Digging into digital earth and fighting monsters is something that is perfectly suited to on-the-go gaming. Publisher 505 Games knows this, and that’s why it announced today that it is bringing a port of the 2D open-world sandbox-style game to Sony’s PlayStation Vita this summer.

The publisher released its version of Terraria, which developer Re-Logic originally released for the PC in 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 earlier this week. With the Vita version, players will have all the 2D action available to them on the bus.

“We’re all huge fans of Terraria and have been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received from the existing community since we began working with the property,” 505 Games head of global brand Tim Woodley said in a statement. “And it’s been amazing to see how many of those fans have been asking for a portable version of Terraria so they can take their adventures with them on the go. The biggest challenge for us is how to give players the control they need to fully enjoy the experience and we’re really excited to explore the potential of the multiple input options that the PlayStation Vita affords us.”

Since Re-Logic originally designed Terraria for keyboard-and-mouse, 505 focused heavily on adapting the control system to gamepads. The changes 505 made for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions should translate to the Vita, but the portable also has a touchscreen. Touch controls could provide another solution for the developer.

“We are tremendously excited about bringing Terraria to PS Vita,” SCEE senior business development manager Shahid Ahmad said. ”It’s fantastic news for fans who have been begging for the game to be available on PS Vita and it’s fantastic news for us too. We are delighted about the addition to the platform. For us this is a real coup, the opportunity to bring such a loved game to one of our platforms is really exciting. We are also really confident about how much fans are going to love the PS Vita version; the touch screen will ensure a totally unique experience.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

For those that have been eagerly awaiting the release of next week’s BioShock Infinite, you’re in luck (if you’re a PC gamer) because the retailers are in a full blown preorder bonus slug fest. 2K has given additional incentives for the digital preorder, offering additional freebie games such as XCOM: Enemy Unknown across all retailers. The best offer is currently at Green Man Gaming (best value with credit and three free games). Check the table below to compare and contrast all the pre-order bonus offers.

BioShock Infinite Preorder Bonus Comparison

All digital preorder from retailers below will get:

• Copy of the original Bioshock and XCOM: Enemy Unknown
• Industrial Revolution DLC pack (3 gear items, 500 bonus in-game currency, 5 lock picks, and the Industrial Revolution puzzle game)

Upcoming Releases

March 26: BioShock Infinite + Preorder Bonuses (PC Download) — $59.99 at Green Man Gaming. Choose between $15 Credit or $14 Cash Back and three free games. This is probably one of the better BioShock Infinite offers on the market. Compare bonus here.
 

March 26: Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (Xbox 360, PS3) — $59.99 at Amazon. Another next week Tuesday release. Like Bioshock Infiniteeverywhere seems to be charging full price but Amazon is offering the game with a $20 credit. Credit is good towards nearly everything on Amazon.
 

Recent Releases

God of War: Ascension + God of War Saga (PS3) — $59.99 at GameStop. This is a pretty stellar deal considering you’re getting GoW: Saga, which contains all previous God of War titles.
 

Dead Space 3 (PC Download, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. Thanks to EA’s “player appreciation sale” the recently released Dead Space 3 is now at lowest ever price.
 

Crysis 3 (PC Download, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. Along with Dead Space 3, Crysis 3 joins the rank of heavily discounted games. Some may say the IPs are being diluted in pricing, but we say, more discounts please.
 

Console game deals

The Amazing Spider-Man Ultimate Edition (Wii U) — $29.99 at GameStop. A pretty recent March 5th Wii U release just dropped $10 at Gamestop. Amazon decided to price match but elsewhere the game is the full $39.99 list price.
 

PC download deals

Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods and Kings (PC Download) — $7.49 at GameFly. Next best is $30 at Green Man Gaming. Thursday-only GameFly has a great price for Civ V’s Gods and Kings expansion pack. Ratings are consistently good with a 4/5 on Amazon and 80/100 on Metacritic.
 

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (PC Download) — $6 at Origin. Next best is $20 at GamersGate. The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition is one of the more notable “Player Appreciation” sale games out there. At only six bucks it’s actually cheapest ever by $4.
 

Borderlands Game of the Year Edition (PC Download) — $5.99 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Next best is $28 at Amazon. Another six dollar gem is Borderlands GOTY at GMG. It ties the previous low price only seen a month ago in a weekend sale. Otherwise the game has been around the $10-$30 mark. The current next best price online is $28 on Amazon. Game activates on Steam.
 

General sales

EA Player Appreciation Sale — More than 200 titles up to 70% off for one week only.
 

Gamefly Spring Break PC Sale — New round of deals each week, click-through to see today’s list.
 

Hardware deals

Wii U Console 32GB Deluxe Set with Nintendo Land — $349.99 at Target. Includes a $50 target gift card bnous.
 

PlayStation Vita 3G / WiFi with 8GB Memory Card — $249.99 at Sony. Next best is $280 at Walmart. Decent price for the 3G model with “proprietary” memory stick.
 

Samsung Series 7 Gamer Laptop — $1,399 at Microsoft. Model NP700G7C-S02US. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 16GB RAM, 1.5 TB 7200RPM HDD + 8GB SSD, GeForce GTX 675M, and Blu-ray. Next best is $1,600 at NewEgg.
 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 952325U Laptop — $799 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Ivy Bridge Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 650M 2GB, Blu-ray, and Windows 8.
 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Grab your giant donut or ice cream truck and get ready to stand up and throw it for your country. Vikings are attacking, see, and it’s up to the citizens of 1970s Britain to fight back. With the assistance of The Department of Vikings, you must guide your little vigilante circle around increasingly wacky environments like The Farm, The Pipe Factory, The Museum, Up On The Roof, and, ultimately, Viking Island itself.

In a world full of cinematic gaming opportunities, it’s a delight to play something that is just a lot of fun. When Vikings Attack, by Clever Beans software, is a joyful playspace dedicated to funny sounds, goofy gameplay, and furious multiplayer battling. In short, it’s the wonderful chaser to all those huge, costly triple-A titles you have on your PlayStation 3 already. It’s also available via the PlayStation Network in an on-the-go version for the PlayStation Vita.

What you’ll like

The controls are responsive
When Vikings Attack plays like a brawler, only instead of beating the enemies up, you’re tossing improbably large objects at them. Your health is cleverly represented as the number of little folks in your colored circle. The vikings toss objects and bombs back at you as well, culling your mob of cutesy little village and city folk. Moving your little group of vigilantes about the screen feels good. They dash, turn, and throw stuff easily and quickly whenever you hit the right button.  The learning curve is brief, and the levels designed to allow you to build your muscle memory for each type of control.

The art style and audio sparkle

The whole 1970s Britain theme is adorable, as are the chubby little vigilante characters and horn-wearing vikings. You collect new characters as you move through the themed environments, which have their own specific objects for throwing: shopping carts for the grocery store, planets and spaceships for the museum, and giant donuts at the fair. It’s whimsical and wacky.

The sounds of the little characters picking up different objects is laugh-out-loud funny, with vocalized grunts and “heyUP” sounds everywhere. When you make a particularly good shot, text like “Textbook!” “Good Show,” and “Cracking Good Shot” pop on the screen. My 10-year old son picked these up, repeating them aloud as we played through the entire game together.

It’s surprisingly strategic
At first, beating a level is a matter of tossing as many objects as possible, as fast as possible, at the advancing viking hordes. As it moves forward through its 15 levels, however, the surroundings become as much an opponent as the vikings themselves. The Sorting Office has what feels like miles of moving conveyor belts and buttons that you activate with well-timed shots to start, stop, or reverse direction of the moving walkways. A couple of levels, notably the Pipe Factory and Viking Island, have two players synchronize tactics to direct ordinance toward their foes.

The  three different types of bombs create a deeper gameplay strategy. One type explodes on impact, another bounces off walls and into enemies, while a third type convinces vikings to become vigilantes — or vice versa. Some characters give your mob extra skills, like moving faster, lifting heavier objects than your group size can handle, or throwing things a bit faster. Using these bombs and buffs adds another layer of strategy to single and multiplayer games.

These are instructional films worth watching
Tremendous amount of silly, dry, British humor is on display in When Vikings Attack. The instructional films, each introducing a new element of gameplay or explaining new types of items or environments,  feel like old Cold War public service announcements from the 1970s in Britain, though “The Department of Vikings” made these. They’re fun to watch even after you’ve gleaned the info you need.

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Hey, everyone. Everyone. Hey. Did you know that the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show is next week? It’s kind of a big deal. We’ve written an article or two about it.

Just like every year, the week before E3 is when the Internet explodes with wish lists of what everyone wants to see at the show. It can get a little cluttered, but the good news is that we’ve compiled a list of some of the biggest rumors for your convenience, along with their level of truthiness as of this writing (on an arbitrary scale of zero to three).

New Xbox and/or PlayStation hardware

Truthiness level: 0 out of 3

Both Microsoft and Sony have explicitly denied that they will be showing off any new hardware this year. It could be because we’ll already be hearing a lot about Nintendo’s Wii U, or it could simply be that they have nothing to show off yet. We know that the next PlayStation will use discs instead of going full-on digital distribution, and we’ve heard reports that the next Xbox might use a Wii U-style tablet controller, but don’t expect to hear any of those things from the console makers themselves next week.

