Trip Hawkins, the found of Electronic Arts has told VB that he believes the success of the iPhone and iPod Touch is ‘freaking’ out both the DS and PSP. Apple platforms are quite profitable for developers too and have huge awareness already.

VB: How do your iPhone games fit within the larger strategy?

TH: It’s by far our most effective platform. We make as much money with these games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms. Between the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I think the platform is freaking out Sony and Nintendo. Apple has sold 30 million units so far and it has created tremendous awareness. It has taken ground all over the world. But it has only penetrated one half of one percent of its total market.

Source Venturebeat

Shoko Nakagawa is Japan’s biggest female geek. She’s also a model, a singer, a TV presenter, etc, etc. She’s bigtime. Which is important because her website has drawn billions of visits. She’s an influence on Japanese gaming culture.

So it’s interesting to hear her blog about the Playstation 3, and how she’s planning on picking one up very shortly. What sparked her to make up her mind? The Tales Of Vesperia port of course, of which she’d previously bought an XBOX 360 solely to play.

With the Final Fantasy XIII demo on its way, and a slew of great content, you feel like Sony’s current grip on Japan is only going to get tighter and tighter.

Rock Band Unplugged will be available in the US and Europe on June 9, making this the first Rock Band game to be released in both regions during the same six-month period on a Sony system.  A limited edition PSP package will also be released on June 9 and will include Rock Band Unplugged, a download voucher for School of Rock, a 4GB memory stick and a Piano Black PSP for $199.99.

Rock Band Unplugged will be the first PSP title to have a “fully-featured in-game store,” through which several songs (listed below) will be made available exclusively for a limited time before being released across the entire Rock Band platform.

Super rock and roll man…

• 3 Doors Down – “Kryptonite”
• AFI – “Miss Murder”
• Alice in Chains – “Would?”
• Audioslave – “Gasoline”
• Black Tide – “Show Me the Way”
• Blink 182 – “What’s My Age Again”
• Freezepop – “Less Talk More Rokk”
• Jackson 5 – “ABC”
• Tenacious D – “Rock Your Socks”

Remember that awesome RPG that came out on the PS3 called Valkyria Chronicles?
No? Oh right, that’s because the game got absolutely zero marketing and
store presence. Well anyway, you might have heard it’s become quite the
cult favourite. And guess what fans, DLC is on the way. In a few weeks
to be exact. There will be three packs available, each costing £3.19
($3.99).

• Hard EX Mode adds a new difficulty to the
  campaign. The Edelweiss will be unavailable and enemies will be more
  lethal than before. Clearly, this is a mode for the hardcore VC players out there.
• Edy’s Mission “Enter the Edy Detachment” – Edy and
  five squad members have been separated from Squad 7. In this new
  mission, players will have to use this small team to defend a small
  village from an Imperial Army attack.
• Selvaria’s Mission “Behind Her Blue Flame” – No
  more Mr. Nice Guy. This DLC lets you play as the enemy. Play as Johann,
  an engineer assigned to Selvaria, in a mission that takes place right
  after the outbreak of Gallian battle lines.

Nielsen, the company that makes US TV executives quake in their boots with its ratings, is doing the same for video game consoles over the pond.

Its ‘State of the Video Gamer’ report for 2008 is now out and states that, “Looking at the total usage minutes across all consoles for 2008, PlayStation 2 with the largest installed base still leads all other consoles.

“However both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 usage minutes are both trending down for the year.

“Xbox usage minutes are also trending down for 2008. The Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube usage minutes are trending upward.”^†

Before the crowing starts from those people who have less than great love for PlayStation, the report also states that, “PlayStation 3 console users clearly use their consoles as a group more than any other console type we track.”

That said, there is also a table included in the report that shows some rather confusing data. This refers to “The active user percent tells us how often a person used their console out of the total amount of time the console could have been used during the measurement period.”

The table (pictured right) shows that PlayStation 3 owners used their console for 8.1% of the available time. Xbox 360 owners, however, used their consoles for 17.4% of the time. PS3 sessions were on average 64 minutes long for 2.42 sessions per day, while Xbox 360 sessions timed at 78 minutes on average 2.15 times a day.

To show that the results are not your standard ‘We’ve looked at 100 people who play video games and we can conclude that everyone loves our product’ slab of nonsense, here’s how Nielsen gets its data: “The source for console metered data is Nielsen’s National People Meter (NPM) sample of more than 17,000 US television households.

“When metering sample households, Nielsen monitors not just television activity on all metered televisions but the usage of any device attached to the television including video game consoles – old or new. When a video game console is the detected source, we collect and process usage and demographic data for the console just as we would a television viewing source.”

So, of the 17k people, the company also finds that:

- PlayStation 3 users are older than users of any other console tracked.

