Microsoft has unveiled the launch line-up of games for Windows Phone 7, including first party titles such as Halo and Crackdown - as well as major third party franchises including Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, Castlevania and Guitar Hero.

First announced in February of this year, the Xbox Live service on Windows Phone 7 will include many of the most popular features of the home console service, including support for Achievements, Avatars, demos, leaderboards, and turn-based multi-player.

Revealed for the first time this week are new companion titles for titles such as Halo: Waypoint (not a videogame, but a "media hub") and Crackdown 2. Microsoft Game Studios has also announced a number of other titles, including a line of board and card games and original titles ilomilo and The Harvest.

The first wave of games also includes support from prominent third party publishers including Gameloft (Assassin's Creed), Konami (Castlevania), Namco Bandai (Puzzle Quest 2), PopCap (Bejeweled LIVE) and THQ (de Blob).

"Windows Phone 7 is the launch of a major gaming platform for Microsoft," said Matt Booty, general manager of mobile gaming for Microsoft Game Studios (MGS).

"Just like we've done with Xbox 360, our charter is to push the envelope and deliver definitive games that maximise the platform. We will have an incredible line-up of MGS titles, and that's just the beginning."

The full list of "first wave" titles is as follows:

3D Brick Breaker Revolution (Digital Chocolate)
Age of Zombies (Halfbrick)
Armor Valley (Protégé Games)
Asphalt 5 (Gameloft)
Assassin's Creed (Gameloft)
Bejeweled LIVE (PopCap)
Bloons TD (Digital Goldfish)
Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
Bubble Town 2 (i-Play)
Butterfly (Press Start Studio)
CarneyVale Showtime (MGS)
Castlevania (Konami)
Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst (MGS)
de Blob Revolution (THQ)
Deal or No Deal 2010 (i-Play)
Earthworm Jim (Gameloft)
Fast & Furious 7 (i-Play)
Fight Game Rivals (Rough Cookie)
Finger Physics (Mobliss Inc.)
Flight Control (Namco Bandai)
Flowerz (Carbonated Games)
Frogger (Konami)
Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick)
Game Chest-Board (MGS)
Game Chest-Card (MGS)
Game Chest-Logic (MGS)
Game Chest-Solitaire (MGS)
GeoDefense (Critical Thought)
Ghostscape (Psionic)
Glow Artisan (Powerhead Games)
Glyder 2 (Glu Mobile)
Guitar Hero 5 (Glu Mobile)
Halo Waypoint (MGS)
Hexic Rush (Carbonated Games)
Dig It (InMotion)
iBlast Moki (Godzilab)
ilomilo (MGS)
Implode XL (IUGO)
Iquarium (Infinite Dreams)
Jet Car Stunts (True Axis)
Let's Golf 2 (Gameloft)
Little Wheel (One click dog)
Loondon (Flip N Tale)
Max and the Magic Marker (PressPlay)
Mini Squadron (Supermono Limited)
More Brain Exercise (Namco Bandai)
O.M.G. (Arkedo)
Puzzle Quest 2 (Namco Bandai)
Real Soccer 2 (Gameloft)
The Revenants (Chaotic Moon)
Rise of Glory (Revo Solutions)
Rocket Riot (Codeglue)
Splinter Cell: Conviction (Gameloft)
Star Wars: Battle for Hoth (THQ)
Star Wars: Cantina (THQ)
The Harvest (MGS)
The Oregon Trail (Gameloft)
Tower Bloxx NY (Digital Chocolate)
Twin Blades (Press Start Studio)
UNO (Gameloft)
Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet (i-Play)
Zombie Attack! (IUGO)
Zombies!!!! (Babaroga)

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...hone-7-line-up ...

After a brief period of confusion, where conflicting dates were communicated in the same press release, Microsoft this morning confirmed the European launch date for Kinect - and UK boss Neil Thompson has told GamesIndustry.biz he expects the device to "sell out" before Christmas.

The unit releases on November 10, a day after Activision's hugely anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Thompson was bullish on its prospects, despite concerns over its price point, insisting: "It's highly possible we will run out of product in the period through Christmas".

He added that exact shipment numbers were still unclear, with Microsoft yet to make "any decisions on country splits yet - we have to do that in the next few weeks."

However, he insisted the company would be "bringing great quantities of product in and replenishing the product on a very frequent basis. On all of the supply plans I've seen so far, I'm confident people who want to play Kinect will have every opportunity".

