Epic Multi-Level Battlefronts, Deep Original Story and Hugely Expansive Gameplay Features Invade Retail 

Sydney, Australia. – November 4, 2009 – LucasArts  announced today that Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and Nintendo DS™ is now available at retailers. 

For the first time ever in the Star Wars Battlefront® series, players will be able to fight on multi-level battlefronts both on the ground and in space. Players can start the fight on foot, commandeer a vehicle to battle on the ground or dogfight in space, and land their craft and fight on capital starships. The battles waged on each front are all directly affected by the player’s actions, creating a combat experience where every shot fired and every enemy defeated can affect the outcome of a battle on another front. 

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron features a deep and engrossing single-player campaign that spans the entire Star Wars® Saga – and beyond. Players  assume the identity of X2, a clone trooper created from the DNA of a Jedi Master. Originally tasked with eliminating Jedi during Order 66, X2 decides to leave his blood-stained past behind and join the Rebellion. However, X2 isn’t the only Force-sensitive clone. X1, his clone brother, chooses a much more sinister path, leading to a confrontation that could determine the fate of both the Empire and the Rebellion.

Additionally, players have at their disposal massive amounts of pick-up-and-play action for seemingly endless replay value. The PSP system provides the deepest customisation options ever seen in a Star Wars Battlefront title, allowing players to personalise and outfit  their character with more weapons and items than ever before. Customisation options include selection of the weapons characters carry into battle, the armour they wear on their backs, their species, gender, appearance and physical strengths. Players can also unlock hundreds of new achievement items and bonuses to further personalise their characters. On Nintendo DS, players can experience a unique class-based gameplay experience that allows them to outfit their characters with pre-determined weapon armaments, including heavy weapons, blasters and even lightsabers. Choosing the right character class will help players overcome obstacles and complete mission objectives. 

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron on the PSP system supports 16-player multiplayer, complete with in-depth stat tracking and on Nintendo DS, intense 4-player skirmishes across a wide number of modes are featured, including the all-new “Heroes and Villains” mode.  Take up arms as some of the most iconic Star Wars characters, including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Kit Fisto, Darth Maul and other familiar faces from Star Wars Battlefront®: Renegade Squadron™ and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed™. Battle for the fate of the galaxy on some of the most memorable Star Wars planets of all time, including the forest-covered landscape of Endor, the frozen wastes of Hoth and even the mysterious Yavin 4. 

More information about the game can be found at the official website, www.starwarsbattlefront.com. 

About LucasArts

LucasArts, a division of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd., is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide for video game console systems, computers and the Internet. Based in San Francisco, Calif., as well as on the Internet at www.lucasarts.com, LucasArts was created in 1982 by George Lucas to provide an interactive element to his vision of a state-of-the-art, multifaceted entertainment company. 

LucasArts and the LucasArts logo are registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars Battlefront is a trademark of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. © 2004-2009 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or TM as indicated. All rights reserved.

Nintendo DS is a trademark of Nintendo.

BOGGLE and Command & Conquer Red Alert Now Available on iPhone and iPod touch

November 5 2009, Australia – EA Mobile™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. today announces two new titles available on the App Store. Test your word wits with Hasbro’s BOGGLE, and experience fast and furious real time strategy action with the latest in the epic Command & Conquer franchise with Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™. Each game takes advantage of the capabilities of the iPhone™ and iPod touch® and can be played from almost anywhere.

“We’re proud of our high quality, diverse line up of games this month, and that both products bring something new to the App Store,” said Travis Boatman, VP Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile. “Command & Conquer launches as one off most iconic real-time strategy games of all time.”

BOGGLE
Test word wits with BOGGLE on the iPhone and iPod touch. Popping with personality, this pocket-sized version of the classic word-search game packs a lot of punch! It’s the word-search game that’s addictive fun on-the-run, making you think (and spell) fast. Key features include:
·      Three ways to play – Form as many words as possible in three minutes and challenge friends to beat high scores in challenge mode. Modify time limits and check out new features in Advanced Mode or, in Self-Score Mode, players can create their own rules and score themselves.
·      BOGGLE 3.0 is ready! – Listen and control music from an iTunes® Library while playing.
·      Take a bow – Be proud of accomplishments like forming the longest word, creating the best word, and using the most letter cubes in the shortest amount of time!
·      Intuitive touch controls – SHAKE the iPhone to shuffle the 3D letter cubes. TAP or DRAG the letter cubes to spell the word that WINS!
·      Keep it organised – Track challenges on a virtual notepad and record player names, scores, and words.   

