The Lips karaoke series grows again on 26th February when Microsoft releases a new instalment called Lips: Party Classics.

Inside are 40 anthems from the land of cheese. Artists include the Spice Girls, the B-52s, the Village People, Chumbawumba, Tiffany, KISS and the immense Gloria Gaynor.

Avatars are integrated, Avatar rewards are unlockable and there's now USB microphone support so that Rock Band and Guitar Hero devices finally work.

What's more, Microsoft's got loads of new songs to throw at Lips owners in January. These cost 160 MSP each or 440 MSP when bundled as a pack.

Released earlier this month:

"Lean On Me" - Club Nouveau
"Baby When The Light" - David Guetta feat. Cozi
"Homecoming" - Kanye West feat. Chris Martin
Miracles Song Pack - "I Second That Emotion", "Love Machine (Part 1)", "The Tracks Of My Tears"
Available from 15th January

"Ring My Bell" - Anita Ward
"Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab For Cutie
"Mustang Sally" - Wilson Pickett
Available from 22nd January

"Little Lies" - Fleetwood Mac
"Tripping" - Robbie Williams
"Ordinary Day" - Vanessa Carlton
Available from 29th January

"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" - Crystal Waters
The Cardigans Song Pack - "Carnival", "Erase/Rewind", "My Favourite Game"

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ms...-new-lips-game ...

Microsoft's Robbie Bach has revealed that "something like 70 or 80 per cent of the publishers in the world" are making games for Natal.

"Our model is certainly about third-party publishers making money," Bach told the Financial Post (via Joystiq) after dating Natal at CES 2010. "We design our system for third-party publishers.

"[Nintendo makes] most of their money through first-party games that Nintendo produces. That's absolutely their business model. And it's a great business model, it's just different, but it makes it hard for third-party publishers."

Microsoft's first-party developers will make a "few titles" to "show the way", added Bach, who hopes to kick-start the "breath and power of the ecosystem from our partners".

But Nintendo will not be Microsoft's only concern, as Sony's PS3 motion-sensing wand enters the market this spring as well.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ba...ng-natal-games ...

Nintendo has filed an application to trademark the name Wii Relax in the US.

The application covers a wide range of possible uses for the name - it could refer to all manner of software or peripherals. But there's plenty of speculation it could have something to do with the Vitality Sensor accessory, particularly since the patent mentions "parts and accessories of consumer videogame apparatus, including those with pulse-measuring functions".

Nintendo also trademarked the Wii Relax name in Europe last year. Hmm.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ni...ii-relax-in-us ...

While EA is publicly backing Tiger Woods, the publisher is reportedly polling people to see whether the golfer's infamous "mistakes off the course", to borrow Peter Moore's phrase, will affect sales of its games.

In a recent Greenfield Online survey (thanks Kotaku), the publisher is seen to ask whether the controversy has "made your impressions of EA Sports more or less favourable". The survey also asks: "Has the controversy made you more or less likely to buy a Tiger Woods-related videogame in the future?" (More!)

Earlier this month EA Sports boss Peter Moore updated his blog with a post supporting Woods, apparently on the basis that EA had chosen to work with the golfer for sporting reasons and not so he could "act as an arm's length endorser".

Given that the decision appears to have been made to stick with him, presumably the survey is either old or geared towards something else, like marketing, or what kind of message to write in a sympathy card e.g. "Sorry about your mistakes off the course, best keep your head down for a bit. Love (too soon?), Pete."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ea...ds-controversy ...

Nintendo has denied that the next iteration of the DS will feature a motion sensor and more graphical power.

Company president Satoru Iwata was reported as making the claims last week. But according to Nintendo there's been a misunderstanding.

"Mr Iwata did not make any comments regarding the functions of Nintendo's future hardware systems," a representative told Kotaku. "The answer to the reporter's question was misinterpreted."

Kotaku stands by its original translation of the comments, which appeared in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Nintendo says it was the paper's reporter who was responsible for the mix-up.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ne...nsor-after-all ...

One of the most popular questions on the Google Nexus One support forums is the 'Spotty 3G?' thread with almost 700 posts of users complaining about their 3G signal coverage fluctuating up, down, and between EDGE/3G with the phone just sitting on the desk or compared to other 3G devices on the T-Mobile network that don't offer the same unpredictable behavior. One workaround that seems to fix the issue is forcing the phone into '3G' or 'WCDMA Only' mode. This is a bit of a downer given that T-Mobile just finished their 3G upgrade to 7.2Mbps. Official word from Google is 'We are investigating this issue....

