PERFECT DARK ZERO DEMO NOW AVAILABLE
In his blog, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson has advised that a demo of Perfect Dark Zero is now available in the Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo features both single player and co-op modes, but does not support multiplayer games via Xbox Live.
SONY DENIES “NO USED GAMES” RUMOR
Eurogamer has published a response by Jennie Kong, a Sony UK spokesperson stating that the rumor about Sony looking to restrict the sale of used games is false. To quote the Eurogamer article;
“However, a Sony Computer Entertainment UK spokesperson today outright denied that any such message had been conveyed to retailers – telling GI.biz that following conversations with the firm’s European parent company, neither division has “any knowledge” of such a strategy. “We have definitely not been communicating that,” UK spokesperson Jennie Kong confirmed. “It’s false speculation. We don’t have any further knowledge about this topic – either officially or unofficially, to be frank.”" – Eurogamer Article.
So there you have it folks, Sony goes on the record with more than the regular “We don’t comment on rumors” statement and flatly denies the story. From the way the statement from Ms. Kong is worded, it almost sounds like Sony is beginning to get a little tired of the constant negative rumors surrounding the console. Click here to head over to the Eurogamer article.
NINTENDO SAYS WII WILL NOT BE ABOVE $250
Kotaku is reporting that at their press conference for fiscal year 2005, a reporter asked Nintendo what the price of the Wii console would be. While Nintendo stated that they would not be announcing a price or release date until a later date, they added that there were no plans to price the console for over 25,000 Yen (approximately $222 U.S.). Nintendo also added that they expected to sell 6 million Wii consoles and 17 million Wii games by March of 2007. Click here to head over to Kotaku for all the pertinent details.
UPDATE 1: It now appears that Nintendo has further clarified the matter by stating that the Wii will not exceed 25,000 Yen in Japan or $250 in the United States. We’ve corrected the headline to this story accordingly.
HALF LIFE 2: EPISODE ONE GOES GOLD
Gamespot is reporting that Valve has announced that the much anticipated expansion to Half Life 2, the colorfully named, Half Life 2: Episode One has finally gone gold and will be shipping on June 1st. As if that wasn’t enough news to make Half Life fanatics jump for joy, they also gave a rough figure of “later this year” for the expected release of the Half Life 2: Episode Two expansion, and confirmed the existence of Half Life 2: Episode Three for a Holiday 2007 release. I bet they agonized for weeks over what to call each expansion… “do we call it, four even though it’s the third?”, etc. Insert your own Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch joke here.
Half Life 2: Episode One will retail for $19.99 via both Valve’s Steam download service and in retail box form distributed by Electronic Arts. Most interestingly, Episode One will not require buyers to own Half Life 2. Gamespot summed up the situation in Episode One this way;
“Episode One will be rated M for Mature due to sci-fi violence. However, unlike most expansions, it does not require the original game to play. That may be because the game goes outside City 17, the setting of much of Half-Life 2, to follow hero Gordon Freeman and supporting heroine Alyx, who plays a more prominent role this time around.” – Gamespot
Definitely a good news day for Half-Life 2 addicts everywhere. Click here to head over to the Gamespot article to get all the juicy details.
