Gadgets and Video Games

Not since The Bushwhackers have we seen such an excellent pairing of two entities. EA and Hasbro’s partnership has paid off in dividends, as a recent press release boasts that eight million copies of Hasbro titles have been sold in the US alone at retail last year. The eight million figure applies only to retail releases, not digitally distributed titles across consoles and mobile — which admittedly have also been successful. The release has some other interesting tidbits, like how the combined efforts of the two have seen 20 different Hasbro brands released on 18 major digital platforms. EA attributes the success of these games to three things: the rise in popularity of family-friendly video games; a demand for games targeting girls; and the popularity of Hasbro’s well-known toys and games

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EA Hasbro games sold eight million units at retail in 2009

[ ChrisJohnBeckett ] BioWare has stated that it can do nothing to alleviate Mass Effect 2’s “tiny text” issue, which affects standard-definition television users. The company claims on its forums that after “investigating potential solutions,” it has determined that it is unable to fix the text size with a patch. BioWare has taken note of the complaint, however, and will take it into consideration for “future games in the Mass Effect franchise.” Um, how about all future BioWare games?

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BioWare: No fix for Mass Effect 2 SDTV ‘tiny text’ issue

Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho thinks developers are pampering players, making games much easier now than in previous generations. “It goes back to that learning mechanism of “Well, I tried this – it didn’t work. I’m going to try something different.” And I think that’s going to be something in Mass Effect 2 , we don’t want it to be a cakewalk, you want a challenge,” he told Video Games Daily . Using the brutally difficult From Software title Demon’s Souls as an example, Cho says hardcore players today want to earn progress in games. “I think gamers want a more sophisticated game, they don’t want a breezy game where you see all the cinematics and just put in your hours and play it through.” According to Cho, Mass Effect 2 aims to give players a healthy dose of challenge and sophistication when it launches early next year

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Mass Effect 2 goes for challenge and sophistication, not pampering

Speaking during a live chat on the PlayStation Blog , Bioware’s Ray Muzyka announced the latest North American release date for the PlayStation 3 version of Dragon Age: Origins . To be specific, the PS3 version will no longer be the latest in showing up on store shelves. So long, “later in November” and farewell to you, November 17 ! All three versions — that’s PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — of BioWare’s “dark heroic fantasy” will hit North America on November 3.

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PS3’s Dragon Age: Origins back on track for Nov. 3

Listen, Mr. Saboteur.

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New Saboteur trailer displays intolerable blimp cruelty

Final Fantasy XIV has gotten a steady stream of information since its announcement at Sony’s E3 press conference earlier this year. And now, the game’s official website has loosed a flood of information on its classes, enemies, how the classes break down into “disciplines,” and much more.

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Final Fantasy XIV’s North American website gets massive update

If you weren’t able to make the trip to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show this year, don’t fret — not only do we have you covered on the hot news scoop front, but IGN managed to snag a downloadable copy of the co-op enabled, TGS-exclusive (well, formerly TGS-exclusive, we guess) Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker demo for the PSP. Just make sure you’ve got the latest firmware, download the file from the acronymed gaming news site, unzip it and place it in your PSP’s “Game” folder, and enjoy. If, while enjoying, you also happen to kick ass , you might even get a high enough ranking to unlock a special wallpaper for your Sony handheld.

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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker demo available now

Halo 3: ODST ’s survival horde Firefight Mode is probably the most notable addition to the upcoming Halo 3 expansion from Bungie Studios. With Halo: Reach headed to consoles next Fall, the developer had left the possibility of the new mode’s inclusion in that project up in the air … at least until now.

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‘If people love it,’ Halo’s Firefight mode could be added to Reach

To a non-PC gamer, the sixth floor of the Seattle Convention Center is currently filled with an impossible number of computers, all of which playing a number of dirty keyboard-and-mouse-controlled games, and all linked together in a nebulous Local Area Network. Their users are strange and otherworldly, and their ranks are unexpectedly strong. To hardcore PC gamers, the sixth floor of the Seattle Convention Center is currently a vast, luminous sea of infinite pleasure . Seen@PAX: One million billion computers originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:00:00 EST.

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Seen@PAX: One million billion computers

Martin Spiess has been busy the past few months, between raising €1 to buy Midway UK and France and resurrecting the long gone Tradewest Games moniker. The ex-Midway exec’s acquisition of the two company branches went light on the details in the SEC filing , leaving us with a handful of questions for the recently re-branded company. We contacted Tradewest to find out exactly what the acquisition means for the future of the company, in terms of assets gained. “We`ve got a portfolio of [our] own IPs and will announce highlights from our line-up over the next weeks,” a representative told Joystiq

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Tradewest Games hints at upcoming IP lineup reveal