While we belong to the second largest video gaming territory in the world, some publishers and developers treat Indian gamers like crap. Sure we don’t have a consumption rate as high as a lot of other countries and yes, piracy is prevalent, but we’re still a growing market with both the 360 and PS3 making commendable headway in gaining space into people’s living rooms. Though Microsoft and EA usually ensure a release date on par with the rest of the world (in some cases, earlier), other publishers such as Take-Two and now, Konami have decided to give us the proverbial finger. According to  Gaming Indians who are in touch with the distributors for MGS4, the game will see a delay. It seems that that the Konami representative for India is holidaying apparently.

 believe it or not konami’s india rep is on leave….how does a konami employee get leave with MGS4 just around the corner?

And to further add to our woes…

there is no guarantee of when the game is arriving…..although konami is sticking to its earlier promise…..E-xpress’ stand: “The game is still scheduled for June 12, but after GTA4 we’re keeping the date as July 12″

So there you have it folks, we get the shaft. Again.

Yes you read right, the scourge of gamerkind has finally been smite down by the holy banhammer of the law. Being the verbose bulk of fail that he is, he stormed out of court during his disciplinary hearing as the Judge refused to hear him recite his LOTR -length objection letter as well as arguing about the position of the podium. The court recommends the disbarment of his career for 10 years.

Let me give you a moment to process that, a forty-ish something lawyer arguing about the position of the podium. For more laughs, check out his sincere objection letter here.

Don’t worry Jack, we in India need someone to rein in the censor board. Go for it.

You gotta hand it to Sony, they’ve got one of the best exclusive titles out this year and a solid winter line-up to boot. It looks like that Sony’s black box of gaming love is just coming into its own after a disastrous launch.

And suddenly without prior warning, two highly awaited titles, Eight Days and The Getaway have been given the shaft due to “the redistribution of resources and budget “. According to Game Industry other titles closer to completion have been given priority.
For those in the know, Eight Days debuted at E3 2006 to much fanfare and had production in full swing. The Getaway was still in early production stages. Just goes to show that things aren’t as awesome as Sony is making it out to be. Is this Sony’s way of going what industry gurus claim to be the end of single-player games or just a pathetic business move? Whatever the case may be, if you’re a PS3 owner or plan to buy one soon, check out the video to see what you’re missing out on.

While Xbox 360 owners are going to get a taste of the latest installment in the visceral, tough as hell Ninja Gaiden franchise today, the series creator, Tomonobu Itagaki has other things on his mind.

After stating that Ninja Gaiden 2 would be the last game in the series, he’s announced that he would be leaving Team Ninja, the development team responsible for the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises and suing the company president.

His official statement is as follows:

“I, Tomonobu Itagaki, hereby announce that on the 14th of May 2008 I filed a complaint in the Tokyo District Court against Tecmo Co., Ltd. for unpaid completion bonuses, and against the President of Tecmo, Yoshimi Yasuda, for such unlawful acts as unreasonable and disingenuous statements made towards me, claiming damages in total of 148 million yen. I also announce that this complaint was delivered to the defendants on May 22nd of the same year. In addition, I hereby announce that I have today submitted a letter of resignation to Tecmo Co., Ltd. stating that I will resign as of the 1st of July, 2008.”Before the start of development on Dead or Alive 4, Tecmo Co., Ltd. had agreed to pay a completion bonus to me for this Xbox 360 title, which I produced. However, when the time came for the actual payment, Tecmo Co., Ltd. went against its previous agreement and refused payment. President Yoshimi Yasuda chose not only to violate this agreement, but also turned defiant, telling me ‘if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it.’ In addition, he made demeaning remarks about me to my subordinates and colleagues, causing me significant emotional distress and worsening my personal relationships and work environment. Thus, I have no choice but to resign from Tecmo Co., Ltd.

“The conduct of Tecmo Co., Ltd. and its president Yoshimi Yasuda towards me has been unbefitting of a publicly-listed company. I have filed this lawsuit with a strong intent to question the social responsibility of Tecmo Co., Ltd. and its President Yoshimi Yasuda, as well as condemning them for their unjust acts. Today, in addition to announcing the reasons for this lawsuit, I make clear my reasons for resigning.

“To All Game Fans

“I truly feel sorry to all the fans of the games I have made. Ninja Gaiden 2, which will launch on the 3rd of June will be the last Ninja Gaiden I will create. I will also never be able to make Dead or Alive 5. I regret the circumstances that have forced me to leave Tecmo, where I had worked for so many years, and I regret the disappointment this will cause my fans. However, I can no longer continue to work with President Yoshimi Yasuda, a man who chooses not to honor promises even when he is able to do so. I truly hope that nothing like this happens again in the future.”

 Well if anything else, this will make sure Ninja Gaiden 2 is an unqualified success commercially this controversy should ensure that.