Kinect's price point, confirmed as £130 for a standalone unit in the UK, has been the subject of intense debate, but Thompson rubbished suggestions it was too expensive and claimed Microsoft had "priced it as aggressively as we can given the extensive costs of development to bring the technology to market."

He reiterated the company's position that it represented "very good value" as a "multiiplayer environment" versus rivals like Sony's Move (which requires additional purchases for more than one player), but conceded that since Kinect is an "integrated technology solution", this was not an option.

Despite analyst predictions of a Kinect price cut early next year, Thompson poured cold water on the idea. "I haven't even launched the product yet so I'm not even thinking about price cuts - it's not entered my consciousness," he said.

"We've set the price point we believe is great value to our partners and consumers ultimately, so everyone in that chain gets great value. We have no anticipation of making any move on price."

Ultimately, consumer activity will shape Microsoft's plans in this area. It's unlikely the company anticipated slicing £100 from the RRP of the original Xbox just two months after launch to stimulate sluggish sales.

But with UK retail reporting strong pre-order interest, Microsoft's confidence of a strong launch may not be misplaced.

"You've got to go with what you believe in and we fundamentally believe we're bring a whole new experience to the world of gaming," he said.

Meanwhile, Thompson said that, aside from Kinect Adventures (which comes bundled with the hardware, he expected new Harmonix IP Dance Central to be the best-selling Kinect title this Christmas.

"At this point my personal view based on the feedback I've seen, Dance Central seems to be pretty hot; Kinect Sports is pretty hot; and for kids, Kinectimals is incredibly engaging - in that order".

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-neil-thompson ...

The PlayStation 3 has now sold 38 million units globally since its launch in 2006/7, with 16 million of those coming in Europe.

Those were the latest numbers revealed by Sony at this year's Gamescom press conference, with SCEE president Andrew House claiming last year's release of the PS3 Slim was the moment the console "sprang to life".

Meanwhile he added that software sales were up 38 per cent, with Metacritic scores averaging at 80 per cent, compared to 77 per cent for the Xbox 360.

New SKUs of the console were priced at $400 / €350 / £285 for a 320GB edition with PlayStation Move, while the 160GB edition will cost $300 / €300 / £250 and replace the existing SKU over time - with both being available from September 15.

The launch of an online classic film service, MUBI, was also announced and will be available from October, while House also revealed that the PlayStation Network now has a 70 per cent connection rate.

Rounding off the hardware section of the conference, House noted PlayStation Portable sales at 9.9 million for the past year, while PlayStation 2 sales now top 146 million globally, with a further 6 million projected for this year.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...obally-article ...

Mobile developer Aurora Feint have announced a new viral game distribution system for its social game network OpenFeint, which will eventually allow players to send SMS and email game invites across both iPhone and Android formats.

Aurora Feint announced support for Android last month, although OpenFeint 2.6 launched today only on iOS. A specific launch date for Android and cross-platform support has not been announced, although it is expected later this year.

OpenFeint claims to be the largest mobile social gaming community on iOS devices, with over 35 million registered users and a presence in over 2600 games.

"With Game Center just around the corner and thousands more games coming on the market every year, effective and unique promotion is more important than ever," said Jason Citron, CEO of Aurora Feint.

"By creating this out-of-network invite system, we'll help players give more organic game endorsements shedding light on the best games out there and resulting in more game downloads," he added.

Other new features in OpenFeint 2.6 include a new time-based leaderboard with geo-location services. Safeguards are also promised to prevent spamming. The update comes as a result of a second round of funding from Chinese investor, online publisher The9.

"One glaring problem with today's mobile gaming community is how fractured it is across platforms, OpenFeint is bridging the gap between gamers," said Peter Relan, executive chairman of Aurora Feint.

"As we expand cross platform this summer, we're going to roll out services that will help friends that use different device platforms play against each other," he added.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-android-games ...

Sony's next-generation PlayStation Portable features touch-sensitive controls and Flash storage, according a number of high-profile development sources.

Speaking to our sister site Eurogamer.net, three separate sources have said that the hardware will be similar in design to the PSP-3000, not the most recently released PSPgo, and feature a touch sensitive control area at the reverse of the unit.

Sony has very recently met with publishing partners to show first-party games on the device and presented a business model for the new system, with some suggestions that the hardware will be released before the end of 2011.

Sony has not discussed the hardware publicly. In its press event during Gamescom this week, the emphasis on the current PSP hardware was that it is skewing towards a younger audience.

According to the report, Sony had considered a disc-based storage system for the new PSP, but is now incorporating Flash media support following developer feedback.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-to-publishers ...

