If you subscribe to Nintendo Power, the latest issue should be arriving at your house very soon, and Aeropause has the scoop on some details on Nintendo's upcoming line-up from the issue. Most important to folks reading this text is likely what Miyamoto had to say regarding the new Legend of Zelda game announced back at E3: "I don't think it's going to be that radically different." But, what about the theory that the girl being the Master Sword? Surely that is the plan for the game, and surely that is radically different!

And, in typical Nintendo fashion, that's all Miyamoto had to say. He left us hanging to speculate, and we're sure most will be able to turn this appetizer of a quote into a five-course meal. Have at it in the comments below!

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/02/mi...lly-different/ ...

A couple of days ago, I noted on the Digital Foundry Twitter feed that enterprising coders had found a way to make the PlayStation 3 significantly outperform the Blu-ray spec by enabling video playback of 1080p material at 60 frames per second. The average Blu-ray movie runs at 24FPS while the system's 1080i conformity gives it a notional top-end of 30FPS. But PlayStation 3 goes way beyond that, seemingly without breaking a sweat. The story kicks off with the release of the Sanyo HD2000 camera. Capable of recording 1080p60 video directly into MP4 files, enterprising souls on the Doom9 video forum set about getting clips from this camera to play on standalone BD players, despite the fact there was little hope of it actually working. However, for a while now hackers have been working on reverse-engineering the AVCHD format – the consumer-level sibling to full Blu-ray used by a multitude of HD video cameras. Coder "DeanK", author of the MultiAVCHD authoring tool found that with some effort, clips from the Sanyo camera would work within his tool when played back on PS3. Seeing as my company creates a 1080p60 capable capture system, this proved to be intriguing for me, especially seeing as we can produce this exquisite level of video, but have no consumer-level platform on which to play it! The PS3 XMB held some promise, but despite some efforts at 1080p60 encodes to promote WipEout HD, actual picture quality was distinctly mediocre and higher-end encoding would cause plenty of hiccups. Using DeanK's tools, I found that the PS3's Blu-ray/AVCHD decoder had a clear performance edge over the XMB, allowing for smoother playback of more ambitious files.

The encoding required is somewhat specialist and I had to get it done out of house, but regardless, there's now a downloadable demo you can try for yourself – assuming you have a 1080p screen of course. So, if you have 857MB of bandwidth to spare, go here, download, unzip and copy to a USB flash drive (burning to optical disc won't work without patching some files) making sure that the AVCHD folder is on the root of the drive. Put the drive into the PS3, click on the AVCHD icon on the XMB in the video section, sit back and watch Capcom's excellent Devil May Cry 4 intro play out at native 1080p running at 60 frames per second. The video itself was captured by our TrueHD system hooked up to an i7 PC with a top-of-the-line NVIDIA GTX295, allowing us to run the game effortlessly with all settings maxed out. For content producers eyeing up PS3 for further Blu-ray defying tasks, it has to be stated that there are limitations. Some of the key techniques h264 implements to exact maximum quality use way too much processing power to be effective running at 60FPS in this extreme resolution. At the same time, the AVCHD and Blu-ray standards have inherent limitations in themselves compared to the full unfettered power of the core compression technology. Bottom line: you need to throw a lot more bandwidth at the problem to maintain picture quality, and in the case of pristine game video, you need a ton more compared to the average "real life" camera shot. Even the download here could do with a fair bit more bandwidth to match the original capture. Regardless though, it remains the case that for PS3 to be able to do this at all is an excellent achievement, and brings home a hugely important factor about the console's long term future. In the fullness of a time, a smaller, slimmer PS3 will be one hell of a powerful – and hopefully cheap – media player, also capable of playing some damn good games too. With DivX adopting the Matroska (MKV) file format for its HD files, realistically it's only a matter of time before PS3 offers native support, making the console invaluable for playing just about any kind of media thrown its way.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...ecs-blog-entry ...

Take-Two and Rockstar are expected to release two brand new downloadable episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV in fiscal 2010, and release GTA V the following financial year.

That's according to analyst Todd Mitchell, who told GamesIndustry.biz that following the release of Xbox 360 exclusives The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, two all-new episodes are due – possibly across both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.

"I would expect that there would be two more pieces of downloadable content for GTA IV, that's what has been indicated to me, although formats are unsure. It's been indicated to me to me that would be the case," said Mitchell, of Kaufman Bros. Equity Research.

Mitchell also stated that he's expecting Grand Theft Auto V to be released in the 2011 financial year, and there's also the possibility of a new GTA title for the PlayStation 2 next year.

"Coming out of E3 there was no commitment to a new Grand Theft Auto, and I think that's because of Rockstar's track record with delivering on time," said Mitchell.

"Of the three, I'm least confident in saying for sure there will be a new GTA for PlayStation 2, but the track record shows that PSP titles have been repositioned [on PS2]," he said, referring to the recent announcement of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP.

Despite all the talk of Rockstar's biggest franchise, Kaufman Bros. has upgraded Take-Two to a 'buy' rating because the publisher is demonstrating that it no longer needs to rely on GTA to score blockbuster hits.

