Madden, Borderlands 2 Lead U.S. Sales for September

The NPD Group has revealed the top ten best-selling games in the United States for the month of September.

The best-selling titles for the period between August 26th and September 29th are:

1. Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV)
2. Borderlands 2 (360, PS3, PC)**
3. FIFA Soccer 13 (360, PS3, PSV, Wii, 3DS, PSP)
4. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
5. Guild Wars 2 (PC)**
6. NHL 13 (360, PS3)**
7. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC)**
8. NCAA Football 13 (360, PS3)
9. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSV, PC)
10. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

According to NPD analyst Liam Callahan, Madden sold 11% more units in its first month than Madden NFL 12, representing “the best month one performance at retail for a Madden title ever.” Borderlands 2, meanwhile, was up 234% over the launch of the original Borderlands in 2009.

“Although a stronger slate of content was released to market as compared to recent past months, weak comparisons to titles like Gears of War 3 and Dead Island from last September led to an overall decrease of 13% as compared to September 2011,” Callahan wrote. “When looking past the top-selling game for the month in each of the two comparison months, the remaining top 10 titles sold through 18% fewer units than they did last year. While year-over-year declines are present in video game software, we are seeing momentum leading up to the holidays when looking at August sales compared to September, which were up 67% on an average sales-per-week basis.”

Callahan notes that EA has five of the top 10 titles this month. Four come from EA Sports, continuing its massive string of success this month. Callahan adds that PC games are up 12% year-to-date through September thanks to strong launches like Guild Wars 2, Diablo III and Mists of Pandaria, softening the decline of sales this month. Overall, “video game sales alone were down 18%.”

Callahan notes that eight of the top 10 accessory items this month were character packs from Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure or digital point and subscription cards. “These types of accessories are helping offset the losses from accessories linked to hardware sales such as gamepads,” Callahan said.

On the hardware front, Callahan reports that hardware sales are up compared to last month for DS, 3DS, PlayStation 3, Vita and 360. Callahan suggests that this “points to momentum heading into the holiday season,” and that Wii U “has the potential to reinvigorate retail sales of hardware” when it launches next month.

Nintendo reports that 3DS software sales increased by 89% compared to the same month in 2011. New Super Mario Bros. 2 sold more than 295,000 units in September, and Mario Kart 7, Star Fox 64 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D “all saw sales increases compared to last month.” Nintendo also notes that Super Mario 64 DS has now sold more than five million units in the United States, making it the third DS game to pass the milestone (New Super Mario Bros. has sold 10.6 million and Mario Kart DS has sold 8.5 million).

According to Microsoft, 270,000 Xbox 360 systems were sold in September, giving the system a “49% share of current-generation console sales” in the United States and marking its “21st consecutive month as the top-selling current-generation console in the U.S.” Microsoft adds that more than $380 million was spent in September on Xbox 360 hardware, software and accessories.

This story will be updated once Sony provides IGN with a statement.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Madden, Borderlands Lead U.S. Sales for September

The NPD Group has revealed the top ten best-selling games in the United States for the month of September.

The best-selling titles for the period between August 26th and September 29th are:

Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV) Borderlands 2 (360, PS3, PC)** FIFA Soccer 13 (360, PS3, PSV, Wii, 3DS, PSP) New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) Guild Wars 2 (PC)** NHL 13 (360, PS3)** World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC)** NCAA Football 13 (360, PS3) Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSV, PC) Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

Developing story…

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sony Exec: “I Feel Great About What’s Coming”

The PlayStation brand is in an interesting period of flux right now. PlayStation Vita is failing to pick up significant momentum, but PlayStation 3 -- led by a new, hard drive-heavy model -- is slowly closing the worldwide sales gap with Xbox 360. And a slew of PlayStation-exclusive games, long the strength of the brand, are on the horizon even as Sony has significantly truncated its roster of first party studios in 2012, from 15 to 12.

I recently got the opportunity to speak with Sony’s John Koller about all of these topics and more, and SCEA’s Vice President of Hardware Marketing had plenty of interesting things to say.

