Welcome everyone to the New Gamer Nation Weekly News. With another week, another round up of weekly news. This week, Sony changes Playstation Network, A new Call of Duty is on it’s way for 2012, The Last Guardian is alive and well, a shake-up at Twisted Metal developers Eat Sleep Play, and a promotion you’re going to want to sign up for. Warm up the ice cream truck it’s time for the news.
Sony Entertainment Network Absorbs Playstation Network
The Playstation Network is no more. As of February 7, 2012, Sony has renamed the Playstation Network to Sony Entertainment Network. What this basically means to all PS3 users is this is simply a name change to the network. The change is to simplify the service to allow the users to have one account to access everything in the Sony network including the Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, Sony’s Music Unlimited, Video Unlimited and PlayMemories Online (currently called Personal Space).
Source: G4
A New Call of Duty in 2012
Not so much surprising anyone anymore Activision announced during a their fourth quarter financial call, there is going to be a Call of Duty in 2012. Details have yet to be released at this time, however rumors are swirling a Black Ops sequel is on the way. Also in the call, Activision has stated there are more than 40 million monthly active users across all COD releases, and Call of Duty Elite boasts 7 million users with 1.5 million paid annual members. Activision reported that it is working on Call of Duty Elite 2.0, which will add new features and will support the next major series entry, due to launch later this year.
Source: IGN & G4
The Last Guardian Update
The Last Guardian is still under development, according to Sony Worldwide Studios President, Shuhei Yoshida. With rumors of the lead director of the game, Fumito Ueda leaving the company, and even a story of Gamestop employees calling customers informing them the game is cancelled, many actually believed The Last Guardian would never see the light of day. However in an interview conducted at the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit, Yoshida confirmed The Last Guardian is “making progress, but slow progress”
“It’s still a really important project and a vision we want to see realized, and Fumito’s vision is really causing a very difficult challenge for the developers, so there’s some scrapping and rebuilding — iteration in the process. That’s why [it’s taking so long].” said Yoshida. As for Ueda’s status with the project, Yoshida stated, “he’s working on a contract basis. You know, we discussed an arrangement so he could focus on the creative side. But his work and his presence on that team never changed, so it was just more a contractual rearrangement, and that was taken [by many] as ‘he left.'”
Source: 1Up
David Jaffe Possibly Leaving Eat Sleep Play/Layoffs
After laying off 8 employees, developers Eat Sleep Play are switching focus from console games to mobile games. Leaving them with 26 employees, the switch to mobile games will be what’s next for the company moving forward. “It’s a platform that is in our pockets almost 24/7. It’s kind of the size and types of games we’re playing,” said the company’s co-founder, Scott Campbell. “You can certainly reach a lot more people. That’s pretty exciting for us.”
As for Eat Sleep Play’s other co-founder David Jaffe (creator of God of War and Twisted Metal), is expected to leave the company to reportedly work on “casual games”. However, in several updates on his Twitter account, Jaffe stated the following-
“The rumors of me making casual games post TM- as many of you define them- are highly exaggerated”
“I have zero plans to make games like FARMVILLE and ANGRY BIRDS. I never said what I was doing post TM (and I’m still on TM along with ESP for the next months as we launch it and balance it in real time and make sure it’s a perfect game and continue to support it). At the same time I will be opening a game studio here in San Diego because I really miss internal game development. Happy to share more details later”.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune & David Jaffe
Shoot The Truck Promotion
Speaking of Twisted Metal and David Jaffe, does anyone remember that ice cream truck from Sony’s press conference at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo? Well, in honor of the launch of Twisted Metal, Sony, and the Twisted Metal team are going to allow us a chance to shoot at it from in front of our computers. For two days, starting February 14, you can remotely control a couple M249-SAWs (fully automatic machine guns), and shoot at the truck all from warm basking glow of your computer’s warm basking glow. I know you’re asking, “where do I sign up?” It’s simple, register at Shootmytruck.com. Be advised the language David Jaffe uses might not be suitable for a younger audience.
Source: Sony Playstation Blog
There you have it for this week. Leave a comment and tell us what you think. Are you happy with Sony consolidating all it’s services? Do you want to see another Call of Duty this year? Do you think The Last Guardian is going to happen? How do you feel about Eat Sleep Play’s new direction? Are you signed up to shoot the truck?
Until next week everybody. Thanks for reading.