It’s that time of week again when we take a fond look back at the top five news stories from the week. Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-Up. Below is a brief summary, but for the full stories simply click on the hyperlink. Let us know if you agree with our top five. If you have suggestions for future Weekly Wrap-Ups, feel free to email me at jeremy.tyler@bagogames.com.
Enjoy!
Number 5
Fable II Removed From Games on Demand
Fable II, the role-playing game from Lionhead Studios appears to have been removed from Xbox’s Games on Demand service and Xbox.com according to a report on GameSpot.com. Players who have previously purchased the game and attempt to re-download the title are apparently seeing an error message. The game is still playable for those that have it still installed on their hard drive or flash drive. The DLCs, Knothole Island and See The Future are still available for download. Fable II has since been restored to the Games on Demand service.
Number 4
Xbox 360 Escapes Ban Proposed By Motorola
Recently, Motorola attempted to get the Xbox 360 banned from sale in the United States, this week James Robart (US Judge) ruled against the proposal. According to the report, a “fair license rate” will be negotiated which will be looked into as well as a jury considering if Motorola’s request for 2.25% of each console sold is too high.
Number 3
Dark Souls 2 Announced At 2012 VGAs
A teaser trailer was shown at last night’s 2012 Video Game Awards announcing a sequel to From Software’s highly successful and critically acclaimed dark-fantasy action-RPG Dark Souls. Although the CG trailer showed no gameplay, it did contain elements which will be familiar to fans of Dark Souls or its predecessor Demon’s Souls: a lone knight seemingly on a quest, dark and desolate environments, and deadly enemies. In a rather surprising move, it has also been announced that the sequel will not be helmed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, who directed both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. Instead, Dark Souls 2 will be co-helmed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, although Miyazaki will be present in a supervisory role.
Number 2
Mike Capps, President of Epic Games, Retires
Mike Capps has revealed his retirement in a post on the company’s site. He’s got a baby boy on the way, which is a big deal in and of itself, and will instead be ‘cleaning up baby barf’. Don’t worry though, he’ll still be with the company in some capacity as an adviser, as well as a member of Epic’s Board of Directors. Capps goes on to note that he has the utmost confidence in their executive team, naming VP of Development Paul Meegan and VP of Operations John Farnsworth as two people that he thinks could do a better job that he ever did. Capps’ retirement quickly comes after Cliff Blezinski’s own departure and Rod Ferguson’s from the company, which may lead some to think that something is going down over at Epic.
Number 1
Journey Soundtrack Nominated for Grammy
The soundtrack of PSN game Journey has just been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Score Soundtrack category. Composer Austin Wintory now finds himself in competition with composers Hans Zimmer for The Dark Knight and Howard Shore for Hugo. You can check out the list of nominees for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards by clicking here. The awards show will air on February 10, 2013. Journey won multiple awards at Spike’s VGAs. It won Best Independent Game, Best Score and Best PlayStation 3 Game.
Honorable Mentions
This week had a lot of big news and the news staff and I found it hard to narrow it down to the usual five stories. Here are some of the articles for the honorable mention section. BioShock Infinite Release Date Pushed Back Again, Mickey Mouse Paints His Own PS3 Bundle, New Vita Firmware Update Fixes Cloud Saving Bug
If you missed out on the big news items this week, you can check out our weekly podcast and get an audio update of this week’s madness from our podcasting team. Listen to us as we talk about some things seriously and a few other things not so much. We guarantee this episode will make you shake your fist at times and nod your head at others. And finally, check out The Interview with Q, hosted by Matthew Quinlan.