Documents released as part of Square Enix’s financial statement show a company disappointed by Tomb Raider‘s sales of 3.4 million, a number substantially below the 5-6 million they were aiming for.

“We put considerable amount of effort into polishing and perfecting game content for these titles,” reads the statement (PDF), “receiving extremely high Metacritic scores.”

“However we were very disappointed to see that high scores did not translate to actual sales performance.”

Hitman: Absolution similarly underperformed, selling 3.6 million of the 4.5 – 5 million Square Enix were hoping for, and Sleeping Dogs only cracked 1.75 when Square Enix were hoping for 2 – 2.5.

Late last month Square Enix warned it was expecting “an extraordinary loss” in company profit, and their CEO Yoichi Wada stepped down. It’s a genuine shame that these games have performed under expectation, as Square Enix have shown that they’re capable of publishing some top-quality games with excellent PC support.

Source: Eurogamer

With its first DLC pack on the way, Sleeping Dogs producer Dan Sochan has sat down with Official Playstation Magazine UK to talk about the games DLC packs and the possibility of a sequel – or even a franchise!

“A few months before we shipped Square told us they wanted to do DLC so we made sure we could technically do add ons. But we really spent every waking hour and then some making sure the game was as polished and as bug free as it could be,” Sochan told OPM, describing how the DLC isn’t anything cut from the game or in anyway held back. Work on the DLC didn’t begin until Sleeping Dogs was “done and shipped out the door”.

But when work on the game’s extra content did begin, the team wanted to make sure they had fun with it. “We were all really tired and a little burned out after the full game, but working on something that was a complete departure from what we had done in the past was invigorating.” The inspiration for the DLC’s content came, Sochan said, mainly from timing. “When looking at our timeline we said ‘Well, our first gameplay pack would be coming out around Halloween. We looked at Big Trouble In Little China, Chinese lore and this idea of hopping vampires. We thought the idea of these Jiang Shi, hopping vampires, is something very unique and different.”

So what about the future for Sleeping Dogs? At the moment, Sochan said, they have 6 months worth of DLC planned. As far as a sequel goes, “Square, from the very beginning, were showing that they believed in us and believed in this game as a potential franchise.” When it comes to specifics, though, Sochan had to be more circumspect, “I can’t really comment on a sequel right now. Our main focus is on putting out quality DLC so people see value and continue to want to show interest in the franchise. Then we can evaluate and look at it at that point.”

Source: Official Playstation Magazine UK

Under Section 39 of the Video Games Act, it is now illegal to have a game that doesn’t at some point feature zombies or the undead. Sleeping Dogs, having ridden to success on the back of a thoroughly un-zombie-related gaming experience, is now trying hard to make up for this shocking oversight with an upcoming DLC pack named ‘Nightmare in North Point’.

The new horror-themed DLC aims to “explore other aspects of Hong Kong Cinema”, telling the story of a former Triad member who is resurrected along with an undead army. Wei Shen, presumably on break from his regular gig, heads over to North Point and beats the snot out of them using his new ‘Lightning Fists’ ability — which he gains from drinking magical tea — and slashes them up with a peach wood sword.

Get busy with traditional Chinese zombies come October 30. In the meantime, if you’re still not sold on Sleeping Dogs, why not cast your eyes across this review?

Source: VG247

Square Enix has some pretty hefty plans for Sleeping Dogs DLC over the next month. In addition to a free Community Pack for registered members, there are three bundles expected to launch during October. The Street Racer Pack adds three new races (including a boat showdown), the Sting Superbike, and a Racing Jacket and Helmet combo. The SWAT Pack adds 20 new cop missions, a SWAT outfit and SWAT van. The Tactical Soldier Pack adds the Assault Rifle and Tactical Outfit to your apartment; previously these powerful items were only available in certain missions.

No word yet on platform specific, exact release date or pricing. The Hong Kong undercover cop adventure is also set to expand via its first proper story DLC pack, details of which will be revealed during Comic Con on October 14.

Tim was pretty impressed by Sleeping Dogs, which boasts an unusually full featured PC port – check out the review.

Source: VG247

I recently had the pleasure of playing a few games that reminded me why I continue, in the face of adversity, to be a PC gamer.

Sleeping Dogs and Guild Wars 2 are both stand out examples of what happens when you use the PC as a template, rather than just another avenue for revenue — or, at the very least, put enough effort into respecting what is the oldest and most technically affluent community of gamers by providing a version that actually takes advantage of the cutting edge hardware we spend many hundreds of dollars maintaining and hours tweaking.

But despite this, many developers are still focused on wringing the last drops out of the dying console market — and this needs to change.

As we mentioned in our review, Sleeping Dogs isn’t just a great game, but a great PC game as well – and if you want to really push it as far as possible, you’ll need a hefty machine.

Fortunately you can now check exactly just how far you can push the game, as well as, you know, try the game — with this handy-dandy demo which you can now find on Steam. And once you’re done, why not share your experiences in our Sleeping Dogs thread?

Despite being bounced between multiple publishers, re-named and re-branded multiple times, Sleeping Dogs is a surprisingly deep, well-crafted experience that tells a dark and gritty tale. We sent Tim Colwill to the streets of Hong Kong to check it out.

Between Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs, it looks like Square Enix are taking PC gaming a lot more seriously than some of their competitors. They’ve released a video today showing off their PC features, running in 1080p, and it looks good. Really good. PC users can expect a day-one patch that includes HD textures for the whole game, as well as the ability to increase world density, HQ SSAO, SSAA, the works. Take a look at the video below, or download the 1080p version from our file library.

There’s also a YouTube version available for you to check out. For more information on how the game will run on PC, including system requirements, check out their site.

Square Enix thought a great way to get people interested in Sleeping Dogs would be to give a filmmaker and some martial-arts dudes a bunch of money, and then let them film themselves doing some sweet fights. And hey, they were right! Wind down on your Tuesday afternoon with this video of people beating (and stabbing) the snot out of each other. Needless to say, this video contains some rather violent content. Viewer discretion is advised.

Source: Good Ol’ Cas Bitton

Sleeping Dogs, the upcoming open-world action, shooter (not to be confused with Watch Dogs) has a new trailer highlighting some of its gameplay elements. Originally meant to be a True Crime game, Sleeping Dogs sees you infiltrating the Triads as an undercover police officer. Even if you’re not interested in playing it, if you’ve ever watched a gun-fu movie, you might find yourself interested in this trailer. Check it out below, or download it from our file mirror.