DOA4 given UK date

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 January, 2006

When will we get to... FIGHT!

Microsoft's just confirmed what most UK retailers had already been saying - that Dead or Alive 4 will ship on Xbox 360 from January 27th.

That's not bad going, given that it only came out in Japan and the USA at the end of December.

It's a bit later than developer Tecmo would have liked, however - the game's much-publicised delays in December for final tweaks meant that it missed the Japanese launch of the console, which suffered as a result.

Mind you, it might even shift some units over there if it does as well for 360 as DOA3 did for Xbox. The new game introduces a revamped fight system, new and old characters (including unlockable ones like Halo's Spartan-458), and a full range of Xbox Live options.

Plus, obviously, it ought to look very nice.

Look forward to our review in the run up to the game's release next Friday. Rob's already sharpening his thumbs to help with "the beatings" (we tried to explain, but he wouldn't listen).

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • gazareth #1 6 years ago

    This is joyous news! Huzzah!

  • Hicksy #2 6 years ago

    good news!

    have they fixed the save bug? :o

  • Darkedge #3 6 years ago

    the same date that tothegame.com and play have said it was coming out for a month? coooool...

  • rinoaMW #4 6 years ago

    me wanty now, me wanty NOW! - really can't wait for this, it looks soooo pretty! ^^

  • Machetazo #5 6 years ago

    Yes, will the European release be bug free?
    I already have DOA:Ultimate and VF4 Evo, but i'll probably give DOA4 a look further down the line at some point. It's not the game that's going to sell the 360 to me.
    Edited by Machetazo at 18/01/06 @ 09:28

  • tengu #6 6 years ago

    \o/ for new 360 game that isn't racing or fps!

    Will give it a try.

  • abigsmurf #7 6 years ago

    does it still have the save game erasing bug?

    yay for xbox live encouraging lazy developers \o/

  • nomaad #8 6 years ago

    I really hope they fix the save bug, that'd be really annoying to run into :(

  • kingmob #9 6 years ago

    As I understand it, the savegame bug is more to do with the 360 than the game.

    Basically the game loads up before the 360 has passed it your profile info. This is the same thing that can cause COD2 savegame issues as well. Or so I can gather from other sites.

  • afray #10 6 years ago

    abigsmurf:
    Fuck off. Never met a lazy developer in my life. You make a game as complex and intertwined as modern games are and tell me that we just sit on our arses all day.

    So why do bugs get into games? Combination of: bad development practices, poor publisher support (either through Q&A or them trying to push a game out too fast), bad management decisions (feature creep and unplanned-for policy changes), and developers making mistakes (which happens to the best).

    You can do your best to minimise all of these factors, but "laziness" and complacency on the part of the programmer is not one of them. And while games are made and sold as products (which pays my wages, so I shouldn't complain) we will always have 3 of the 4 factors above. :-(

    Sorry about the "fuck off," but that phrase really gets on my tit.

  • JonFE #11 6 years ago

    I'm not really sure that this bug has anything specific to do with DoA4 -as already said- and to be honest I don't think that 3 weeks is enough time to fix it, produce new game disks and ship them to retail...

    I would love to be proven wrong tho' since I have it on pre-order :)
    Edited by JonFE at 18/01/06 @ 10:55

  • Furbs #12 6 years ago

    afray, so every single dev is consciencious and diligent then?
    Bullshit, they're no different to any other profession.

    In fact on this very website I've heard people say some of the time they do sod all until the last few weeks! :p

  • JonFE #13 6 years ago

    afray:
    I think smurf was having a dig at XBL (when you can't beat'em...) and not developers per se...

  • afray #14 6 years ago

    Furbs:
    Game development isn't like other professions. We're (or the majority of us are) doing this because we really love games and making games. Pride in your work is something that comes naturally when your job is a vocation.

    And either you're joking about the last few weeks thing, or you know little about how the majority of the industry runs its affairs. We have regular "milestones" (every month or so, increasing in frequency as we approach release), where a copy of the game is sent to the publisher to be QA'd. They have to pass the milestone for us to get the next batch of money. Completion-bonded titles are moving away from this model, but they are still rare. So you see we can't really just sit around, but things do get more frantic towards the end of the project.

  • afray #15 6 years ago

    JonFE: Fair enough, but it's a sentiment I've heard before. And it *really* annoys me. A buggy or poor game is never down to one problem only, and to try to reduce it to such is daft.

