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: 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.
In Ireland only children play video games
November 5, 2007 by editor
Filed under Videos, Views & Comment
Above is how Toyota created an SUV television advertisement using the World of Warcraft game. That was in the US. In Ireland, only children play computer games.
Or at least that is what you’d think looking some things such as the Irish Film Censor’s ban on Manhunt 2.
With the massive amounts of advertising spend by games firms in Ireland recently ad space sellers here should by now notice the scale of the computer games market.
Of course, it has been growing in the past years, but on going high-profile ad campaigns such as those for PS3, Halo 3, and Fifa 08 should cement the view how widespread computer games now are.
But if we have really moved on might remain a unanswered question for some time. It’s only a year or two ago that one of us at Games Toaster had a phone conversation with a regional newspaper to be told that there is no money in computer games.
Richard Dean Anderson to launch Halo 3 in Dublin; Record breaking attempt planned
Actor Richard Dean Anderson is to launch Halo 3 in Dublin on Tuesday, forming one of the main elements of Microsoft’s Irish high-profile release of the highly anticipated Xbox 360 game.
News that the actor, most famous for playing MacGyver and more recently Jack O’Neill on Stargate SG-1, will launch the game was confirmed this evening to Games Toaster by a Microsoft spokesperson.
However, his visit to Dublin is still somewhat shrouded in mystery as there is still little detail of Anderson’s visit.
Record breaking attempt
Meanwhile, tomorrow - in the build up to the European release on Wednesday September 26 - Irish gamers will attempt to set record breaking times completing Halo 2.
The Guinness World Record - also organised by Microsoft - will start midday at the Dublin city centre in the morning. Microsoft expects hundreds games to turn up to the event at the Xbox Live Gaming Centre / Xbox Live Cafe.
The current record holder is Cody Miller who finished the game in three and a half hours with the ‘legendary’ difficulty setting on in August 2005. The publisher and console maker will be incentives such as prizes of
the limited edition ‘Legendary Edition’ of Halo 3, Marvel Halo graphic novels, and Halo 3 branded merchandise.
Promotion around Ireland
Microsoft also said that the game will be promoted across mediums and are aiming to make it one of the most high-profile entertainment launches. The Halo 3 TV advert, a still of which is pictured above, is just one example.
On the streets, Halo’s star Master Chief - or at least a person dressed as him - will appear on Grafton Street in Dublin this Saturday and Sunday, and move on to Cork, and Galway after that.
By the time of the launch, shoppers entering the main entrance of the St Stephens Green Shopping Centre will be greeted by Halo branding. This will link in with retailer Gamestop’s midnight launch at their new store at the shopping centre. Full details of of Gamestop’s midnight opening across Ireland can be viewed here.
GameStop opens midnight for Halo 3
Gamestop say they will open 14 of its 46 in the Republic and Northern Ireland at at midnight on Tuesday for the European release of Halo 3.
The retailer are to have midnight openings at Henry St, Stephens Green, and Clare Hall in Dublin, along with their outlets in Belfast, Derry, Limerick, Drogheda, Wexford, Tralee, Letterkenny, Mallow, Midleton, Killarney, and Bangor.
Other retailers, such as HMV, GAME, and Smyths, are also likely to have midnight openings in at least the main cities.
A Microsoft spokesperson told us this evening that, in Ireland, “Michael Finucane from Game stop says that pre-orders are running at twice the rate of Halo 2″, while a statement released this afternoon says the company worldwide is “running off 81 games per second to ensure that they meet global demand for this title”.
“It is fantastic to see the level of interest shown by Irish gamers, all of whom are eager to be one of the first people in the country to get their hands on what is set to be the must have game this Christmas,” said Orla Sheridan, country manager at the entertainment and devices division of Microsoft Ireland.
Irish computer games websites
We’ve updated our links page, mostly containing links to Irish games websites.
It now includes Irish news/review games sites, community and LAN
sites, Irish sites with games sections, games cafes/centres, game
retailers in Ireland, local official console sites, and links to games
companies based in Ireland. There’s also a selection of international
games sites.
Games Toaster’s links section can be found here, or by using the link on the side bar.
