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OK, Japan, you can have Batman: Arkham Asylum Jan. 14

by Randy Nelson { Nov 2nd 2009 at 7:30PM }

Hey Japan. Remember all those games you made for, oh, decades that we couldn't wait to get our hands on in the West? Well, we thought for once we'd give something back. We know you like Batman. And Batman: Arkham Asylum is really wonderful. So of course you've wanted it. Ever since it came out here in August.

So, Eidos is going ahead bringing you the game on January 14, 2010. Unfortunately, it's up in the air whether you'll get the cool extras we did, like a replica Batarang and really big packaging. Seems you will be getting the DLC though, according to Andriasang. So yeah, please enjoy this gift from us to you. We'll be watching the sales numbers closely.

(P.S. If you want, you can return the favor by sending over the Final Fantasy XIII edition PS3.)

September NPD: Obviously Destined to Sell Tons

by JC Fletcher { Oct 19th 2009 at 8:10PM }

The new, lighter (in both price and weight!) PS3 continues to enjoy renewed sales in its second month beating out every console except for the invincible DS -- and the PS3 got pretty close to that impossible victory. The PS3's sales more than doubled in the last month! In fact, just about everything enjoyed a boost in September, with all the home consoles benefiting from recent price drops, and the PSP launching new hardware (NPD's September sales period ran through October 3). The only "loser" is the DS, which fell in total sales, but still managed to sell more than anything else.

In software (see the chart after the break), unsurprisingly strong debuts took place for both games with Halo on the box and games with Mario on the box. In fact, strong is a bit of an understatement for ODST's 1.52 million units sold. It's not quite 3.3 million units, but for a presumably lower-cost spinoff using an existing engine, it'll do.

In a weird bit of cross-platform fickleness, The Beatles: Rock Band debuted in the top 10 for Xbox and Wii, but not PS3 -- while Batman: Arkham Asylum's PS3 version made a second appearance in the top 10 to the exclusion of the Xbox.

-DS: 524K

29K (-5%)
-PS3: 492K

282K (+134%)
-Wii: 463K

186K (+67%)
-360: 353K

138K (+64%)
-PSP: 190K

50K (+36%)
-PS2: 146K

40K (+38%)

Check out the software sales chart after the break.

Continued →

Batman: Arkham Asylum creator focused on quality over quantity, hasn't played BioShock

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 19th 2009 at 8:00PM }

In a lengthy post-mortem with Gamasutra this week, Rocksteady Studios creative director Sefton Hill spoke his mind on a mess of topics regarding this summer's surprise hit, Batman: Arkham Asylum. "There are too many games out there that deliver lots of average content," Hill said when asked about the relative "tightness" of Batman in comparison with other games. Personal inspiration for the game's design came from places like Zelda and Metroid, two game series he's been a fan of "for years," as well as Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness. And though Arkham's audio logs and "environment as a character" motif hearken back to 2007's BioShock, Hill claimed he's never played it. "It's on my list of games to get back into ... I can't say for me that was a big direct influence."

Truth be told, we're just scratching the surface of Gamasutra's thorough dissection of Batman -- a game we loved with all of our jaded, rancorous hearts -- so do yourself a favor and stroll through the entire five pages. Call it an afternoon treat! You deserve it, dearest Joystiq reader.

Gallery: Batman: Arkham Asylum

EEDAR: Game sales slowdown turned around in September

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 9th 2009 at 2:00AM }

2009 hasn't been the best year for the games industry. Month after month, we hear reports of reduced sales figures, company closures, and layoffs. Things may be turning around, though, as EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich believes software sales during September 2009 have actually gone up from 2008, the first time in seven months thanks to strong sales of Halo 3: ODST, Wii Sports Resort, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Madden NFL 10 and Batman: Arkham Asylum. All in all, software sales should come in at $715 million, a 16% increase over last year.

The music genre may be slowing down, but Divnich notes that "both Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band have performed at levels ahead of retail expectations," with sales predicted at 800k and 1 million units respectively. The same analyst at EEDAR previously predicted that Guitar Hero 5 would outsell The Beatles 2:1. With NPD sales results dropping next week, we'll soon see how accurate Divnich's latest analysis is.