On the precipice of 64 million PS3s sold worldwide, Koller admitted that the company is “very pleased with the PlayStation 3,” reiterating the company’s stance that Sony intends on staying “in the PS3 business” for “quite a long time.” Discussing fresh upcoming IP from the likes of Naughty Dog and Quantic Dream in the form of The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls, respectively, Koller declared that “the development spigot is very strong for the platform.”

Interestingly, Koller points at the fierce loyalty Sony has from its consumers as a reason why PlayStation 3 will continue to be successful. “When you look at the consumer for the PS3, it remains someone who’s a fairly heavily engaged gamer. There’s a lot of research showing that the PS3 consumer spends the most time of any consumer on the console. The PS3 consumer also spends a lot. They spend a lot of time and they spend a lot of money. It’s a consumer that’s very valuable. For us, we certainly regard them very highly.”

Koller also noted that while they pay attention to their primary competitor’s sales numbers in the form of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, it’s not something that dictates their decisions. “We certainly do look at [Xbox 360’s sales] numbers… From an internal standpoint, we’re very aware of what’s happening in the market and what’s happening with PS3. We pay attention. But we set out a strategy well in advance of month-to-month or week-to-week numbers that flow back in, either globally or even locally from retail accounts.”

With the new PlayStation 3 on the market, I inquired with Koller if he was afraid of some consumer confusion. After all, adding multiple new SKUs is one thing, but making them more expensive than what was already out is another thing entirely. “As far as customer confusion, we haven’t seen that. What we have done is try to educate based on not only the design of the new chassis, but also the size of the new hard drive. That’s becoming increasingly important. We see both new consumers coming to our platform as well as existing consumers that have purchased a second one. They’re starting to tap out the amount of digital space they have.”

Koller also refused to talk about PlayStation 3’s successor when asked if PS3 and the next PlayStation will live side by side on the market.

The conversation turned to the PlayStation Vita, to which I pressed Koller bluntly on its poor sales, and what seems to be an insistence from Sony that Vita is doing just fine contrary to evidence suggesting otherwise. “It’s selling on target, so everything that you’ve heard from our execs is true,” he said. “We certainly entered the next-gen version of the dedicated handheld market with eyes wide open. We knew that this is a very challenging market. There’s certainly competition from tablets and mobile and other things that provides a challenge to the entire dedicated handheld market, not just something that we would enter.”

“But we did then and we do now feel very confident and very bullish on the platform, for a variety of reasons. First is, again, going to what I mentioned on the console side, the content. The content coming to Vita, not only this holiday… [but] what we’re seeing over the next few years for Vita keeps that development spigot hot.”

One of the major strengths of PlayStation Vita, according to Koller, is how ubiquitous the user base is with that of PS3’s most hardcore players. “We haven’t gone into the numbers publicly,” Koller admitted, “but I can tell you that a significant majority, as in most, of the Vita consumers are also PS3 owners. When we look at that, those are people we know very well. That’s a PlayStation Nation consumer who tends to be a loyalist. They buy multiple platforms from us. So we know their purchase behavior. We know the games they like. We know what makes them tick.”

At this point, discussion of the PS3’s ecosystem crossing over with the Vita’s came up. I often argue that Vita and PS3 are crossing over too much, removing reasons for folks to pick one up if they already own a PS3. “We try to keep unique experiences on each,” Koller said, later noting that “we did certainly have issues during the PSP years when we had the exact same games on both console and handheld. That’s something that’s a difficult thing for us. It’s difficult for a gamer to wrap their head around. If they think, ‘the only difference is when I’m taking this game on the road,’ that’s not the difference in platforms.”

Koller brought up Assassin’s Creed III’s upcoming launch on PS3 side-by-side with a totally different game in the form of Liberation on the Vita as the desired future of content for both platforms. “That’s what we drive towards. When you look at games that are coming up, we try to offer unique experiences between the two platforms. Usually, we’re successful in that.”

The conversation turned to Sony’s vaunted cross-buy program, which gives consumers a free copy of the Vita iteration of a game when purchasing the PS3 version. The critically-acclaimed PSN game Sound Shapes is one such title that does it. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale will do it in November, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will do it in February. The question is, will all first-party games and other exclusives now do it automatically?