Command & Conquer Red Alert
Welcome Back Comrade! The Cold War is hot again with Command & Conquer Red Alert for the iPhone and iPod touch. Experience real-time Command & Conquer strategy action as the Soviet or Ally factions in the palm of your hand. It’s all out war for the iPhone and iPod touch! Key features include:
·      The fate of the world – in your hands! – Drag and scroll to gauge the battlefield. Pinch-zoom in and out of the action. Select and move units with a tap. Control multiple units at once!
·      Choose your favourite faction – Fight for Soviet domination or battle to restore peace with the allies. Deploy military might unique to each side and engage in different campaign storylines.
·      Battle through 12 combat levels – Tackle the single player campaign across 12 maps, or fight in skirmish mode on two different battlefield maps with war squads that players create and control.
·      Command and conquer your armies across multiple battlefields! – Command units in different environmental conditions. Build a base and manage resources with a new easy-to-use combat system.  
·      Arm troops for all out war – Employ classic units like Kirov Air Ships and new units like the Paladin Tank. Or R&D new technologies to destroy enemies.

·      UPCOMING FEATURES WILL INCLUDE:
o   Free Multiplayer – Download the FREE multiplayer function to go head-to-head against your opponents via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
o   “Empire of the Rising Sun” Expansion Pack – Expand the action with a third faction with its own story, units, and buildings. Also, get extra elite Soviet and Ally units for even more battlefield intensity.  

BOGGLE and Command & Conquer Red Alert are currently available from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch, or at www.itunes.com/appstore. For information on pricing for all EA Mobile games, visit www.eamobile.com. To follow EA Mobile on Twitter visit http://twitter.com/eamobile.  

Santa Ana, Calif. (2 October 2009) NIS A–merica, Inc. announced today that Disgaea 2:

Dark Hero Days, the sequel to the ever popular strategy-playing game, is coming to Europe, Australia and New Zealand February 2010.
The PSP version adds all new story chapters with a new main character, Axel, adding even more replay value to the already feature-packed title. With new characters, skills,  items, and battle system, Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days is ready to please even the most hardcore SRPG enthusiasts.

About Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days

In the peaceful world of Veldime, humans rarely encountered monsters. That was untill Overlord Zenon cursed the land and all who reside within. With the curse in place, the humans became monsters and ravaged the world. It is up to Adell, the last remaining human, to oppose Overlord Zenon’s tyranny and restore peace and harmony to Veldime. In Disgaea 2, players will take on the role of a young fighter named Adell and travel the Netherworld to defeat the evil overlord Zenon. Battles will take place on a 3D gridbased field. During combat, players will take turns with the enemy to move and attack.

Key Features

1. All new story chapters, starring Axel

2. New Battle Features from Disgaea 3: Magichange and Toss and Pass.

3. All new characters, items, and skills

For more information http://Disgaea.us/d2psp

Santa Ana, CA (14 October 2009) –NIS America revealed today that the much anticipated PlayStation®3 title Atelier Rorona will be making its way to Australia and New Zealand next winter. The popular alchemic RPG series from Gust makes an evolutionary change with Atelier Rorona. The anime style characters and backgrounds remain, but they have been upgraded with a stunning cell-shaded animation style. The basic game play carries over the tradition of the Atelier series, using alchemy as the main focal point. Like the previous series, players can craft new items and also battle enemies using the power of alchemy.

Key Features

Support Battle: Atelier Roronaadopts a unique type of turn based battle system. You can invite your friends to support you in attacks.

Massive Item Crafting: Over 100 items to craft. Players can search for ingredients throughout the world and create new items using what they’ve found.

Over 30 different Endings: Depending on how you interact with characters and complete your missions, the ending will change, making for extremely high replay value.

– Thursday, 5^th November 2009 – Gamers from today will be able to use their Wii Remote^™ to bat and bowl their country to success as ‘Cricket’ launches across Australia and New Zealand for the Nintendo^® Wii. The integration of the Wii is set to take players closer to the action than ever before. Published by Codemasters^®, the home of video game cricket, ‘Cricket’ features fully licensed players, kit and stadia from the npower Ashes Series 2009 between England and Australia offering a completely authentic experience.

‘Cricket’ features a Scenario mode that pits players against more than 50 match defining moments, such as scoring vital match-winning runs, taking dramatic last-gasp wickets and seeing off the oppositions’ danger men to succeed.

As well as featuring the fully licensed teams from England and Australia, ‘Cricket’  features six other Test playing nations as well as ten of the world’s most recognisable stadia, including the five featured in the npower Ashes Series 2009 as well as the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The authenticity of the experience extends to the game’s commentary, which is provided by cricketing favourites Jonathan Agnew, Shane Warne, Ian Botham, Ian Bishop and Tony Greig.

Produced by Codemasters and developed by Gusto Games, ‘Cricket’ is available now for Wii.

28 October, 2009 –

Super Mario Bros.™ comes to Wii™ for the first time on 12 November!

Take all the fun of a classic side scrolling Mario™ game, couple it with the innovative controls of the Wii Remote™, plus new features and multiplayer options and you have New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii!

New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii As you navigate your way through the side scrolling worlds of allows up to four players to play together, competitively or cooperatively. Pick other players up to save them from danger, or throw them into it! New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii brings family entertainment into living rooms and engages groups of friends and family in fast-paced Super Mario Bros. fun! New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii, additional players can jump into the game at any time and on any level! Mario, Luigi™ and two Toads are all playable characters in New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii, while many others from the Mushroom Kingdom make appearances throughout the game. Players can even ride different Yoshi characters and use Yoshi’s tongue to swallow enemies – or their fellow players.

New items in New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii include Mario’s new ability to transform into Penguin Mario, and also the propeller suit. The propeller suit shoots players high into the sky with just a shake of the Wii Remote.

New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii also contains a Super Guide feature. If players have trouble with a tough course and lose a life enough times in a row, the Super Guide icon will appear in the course. Once activated, Mario’s brother Luigi will take control of the game and show players a safe route through the course as he heads for the goal.

New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii features a classic gaming experience that anyone can enjoy, but what about for the seasoned players out there? Brand new power-ups, tricky jumps, and clever co-op techniques will provide plenty of challenges – even for veteran Mario gamers. As you play through the game, Hint Movies can be unlocked that show off some serious platforming finesse by the best players on Nintendo’s development team.
New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii comes packaged in a special red case AU SRP $99.95 / NZ SRP $119.95*

* Prices may vary at retailers

28 October, 2009 –

Super Mario Bros.™ comes to Wii™ for the first time on 12 November!

Take all the fun of a classic side scrolling Mario™ game, couple it with the innovative controls of the Wii Remote™, plus new features and multiplayer options and you have

New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii! New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii As you navigate your way through the side scrolling worlds of

allows up to four players to play together, competitively or cooperatively. Pick other players up to save them from danger, or throw them into it! New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii brings family entertainment into living rooms and engages groups of friends and family in fast-paced Super Mario Bros. fun! New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii, additional players can jump into the game at any time and on any level! Mario, Luigi™ and two Toads are all playable characters in New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii, while many others from the Mushroom Kingdom make appearances throughout the game. Players can even ride different Yoshi characters and use Yoshi’s tongue to swallow enemies – or their fellow players.

New items in

New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii include Mario’s new ability to transform into Penguin Mario, and also the propeller suit. The propeller suit shoots players high into the sky with just a shake of the Wii Remote. New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii

also contains a Super Guide feature. If players have trouble with a tough course and lose a life enough times in a row, the Super Guide icon will appear in the course. Once activated, Mario’s brother Luigi will take control of the game and show players a safe route through the course as he heads for the goal. New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii

features a classic gaming experience that anyone can enjoy, but what about for the seasoned players out there? Brand new power-ups, tricky jumps, and clever co-op techniques will provide plenty of challenges – even for veteran Mario gamers. As you play through the game, Hint Movies can be unlocked that show off some serious platforming finesse by the best players on Nintendo’s development team. New SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii

comes packaged in a special red case AU SRP $99.95 / NZ SRP $119.95* * Prices may vary at retailers

– The Biggest and Best is Back on PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®, Available Now at Retailers Across Australia- 

– 5th November 2009 – NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe opens the newest King of Iron Fist Tournament to all comers today as TEKKEN 6 launches across Australia for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3.  

With over 2.5 million copies of the standard retail, Arcade Stick and Limited editions shipped to retailers worldwide for launch, TEKKEN 6 brings the biggest character line up in the series history, brand-new Scenario Campaign mode, spectacular high-definition 60fps visuals with full-time variable animation blur, and an array of online fight play options.  In selected territories an exclusive TEKKEN 6 PlayStation®3 hardware bundle is also available. 

Media reviews for TEKKEN 6 so far include:

            “An intense, tactical and utterly brilliant fighting game.  94%” – PLAY magazine, UK

            “A very accomplished fighter.  9/10” – 360 Gamer magazine, UK

“The new reference for beat’em up games. 9/10” – Official Playstation Magazine, Italy 

           “ The most complete fighting game on 360 9/10” – Official Magazine Xbox360, Australia  

“…the best Tekken experience ever. 9/10” – Gamereactor, Denmark 

“Tekken 6 turned out to be exactly the ultimate fighting game I was hoping for. 91%” – Power Unlimited, Netherlands 

TEKKEN 6 online fight play is accessible via PlayStation®Network and Xbox Live® online game service, offering lightning fast character reaction times and consistent 60fps visuals. Features include Ranked Match, Player Match for training, the ability to upload ghost characters and match replays, and leaderboards for Australia, Europe, Asia, America and the world.  Coming this winter via a free downloadable update, the online Scenario Campaign mode will let players team up with friends around the globe for intense two player online co-op campaigns against AI controlled enemies in massive-scale battles. 

Fans who want to show off their fighting skills in front of an audience can take part in the real King of Iron Fist Tournament, with public TEKKEN 6 competition events taking place since early October across Europe and Australia.  The winners from each country will come together to compete in a grand regional final in London on December 12^th to establish once and for all the true TEKKEN god. 

Developed by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc., TEKKEN 6 brings the blockbuster fighting series onto multiple platforms for the first time in the history of the TEKKEN franchise with stunning realism, uncompromising quality, major gameplay enhancements including the original Scenario Campaign mode, and the largest character roster ever seen in the TEKKEN series.  

With an illustrious 14 year legacy, TEKKEN is among the world’s most popular and well-known gaming brands with franchise sales of more than 34 million units to date. The blistering new features and electrifying high-definition fight action of TEKKEN 6 make it an experience not to be missed. 

TEKKEN 6 for PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360® is available now, with the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) version scheduled for launch in early December 2009. For more TEKKEN 6 information visit www.tekken.com.

It’s Jason from Perfect World Entertainment and I quickly wanted to let you know that we have two huge expansions for our flagship MMO, Perfect World International, and Asian-inspired MMO, Jade Dynasty. Both expansions will include new races, factions and vast new areas for players to explore. 

While the MMO space is best known for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft with its monthly subscription model, many Chinese game developers like Perfect World Entertainment are challenging this concept by providing high-quality MMOs based on microtransactions. Perfect World International and Jade Dynasty are examples and only by being committed to our player base are we able to release such huge expansions for our MMOs. 

If you have not yet tried Perfect World International or Jade Dynasty, I would encourage you to check out both these games on our homepage at http://www.perfectworld.com/.

Alienware Launch

Sydney Australia, 29th of October 2009
By Ho Wong

Alienware and gamers have had a love affair of sorts ever since the computer manufacturer started producing machines with both enough style and enough grunt to keep even the hardest gamers happy.  Gamers were up in arms when Dell took over, fearing their beloved company will change but for the most part, things have stayed the same.  Alienware’s presence in Australia has been reasonably low profile and niche, but there now is a visible push from Dell in order to target not only the gamers but catch some of the public who would never have considered Alienware before.  Alienware are releasing five new products – the 15″ m15x laptop, a 17″ m17x laptop, the Area 51 desktop, the Area 51 ALX desktop and a 21″ monitor.  We take a brief first look at the offerings.

All the products exude Alienware style with bold lighting, polished metallic surfaces and edgy cases. (All except maybe the AU$399 21″ monitor, whose distinguishing feature is not its black rectangular look but its true 1080p). I won’t go too much into the specifications of the new laptops and desktops as these are available online but each sports impressive specs that  allows the gamer to squeeze some extra frames per seconds.

The new laptops (starting with the m15x from AU$2499) are stylish and are as much a fashion accessory as a piece of hardware. The metallic sheen of the cases and the lights (customisable through the control centre) which border the laptop and light the keyboard would even make Mac owners envious. One warning with the m17x laptop though: factor in a chiropractor’s bill as this is one heavy beast. The laptops also can optionally switch between discrete GPU and integrated video, discrete being a must for the portable gamer.  The m17x also has SLI GPUs as an option.

With the new desktops (starting with the Alienware Area 51 from AU$3699), Alienware has well and truly incorporated Dell’s customisability. The customisation of the desktops include components above and beyond those normally available to other companies, like HP, and this sets Alienware apart.  The basic models are beefier than run-of-the-mill desktops.  Gamers, though, will have no hesitation upgrading the hard disk in the basic Area 51 (It includes only 500G for a primary drive).  On the plus side, the option of a solid state is certainly welcome and is indicative of the type of customisation available. Alienware boast future-proofing and making these kind of options available go a long way towards this ambitious claim.

On price points, Alienware are now able to compete with better known offerings from HP and Sony.  Prices used to be only for the extreme gamer, extreme in monetary terms too but these new products don’t have this legacy – the prices of the models have dropped. A slight disappointment is the reasonably large discrepancy between the prices for US market and the Australian market which is difficult to explain away by shipping and the usual spiel about living in Australia.  For example, the Area 51 is priced from USD$1999 while in Australia, it’s priced from $3699. Why do we in Australia put up with paying so much more for things, even though the Aussie dollar is going so strong? 

Alienware have a difficult balance to uphold in order to not alienate their extreme gamers niche but for now, there’s enough to keep the core gamers happy and introduce Alienware to a new audience.