Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: PS3
Disney Infinity cost $100 million to develop
Disney Infinity, Disney Interactive’s attempt to clone the success of Skylanders, is now available in stores. But you’ll never believe how much it cost to produce and just what effect is has had on Disney’s video game division.
The wall Street Journal recently published a behind-the-scenes look at Disney Infinity and, according to their sources, the game (and its associated toy line) cost more than $100 million to produce. Only Star Wars: The Old Republic can boast a higher production budget.
But this gargantuan project comes at a cost for Disney Interactive. Internal development within the company has ceased and all of their future projects (Fantasia: Music Evolved, Star Wars: Battlefront, the Visceral Studios Star Wars game, and Kingdom Hearts III) are co-productions with other publishers. According to The Wall Street Journal’s report, devotion to Disney Infinity also caused the axe to fall on several other titles including a tie-in game based on this Summer’s Iron Man 3 and an interanlly-developed Star Wars game.
But I think Robert Iger, Disney’s CEO, best summed up the importance of Disney Infinity’s launch: “If Infinity does well, it bodes very well for the bottom line of this unit. If it doesn’t do well, the opposite will be the case.”
Well said, Bob.
New Releases: Saints Row IV, Disney Infinity, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, More
This week’s new releases take us to infinity and beyond.
The “infinity” is taken care of by Disney’s massive companywide crossover, Disney Infinity, is ready for release on the 3DS, PS3, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360. The game’s “Starter Pack” will come complete with three figures (Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles, and Sulley from Monsters Inc.) with additional figures available for purchase separately.
That brings us to the “beyond,” which is ably covered by Volition’s Saints Row IV. The insane antics of the Third Street Saints have found a new home at Deep Silver, but the latest game is available for three familiar platforms: PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. And if you’ve got the scratch, why not spring for Saints Row IV’s luxurious (and ridiculous) “Million Dollar Pack.”
Also available this week is the latest adventure of Sam Fisher, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist (PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360); the 1960s-set adventures of an anti-alien task force, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (PC, PS3, Xbox 360); and the standalone release of Luigi’s latest starring effort, New Super Luigi U (Wii U).
More new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Disney Infinity, New Super Luigi U, Saints Row IV, The Walking Dead, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, XCOM
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse materializes on September 3
Now that DuckTales Remastered is available to download, it’s time to turn our attention to 2013’s other Disney remake: Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.
Sega has announced that Castle of Illusion will be released for the PlayStation Network on September 3. The game will be available to download from PC download services and the Xbox Live Arcade a day later, on September 4. All three versions will be priced at $14.99, but if you pre-order the game through the PSN, you’ll receive a free download of the original Genesis version of Castle of Illusion, an exclusive dynamic theme, and three avatars.
You can view a trio of new Castle of Illusion screenshots at the Sega Blog.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Castle of Illusion
Square Enix will release Thief on February 25
Square Enix has shared a trailer for Eidos Montreal’s Thief reboot ahead of next week’s Gamescom convention. The trailer showcases some of Garrett’s stealthy style as well as the game’s rebellious storyline.
Best of all, the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One game now has a release date. The end of the trailer informs us that Thief will be available in stores on February 25, 2014.
Arkane Studios is likely working on Prey 2… for real this time
Back in May, it was reported that Bethesda had taken Prey 2 away from Human Head and handed it off to Arkane’s Austin studio. The rumor stated that Arkane was being given free reign to throw out the entirety of Human Head’s work and start over. The new project, which may still carry the “Prey 2” name, was said to resemble System Shock.
As is their habit, Bethesda denied these rumors. But a new report on Kotaku purports to show a leaked email from the company confirming Arkane’s involvement and the cancellation of Human Head’s version of Prey 2.
In light of this new information, rather than issue another denial, Bethesda declined to comment:
When reached by Kotaku for comment today, Bethesda sent over a statement: “We aren’t talking about what Arkane is working on and we have no new information to share on Prey 2.”
Why are they being so vague? Why mislead the public like this? Maybe there are legal issues involved here—the relationship between Bethesda and Human Head is still very bizarre—but it’s an unusual and unfortunate situation.
It may be a long time before we hear anything new about Prey 2, but we’ll let you know when we do.
NCAA Football 14 finds the endzone as July’s best-selling game
The July 2013 best-selling games chart has been released by The NPD Group and EA’s NCAA Football 14 has gone to the head of the class. It will be the last game to carry the “NCAA Football” moniker as the NCAA has ended their licensing agreement with the game publisher.
A mixture of recent and older titles populates the rest of the top ten, which you can view right here:
1. NCAA Football 14 (Xbox 360, PS3)
2. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition (Xbox 360)
3. The Last of Us (PS3)
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
5. Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)
6. Far Cry 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
7. Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
8. Injustice: Gods Among Us (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U)
9. NBA 2K13 (Xbox 360, PS3 ,Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
10. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, Vita, PC)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Far Cry 3, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Lego Batman 2, Minecraft, NBA 2K13, NCAA Football 14, NPD, The Last of Us
Grand Theft Auto Online promises a “living online world”
Rockstar Games has revealed Grand Theft Auto V‘s multiplayer component in a new video and they hope that the online mode, known as Grand Theft Auto Online, will capture “the heart of the Grand Theft Auto experience.”
Grand Theft Auto Online takes place in a “persistent and continually expanding world.” The multiplayer mode will also include “an array of structured and unsctructured activities” such as arm wrestling and motorcycle cliffjumping. Rockstar plans to develop a ton of post-release content for Grand Theft Auto Online, but players will be able to create their own using an in-game editor.
The entire thing looks ridiculously huge. And we’ll find out exactly how big it is on October 1, when Grand Theft Auto Online goes live for all PS3 and Xbox 360 owners of Grand Theft Auto V.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Grand Theft Auto V
CoD: Ghosts Multiplayer Reveal: Create-A-Soldier, Squads, dynamic maps
Activision just dropped a ton of Call of Duty: Ghosts news onto the Internet. Are you ready for the full scoops on the game’s multiplayer mode? Here it is…
Ghosts will introduce the Create-A-Soldier system, in which “players can customize their various weapon loadouts, plus, for the first time in the series, the physical appearance of their soldier, delivering over 20,000 possible combinations, including heads, body types, equipment, gender, and more.”
Players will be able to take their created soldiers and drop them into custom squads, which leads us to a new gameplay mode, also known as Squads. In Squads, players can “enlist to play solo, cooperatively up to 6-players, or competitively for one vs. one, head-on matches pitting players and their squads against others and their squads. Squads features a variety of play-types, allowing fans at any time to swap-out their custom A.I. soldiers with real friends for quick-action co-op. The competition can be fierce as squad soldiers display life-like, skilled tactics and behaviors like side-strafing, corner-camping, jump-shooting and more. Players, plus their squads, will earn XP, and if you’re offline, be prepared as your squad may get challenged for play without you.”
Finally, Call of Duty: Ghosts will make multiplayer battles even more chaotic with dynamic maps. Dynamic maps are “the evolution of multiplayer maps through dynamic map events. Player-triggered traps and events allow gamers to strategically redirect the course of battle, including the ability to call-in a map-changing killstreak, which can completely transform or modify the map delivering new levels of strategy and gameplay.”
You can get a first look at Call of Duty: Ghosts’ multiplayer mode in the first multiplayer trailer, which features Eminem’s new song, “Survival.”