Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
The stories for this week:
- NBA Live Becomes NBA Elite and Supposedly Jordan to Cover NBA 2K11
- Mark Hamill Retiring His Voice for Joker After Next Batman Game
- Insomniac Signs with EA Partners for Unannounced Multi-Platform Game
- Project Natal to be Priced at $149?
- Backbreaker and Alpha Protocol Highlight Releases
NBA Live Becomes NBA Elite and Supposedly Jordan to Cover NBA 2K11
This is rather big news since the game has been titled NBA Live for a long time, but supposedly they are going to rename it NBA Elite this year. Not sure why and many of you probably aren’t sports gamers and really don’t care anyway. The other weird news is Michael Jordan will supposedly be on the cover of NBA 2K11 from 2K. Jordan used to be synonymous with EA back in the day, but the ability to possibly play as him and maybe other legends in the NBA has me intrigued. EA has certainly been getting closer to 2K in quality in this regard, so this should be interesting.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Mark Hamill Retiring His Voice for Joker After Next Batman Game
In sad news this week, IGN had an interview with Mark Hamill about his work on the upcoming Rocksteady sequel to the fantastic Batman: Arkham Asylum game. He had planned on hanging up the Joker’s voice on a high note with the release of that game, but Rocksteady was able to convince him to return in the sequel. This probably means the Joker is going to have a bigger role than previously anticipated given the end of the first game. The bad news is this will for sure be the last time Hamill voices the Joker, a role he has done through the Batman animated series and obviously the recent game. Mark, you will forever be remembered for giving the Joker such a powerful presence. We’ll miss you when you finally hang up those shoes.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Insomniac Signs with EA Partners for Unannounced Multi-Platform Game
Not necessarily a surprise here since there has been rumors of Insomniac going multi-platform for a while now, but this week they announced they’ve been signed by EA Partners for an unannounced multi-platform new IP game. My guess will be that the unveiling will happen at E3 and it will be very interesting to see what type of game they are making.
They have no plans to end their relationship with Sony, which includes such games as the Resistance and Ratchet and Clank series.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Project Natal to be Priced at $149? Named “Wave”?
Rumors have been flying this week around the internet. The first one was that Project Natal would be priced at $149 when it releases. In my estimation this is an epic fail if Microsoft wants any chance of gaining traction in the motion control arena. A peripheral priced at just $50 below the 360 Arcade system? No way that’s going to fly Orville even if you have the perfect games included in with the system. Also, how are you going to price the supposed bundled systems that will include Natal in them? I certainly hope the price is not that high. $50 or $100 I could see mass penetration, but $149? No way.
Other rumor is that Natal will be renamed “Wave”. For sure Natal will have a different name, that’s been confirmed. I could see “Wave”, it is certainly a better word than “Move” that Sony has attached to its motion controller. I am kind of hoping this is a red herring though and that they are a little more creative in naming it. We’ll know for sure when Microsoft has one of its myriad of pressers at E3 on Sunday, June 13.
Source: me
Backbreaker and Alpha Protocol Highlight Releases
A relatively quiet week after the last couple, unless you’ve been obsessed with the oft-delayed Alpha Protocol that is. Backbreaker should be interesting since it is going to be competing with Madden even without the NFL license. I still say EA is going to snatch up 505 Games if Backbreaker does well, the engine there could only help the Madden franchise do something else than it has been (not that it hasn’t been getting better, especially last year).
As for Alpha Protocol, well we’ll just wait for Nick’s review late next week in the Beyond Co-Op Review monthly review (along with my review of Split/Second). I’m not high on Alpha Protocol, but maybe it could surprise all of us.
Source: me