To make a suggestion of a site we’ve missed, use the comments section below, or the ‘email me’ link on the side bar.
Dublin Pro Evo tournament ends
Winners of the MM’s Challenge, a Pro Evolution Soccer tournament, were revealed today in Dublin.
The organisers have said that 300 players played in what they called the Ireland’s largest ever football game tournament.
Recently at the Xbox Live Gaming Centre, 32 finalists played it out
for six hours over 200 matches resulting in a final between Michael
Stankard and Leon Gallagher.
Stankard (pictured above) from Tallaght won the match, and selected to give new kit
for 15 players to his two local football clubs Boca Seniors and St
Maelruans. He also won a projector with screen, Xbox 360, games and
Reebok sportswear.
Runner-up Leon Gallagher won a 26″ HD television, an Xbox 360, as
well as Reebok sports gear for himself, and kit for the Kildare County
Under 21s.
Brand manager at MM’s, Sarah Keenaghan, said “It has been a
huge success and we congratulate all those involved”.
“Congratulations to
both Michael Leon for winning the tournament and everyone who
played in the tournament” added Tony
Murray, MD at the Xbox Live Gaming Centre, “The MM’s Challenge 2007 was a showcase
what we can do with the Xbox Live Gaming Centre”.
MM’s Challenge 2007: Full list of winners
1st: Michael
Stankard; 2nd: Leon Gallagher; 3rd: Adrian Griffin; 4th: Naem Suhaimi; 5th - 8th: Henry Jackson, Darren Kehoe, Derrick Dowd, Ross Ryan; Last 16: Ed Quigley, Ian Mangan, Barry Bishop, Mohammed Amin, Daniel Boeving, Sean Gannon, Dave Walker, Michael Wilson.
Last 32: Nassir Hussain, Ross Ward, Tony Flynn,
Damien Burke, David Tuohy, Rob Moore, Marcos Isla, Joey Grimes, Paul
Roche, Rodrigue K. Ernest, Mark Tobin, Fariz Izwan, Aaron Wickham,
Jason Molloy, Stephen Moran, Dave Greaney; Last 50:
Stephen Walsh, Jonas Rosemond, Bartosz Slaby, Derek O’Keefe, Declan
Rooney, Wesley Costa, Robbie Maher, Mark Rose, Daryl Stone, Brian
McCarthy, Ross Nelson, Evin O’Neill, James Edwards, Shane Prunty, Craig
Sadler, Blazej Malczak, Jacek Gajczewski, Mike McKeehan.
—–
Manhunt 2 banned in Ireland
Manhunt 2 has come under a prohibition order by the Irish Film
Censor’s Office, effectively banning the sale of the game in
Ireland. The moves follows a ban by the British Board of Film
Classification.
“IFCO recognizes that in certain films, DVDs and video games,
strong graphic violence may be a justifiable element within the
overall context of the work” states a notice on the Censor’s website. “However, in the case of Manhunt 2, IFCO
believes that there is no such context, and the level of gross,
unrelenting and gratuitous violence is unacceptable”.
The company behind the game, Rockstar Games, issued a statement
which said that they were “Disappointed” with the UK ban, but would
respect the authority of the UK censor and abide by the rules.
“Manhunt 2 is an entertainment experience for fans of psychological
thrillers and horror. The subject matter of this game is in line with
other mainstream entertainment choices for adult consumers”, the Rockstar statement added.
The games company is owned by publisher Take Two, and have also been
involved in controversial titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Bully.
Ireland subscribes to the European age rating system PEGI, however the Video Recordings Act 1989
covers games but it is up to the publisher to submit games for rating.
The censor can class a game prohibited under section 3 (1) of the Act.
The wide-ranging section allows banning for games in which elements
could be “likely to cause persons to commit crimes…, would be likely
to stir up hatred against a group of persons…, would tend, by reason
of the inclusion in it of obscene or indecent matter, to deprave or
corrupt persons who might view it”, of where “it depicts acts of gross
violence or cruelty (including mutilation and torture) towards humans
or animals”.
Also see:
- FEATURE: Irish parents ignore age ratings on violent and obscene computer games
- Youth Council of Ireland wants boycott of “shocking” game, Canis Canem Edit