Today during the Consumer Electronics Show Sony has followed up on Microsoft’s trend of saying how many consoles they managed to sell before the end of 2013. During the event the company revealed that 4.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles were sold worldwide as of December 28, 2013.
This includes software sales that are in the 9.7 million range which includes PlayStation Store digital downloads. While a number of their best selling titles were multi-platform, Killzone: Shadow Fall, our review of which can be found here, was one of their best selling first party titles. Interestingly enough, the global percentage of PlayStation Plus subscriptions has also increased 90 percent since PlayStation 4′s launch.
Zen Studios is looking to kick 2014 off with a bang with their announcement that the previous PlayStation exclusive game KickBeat will be coming to Steam with enhanced features in KickBeat Steam Edition.
KickBeat was a stray away from Zen Studios comfort zone who normally stick to making successful pinball games. The unique game combines elements of Guitar Hero and fighting games where players had to hit the correct buttons with precise timing according to enemy movements as opposed to notes coming down a highway. A music analyser allowed users to fight to their own music, adding to the list of songs available in the story and free mode.
Zen Studios has taken some pointers from reviews and its fan and has added several features to the Steam Edition to improve the experience.
An additional 6 tracks from the awesome indie game Electronic Super Joy from artist EnV as part of the game’s single player campaign.
Advanced difficulty is now available in Free Play mode.
Beat Your Music mode is available much earlier in the campaign, allowing you to create your own custom tracks without having to complete the single player campaign.
Adjustments have been made to the difficulty progression, helping players adjust to higher levels of play on a better curve.
Enhanced visual fidelity; customizable keyboard controls plus full X input controller support, Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards and Steam Cloud Support.
KickBeat Steam Edition will be available for you to download on your PC’s from January 20th from Steam for $9.99 in North America and €8.99 in Europe. The standard version of the game is available now for the PS3 and PS Vita. You can check out our review of the PS3 version of KickBeat here.
Remember how Sony purchased Gaikai over a year and a half ago? Well that purchase is going to finally start being used starting this summer in the United States. The service will be used to power the cloud gaming service that will be used to play PS1, PS2, and PS3 games over the internet on PS3, PS4, PS Vita, and also on devices like tablets, smartphones, and televisions eventually.
The service will be called PlayStation Now and at the moment they are saying that they will allow users to rent games or subscribe at a currently unrevealed pricing plan. There will be a beta program for PlayStation Now sometime later this month in the US, so it will be interesting to see how this will turn out.
Even more news from media distributor Crunchyroll with the reveal that, amidst the plethora of other new series, they will stream Wizard Barristers. The series is the latest project from Yasuomi Umetsu (Kite and Megazone Part II) and focuses on the lesser explored element of magical worlds: law.
Wizard Barristers takes place in the near future of 2018, where wizards and humans live side-by-side in Tokyo. While police continue to protect the rest of society, wizards are tried according to magical laws in special courts defended by wizard barristers. Cecile Sudo has just become the youngest wizard barrister at age 17, and begins work at the Butterfly Law Offices. However, unbeknownst to her, she has tremendous magical potential…
The series will be animated by ARMS (Elfen Leid/Samurai Bride) with Yasuomi Umetsu (Galilei Donna) serving as Director. The opening theme “Justia” is being performed by anisong singer Lia, with relative newcomer Rui Tanabe not only performing the ending theme “Blue Topaz” but also voicing the main character Cecile as well.
Wizard Barristersis set to broadcast every Sunday starting on January 12th at 10:00am (Pacific Time) for its premium members, with free members able to watch one week later. The series will be available for streaming in: USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia New Zealand, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Latin America, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East. So tune in and enter the wonderful world of law. It’s positively magic.
Haptic feedback has yet to catch on for PC gamers. Sure, PC gamers can plug in a console controller with vibration, but they have yet to have a device to call their own quite yet. Enter the design firm Tivitas based out of Ontario, Canada with their new Sinister Gaming Device that fuses the traditional PC keypad concept with console style controls.
Sinister is designed to be modular and infinitely adjustable to suit all sorts of body and game types while boasting haptic feedback technology from ViViTouch. A mouse can be plugged directly into the device to help improve accuracy. Sinister is compatible with Microsoft Windows and Linux out of the box. Learn more about Sinister at the official Tivitas website.
Distribution service Crunchyroll has added yet another new anime series to it’s ever expanding lineup, in this case Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda (World Conquest Zvezda Plot). This mouthful of a series focuses on one little girl and her innocent desire…for total dominion over the world.
