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inFamous becomes almost-Greatest Hits game, drops to $40
Sucker Punch's superpower game has sold 1.2 million copies, according to a recent update by the PlayStation.Blog. According to Sony's rules, that's enough to make the game a certifiable "Greatest Hits" title. However, a game can't don the ugly budget box art until ten months after the game's original ship date.
Until then, inFamous will get an almost-Greatest Hits price for its almost-Greatest Hits status: $39.99, effective immediately. Also, the former GameStop-exclusive power-up Gigawatt Blades will be available for all as a free PSN download, starting December 10 -- a nice freebie for latecomers to the game.
Considering Black Friday has already passed, it seems like Sony may have missed the best opportunity to announce a price drop on inFamous. Of course, there might be another motive behind this move: to keep this game on the mind of video game editors (and fans) readying their GOTY lists.
Until then, inFamous will get an almost-Greatest Hits price for its almost-Greatest Hits status: $39.99, effective immediately. Also, the former GameStop-exclusive power-up Gigawatt Blades will be available for all as a free PSN download, starting December 10 -- a nice freebie for latecomers to the game.
Considering Black Friday has already passed, it seems like Sony may have missed the best opportunity to announce a price drop on inFamous. Of course, there might be another motive behind this move: to keep this game on the mind of video game editors (and fans) readying their GOTY lists.
Sucker Punch hiring network programmer, adding online support to next game
Normally, we wouldn't write a story simply stating that a developer's next, unannounced title will include some form of online multiplayer support -- however, based on the cliffhanger ending from InFamous (and the apparent re-casting of Cole MacGrath's voice actor) it would be completely logical to assume that Sucker Punch is working on a sequel to its electrified superhero sim. Therefore, one might also assume that the company's recently posted job listing, which requests the services of a network programmer who has "experience building on-line components of video games," means InFamous 2 will have some form of online mode.
We know, we know -- that's a whole lot of assumptions. Still, we're sticking to the old adage of "when you assume, you make an ass of you and me, but sometimes, you can totally predict things before they happen by simply making an educated guess." We'll contact someone over at Sucker Punch to try and help our chances.
[Via CVG]
We know, we know -- that's a whole lot of assumptions. Still, we're sticking to the old adage of "when you assume, you make an ass of you and me, but sometimes, you can totally predict things before they happen by simply making an educated guess." We'll contact someone over at Sucker Punch to try and help our chances.
[Via CVG]
Actor's Twitter hints at inFamous lead recasting
Before a game is really, totally announced, you've got to keep an eye out for little hints that it may be on the way. Take, for instance, the sequel to inFamous that may or may not exist. We already knew developer Sucker Punch was looking to add an artist familiar with the "urban style" that figured prominently in the first inFamous game. Now, actor David Sullivan has tweeted (as spotted by G4) that he's being considered for the role of Cole, which he says is being recast for a sequel.
You may know Sullivan from the indie hit Primer, or as the subject of actor Jason Cottle's forthcoming book, Job Stealers I Totally Hate.
You may know Sullivan from the indie hit Primer, or as the subject of actor Jason Cottle's forthcoming book, Job Stealers I Totally Hate.
250GB PS3 Slim bundles also coming to Europe [update]
Earlier this week, we got our hands on a few European GameStop listings for 250GB PS3 bundles. Earlier today, SCEE and SCE UK confirmed the hardware packages and included games. Earlier this hour, we went to Whole Foods and purchased some really crisp bok choy. (Sorry. We got into a rhythm there.)
Europeans will have their choice of two bundles, both of which will be made available throughout October. One of the collections includes Need for Speed: Shift, while the other includes FIFA 10. Needless to say, both bundles come with the recently GB-boosted console. A price point for these two bundles has not been specified, but we've contacted Sony for clarification.
Bizarrely enough, the UK's getting a different set of bundles than the rest of the continent. On October 1, United Kingdomites will have their choice of a 250GB PS3 bundled with Infamous or two unnamed Platinum Hits. Their options will be further expanded on October 16 with the release of an Uncharted 2 bundle, and once more on October 19 with a bundle that includes the X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Dark Knight films on Blu-ray and a film-friendly remote control.
SCE UK has graciously provided a price for its bundles -- £284.99 ($450) -- making it our certified favourite European Sony chapter of the day. That's as legit as being knighted by the Queen, you know.
Update: After the break, we've posted a snapshot of the FIFA bundle provided by a GameStop employee in Norway.
Europeans will have their choice of two bundles, both of which will be made available throughout October. One of the collections includes Need for Speed: Shift, while the other includes FIFA 10. Needless to say, both bundles come with the recently GB-boosted console. A price point for these two bundles has not been specified, but we've contacted Sony for clarification.
Bizarrely enough, the UK's getting a different set of bundles than the rest of the continent. On October 1, United Kingdomites will have their choice of a 250GB PS3 bundled with Infamous or two unnamed Platinum Hits. Their options will be further expanded on October 16 with the release of an Uncharted 2 bundle, and once more on October 19 with a bundle that includes the X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Dark Knight films on Blu-ray and a film-friendly remote control.
SCE UK has graciously provided a price for its bundles -- £284.99 ($450) -- making it our certified favourite European Sony chapter of the day. That's as legit as being knighted by the Queen, you know.
Update: After the break, we've posted a snapshot of the FIFA bundle provided by a GameStop employee in Norway.
What's In A Name: Sucker Punch
We loved inFamous despite its unfortunate capitalization decisions, but since it's considered rude to ask about that sort of thing, we instead grilled the folks at Sucker Punch on how they came up with their studio's name.

