Community map-making event asks players for $5.99 and is running until July 31.

Valve will add seven community-made maps to its official Counter-Strike: Global Offensive dedicated servers, the developer has announced.

The maps will be available until July 31, and Valve is calling the event Operation Payback.

Access to the servers requires purchasing a pass costing $5.99/£4.99, though the item is currently being sold for 50 percent off in the game’s store. Purchasing the pass also gives players a new, upgradable badge which is displayed alongside avatars.

The seven community maps included are Museum, Downtown, Thunder, Favela, Motel, Seaside, and Library. Money spent on the pass will go to the creators of the maps.

Valve says Operation Payback is the first in a series of attempts to reward CS:GO’s community map-makers.

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Capcom, the Japanese publisher, has cut its profit forecast for the year in half and has cancelled several of its games currently in development. The fiscal year ended on March 31, 2013. Profits for the year were cut to $29 million, from $66 million.

Due to the cancellation of games Capcom has taken a loss of $73 million. The cancelled games suffered a drop in quality as the publisher outsourced projects to cheaper overseas developers. Capcom has stated they will focus on developing more games in-house.

The publisher also said they will be increasing their focus on the digital market by releasing more downloadable content for its retail titles.

Capcom has also released its forecast for game sales. DmC: Devil May Cry is now expected to sell 1.15 million units, down from two million units. Resident Evil 6 is now forecasted to sell 4.9 million units, down from seven million units. Capcom expects to sell two million units of Monster Hunter 4 for the 3DS.

Read more here: VG Charts

First episode in Syfy’s new drama is channel’s most-watched scripted series premiere in seven years; players have logged more than 6 million hours in tie-in game thus far.

Syfy’s new TV series Defiance is off to a hot start, though the success of the game tie-in of the same name remains to be seen.

Deadline reports that the premiere episode this week drew 2.7 million total viewers and 1.3 million adults 18-49.

This makes the show’s premiere the network’s most-watched scripted series debut for adults in seven years.The previous ratings king for Syfy was the 2006 debut of Eureka

Defiance was developed as a TV series and a game from Trion Worlds. According to Deadline, players have logged more than 6 million hours in the title since it launched on April 2.

The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC game is set in the San Francisco Bay Area in a futuristic time period where Earth been dramatically changed by alien terraforming, whereas the TV series takes place in St. Louis.

Defiance the TV show airs Mondays at 9 p.m.

For more on Defiance the game, check out GameSpot’s review-in-progress.

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Retailer GameStop has reported on its fourth quarter earnings which ended February 2nd and its full year earnings. Revenue for the quarter decreased slightly to $3.56 billion, from $3.58 billion during the same quarter a year ago. However, profits did increase to $261.1 million, up from $174.7 million.

For the full fiscal year, revenue dropped by seven percent to $8.89 billion from $9.55 billion. GameStop recorded a loss of $269.7 million, which compares to a profit of $339.9 million the previous year.

“While 2012 was a challenging year for console gaming, we focused on factors within our control,” CEO Paul Raines stated.”We expanded our market leadership position, maintained our financial strength and controlled our spending.”

“Perhaps most importantly, we invested in our mobile and digital businesses to position the company for future success,” continued Raines. “These channels delivered as planned and significantly contributed to our highest ever gross margin and profitability.”

GameStop’s digital and mobile sales improved significantly for the year. It helped increase the sales of the “Other” business by 21.2 percent year-over-year.

“As we look towards the start of the new console cycle, our industry market model indicates a return to growth with the launch of new game systems,” added Raines. “GameStop is strong, healthy and ready to lead the industry and its customers into the next phase of gaming.”

For the first quarter in its next fiscal year, GameStop expects sales to decline between six and 8.5 percent. For its full fiscal year, GameStop expects sales to be flat or to be down by up to eight percent.

Read more here: VG Charts

Shirley Manson and Co. allowed a seven-year gap between Bleed Like Me and Not Your Kind of People, but the band hasn’t taken a breather since the latter’s release last year. This weekend they swung through New York City once again, and SPIN was there…
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Alexander Bruce announced in an interview with Polygon that his latest title, Antichamber, has sold more than 100,000 units on Steam. It took the game seven weeks to reach this milestone, which was released on January 31.

“It only recently hit 100K, but I knew how it was going, because in the first week alone, it did pretty phenomenal,” said Bruce. “I think even the first 24 hours blew some people’s expectations out of the water for what this game was going to sell, which is why I was always so cautious of setting any sales expectations for it.”

