Friday Downtime Feature

We called it, albeit alongside every games hack on the planet, but Dead Rising 2 finally got confirmed this week. The absence of Frank West from any of the press material/Capcom virals that have surfaced so far is a little disconcerting (like Eliza Doolittle, we've grown accustom to his face), but the hinted addition of Mega-Man to the proceedings is certainly enough to keep our Capcom feelers twitching. Not so positive is the state of SEGA's growing (read: rapidly diminishing) Aliens/Alien/AvP product portfolio, as the publisher announced a new Alien vs. Predator game (a working title) on Wednesday.

At first things seemed to be rosy: a new AvP game due for release in 2010 as well as two other SEGA published Alien games already due for release in 2009. Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines would be hitting shops before April of this year, while Obsidian's Aliens RPG had previously been given a vague 2009 release window. That was until we checked the fine print of SEGA's press release. Firstly SEGA states that the new AvP game "will be the first to launch in series". Okay, so that was a little disconcerting, but became even more worrying when the publisher noted that it had "strategically updated the release of the other upcoming Aliens titles currently in development within its portfolio."

"Strategically updated," sounded suspiciously like a humongous delay to us and, sure enough, when we spoke to a SEGA Spokesperson they could confirm that the new AvP game will launch in early 2010, before the previously announced Obsidian and Gearbox titles. In other words, Aliens: Colonial Marines will now be delayed by over a year and Obsidian's Aliens RPG will also be pushed out of the 2009 release window. Now, we've come to expect this sort of thing from Gearbox, which managed to pull-off one of the most comical game delays in recent times with Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (behind the still unreleased Duke Nukem Forever, that is), but we were starting to get a little worried about Obsidian's lack of production since Neverwinter Nights 2 and its follow-up expansion packs.

Sure enough, reports arose late last night citing unnamed sources who allege that Obsidian has had to lay off 20 staff and that more redundancies may be around the corner. What's more is that there are also suggestions that SEGA may have pulled the funding from both the Gearbox and Obsidian Aliens projects. We've contacted SEGA (twice, we might add) regarding these latest reports and are yet to receive a call back. At least the newly announced AvP game is being developed by Rebellion, which cemented its reputation for great AvP games on both the Jaguar and PC platforms in the 90s. Wait a minute, though: wasn't the last AvP game Rebellion developed the film tie-in title for PSP, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem? Oh dear.

In other SEGA news, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games was confirmed for Vancouver 2010. No big surprises there, given the meteoric commercial success of Mario & Sonic's Beijing '08 escapades. Additionally, one huge piece of news that we've managed to skip over in this round-up is Square Enix's imminent buyout of Eidos, which you can read about here if you're into that sort of thing. Our Jerry Springer-esque final thought goes out to the PSP though, 50 million units of which have now been shipped worldwide according to Sony today.

The accompanying press release for this announcement was an almost tearful look back at the handheld's legacy, with comments such as:

"PSP introduced the latest advancement in technology for building handheld devices, including a 4.3 inch wide high resolution LCD screen, the largest of its kind for a portable device.  PSP opened up an entirely new gaming market by offering the fun of playing full-scale 3D-CG games as well as viewing high resolution video images anytime, anywhere, and also by offering users new ways of enjoying digital entertainment, including playing games on-line with family and friends via a wireless LAN feature."

That sounds very much like the techie equivalent of waving goodbye to a much loved employee to us. The console's lifetime sales record is certainly nothing to be scoffed at, although there's no hiding the fact that its commercial performance in the UK of late has been less than ideal. A PSP title is yet to break into Chart Track's UK top 40 games by individual format so far this year and we're struggling to think of a noteworthy PSP release in the coming months other than Resistance: Retribution.

We've rubbished certain PSP2 rumours in the past here on TVG, but that's not to suggest that there isn't any mileage in the notion, just that the rumours were crumby. In fact, even a source close to Sony reacted to the most recent round of PSP2 rumour and speculation from IGN earlier this year with the following candid reply:

"Clearly, being a quiet time of year, many, what we thought to be credible websites, are making up stories about PSP2, and how it allows you to teleport across the globe, travel through time, and will be powered by the horns of baby rhinoceroses.

"Hopefully, you can sense a mild tone of sarcasm, which should hopefully indicate how 'on the money' IGN are. Needless to say, we don't comment on rumour or speculation, but this is nonsense."

So, maybe not yet, but surely the PSP is going to need a substantial overhaul beyond the current 1000, 2000, and 3000 iterations soon.