EA apologise for Northern Ireland mix up
- Error was brought to EA’s attention in late April
Publishing giant Electronic Arts have apologised for using the wrong national anthem for Northern Ireland in the Euro 2008 computer game. The mistake was brought to the games publisher’s attention over two months ago in April. A Northern Ireland fan wrote on publisher’s online message boards of his “shock” and how he was “disgusted” by the game.
The fan pointed out that ‘Danny Boy’ is used in the game for the national anthem of Northern Ireland, rather than official anthem ‘God Save The Queen’. But his main point of controversy is due to ‘Amhran na bhFiann’ or ‘The Soldier’s Song’ – the national anthem of the Republic of Ireland – being played as victory music.
“I just bought Uefa Euro 2008. I’m from Northern Ireland and was shocked at some of the discoveries in your game. First of all Northern Ireland’s national anthem is not ‘Danny Boy’. Now for the worst part. when I was playing with NI and finished match at the end of match screen it started playing ‘the soldiers song’ which is the Republic of Ireland’s national anthem” said a user on EA’s message boards who described himself as a “very disappointed gamer” and signed off as Ian Kerr.
He continued: “Just to let you know Northern Ireland is still British and not all Ireland. The national anthem is ‘God Save the Queen’. where do u [sic] get your information on football from because whoever it is has never been to a Northern Ireland match, God Save the Queen is always played as our national anthem. As for the soldier song being played at end of match menu I was left disgusted. So, northern Ireland has no identity now I suppose”.
With many in the North having different cultural views, anger at the mix-up is unlikely to be even across political lines. An EA UK staff member followed the fan’s post with “There’s some excellent feedback here, keep it coming”, followed by a smiley face.
However, since then, EA’s Shaun White was quoted by media outlets as saying: “At EA Sports, we pride ourselves on delivering rich and authentic videogame experiences. We sincerely apologise for this error”.
Irish blog to cover computer games
An Irish blog, the Irish Games, is set to have video games news, features and reviews.
The site, jokingly described as “the illegitimate brain child of two native Limerick dwellers with a
passion for video games”, was launched late last week and can be found at theirishgamers.wordpress.com.
The blog is to cover both console and PC gaming, as well as the odd post about films. A post on the site says one of the reasons it was set up was “the belief that the Irish games scene is in need of a serious boost”.
It added: “We’re just getting started, but we hope to start specifically covering what’s going on in Ireland when it comes to games, as well as talking about the regular plethora of daily international industry happenings too”.
The use of the name the Irish Gamers follows two similarly named but unrelated sites – the now redundant Irishgamer.ie, and one of Game Toaster’s past names, the Irish Gamer.
Irish video games podcast launched
Citizengame.co.uk, although it has a UK web address, is a newly launched Irish games podcast. The first edition, a ‘pilotcast’, was released on March 3 and has been so-far followed by three more shows.
In the podcasts presenters cover computer games news and talk about the latest games. The podcasts in MP3 - which vary from an hour to an hour and 25mins - can be downloaded in from citizengame.co.uk.
Havok in court over brand firm dispute
Telekinesys Research Limited, the Dublin-based games middleware firm known as Havok, is being sued by a design agency that helped created their brand. According to the Sunday Business Post, the branding work for Havok by Dublin design company, Creative Inc, had appeared in a marketing magazine article as a case study.
Emmy-winning Havok then wrote to Creative Inc requesting them to cease linking it self to the games firm. But Creative are now taking action claiming they had an agreement to use work in case studies. The case was mentioned as a motion for entry in the commercial section of the High Court at the Four Courts in Dublin last week.
Havok, based in the Digital Hub in Dublin’s Liberties, was bought by chipmaker Intel late last year. It is best known for its physics software that helps games developers concentrate on other aspects of games creation, but has expanded to areas such as animation.
As result of the Intel buyout, Havok are to release a free non-commercial version of their Havok Complete product for PC from this May. The move is aimed at independent games developers and enthusiasts, as well as academic institutions with games courses.
According to the company its products are used in over 200 “AAA games” and as well as being used in well over 90 titles which are due to be released this year. There include Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, and Guitar Hero
III, as well as the upcoming Alan Wake, Indiana Jones, and Starcraft II. The middleware maker lists many more on its website, Havok.com.