“It’s still game-by-game,” Koller answered. “We look at it as, ‘what are the games that have the best opportunity for this?’ Certainly, this holiday season there’s going to be a lot of Vitas sold. There’s going to be a lot of opportunity for that Vita consumer to say, ‘Do I want to continue buying more games for this device?’ For us, that’s critical. Getting them to continue to experience new experiences, new ways of playing like an All-Stars, is important. That’s why we offered that. We’ll look at it case-by-case. Certainly, it’s been met very positively. That was something that we wanted to see. We wanted to see if consumers were interested, and the answer has been screamed back at us: ‘yes we are.’”

Koller also confirmed that -- like PS2 and PS3 before it -- Sony intends on supporting the PlayStation Vita for a full 10 years. “We’re in year one, so we’ll be supporting it for some time. But yeah, it does have its own 10-year life cycle. All of our platforms do… it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We expect long-term success from all our platforms.”

Even though Koller is best-known for his perspective on hardware, I couldn’t help but ask him about Sony’s software, especially in terms of the truncation of Sony’s first party roster this year from 15 studios to 12. Sony only shut down a single studio from 1994 to 2011, but three in 2012. But why? And will it affect the future of Sony exclusives?

“What we’ve tried to do is focus all of our assets and resources on that objective of putting out the best content to help move platforms,” Koller said. “Any move we make… it’s done with that in mind. It’s a focus question, and that’s what gets me most excited on the platform side. I know that we’ve got the biggest and best internal game studios in the industry. I feel great about what’s coming.”

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Tom Hardy May Climb Everest

The Dark Knight Rises' Tom Hardy is in early talks to star in director Doug Liman's period adventure film Everest for Sony Pictures.

Deadline reports that the actor would play George Mallory, the 1920s climber who tried three times to scale the world's highest mountain. After disappearing on his third attempt, it is still unknown whether or not Mallory ever reached the top.

The film was adapted by Up in the Air scribe Sheldon Turner from Jeffrey Archer's book Paths of Glory.

Liman will direct Everest once he's completed shooting Tom Cruise's All You Need is Kill for Warner Bros.

Source : ign[dot]com

Peter Panzerfaust Heads Deeper into World War II

The epic Image Comics series that blends the Peter Pan story with the time period of World War II just hit its next stage of evolution last week with issue #6, so we caught up with writer Kurtis Wiebe to take us on a journey through what's to come for Peter and the Lost Boys.

Check out our review for Peter Panzerfaust #6!

IGN Comics: Peter Panzerfaust presents much more mature, weighty issues than the Disney fairy tale versions of Peter Pan, and, in issue #6, the story adopts a more serious, thoughtful tone compared to even the series' first arc. What made you think to use these characters to tell this particular story, and who is the target audience for the series?

Kurtis Wiebe: Peter Pan has always been the story of holding onto our innocence and youth. Those themes are fascinating because we all have gone through that transition in our lives and we easily relate to them. Take that idea and put it in a context where many children were forced to grow up early, not because of their own choices, but by circumstances put upon them. That’s what happens in war and I think the theme of Peter Pan collides perfectly with the loss of innocence in a real world conflict.

Peter Panzerfaust originally, to me, was a series aimed at young adults, early to late teens. I’ve had so many messages from fans, or been approached by some at conventions, who tell me their 5 year old son loves it, or that they bought the series for their middle aged parents who adore it. It’s a universal story that everyone has grown up with and I think that makes it appropriate for all ages. This upcoming arc might take things down a darker path but there will never be gratuitous language, gore or violence and I think that helps keep it safe for all age groups.

IGN: You mention on your website that you have a general notion that Peter Panzerfaust will run 25 issues. Seeing as the first arc ran 5 issues, did you conceive of the plot as a 5 act drama? Do you find that you feel more comfortable writing series of a definite length or are you also passionate about writing open-ended series as well?

Wiebe: There’s definite structure to this series, and 25 issues is a very precise number and it’s tied into the interviews. Each arc will be narrated by a different member of Peter’s group, so with 5 issues per arc that means 5 of the people who experienced adventures with Peter will get to share their story. Knowing who those characters are and what they bring to the history of the story is very important and there’s a plot happening with those interviews as well. In this case, I’m comfortable with the plan because I know exactly what the narrative beats are and I’m building to a major resolution at an exact point in time.

