If this were a local news channel, then today I’d be doing a bunch of stories about local firemen rescuing pets from trees or school children winning the science fair with a baking soda volcano. Alas, this is the Internet, and when we don’t have news, we have pictures of cute animals. All of the major releases for the year are out (and probably getting some play time right now), and the Spring line-up is just a bit far off. Aside from financial news, there isn’t much going on. Still, let’s take a look at what happened this week.
Miyamoto & Nintendo’s Futures
Sometimes, I’m glad I wait until the end of the week to do this column. This week’s Miyamoto mix-up is one such reason. Earlier in the week, many major outlets began reporting that legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was stepping down from his current position within the company. Needless to say, people were upset. Several days later, the truth finally came out thanks to the Wall Street Journal: Miyamoto would like the company to conform to a new structure that isn’t so contingent upon his involvement. Here’s the quote:
“We have to construct the structure so that the organization so that it can make it without me,” he said. “I should also admit that it might be better without me; I mean that a different approach and different talent might emerge, though I shouldn’t dwell on this because then the article might indeed say ‘Mr. Miyamoto is thinking about retiring,’ because that is not the case.”
This is, of course, good news. Miyamoto is a figurehead in the gaming community, and his departure from Nintendo would be the end of a long legacy of intuitive game design direction. Miyamoto is 59, it’s good to start planning for a future where he’s less involved.
Dance the Night Away
I’ll spare you from the Van Halen song, don’t worry. Star Wars: The Old Republic officially ended all beta testing this week. The folks at Bioware are reported to be very happy with the data gathered during the beta test, reporting over two million unique users during the entire period. It all ended this week with a massive rave in the game’s capital cities. DualShockers has a gallery from one such dance party. The game is set to officially launch on December 20th, but those who pre-ordered the game can play up to 5 days early.
GTA III Mobile Killing Civilians on an iPhone Near You
I saw the mobile edition of GTA III in action at NYCC earlier this year. It was just a rough build, so I wasn’t too worried about the glitches. I was really impressed by just how well the game was running on an iPad 2. It was a really fun experience, and Rockstar did a great job porting to the game to iOS. On December 15th, you can check out the mobile version of the one of the most venerated titles in gaming history. Priced at the beyond reasonable tag of $4.99, GTA III Mobile will be launching on the following devices.
Valve Employee Spotted with Half-Life 3…
…t-shirt. Uber Entertainment employee Chandana Ekanayake was at local game developer meeting when he spotted a Valve employee wearing a crisp Half-Life 3 t-shirt. He snapped a pic and uploaded it to twitter, saying:
@ekanaut: All I’m saying is I saw this at a local game developer event worn by a Valve employee. http://twitpic.com/7mxh6r
#HalfLife3#ValveTrolling
Curse you, Gabe Newell, you sadistic bastard.
That’ll do it for Gamer Pulse. Stay tuned to Comic Booked, and, as always, thanks for reading!
Tags: comic booked, Gamer Pulse, Grand theft auto 3, grand theft auto iii, gta, gta android, gta iphone, gta mobile, half life 3, Kyle Black, Miyamoto retiring, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Star Wars, The Old Republic, The Old republic Beta
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