Gameloft, a leading provider of mobile games, has just signed a contract with Ferrari and will be providing official Ferrari games.

The first of the many games that Gameloft plans to launch, Ferrari World Championship, is due to be released right at the end of this month. You will be able to race as Ferrari's Finish pilot Kimi Raikkonen or the Brazilian Felipe Massa.

The developer has not forgot the tradition of the Ferrari and the game will allow you to race Ferrari F500 F2 from 1951 - a legendary racing car.

Gameloft has already has some extremely popular racing games. So, let's hope this time they make even better games. Frankly, I am not much in mobile games (prefer my PlayStation 3), but I will certainly try it out.

Posted by George S. at 7:55 AM | 2 comments  

Labels: Mobile Games

U.S. video game sales including hardware and software jumped 34 percent in February to hit $1.33 billion, even with two top-selling consoles in short supply, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.

Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 have been in such high demand stores are having a hard time keeping them in stock. Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the company moved up shipments during the holidays and hasn't been able to catch up since. He added: "we should be in good shape" by the time "Grand Theft Auto IV," the highly anticipated latest installment of the Rockstar Games franchise, hits store shelves April 29.

The game, which will be available on the Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, is expected to boost sales mutually of both consoles. Pre-orders have been better than expected, according to its publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.

Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, expects the game to sell about 9 million units during the company's fiscal year, which ends in October. Roughly 6 million of this, he added, will be to Xbox 360 owners.

February is normally a slow month for video game publishers coming off holiday highs, and consumers have also been cutting back spending amid economic worries.

Game hardware sales rose 19 percent during the month to $480 million, NPD said late Thursday. Of this, the portable Nintendo DS was the best-seller with 587,600 units, followed by the Wii at 432,000. The Xbox 360 sold 254,600 units even amid supply constraints.

"It appears that Wii and DS shortages abated in February, likely in anticipation of strong March software launches," - Pachter wrote in a note to investors.

Going strong since its launch in 2000, Sony's PlayStation 2 continued to outpace its successor. The PS2 sold 351,800 units compared with 280,800 for the PS3.

February's software sales grew 47 percent to hit $668.7 million, with Activision Inc.'s first-person shooter "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" at No. 1 with 296,200 units sold for the Xbox 360. Capcom USA's "Devil May Cry 4" and Nintendo's "Wii Play," which comes with a remote and includes games like pingpong and fishing, also did well.

The NPD Group was founded in 1967. Today it is the global provider of consumer and retail market research information for a wide range of industries.

Reference:

http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_080311.html

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 8:29 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Nintendo, PlayStation, Wii, XBox

Gameloft plans to release more than 15 games for the iPhone by the end of 2008. On the bases of the newly-released SDK, the company’s development teams have already begun working on the games.

Though the SDK was recently released, games will only be available to purchase once the App Store, featuring third party applications that can be downloaded to your device via WiFi or EDGE, launches in June 2008.

“The Apple iPhone has changed the way consumers perceive and interact with their mobile phones, and the release of the SDK is a tremendous opportunity for Gameloft to apply its creative and innovative approach to mobile gaming. Due to our investment in creating one of the most advanced and creative development studios to date, we are ideally positioned today to seamlessly integrate new opportunities and quickly produce games that are as evolutionary as they are enjoyable,” - said Michel Guillemot, President of Gameloft.

Gameloft is a leading international publisher and developer of video games for mobile phones. The company creates games for mobile handsets equipped with Java, Brew, or Symbian technology.

Gameloft has a direct marketing a sale presence in 16 countries. Its games are distributed in more than 75 countries through agreements with over 170 wireless carriers and 150 partners and its online shops.

Posted by Lika Todadze at 8:17 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, iPhone

Rumors have appeared on the Internet that Sony is releasing 4.00 firmware update for PSP. According to the sources, the update will bring significant enhancements and looks to be one of the most important updates.

As the sources speculate, some of the new features will be ability to monitor PS 3 Network titles via Remote Play, support for Real, Quicktime and WMV audio and video files and Flash player support. Another enhancement will be an ability to play PSOne games directly on PSP. On the connectivity front, we shall expect support for 802.11g in WiFi. The browser will be updated with advanced cookie management as well.

None of this has been confirmed by Sony yet. So, we only have to wait and see if the information proves to be correct.

Posted by George S. at 12:15 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP

Sony has announced that the company will be releasing a new set of accessories coupled with a new matte bronze color of PSP in the spring of this year for the Japanese market.

The great news is that the cradle allows you to watch videos while at the same time acting as a charging dock for the PSP. The device has its own remote control as well. The bad news is that the cradle will only work with the Slim PSP and will retail for 4,800 YEN.

However, the microphone will work both with the old and with the new versions of the PSP. Though, I don't see much of use on the older model, since Skype is only available on the new PSP. The release date for the mic is March 19th. As you already know, Skype has not yet been released in Japan. So, the release of the mic coincides with the official release of Skype for PSP.

The new color will probably have its fans. I personally love my piano black :)

Via Modojo.com

Posted by George S. at 7:27 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: PSP

After several firmware updates, a number of interesting icons have appeared in the PSP menu, Internet Radio and Skype to mention some. You've probably also noticed a mysterious Go! Messenger icon in your PSP.

It is a new wireless communication package, which has been recently launched by Sony in partnership with BT.

The Go! Messenger server allows gamers to send video, voice and instant messages to each other from anywhere in the world from their PSPs – using any wireless broadband connection.

Naturally, to take advantage of this service, you would need an attachable video camera and microphone. But once you connect the accessory, you will have the ability to make video calls to your friends and leave fun video and voice messages.

Best of all, the calls are free! So, one more feature to fully enjoy your PSP.

Posted by George S. at 8:54 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

As you already know many gamers that bought the Guitar Hero III disks for Wii, got Mono audio instead of Dolby. To remedy this situation, Activision has started a replacement program, which is valid until August 31st of this year. The true Dolby Pro Logic II discs are now being distributed.

But how can you distinguish among the mono and true Dolby versions of the disks? The label looks the same, however, there is one thing that can help you if you pay an attention to it.




Please look at the little star just above the Activision logo. The disks with a Dolby Pro Logic II audio, have this star. Those disks with the mono audio, don't. So, if you are a lucky owner of the disk with a star, you don't need to replace anything.

Source: http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/3583/2/

Posted by George S. at 8:29 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Wii