Last year was pretty good for EA. They blew away PC shooter fans with Crysis, helped start Rock Bands across the world and reinvented the skateboard genre with Skate.
Yesterday EA Games reported that Skate has ended the reign of the Tony Hawk franchise as top selling skateboarding game. According to EA, “on current generation systems, Skate outsold Tony Hawk [Proving Ground] nearly 2 to 1.”
Soon your favorite next-gen console will be Crying. Get it? CryEngine? Cry? I’m here all day.
Crytek has announced that the technology behind Crysis will debut on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at the 2008 Game Developers Conference.
They’ll also show the public how the engine can be run on a $600 PC. My guess is it will run incredibly badly, but it’s a public demonstration, so who knows? Maybe they can rip all of the textures out of the game so we can run around in a gouraud-shaded environment with our supersuits.
The mind boggles.
Source: Gamasutra
Last month’s sales numbers are in, and they spell bad news for PC gamers. The system destroyer Crysis, which was released Nov. 13, only sold 86,633 units. Needless to say, this is surprising for such a critically acclaimed game. Even worse, Unreal Tournament 3, which was released Nov. 19, only sold 33,995 units.
What does this mean for the PC market? Unfortunately this might make game producers think twice when it comes to releasing games on the PC. As an avid PC gamer, this news is heart-breaking to me. I just hope that these numbers will shoot up when people get new PCs and spending money for Christmas. At least the PC has the cash cow Wold of Warcraft to keep game makers interested.
My last interview with Matthieu Dallon opened up the question of what the “pure FPS” game should be at the 2008 Electronic Sports World Cup. And it opened it up big time, since it does not seem like there is a clear favorite to win the race, but it seems like Quake 4 will not be it.
Traditionally, the ESWC has always hosted a 1v1 shooter competition, and more often two shooters from the Unreal Tournament and Quake franchises. The event’s creators understand and love deathmatch, and have always been willing to support it whenever it could be justified. The duality was broken in 2006, when UT2004 failed to provide enough reasons to stay.
Today, it is Quake 4 that fails to provide enough reasons to convince anyone. Personally, I don’t think it makes sense to have it at the ESWC. By this summer, no one will be playing that game, let alone someone interesting enough to watch a tournament for. Continued…
If you pre-ordered Crysis from EA’s online store, you were supposed to be able to download and play the demo a day before the rest of the world. Instead, gamers dealt with download errors and an incomplete download.
Players who were unable to download or run the demo found a workaround: buy the pre-order a second time, then cancel the first order by phone with EA’s support department.
EA’s community managers blamed the problem on lack of communication between developer Crytek and EA.
The publisher also pushed the public launch of the demo one day; downloads will begin on Saturday.
Crysis is a sci-fi FPS for Windows XP and Vista.
FOLLOWUP: Church of England forgives Sony
ClanBase’s Crysis cups head for playday 2
How to cheat at Eye of Judgment
Wii Sports sweeps British videogame awards, Empire continues to decline
Team DC takes home Sierra and GameStop tourney top spot
The Ganking Chronicles: End of the Line?
New SSF2T HD screens released
Smash Bros. Brawl will have replays!
Rocket Launcher is UT3’s best weapon
Imbalanced 24: IEST Group Phase
Four Kings out of WC3L finals!
ClanBase’s EU Crysis cup is heading into day two today, while U.S. matches have been delayed until this evening, Oct. 24, due to server troubles.
Here’s a list of EU matches slated for this evening:
Extreme Masters LA: Lyn wins second major
IEST wraps up controversial weekend
ClanBase launches UT3 demo ladder, introduces Call of Duty 4
AGC Halo 2 champ speaks
First major Warhawk patch fixes kinks (update)
EA exec wants single ‘open, standard’ console platform
Halo 3 cheaters be warned: Bungie is coming for you
ClanBase’s Crysis cups kick off
Army of Two pushed back to 2008
50|Calibre UT3 Duel Tournament approaches
Korea wins Soldier Front 2007 World Championship
Scape: ‘…overcoming odds is why I started playing MMO’s in the first place!’
ClanBase’s featured Crysis cups are underway, and European teams have already played their first matches. U.S. teams head to battle in their nanosuits tonight.
ESL Extreme Masters Los Angeles attendees finalized
Fury ships today!
LANtics S03E08: Heaton sucks, says KF3
Creolophus retires. For good.
WoW Arena Season 3 items revealed
Valve’s Team Fortress 2 challenge set for Friday, Oct. 19
Last chance to win a Crysis beta key!
WTF? Play World of Warcraft with an Xbox 360 controller
Registration is still open for GGL’s Halo 3 $10,000* 2v2 Launch Celebration Ladder!
ClanBase’s DuRus sends along this important announcement:
You still have the chance to get hold of Crysis beta keys. We have already given a handful away to various people, and now is your chance to get one for yourself.
In cooperation with EA and Crytek, ClanBase is running a Crysis 6v6 beta tournament with prizes. This tournament is open to USA-based as well as European gamers.
If you don’t have a beta key, don’t fret. ClanBase has the hook up. If you have four team members with keys, you’re eligible to receive two more keys to round out your roster. Only limited quantities are available, and ClanBase can only give out two keys per team. Post on the cup forums (US / EU) to receive your keys.
Visit the ClanBase Crysis beta tournament sign-up page to register.
