Fumito Ueda explains why Ico 2 and Shadow of the Colossus 2 won't happen.
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At DICE Summit Asia, Sony Japan Studio VP Yasuhide Kobayashi gave a speech about appealing to a global audience with games, which he identified as increasingly important as the Japanese market contracts. He mentioned The Last Guardian, which was given that particular title to appeal to Western markets.

As an example of Western-focused marketing that didn't work, Kobayashi presented the Japanese and North American boxes for ICO, the game that brought the Last Guardian developers to prominence. "If the packaging was designed differently, we think it would have sold more," he said. "In fact on the internet many people have said that the Japanese version was better." Because it is.
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Chief designer Osamu Tsuchihashi reveals the actual influence on the game
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Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and the upcoming The Last Guardian talks about the importance of visual fidelity and technical benchmarks.
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At this year's CEDEC (CESA Developers Conference), on behalf of the entire team, Fumito Ueda, Junichi Hosono and Hajime Sugiyama were presented with a special award for Visual Arts for their contribution to the video game industry.

ICO won the award, surpassing other better-known titles like Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo and Metal Gear Solid. The game was praised for its atmosphere and presentation of contrasting light and shadow. Ueda had a few lines ready for the occasion:

"Thank you for this award. When we started working on ICO ten years ago, we faced many challenges because we wanted to create something which did not exist. We are now facing a similar challenge with our new project. Please wait a little more, we are sure you'll like it very much. Thank you again."
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From PS3 Attitude, Brodiesan writes: "Though lauding the likes of GTAIV and Bioshock there are only two games del Toro considers good enough to warrant the moniker of "masterpiece": Ico and Shadow of the Colossus..."
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In an interview with Fumito Ueda at the Nordic Game 08 event, he mentions being at work on a game that combines both the graphics and gameplay seen in his previous games ICO (2001) and its prequel Shadow of the Colossus (2005). VGB looks into the questoin: "Could the lead designer of those PlayStation 2 games be at work on a mixed sequel for the PlayStation 3?"
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Some people say you can have too much of a good thing, but we say they can bugger right off. A cake is good, right? But are two cakes bad? No, theyre just more cake, and we like cake so well take all we can get. Om nom nom. In gaming terms, the only thing better than a great videogame is a great videogame that acts as the start of a great franchise. Final Fantasy, Burnout, Super Mario Bros… We love them not only because theyre great but also because of what they later gave us. The only ... » Read More

The Inquirer - Nick Farrell, Wednesday, 28 November 2007:

"Open sourcer, Alexander Strange was snuffling around the European release of the game ICO when he noticed new files SRCFILE.TXT and TRFILE.TXT and had a look at them.

In amongst the tangled code were bits of the GPL library libarc for compressed data handling.

Sony, which is a big champion of protecting creative rights, has failed to credit the code's author or mention libarc or the GPL."
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Line-up announced for Electronic Games Show in Mexico. New office also setup for growing market.
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Someone made some pictures of his tv and the game Guitar Hero II. The photo's were made of the bonustracks so we now know the exact list of the bands and their tracks.

Dethklok - Thunderhorse
Drist - Artiel Black
Every Time I Die - The New Black
Anarchy Club - Collide
Valiant Thor - Fall of Pangea
Vagiant - FTK
Breaking Wheel - One For The Road
Buckethead - Jordan (original song for GHII)
All That Remains - Six
Made In Mexico - Yes We Can
Voivod - The X-Stream
That Handsome Devil - Elephant Bones
The Acrobrats - Laugh Track
Camaros - Lady Lightning
Freezepop - Less Talk More Rokk
Amazing Crowns - Mr. Fix It
The Neighborhoods - Parasite
Shadows Fall - The Light That Blinds
Honest Bob and the Factory to Dealer Incentives - Soy Bomb
The Last Vegas - Raw Dog
Count Zero - Radium Eye
Gnashing Of Teeth - Generic
Brian Kahanek - Gemini
The Casket Lottery - Red House

For the proof and the screens, which include some info, click on the link below.
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