Newly announced Rockstar title Agent will be released in 2010, said the company, along with an as-yet unannounced title from 2K Games

"We believe Take-Two has a solid line-up for fiscal 2010 even without a GTA V release," noted Kaufman Bros.

"Our outlook includes expected strong sell-through of Bioshock 2, and the release of two 'AAA' titles, each from Rockstar (Red Dead Redemption and Agent) and 2K Games (Mafia II and TBD), reiterations of 2K Sports and 2K Play's annual line-ups, an expected GTA title for the PS2, expected strong sell-through of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP, and new GTA DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

"We now look for the release of GTA V in fiscal 2011, and believe IP introduced in fiscal 2010 can be turned into iterative franchises that will improve Take-Two's long-term earnings profile by lessening its dependence on GTA," said the firm.

Mitchell added: "What we're saying is Take-Two is now becoming a proper company rather than a one hit wonder. After GTA V in 2011, they can come back with more franchises and not be forced to rely on that every other year," he said.

Kaufman Bros. expects fiscal 2010 revenue for Take-Two to hit USD 1.3 billion, and USD 1.6 billion in 2011 with a GTA V release.

"Now that this shoe has dropped, and a case can be made for solid profitability in fiscal 2010 without GTA V, and the follow-on of higher earnings in fiscal 2011 with a GTA V release, we believe the investment case for Take-Two has improved and investors can begin to get more constructive with the name."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...t-year-analyst ...

Take-Two and Rockstar are expected to release two brand new downloadable episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV in fiscal 2010, and release GTA V the following financial year.

That's according to analyst Todd Mitchell, who told GamesIndustry.biz that following the release of Xbox 360 exclusives The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, two all-new episodes are due – possibly across both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.

"I would expect that there would be two more pieces of downloadable content for GTA IV, that's what has been indicated to me, although formats are unsure. It's been indicated to me to me that would be the case," said Mitchell, of Kaufman Bros. Equity Research.

Mitchell also stated that he's expecting Grand Theft Auto V to be released in the 2011 financial year, and there's also the possibility of a new GTA title for the PlayStation 2 next year.

"Coming out of E3 there was no commitment to a new Grand Theft Auto, and I think that's because of Rockstar's track record with delivering on time," said Mitchell.

"Of the three, I'm least confident in saying for sure there will be a new GTA for PlayStation 2, but the track record shows that PSP titles have been repositioned [on PS2]," he said, referring to the recent announcement of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP.

Despite all the talk of Rockstar's biggest franchise, Kaufman Bros. has upgraded Take-Two to a 'buy' rating because the publisher is demonstrating that it no longer needs to rely on GTA to score blockbuster hits.

Newly announced Rockstar title Agent will be released in 2010, said the company, along with an as-yet unannounced title from 2K Games

"We believe Take-Two has a solid line-up for fiscal 2010 even without a GTA V release," noted Kaufman Bros.

"Our outlook includes expected strong sell-through of Bioshock 2, and the release of two 'AAA' titles, each from Rockstar (Red Dead Redemption and Agent) and 2K Games (Mafia II and TBD), reiterations of 2K Sports and 2K Play's annual line-ups, an expected GTA title for the PS2, expected strong sell-through of GTA: Chinatown Wars for the PSP, and new GTA DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

"We now look for the release of GTA V in fiscal 2011, and believe IP introduced in fiscal 2010 can be turned into iterative franchises that will improve Take-Two's long-term earnings profile by lessening its dependence on GTA," said the firm.

Mitchell added: "What we're saying is Take-Two is now becoming a proper company rather than a one hit wonder. After GTA V in 2011, they can come back with more franchises and not be forced to rely on that every other year," he said.

Kaufman Bros. expects fiscal 2010 revenue for Take-Two to hit USD 1.3 billion, and USD 1.6 billion in 2011 with a GTA V release.

"Now that this shoe has dropped, and a case can be made for solid profitability in fiscal 2010 without GTA V, and the follow-on of higher earnings in fiscal 2011 with a GTA V release, we believe the investment case for Take-Two has improved and investors can begin to get more constructive with the name."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...t-year-analyst ...

The current generation of games consoles could struggle to deliver the types of game experiences the majority of gamers want and end up as niche products within a couple of years, according to Playfish chief executive Kristian Segerstrale.

As the demand for social games distributed via Facebook and other social networking sites grows, he predicts that incompatible, prohibitively expensive games consoles could fail to compete with the more accessible and connected experiences online services can deliver.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Segerstrale said: "I think that games consoles - while they might be an important part of the industry now - might become niche in the next couple of years. It's not at all clear if it even makes sense to deliver this type of gaming on a home console."

While Microsoft's move to market the Xbox 360 as a social entertainment experience is a step in the right direction, ultimately the platform cannot compete with PC and other internet connected portable devices, he predicts.