"The other company founders and I had worked at Microsoft for a decade or so before starting our new company. Having chafed under corporate policies about what constituted an acceptable project code name, we were looking forward to giving the company a name we'd never ever get away with at Microsoft.
"We came up with a list of ten or so names, and eventually my lovely and talented wife saw the list. She said (and I quote), 'I don't care what you call the company -- as long as it isn't Sucker Punch.' We figured that the best way to choose a name a 14-year-old boy would think was cool was to choose a name that a lovely and talented 38-year-old woman thought was unacceptable ... so 'Sucker Punch' it was!
"After twelve years, I believe I've been forgiven."
- Chris Zimmerman, Sucker Punch co-founder and development director
Liked this story? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name archives.
Sucker Punch looking for an artist hip to 'urban style'
When we read on superannuation that Sucker Punch was looking for a lead character artist -- one that "should be aware of current urban style and street fashion" -- we, like you, thought, "Oh, that's nice, Sucker Punch is making another inFamous game." But, since we're professionals, we went beyond our first instinct to see what else we could come up with. We then decided that we were pretty sure about the inFamous thing after all.
So remember, if Sucker Punch is making a sequel to Marc Ecko's Getting Up (which has got to be called Marc Ecko's Going Back to Bed) or a new Jet Grind Radio, you saw the possibility roundly dismissed on Joystiq first.
So remember, if Sucker Punch is making a sequel to Marc Ecko's Getting Up (which has got to be called Marc Ecko's Going Back to Bed) or a new Jet Grind Radio, you saw the possibility roundly dismissed on Joystiq first.
Rumor: Best Buy offering new PS3 buyers a free game to discourage Slim trade-ins

According to our tipster, who snapped the picture above (Kotaku also claims to have verified the story), Best Buy sent out an internal memo instructing employees to try to convince customers not to return their recent purchases for Slims with the offer of a free copy of either inFamous, Killzone 2, or MLB 09. The memo also states that there is no official "street date" for the system, so it could be out on the shelf already.
Is a free game sufficient salve for the burn of just missing out on a Slim? Or will irate customers with valid receipts ignore the offer entirely in pursuit of a less monolithic console? If you are in the position of having just bought a PS3, do let us know if this sends you scrambling back to Best Buy in search of some kind of better buy.
And if you're a high-level Sony executive, don't (try to) hide your immediate plans from your consumers. As it turns out, people like being informed about the things they're planning to buy. Nobody would have bought a PS3 in the last couple of weeks if we had known about the Slim, and there wouldn't be any emergency programs like this as a result of it.
Gallery: PlayStation 3 Slim
inFamous to sizzle on the big screen
Sony Pictures wants to bring Cole MacGrath to the big screen, with THR.com reporting that inFamous has already been drafted into a screenplay by Sheldon Turner. Best known for his work on The Longest Yard remake and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Turner managed to pique the interest of Hollywood hotshots Avi and Ari Arad, who will both produce the new film. It's not exactly a stretch, considering the two are also working on the Uncharted movie.
InFamous makes for good film fodder, if we may say so. There's plenty of super badassery to watch, a love story (which all movies have to have nowadays, we guess) and – with the right lead (we're thinking Samuel L. Jackson, or maybe Gene Hackman) – this could make for one entertaining flick. Of course, being a video-game-turned-movie, the odds are certainly stacked heavily against it.
[Via VG247]
InFamous makes for good film fodder, if we may say so. There's plenty of super badassery to watch, a love story (which all movies have to have nowadays, we guess) and – with the right lead (we're thinking Samuel L. Jackson, or maybe Gene Hackman) – this could make for one entertaining flick. Of course, being a video-game-turned-movie, the odds are certainly stacked heavily against it.
[Via VG247]
inFamous costume hitting LittleBigPlanet on August 6

