Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s segment of the weekly gaming news. This week we give you the rundown on everything important that you may have missed while you were busy over the last week, including starcraft scandals, strange movie licenses, the first truly great western game, and much more.
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For those of you who aren’t aware, Starcraft is a big deal in South Korea, and when I say big deal, I’m not talking a big deal within the gaming community, like MLG is here; I mean a big deal to EVERYONE. These guys get sponsorships, appear on television, and are bonafide celebrities. If you want an idea of just how big these events are, check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkzYssPZ9Rs
(skip to about the 2:40 mark for a good image of the crowd). The indictment alleges that the other brokers offered players between two- and six-and-a-half-million won (just under $2,000 and $6,000, respectively) to throw Starcraft matches. After being paid by the gambling ring, two players, a Mr. Won and Mr. Park then allegedly bribed six other Starcraft players for a total of eight times.
- In slightly better news for the gaming world, the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption was released this week. The game, which is published by Rockstar, throws gamers into the Wild West as a reformed outlaw in the sandbox style Rockstar has become so famous for through the Grand Theft Auto series. Based on initial reviews, Red Dead Redemption is a very quality follow up to Red Dead Revolver, receiving high marks nearly across the board. With the release of this possible game of the year candidate, it seems that gamers who have been longing for a great take on the wild west may have finally found what they are looking for.
- Ubisoft will be releasing a new version of Assassin's creed II, titled Assassin's Creed II: Complete Edition. The game will come complete with the original title along with the two DLC releases: the Battle of Forli and Bonfire of Vanities, along with three new Templar locations which were only available in the "black edition" of the game. The complete edition, which ships on June 4th, has only been spotted on Play.com, a British website, so it is unclear as to whether or not it will be coming to the states. We will keep you posted if any news of it coming to America comes to light. This discovery comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Assassin's Creed had shipped nine million copies as of March 31st, the end of Ubisoft's fiscal year.
- Capcom, the developer of Dead Rising, has announced that it will no longer be using western developers in the creation of New IPs. The decision was made as a result of the critical and commercial flop of Dark Void and Bionic Commander, two titles which created by western developers. Although all new IP creation will take place in Japan, Capcom has said that they will still use western studios for ports and sequels.
- For those of you who are Call of Duty fans and didn't happen to catch the NBA conference finals, a new trailer has been released for the next game in the series. Titled Call of Duty: Black Ops, the next iteration of the game appears to at least have some portions set during the Vietnam war and looks to feature the classic intensity that has become trademark of the series. Black Ops also represents the first Call of Duty game since Acitivision and Infinity Ward split in April, although it should be noted that Treyarch, the developers for Black Ops, have a history of CoD games as well. They were responsible for Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War. If you're interested, you can check out the full trailer here
- Finally, in disappointing news for developers and publishers, April sales fell 26% year over year, which is a near record decline. This fall has been attributed to the following: First, the Easter holiday was especially early this year, falling in late March as opposed to April. This shift in spending accounted for nearly 21% in the decline of revenue. Also, there was a lack of titles published in April, which likely contributed to the slumping sales.
Well that's all for this week, stay tuned to Pnosker.com for that latest news and reviews of technology, video games, and science.