Sony makes first big new coming out of Gamescom with PS4 launch date news and film collaboration with Ubisoft
Gamescom Cologne, which is arguably Europe’s biggest and most notable games industry and interactive entertainment conference, got underway yesterday with a slew of pressers from several of the games industry giants. The biggest announcement coming out yesterday was the launch date for Sony’s PS4, which will come to France and the rest of Europe on November 29th after launching in North America on November 15th. The price for the console, which will be around €400, will be fairly consistent across the 42 countries in which it will eventually be launched. Although Microsoft also had a press conference yesterday, there was no announcement from them on the release date of their Xbox One.
Sony also announced the 14 games that will be available at launch of the next generation console, including new releases from popular franchises, including Just Dance 2014, FIFA 14, Call of Duty: Ghosts, etc. as well as the anxiously awaited open-world action adventure video game Watch_Dogs from Ubisoft. Ubisoft also announced during the press conference that its film and television division, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, is collaborating with Sony Pictures Entertainment and New Regency to develop a feature film based on Watch_Dogs and the adventures of its protagonist Adrien Pierce, a genius hacker seeking to avenge a family tragedy. The launch date for the film has not yet been announced.
‘Le Game’ showing the world what France’s games industry has to offer
France, which is the country partner for this year’s Gamescom, is working hard to ensure that the global game industry takes notices of its sizeable and creative games sector. ‘Le Game’, a joint project between France’s SNJV, SELL, Ubifrance, AFII, and France’s regional games industry associations and clusters, has launched a selection of downloadable video game packages, aka ‘Le Game bundles’, especially for Gamescom. The games packages will include 15 games from 14 of France’s rising and top studios and will be available through August 31st. Gamers will be able to download 3 special-priced packages which each include 5 games.
In order to ensure studios get as much cross-platform exposure as possible, they’ve made both mobile (iOS and Android) and PC packages available. The mobile package includes such titles as Puddle (Neko Entertainment), Astérix Megabaffe (Bulkypix), Squids Wild West (The Game Bakers), and more, which will all be available at 50% off. The mobile packages can be downloaded directly on iTunes or Google Play (links to download packages available here). The PC and Mac packages, both available at an 80% discount, are grouped into a hardcore package game titles and casual games (available here and here). The hardcore package includes games such as Matter (Swing Swing Submarine), Red Johnson Chronicles 1 (Lexis Numérique), Stellar Impact (Tindalos Interactive), and more, while the casual includes such games as Tiny Token Empires Deluxe (Bip Media), Age of Enigma: The Secret of the 6th Ghost (Casual Box), FLY’N (Ankama), etc.
As a country partner, France will have a particularly strong presence at this year’s Gamescom with approximately 30 studios represented at the Le Game stands.