“When I was developing Antichamber, I feel like I got into a bubble where everything I was learning was only applicable to Antichamber, and that I’d be screwed if I tried to make any other game,” added Bruce. “When I worked in the industry in 2008, on infrastructure and tools … I learned a hell of a lot there, because people could tell me what jobs there were to be done, and if I fucked up and made a mistake, they could step in and help me. I wasn’t just flailing around all the time, having to learn everything myself.”

Read more here: VG Charts

Mahou shoujo go to beaches for penultimate pilot

Going into the week, Shaft, the folks behind Madoka Magica, posted the sixth of seven planned pilot shorts for their new mahou shoujo project, Magical Suite Prism Nana. However, Youtube yanked their brief beaches animation “as a violation of YouTube’s policy on nudity or sexual content.” The thing is, it’s hardly beyond the pale by anime standards. Get a look after the jump.

Read more here: Crunchy Roll

Welcome to the ‘Top 10’ weekly feature. Each week we will be taking a look at the top 10 selling games in a particular genre, platform, most recent month, even sprinkling in the top 10 selling games from a past year. All sales specified will be worldwide, unless stated otherwise. If there is a particular top 10 you want to see leave a comment and it may be featured in a future top 10.

Over the first two month of 2013 we will be looking at the 2012 sales by platform. This week we will be taking a look at the top 10 selling 3DS games in 2012. Last week we looked at the top 10 selling PlayStation Vita games in 2012 and the week before that the top 10 selling Xbox 360 games in 2012.

Looking at the top 10 bestselling 3DS games in 2012, eight of the games were released in 2012 and two were released in 2011.

The eight titles in 2012 sold a combined 12.93 million units or 65.8 percent of the total games sold in the top 10. The two games released in 2011 sold a combined 6.72 million units or 34.2 percent of the total games sold in the top 10.

The top 10 bestselling 3DS games in 2012 sold a combined 19.65 million games in 2012. The top game sold more than five million units. The top four games sold more than two million units and the top six titles sold more than one million units. All games in the top 10 sold more than 500,000 units.

Seven games are first party, published by Nintendo and three games are third party. The third party publishers include two Square Enix titles and one Sega title. The seven first party titles, published by Nintendo, sold a combined 16.79 million units or 85.5 percent of the total games sold in the top 10.

The two Square Enix titles sold a combined 2.01 million units or 10.2 percent of the total games sold in the top 10. The one Sega title sold a combined 0.85 million units or 4.3 percent of the total games sold in the top 10.

Taking a look at the top 10 bestselling 3DS games in 2012 as a graph shows how the top game sold well above the rest and the top three titles sold more than the other titles combined. The top three titles all feature Mario as a playable character and five titles feature Mario in the title name.

Here are the rest of the 3DS sales in 2012 outside the top 10: Nintendo sold 14.32 million 3DS’s in 2012. This is an increase of 8.1 percent when compared to 2011. There were also 39.23 million games sold for the 3DS in 2012. This is a 46.4 percent increase year-over-year. Also 3DS sales have reached a total of 27.57 million units at the end of 2012.

14 titles sold 500,000 or more units and 36 titles sold 200,000 …read more
Source: VG Charts

The fifth of SHAFT’s planned seven planned pilot for magic girl project

SHAFT, the studio who brought us Madoka Magica, has shared the fifth in a series of seven promo pilot videos for new mahou shoujo anime Magical Suite Prism Nana. Characters designs are provided by light novel illustrator Kantoku. Get a look after the jump.

…read more
Source: Crunchy Roll

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview with MCV has said that the seven year console cycle has been bad for the industry and the next generation console cycle needs to be shorter.

“The consoles have taken a long time, we’ve been saying it for a long time,” he said. “It’s really once those consoles come that we can let creative people more risk, and they feel they can take more risk because new consoles can be more open.”

“They have so many features that they can play with,” he continued. “It’s easier to be a creative person with new consoles, because after four years of people using all the capacity, it’s harder to be innovative. With PS4, we will see new ideas and new ways to approach gamers. And that will excite consumers and excite creators.”

Guillemot believes that Ubisoft will be able to tap the full power of the PlayStation 4 much quicker than with the PlayStation 3, because the architecture is a lot more similar to a PC.

“I think we will see good things from the start,” he added. “Sure, in two years engineers will figure out how to do a lot more. But these machines are easier to build on than before, so we should be able to reach their potential quicker.”

…read more
Source: VG Charts