Yes, that's an R2-D2-themed Xbox 360 and accompanying gold C-3PO controller, which are both part of a new Star Wars Kinect bundle that Microsoft officially announced at Comic-Con today. Also included in the bundle is a matching white Kinect sensor, as well as a 320GB hard drive, and both the Star Wars Kinect and Kinect Adventures games -- all for $449. Did we mention it also has some custom console sounds? Look for it to land in the fall, with pre-orders starting today. Check out the gallery below for a closer look.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/21/m...star-wars-kin/ ...

The 3DS is back on top of Japan's hardware chart, with sales of the handheld more than doubling over last week.

As detailed on NeoGAF, Nintendo's portable sold 46,637 units, up from 22,943 to take the number one spot. The PSP dropped to second with 26,565 sales, a negligible increase from 26,407 last week.

The 3DS's increase can largely be attributed to the release of a new colour – Fire Red, though the launch of Star Fox 64 3D will no doubt have helped out too.

Here's the full hardware top 10:

3DS: 46,637 (Last week: 22,943)
PSP: 26,565 (26,407)
PlayStation 3: 23,322 (22,900)
Wii: 14,237 (13,068)
DS: 9208 (9592)
Xbox 360: 1734 (2016)
PlayStation 2: 1405 (1309)
Konami baseball effort Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2011 topped the software chart, selling 117,759 on PlayStation 3.

New entries included a new Taiko no Tatsujin title at two, footie RPG Inazuma Eleven Strikers at three and Star Fox 64 3D down at six.

Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2011 (PS3, Konami): 117,759 (NEW)
Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX (PSP, Bandai Namco): 80.215 (NEW)
Inazuma Eleven Strikers (Wii, Level 5): 74,227 (NEW)
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2011 (PSP, Konami): 73,247 (NEW)
Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary (DS, Sega): 34,903 (NEW)
Star Fox 64 3D (3DS, Nintendo): 32,475 (NEW)
UnchainBlades ReXX (PSP, FuRyu):18,256 (NEW)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS, Nintendo): 15.636 (Life to date: 256,374)
Wii Sports Resort with Remote Plus (Wii, Nintendo): 14,725 (402,799)
Danball Senki (PSP, Level 5): 12,085 (256.875)
Pokemon Black / White (DS, Nintendo): 10,951 (5,238,287)
Wii Play: Motion (Wii, Nintendo): 10,522 (27,531)
L.A. Noire (PS3, Rockstar): 10,036 (68,473)
Steins;Gate (PSP, Kadokawa Shoten): 9928 (109,016)
GoldenEye 007 (Wii, Nintendo): 9473 (58,863)
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (PS3, Capcom): 9336 (74,772)
inFamous 2 (PS3, SCE): 8324 (41,798)
To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers (PSP, Aquaplus): 8082 (54,799)
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (PS3, D3 Publisher): 7864 (38,053)
UnchainBlades ReXX (3DS, FuRyu): 5592 (NEW)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...s-sales-double ...

Rumours abound that Microsoft may be preparing to unveil the next Xbox at E3 2012, but according to Kinect Sports developer Rare, the next-gen is already here.

Speaking at the Develop conference in Brighton this evening, Rare chief Scott Henson dismissed next-gen questions, pointing towards Microsoft's ability to improve gaming experiences through software.

"One of my favourite things is, Scott, tell me when next-gen is. Tell me when that's going to happen. This has been the last ten years of my life. When's next-gen? When's next-gen? When's the new Xbox Live? When's the new Xbox?" he said.

"The power of software, the power of services, and the power of platforms is that it's always now. We continue to build on them, continue to innovate, continue to push, and we continue to build magic."

In a Eurogamer investigation into the new Xbox and the PlayStation 4, published this morning, Crysis 2 developer Crytek UK and Gears of War 3 maker Epic Games said current DirectX 11-fuelled visuals provide a good indication of what will be possible on the next round of home consoles.

Avatar-quality graphics are a realistic possibility, we were told.

Going one step beyond that, Henson said motion-sensing add-on Kinect puts gamers one step closer to simulating the Star Trek-style holodeck in their living rooms.

"I'm not going to give you the exact date you're going to have a holodeck in your room, but think about that for just a second," he said.

"Think about the movies we all grew up on and the things that inspired us in lots of different ways to create the kind of entertainment to do. We're down that path. We're absolutely down that path right now."

But before you set your phasers to stun and ask Scottie to beam you up, know this: Henson reckons it'll be a long while before the holodeck becomes a reality.

"You see advancements in televisions," he said. "When we stood up and we said it's the HD era in 2005 and HD is now – I remember because I wrote the speech and I was at GDC in 2005 and we gave away TVs, it was awesome. And here we are in 2011 and HD TVs are pretty pervasive, but they're still in only about half the homes around the world. It's not everywhere yet.

"When will the holodeck happen? It's going to be a journey. I don't think there's going to be a date."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-is-always-now ...

