Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
Gran Turismo 6 confirmed to be in development
That’s right, development has begun on Gran Turismo 6, and it’s been confirmed by no less an authority than the President of Polyphony Digital himself. Speaking to IGN, Kazunori Yamauchi confidently confirmed that the sequel to the polarizing Gran Turismo 5 is now in development. And that’s about all he could confirm:
IGN: How do you decide what goes into GT5 DLC and what goes into the next full game?
Kazunori Yamauchi: Of course we’re working on GT6 already and I think what really will be the separating factor is something that we can’t update through a DLC is something that obviously has to be saved for GT6. Things that we can provide through DLC we will, so that’s really the market difference.
So let’s see, if Gran Tursimo 6 gets announced at next year’s E3 Expo, it’ll probably be released sometime in 2017. Sounds reasonable, right?
Posted in News
Tagged Gran Turismo 6
Black Friday Game Deals 2011: Target
Black Friday is less than two weeks away (November 25, mark your calendars) and retailers have continued to release their annual Black Friday sales circulars.
Target’s ad has sailed away from the bargain shopper’s bullseye with prices that are a tad higher than those found in the ads from Walmart and Best Buy. The list of games is very similar (Need For Speed: The Run, Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, and Madden NFL 12), but each one has been priced at $37 each. However, Target is giving shoppers the chance to drive Forza Motorsport 4 home for $27, its lowest Black Friday sale price yet.
Hit the jump for the full details on that deal and all the rest of Target’s sale-priced games. (more…)
CoD Modern Warfare 3 becomes the biggest entertainment launch ever… sort of
Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has become the biggest entertainment launch in history with total sales of over $400 million (that’s 6.5 million copies) throughout North America and the United Kingdom on Tuesday, November 8.
This total surpasses the previous record holder, Call of Duty: Black Ops, which tallied $360 million in sales last year. Before that, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 held the record with a one-day sales total of $310 million.
“We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.”
While the sales numbers of Modern Warfare 3 are impressive, who wants to tell Bobby that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 sold over 11 million tickets in a single day this past July? And then another five million were sold the next day with yet another five million sold on the day after that?
It doesn’t matter how often gamemakers shout “We’re bigger than Hollywood!” It always requires the same faulty math Activision employs here where 6.5 million copies of a game sold at a minimum of $60 per copy somehow creates a more popular product than a film that tallies 11 million tickets sold at $8 a pop.
New Releases: Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Zelda Skyward Sword, Halo Anniversary, More
Ladies and gentlemen, the biggest week of new releases has finally arrived. More games are released in the third week of November than at any other time of the year and, once again, the publishers have come through with an amazing array of titles including:
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the first Zelda game created exclusively for the Wii.
- Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (PC, PS3, Xbox 360), the conclusion to the Ezio trilogy.
- Saints Row: The Third (PC, PS3, Xbox 360), the wildest open world crime game, ever.
- Need For Speed: The Run (3DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), a game about an illicit cross-country road race, which is just how we like our cross-country road races and our racing games.
- Rayman Origins (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), the return of Rayman and there’s not a rabbid in sight.
- Jurassic Park (Xbox 360), Telltale’s take on one of the greatest films of all-time. Hold on to your butts.
- Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii), more multi-sport shenanigans with Mario, Sonic, and all their friends.
- Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic, Cooking Mama brings her culinary skills to the 3DS for the first time.
- Shinobi, Sega’s favorite ninja also comes to the 3DS for the first time.
- Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy, Namco Bandai’s fight sim comes to the 3DS for the first time as well.
- Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (PS3, Xbox 360), the ultimate crossover fighting game.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases, which numbers close to 70 games, after the break. (more…)
Battlefield 3 blows away the competition in October NPD report
The NPD Group has released their report on the ten bestselling titles in October and, not surprisingly, Battlefield 3 takes the top spot. EA’s modern warfare sim likely won’t hold onto the crown for long as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released to record-breaking sales earlier this week.
Battlefield 3 was followed by a slew of new releases including Batman: Arkham City, NBA 2K12, Rage, Just Dance 3, Dark Souls, and Forza Motorsport 4. That’s right, the brutal action RPG Dark Souls outsold Microsoft’s big racing franchise.
