The accolades lavished on criminal action video game "Grand Theft Auto 4", long expected to be the best-selling game of 2008, pushed Take-Two shares as high as $27.10, more than a dollar higher than the $25.74 per share offered for the company by rival Electronic Arts Inc. It was the highest level for the stock since February 28, when it touched $27.61 three days after Electronic Arts went public with its $2 billion hostile bid.

These ratings are quite extraordinary. It's something special and helps critics to understand why Take-Two was so confident and adamant that they wanted to wait. Many analysts have long said EA may have to raise its bid by a dollar or two per share.

Take-Two and Electronic Arts were not immediately available to comment.The Tuesday launch of "Grand Theft Auto 4" is expected to be the biggest entertainment event of the year, with first-week sales of up to $400 million.

Scores on gaming review aggregation site Metacritic.org show the game, in which players work for a crime syndicate in a fictionalized New York, is on track to be the highest-rated video game of all time.

Based on more than a dozen reviews so far, the version of GTA4 for Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 game console has scored a perfect 100 while that for Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 has achieved a score of 99.

Reference:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/grandtheftauto4

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 9:10 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, PlayStation, XBox

Sony has unveiled a video download service for PSP. Go!View, a new video download service for PSP created jointly with Sky, will allow PSP users to watch their favorite TV shows on PSP.



According to Sony: "This summer, PlayStation and Sky will launch Go!View, the first official PlayStation Portable video download service in Europe. Go!View will provide a wealth of programming from the worlds of entertainment, comedy, sport and movies for PSP owners to enjoy in addition to their usual gaming experience,".

So far, so good. Watching high quality video content on PSP is a pure pleasure. When I bought mine, the shop made a gift of 4 UMD disks. A five-hour flight easily ate up two of those disks and I really enjoyed watching the movies while on the plane.

The idea of Go!View sounds pretty interesting but I see a big question mark there. The service will come in two flavors: subscription and pay-per-view based. I don't think PSP users who know how to load tons of videos on their PSPs will be happy with that. So the big question mark is hovering on a question: why users will start using a paid service while there are many ways of loading the same stuff on a Memory Stick free of charge? On the other hand, it is really good to see an official video download service for PSP. Sony has not provided any dates of the service availability yet. Summer - that can be anywhere from June to August. So, we only have to wait and see.

Posted by George S. at 2:38 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

According to data released today by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association and compiled by Chart-Track, the UK games industry racked up a total of £418.4 million in software sales in the first quarter of 2008. It appears that Nintendo is the real winner of the increased sales, scooping up 37 percent of all unit sales thanks to the success of its Wii and DS offerings, which took the top two spots. The PC was the third most popular platform for game sales, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360. The report also shows Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to be the most popular game in the first quarter.

ELSPA's director general, Paul Jackson, used the release of the figures as an opportunity to petition the government for increased industry support. "The UK continues to blaze a trail in terms of creativity yet over the last few years it is becoming apparent that some talent is being lured away by more attractive prospects overseas. As it stands, the UK is already down to fourth place from third as the world's creative centre for games. It is time the Government recognised the massive financial contribution we make to the UK economy, especially when compared to the film, TV and music industries." - he said.

As previously reported on GameSpot, the UK games industry employs 25,000 people and contributes £2 billion per year to the country's economy.

References:

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/?i=543&s=1111

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:00 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Nintendo, XBox

Burnout Paradise is my favorite racing game. The game is fantastic both on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.


Criterion Games, the developer of Burnout Paradise has released an important update codenamed Bogart. The update will be available shortly on Xbox Live and PSN. As of writing this, a countdown on the Criterion's site is showing that 2 days and 15 hours (okay to be more precise 14 hours 53 minutes and 29 seconds) are remaining until Bogart's availability.

The update is quite comprehensive and you can read in detail here.

I believe it will be a real test for both Xbox Live and PSN servers once the update is available for download :)

Posted by George S. at 9:04 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Games, XBox

If you are like me and can't live without your PSP and like our Juliet - spend a whole lot of time in your bath, then this news is for you. Just keep reading. Your dream has come true. Now you can make your PSP waterproof and play while taking the shower or a bath or right in the pool.

All you need is an Aquatalk waterproof bag. Both old and new editions of PSP can be used with this bag. Cool concept indeed. But wait a second. Has anyone tested this bag? Hey people, we need volunteers with PSPs to test the bag :)

Posted by George S. at 10:44 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: Accessories, PSP

God Of War: Chains Of Olympus has already been dubbed as a game of the year. However, many people think that GoW is not very suitable for a handheld gaming device. To say mildly, this is a wrong assumption.

BlendGames.com presents you with a short but interesting review of the game. You can read it at: http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Review-God-Of-War-Chains-Of-Olympus-9665.html

Chains of Olympus is a great PSP game. If not the game of the year, it certainly is one of the best games of the year and it ought to be on every PSP owners collection.

Posted by George S. at 10:23 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Reviews

French telecom and media group Vivendi won permission from the European Commission on Wednesday to merge its videogame unit with Activision Inc in a $9.85 billion deal. The deal will give Vivendi a 52 percent stake in a new industry giant called Activision Blizzard with annual revenue of $3.8 billion.

The Commission said for "all categories of game software, the combined firm would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft." Activision is riding high on the success of games such as "Guitar Hero", "Tony Hawk" and "Call of Duty" but has lacked an offering in the online role-playing area, dominated by "World of Warcraft" from Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment.

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 9:02 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing