burn-zombie-burn posts

Big day today with the announcement of BioShock Infinite, although we are wondering why Irrational Games has announced a title that won't be released until sometime in 2012. Speaking of which, we are a little disappointed that there was no Doom IV news from QuakeCon today. It's been over two years, id. Throw us a bone here:

• As previously announced, Puzzle Quest 2 and Burn Zombie Burn are both now available to download and purchase on Steam.
• A massive new update for Global Agenda is now available via Steam with lots of changes to the Agency Vs Agency system.
• A new update to the beta for Counter-Strike Source is also available.
• Want an open beta for Men of War: Assault Squad? Then get its Steam community page to reach the 10,000 member mark.
• John Carmack and Richard Garriott talk about rockets and space travel.

Last week was barren as far as new PC games were concerned but this week we have a few new titles that are expected to come out via download. In addition to the titles listed below you can expect the latest Dragon Age Origins DLC, Golems of Amgarrak, to be made available for download on Tuesday.

Victoria 2 - Paradox Interactive's latest internally developed historical PC strategy game is set for release via download and retail stores this Friday. The sequel lets players turn into their own version of Queen Victoria (metaphorically speaking) as they try to expand their European nation into a vast empire in the 19th century.

Several months ago Big Download broke the news that the PS3 downloadable game Burn Zombie Burn from developer Doublesix would be released for the PC at some point. Well, "at some point" has now turned into "August 4" because that's the release date that's showing up on the Steam web site for the game.

Like the PS3 version that was released via download in 2009, this title is a top-down action game where you have to deal with hordes of different kinds of zombies; exploding zombies, infectious zombies and "fire-farting super zombies". You get the idea. You have tons of guns and other weapons to defend yourself in six levels and three gameplay modes. The PC version is also hooked up with Steamworks for features like achievements, auto-updates, leaderboards and more. Pricing for Burn Zombie Burn has yet to be revealed.

Earlier today we reported that the ESRB web site had posted up a Windows PC listing for Burn Zombie Burn, the arcade action game from developer Doublesix that was released for the PS3 a year ago. Now Big Download has confirmed that Burn Zombie Burn will indeed be coming to the PC platform sometime later this year.

Big Download chatted briefly on the phone today with Doublesix's studio head James Brooksby. He told us that they hope to release the PC version of the game via Steam sometime in the next couple of months. He also told us that they hope to include both the original game and the extra downloadable content that is planned for the PS3 version in the PC port. We will hopefully learn more about the game in the near future.

It looks like one of the more interesting Playstation Network downloadable games might be finding its way to the PC. A quick check of the ESRB game database on its web site shows that Burn Zombie Burn has been rated "M" for the Windows PC platform.

Developed by DoubleSix, the arcade shooter debuted on the PS3's Playstation Network just over a year ago. It's basically a survival game where you have to stay alive as long as possible while endless zombies come after you (and yes you can burn the hordes of the undead). We will email DoubleSix to find out if they truly plan to bring the game to the PC and if so when we can expect a release.

Earlier this week IGN reported that info on the specific sales and revenue numbers of PC game digital download services are still hard to come by. Steam and Direct2Drive would only admit to year-over-year percentage increases without revealing things like specific revenue or unit sales numbers.

Now one developer of downloadable games is taking those services to task for the lack of sales info. In a press release today, James Brooksby, the studio head of UK-based doublesix said, "I do wish that all the platform owners would make their digital sales figures public. We feel this lack of transparency is hindering the development of these channels."

He added, "As a developer trying to decide which platforms to develop for, as well as what type of games to make, we're currently in the dark regarding real sales performance for digital platforms and that makes it increasingly difficult to make realistic plans. I'd like to see some kind of verified sales charts on all digital systems to encourage more developers to support these channels and to help make sensible investment decisions."

doublesix was happy to announce that their recently released PSN downloadable game Burn, Zombie, Burn has sold 70,000 units so far. That number was enough for the game to achieve doublesix's own sales target and they expect that it will ultimately reach "a significantly higher lifetime figure."