Batman started as a rhythm-action game -- and other Arkham Asylum secrets

by James Ransom-Wiley { Oct 5th 2009 at 11:00PM }

Well, whaddya know? It's not just an Unreal license, painstaking design and dynamic gameplay that make for a Game of the Year candidate. It also takes three cans of whipped cream, 14 nationalities, 44,674 polygons (in one plant!), 314 breakable TVs, and six babies. That's right. If you're looking to crack Rocksteady Studio's formula for success, GameInformer has squeezed out a few of Batman: Arkham Asylum's most intimate secrets.

No, we're not talking solutions to Riddler's challenges or tips for combating fear toxin (hint: just breathe), but rather insight into key development ingredients; like what sports team had the most support from the staff? (Answer: Arsenal Football Club.) And did you know? The game's combat morphed from a rhythm-action game to a 2D prototype that "involved colored circles bashing into each other" before it was revised into its final design.

To think: We were this close to another horrendous Batman game ...

Square Enix looking to develop more best-selling IPs

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 29th 2009 at 5:30PM }

RPG juggernaut Square Enix already has a handful of reliable ~~internet protocols~~ intellectual properties in Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts -- however, the company is looking to expand its portfolio of best-selling franchises. In a recent interview with Reuters, Squeenix's Yoichi Wada explained that the developer is hoping to have eight flagship IPs, each installment in which will be capable of selling two million units. He added that with the company's average development time of two years, one of these flagship games could be released every quarter.

So, where are these other five franchises going to come from? According to the interview, Square Enix is cooking up two or three potential blockbusters which should drop by late 2010 or early 2011. For the other IPs, the company may not need to look further than its recent Eidos acquisitions -- a haul which includes the recently successful Batman: Arkham Asylum. We certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of Bruce Wayne on a biennial basis.

[Via Siliconera]

PSN Thursday: More free Batman DLC, Broken Steel

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 24th 2009 at 6:45PM }

The highlight in this week's PSN Update is that The Bats is back with more free DLC. Also, for Fallout 3 owners not planning to trade up to the "game of the year edition," the single most important piece of DLC for the game, Broken Steel, is now available from the PSN store for $10. For those who don't know, Broken Steel takes away "the ending" of the game and allows the (anti-)hero of the Capital Wasteland to continue their journey with an increased level cap. Check out the full update after the break -- and, sadly, no Trine.

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:

(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Continued →

Free Batman 'Prey in Darkness' DLC detailed, arrives tomorrow on PS3 in NA [update]

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 23rd 2009 at 2:01PM }

Late summer blockbuster Batman: Arkham Asylum receives another dose of free DLC with the "Prey in the Darkness" map pack tomorrow on ~~Xbox 360 and~~ PS3. The "Heart of Darkness" map will have Bats battling baddies at the Arkham Pumping Station, while "Hothouse Prey" has the detective using his predator skills to silently dispose of henchmen in the conservatory (i.e., the Abandoned Glasshouse).

Remember to check out the free "Insane Night" map pack if you somehow missed it last week ... oh yeah, and don't forget to check out the game if you've somehow missed out on that, too.

Update: Seems worth mentioning that the UK allegedly (and accidentally) has this up on the Xbox Marketplace already.

Update 2: It appears that Europe will receive the DLC on both consoles, while North America will only have it on PS3. There is no word about when the pack will arrive on the North American Xbox Marketplace. Yeah ... we don't understand it either.

Gallery: Batman: Arkham Asylum

WTF: Fable characters in Sonic Racing and other oddities from alleged Sega leak

by Ben Gilbert { Sep 22nd 2009 at 1:28PM }

Among the truckloads of possibly legit megatons included in the alleged leaked minutes from a meeting between Sega of America and Sony Computer Entertainment America, a number of notable gaffes and oddities can be found. Besides wondering if "characters from [the] Rare or Fable universes" should be included in Sonic Racing, it appears that Sega may be interested in assigning all of its properties a PlayStation Home-room. Oh, and a product evaluator thought Alpha Protocol felt "barely RPG" -- final analysis: make it even more Mass Effect-y.