According to the GRiD developer, Codemasters’ forums and Destructoid, the game’s 360 iteration suffers from bouts of stuttering. As Destructoid’s Jim Sterling puts it:

Reports are coming in of problems with the Xbox 360 version of Codemasters’ Race Driver: GRiD. There is an issue with the game where it suffers from perpetual freezing and stuttering during races. I can confirm that the review copy Codemasters recently secured for me suffers from this as well.

GRiD’s dev team say they’re close to figuring out the problem and that a patch is on the way. Meanwhile, those suffering from freezing issues are advised to take out their hard drives and play using a gamertag that’s been saved to a memory card. I am sure I could say something acerbic and nasty, but I’ll leave it.

While it is great that the guys on GRiD are close to rectifying the issue, this reeks of poor quality assurance and not enough testing. A rush to get this superb racing title out it seems?

It’s bad enough that we had to be subject to that trash called Dhoom 2 in the theatres, that fine people from FXLabs (notorious for the pathetic Agni) have decided to torture us with their 3-D rendition of what claims to be Dhoom 2.5 for the PC.

While Yash Raj studios signed a deal with FXLabs to scar gamers for life back in 2007, it seems that their plans will bear fruition  sooner than expected. I wonder what didn’t make the cut into the game which is allowing it to release earlier? Plausible gameplay? Decent graphics? A little better than mediocre voice-acting? Luckily no solid date has been pinned down apart from FXlabs stating “the wait would be over soon!”.

Since this is coming from the studio with claimed Agni met worldwide standards of quality we’re definitely skeptical about this one. And rightly so.

The guys at ContentSutra have got the wind that Microsoft might be ending their Xbox 360 operations in India.

While the usual entities to blame include piracy or high hardware prices, the problem might just be Microsoft’s business strategy oh yeah, and the government.

As far as India is concerned, the xBox is the x’ed Box, if this report from CNBC-TV18 is to be believed. The console has apparently been such a dismal failure in India that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is reportedly winding up operations in several Tier-I cities. MS’ Entertainment & Devices Division (EDD) has also withdrawn the marketing budget for India, and Ashim Mathur, Marketing Head for the division has planned to leave the company. Mathur has denied any such development, and the company has, expectedly, given CNBC-TV18 a standard response, that everything is going according to plan. More here.

This comes a few months after Mohit Anand, Country Head for EDD left to join Channel V. Anand had mentioned that the lack of lack of government support for gaming (i.e. - reduction of duty, and a gaming policy) was the most disheartening aspect of his tenure. At a conference last year, he had mentioned that the xBox business is not expected to break even until 2011. Now it appears that MS is reducing market exposure.

Well this move will have severe repercussions, namely a certain underpeforming, over-hyped cricketer losing his sponsorship (see picture above). Gamers will live on though. We’ll just get our games elsewhere. Which is a bit of a pity considering MS ensured we got a few titles on par if not earlier than our European or US counterparts.

Update:  Ashimm Das Mathur, current Country Manager, Microsoft has laid rumors to rest saying:

All I can say is that this is all rubbish.

Microsoft is completely committed to the market and Xbox 360 is doing exceptionally well in the country.

Guess we call breathe a sigh of release and enjoy some of the better 360 titles coming out this year,namely Gears of War 2 and Too Human.

If you’re one of the many Indians who paid more than necessary for a Wii, it seems that Nintendo plans to repay your loyalty in a way that is, quite perverse.

The Nintendo Channel lets you download DS demos and watch trailers for a small price. All your personal information related to your TV settings, daily play habits, net connection speed, WiiConnect24 settings and even how many Miis you have are sent to Nintendo via the Nintendo Channel. This is done in order to give gamers ” game recommendations and improved future services”. And if you opt out, you can say good-bye to free content.

A pretty scary proposition this, almost Big Brother-like if you think about it.

Source: Kotaku.

Mass Effect was buggy but stunning game on the Xbox 360, it’s one of those titles that would feel right at home on the PC given BioWare’s undoubted expertise. However no one counted on them and EA (BioWare’s publisher) to mess things up this bad.

The PC version will require you to authenticate it every 10 days as long as you want to play it. Yes you read right. This is what they had to say:

According to Derek French, Mass Effect, scheduled to arrive on the PC this 28th, will employ the same SecuROM online activation system that was initially put into Bioshock, allowing the buyer to activate his copy of Mass Effect for 3 times before politely asking to him / her to go to hell, that is, contact the customer service “helpline” to get it reactivated. And while the game itself wouldn’t require the DVD to be physically present in the drive, it goes one step further and phones home every 10 days and re-authenticates just to make sure legit customers are not the worst form of criminal scum publishers swear we are.

BioShock had a similar copy protection system and buying an original copy turned out being a pain for most. Is this the beginning of the end for PC gaming? Or would you prefer your games playing you instead of vice-versa?

Via: The Angry Pixel