A revamp for Sony’s PlayStation Plus program

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

Sony’s premium subscription offering has had trouble convincing gamers of its value, especially considering that, unlike Microsoft’s Xbox Live Gold service, people can play games online whether they are members or not. Current rumors suggest that the company will announce an overhaul to Plus during its press conference on Monday; new features will include full Vita support (including cloud data management) and free “top tier” games.

A $350-$450 price tag for the Wii U

Truthiness level: 1 out of 3

Nintendo has already said it won’t be announcing the price of the Wii U at E3, but some possible leaked specifications for the new system suggest something similar to what the Xbox 360 cost when it launched seven years ago. If those specs line up with what Nintendo actually announces at the show, however, it may lend this rumored price point some credibility.

Price drops

Truthiness level: varies

Nintendo Wii: Nintendo will drop the price of its on-the-outs Wii console to $99, according to an anonymous tip reported at Nintendo Connect last week. The report cites a stealth picture of a price-drop list at a Kmart, but the reduction would make sense considering the company’s transition to the newer Wii U.

Xbox 360: Target’s website contained a listing for a 250-GB Xbox 360 bundled with a Kinect motion controller for $299.99 (rather than $399.99), according to a post in the forums at Cheap Ass Gamer. The item was “mispriced,” Target told Engadget. That doesn’t necessarily rule out all chances of an announcement at E3, but we’ll have to wait to hear it from Microsoft itself.

PlayStation 3: This is a “likely outcome” of poor sales, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen, but if it’s going to, E3 wouldn’t be the worst time for an announcement.

PlayStation Vita: OK, this one is more speculation than anything, but an announcement yesterday that Sony is temporarily cutting the price of its handheld by €50 in France (roughly $61.90) from June 1 to July 15 (via rebates) suggests that the company is at least open to the possibility. Never mind the fact that people have been predicting a reduction for a while.

Dead Space 3 revealed

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

We already know that publisher Electronic Arts is planning to release a new chapter in the Dead Space franchise in its next fiscal year, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising for the new game to make an appearance at E3, as some bloggers have surmised. A newly released video (below) confirms the rumors of an ice planet and a new protagonist, and the Dead Space website includes a coded countdown clock that expires next Tuesday, smack in the middle of E3.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 announced

Truthiness level: 3 out of 3

So far, developer Mercury Steam’s sequel to its surprisingly good addition to the Castlevania series is this E3′s worst-kept secret. Fans investigated the source code of publisher Konami’s mysterious countdown site and discovered references to the unannounced sequel. That countdown expires today, by the way, so this rumor might not even last until the show.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist announcement

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

It’s been two years since Conviction, super-spy Sam Fisher’s last adventure, so developer Ubisoft is probably about due to reveal the next game in the franchise. This rumor comes primarily from a post on NeoGAF, which begins, “I’ve seen the promo and Sam is looking good as always with no grey hair [ . . . ], full body suit, and his mighty night goggles, including a serious look on his face.” A second source, Twitter user Chad Trotter, also claims to know about the new game, adding that a Ubisoft representative “let it slip on accident.”

Massive Kingdom Hearts HD collection announced

Truthiness level: 1 out of 3

High-definition collections are all the rage these days, and Kingdom Hearts might be the next series to get the compilation treatment, according to a report from Dual Pixels. The set would include the first five games in developer Square Enix’s Disney-crossover role-playing franchise and be available for PlayStation 3, Vita, and the Wii U.

Grand Theft Auto V fall release date announced

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

GTA developer Rockstar Games won’t be at E3, but publisher Take-Two will. We’ve been waiting to hear more about the latest game in the blockbuster crime series (it was even rumored for last year’s E3), and with studios pushing the releases of big games like BioShock Infinite and Aliens: Colonial Marines into next year, this fall is looking pretty open. Lending more weight to this possibility (or not, depending on how you feel about the guy): Michael Pachter has predicted that it will happen.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Japanese game industry revenue fell 8 percent in 2011, due primarily to a lack of software hits and a steady decline in a major console game sales.

Famitsu, a well-respected Japanese video game magazine, is reporting the decline in revenue. Hardware sales were actually up 2.4 percent thanks to the Sony PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS which were released last year. However, software sales fell fell 13.7 percent to way below the average from a year before. This marks a string of years in which the Japanese video game market has seen a decline, according to andriasang.com.

While Japan relies on Sony and Nintendo for its gaming needs, the Xbox 360 is still the odd man out overseas, which continues to hurt the Japanese game industry as a whole. The remodeled Xbox 360 and its newest peripheral, the Kinect, are both hits and have had a huge effect on the American market. However, in Japan, the Microsoft machines seem to be an oddity. That makes the market dynamics look a lot different from the western world.

While the western market continues to grow and have a stronger, more stable market in place, Japan may continue to see stats like this in the future.