When Gears of War 3 lands in September you'll be able to pick yourself up a special edition Xbox 360. If you've already got an Xbox though, you don't have to skip out on the branded accessories game completely. Mad Catz has you covered with a trio licensed goodies, including a throat communicator, a stereo gaming headset and a 7.1 surround sound headset all decked out in the iconic blood-red and black of the franchise. The special edition of the surround sound set (above) is actually just a slightly updated version of the company's Tritton AX720 headgear with a new decoder box and an extra two channels of sound. Those who want to shout at their opponents without donning bulky ear-wear will likely gravitate towards the throat communicator. All three will launch alongside GOW3 on September 20 for $30, $100, and $180 respectively. You can pre-order now at the more coverage link but, before you go, there's a pair of pics and some PR after the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/20/m...audio-gear-ge/ ...

Newly released today:



This first-person shooter brings the lawlessness of the Old West into present day. You'll embark on a bloody road trip from Los Angeles to Juarez, Mexico immersing yourself in a gritty plot with interesting characters and a wide variety of game play options. Take justice into your own hands in this modern Western shooter.

http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-48gn.html ...

Xbox Live Arcade offers many developers a great opportunity, spotlighting their games in front of a large audience every Wednesday. As a result, there's obviously plenty of competition to get games on the service. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Xbox Live Arcade first-party director of publishing Ted Woolsey offered some advice for would be Xbox Live Arcade developers.

Woolsey's key advice is for developers to present something different from other offerings on the service. Getting the pitch right is important as well, with Woolsey noting that developers should "get all the great ideas you have out and make sure that they're understandable." In addition to coming up with new concepts, Woolsey also stated that Microsoft is "looking at different business models" and is "aware of what's going on out in the greater games community." Perhaps the Xbox Live free-to-play rumors are coming true after all.

Woolsey also offered other details about XBLA, notably that there are typically around 50 XBLA games in development, with about 30 being published in a given year. With so many titles, Microsoft is keen to expand on promotions like Summer of Arcade in order to offer more exposure to various games. Furthermore, Woolsey added that the upcoming 360 dashboard update should make browsing for games a less confusing process.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/19/mi...o-get-on-xbla/ ...

It was only a year ago that top-level industry execs were questioning the very viability and future of the console hardware cycle. Now, the move to a new breed of machines is near, it is being claimed.

And these claims come from the very top of leading publisher Ubisoft.

“The new transition is going to happen,” CEO Yves Guillemot told Gamasutra. “We're going to have new machines coming soon.”

Talk of successors to both the PS3 and Xbox 360 has accelerated somewhat in the last six months.

Rumours of a dev kit for the next Xbox emerged last month, and despite denials from all involved many remain doggedly insistent that early Xbox 720 IS in the hands of developers.

In addition, Sony has confessed that PS4 development is under way, though has stressed that there’s plenty of life left in PS3 at the moment.

As for when these new devices will emerge, that remains a guessing game with some saying as early as next year and others pinning 2014 as the likely launch date.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/guill...ng-soon/082349 ...

A top-of-the-range £249.99 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 headset will accompany the game’s release in November.

It’s one of four limited edition Turtle Beach headsets which will be distributed by Lygo to UK retail. The accessories have been designed by the Modern Warfare 3 audio teams at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, and will be available for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

The £89.99 Ear Force Foxtrot has ‘high-fidelity amplified audio’, while the £129.99 Ear Force Charlie uses eight ‘acoustically-angled’ speakers for surround sound.

Going further up the range, the Ear Force Bravo (£169.99) features custom presets and the Ear Force Delta (£249.99) comes with a special case and voice prompts. The latter also boasts Wireless Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound and Bluetooth chat.

“Turtle Beach redefined gamers expectations when they released the PX5 and XP500 Headsets earlier this year,” said Lygo’s media manager Craig Morrow.
“The release of this new line of headsets shows its intention for future product. Having the games developer themselves creating sound presets means gamers will finally get the full gaming experience as it was intended.”

Activision’s Modern Warfare 3 and the headsets will hit shelves on November 8th. The game will go up against big EA rival Battlefield 3 which is due out on October 28th.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/lygo-...headset/082353 ...

Microsoft has reasserted that developers are not being forced to incorporate Kinect functionality into their Xbox 360 games and that Kinect functionality will not be forced on core gamers.

"I don’t think we’re trying to put any input paradigm, enforce that on anyone, unless it’s better,” Xbox CFO Dennis Durkin told IndustryGamers. “We’re not trying to force anything.

“If people want to do it and they think it enhances the experience, I think consumers will embrace it and they’ll do it, but that’s the bar that they’ll expect. And there will be a bunch of experimentation, some of it will work and some of it won’t. The things that work, people will emulate and they’ll chase and the things that don’t, people will try other experiments.”

"I think one part of Kinect is making sure that Kinect is relevant for whatever audience you have. We certainly have a core audience. We want to make sure that Kinect experiences are great for them. But the key word in that is experiences. And it’s got to be experience driven.

“So we’re not dogmatic about, 'Hey, no controller. It's go to be 100 per cent no controller’. What you’re seeing is a lot of experimentation across that spectrum of, 'Hey, here’s a totally controller based experience that’s been a controller based experience for 10 years, so people are very, very ingrained in how they interact in that experience’, to, 'Here’s the other end of the spectrum, which is a totally Kinect-based experience. You don’t need a controller’.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ms-no...-gamers/082340 ...