With long form stories where there’s not a certain ending point, sometimes you can get bogged down with filler or meandering plots. I want this experience to be very concise for readers because that is exactly what I have planned.

IGN: The cover for Peter Panzerfaust #10 sports Wendy and the recently introduced Tiger Lily sporting some hardware. What is your vision for these two women and their roles in the maturation of Peter and his Lost Boys?

Wiebe: They are very important to the overall story and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to finally bring these women into the adventure in a more meaningful way. Tiger Lily has honestly been my favorite character to write in the series so far. She’s taken on such a powerful voice and any scene she’s in she absolutely dominates. It’s rather unexpected, truthfully. I was always a bit worried when I planned ahead in the series that she’d be difficult to distinguish from the huge cast of characters.

Wendy is also going to start to take a more central role later on in this arc and future arcs. She’s been a minor character so far but, rest assured, she’s a major player by the end.

IGN: Hook will be taking center stage soon as well, but I'm sure fans are wondering whether they'll be seeing Tinkerbell any time soon. Any hints?

Wiebe: Tinkerbell has made an appearance. Of sorts. If you go back and read the first volume, Peter talks about our version of her a few times. It’s a more metaphorical interpretation of Tinkerbell and what a mythological creature means in the real world.

IGN: You've previously implied that Peter shows his "magic" by having a knack for escaping tight situations, popping up atop exceptionally high structures, etc., but just how far do you plan to explore the uncanny aspect of the Peter Pan lore in your series?

Wiebe: It’s just beginning. Peter’s "power," for lack of better term, will start to be explained as this arc continues. It’s tied into how Julien is a much more grounded man than Gilbert and his memories, therefore, are a lot more reliable as to the reality of the events.

That’s not to say Peter isn’t extraordinary, he definitely is, probably in a way readers aren’t expecting, though.

IGN:  You recently won the Shuster Award for Outstanding Comic Book Writer, primarily for your work on Green Wake. Can you tell us a little about your motivations for writing Green Wake and what it means to be recognized for a work that was so personal in nature?

Wiebe: Green Wake was a concept I came up with while I was going through the early stages of a divorce. In that time I was reflecting a lot; on myself, on the nature of relationships, on the concept of guilt and shame. It was probably the most difficult comic I’ve ever written, and I still have trouble reading the last 10 pages of the first volume. It’s too real to me and the sequence where Morley sees everything that was, is and what could’ve been... yeah. Very difficult.

So, when I won the award for that series it made me realize that this series, despite its early end from lack of sales, had profoundly affected those that read it. It mattered to them. That’s a huge victory to me and made it very worthwhile to struggle through the writing process which was, really, a grieving period in my life.

IGN: Anyone who has ever tried to produce a comic book knows that artistic talent is a limited commodity yet you consistently collaborate with artists who are among the hottest new talent on the market. What is the secret to forging successful collaborations?

Wiebe: It’s funny, but a lot of people don’t realize that most of the artists I work with are friends. I’ve just been lucky to become involved with a group of people that are all interconnected in some way, mostly through ACAD in Calgary, Canada which is an art college. Tyler Jenkins, Riley Rossmo and Scott Kowalchuk all attended that school so I met them all roughly around the same time. I think I just had to prove to them that I was willing to bust my ass to make comics and get them in front of editors.

As for the secret? I’ll give a tip for finding artists, how to secure them totally depends on what they are looking for. A good way to find artists is to go to conventions and scout the artist alley. Many of those artists are looking for something cool to work on and if you can be enthusiastic and promise an equal investment of time and energy in a project as they would have to commit, you’ll do yourself a service.

IGN: You've got a few titles coming out right now, including the romantic comic, Grim Leaper, and the post-apocalyptic adventure story, Debris. Which one of your comic book efforts are you currently most excited about, and which one do you wish more people knew about?

