Vita owners in Japan who’ve upgraded from a PSP can slap down a few bucks to get downloadable versions of their UMD games onto their Vita, but sadly Sony hasn’t brought the UMD Passport scheme to the Western market. This, SCE worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida has explained, is down to two main reasons: the PSP market is much more active in Japan, and games are cheaper in the US.
“I’m sorry we are not doing it in the States,” told Yoshida Wired, saying that there’s simply less demand for such a scheme over here.
“When you look at the release schedule of new titles there are still lots of PSP games being released in Japan and being announced for release. Lots of people who are interested in trying Vita are also interested in playing PSP games that they might purchase before Vita comes out, and will not necessarily choose the digital version.”
Tying into this, according to Yoshida, is the fact that games are cheaper in the US and Europe, so presumably players are less bothered about tossing their UMDs and buying digital Vita copies.
“… PSP games in Japan are sold at a much higher price, so people see the value in spending the $5 to $10 to get the digital copy,” he said. “But when the games are already sold at a lower price in the U.S. we see less value in introducing that kind of system.”
While there may be less demand for the UMD Passport plan in the US and Europe, by Sony’s logic, there is still very much a reasonable interest in having it here too. It’d certainly be a welcome gesture to the PSP owners Sony surely hopes will upgrade to a Vita.
You there! Quick! Do you want to play in the Guild Wars 2 beta? Well then, stop your lollygagging, pull your breeches up, and march yourself to the enlistment office sharpish, as signups are open for a 48-hour window.
The beta signup site will direct you to download a tool to scan your PC’s hardware, to see if you match what developer ArenaNet’s looking for, so you’ll want to do this on your gaming mega-spiffo-ultra-rig rather than your grinding work PC.
While there’s no indication of when signing up may get you into the beta, or any guarantee that you will at all, ArenaNet previously said that it planned to “aggressively ramp up” testing in March and April.
Guild Wars 2’s beta signups will close on Friday, so get your form in while you can. The subscription-free MMORPG is set to launch some time this year.
After a few months of closed beta testing, Hi-Rez Studios is ready to share Tribes: Ascend with the hoi polloi. Its free-to-play take on the much-loved jetpacking PC shooter series will enter open beta on Friday.
All and sundry will be able to download the client without a beta key from 5pm on Friday on the official site. Characters from the closed beta will carry over, with players’ progress and unlocks intact.
Ahead of the launch, Hi-Rez is rolling out a hefty patch with new modes, maps, items, and more.
“The Tribes: Ascend Closed Beta has exceeded our expectations,” Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris said in today’s announcement. “Over 300,000 players participated in the closed beta and the game has improved greatly based on community feedback. We are now excited to launch Open Beta this Friday. We have expanded capacity in North America, Europe, and Australia and added new local servers to support growing communities in Brazil and Asia.”
Tribes: Ascend is slated to officially launch some time this year. As one would expect from a free-to-play shooter, you’ll be able to slap down cash money for instant loadout unlocks, experience gain boosts, and other gubbins.
Face-shooting fans, prepare to return to Pandora on September 18, when Borderlands 2 will arrive on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Developer Gearbox has also unveiled the in-game goodies you can snag by pre-ordering the shooter-RPG sequel, and blasted out a new trailer.
Pre-ordering from Amazon or GameStop nets you “membership” to the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club, which comes with a selection of in-game goodies. You’ll get “unique” Gearbox-styled golden guns, a Relic to “boost your gear-hunting fortune,” and a key to “unlock a rare item in the mysterious Sanctuary Loot Chest.”
One might speculate that, like the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club, joining this Club may get you other perks down the line too. Unless Gearbox simply has an unhealthy club fixation.
Gentle reader, be warmed by the happy ending to the oft-sad story of Alan Wake’s PC edition. It once seemed there’d be no PC release at all, but developer Remedy took matters into its own hands. Since then, the team has revealed that it had more than earned back the money it spent making the jazzed-up port within only 48 hours on sale.
Now Remedy has planned a series of PC patches, bringing fixes and changes including a free camera mode, for those who want to really explore Bright Falls.
You all know the sordid tale: publisher Microsoft had originally sanctioned PC and Xbox 360 versions, but as time wore on, a PC release seemed less and less likely, until MS declared it dead in 2010. Seems there’s legs in this ‘PC’ platform yet.
“We are very happy with the sales and hitting #1 on Steam at launch was nothing short of amazing,” Remedy EVP Aki Järvilehto posted on the Alan Wake forums yesterday, after the game launched last week. “We recouped our development and marketing expenses during the first 48 hours. And yes, we’re certainly very excited about PC.”
Remedy also had to get the PC publishing rights off Microsoft, which presumably cost a penny or two, but it’s all jolly good news.