"The challenge is, no matter how social you try to make a console not everybody has one. Not all your real world friends will have the same console as you do. No matter how social you make it you will only reach, if you like, vertically. You will only reach your friends who have an Xbox 360."

Going on to discuss EA's entry into the social gaming market, Segerstrale was positive about the publisher's involvement, saying a big presence in the market by them will lead to higher quality experiences for users.

"They clearly believe, much as we believe, that games are becoming services and that retail distribution for games will decline quite rapidly from here onwards. And I think that the most important thing for social games is to ensure the quality of the end user experience."

"The only threat that I see to the industry is that in the search for early profit and maximising early results for companies, companies will act overly aggressively in how they try to monetise users, which is not good for anybody," he added.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ducts-playfish ...

3D video games won’t be mass market for at least another five years, Data Design Interactive has told MCV.
The casual games specialist is to launch one of the first 3D video games, Battle Rage: The Robot Wars – which comes with 3D glasses – ahead of Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Avatar movie tie-in.
However, the firm’s CEO Stewart Green has said that although 3D is a key development for games, it won’t be a mainstream phenomenon until 3D TVs become better established.
“3D is a big enhancement to the player’s environment, and as now it is part of our development system we will support it in future titles,” commented Green.
“But it will not be common practice until the mass market has 3D TV, which is not going to happen until perhaps five years from now.

“With a huge output of casual games, we are probably not thought of as innovators, but casual games are what the public wanted, and we have continued to provide the public with what something they want to buy. 3D is a huge seller this year with 12 3D films being released.”
DDI has also been experimenting with other new technology, including Wii MotionPlus and Wii Speak.
“Our development system is rapid and reliable; we managed to publish 20 games in just ten months. No other developer or publisher could achieve this,” added Green. “With such a quick and easy development process, it is not a lot of work for us to implement new hardware and release innovative titles.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34915/DDI-...ream-for-years ...

In 1994, Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum patented a technology that allowed users to communicate live while playing the same game in separate locations.

Specifically, the patent in question is for an "apparatus and method for electrically connecting remotely located videogames," reports Patent Arcade.

Eight years later Microsoft released Xbox Live, while Sony launched an online gaming service for PS2.

In the suit - originally filed against the hardware makers in August 2004 - the plaintiffs alleged that both systems' voice and data communications technology infringed on their patent. They sought a permanent injunction and damages.

Sony settled its suit in April 2009, leaving Microsoft as the sole remaining defendant.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=218745 ...

Picture the scene: you've been working at Nintendo in Japan for 10 years. You've worked both as a programmer and as a designer on titles as ubiquitous as Wii Play and Wii Fit. So what do you do?
You quit the company in order to start a website dedicated to user-generated pictures of action figures, of course.
According to an article on ITmedia, Motoi Okayama, 33, is a self-confessed internet addict - "to the point where people wondered when I was able to sleep", he said - and was growing disillusioned with the fact that his job at Nintendo didn't give him the opportunity to work with the internet.
"Thinking about my 10 years at Nintendo, I started to get impatient, that there were these things I wanted to do. The fact that I didn't get to have an influence on the internet disappointed me. Nintendo has a very strong family-orientated brand, and I felt certain resistance to being able to start up any new online services.
"Nintendo doesn't have any projects relating to the internet, and it'll never pull out completely from packaged goods. It just seemed the next step."

The website, FG, was launched nine months ago, and now features 18,000 members. And it's not the last he plans to create, either: "Because I've come late to the net business scene, I want to try all sorts of weird things, and keep on creating new services."

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...eaves-Nintendo ...

Actual real life DJ hero, Grandmaster Flash, has told Rolling Stone that DJ Hero will be the "most popular thing to do in gaming on the planet."

The old skool DJ has been involved with the game for over a year now and has contributed in all areas from mixes, voiceovers to type of language to use. We hope it's in English.

The confirmed track list has also grown:

David Bowie - "Lets Dance" vs. KRS-1 - "Jack Of Spades"
Nirvana - "All Apologies" vs. Rick James - "Give It To Me"
Zombies - "Time Of The Season" vs. Chuck Brown - "Bustin Loose"
Grandmaster Flash - "Here Comes My DJ" vs. Gary Numan - "Cars"
Herbie Hancock - "Rockit" vs. N.E.R.D. - "Lapdance"
Jay Z - "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" vs. Eminem - "My Name Is"
Marvin Gaye - "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" vs. Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc"
Dizzee Rascal - "Fix Up, Look Sharp' vs. Justice - "Genesis"
Gwen Stefani - "Hollaback Girl' vs. Rick James - "Give It To Me"
Jurassic 5 - "Jayou" vs. Herbie Hancock - "Rockit"
Tears for Fears - "Shout' vs. Eric Prydz - "Pjanoo (Radio Edit)"
Black Eyed Peas - "Boom Boom Pow' vs. Benni Benassi - "Satisfaction"
Beastie Boys - "Sabotage" vs. Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"

If you're mad about Grandmaster Flash, then you might like to throw OXM a few questions as they'll be interviewing him soon.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=218737 ...