Ubisoft has officially launched its newest Tom Clancy military video game franchise EndWar, available for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. EndWar is set in a fictional World War III in the year 2020, the game imagines a world where Middle Eastern oil has been cut off by a nuclear exchange, Russia establishes itself as the world’s leading supplier of energy, and space-based anti-ballistic missile systems create an uneasy peace. But with the United States set to deploy a new orbital military platform, tensions among enemies and allies alike escalate to the boiling point, with Europe, Russia, and the United States taking up arms against each other.
Tag Archive: Tom Clancy
Ubisoft Acquires Hybride
Games creation company Ubisoft has announced that it’s acquired visual effects company Hybride Technologies, the Canadian company that added visual effects to movies like 300, Sin City and the Spy Kids series.
Ubisoft plans to share technology to up the quality of effects for games and, through Hybride, to hopefully brings its intellectual properties to the screen.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s CEO, said:
“The acquisition of Hybride falls directly into the strategy that has already led us to open in digital creation studio in Montreal and to acquire the Tom Clancy brand for video games and ancillary products. The exception quality of the team at Hybride and the expertise of our Ubisoft teams will allow us to create one of the best 3D animation studios in the animation industry.”
Dell Courts Gamers with XPS M1730
Hot on the heels of Voodoo’s Envy M:152 gaming laptop, Dell announced its own competitor for that niche market, the similarly named XPS M1730, on Thursday. “The beast,” as Dell is fond of calling it, is the first notebook to get a mobile PhysX processor from Ageia, as well as Logitech’s GamePanel LCD.
Upgraded M1730s get Intel’s Extreme Edition Core 2 Duo x7900 processor, which runs at 2.8GHz with support for overclocking up to 3.2GHz. Vanilla versions of the system get the Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 at 2.2GHz. They also have 2GB of DDR2 memory, an Nvidia GeForce Go 8700M GT GPU, and a 200GB 7200 rpm hard drive. A massive 17-inch LCD panel with 1920×1200 resolution serves as a desktop-replacement style display.
PlayStation 3 Price Cuts Now Confirmed
Just days after Sony officials were publicly denying news of an impending $100 price cut on the Playstation 3, the company has announced that there will, in fact, be a $100 price cut on the Playstation 3. In a press release Monday morning, Sony announced both the slashed $499 price of its 60GB PS3, and the introduction of an 80GB model packaged with Motorstorm, which will take over for the previous model and retail at $599.
God of War II Tops March Game Sales
According to new figures from market analysis form NPD Group, Sony’s Gods of War II for the PlayStation 2 topped video game sales, pushing 833,000 units into consumers’ hands during the month. Sales for the Greek myth-themed game were more than double those of the month’s second best-selling game, Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360.
Rounding out the top five game sellers for March: Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360, Wii Play for the Nintendo Wii (which ships with an extra Wii remote), and Motorstorm for the Playstation 3.
Sony Consoles Getting Slew of New Titles
PlayStation fans will be able to get their hands on a lot more games in the coming months, promises Sony. The Foster City, Calif.-based company said today it will launch more than 100 titles for its PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation2 products. The beefed-up second-quarter of 2007 line-up will comprise industry leading franchises as well as new intellectual properties from both in-house and third parties, according to Sony Computer Entertainment America.
“We are excited by the content being developed by our partners, but are also looking forward to launching PlayStation-branded exclusive games created by our own worldwide studios this quarter and throughout the rest of 2007," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing at SCEA in a statement.
Nintendo Wii: Top Console in January
New sales numbers from market research firm NPD show that the Nintendo Wii was far and away the top-selling video game console during January 2007, moving some 436,000 units during the month. However, the rest of the pack was comparatively tight, with Sony’s long-standing PlayStation 2 claiming the number two spot with 299,000 units sold, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360 landed the number three position with 294,000 units sold and Sony’s much-touted but still-pricey PlayStation 3 finding itself in fourth place with 244,000 units.
Square Enix Develops First Person Shooter?
Know for their articulate role playing games with series like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix has entered an agreement with Epic Games to use their Unreal Engine 3 middleware for future game development.
"The complexity of next-generation game systems featuring HD graphics and multi-core parallel processing poses a number of technological challenges to our game development. However, we can expedite our game development process significantly while allowing extra time and resources to be spent on game design and mechanics by establishing an effective technology platform," said Taku Murata, General Manager, Research and Development Division, Square Enix, Co., Ltd. "The technology platform for game development is becoming more important than ever. I’m excited to be partnering with Epic Games in such an important area."
Nintendo Announces Wii Launch Titles
Nintendo is launching is Wii gaming console on November 19…but everyone knows a new gaming system is only as appealing as the games people can play on it. To that end, Nintendo has announced the titles which will be available for the Wii within the console’s “launch window,” loosely defined as the system’s first five weeks of availability, although many titles will be available simultaneously with the Wii’s launch.
“Developers worldwide have enhanced Wii’s launch library of new games with countless new ways to play,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior VP of marketing and corporate communications, in a statement. “Whether you pick a completely new property or a classic franchise, the Wii experience draws you in.”
Sony Reveals PlayStation 3 Launch Details
As the much-anticipated North American launch of its PlayStation 3 gaming console nears, Sony Corporation has detailed the availability and pricing of key PS3 peripherals, the initial title line-up for the new console, and details of the PlayStation 3 online service.
Although pricing for PS3 consoles has been public knowledge for a while—$499 for a 20 GB unit and $599 for a 60 GB PS3 with Wi-Fi—Sony outlined pricing for key PlayStation 3 peripherals. An extra SIXAXIS wireless controller will go for $49.99, a HD remote control for managing movies and media will be priced at $24.99, and a memory card adapter for transferring game information from PlayStation 2 memory cards will go for $14.99.
