Rising Star Games, the European publishing partner of Marvelous Entertainment, is speaking out against UK retailers declining to stock Muramasa: The Demon Blade, which comes out November 13th in the region. COO Martin DeFries told MCV in an open letter, "Here in the UK, the game will not be available to buy in the majority of games retail outlets." He claims that the issue is not with the game itself, but retailers' over-reliance on safer, existing intellectual property. "If it is not first-party, a sequel or supported by a multi-million pound advertising spend, they are just not interested." Defries lamented that Muramasa could find its way into stores -- when it's traded in. Defries pondered in his letter whether the seemingly growing emphasis on franchises represents a "dumbing-down of the medium" that results in consumers having "little or no exposure to a rich and different gaming experience." Of course, retailers (and publishers) have preferred the sure thing for as long as there have been sequels, but actually not being able to market your game, especially one as interesting as Muramasa, seems especially frustrating.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

First: Toronto has an annual Zombie Walk? How cool is that? Anyhway, in order to promote Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Capcom will have a presence at this year's brain-munching jamboree, which takes place on Saturday, October 24. The company will have a tent at the event, giving people free zombie makeovers. We presume Capcom will do this with makeup and not by doling out actual zombie bites. Capcom has also sponsored a series of rather disturbing ads for the event, one of which you will find after the break. Warning: It's gross.

Continue reading Capcom shambles to the Toronto Zombie Walk

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Some of you are, as of today, five dollars richer, with that five dollars earmarked for the NES Virtual Console game of your choice. You probably have all the Marios and Zeldas you want (and River City Ransom), so we thought we would help you figure out what to do with that windfall.We've picked ten games that you may not have purchased yet. We didn't try to get obscure or anything, because there are only 83 NES games available! So this is basically a list of games we like that we think you're not so likely to have purchased, And there are no imports, because those cost 600 Wii Points.

Let us help you spend your money>>

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EA's latest experiment with mature Wii games doesn't seem to be going so well. According to numbers given to Edge by the NPD, Dead Space Extraction only managed to sell around 9,000 copies in September -- although it should be noted that the game was out for only five days in the NPD's September sales period (September 29 - October 3). EEDAR's Jesse Divnich, however, cites the sales as the result of a successful not telling anyone about the game experiment. "Electronic Arts didn't market Dead Space Extraction as much as it does with other titles," he told Edge. "And the success or failure of a Wii title usually correlates directly to marketing spend. If Electronic Arts spent little on marketing, I am sure the sell through was no surprise to them." It was, like everything, a complete shock to Dead Space Girl.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments