Entertainment Electronics Blog

By now, mandatory installs are a pretty accepted part of PlayStation 3 games, but one of the highest-profile upcoming titles will be install-free: Final Fantasy XIII. IGN reports that the game won’t include a hard disk installation. Despite this, however, the game is said to be low on load times. Game director Motomu Toriyama claimed that the developer has concentrated from the start on keeping loading times low, and the only time a player will see a load is going between a town and a field. Besides that, the game is said to flow smoothly.

This is all related to the PS3 version, of course. Since the Xbox 360 allows optional installations for all games, it would stand to reason that FFXIII would allow it. But seeing as the game is likely to take up multiple discs on the system, players might have to install one disc at a time when swapping. We’ll have to wait for more details on how that will work, but for now the Japanese PS3-exclusive is probably more on the minds at Square.

Microsoft is working to get ahead of rumors that started circulating yesterday regarding Blu-Ray support for the Xbox 360. It started when company CEO Steve Ballmer commented that Blu-Ray drives would be coming as accessories, in response to a question about the Xbox 360. Word got out fast, and last night Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) made a blog post to clarify. “Steve was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC,” he explained. “As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360.”
It does still seem odd that Microsoft’s main man mentioned the accessories in response to a question about the Xbox 360, if he were merely talking about the PC. But, Ballmer does have a history of making erroneous statements regarding the console, so we can probably chalk this up to a simple misstatement. At this rate, an inaccurate comment about the Xbox 360 is bound to be dubbed a “Ballmer.”

With its first solo outing a success, Disgaea’s demonic penguin mascot will soon be coming back for more. Nippon Ichi has just announced that a sequel to the PSP’s Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero.
We don’t have much information about the sequel, but it’s likely to be NIS’s track record suggests that the sequel will be quite similar to the original. For Prinny fans, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the first game rated a ‘B’ in our review.

If you haven’t had a chance to play the first game, you can find it on the PlayStation Network. With a budget version having just been announced for Japan, hopefully North America will follow suit. Just be warned that the game is apparently quite hard.

No release date, but it’ll likely be out late next year.

Modern Warfare 2 might not support dedicated servers, but it will be shipping with a few other PC-exclusive features. Valve has announced that Steamworks will be supported from launch, allowing players to access their save files remotely, among other things.
“Steamworks will make it possible for us to have a closer connection to our fans, and enable us to support our community much more than ever before,” said Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling.

“Steam is the hands down leader in offering a community focused experience on PC and the inclusion of Steamworks has allowed us to deliver the most feature-rich PC version to ever come from Infinity Ward, which at the end of the day will mean the most to our fans.”

Steamworks is a suite of backend publishing and development tools that allow for easy inclusion of features like social networking services. In addition to Steamworks, Modern Warfare 2 will also be supporting 50 Steam Achievements. Look for it on November 10.

Back when BioWare pushed back Dragon Age Origins’ release date one last time, from October 20 to November 3, they also announced the PlayStation 3 version would be following “later in November.” Not so anymore. Bioware co-founder Ray Muzyka has confirmed the game will release on the PS3 on November 3 right along with the 360 and PC versions in North America (via GameSpot).
The confirmation comes along with the announcement that the game has gone gold and is heading toward mass manufacturing, so stalwart fans who’ve been looking forward to this game for five frickin’ years can rest assured it won’t be delayed again. Musyka also confirmed that the PS3 version’s PlayStation Trophies will correspond with the previously revealed Achievements for the 360 version.

Now, there is one bit of bad news if you’re reading this in Europe, as the PS3 version of Dragon Age Origins is still releasing later in November there. “[We're] still working on the EU release timing for PS3,” said Muzyka. “We’ll have an announcement on that shortly — [it's] still planned for some time a bit later in November.”

It may be a spin-off of one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, but does that mean DJ Hero will be a sure success? Not right off the bat, Activision says. Speaking to IGN, Red Octane co-founder Kai Huang said they expect DJ Hero sales to start slowly and build momentum over time (via VG247).
“We’re not expecting a typical videogame curve where you sell the majority of the units in the first month and then it decays quickly,” Huang said. “We’re expecting this to be the type of game that may come out of the gate a little bit slower, but continue to grow over time.”

Huang explained that despite the built-in brand recognition, the drastically different gameplay style makes it a case of almost starting from scratch. “We’ve got a bit of a head start, people have an understanding what music games are, it has the ‘Hero’ brand on it,” he said. “But at the same time, people don’t know what a DJ game is. They don’t know what you’re supposed to do. Our strategy again is to focus on in-store demos.

“If you look at Guitar Hero 3,” Huang continued, “which to date has been the most successful Guitar Hero game selling 12 million units, it did take three iterations to get the game out there and for people to know how it works.”

And however DJ Hero sells at first, a sequel already seems certain as Activision is reportedly already scouting musical talent for the follow-up.

Speaking in an interview with IndustryGamers, Naughty Dog creative director Amy Hennig confirmed that downloadable content for Uncharted 2 will be available before the new year.
“We’re working on that now, and what we’re prepared to say is that there will be DLC available before the end of the year,” Hennig said about DLC. “Without going into specifics, it’ll involve new maps, new characters, things like that. Some of it will be free of charge and some of it will be purchasable.”

This goes along with what Naughty Dog has previously said about DLC, as they’ll be focusing on the competitive multiplayer when creating new content.

Elsewhere in the interview, Hennig gave some insight into just how pleased Naughty Dog is with Uncharted 2’s sales so far. “I would definitely say it’s exceeding expectations,” she said. “Being in the industry for a while you learn to try to manage your expectations because you’d rather be surprised with good news than disappointed.

“It’s a tough business,” Hennig continued, “but from the early numbers I’ve seen getting reported back it’s exceeded any estimates we had internally, and it’s certainly outsold the first game by many, many times. That and the critical reception so far has been really gratifying.”