A deal with Sony before the PlayStation 3 release also saw a version of the Havok product bundled with development hardware kits for the console.
MORE: Legal dispute between Havok and design agency (the Sunday Business Post, March 16, 2008)
Xbox 360 price drop from Friday in Ireland
Microsoft have revealed an expected Xbox 360 price drop for Europe today, in Ireland the entry-level console will have an estimated retail price €199.99 from this Friday, March 14.
The standard Xbox 360 with a 20GB harddrive and wireless controller is expected to retail for €279.99, while the 120GB ‘Elite’ console will €379.99.
According to the company, these will see the prices come down €100 for the entry-level console, the Xbox 360 Arcade, and €80 for both other packages.
“History shows that €199 is the price point where a consoles audience begins to expand, and with these new estimated retail prices in place we’re ready to bring more consumers into the Xbox 360 world,” said Chris Lewis, vice president, Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business Europe.
Xbox 360: Low impact on GameStop chart
- Nintendo DS appears the most on retail’s chart
- Follows Xbox low ranking on Chart-Track game chart
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console only appears once across two weeks of top-10 charts from retailer GameStop Ireland.
So-far this year the games retailer has sent out two ‘GameStop Top Ten Bestsellers’ for the weeks ending Saturday, 12 and 26 January (both viewable below).
The Xbox 360 only appears once in the two weeks, at number six for Burnout Paradise, while the PlayStation 3 version of the same game topped the chart and the PS3 has four places across the two weeks. The hand-held Nintendo DS holds the largest amount with eight places in the two weeks, the Nintendo Wii has three, and the PS2 has another two for Sony.
GameStop’s chart can only be viewed as a snapshot of the retailers top sellers within the two named weeks. However, it mirrors the Xbox 360’s low ranking on the Chart-Track Irish games charts. The chart includes a large selection of retailers in Ireland, but not Gamestop, Xtravision, or Smyth’s Toys.
Microsoft had complained that GameStop - in Microsoft’s words, “the largest video games retailer in Ireland” - was not included in the Chart-Track data, but GameStop’s own charts back the picture of low games sales.
The console maker has said it does not release country-by-country numbers and told Games Toaster it
is unlikely to comment on the GameStop charts. The only independent numbers available helps draw a picture of large media coverage and advertising but small shear of the games sales market.
New data provided by Chart-Track to this publication shows that the PlayStation 3 gained a larger percentage 5.8 percent from March to the end of last year then the 5 percent Xbox 360 obtained in 2006, its first full year. Chart-Track’s data is complied at the point-of-sale from a large selection of retailers including Game, Tesco, Argos, PC World, HMV, Play.com, Currys, Golden Discs, and others.
GameStop Top Ten Bestsellers
- Week ending Saturday January 26, 2008
- Burnout Paradise | PS3
- Mario Sonic at the Olympics | WII
- New Super Mario Bros. | NDS
- Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training | NDS
- More Brain Training | NDS
- Burnout Paradise | Xbox 360
- Super Mario Galaxy | WII
- The Simpsons | NDS
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | PS3
- WOW 60 day pre paid card | PCR
GameStop Top Ten Bestsellers
- Week ending Saturday, 12 January 2008
- Uncharted: Drakes Fortune IRL | PS3
- Super Mario Galaxy | WII
- Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training | NDS
- More Brain Training | NDS
- Fifa 08 | PS3
- Bee Movie | NDS
- WOW 60 day pre paid card | PCR
- Need For Speed ProStreet | PS2
- The Simpsons | NDS
- Fifa 08 | PS2
Star follows Sun’s lead on games in prisons
- More sensationalism on games consoles in Irish prisons two years later
The Irish Daily Star has followed the Irish edition of the Sun to sensationally link PlayStation access in Irish prisons to an individual criminal on their cover page.
The start of the year must be a slow news time for the two tabloid newspapers; the Irish Sun’s story was published Friday January 27, 2006, while the Star’s story was published on last Friday, February 01, 2008.
