A story posted on the Ubergizmo site today states, "Word on the street has it that Microsoft aims to stop production of the Xbox 360 Elite as per their original plan..."

The story appears to derive from Fudzilla, then via Joystiq. The Fudzilla story - by David Stellmack, says, "Microsoft will stop taking orders for the Xbox 360 Elite at some point during the second quarter and allow inventory of the Elite consoles to start to run down. The majority of retailers would prefer just a low-end and a high-end console, so this change will be made during the second quarter, which is the fourth fiscal quarter for Microsoft.

"Once inventory is depleted, the Elite system will move to more of a limited edition role that will be available only at select retailers, and likely only in North America and Europe. The Elite consoles that will be available in these areas sbould be more like the recent Resident Evil 5 Red Elite Limited Edition console, rather than the standard Elite package that Microsoft has offered in the past."

We contacted Microsoft in the UK today and were told, "We don't comment on rumour or speculation".

http://news.spong.com/nibble/17362/M...e_Death?cb=921 ...

Emergent Game Technologies today announced that they have integrated NVIDIA's PhysX technology with the Gamebryo development platform on Wii. The integration gives Wii developers "an unprecedented level of physics support to make more immersive and interactive titles."

"With our launch of Gamebryo LightSpeed we wanted to create the most flexible, powerful and user friendly environment for game developers possible," said Geoffrey Selzer, CEO, Emergent Game Technologies. "The performance of PhysX is well known and with NVIDIA's commitment to tools, partners and this integration relationship we are offering the industry an unparalleled solution."

"The response we've gotten from the development community since we first began working with Emergent has been incredible," said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at NVIDIA. "Our shared approach of creating world class technology that is customized to each platform to obtain the highest level of performance has been very successful. The titles being developed using PhysX and Gamebryo are going to set the benchmarks for achievement in game development."

The PhysX integration for Gamebryo on Wii follows Emergent's recent announcement of Gamebryo LightSpeed, which was designed to help speed up the development process with faster prototyping and iteration, and real-time updates.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...amebryo/?biz=1 ...

Set for release this fall, the Wii version of EA’s universe-creating “Spore” is designed for adventure and a heavy use of motion control.
***
Few games have transitioned from the PC to the Wii. There is no “World of Warcraft” Wii, no “Company of Heroes” Wii, not even — yet — a “Peggle” Wii. But EA has been trying, first with “MySims” for Nintendo’s home system and, coming this fall, “Spore Hero.”
New parts, new controls.
EA has shed almost no light on “Spore Hero” since announcing it in January as part of the 2009 line-up of “Spore” spin-offs. MTV Multiplayer can change that today.
Last month in Las Vegas, I met with the general manager for EA’s “Spore” and “Sims” studio, Lucy Bradshaw, who talked to me, among other things, about how “Spore” for the Wii is taking shape.
Bradshaw said that this “Spore” for the Wii was built from the ground up. She described a game comprised of a significantly beefed-up version of “Spore”’s creature stage, served with a heavy helping of motion control.
The game brings the PC game’s full creature editor and procedural animation system, enabling gamers to assemble their beasts from a Potato-Head’s worth of parts. The mouse-driven interface of the editing tools in the PC game turns into a pointer-driven interface for the Wii.
Players have direct control of the lifeform they are shaping. Adding parts to the creature adds new motion-controlled maneuvers customized to the player’s creature. New parts, new controls. “That’s really fun to take advantage of,” Bradshaw said. “With the controls of the mouse, it’s point and click and you do feel a distance. Now we’re in there and it’s just really fun as you gain new abilities.” She suggested that dancing and singing were just some classic “Spore” behaviors that would be more fun driven by a Wii remote than by the click of a computer mouse.
“When you see the game, you’ll go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s definitely a Nintendo Wii game.’”
The PC “Spore” started in the primordial ooze of its Cell stage, graduating to a primitive 3D action game in the Creature stage before evolving into strategic Tribe, City and Space stages. Bradshaw said that this game, which won’t connect to the PC version, operates in just that creature slice but still presents an expansive evolution-based experience. “Your planet that you’ve lived on has had a catastrophic event and you’re essentially plummeting to a new planet on the tail of a meteor,” she explained. “You arrive there and you start encountering new creatures. This is a new planet that you’ve got to make as your own. So you start in a series of quests and adventures in a kind of open world that you can take at your own pace. You start encountering other creatures and can interact with them in either combat or social [ways], but you can also do things on their behalf.”
Some quests help the player’s creature evolve. Others, called Evolutionary Quests, require your creature to meet the needs of other species and guide those beast’s evolution. So you’ll be shaping not just your species but a menagerie of planetary lifeforms. Gaining an ability for your own creature, like jump, might allow access to otherwise unreachable areas. In that regard, exploration of the terrain is encouraged in ways that “Spore” PC did not. Said Bradshaw, “We’ve brought in action quests [consisting] of games that you play in the overall landscape of the creature that really do take advantage of those evolutionary steps that you’ve taken.”
While no screenshots have been released of the game yet, Bradshaw described a cheerful experience that suits Nintendo’s image. “This is very playful,” she said, explaining why the game wasn’t slated for, say, the PlayStation 3. “It takes advantage of the controls explicitly. And even stylistically, when you see the game, you’ll go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s definitely a Nintendo Wii game.’” As for the controls, she said that the team is “taking a look” at the Motion Plus option for even better Wii motion-sensitivity than what is available directly out of the box.
This Wii debut for “Spore” is sounding to be more like an action-adventure driven by the changing shape of life than the cell-to-stars skip through evolution that the original “Spore” was.
“Spore Hero” is one of the many Wii titles from EA, which has pledged to back Nintendo’s console in 2009 in ways that could rival even the house of Mario itself. It is slated for a fall release, alongside “Spore Hero Arena,” a companion game for the Nintendo DS.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...-hero-for-wii/ ...