  • trevd72 #16 6 years ago

    i have jsut got soul calibur 3 and tekken 5 this week, is it worth getting this? Anyone played it yet can help me with this?

  • Furbs #17 6 years ago

    afray - people who work for Game love games, doesnt mean none of them are workshy. Professional footballers love football but there are lazy ones.

  • JonFE #18 6 years ago

    afray, being a software developer myself (not games though) I know where you're coming from...

  • Wobble #19 6 years ago

    have you seen the uk tv ad for this yet?

    soooo bad :(

    why do all of the 360 tv ads suck so much?

  • afray #20 6 years ago

    Furbs: But the milestone business model means everyone's progress is monitored almost constantly. If you're slacking off it's noticed and corrective action can be taken (training, mentoring, or even firing!). Can the whole studio be collectively lazy when it comes to game development, and relaxed about bugs they could fix? No! Of course not!

  • Furbs #21 6 years ago

    I work in sales, I'm monitored daily and know people monitored hourly. Doesnt stop me being able to piss about on Eurogamer when I can. Footballers have their performance monitored in minute detail (the Opta stats for instance).

    Dont claim programmers are some sort of special breed. As I say, they are no different to any other group of employees who have chosen a profession.

    I think you're reading what I'm saying as ALL programmers?
    Edited by Furbs at 18/01/06 @ 11:38

  • afray #22 6 years ago


    I admitted in my last post that there can be work-shy developers (but they don't last very long), and I know you're not trying to paint us all with that brush, but the initial poster *was* trying to say that a whole studio had conspired to leave bugs in because they couldn't be bothered to fix them. That they had better things to do than make the best game they could. It's that kind of ignorant posturing that gets at me.

  • reality_cheque #23 6 years ago

    @Kingmob: Surely if the game progressed passed the point where it needs your profile before it's been passed your profile detail, then it's as much an issue with the code as anything else. After all, NFS:MW asks you to load your profile in game if you haven't already, and i've not lost my save games once.

    Yes, it could have been worked better with the x-box (as in it could make you load your profile before it starts the game) but at the same time it could also have been handled better by the programmers.

    Personally, I think the idea of trying to load something into memory without checking it's available first is just sloppy coding, and I'd get my wrists slapped with a 2 by 4 for such a thing.

    Plus this kind of thing should have been covered by testers in both camps even if it did get coded badly.

  • reality_cheque #24 6 years ago

    @Afray: Then mentally note the poster as being a fucktard, and ignore their comments. Rise above the stupidity, don't get dragged into it.

  • afray #25 6 years ago

    reality_cheque: lol, good point. But I'd rather try and correct his misaprehension, although he doesn't seem to have hung around long enough to read my response.

    And I like a good arguement. ;-)

  • reality_cheque #26 6 years ago

    @Afray: I'm with you on the argument thing :) Then again, I like shouting at Powergen for being crap too, i think I must be just a confrontational person :D

  • abigsmurf #27 6 years ago

    for the record I wasn't saying programmers, I was saying developers. There's a big difference. I know how much Programmers are overworked (for gods sake, form a union!). However bugs like this are simply unacceptable and for something this big to make it into the final version reeks of a lack of testing.

    Games are more complex yes but bug testing should be given just as much care as every other aspect of games development which have all had an increase in staff numbers as games have evolved. Games testers are the lowest ranking staff in the games industry and are paid as such. Increasing the amount of testing is one of the smallest costs when creating a next gen game, there is simply no excuse when the testing side of things isn't scaled up with the rest of a studio.

  • Perry #28 6 years ago

    Afray - I work in projects that have constant milestones and status reports. It is still very easy to be slack if you so choose. I've seen it in the team I manage. Still happens.

    And I must admit that stating that all developers are dilligent and are not lazy is quite astounding. I agree with Furbs - there will be some, I'd stake everything I own on it.

  • Artemus #29 6 years ago

    Boobs.

  • peterfll #30 6 years ago

    If such development regulation was so tight you'd never have a bad or mediocre game. As we do have games that fall into this category it is rather rich to assume that it never, ever has anything to do with the developers and is always someone else's fault.

    How many times do we here that its the publishers fault? Or the marketing department? Or the management? And indeed many times it is........ and sometimes its not, and is the result of the collective.

    No single part of a team is *always* infallible.

  • reality_cheque #31 6 years ago

    I disagree, if development was tight, then the game would be coded right etc.

    That doesn't help if the concept is shit in the first place.