The Sun screamed “PLAYSTATION KILLER,” when there was no link to the killing in question and the games console. Meanwhile, the Star had the slightly more sober headline of “PAEDO’S PLAYSTATION”.
Nevertheless, Irish prisoners having access to games console has little to do with individual cases, and how likely it is for the 65-year-old convicted paedophile Martin Meaney to have much if any interest in computer games is also questionable.
The Star is normally levelheaded compared to the Irish editions of UK redtops available in Ireland, but in this case it invited readers to read on to page two where readers to a less than 150 words at the bottom of the
page.
The story focused on the prisoner being allowed a games console, a colour TV, and a kettle in their cells, rather then any detail of the court case which ended with Meaney receiving a two-year sentence.
Xbox 360 HD player with free films
- Free films offer open in Ireland until end of January
Buyers of the of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player in Ireland will be offered the chance to redeem five free films for the add-on. The Xbox 360 player (pictured right with the games console) retails at around €170, while the offer runs until January 31, 2008.
The player is currently facing a massive advertising push by Sony’s rival high definition format Blu-ray. The Sony format is included in the company’s PlayStation 3 console.
The two HD formats have been lined up by their backers as the successor to the DVD. Both are in a format war last seen with VHS and Betamax in the 1980s — like then, it is unlikely the two formats will survive in the medium to long term.
The Xbox offer includes 13 titles from Warner Brothers, Universal, Dreamworks and Paramount. These are: Serenity, the Chronicles of Riddick, Hulk, Children of Men, the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,
Troy, Full Metal Jacket, Corpse Bride, the Prestige, Swordfish, Black Rain, Dreamgirls, and Word Trade Center.
Orla Sheridan of Microsoft Ireland said: “The HD-DVD player for Xbox 360 gives customers a high quality and affordable way to enjoy state-of-the-art HD-DVD movies. We’re delighted to enable everyone to enjoy the technology to the full and offer some fantastic movie releases, completely free”.
GameStop expands with new shops in Finglas, Gorey, Castlebar, and Limerick
Games retailer GameStop is continuing to expand on its Irish locations with new stores recently opened in Finglas, Gorey, and Castlebar, while Limerick is to get a third store.
GameStop Ireland will have 50 shops under its control by the end of the month, including two in the UK.
The retailer has massively expanded since the US games giant bought up and re-branded independent Irish retailer GamesWorld in 2003. In the last two years alone, it has nearly doubled the number of locations in the Republic and the North.
Its parent company runs 5,000 stores across Europe, the US, and South America.
Xbox launches student karaoke contest
Xbox have launched a rock ‘n’ roll karaoke competition aimed at college
and university students in and around Dublin.
The karaoke contest, Songs of Praise, kicked off last night at the
Village on Wicklow Street, it will continue at the NUI Maynooth student
union bar on Tuesday.
The overall winner will receive a Gibson electric guitar worth over
€2,000. And each of the seven heat winners will walk away with an Xbox
360 package worth over €1,000, including a console, Guitar Hero III,
and other games.
There are six other dates between now the finals at the Button
Factory (formally the Temple Bar Music Centre) on December 6. These
include nights for DCU, UCD, DIT, and TCD. There is also a second
general night at the Village next Sunday, December 2.
The karaoke addicts will be given a rest with Phantom FM’s
DJ Sinead NiMhordha playing sets between karaoke stints. The Xbox 360
game Guitar Hero III — in which user play the game using a guitar — is
also on playable at the nights.
The Songs of Praise karaoke night is a regular on Sundays at the Village;
the Dubliner called it “Dublin’s best Karaoke Night,” the Irish Times said
it was “Dublin’s most successful and only credible Karaoke”, while the
Guardian said “now firmly established as the city’s place to go on the
Lord’s Day”.
The dates in full are: Tuesday November 27 at the NUI Maynooth SU
Bar; Wednesday November 28 at the DCU SU Bar; Thursday November 29 at
the UCD SU Bar; Sunday December 2 at the Village; Tuesday December 4
at the Odeon for DIT; Wednesday December 5 at Radio City for Trinity
College; and the finals on Thursday December 6 at the Button Factory.
Free tickets to the event can be got via getpraiseatxbox360.com.