30

Mar

Hydro Thunder Hurricane forecast for XBLA

Posted by John as Shmups

Watch out for a downloadable sequel to Midway arcade speedboat racing game! Indie Studio, Vector Unit, is currently developing Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox Live Arcade, which is an eight-player online, four-player split-screen.

When Midway went bankrupt last year, Warner Bros. paid $49 million for most of the Mortal Kombat publisher’s assets. Not included in the deal were some of its studio locations, the TNA wrestling license, and apparently the Hydro Thunder speedboat racing franchise.

Independent studio Vector Unit announced that it was developing Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox Live Arcade, a sequel to the original 1999 arcade hit. The original Hydro Thunder quickly found its way into gamers’ homes, as Midway had a Dreamcast port ready for that system’s September 1999 launch and produced Nintendo 64 and original PlayStation editions the following year.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane will feature new levels, speedboats, water physics, and cooperative as well as competitive multiplayer modes. Following its billing as a full-pledged to the arcade original. The developers are including online races for up to eight players, with split-screen support for four gamers. The game’s races will be set across eight “theme park” worlds with some over-the-top trackside obstacles, including distractions like a giant warhammer-wielding Viking and a sea serpent threatening to sink players’ chances of finishing first.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

24

Mar

Tecmo Koei stock sinks on game delays resulting to poor earnings

Posted by John as Shmups

Publisher’s share price drops nearly 10% following Quantum Theory delay. The earnings forecast lowered by 97% was due to poor Samurai Warriors 3 sales. Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll also is reportedly delayed.

Following earnings reports from Capcom, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Namco Bandai, Tecmo Koei reported its finances for the quarter ending December 31, 2009.

According to a Yahoo Japan report, the year-old company reported a loss of ¥1.84 billion ($20.3 million) for the three-month period. It was mostly due to slower than expected sales of Samurai Warriors 3 in Japan. Samurai Warriors 3 is an exclusive to Nintendo’s console, the latest installment in Koei’s long-running action franchise is due out in Europe and North America later this year. The poor holiday quarter caused Tecmo Koei to drastically lower its full-year profit forecast by 97 percent from ¥7.4 billion ($81.8 million) to just ¥200 million ($2.2 million).

The downward adjustment’s impact was exacerbated by two reported game delays. The AFX news service reports (via CNBC) that the Gears of War-like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 action game Quantum Theory has been pushed into Tecmo Koei’s next fiscal year, which begins April 1. Meanwhile, Japanese gaming specialty site Andriasang reports that the company has also postponed the PS3-exclusive action role-playing game Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll until later in the year.

The combination of poor earnings and game delays sent Tecmo Koei’s stock south. On the Nikkei market in Tokyo, the company’s share price ended the day down 9.5 percent to ¥630 ($6.96).

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

22

Feb

Midway XBLA games no longer available

Posted by John as Shmups

Xbox Live Arcade titles were yanked from Marketplace. Among those no longer available are Smash TV, Gauntlet, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Microsoft successfully launched Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade even without much support from top-tier third party publishers. Midway remains to be the most notable name on the Xbox Live Marketplace at launch with its publisher selling arcade classics Gauntlet, Smash TV, and Joust from day one.

The list of games recently pulled out from the Xbox Live Marketplace are Cyberball 2072, Robotron: 2084, Defender, Paperboy, Rootbeer Tapper, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. A representative of Microsoft said the group of games was removed from service late last week “due to evolving rights and permissions.”

The issue of evolving rights and permissions doesn’t seem to affect the publisher’s Playstation Network titles, given games like Mortal Kombat II are still available on the PlayStation 3 downloadable storefront.

Gamers may not find any access to add those titles to their library for the first time, but these games aren’t gone from the service entirely. A Microsoft representative said, “Xbox Live members will always be able to play and re-download any titles they have already purchased.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

01

Oct

DoomsDay: last hope the game trailer

Posted by John as 2d Shooter

Unofficial trailer of developing 2d shooter game.Based on early versions of Doomsday

Duration : 0:4:22

[ Click here to read more ]

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Valid &