release-date posts

Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia) is letting its gourmet franchises cook in the oven of public anticipation before releasing new titles, according to Forbes. The business publication said the publisher is "patient enough to allow its brands to grow slowly so gamers don't tire of them."

Forbes posited that Ubisoft is doing this because it has learned from past mistakes. When Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time became a best-selling hit, the company rolled out two sequels (Warrior Within, The Two Thrones) in rapid succession to capitalize on the brand. Neither follow-up achieved the smash success of the first game.

Ubisoft then decided to give customers a breather, and has waited three years to release the next Prince of Persia game. It plans to use the same strategy with Assassin's Creed, which was the industry's all-time best selling game from a totally new IP. The president of Ubisoft North America said:"When we bring it back, there will be more anticipation for it."

[Via Joystiq]

Valve Software's Doug Lombardi revealed in the second half of a two part interview with Shacknews (in part one he declared PC gaming alive and well) that the studio hopes to ship its co-op, zombie-themed, survival horror FPS Left 4 Dead sometime in November of this year.

Left 4 Dead is Valve's big release this year, and the company hopes that it will do the same thing for co-op multi-player gaming that Counter Strike did for competitive play. The audience is clearly there; zombie-themed, user-created Half-Life 2 mods like Zombie Master and Zombie Panic are among the most popular on Steam.

Lombardi also suggested that gamers will get to play the full version of Left 4 Dead free for a whole weekend, and that a demo is probably coming as well. He wasn't able to confirm a time-frame for either of those, though.

Electronic Arts announced today that the PC version of BioWare's Sci-Fi RPG Mass Effect has gone gold. The game will reach store shelves in North America on May 28th. The European release date is June 6th.

The press release notes that customers who pre-order the game from EA's online store will get some free Dead Space merchandise -- "the first issue of the Dead Space comic book and a Dead Space poster while supplies last." It's probably a safe bet that the two sci-fi themed, third-person games appeal to a similar crowd.

Mass Effect, originally released on Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, will include some new features in its PC incarnation -- a revamped user interface, more customizable and powerful combat controls, and 90 minutes of additional storyline content available to 360 users only as a pay-to-play download, called Bring Down the Sky.

Grand Theft Auto IV has arrived on the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and if Metacritic reviews and first day sales numbers are to be believed, it's one of the greatest, most successful games in history. So when do PC users get their overclocked hands on this morally deviant masterpiece?

CVG reported a while back that a French retailer had revealed October as the European release window for a PC version of GTA4. That would match Rockstar's last-gen precedent of releasing PC GTA titles six months or so after the console versions. CVG contacted Rockstar, and were given the classic response: "no comment." Not a denial, but not a confirmation. How disappointing!

While the date is up in the air, it's probably a safe bet that a PC version is coming, given the precedent and the lack of a denial. Every GTA game to date has seen a PC release. Why stop now? We mean, besides the piracy and the depressing sales numbers. Oy!

[Via The Escapist]