Yet another pair of Japanese video game developers are merging to stay afloat, Marvelous Entertainment and AQ Interactive. Marvelous has been offering the Wii strong support this generation, releasing a number of Harvest Moon games, the No More Heroes series and Murumasa Demon Blade, whereas AQ Interactive is better known for games like Korg DS-10, Bullet Witch, and Blue Dragon Plus. After the merger finalizes on October 1st the company will be known as Marvelous AQL.
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Hi-Rez Studios has posted the first two gameplay screens from Tribes Ascend on the game's Facebook, so be sure to keep an eye out on that page for more Tribes goodness. There are way too many good FPS in the pipeline for me to possible handle by myself. This multiplayer-only, download-sized successor to Tribes 2 is due out before the end of the year on PC.
A couple of weeks ago Halo developer Bungie filed a trademark for Bungie Aerospace. Everyone was almost certain that this has something to do with their first game under Activision's wing, but could it be something more? It has recently been discovered that Bungie Aerospace has been incorporated in both Washington and Delaware. Could this be an entirely new studio? Bungie is currently working on putting together a private beta for whatever it is they are cooking up. We will likely find out what all of this is about at next month's e3. Wouldn't it be funny if we were all expecting an insanely awesome first person shooter and it ended up being a flight simulator? Bungie didn't always make Halo you know. Blizzard's Mike Morhaime gave Diablo fans some great news during Activision's quarterly earnings call. He said had this to say about the status of the long awaited sequel, "We began internal company-wide testing last week," Morhaime confirmed. "The game looks great, and we're currently targeting a Q3 launch for external beta testing." He also said that they wanted to release the game by the end of the year, but lets not get ahead of ourselves. This is Blizzard we are talking about here, we will see the game when it is ready.
Originally announced as an episodic downloadable title, Rayman Origins is now hitting retail this Fall. Game Informer reports that the game features four-player local co-op and will be accessible to players of all skill levels. I am glad to see Ubisoft chancing a retail release, I hate the fact that most gamers equate 2D games to downloadable titles. As New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Donkey Kong Country Returns have shown, you can do quite well if you bring quality 2D games to retail.
Update: Gamestop's release calendar now has Rayman Origins listed for Wii and DS as well. Treasure's rare Sega Saturn beat-'em-up, Guardian Heroes, is coming to XBLA this Fall. It will feature HD 2D visuals, online co-op and battle modes, and best of all not cost you an arm and a leg. Treasure has been confirmed as the developer of this port, and it will feature the original Sega Saturn graphics in high resolution.
Atlus has sent out yet another batch of interesting Catherine screenshots. I absolutely love how weird this game is. There is a Deluxe Edition of the game called "Love Is Over" available for $80 that comes with a pair of polka dot boxers packaged in a pizza box. There is also a nice pre-order bonus, an art book and soundtrack CD that is valid for both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions at participating retailers. Look for this wacky puzzler in stores July 26th. More screens after the break.
Black Rock Studios, developer of racing favorite Split/Second, will be letting go around 40 employees this morning. The goal is to cut the studio down to a single team. The developer pitched a sequel to Split/Second to publisher Disney Interactive who shot down the project in its early stages. Since then Black Rock Studios hasn't had any projects to work on. Disney Interactive has been showing signs of wanting to get out of the gaming industry entirely, going as far as to cut a number of employees from Junction Point, the developer of the million plus selling Epic Mickey. I hope everyone effected by these layoffs finds work quickly, they are a talented bunch at Black Rock.
Konami can't wait until e3 to show you what they have in store for gamers this year so they are holding a live stream show 5 days before the event. They either have something big to announce, or more likely, are afraid of getting lost in the shuffle. Nintendo does have a new console to announce after all. The event will be streaming from several gaming sites and Konami will also host viewing parties in LA, San Francisco, Toronto, São Paulo, and Mexico City among other major cities.
After finding a lot of success with the uDraw tablet on Wii, THQ has announced that they are bringing the device over to the Xbox 360 and PS3 this holiday season. The tablet will be redesigned, meaning it will probably lose the Wii remote holder and come in a hardcore gamer oriented black color scheme. Except I doubt they will be interested in Spongebob Squigglepants, so maybe THQ has a couple of core oriented uDraw games to announce at e3.
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