- The most active (console) gamers tend to be younger males in the 12 to 17 range.

- The PlayStation 2 has the most pronounced downward decline.

- World of Warcraft and Second Life show a decline in unique players during the Summer months, with World of Warcraft regaining its players in the fall and winter.

- Predominant users of the Wii and GameCube are likely to use these consoles at most once a week and for fewer minutes and the fewest number of sessions compared to the other two groups of consoles.

What’s It All About?

Obviously taking license from the incredibly successful 1974 movie, The Godfather II is the follow-up video game to 2006’s mixed success sandbox adventure. Deviating sacrilegiously (but necessarily) from some areas of the original movie’s plot, you play as Dominic, a soldier under the previous game’s protagonist Aldo Trapani. After a brief encounter in Cuba, Aldo is killed by rebels, leaving you as the new Don of New York. It’s not all parties and fireworks though, as New York has been influenced by the Carmine family. It’s up to you to win back your turf.

The Godfather II spans three locations – New York, Florida and Cuba – in its 12-hour single player campaign. There is also a full multiplayer mode.

What We Liked:

• Evident depth. After overcoming the introductory section in Cuba, you’re quickly placed into the action in New York. It’s from here that you start to build up a family of henchman, obliterating all of the enemy families that stand in your way. Buried deep within The Godfather II’s obviously-GTA influenced sandbox gameplay is a lot of unexpected depth. In order to control the game, you’ll have to obtain business’. Business’ can be secured by simple gunfights and bribery, but it’s holding onto the business’ where The Godfather II becomes interesting. Opposing families will not stand back and watch you exploit the loot from rackets they once owned, thus you’ll have to employ guards. Naturally guards cost money so you’ll need to check your daily monetary balance to ensure you can afford a decent number of guards. Not only do you have to manage your finances, but also your family of henchmen. Each henchman has a unique ability, allowing you to conquer the enemy in numerous ways. Demolition men can bring buildings to the ground, technicians can cut the power, medics can revive your team and so on. In fact there’s tons more we could say about The Godfather’s depth but it’s best explored for yourself as you develop your own playing style.
• Sense of achievement. The Godfather II has a good sense of pacing. The game offers you a bit of leeway everytime the experience warrants something fresh. A new family member with a different ability opens up new possibilities and reignites a sense of reward. Not only that, but as you see your empire slowly grow, you really begin to feel the smug satisfaction that real Don’s must experience. Sure, your ever expanding bank balance is useless aside from buying needless upgrades for your family but who cares? You earned dat six figure bwank balance, babe.
• Tackle things the way you want. A good sandbox game should allow the player to experience the game however they see fit. And while The Godfather II isn’t exactly filled with the kind of side-quests and sub-games you’d expect from a Grand Theft Auto, you’re still free to achieve the overall aim – to run the three available cities – whichever way you please. Naturally the game does have signposts to keep you from getting lost, but it’s up to you which business’ you exploit and when you take them.
• The Don’s View. In order to keep you in control of the action, The Godfather II incorporates a tidy-map system known as The Don’s View. This keeps you up to date on your growing empire, the activity of rival families and the development of your own.
• Music. Keeping in tradition with the 50’s/60’s American mafia theme, The Godfather’s soundtrack is suitably “classic jazz” – music which is no doubt forgettable to the casual-rock elitist, but something we’d happily spin in the PushSquare office.

What We Didn’t Like:

• At times, overwhelming. There are a few moments early on in The Godfather II where you’ll be a little overwhelmed by the wealth choice available. The game does a decent job of signposting you but the information all comes a little too fast early on. There’s no doubt that simple perseverance will get you through these early moments, but it’s a downer none the less.
• Kill conditions. In order to take out rival family members permanently, you’ll have to meet the demands of certain kill objectives; otherwise the enemies will recover. At times these kill conditions can be unbearably vague, wasting your time as you wait for them to recover due to an inevitable mistake.
• Too easy. Everything about The Godfather II is too easy. Gunplay is far too simple due to aim assist and powerful weapons, which only gets easier as you obtain bonuses and level up your family. This makes obtaining, defending and generally beating the game quite simple; thankfully the wealth of depth still keeps the experience quite long.
• Dark, clunky graphics. Given the scale of The Godfather II’s sandbox gameplay, it achieves its presentation with mixed effect. The game is littered with technical glitches, none of which break the experience but are disappointing nonetheless. Dropped weapons float inches off the ground and scenery drops into view directly in front of you. The game is also needlessly dark, even when the gamma settings are turned right the way up.

The Godfather II has a full online multiplayer component which we will cover in more detail as soon as we’ve spent more time with it.

Source: Pushsquare.com