Good morning and welcome to the day that could rather be tomorrow. If I was president of the world we’d make it so.
The high demand for the PS4 has meant that Sony may not actually fulfill any pre-orders placed after next Monday in the UK. [More on CVG]
As if to emphasize this, former CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello has said he thinks the next-gen of consoles will “be bigger than the last generation” in terms off user base. In the same interview with Games Industry International he slammed “opportunists” who just want to profit from games. [More on GI International]
Digital Foundry has heard from sources at Microsoft that the Xbox One is the size it is to provide “tangible benefits” for the user. These include unit reliability and there are even claims that the console is designed to last ten years and be switched on for the entire period… Plenty more here.
The Xbox One reputation system has a “crazy algorithm” to calculate whether you’re good, bad or just plain ugly. The how is available on Xbox Wire.
The latest EU PlayStation Store update has brought with it new games in the sale known as the ‘Summer Festival’. Injustice and the God of War Collection are just two of the discounted items available until 14 August. Meanwhile, the new content available includes the PS Plus free games – Need for Speed Most Wanted, Mafia 2 and Spec Ops The Line – and the usual collection of games and other content.
The next two Games with Gold have been revealed… and there’s actually three of them. Crackdown will be available from today, while Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Case Zero will be available from 16 August. Unless the games are not available in your region of course. [More on Major Nelson]
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick sees Red Dead Redemption as one of the publisher’s “permanent” franchises, which means we can all assume that another game for the series is in the works. Can we get a “hell yeah”? [More on CVG]
Star Wars: Battlefront by DICE has been given a launch window by EA of… summer 2015. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen actual words at a shareholders meeting was that the game “will most likely come out around the same time as the Star Wars movies start to come out, probably in the summer of ’15”.
XCOM Enemy Within has been spotted on Steam and on the South Korean rating board’s website. The game is listed for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 but is not detailed. [More on CVG]
Blizzard has confirmed that it will host a press conference at Gamescom on 21 August from 11:30am CET. No details have been given, but speculation points to Diablo 3 on consoles as the main focus.
Metal Gear Solid VR Missions has been rated for PS3, PSP and PS Vita, which suggests the game will arrive via digital means sometime. [More on CVG]
GTA V will be released in Australia. The game got itself an R18+ rating, so it’s pretty clear shoving body parts into a toilet is less of an issue for Australian authorities than a purple dildo.
The Wii U really appears to be dying a slow death. In the last three months, the console has only managed to shift 160,000 units worldwide. Overall the console has sold 3,610,000, short of the 5.5 million sales Nintendo initially expected by the end of April. [More on CVG] On the flipside, the Wii has now managed over 100 million in lifetime sales making it Nintendo’s third most successful gaming device.
Nintendo is not the only one in the gaming industry struggling. Capcom is also finding a small decline in quarterly profits. [More on CVG]
In reverse fortunes, Sega is showing a small profit in their first quarter after Company of Heroes 2 sold 380,000 units in five days. [More on CVG]
BioShock director Ken Levine has confirmed that he is working on the screenplay for a remake of sci-fi film Logan’s Run. [More on GameSpot]
Videos
The multiplayer component for Batman: Arkham Origins has been revealed. The multiplayer is being developed by Splash Damage, and the reveal video is below, but more details can be found on the PlayStation Blog.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified – the YOLO trailer.
Cricket 14 is coming to the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4 and Xbox One. The Big Ant Studios developed game will be out on next-gen consoles next year and in November 2013 on PC and current-gen.
The Killzone: Mercenary closed beta is now live, and a public beta will be live in late August. For more, check out the PlayStation Blog.
Screenshots
South Africa
If you missed the announcement on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, the MSSA Western Cape Provincial Championships have been postponed until 24 and 25 August. The venue was the main issue, as it needed to allow access to the internet for the numerous PC games (and one or two console games) that required authentication or servers to operate. Details to be announced in the next week.
Last night, Protea Dota 2 team played their first ever Test Match against Romania from the MWEB Mcave. In a valiant display – given our still early steps into the international arena – the team lost 2-0 while being watched by around 8000 viewers online via the various streams. The team also featured this morning on SABC 3’s morning show. They will also appear later in an album on our Facebook Page. There are plans in the pipeline to play more matches against international opponents in the coming months.
**UPDATE** Album added. Match footage below.
