GameSpotting! » GDC 2008

This November, gear up for war

MASA — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:15:20 +0000

Another wonderful announcement at GDC (never get tired of them), Gears of War 2 has been confirmed for a November release. Of course, knowing Microsoft, they never release any kind of press kit with awesome screenshots. Noooooo. You have to download the trailer on Xbox Live.

Also on Xbox Live is a free Gears of War 2 theme.

Community games appearing on Xbox Live

MASA — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:58:39 +0000

Another announcement at GDC, Microsoft’s Xbox division announced they are creating an open distribution service for games created by the community (they really stressed community). Games that have been created using the XNA framework can be downloaded from Xbox Live.

According to Major Nelson, seven games that were “created by the community” will appear on Xbox Live for free (17 day trials [this was not mentioned until later, sneaky Microsoft]). He didn’t mention if this is a limited time trial or not (NOTE: THESE ARE TRIAL GAMES. NOT FREE). I would guess that you will need the XNA framework tool (that’s been available for download off of Xbox Live since XNA started). Nelson states that he’ll put up a video on how to download these games on the Inside Xbox section of the dashboard.

Is this a sign that Microsoft is going to allow homebrews on the Xbox? Who knows…

XNA will support Zune game development

MASA — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:51:29 +0000

A long time ago we stated that the Zune will have games in the future. Today at GDC, Chris Satchell announced that XNA will support the Zune in the future. Allowing games to be made for the Zune.

New info on WiiWare

MASA — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:39:21 +0000

A while back, Nintendo announced a new feature called WiiWare, which would allow game developers to create simple games and sell them on the Wii Shop Channel. After that statement, WiiWare wasn’t heard from again.

Today at GDC, WiiWare was finally given a date of launch, May 12th. On that day, the first games for the service will start to show up in the Wii Shop Channel (you’ll notice there is a section for WiiWare already). According to Nintendo, new games will appear regularly from developers both big and small.

Also some games mentioned in the press release. The two that were mentioned are FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King and a game called LostWinds.

My Life as a King builds upon the old GameCube game and features some pretty spiffy graphics (click the image for more images) for a downloadable game. All of the game prices are determined by the developer of the game. I would expect some reasonably high prices for most games, unless Nintendo sets a price limit later on.

The other game, LostWinds, looks a bit more cartoony and less serious. Nintendo didn’t provide a description for LostWinds, but rather just gave out screenshots. From the shots, I can conclude that you obviously control the wind using the WiiMote, and the person who appears to be the main character reacts to the wind.

We expect to hear more about the details of these titles near the launching of of the WiiWare system.

TellTale to work on new WiiWare series

MASA — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:04:43 +0000

According to TellTales’ site, they are going to be working on a new episodic game series for the new WiiWare feature. No word on what exactly the new series is, but what is confirmed is that it is NOT Sam & Max.