Sony has clarified that March 19 is a target release date for the much anticipated God of War 3.

Initial reports cited that date as the apparently confirmed release for Kratos' face-smashing quest. But it seems a little jumping of the gun had been done, as Sony clarifies that it's simply "tracking March 19th for the UK release", but that this is not "100 per cent confirmed", reports MCV.

GameStop reckons its March 16, Game and GameStation went for March 20, although that's a Saturday which is unusual for UK releases, and they told CVG they were 'not in a position' to confirm the date.
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New aspiring soloist lauds the ongoing democratisation of the game development sector
The iPhone represents a revolution in the game development sector, where publishing powerhouses such as EA fight on a level playing field with independent, and even amateur, solo artists.
That was the message offered by aspiring solo developer Hayden Scott-Baron, who recently stopped working for studios such as Frontier Developments and instead built his own microstudio.
“I'm certain that some developers will try going independent,” Scott-Baron tells Develop in an interview published today.
“I think the iPhone has shown me that any game can stand a chance when placed against larger publishers such as EA, especially in an environment where independent games can get just as much attention,” he added.
“You would never see that in a retail environment, and it's difficult even on PC for anyone other than enthusiasts to pay any attention to a small game made by a very small team.”

Scott-Baron’s new microstudio, Starfruit, recently put the finishing touches on the debut game Tumbledrop; an iPhone physics-based puzzle title.
His shift to solo development echoes that of former Fable II lead designer Dene Carter, who recently broke away from Lionhead to set up his own studio Fluttermind.
When asked on how the iPhone is changing the face of game development, Scott-Baron replied:
“There's certainly a strong spirit of 'give it a go' amongst developers now, knowing that there is a potential outlet without any worry of development kits or red tape.
“It's also given developers a reason to try out their project ideas, rather than letting them squander in a notepad. There's definitely a rise in alternative art styles too, be they childish 'sketch' type drawings, or incredibly abstract graphics, or simply very bold visuals, it pays off to make something noticeable.”
His enthusiasm for the increasingly popular platform is however tempered somewhat when giving considerations to the platform’s own tech and UI.
“[Going solo has] also made me think more about how games need to be appropriate for the platform. I've seen a lot of developers jump in to create very large or very complex games on the iPhone that I'm not certain are necessarily appropriate for the interface.
“The biggest difficulty is deciding whether you are willing to learn other skills, such as programming and music in my case, or whether to work with other people. Working with others can work out amazingly, but it's also quite risky because you can end up doubling the development costs.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...-to-outsell-EA ...

Internet Christmas day sales up 29% per cent year-on-year
The Christmas break may be a time to focus on family and loved ones, but it now seems that it has become the prime opportunity for online shopping – and Xmas 2009 looks to have been the most successful yet.
The Retail Bulletin reports that number from the Interactive Media in Retail Group show that Christmas day sales online were up 29 per cent year-on-year in the UK, reaching £132m. Boxing Day sales were even bigger, hitting £281m.
“It appears that this Christmas we saw internet activity becoming part of most people’s routine, whether e-mailing friends, catching up on social network sites or surfing for bargains,” IMRG’s director of operations David Smith stated.
“Online retailers were able to benefit from this changing consumer behaviour by achieving record sales volumes with many sales and offers starting on Christmas Eve.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37292/Onli...odes-over-Xmas ...

Sony's confirmed the rather short list of films to hit the PS3 video store this week.

Adam Sandler fans can get stuck into Funny People which is up for rent, along with more laughs from the comedy Band Slam, starring Aly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens.

Look to permanent purchases and you'll find 500 Days of Summer, Hardwired, Sority Row, Whiteout, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball.

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Mobile analytics firm dishes the dirt; says most apps are games
Mobile analytics firm Flurry says it's already tracking more than 200 apps being used by 50 tablet devices on Apple's Cupertino campus.
The company has been able to measure the activity because its technology is being used to provide analytics for the apps.
"Because Flurry could reliably 'place' these devices geographically on Apple's Cupertino campus, we have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing," the company claims.
Develop reported in August last year that Apple was working on a tablet device that would run as a game platform.
The company is expected to unveil the device on Jan 27 at a special press event.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...y-being-played ...

Worldwide sales of New Super Mario Bros Wii have now topped 10 million units, according to the latest figures.

Nikkei Net (translated by Kotaku) says the game sold over 10 million in eight weeks, with over 3 million copies sold in Japan, 4.5 million in the US and 3 million in Europe.

The numbers put it way ahead of Mario Galaxy's total sales to date - as of March last year the Wii title had sold just over 8 million.

Upon its release in Japan, New Super Mario Bros immediately became the fastest-selling Wii game to date in the country with over just over 930,000 units sold in the first week.

It has been awarded ELSPA's Double Platinum sales award indicating sales of over 600,000 in the UK.