Holdovers for this month include Madden NFL 12, Gears of War 3, and that other football game, FIFA Soccer 12. The complete top ten for October can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Dark Souls, FIFA Soccer 12, Forza Motorsport 4, Gears of War 3, Just Dance 3, Madden NFL 12, NBA 2K12, NPD, Rage
Black Friday Game Deals 2011: Best Buy
Black Friday is exactly two weeks away (November 25, mark your calendars) and retailers have continued to release their annual Black Friday sales circulars.
Today, Best Buy has published their list of Black Friday deals and it includes many of the same titles Walmart is advertising including Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, FIFA Soccer 12, Forza Motorsport 4, and Gears of War 3, all for $29.99 apiece. Also be on the lookout for $30 deals for Rage, Madden NFL 12, and X-Men Destiny.
As for console deals, Best Buy has a PS3 160GB bundle for $200 and an Xbox 360 250GB bundle for the same price. Hit the jump for the full details on those deals and all the rest of Best Buy’s sale-priced games. (more…)
The Madden Curse Strikes Back: A Midseason Report on All 32 Cover Finalists
The 2011 NFL season is only at the halfway point and the Madden Cover Curse has already claimed another victim. Fans selected Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis as the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete, and while some joked about the curse at the time, few gave it much thought as the lockout consumed all NFL news. But here we are: the lockout is over and it’s safe to say that few players have been victimized by the curse like Hillis has.
The running back has missed the last three games with a hamstring injury and he has already been ruled out for this weekend’s upcoming game against the St. Louis Rams. Hillis also missed the Browns’ week three game against the Dolphins with a serious strep throat infection. Some reports say he lost as much as ten pounds in a single week.
As if these injuries weren’t bad enough, Hillis has only had one breakout game the entire season. In week two, against the Colts, Hillis ran for 94 yards and scored two touchdowns in a 27-19 Browns win. He even managed to catch four passes as well. It’s a disturbing return to form for the Madden Cover Curse, which spared Vince Young, Brett Favre, Larry Fitzgerald, and Drew Brees in recent years. Troy Polamalu (who shared the cover of Madden NFL 10 with Fitzgerald) was the last victim of the curse, missing 11 games in 2009.
But what about the other 32 players that Hillis defeated in EA’s single-elimination tournament to select the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete? Have they been cursed by association? All told, seven players besides Hillis have succumbed to the Madden Cover Curse, even though they were never on the cover! Two more are currently nursing injuries and may join their ranks.
I’m not sure if I believe in curses and superstitions. But the Madden Cover Curse has affected nine of the 13 cover athletes chosen since John Madden gave up his spot on the box, and while a regression to the mean is to be expected for the top players of the previous season, the curse seems to go beyond that. I’m sure some statistics grad student could create an interesting paper out of the percentage of NFL players that suffer a statline reduction from season to season. But until then, this study is the best we have. (more…)
Game of Thrones action RPG in the works for 2012 release
Winter is coming. But fear not, for this Winter you’ll be able to experience an action RPG based on the “Game of Thrones” television series with a story created by George R.R. Martin himself. Developed by Cyanide Studios and published by Atlus, Game of Thrones will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in early 2012.
In addition to a story supervised by Martin, the Game of Thrones game will also feature the actors (and their likenesses) from the acclaimed HBO series. So what will players be getting themselves into with this latest adventure in Westeros? Here’s what Atlus had to say:
In this 30-plus hour action RPG, players will enter the gritty and medieval fantasy world of Westeros. As one of two original characters with disparate motivations, both former soldiers of Robert’s Rebellion, players will forge alliances and wage battles as they play a pivotal role in the ongoing war for power of the Seven Kingdoms. Their journey will span numerous quests, during which they will interact with many characters and make key decisions that impact the realm.
Standing before the majesty and bitter isolation of the Wall or walking through the streets and alleys of King’s Landing, players will not simply pass by locations and characters integral to the series; they will explore and interact with them, meeting and learning about the people and history that defines them and their importance. Key decisions and major events will have meaningful impact on Westeros, allowing the player to witness how the game world evolves over time based on their actions or inactions. Moreover, Game of Thrones introduces an innovative “active slowdown tactical combat engine” in which combat mirrors the series’ thoughtful approach to war and politics: fighting slows but never stops entirely, forcing the player to make quick, pressured choices before their enemy strikes again.
Atlus has launched the official website for Game of Thrones: The Game at GameOfThrones-TheGame.com. There’s not much there right now, but as they say, Winter is coming.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Game of Thrones