Capcom manned up today and released the Street Fighter IV Power Up Pack, bringing tournament play and replays to Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network.
On XBL, you’ll also be able to save replays from tournaments and watch them to your heart’s content.
The best part of it all: The Power Up Pack is free. Just boot up SFIV and make sure you’re online, and you’ll be prompted to update your game.
This public service announcement is brought to you by Hadoken Cereal.
Today developer Ignition announced that King of Fighters XII will be hitting both the Xbox 360 and PS3 this July.
Ignition has made a point of emphasizing that KOFXII will be completely hand drawn. Shane Bettenhausen, Ignition’s business development director stated: “While other fighting games have abandoned the time-consuming process of creating beautiful 2D art, KOFXII fully embraces the refined aesthetic beauty that only human hands can produce.”
For a developer that is so emphatic about stressing its game’s art style as well as taking jabs at the current fighting game champ (Street Figter IV), Ignition has yet to impress. What I mean is that it hasn’t even released any screen shots. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the old 2D hand drawn style, I just happen to think you shouldn’t talk smack without anything to back it up. As soon as some screen shots are released, I’ll let you guys be the judge.
Read: King of Fighters 12 Hitting PS3, Xbox 360 in July.
…who would they be? In commemoration of the launch of Capcom’s Street Fighter IV on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, we’ve decided to have a strictly-for-fun comparison between characters in the game and real life MMA gladiators.
If you had to cast real fighters in the roles of SFIV characters for a movie, who would you pick? (Disregard the awful-looking Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li film for a second.) What criteria would you use? Would you base it only on looks or also ability to fulfill the role?
We’ll try for both. Let’s have a look!
Ryu - Lyoto Machida
The Street Fighter series’ poster boy had to be the easiest to find a real life doppelganger. Ryu is a wandering Japanese warrior specializing in Shotokan karate and seeking inner discipline. He’s the guy that everyone picks to start out with because he’s among the most balanced in the game.
Lyoto Machida is a Japanese/Brazilian warrior specializing in…Shotokan karate, and uses his methodical fighting style to devastating effect. Some think Machida’s style is boring–as a strict counter-puncher, Machida does a lot of backing away, but there’s no questioning its effectiveness. To top it all off, Machida is a dead ringer for Ryu. He’s got the fighting style and resemblance covered, and is a lock for the “role” of Ryu. Now all he needs is the ability to shoot a fireball out of his hands…
Crimson Viper - Gina Carano
No female MMA fighter list would be complete without mentioning Gina Carano, who has carved out a niche for herself as a premiere female MMA fighter within two years of her debut on the scene.
Her fighting style showcases quite a bit of striking ability due to her background in Muay Thai, not wholly unlike the enigmatic Crimson Viper. While Carano does have submission skills, she’s most at home pounding the crap out of people.
Carano is good looking and can kick your teeth in. Viper is good looking and can shoot fire out of her boots, electrocute you with some hidden gadgetry and fly. Give Carano a red wig and some special effects, and she’ll own the scene.
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Chicago-based Midway today filed for bankrupty following several months of ominous news.
Midway will reorganize under Chapter 11 protection with current CEO Matt Booty at the helm. Booty said: “Midway enters this process with strong underlying fundamentals, as evidenced by solid fourth quarter sales that exceeded expectations in spite of a challenging retail and general economic environment.”
If you recall, the bankruptcy countdown began when Sumner Redstone sold his controlling stake in the publisher for $100,000. That created a situation whereby bondholders could request repayment on their $150 million investment within 50 days.
Layoffs and game cancellations followed.
All told, Midway is on the hook for $240 million, with no way to repay. We’ll see what happens to some of its valuable IPs from here on out; let’s hope that Mortal Kombat fatalities can make a comeback on a console near you at some point in the future.
Read: Midway Files for Bankruptcy
Despite Midway’s impending doom, Ed Boon claims that another edition of Mortal Kombat is on the way–following news of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe shipping close to 1.8 million units.
While Sonya Blaze and her assorted female friends are no doubt sick of being pimped out on a yearly basis (check the tan lines on her waist), no company’s going to turn down free money in a time like this And it looks like gamers will continue to buy anything recognizable in the forseeable future.
