infos before writing such positive articles.
D&N has been a total failure, not only as a game release in alpha state dispite all the warning from the beta testers.
Furthermore, Farlan and NP3 have been ignoring their players questions for months, lying quite some times, trying to make their customers sign renouncement to their refund rights, asking some fans to vote on websites (like mmorpg.com) to raise the rank of the game and so on. Currently, DnL, albeit free, is next to empty.
It's 9 months (since Settlers of Ganareth) too late to try to be honest and confess the things averybody already knows.