Additionally, the mention of PS2 games as downloadable content on PSN makes us reminisce all the way back to mid-2006 when the idea first popped up on our radar --- surely, this isn't why Sony removed built-in backwards compatibility? And either the person taking minutes was daydreaming or knows something we don't, as reference is made to "Eidos' Batman" featuring "PS3/PSP interoperability" support -- a Batman or related DC Comics PSP game then? Juicer still, that little mention comes right after talk of a project named "Vanquish" and a possible PSP iteration of the currently shelved Aliens: Colonial Marines that Gearbox Software is working on. Also, Sony is eager to check out that hopefully not-so-crappy Thor game soon (suggestion: make it less Iron Man 2-y).

The cherry on top comes in the form of what we've been calling around the Joystiq water cooler: "Sonic and the Inverted Castle." Found under the "Sonic Anniversary" subhead, the note taker jots down, "SCEA would love PSN exclusive power ups/different game modes (like Castlevania's flip it over/backwards)." Actually, we believe that's Missy Elliott who puts the thing down, flips it and reverses it, thank you very much.

PSN Thursday: Trying to find Trine, but happy in Arkham

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 17th 2009 at 7:45PM }

Sorry, North America, the Europeans may be trying Trine, but the game isn't coming out this week. There's always the new free content for Arkham Asylum ... there, there, doesn't that just help make the Trine pain melt away? No? Well, there's the picture search game Interpol and the classic Final Fantasy Tactics, along with plenty of other content that may be of interest. Check it all out after the break.

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:

(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Continued →

European PSN releases for September 17

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 17th 2009 at 11:25AM }

We've been Trine really hard to come up with a clever statement for this week's European PSN releases, but we've come up short. Our usual Command of the English language has failed us -- a fact which will keep us up all through the Insane Night.

... Also, Bomberman Ultra is out.

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:

(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Continued →

Custom Arkham Asylum skins unmask Batman's identity issues

by David Hinkle { Sep 16th 2009 at 12:00AM }

One of the incentives to play Batman: Arkham Asylum on PC (outside of a lower price and PhysX graffix) is the ability to create custom skins. The community has quickly gotten to work and flooded the official forums with screen grabs of the various outfits modders have designed. Aside from the obvious The Dark Knight and classic Bats skins, there's a neat Green Lantern variation and, pictured above, a recession-conscious Batman opting for Old Navy–esque cargos instead of the usual rubbery expensive stuff. Hey, they breathe better, right?

Hit up the thread to check 'em all out.

Batman: Arkham Asylum's 'Insane Night' DLC detailed

by Justin McElroy { Sep 14th 2009 at 2:03PM }

Though the name still sounds like an utterly abysmal gallery on a frat boy's Facebook page, we thought you'd like to know a bit more about the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum DLC pack, "Insane Night."

On September 17th (on PS3, PC and 360), you'll be able to download the "Totally Insane" combat challenge, which pits the Dark Knight against escaped lunatics in Arkham's records facility, as well as the "Nocturnal Hunter" predator challenge, where you and Bats will rely on the shadows of the Arkham watchtowers to remain hidden.

Best of all, they'll both be available for the bargain price of nothing.

Guitar Hero 5 goes straight to the top of the UK charts

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 14th 2009 at 9:00AM }

Guitar Hero 5, which is like the tenth (give or take a couple) installment in the series, has resonated with UK consumers and hit a high note atop the Chart Track all-formats chart. The Dark Knight of Arkham Asylum -- who was perched above the charts for two weeks -- slipped off the top to the number three spot, with Colin McRae: Dirt 2 taking the silver.

The Beatles: Rock Band premiered at the number four spot, which some are sure to find disappointing. Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band have previously debuted at the fourth and sixth spot, respectively, with previous iterations. Music games may be on a sales decline, but they apparently still know how to make an entrance.

Source -- Guitar Hero 5 hits the right notes (Chart Track)
Source -- All formats chart (Chart Track)

Gallery: Guitar Hero 5

Eidos intentionally glitches Batman: Arkham Asylum pirates

by Justin McElroy { Sep 10th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Well, this is just hysterical. Posting on the Batman: Arkham Asylum PC forums, user "Cheshirec_the_cat" complained that Batman's glide wasn't working in a certain section of the game, leading to his death by poisonous gas. Before long, Eidos moderator Keir informed him that he had actually stumbled on an intentional glitch in the game that only affects those who pirated their copy. "It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code," quipped Keir.

Sure, more unscrupulous members of the gaming community will discover a workaround eventually, but let's just savor the moment, shall we?

[Via MaxConsole]