“We’re already hard at work on our next version of Mortal Kombat, and look forward to being able to reveal more details in the future,” Boon said in a press release about MK vs. DCU’s shipping numbers.
Expect to see more sequels and less original IP as we continue down the path of economic decline. As the economy goes, so does gaming innovation.
Chicago-based publisher Midway has managed to talk its way out of defaulting on $150 million in debt, avoiding a quick death.
The crisis occurred when Sumner Redstone sold his 87% controlling stake in the company for $100,000 to Mark Thomas. This triggered a provision allowing bondholders to request payment of all debts within 50 days.
According to a press release issued today, the troubled game publisher has negotiated with creditors to extend the deadline to Feb. 12, 2009.
In effect, Midway bought itself another month of survival. This is really another month to sell the Mortal Kombat IP and liquidate other assets.
From my (investment-ignorant) viewpoint, it seems like Midway is still doomed, but may have a chance to pay off some of its debts before the ship goes down.
Read: Midway Reaches Waiver and Forbearance Agreement on All Convertible Senior Notes
GGL and Namco are proud to announce the winner of the SoulCalibur IV match video contest: EscapingJail!
EJ’s recording of his match against AzN Fury 85 received 220 “bumps” (a measurement of how many GGL users liked his submission), making it the people’s choice.
Although EJ was ultimately eliminated from the competition, his consolation prize is $50 from GGL for this video submission. Congrats!
Once again, click here to watch the match recording.
Capcom released 40 Street Fighter IV screenshots today, showing off Rose, Cammy, Gen, Fei Long, Dan and Gouken.
As you might expect, they’re all posed very well and show off the interesting facial animations that make the special moves in the game so unique. Enough talk; let’s have the shots.
The bad news keeps piling up for Midway employees as the company announced today it will lay off 25% of its work force and cancel a several games.
Midway Austin will close up shop completely, while cuts will happen at Midway San Diego and Chicago (the studio that brought us Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe).
The games that will be cancelled were unannounced and due for release in 2010 and 2011.
Midway’s CEO Matt Booty, who is not getting laid off, said: “These initiatives, along with the other steps we have taken this year, are a response to the specific challenges we are facing at Midway, many of which have been amplified by the current economic conditions.”
G4’s X-Play will host the finals of GGL and Namco’s SoulCalibur IV Xbox 360 tournament Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 8:00PM.
Four hardened competitors will go at it for a chance at $5,000 in prizes and glory. Those four players are Jeremy “Black Mamba” Florence, Alex “Alex.J” Jenkins, Chi “CNP” Pham, and Brian “Akazukin Cha Cha” Stone.
Be sure to tune in to G4 on Wednesday at 8:00PM (time unified across NA time zones) to see who wins!
OC-Remix has released the full soundtrack to the recently released Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix on its website, letting you hear the groovy tunes updated to a modern standard.
Electronic beats and guitar riffs are freely interwoven in the soundtrack, which still retains the original upbeat soul of the classic tracks. It’s been getting rave reviews around the ‘net and if you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend you download now. Ryu and Fei Long’s themes come highly recommended.
Hit the OC-Remix article to acquire the tracks (available through torrent or individual track download). (And yes, to some, this is OFN.)
Another game developer/publisher hit the deck today as Reuters reported that Sumner Redstone sold his controlling share of the company for $100,000 to an investor named Mark Thomas.
The price nets Redstone $0.0012 per share, while Thomas will assume $70 million in debt. Why anyone would pay $100,000 for dubious assets and $70 million in debt is beyond me, but that’s why I’m writing about it while ballers like Redstone sleep on a pillow of money.
As for Redstone’s angle, it seems his company, National Amusements, shed Midway for tax and debt purposes.
In any event, I’m hoping this will put a stop to the endless string of bad Mortal Kombat sequels for the time being, and give the Midway team time to reflect on their past sins. Technicolor ninjas, indeed.
Read: Redstone sells Midway Games to ease debt: report
Capcom manned up today and released the Street Fighter IV Power Up Pack, bringing tournament play and replays to Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network.