Here’s are the top hardware sellers:

Nintendo 3DS: 4,135,739

PSP: 1,960,177

PlayStation 3: 1,467,261

Nintendo Wii: 937,451

Nintendo DS: 711,204

PlayStation Vita: 402,794

Xbox 360: 114,075

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo’s 3DS and Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Vita are facing increased pressure from smartphones and other game-capable mobile devices for both consumers’ time and money. While the handhelds are targeting two different audiences – the Vita and 3DS are intended for the traditional video game crowd whereas gaming tends to be a secondary function for the typical mobile device user – they are ultimately after the same mind share.

“The market for adult casual gaming on portable gaming hardware has practically disappeared since … smartphones and tablets have arrived,” explains Peter Warman, CEO of video game research firm Newzoo.

However, he is quick to note that if demand for dedicated gaming hardware exists, there is still room for portable handsets such as the 3DS and Vita, adding: “As long as Apple and Samsung do not promote their iPod-type devices as portable game consoles for kids, the 3DS might be around for a while … [and] the Vita will cater perfectly to [tech-minded youngsters].”

Although the market for dedicated video game handhelds is there, it is shrinking. Sony and Nintendo will be able to coexist in the space, but the era of dedicated gaming portables selling hundreds of millions of units could be a thing of the past.

“The sandbox may not be as big as it was back in 2009, but there is still plenty of room for Sony and Nintendo to generate significant profits, as well as the third-party publishers that support them,” Jesse Divnich, vice president of capital research and communications at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.

“There will always be a large and significant market for dedicated portable gaming, but we do believe it is a shrinking category that will eventually plateau to a sustainable market size for at least two competitors,” he asserts.

As smartphones, tablets and similar devices become more affordable, they are accounting for greater portions of mobile software revenue. In 2009, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms made up only 19 percent of total U.S. portable game software revenue, according to data from the NPD Group and mobile analytics firm Flurry. As of 2011, they own 58 percent of the market.

Conversely, Sony has lost 5 percent market share and Nintendo is down 34 percent in the same two-year period. While Nintendo seems content with its position in the market, Sony appears to be positioning its Vita as a hybrid platform between dedicated video game players and casual mobile devices. Apps for social sites such as Facebook and Twitter are in development for Vita, while Sony announced the PlayStation Suite SDK as well, which enables Android developers to create Vita-compatible games.

Earlier this year, Sony also launched the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, an Android-powered smartphone that features a full PlayStation control pad and the ability to play specific games from the video game maker’s extensive back catalog of PlayStation and PSP software.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The holiday shopping season, of course, is critical for consoles and video games, which can make good presents because they are relatively inexpensive and aren’t typically impulse buys. The Vita will cost $250 for a Wi-Fi only version and $300 for a 3G-enabled version, available through AT&T.

That’s still a slim price, considering the device is about as powerful as a PlayStation 3. It will also have games like Uncharted and LittleBigPlanet from critically-acclaimed franchises that haven’t come to handheld devices yet because the they simply weren’t powerful enough. So Sony might expect the console to sell well outside of the holiday season because of the modest price.

The Vita features two analog sticks, a 5-inch OLED touchpad screen, a touchpad on the device, six-axis motion sensing technology and a front- and rear-facing camera.  It will also let gamers chat through a headset or a built-in microphone using a private social network called Party. The Vita will also have a new hand-held Bioshock game that still does not have a title.

The Vita is packed with a much more powerful processor than the Nintendo 3DS. Sony has banked on delivering a more powerful handheld that can handle cinematic-intensive games like Uncharted. That strategy didn’t prove successful with the original PlayStation Portable, which was soundly beaten by the Nintendo DS.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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“We’re confident that the PlayStation Vita will be the first device that truly blurs those lines between entertainment and real life,” Sony executive Kaz Hirai said on stage.

The company also unveiled the official details about the device. The device features two analog sticks, a 5-inch OLED touchpad screen, a touchpad on the device, six-axis motion sensing technology and a front- and rear-facing camera. It will come in both a wi-fi enabled and a 3G-enabled model. It will be available on AT&T for the 3G version of its device. (The audience groaned when Hirai said that.)

It also features a chat feature that will let gamers chat with their friends through a headset or through the built-in microphone using a private social network for PlayStation Vita users called Party. Players can also recommend content and interact with their friends in a private social network called Near. The Vita will also have a new hand-held Bioshock game that still does not have a title, the company announced today.

The Vita is packed with a much more powerful processor than its rival handheld gaming console, the Nintendo 3DS. Sony has banked on delivering a more powerful handheld that can handle cinematic-intensive games like Uncharted instead of trying to find the next new feature that gamers will like. That strategy didn’t prove successful with the original PlayStation Portable, which was soundly beaten by the Nintendo DS. But the device does show some serious promise early on.

The PlayStation Vita will be available during the holiday season this year. The Wi-Fi only model will cost $249 and the 3G Wi-Fi model will cost $299.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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