Interesting marketing strategy from Atari

As the release of the second installment in the Neverwinter Nights series is getting closer and closer, Atari has decided to promote it by giving away some goodies along with every retail copy.

Looks like every retail copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 will include a code to unlock seven days of free trial for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Atari also revealed that the third module of Dungeons
& Dragons, The Demon Sands, is now available. US residents don’t get excited just yet, because this offer is available only in Europe.
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Studio had originally said they were done with games.

After Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath failed to hook gamers in spite of its critical acclaim (we gave it an 8.0), Oddworld Inhabitants basically said “see ya” to the videogames industry, instead deciding to focus on developing TV and film properties. Well, they lied. Mostly.

GamesIndustry.biz spoke to Oddworld co-founder Lorne Lanning recently, who confirmed the company is developing a new property titled Citizen Siege, envisioned as both a game and CG film. “Oddworld has had the chance to create original property that was designed as a film and as a game experience simultaneously. So the two influence one another as they grow. This is an idea that’s being talked about by media companies, but for the most part isn’t really happening yet,” says Lanning.
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Preston Thorne of Epic Games slips out some information

Apparently, the Xbox 360 has reached its limits with Gears of Wars, hardware limits that is. Gears of War is a third-person tactical action game developed by Epic Games and using the 3.0 Unreal Engine.

In an interview gave to Siliconera, Epic Games manager, Preston Thorne declared that through this game, his company has pushed the Xbox to the
limits. Joystiq gaming news website consider that there is some truth in this statement as, according to them, Epic was the one that convinced Microsoft to upgrade Xbox 360’s RAM to 512. Epic is still supporting their statement according to which Gears of War would not be able to run on 256 MB of RAM. Preston was also asked if the PlayStation 3 will be able to handle the game, but presumably he dodged the question, but still implied that the answer was no.
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What we heard: Though not a raging success in North America, Just Cause has been fairing quite well in retail in the UK, where it stayed on the region’s top 10 all-formats list for four weeks after its September release. This success was apparently enough of a sign to begin work on a sequel, according to Internet reports.

Gaming site Worthplaying.com cites an article in Swedish gaming magazine Kong, in which Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios (also from Sweden) apparently cops to a sequel’s development. Worthplaying says Avalanche CEO Christofer Sundberg reveals that his studio is already working on a sequel and that the game will abandon the Far Cry-esque island paradise for a “VERY large city environment” (caps in original).
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Free play for sci-fi MMO extended into 2008.

Funcom’s sweet deal — unlimited playtime in Anarchy Online, completely free of charge — just got a little bit sweeter. Not only has the offer been extended until January 2008, it now includes the PvP-centric Notum Wars expansion pack.

“The free offer has been an amazing success and a chance to show massive amounts of players how good this game actually is,” said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom. To date, nearly one million players have taken Funcom up on their almost-too-good-to-be-true offer, and while Aas expects the chance to smite fellow Anarchists to draw in even more new players, that’s not the only reason Funcom is including Notum Wars in the deal. “…we gain invaluable large-scale data on innovative business and distribution models, enabling us to shape the future of our other games better informed,” said Aas.
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Yeah, it actually comes with a giant helmet.

Regular copy of Halo 3: $59.99? (It’s a first-party game, will it be $49.99?).

Collector’s Edition of Halo 3: $69.99? Maybe a two-disc set of the game along the lines of the Halo 2 collector’s edition.
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We won’t be celebrating Star Trek’s 40 year anniversary in style

Is this becoming a trend? Are game developers experiencing labor issues? I can’t explain why they keep on delaying games. Star Trek: Legacy is the fourth game to be delayed this week, after the WoW expansion The Burning Crusade, Assassin’s Creed and Brother in Arms were also pushed.

Bethesda initially announced the release date as November 7, but now, they’ve decided to delay the game until November
21. According to some rumors on the Star Trek message board, the reason for the postponement is that the game has not been rated yet. (Dooh, Bethesda what are you waiting for?).
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Hollywood graveyard hosts Epic’s third-person shooter.

There are dead people everywhere, but it doesn’t smell. We’re at a graveyard in the middle of Hollywood, the ghost of Biggie Smalls is burping out of speakers and a couple hundred people are resting their drinks on tombstones — they are here for Gears of War. The game is finished, and last night, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, CA, Microsoft and Epic danced on the graves of strangers.
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Steam, competition for retailers

Valve just announced that the first person RPG Dark Messiah was released today. The game just shipped today to US outlets
and the retail price for the regular version is around US$ 50.

The Collector’s Edition will set you back some US$ 60 but I bet gamers who have been waiting for this game won’t mind coughing up that kind of money. If you are too lazy to go out and purchase the game, or you just don’t want to stay in line at the cash register, know that the game will also be available via Steam digital distribution system.
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$50 deposit required to reserve either of these next-gen systems.

Corroborated by scans of Toys R Us’s “Big Book” (a big “hey, what’s hot for holidays, families” bit of advertising) and employee postings online, it looks like the retailer will indeed be taking pre-orders for both the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 starting this Sunday, October 29.

For $50, gamers will be able to secure themselves a PS3 or Wii (or both, apparently!), which is very different from GameStop/EB’s policy where a “pre-order” for both the Wii and PS3 doesn’t guarantee a console at launch. The “Big Book” should be available at Toys R Us on Friday, so we should be able to confirm this beyond a reason of a doubt, but you might want to start making plans for Sunday now.
Source: gametab.com