Wiebe: Tough question. I think Grim Leaper really slipped under the comic community radar but the feedback and reviews have been really strong. That series is also based on life experience; it’s inspired by my dating life after my marriage ended and I was heading back into that terrifying world at age 31. If you’ve ever had to navigate the dating world at that age, or, even any age, Grim Leaper will be painfully hilarious.

And, of course, Peter Panzerfaust. I can’t lie. Our sales have fallen since the first arc and I’m trying to get the word out about this series because our fan base is so in love with the series. We need to maintain, or even better, increase our sales to ensure we get our 25 issues. I don’t want to break hearts like I had to with Green Wake. So, readers out there, if you love this series, please, spread the word.

IGN: What comics do you buy for yourself, and which creators do you see dominating sales in 5 years?

Wiebe: I quite honestly buy mostly Image titles, and outside of Image it’s always creator owned. I’m reading Saga, Mind MGMT, Punk Rock Jesus, Mind the Gap and Harvest. Those are just a few off the top of my head, there’s more of course. I think we’re already seeing Justin Jordan exploding, he’ll be a top writer in the next few years. Which is great because he’s an awesome guy. Riley Rossmo is finally going to get the eyes on his work he’s always deserved with Nick Spencer’s Bedlam. I’ve seen the pages, and they are his best work yet (yes, even better than Debris). Joe Keatinge is also bursting onto the scene, writing a stack of Image titles and getting work at Marvel in a very short time so I bet we’ll be seeing him a lot more as the years go by.

IGN:  In a world of Kickstarter, Image, and work-for-hire, what would your recommendations to aspiring creators be?

Wiebe: Creator owned. All the way. Own your worlds, your characters and your stories. Yeah, the money isn’t always great, and, let’s be honest, it can be downright terrible, but at the end of the day you are in full control of your story and nothing is worth more than that. We are hearing more all the time about dissatisfied creators walking away from the big two. There’s a reason for that, and it comes down to being able to tell a story without a thousand restrictions.

I love creative freedom.

Poet is a freelance writer, mid-core gamer, and frequent IGN contributor. Follow Poet on Twitter, or post a message on his IGN profile.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dust 514 Beta Headed to PlayStation Plus

CCP has announced a new beta period for Dust 514 exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers. Access will run two weeks, beginning on August 24th and ending on September 4th. While no new beta codes will be sent out during that period, people with All-Access Passes will still have access to the beta.

PlayStation Plus members will also receive a 50% discount on Dust’s Mercenary Pack, which is normally $19.99. The pack offers 4,000 Aurum, a 30-day active skill booster, and exclusive in-game items including a Dragonfly Scout dropsuit and Toxin ICD-9 submachine gun.

August 21st will also mark the launch of Dust’s Precursor update, which CCP detailed last week. In addition to live Dust 514 and EVE Online integration Precursor will also add Orbital Strikes, instant battle matchmaking, new environments, keyboard and mouse support and more.

Dust 514 will enter open beta later this year. For more about the game, read why it’s the deepest first-person shooter we’ve ever played.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

FX Orders New Cold War-Era Spy Drama

FX announced today that they've ordered up 13 episodes of The Americans - a period drama about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington DC shortly after Ronald Reagan is elected President.

The Americans was created by Joe Weisberg and stars Keri Russell (Felicity), Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) and Noah Emmerich (Super 8). The series will revolve around the arranged marriage of Phillip (Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Russell), who have two children who know nothing about their parents true identity. As the marriage grows more passionate and genuine by the day, it is still constantly tested by the escalation of the Cold War and the intimate, dangerous and darkly funny relationships they must maintain with a network of spies and informants under their control. Complicating their relationship further is Phillip’s growing sense of affinity for America’s values and way of life. Tensions also heighten upon the arrival of a new neighbor, Stan (Emmerich), an FBI agent working in counter intelligence.

Keri Russell in FOX's Running Wilde.

“We’re proud to welcome The Americans, a taught series that crackles with incredible performances rooted in character perspectives never explored on a U.S. television series, to FX’s line up of quality dramas,” said John Landgraf, President and General Manager, FX Networks. “We’re equally excited to welcome Graham Yost’s talented young Padawan Joe Weisberg as Creator/Showrunner. He joins a long line of gifted writer/producers who have taken their first shot at greatness on FX.”

