Games News: 5th December 2010

Finally, good news for all of you that loved the blockbuster of the summer, Inception. Christopher Nolan's film, while being fun to watch, confirmed nothing except that when a story is complicated and breaks what few rules it has for no reason, critics will still love it because it ISN'T Transformers. But there has been confirmation that a game of the movie is on the way from Nolan himself. However, aficionados will have to wait, as Nolan's primary concern is the new Batman film. How the game will balance the 'dream-within-a-dream' concept remains to be seen.

EA not interested in Harmonix

EA, the multi-million dollar games developer, is not interested in buying the studio Harmonix, best known for Guitar Hero and subsequently Rock Band. If there were ever proof that the genre in which you impersonate a talented and good-looking band is flagging, this is it. Profits from rhythm-orientated games like Guitar Hero halved from $1.6 billion to 800 million in 2008-2009 and look to flag again this year. The under performance of the latest Guitar Hero (now not developed by Harmonix) shows that this genre has had its day.

Kinect outsells Move; Gran Turismo 5 roars ahead

Mixed news in the console wars between Sony and Microsoft. The Microsoft Kinect is reputedly outselling the Playstation 3's Move daily - though this is at the moment speculation. With 2.5million units sold within 25 days of release alone, it's a staggering endorsement of motion-sensitive technology. However, Sony's PlayStation 3 is hardly doing badly; Gran Turismo 5, the ever popular driving simulator, sold 430,000 copies in its first week of release in Japan alone. Apart from reaffirming humanity's desire to drive shiny things, it means that there is no clear victor in this console's generation wars, whereas Sony had triumphed in the past two generations.

UbiSoft comes up with piracy deterrent; South Africans rejoice

So far, preventing people from illegally downloading games has taken the form of saying "You're a very bad person". The developer UbiSoft though has come up with a new idea for Michael Jackson: The Experience, touted as being a best-seller this year. Anyone downloading a copy of this game will receive a copy that, over the signature beats of songs like 'Billie Jean', plays the sound of vuvuzelas incessantly. This would make any dancing, even at the best of times, impossible. Though UbiSoft have not confirmed this at the time of writing, it does make for interesting thought at what will be the next deterrent. Wagner?

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