  • Seifer #32 6 years ago

    Funny how you hard working non-slacking developers have soooo much time to spend chatting on EG isn't it ? Get the f**k back to work and deliver some decent games for me to play instead of fart arsing around cheers.

  • rinoaMW #33 6 years ago

    @Afrey - Im with you, most of what you said i totally agree with, but arguing with certain people sometimes won't part the clouds if they're too closed-minded to listen...

    @abigsmurf - just coders? _ALL_ game devs are overworked :/

    @Peterfill - you're right - In the case of games, "You get what you pay for" totally rings true... If blame should be placed anywhere, it should be on Puplishers, with Un-realistic timescales and even more un-realistic budgets.. Then on the marketing dept of said publishers for wanting to save even more money and not publicise a game correctly. Add on top of that the difficulty on getting a publisher to hand over payment for a project once its over....

    EDIT and @seifer Dammit! - \goes back to work ;)
    Edited by rinoaMW at 18/01/06 @ 15:14

  • old_skool #34 6 years ago

    lol@Seifer

  • Feanor #35 6 years ago

    "Funny how you hard working non-slacking developers have soooo much time to spend chatting on EG isn't it ? Get the f**k back to work and deliver some decent games for me to play instead of fart arsing around cheers."

    LOL

  • afray #36 6 years ago

    peterfil: "If such development regulation was so tight you'd never have a bad or mediocre game. As we do have games that fall into this category it is rather rich to assume that it never, ever has anything to do with the developers and is always someone else's fault. "

    I did admit that developers (coders, artists, game designers) make mistakes. The bugs that are evident in many games (including some I've worked on) don't magically appear from nowhere! But when the developer makes that mistake, and it gets into the final release, it's not because he was too busy jacking off to fix it. :-)

    abigsmurf: I'm glad you realise there are many factors that go into game crapness. :-)

  • reality_cheque #37 6 years ago

    @RinoaMW: And the onus is on gamers to not buy the shite. Something is only worth what you can convince an idiot to buy, and if no idiots buy games that have been rushed, we'll either get them at a knock-down price or they'll stop selling them. Not that I see this happening as it would require us stopping John Fatkid's mum from buying him games to shut him up.

  • captainrentboy #38 6 years ago

    Had the ntsc copy of the game for 4 days now(It's one of the few out there that's multi regional)And fuck me!!It's difficult,if you think you are particularly average at beat em ups and are intending on getting this I recommend a rental first.The single player arcade mode is a breeze right up to the final alpha project boss,and that bitch is a total,hit countering,nightmare.Other than that the game is sweet,online is slightly laggy at the moment but i'm hoping that'll improve as more Brits get the game.Graphics are excellent ,especially on the verrry interactive backdrops,and seem to be a constant 60fps.I'd give it a 9/10.
    (Ohh and after all the hard work I put in,it turns out Spartan is shite)

  • Seifer #39 6 years ago

    It was a mistake putting Spartan in the game, it won't make the 'geeks' like DoA4 and it certainly won't make normal console gamers like Halo.

  • haze78 #40 6 years ago

    I bought this game from the US, i don't normally buy beat em ups (last one i played was SF2 on the snes or arcade) But i really like it, the backdrops look great in HD, and seeing as i do not usually play this kind of game i found it challenging at first. But you soon figure out it's all about countering.

  • reality_cheque #41 6 years ago

    "It was a mistake putting Spartan in the game, it won't make the 'geeks' like DoA4 and it certainly won't make normal console gamers like Halo"

    You almost make it sound like you don't think console gamers are geeks... I like the DOA series AND Halo, which group does that put me in? :p In fact I think (outside of EG) I am only aware of 3 people who don't like Halo - one of which I am sure is just because she is crap at it - and maybe a few hardcore-tekkenheads that can't get to grips with DOA because, you know, the characters can jump ;)

    Even if it doesn't get more people playing DOA, it's not like people are gonna boycott it are they. Team Ninja can throw as many bonus characters in as they want as far as I'm concerned :D Although I think Mr T as a bonus character as a result of some sort of spacetime wibblything effect might be stretching it a bit.

  • Genji #42 6 years ago

    *fapfapfapfapfap*

    Oh, it has a fighting system now? Well...

    /turns demonstration mode on

    *fapfapfapfapfap*

  • Seifer #43 6 years ago

    I don't know anyone in real life who likes Halo ....apart from uber-geeks , no offence.