dark-knight posts (Subscribe to this feed)

After EA shuttered the Australian arm of Mercenaries dev house Pandemic Studios, a few projects were lost to the ether. A game based on the enormously popular film Dark Knight for 360 / PS3 as well as an "open-world Nintendo Wii game" were both rumored to be on the way from the Brisbane, Australia-based studio.

Australian Gamer has apparently found footage of the Wii title -- said to still be owned by ex-Pandemic Australia employees -- to be called either "The Next Big Thing" or "No Limits Racing" (depending on your interpretation of the footage). The trailer (found after the break) teases a handful of pseudo-celebrity appearances, the ability to turn existing Miis into in-game characters, and show off your high scores on advertisements in friends' game environments.

EA confirmed to us yesterday that the Australian arm of Pandemic is closed, and said of the trailer, "On any given day, there are a lot of great game ideas under consideration at EA ... not all of them go all the way to market."

At this point, we don't even have confirmation that Pandemic Brisbane is gone, but according to a report from Kotaku Australia, the axe dropped after the studio couldn't finish the oft-rumored Dark Knight game in time for the film's DVD / Blu-ray release. Blame allegedly goes to the short timeframe allotted to development and a lack of technology / tools needed to make the open-world title the team had in mind.

Reportedly, a second team was working on an open-world Wii title and managed to retain rights to the project after the studio closed. We're still waiting to discover the studio's fate, but in the meantime, the report is definitely worth a read. After the break, check out footage from a different -- some would say fake -- Dark Knight game.

We had high hopes for The Dark Knight's Blu-ray release. But boy, we didn't expect such phenomenal results. The Dark Knight has become the fastest selling Blu-ray yet, besting the last king of the hill, Iron Man. Nearly 3 million copies of the movie were sold on Tuesday, with 600,000 units being sold on Blu-ray. That means about 25-30% of the disc sales were on Blu-ray -- an impressive feat for a relatively new format.

"It's encouraging," said Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video. "The Blu-ray sales of 'Dark Knight' were exceptionally strong and much higher than our projections." Considering The Dark Knight is an obvious addition to an HD home theater set up, we doubt their projections were much lower. Besides, all that money should make up for the Golden Globe snub, amirite?

[Update: All gone already!]

Amazon is offering a free copy of The Dark Knight on Blu-ray and Resistance 2 Collector's Edition with the purchase of a PlayStation 3 80GB for $399.99 with free shipping. Just click here, add all three items to your cart, then enter the coupon code PSKNIGHT during checkout.

The weird thing is, some parts of the site are claiming the deal is valid for today (December 9th) only while the official rules are stating the offer is "valid 12 AM Pacific time, December 9, 2008, through 11:59 PM. Pacific time, December 10, 2008." Our suggestion? If you are interested, take advantage of this today and not wait until tomorrow to find out if the offer is still valid. The deal is right through here.

[Via Slickdeals]

You may have missed the Hellboy II BD-Live chat, but we're pretty sure you're not going to want to miss this one. Christopher Nolan, director of the summer's blockbuster The Dark Knight, will be part of a Blu-ray exclusive "live community screening." The registration process for this event is a bit cumbersome, and it's also limited -- so read the instructions carefully! The two disc BD set will be available on December 9th.

[Thanks, snoopytimes!]

We usually refrain from discussing specific movies here on PS3Fanboy except on our weekly release posts, but this movie definitely warrants a mention. The summer's biggest blockbuster Dark Knight has a release date and it is December 9th for the MSRP of $35.99. According to High-Def Digest, this 2-disc Blu-ray set will include the 153-minute feature film on a BD-50 dual-layer disc with 1080p/VC-1 video and English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio. The disc will also include some yet-unannounced BD-Live-enabled content, as well as a digital copy of the film. It is now available for pre-order on Amazon for $24.95. Full list of extras, after the break.

In the category of things that are not surprising, you're certain to find the existence of a video game based on a stunningly successful superhero film. You'll also find Kotaku's report on the alleged first details of said game, which see the titular Dark Knight roaming the GTA-style streets of Gotham City, racing about in the Batmobile and swinging through the urban jungle on the hunt for society's less reputable elements.