Sony has insisted that there is still life in the PlayStation Portable, and it’s a viable platform for games, as the handheld becomes increasingly targeted at a younger gaming audience.

This morning details leaked of new PSP hardware that Sony is currently pitching to the development community, featuring a touch-sensitive pad at the back of the system.

"We don't have anything to announce and nor are we giving anything away if we say we’re always looking at the future as well,“ said Denny when asked if Sony was working on new hardware in the PSP family.

"For now, we’re still concentrating on the PSP as a very attractive proposition."

"It's natural that in the lifecycle of a platform as the cost comes down they do skew younger and we’re having a lot of success with the more child-friendly products on the PSP and it’s certainly a great proposition to buy in on, and the PSP has life left in it yet."

Ubisoft's Alain Corre also agreed there is still a business opportunity on the platform, even as companies like LucasArts have canned work due for the machine.

"We have been happy with our last releases on PSP," he told GamesIndustry.biz.

"Assassin’s Creed did very well, Avatar did very well, Prince of Persia is doing good.

"It's true that the volumes of sales are not huge but still we are making a living on that. We also re-released our key games and franchises on the Essentials range, and that’s doing good. All in all we are making some good business on the PSP."

The PSP has shifted through four different models since it was released, including the poorly-received download-only PSPgo console, and sales have continued to decline over recent months.

But Denny pointed to the hardware as an ideal budget gaming system, that can still offer something for the hardcore: "It was our first attempt at a handheld and with 60 million units-plus, I think it’s been a great success for us."

"With the Invizimals sequel, the new EyePet with augmented reality, new Patapon and also a new God of War, when you marry that with the Essentials collection you’ve got 20 triple-A games there and another 20 that were just announced - people that are buying in to PSP now it’s a great value proposition."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...life-in-it-yet ...

Reports have emerged that a company has produced a USB-based full hacking solution for the PlayStation 3, and that is has back-up software now running on the Sony platform, according to Eurogamer's Digital Foundry.

If true, this would seem to suggest that it would be possible in theory for users of any PlayStation 3 retail hardware to run any kind of game code - even when running the latest firmware updates.

While such claims have been made before - and this one may end up as the latest in a long line - a video posted on a website appears to verify the reports.

If true, this will be a blow for Sony, especially as potential pirates won't require a Blu-ray burner to acquire copied games, as the hack works by streaming game data either from the internal hard drive or alternatively via USB flash drives or hard disks.

Sony representatives were unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-now-a-reality ...

News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?module=news&...6&view_reply=1

Full-bodied leap revision to one of the most famous emulators PSP PC . The coder Shadow and his development team carry out the project for some time totally amateur developed in Java that takes its name JPCSP . The 1734 revision introduced further improvements that integrate those already present in large number in the most recent versions .
Further details in the changelog below.

Changelog :

Quote:

Rev1729
Reverted TxtAppender settings in log deleted in r1728

Rev1730
Avoid NullPointerException When calling Memory.memmove with an invalid memory address

Rev1731
Remove the * functions inflate from the NID ignored list. They're from a VSH module and Some They can conflict with user module functions as seen on Metal Gear Ac ! d.
TODO : Update the loader to check the lib name too , not just the NID to Avoid Such Conflicts .

Rev1732
Improved export functions ' handling.
Improved sceUtility to utilities and related types with new findings.
Implemented sceUtilityMsgDialogAbort .
Improved draft for sceFontFlush .
Fixed a bug in sceKernelCreateMutex .
Added error codes to newly Discovered SceKernelErrors .
Improved Functioning scePsmfPlayer with new findings.
Added Kernel_Library drafts for new functions.
Implemented sceWlan module.

Rev1733
Restored changes from r1721 .

Rev1734
Improved scePsmf module.
Added to IoFileMgrForUser small New Findings . ...

News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?module=news&...2&view_reply=1

It ' available for download a new revision , the 558, to the Daedalus X64, the only Nintendo 64 emulator for PSP. The update fixes some bugs that caused today's problems viewing menus and MegaMan GoldenEye addition to the usual minor changes, how to improve the overall stability of the emulator .
Following the full changelog and download link .

Changelog :

Quote:

- Corrected regression from 540 That was breaking and Megaman GoldeEye 's menu.
- Added an exit dialog to return to the main menu
- Continued WIP for Removing Unnecessary non-native types in R4300
- Corrected regression BranchZ That was causing issues in Glover ...