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E-xpress Interactive are slowly lifting the curtain on their Assassin’s Creed Indian launch plans. Some days back, we got the confirmation that after a long time, the console version of an Ubisoft game will be seeing an Indian release. Now E-xpress Interactive has revealed the pricing strategy and we must admit, after the shock that was Modern Warfare 2, these prices are indeed looking sweet. Have a look!
Now here is a piece of news that caught us completely by suprise. While talikng to a little bird recently, Dell’s plans of getting Alienware to India slipped out.
Apparently Dell is looking for a launch sometime in July 2009. It will be bringing in an Alienware laptop to test the waters. Initially, only one model will be launched. If successful, we just might get to have the whole product range of Alienware launched here in India.
Now how successful will Alienware be with the price-concious Indian customer but we are sure lot of gamers will be delighted to see Alienware on the shelves soon.
While leafing through the current issue of Business Today (January 25, 2009 edition), we came across a small piece on the reach of gaming in India, as compared to that of Bollywood music and movies. According to the article, a survey by Nielsen Company across 52 countries, one of which happened to be India, revealed some interesting facts. The survey states that while the West is a heavy user of gaming consoles, “television sets” still rule in India. Strangely though, the article goes on to state, “Fancy video-handsets, and, therefore, gamers are far fewer in number (in India)”. All we can make out from the preceding sentence is that the writer is referring to high-end mobile phones when she talks about “fancy video-handsets” but how does low penetration of high-end cell phones translates into lesser number of gamers is something that boggles the mind.
All the naysayers, doubters and the loads of people pissed off at not having seen GTA IV for the PC in India yet, read and rejoice, for we hold in our hands the first two copies of the game to be officially launched in the country. One’s for Jay to own, cuddle, stroke and love from now until eternity and the other’s an official review copy that we got today morning from the distributor, e-Xpress Interactive.
As we had initially broken the news to our readers, the game has been launched at a price point of INR 499, although this could very well be part of a promo offer that’s being offered by e-Xpress for the initial stocks, so you’ve only got yourself to blame if you find yourself without a copy and the price gets jacked up for the game later. So even if you don’t plan to play this right now until you upgrade that tottering, ramshackle PC of yours, get the game now so you won’t have to worry about paying more for it later.
It’s that time of the year again when Sony Computer Entertainment India pulls out all stops in its bid to woo in as many as possible to its ever increasing tribe of PS3 owners. Last year event proved that if marketed properly, a gaming event such as this one can draw in gamers and non-gaming crowd alike. No wonder this time around, they have upped the bar again by making the Playstation Experience 2008 a multi-city affair.
Mumbai will be seeing the event held at In-Orbit mall on 8th and 9th of November. Bangalore will be there to experience it first-hand at Kormangala Indoor Stadium on the 15th and 16th of November. The city-hopping show will wrap at New Delhi where gamers and non-gamers alike can flock in to Ansal Plaza on 22nd and 23d November. In addition to this, the Mumbai event will be seeing a press-conference as well on the first day of the event. Here is hoping some good news comes our way from that.
SCE India has wisely kept it a weekend affair which would ensure families can flock in by the droves. Throw in the ad campaign and you will be looking at a record turn-out. It’s also heartening to see that the Delhi and Bangalore crowd are also finally getting some attention, especially Bangalore which has long been passed over for such events. Our kudos goes out to the SCE India team for making this possible. TAP most definitely approves!
Now this is something so out of the blue that we were left scratching our heads for a while. With the new Xbox Experience just around the corner, everyone is excited about checking out the new look and feel of the Xbox 360 dashboard, save for those without a HDD or a memory unit. As it turns out now, christmas seems to have come early with Microsoft playing Santa. In a surprising move, Microsoft has announced that they will be providing either a refurbished 20Gb HDD for USD 19.99 or a free a 512Mb memory card. Yup! You heard it right!! Free 512Mb memory card. What do you need to do to get one, you ask?
Some good news in store for those looking forward to picking up a Xbox 360 this holiday season. Mr. Rahul Datta, Retail Services Manager, Microsoft India, confirmed to The ANGRY Pixel today that Microsoft India will be coming out with a new offer on the console soon. For INR 14,990, you will get to have the following:
[Image: Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers]
Looks like somebody up there (or down here) finally decided to have some pity on Indian gamers without an Internet connection, a credit card, a Play-Asia account and oh, about 3 weeks of patience. Or in some cases, way longer. After having ignored the country for a long time, except for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition on the Xbox 360, Jap videogame giant Capcom have tied up with local distribution giant Milestone Interactive to bring all their upcoming and back catalog titles to the country.
While the distribution would initially stick to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PSP platforms, Milestone says they would also be offering PC and PlayStation 2 titles somewhere down the line. The back catalog, which currently includes hot property such as Dead Rising, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and Devil May Cry 4 will be available starting this week at stores all over the country, with newer games such as MotoGP ‘08, Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 being available in accordance with the international street dates for these titles.
The easy going folks down in Bangalore like to believe that their Mumbai cousins have a daily dose of adrenaline in form of hanging on to the footboard of the local trains during their morning commute. However, it seems like the craving for more of it is what drove them to the Battlefield: Bad Company India launch party held at Khar Gymkhana, Mumbai on 25th June, that featured a paintball competition for the attendees. The winning teams got to walk away with some colorful splotches, a couple of angry looking welts as well copies of Gold edition of the game for the PS3.
All we can do in the meantime is shake our fists in protest and gaze at the pictures, after the jump.
Now here’s something that flew over our heads, utterly and completely. Mohit Anand has stepped down from his status as Microsoft India’s Country Manager for Entertainment and Devices Division, due to some, at least according to VARIndia’s report, “internal issues”.
Speaking exclusively to VARIndia, Mohit Anand said, “The news is true that I have quit Microsoft. However, I would not be able to comment where I would be joining next.”
Egads, man! The last time I met Mohit in person was at the Mass Effect launch party, and was even a bit surprised he didn’t show up at Nikhill’s Pizza Whore session (though I was later told that he had a family wedding to attend to). Still, sucks to know he’s gone. For what it was worth, Mohit was a pretty vocal guy. Barring the BioShock incident, the dude was fairly open to whatever questions we had to throw out. Hopefully, Microsoft India themselves will issue an official statement on this matter, maybe even throw some insight on the whole “internal issues” remark. I mean, sure, Mohit isn’t much of a Halo-player (especially if all he does is run over people in the Mongoose), and yeah, there was that time he shot the Arbiter during the Halo 3 Pre-Launch Party’s live demonstration of the single-player campaign. But he does fancy himself an Age of Empires nut! No doubt, in my eyes, does this count for something.
Thanks to Helios for the scoop, and Singh for the Photoshop job on the Mohit Anand Faceplate. There’s a story behind that pic actually, but I think we’ll save that for some other time.