But it's the game's unusual failure to release -- or even be officially acknowledged by anyone other than Commissioner Gordon -- that you might file in the less crowded category of surprising things. The report attributes Batman's no-show to the developer's continued struggle against a dodgy camera system and repetitive combat, the latter of which is no doubt a challenging side effect of film director Christoper Nolan slamming our hero's cape in the door of reality.

There's hope for a successful outcome (Vigilante's Creed, anyone?) within such a vaporous release schedule, but we're already concerned by the game's supposed adoption of the now-standard "Superhero + GTA = Video Game" formula. EA, we know you ignored us when we pleaded with you to put the Tumbler into Burnout Paradise as an unlockable, but listen to us this one time: People want to be Batman -- all of him. We want to be a billionaire playboy, the world's greatest detective and Gotham's Dark Knight. Don't make us beat up petty thugs in generic alleys all game long, okay?

With box office numbers soaring past the $440 million mark, The Dark Knight is one hot, hot, hot brand. This is exactly why lucky promotion winners are willing to put their rare The Dark Knight themed Xbox 360s on eBay, to capitalize on the hype and make a fist full of cash.

Winners of the Dominos Pizza's "The Cards Tell the Tale" Sweepstakes were awarded one of 110 The Dark Knight Xbox 360s (20GB models, no less) and now they're flooding eBay with some very high price tags. If you want one (and really, who wouldn't want a 360 plastered with the Joker on its side?) expect to pay two to three times the value of a Pro console itself. Heck, even "legit" auctions with sixteen plus bids have exceeded the $800 mark, which we expect to only climb. We wish we weren't so seriously jealous right now ...

[Via Gamertell]

We don't know about you, but we've been doing a little internal happy dance that a crummy video game version of The Dark Knight wasn't rushed to shelves, sullying in some way our love of the film. But The Batman's absence was apparently enough to get under the skin of the AP, which tried to dig up any dirt they could on the Caped Crusader's video game incarnation.

The general consensus? No one expected The Dark Knight to do as well as it did, meaning EA didn't feel a rush to get the game out day-and-date with the film, a miscalculation that analyst Michael Pachter estimates cost the company $100 million. Of course, it's mainly guesswork and speculation at this point, what really happened is anybody's guess. But make no mistake: Though we're happy there's no botched Dark Knight title on the market, we do want one. We just want the right one.

Way, way, way back in March we informed you about Microsoft creating a few special The Dark Knight themed Xbox 360's for a Summer promotion. Seeing that it's Summer and perfect promotional weather, we now know what they look like AND how to win them. A process that includes ordering delicious pizza.

Beginning July 7th, Domino's pizza and The Dark Knight have teamed up to offer a special Gotham City Pizza where, once ordered, you'll gain access into The Dark Knight Vault which is full of exclusive clips, downloads and the chance to win all kinds of prizes. Prizes like $10,000, autographed goods and most importantly, a Dark Knight Xbox 360 Elite. Only 110 consoles exists, so prepare to order LOTS of pizza come July.

Preparing for this Summer's sure to be mega hit blockbuster The Dark Knight , the marketing powers that be have just released some free movie themed downloads to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Though, sadly, these are only available to U.S. Live subscribers (frowny face).

Downloadable is a The Dark Night theme featuring some rather sexy promo shots from the film as well as a gamer picture pack including five pictures to choose from. All very Batman-like and all very delicious! And yes, this very, very, very obsessed blogger (obsessiveness proved by my Dark Knight inspired Facebook profile image) is sporting some Joker gamer picture love. You should do the same ... at least until July 18th.

The marketing peeps over at Brandweek are reporting that this Summer's sure to be a hit blockbuster movie, The Dark Knight, will see a massive marketing campaign with companies signing on to do cross-promotional tie-ins including our own Xbox 360. Sometime this Summer, Microsoft will be holding a giveaway where they'll be handing out The Dark Knight themed Xbox 360s in both Batman and Joker flavors. Just think how twisted-crazy a Joker themed 360 would be. Details regarding the promotion are slim, but come July we'll be informed and on a Dark Knight 360 mission. We guess our limited edition Mass Effect Xbox 360 will have to tide us over for now.

[Thanks, L1B3RATION]