The first planned patch is expected to launch this week, Remedy CTO Markus Maki explained in a forum post, with a second patch next week and another some time after that. They’ll mostly bring fixes, but a few new features too, so have a gander at the planned notes.
Funcom’s supernatural real-ish-world MMORPG The Secret World will creep into our own reality on June 19, pushed back from its planned April launch to apply a good spit-shine. Beta testing is to ramp up, including several “large-scale public beta events.”
“Allowing for even more time to polish the game really shows just how much faith Funcom as a company has in ‘The Secret World’ and how committed we are to making it the best it can be,” creative director Ragnar Tørnquist said in the announcement.
“The additional time will also allow us to carry out even more quality beta testing, and soon we will also be announcing several public beta events where hundreds of thousands of gamers will get to test the game prior to launch.”
You can sign up for beta testing now, if you’d like, as 750,000 others already have.
The Secret World, in a nutshell, is a classless, level-less, MMORPG for PC, set in a version of our world where supernatural horrors lurk just beyond our vision, kept in line by three shadowy warring factions. Intriguingly, in-game puzzles will test your grey matter as well, with clues embedded in the environment, and some which may take a little research on the actual proper Internet.
Here’s a recent trailer, showing off the Blue Mountain area:
If you’re going to pick up a PlayStation Vita on launch day tomorrow, you have a treat to look forward to in the form of its system software update v1.61. What marvelous treats will this add as you wait to play with this shiny new toy? If you wait just one second, I’ll tell you.
The 1.61 firmware update will bestow these features upon new Vita update owners:
- A new application, (Maps), has been added to the home screen.
- In addition to photos, you can now take videos using the Photo application.
- You can now publish stories about the products that you rate in PlayStation Store to Facebook.
- In near, players’ information is now displayed on the Discoveries screen. On this screen, a list of the online IDs of up to 100 players that you have encountered, and the number of times that you encountered each player, are displayed. Tap an online ID to display that player’s profile screen.
- The Mac OS version of Content Manager Assistant for PlayStation has been released. The Windows version has also been updated.
You may notice that this all sounds awfully like what came in the 1.60 firmware update, which Vita owners who picked up the First Edition Bundle will have already downloaded. That’s because Sony has helpfully rolled the changes into one set of notes. If you’re one an early-adopter already running 1.60, Sony says that 1.61 will still “improve certain aspects of the system software” but offers no specifics. It’s available now, so get installing.
Yager’s sandy shooter Spec Ops: The Line will creep to PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on June 26. Publisher 2K today also announced pre-order bonuses, in the form of early unlocks and special gubbins for its multiplayer side.
Pre-ordering from certain retailers will net you a free upgrade to the ‘Premium Edition.’ This packs “exclusive” cosmetic items for your characters, instant unlocks of the Officer class and AK-47, plus double experience for the first week.
Our Andrew found himself “impressed, eager to play more” after having a go on Spec Ops: The Line’s single-player campaign recently, though he didn’t get to try its multiplayer.
Here, this explains the pre-order bonuses using moving pictures:
Vblank Entertainment’s Retro City Rampage has always looked awfully nice, but it was a shame the open-world love letter to ye olden days was only headed to WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade. Rejoice, then! The indie developer has confirmed that it’ll also hit PC, and PlayStation 3 and Vita via PlayStation Network.
Wrapped up in a Grand Theft Auto-style murder simulator, Retro City Rampage is sprinkled with references to lovely things from the 8-bit era, dipping into other classic genres.
Retro City Rampage is now slated to launch in May. You can pre-order the PC edition now for $14.99, which gets you a DRM-free version plus a key to activate it on Steam if you fancy. You also get a 10-track “mini-soundtrack,” print-ready box and cartridge label for that full NES experience, and a 20%-off coupon for RCR merchandise.
Here’s a recent teaser trailer showing off the overworld action:
MechAssault series developer Day 1 Studios is returning to the wonderful world of big stompy mechs with Reign of Thunder, after being sidetracked by Fracture and F.E.A.R. 3 (though it still squeezed small mechs in, at least). The studio’s new mech ‘em up is clanking towards PC, where it’ll be free-to-play.
While MechAssault was set in FASA’s BattleTech universe–the source of MechWarrior–Reign of Thunder is “an all new Mech IP.” Day 1’s again going for fast, arcade-y action, the debut trailer shows, and boasts of bags o’ customisation.
The trailer also hints at how free-to-play model will be supported, showing an in-game store selling weapon upgrades. Presumably players will be able to use their own actual cash money to get snazzier guns sooner–standard free-to-play fare.
Day 1 does have an official Reign of Thunder site, but there’s nowt on it for now.
Between Reign of Thunder, Hawken, and MechWarrior Online, it’s going to be a fine time for stompy robot fans without a single penny to buy new games.