Weisberg is Executive Producer/Showrunner, alongside Executive Producer Graham Yost (Justified). The series begins production in October and is scheduled to premiere in early 2013.

Source : ign[dot]com

Vegas: A New Kind of CBS Crime Series

The new CBS series Vegas is a change of pace for the network – a period piece, set in the 1960s, with more of an overreaching plotline than most of their procedural dramas.

Dennis Quaid stars as Sheriff Ralph Lamb, a real life person who Vegas co-creator Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas, Casino) originally had written a feature film script about, after executive producer Arthur Sarkissian met Lamb and agreed his story was incredibly compelling. Speaking at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour this week, Executive producer Cathy Konrad said she felt that as a feature, they were trying to cram so much of this man’s life into two and a half hours and she suggested it might be better as a TV Series instead.

Vegas centers on the ongoing struggle between Lamb and mobster Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis). Discussing their dynamic, Walker said, “Lamb is trying to preserve what he believes the values of the Old West are in this area while not being against progress, per se, and Vincent Savino is trying to change the culture of Vegas as well - not necessarily as a mobster, but also as a man who has a quest for legitimacy. They find themselves on the same side of the law – not often, but often enough because there are worse people out there that are coming into vogue. So in order to kind of preserve this delicate balance, both of them move. It's a shifting target. So they are not always against each other. We certainly don't want Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner every week. We found enough tension so far to keep them going after each other.”

While certainly back into darker terrain, following No Ordinary Family, Chiklis said he felt Savino was very different from his memorable role as Vic Mackey on The Shield. “I just think that the potential of this character is fascinating and exciting to me.”

As for what drew Quaid to his first ongoing TV series, the movie star said, “I came in because a lot of exciting things are happening on television now, I think. A lot of the best writers have come to television. I think they feel like they have more control, and the storylines get continued. And when I was offered this, it was really about the team more than anything else, and the story really interested me. But, you know, Nick Pileggi and Greg and Jim Mangold and everybody that was in it, it just seemed really authentic and a chance to really play a character and let him unfold over a long period of time.”

Quaid noted that Lamb, “had quite a life, you know, and that was certainly part of the attraction, to be the sheriff of Las Vegas for 20 years, and especially this period of time because this is really when Vegas became Vegas as we know it today. And Ralph had a lot to do with shaping that, and he was also part of the landscape before all of this happened. He’s a fourth generation rancher, I think, going back to the Indian wars. And so I think we all have kind of a fascination with Las Vegas, and I thought the idea of playing this era would be a lot of fun.”

Quaid added, “Ralph also represents the people who really lived in the area of Las Vegas and had been around for generations. And to have these outside forces coming in vis a vis the mob -- really kind of coming in, in their minds, to take over in their town is sort of an invasion. Ralph and the locals really want to keep as much control as they can over their own town.”

Walker admitted it was always a challenge using real people on a TV show, mixed in with fictional characters. “That’s always the challenge. As my partner Cathy says, we don't want to let the truth get in the way of a good story, but the amazing thing about Vegas in 1960 in these men's stories is that the truth is the best story. Nick Pileggi showed that in the way that he portrayed Casino - that these stories are vibrant. These are larger than life characters who pop off the screen. So as a writer, it's a gift. It's literally the chest you keep on opening and find the glittering coins because there's so much value and depth and meat in those stories, we just try to use as much as we can.”

Vegas -- which also stars Jason O'Mara, Carrie-Anne Moss and Sarah Jones -- will mix weekly investigations for Lamb with an overreaching story. When it came to CBS tackling this series, Konrad said, “I think that the interest was to paint a broader palette, to make a bigger world, and I think that the networks were seeing the savvy [audience] and how cable has been playing in that arena. And I think that this fit in a really nice basket for them, and it's been energizing for everybody to be able to have that freedom as filmmakers to make something, to not be put in the procedural bucket and have to live there, to know that you can get that story across but to have continuing stories for our cast that can grow I think that's the reason why we have this amazing cast, because they see that potential as well.”

Vegas premieres Tuesday, September 25th on CBS.

Source : ign[dot]com