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/...ls-On-T-Mobile ...

Casual games have thrived in the past year, as demonstrated by the overall 2009 single format charts. While hardcore gaming bastion Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was crowned as the best selling game of 2009 in the UK, a closer look at which titles performed best on each format in the last 12 months shows how casual releases dominated the Nintendo platforms.
Elsewhere, across the Sony and Microsoft platforms traditional titles still dominated.
The numbers come courtesy of ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack.

2009 Nintendo Wii Chart

1. Wii Sports Resort
2. Wii Fit
3. Wii Fit Plus
4. Mario Kart Wii
5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

2009 Nintendo DS Chart
1. Professor Layton And The Curious Village
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
3. Professor Layton And Pandora's Box
4. Mario Kart DS
5. New Super Mario Bros.

2009 Sony PlayStation 3 Chart
1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2. FIFA 10
3. Assassin's Creed II
4. Killzone 2
5. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2009 Sony PSP Chart
1. FIFA 10
2. FIFA 09
3. Gran Turismo
4. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
5. LittleBigPlanet

2009 Xbox 360 Chart
1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2. FIFA 10
3. Forza Motorsport 3
4. Assassin's Creed II
5. Halo 3: ODST ...

Publisher successfully mixing both new online offers with established bricks and mortar big-budget releases
Despite huge success for its 2009 digital strategy LucasArts says retail releases are still a key part of its business.
Last year the publisher revived many of its classic older IPs, with both new and old Monkey Island titles launched for iPhone, Xbox Live Arcade, PC and WiiWare.
Embracing digital has only widened its business, however, with the firm telling MCV that the boxed content it releases through Activision in Europe goes from strength-to-strength.
“We’ve had a great 2009 and look forward to 2010, especially with The Force Unleashed 2 which we recently announced and promises to be the next massive Star Wars experience on consoles,” said global publishing VP Mary Bihr.
In fact, said Bihr, LucasArts has seen strong sales of back catalogue titles – despite the year-on-year decrease in global games spending.

She said: “We, similar to many other publishers, have been challenged by the current economic climate. We’ve seen a slowdown in sales velocity across some titles, but a commensurate increase in others, sometimes with games that have been on the shelves for two, three, even four years. There’s still strong demand for these licensed games.”
The first Star Wars: The Force Unleashed arrived in 2008 and has already clocked up over six million copies sold to date, and was re-released with new added content in November.
“As for recent releases, LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues has already been a huge success for us. TT Games did a fantastic job making this the most immersive LEGO game to date. We’re very pleased by its performance across Europe.”
Now Bihr says LucasArts is focusing all its efforts on the release of The Force Unleashed 2 later this year.
“This will be a huge game for us. Our internal development team is hard at work making it the next massive action packed Star Wars experience. We have a lot more going on that I can’t talk about now, but it continues to be an exciting time here at LucasArts.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37128/Luca...Street-support ...

French publisher Ubisoft has revised its financial outlook off the back of poor DS sales contributing to a 50 per cent drop in its casual business, and under-performing titles such as James Cameron's Avatar: The Game.

Third quarter sales are expected to be €495 million, down from €540 million, with full-year sales expected to €860 million, a drop from the previous forecast of €1,040 million.

"The considerable contraction in the DS market during the year particularly affected Ubisoft, leading to a €160 million, or almost 50 per cent, year-on-year drop in the Company’s casual segment sales," offered CEO Yves Guillemot.

The company revealed that Assassin's Creed II has now sold over six million units worldwide, and is expected to shift nine million by the end of the financial year – and its this success in the core market that Ubisoft intends to chase in 2010.

"The year 2009 saw the release of many more very high-quality games than in the past," continued Guillemot. "Against this backdrop and with a view to further reducing our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the two consoles which are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010.

"Ubisoft has already demonstrated its capacity for success in the high-end games market thanks to Assassin’s Creed 2, with sales 40 per cent higher than for the first title. The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox 360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability," he added.

The company is to delay the next Tom Clancy title, Splinter Cell: Conviction, from February until April. RUSE will also now be released sometime in the next financial year 2010-2011, alongside a new Ghost Recon title, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Driver, Raving Rabbids 4 and a “new episode of Assassin’s Creed, which will be the first in the series to have an online multiplayer mode.”

The company expects to end the year with an operating loss of around €50 million, rather than the operating income of €70 million initially forecast.

Also blamed for the loss is poor sales of back catalogue titles and abandoned projects.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...rop-50-percent ...