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James Bond Returns in James Bond 007: Blood Stone
No movies are necessary for the long-rumored Blood Stone to be made. Even if the Bond film license is tied up in nasty contractual and financial issues, Bizzare Creations is heading up a brand new story and game for PS3 and 360, and N-Space is handling the DS version. No Wii version was announced, but plenty of screens and trailers for the 360/PS3 version show off Daniel Craig’s Bond getting into hand-to-hand combat, shooting guns (now with cover-based shooting) and driving cars and boats in the most chaotic and explosive ways possible. Other celebrity likenesses and voices to be included in the Quantum-manipulating-terrorists plot include Dame Judi Dench as M and Joss Stone as an unspecified character. Ms. Stone will also be recording a song for the game, entitled “I’ll Take It All.” No screens or trailers were shown for the DS version; all versions are scheduled to launch in Q4 2010. If you’re hankering for some awesome James Bond action on Wii, fret not, as the James Bond 007: Goldeneye remake is sizzling.
Source: Activision
Xbox 360 Sales May Surpass Wii in June, but Nintendo’s Not Crying
The announcement and release of the new, slimmed down Xbox 360 helped it surpass Wii hardware sales domestically in June, but DS sales remained on top, as usual. This is according to the June NPD report, which stated DS (all models) sold were 510,700 units, 360 sold 451,700 and Wii was third with 422,500 units sold in North America. This brings Wii’s North American sales to nearly 30 million, out of a worldwide sales total of over 71 million units (May 2010 figures). All models of the DS combined have sold 120 million units worldwide. June also contained a significant milestone for Super Mario Galaxy 2, which passed the 1 million sales mark in North America during that time. The number-one selling game in June was 360’s and PS3’s Red Dead Redemption, extending to a second month at the top of the charts.
Source: Nintendo, NPD
EA Sells All Owned Shares of Ubisoft
In December 2004, mega-publisher Electronic Arts unexpectedly purchased 19.9 percent of rival publisher Ubisoft’s shares, a move that surprised many, to include Ubisoft which labeled the move “hostile.” Due a clause that rewards investors holding on to their shares, in 2007 EA further expanded its ownership to 25 percent, giving it a larger portion of voting shares than the French developer’s owning family, the Guillemots. Many analysts wondered if this were a hostile takeover bid, and Ubisoft scrambled to expand operations to assert its ability to take care of its own business. Just as unexpectedly, Gamespot confirmed EA sold all of its shares in Ubisoft sometime shortly before July 16. EA cited a shift in “strategic priorities” as the reason for the divestment. This development either cements Ubisoft’s status as independent, or potentially opens the door for another mega-company to move in.
Source: Gamespot