Stephen Totilo over at MTV has been tracking the usage stats of Wii games religiously for the past few months now. Using data he extracts from the Wii Usage stats obtained from Nintendo’s online service, Stephen has been piecing together just what games Wii owners spend time with (those of them that allow for their stats to be recorded anyway), and what games they enjoy.

This month, he discovered something very interesting. Something that a lot of us Wii owners have known for a while, but apparently, developers had no clue: Wii owners seem to love role-playing games. Says Stephen:



Among the standout trends in the Nintendo Wii usage stats I’ve been tracking here each month has been the dedication that role-playing game fans show to the RPGs on the system. Take the November-released “Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World,” which has garnered an average playing time of more than 31 hours per player among the users of Wii’s Nintendo Channel. “Tales” isn’t alone. “Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn,” released in November of 2007, has an average playing time of over 44 hours. (Maybe it’s a “Dawn” thing?)



He goes on:



Few people consider the Wii to be an RPG system. Maybe sales figures bear that out. Nevertheless, the feverishness with which Wii owners play the RPGs that they do get suggests that there’s an appetite there hungry for more.



Of course, we’re going to be seeing quite a few RPGs on Wii in the near future. Crystal Bearers, Monster Hunter Tri and Arc Rise Fantasia are a few off the top of my head, but there are more coming. If you look at Stephen’s stat analysis for March (linked to above), you’ll see good playtimes for Okami and Call of Duty as well. Developers might want to keep an eye on his column if they aren’t already. Nintendo’s stat-tracking service is genuinely useful for developers planning their next project.

This post is secretly a hint to Namco that they need to localize Fragile, stat. No, we don’t want an English dub.

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/03/08...ential-on-wii/ ...

Crystal Defenders R1 and R2 are live downloads on WiiWare in Japan. We’ve been following both releases expecting a North American launch any Monday now. Instead the Tose programmed Xbox Live Arcade version comes out in North America first. We get it on Wednesday.

Unlike the WiiWare Crystal Defenders series this is a direct conversion Crystal Defenders for the iPhone. You get 300 stages of Final Fantasy Tactics A2 tower defense for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). That sure beats paying the $10 for 100 stages on WiiWare! You can purchase Crystal Defenders and Peggle, this week’s other Xbox Live Arcade release also on sale for 800 Microsoft Points, for the same price as all the current Crystal Defenders content on WiiWare.

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/03/09...-arcade-first/ ...

Making the most of their licensing agreements, Sega is preparing their yearly Nintendo DS Bleach game. Details about Bleach DS 4th: Flame Bringer are scarce since the announcement comes from a teaser site. The first two Bleach DS titles were Treasure developed fighting games while Bleach DS: The 3rd Phantom was a strategy RPG.

What will Bleach DS 4th: Flame Bringer be? Post your guess in the comments!

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/03/09...s-bleach-game/ ...

A Fullmetal Alchemist game is coming to the Wii. Unlike the other Fullmetal Alchemist games from Square Enix this doesn’t look like an alchemic beat ‘em up. Fullmetal Alchemist: Prince of Dawn is being billed as an “adventure / anime” game that captures your senses. Players us commands like talk, look, and touch to interact with the world and gather clues. During missions the motion controls are used. A screenshot shows us an example of the remote being used as a screwdriver to tweak auto-mail.

The other screenshots suggest this is going to be a story based game. Square Enix says the game will connect to the new anime series somehow, but doesn’t explain how. While this might be tempting to import you might want and see how text heavy this is. We’ll keep following Fullmetal Alchemist: Prince of Dawn as it marches towards a scheduled summer release in Japan.

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/03/09...t-wii-details/ ...

The UK's Change4Life campaign, which links playing video games with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, could draw legal fire from Sony for using a PlayStation-like controller in their print ad.

The magazine ad in question features a young boy obviously not enjoying himself while holding a dual analog wireless controller, similar to that used with the PlayStation 3 and its predecessor. The print warns that even healthy-looking inactive children risk cancer, diabetes, and heart disease once the reach adulthood. UK industry website MCV indicates that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is currently considering legal action against the ad creators.


A source close to Sony revealed to MCV that the agency behind the ad, The Gate, had not contacted the platform holder to ask about using a controller that bears a close likeness to PlayStation's pad.

http://kotaku.com/5166914/sony-ponde...early-death-ad ...

The United States government is going after gamers in its latest "Above the Influence" anti-drug ads, warning potential pot smokers that their gaming skills may suffer if they choose to get high.

The ads warn that "many of the skills required for winning a background, defeating an opponent, [and] beating games" can be hindered by hitting the bong, a claim that many "never play sober" gamers are likely to contend. No longer will you simply be slovenly, slothful and regularly stained with Cheetos dust, you're going to suck at Halo.

http://kotaku.com/5166985/us-drug-cz...n-anti+pot-ads ...