inFamous may be two months old at this point, but it's never too late to reignite the flame with some LittleBigPlanet downloadable content. That's exactly what you'll be seeing next week, August 6, when two new costumes will be made available on the PSN store. Both of the costumes allow you to recreate the likeness of inFamous' Cole MacGrath though, just like in the game, you'll be able to decide whether your Sackboy will be good or evil. You can check out the good costume after the break.
With this DLC already having been pushed back, it doesn't look like we'll be getting any new LBP content this week. There's also no pricing info for this inFamous costume, but we're expecting it to cost as much as other similar packs.
With this DLC already having been pushed back, it doesn't look like we'll be getting any new LBP content this week. There's also no pricing info for this inFamous costume, but we're expecting it to cost as much as other similar packs.
Happy 4th of July! Here's Alex Mercer with boobs, Cole McGrath in a bikini
In the celebration of all things great and American, we're proud to present the characters of inFamous and Prototype cross-dressing. YAY! (See inFamous' Cole after the break.)
Okay, so you're probably wondering where these images came from. Yahtzee presented a challenge to the development teams of these two games after he couldn't decide which game was better in a recent episode of Zero Punctuation. So, he jokingly said the "winner" would be whichever team sends in an image of the other game's protagonist cross-dressing.
And now the world is a much better place.
Okay, so you're probably wondering where these images came from. Yahtzee presented a challenge to the development teams of these two games after he couldn't decide which game was better in a recent episode of Zero Punctuation. So, he jokingly said the "winner" would be whichever team sends in an image of the other game's protagonist cross-dressing.
And now the world is a much better place.
Rare PlayStation Home goodies go for big bucks
GameZine did some snooping around eBay recently, and found some of the more rare PlayStation Home items were going for a surprising amount of money. Two examples were presented in an InFamous reaper costume that sold for $30 (that's like 18 Slurpees) and a Killzone 2 Helghast outfit that went for -- you may want to brace your hindquarters for this one -- a whopping $66. That is more than the frakkin' game!
So, Joystiq has come up with a plan:
So, Joystiq has come up with a plan:
- Create a Joystiq-themed Home space (there may be some minor kidnapping of designers involved, but we'll flesh that out later)
- Make sure it is the only one in existence
- ???
- Profit
inFamous Home space encourages vandalism, electrocution
PlayStation Home is becoming, well, home to a number of new game-specific spaces, the latest of which -- devoted to inFamous -- has been revealed by Sony. Set to be added to the virtual world on Thursday, July 2 (hey, that's tomorrow!), the themed location ("The Abandoned Docks of Empire City") will feature a couple of interactive goodies, including the ability for users to create graffiti designs using Sony's tool set (to prevent any naughtiness, we suppose) which can be seen -- and voted on -- by other Homers.
Much more exciting, though, is a shooting gallery minigame where (after waiting in line for, like, forever, spamming the X button) Cole-esque electric bolts are used to knock down targets fashioned after Reapers, Dustmen and the like. We were hoping for a corresponding announcement of a new "Zeke's Rooftop" private space, but, alas, it's seemingly not to be, at least for now. Check out a video tour of the new inFamous space after the break, along with high-res screens below.
Much more exciting, though, is a shooting gallery minigame where (after waiting in line for, like, forever, spamming the X button) Cole-esque electric bolts are used to knock down targets fashioned after Reapers, Dustmen and the like. We were hoping for a corresponding announcement of a new "Zeke's Rooftop" private space, but, alas, it's seemingly not to be, at least for now. Check out a video tour of the new inFamous space after the break, along with high-res screens below.
Gallery: inFamous Home Space
inFamous space coming to PlayStation Home

The biggest news hidden in the post must be the revelation of an inFamous space for Home. No other details (or images) were revealed, but we're sure it will let you walk around in a small section of Empire City. Odds are low that you'll get magical electricity superpowers when entering.
The inFamous comic comes to an end

Joystiq turns 5, you get the presents! Win inFamous & Prototype on PS3

[Update: We've picked a winner! Congratulations, mahunoy! Everyone else: thanks for the best wishes. Here's to five (hundred?) more! Now, enough playtime. We've got some news to report on!]
Earlier this week, Joystiq turned five. Five! That's half a decade of daily video game reporting. That's over 38,000 posts and over 1.5 million of your comments. That's up from over 27,000 posts last year, and less than a million comments! Let's put that in perspective: even lowballing the average word count per post at 100 words (for example, this post is 339 words) that's nearly four million words! How does that stack up? If Joystiq had been a monthly magazine, and if you consider a standard printed page to be 250 words per page (spoiler: game magazines aren't 250 words per page), each issue would have been over 250 pages, with no images and no ads. And we're lowballing here! And that doesn't include comments.
So what? This is all to say, "Thanks!" Thanks for reading the site today; this week; this year; or this half-decade. Thanks for supporting our unique flavor of game journalism. Thanks for taking us to task when we get it wrong and for sharing when we get it right. Thanks for being interested enough in video games to read about them every day, multiple times a day, and for staying engaged.
So, what better way to say "thanks" than to give you free stuff. Introducing Swag Saturdays – every Saturday, we'll be donating something from our pile of free stuff to you, the Reader. Slow week, it may be a shirt for an iPhone game. This week: A superhero c-c-c-combo pack for your PS3, featuring both inFamous and Prototype.
Again, thanks!
-Love, Team Joystiq
Rules after the break!




