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Ubisoft's Just Dance has taken the top spot in the UK all-formats chart for a second week running, keeping former number one heavyweight Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at number two.

Elsewhere in the top ten, there was little change from last week, with Wii Fit Plus dropping just one place to number three and Army of Two: The 40th Day and Wii Sports Resort hanging onto their former week positions of four and five respectively.

FIFA 10 climbed two places to six and James Cameron's Avatar: The Game climbed one place to eight.

Assassin's Creed II stepped up one place to nine and Mario Kart Wii re-entered the top ten at number ten, from 12. Meanwhile, SEGA's acclaimed Bayonetta slipped from 7 to 14.

The only new entry to the top 40 was from Capcom's Dark Void, which made its debut at number 33.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame climbed three places to number 16 in the chart. Warner Bros announced earlier today the title has now sold over a million units in the UK since its release at the end of 2008.

The full top 20 for the week ending January 23 is as follows:

01 Just Dance
02 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
03 Wii Fit Plus
04 Army of Two: The 40th Day
05 Wii Sports Resort
06 FIFA 10
07 New Super Mario Bros Wii
08 James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
09 Assassin's Creed II
10 Mario Kart Wii
11 Darksiders
12 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
13 Forza Motorsport 3
14 Bayonetta
15 Football Manager 2010
16 LEGO Batman: The Videogame
17 Borderlands
18 Wii Play
19 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
20 Grand Theft Auto IV

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Motion control technologies and stereoscopic 3D are set to combine for brand new gameplaying experiences, according to Sony Europe's senior development manager Simon Benson.

Sony is already pumping a lot of resources into 3D gaming, with titles such as LittleBigPlanet, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Killzone 2 and Gran Tursimo 5 already being retro fitted with 3D technology. And with the launch of its motion control system due later this year, combining the two technologies is an obvious direction for future videogames.

"The idea of stereoscopic 3D marrying up with the motion controller is a bit of a no-brainer and you can certainly see applications there that open up plenty of opportunities for gameplay," Benson told Eurogamer's Digital Foundry blog. "There are a lot of other things we can achieve too. We're just at the tip of the iceberg with what 3D is going to enable. Once the technology's out there, it'll be interesting to see the things that follow.

According to Benson 3D can also help games designers in the creation of content, making tasks easier than traditional methods.

"Building something with stereoscopic vision... you're putting the thing together in front of you," he said. "Traditionally you have to rely a lot more on grids and revolving cameras to help people understand where they've actually put something.

"In the same way, when we're making 3D models for games, making a building or something... our artists need to spin it around, manipulate it on-screen to know how to build it properly. When you've got stereoscopic vision, that becomes far easier - you just see it before you. You can see how big something is relative to something else. It's not a little thing really close, or a big thing far away. I can understand where it is spatially because I can perceive that with stereoscopic vision. It helps the creation process."

Before joining Sony, Benson worked for British Aerospace and has been working with stereoscopic 3D for 12 years. He added that lessons and practises from industrial design can be incorporated into videogame creation as they have already been proven effective in other areas.

"A lot of cars these days - they don't bother going to all the trouble of making a clay model... they do it in 3D and they all wear 3D glasses to view it that way. It's far more efficient. It's already been proven to be a good creation mechanic."

Ian Bickerstaff, senior programmer at Sony Europe added: "Anything that's out there in the simulation or visualisation industry that's sort of cool and you can imagine the public liking, then you can imagine that rippling through at some point in the future."

"In car design there are immersive walls and there are these things called 'caves' where you have a 3D image on the walls of a cube around you," he continued. "It's typically 120Hz shutter glasses with a head-tracking system and a 120Hz projection screen that you can move around and it's constantly adjusting the image based on your viewing position.

"From a viewing point of view you don't notice that you're in a cube at all. It's constantly recalculating the perspective. So that's been done for many, many years now and it's something we've been familiar with in the simulation industry. It's almost bread and butter really. We can't comment on future R&D but you could imagine the way it could go."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...l-a-no-brainer ...

LEGO Batman: The Videogame has now sold in excess of a million copies in the UK since its release at the end of 2008, Warner Bros has confirmed.

The TT Games-developed title was released following the successes of LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones and subsequently awarded a Children's BAFTA award for best videogame.

"The team at TT Games worked incredibly hard to make LEGO Batman: The Videogame a very fun experience for players," said Tom Stone, managing director for TT Games. "We are delighted to know that so many people are enjoying the game."

"Selling one million units of LEGO Batman: The Videogame in the UK marks a great milestone for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment," said Spencer Crossley, UK sales and marketing director at Warner Bros. "The fact that the title continues to remain on the best-selling charts more than a year after its release is a testament to the best-in-class gameplay TT Games continues to deliver."

The game - available on all of the current generation formats and PC - climbed three places in the all-formats chart this week, from 19 to 16.

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