Every leader of the past has thought of it… but all they have done was to merely dream of its greatness. WORLD DOMINATION…nobody has been able to achieve it. Until one little girl by the name of KATE HOSHIMIYA came along. KATE HOSHIMIYA will shock the world! How was she was able to carry out such a MAGNIFICENT stunt? So FRIGHTFUL! So GLORIOUS! Could this be…the ZVEZDA PLOT?! Let the light of our great ZVEZDA shine upon this land far and wide!
Cast
Misaki Kuno as Kate Hoshimiya
Natsuki Hanae as Asuta Jimon
Kana Hanazawa as Professor Um
Erii Yamazaki as Roboko
Kousuke Toriumi as Yasu
Mariya Ise as Itsuka Shikabane
Minoru Hirota as Goro Shikabane
MAO as Renge Komadori
Minako Kotobuki as Miki Shirasagi
Crew
Director: Tensai Okamura (Blue Exorcist/Darker Than Black/Wolf’s Rain) Scripts: Meteo Hoshizora and Okamura Original Character Designs: Kouhaku Kuroboshi (Allison & Lillia/Kino’s Journey/Sky Girls) Character Adaptation: Keigo Sasaki (Blue Exorcist/Night Raid 1931) Music: Tatsuya Katou (Free!/Medaka Box/Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere)
The series itself is being handled by anime studio A-1 Pictures and, along with the released cast and crew info, it has also been revealed that Maaya Sakamoto and “the band apart” will perform the anime’s opening theme, while voice actress Aoi Yuki performs the ending.
World Conquest Zvezda Plot is set to broadcast every Saturday starting on January 11th at 9:30am (Pacific Time) for premium members, with a week’s viewing delay for free members. As of yet the series is only set to be streamed in certain countries…somewhat ironic for a series about world domination. Those able to stream the series are: North America, South America, European regions (minus UK, IE, French and German speaking regions), Middle East, Arab League (including Israel), and South Africa. Stay tuned for any more info about the series and it’s as of now less than global spread. In the meantime, check out the English subbed trailer above and prepare for the beginning of the Zvezda Plot. So frightful! So glorious!
Today Crystal Dynamics came forward with a number of details about how Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is better than the original console version of the game and even better than the PC version. The game will be running at a native 1080p resolution on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and it will have what the company is calling “buttery framerate.”
The port will also come with all of the game’s previously released multiplayer DLC, six alternate outfits, a collection of digital comic books and documentary features, and The Tomb of the Lost Adventurer add-on. They also went on to say that a new head and face model has been used for Lara and they have used subsurface scattering technology to produce a more realistic skin glow.
Currently Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is set to be released in North America on January 28th by Square Enix at a price tag of $59.99.
Today 2K Games released some new downloadable content for WWE 2K14 and this time around we see a number of legendary wrestlers joining the roster. The pack is called the WWE Legends and Creations pack and costs $8.99 on its own and is also included in the season pass for the game.
The DLC includes Jake “The Snake” Roberts, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, and Bruno Sammartino. Also included in the pack are fourteen new custom Superstar heads and Virgil. Virgil will be usable as a wrestler and is free to download for everyone, though he is also a mandatory download for those who wish to play online with DLC holders.
Have you ever wanted to take a glimpse behind the scenes of all of your favourite Final Fantasy titles? To see the process that goes into every single stunning cinematic or how the stories that kept thousands of avid fans on the edge of their chairs for days at a time are written? Square Enix have put together the third part in their ‘Inside the Square‘ series to give fans a sneak peek at what goes into the making of some of their recent blockbusters such as the upcoming, Lighting Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
This awesome insight into everything Square Enix features interviews with a number of the talented people working on Lighting Returns: FFXIII and is narrated by the iconic voice of Lightning herself. Most interestingly, it takes a look at a number of new mechanics such as the ‘Doomsday Clock’ and the inclusion of people’s lifestyles through a normal 24-hour cycle. Square Enix seem excited about this title which gives players more customization and the ability to explore further than any other title in the FFXIII saga.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is dropping on Xbox 360 and PS3 on the 11th February in North America, the 13th in Australia, and the 14th in Europe . Check out ‘Inside the Square’ Part 3 below!
The fantasy-themed action title “Archangel” is set to be released on January 9th for the iOS and Android systems.
Unity Games, the publishers behind this immersive 3D Fantasy game states that this installation is “the first of a number of ‘core’ releases from our new publishing division, Unity Games.” Unity Games has also published other titles that have become quite popular, such as Rube Works.
The game boasts beautiful graphics that are on-par with console titles. In the game, your goal as the Archangel is to defeat the forces of evil with your powerful spells and righteous determination. Through the usage of a gesture-based control system, the game creates a very smooth combat system, one where you draw symbols on your screen to smite your enemies with your heavenly wrath. There are plenty of gestures that you can use to utilize your spell abilities.
The game will be available on the iTunes App Store and on Google Play by January 9th. Make sure you check this game out when it comes out.
