via gamespot

The official story: Microsoft rep--"Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation."

What we heard: The holidays may be over, but for Xbox-360-owning casual and retro gamers, every Wednesday seems like another Christmas morning thanks to Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays program. Nearly every humpday sees new content go up on Xbox Live Marketplace, the most anticipated type of content being a new Xbox Live Arcade game.

To keep interest high, Microsoft usually announces what game is coming out that week on Monday or Tuesday. However, it appears that the release date of next week's game may have slipped out a bit early.

The unabashedly named Xbox360Fanboy.com picked up the blog of DaKing240, who says that Pop Cap's Heavy Weapon will be the game du jour for January 17. Heavy Weapon may already be familiar to PC users. Like several other Pop Cap Games for Xbox Live Arcade, the game has been available for download for the mouse-and-keyboard gamer for a while now.

DaKing240 claims to be well connected in the industry, and in several other posts credits sources at various developers. Unfortunately this post doesn't directly credit a source, leaving gamers to ponder its authenticity and cross-check DaKing240's credibility.

Just last week, DaKing misfired on the release date of Ms. Pac-Man, saying the game would be released on January 4. DaKing420 wasn't far off, though. Yesterday, Microsoft officially announced that the game would make its debut on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow.

DaKing240's news sparked some sleuthing by Xbox 360 Fanboy, which claims to have confirmed the news from another source, The Xbox Domain. However, the news comes with a disclaimer--the game is merely scheduled for January 17...meaning that barring any unforeseen circumstances, it should be out that day.

Heavy Weapon was originally announced for the 360 back in early May, and was originally scheduled for release last year. Given the fact that the game is deep in development, it's a good bet that Heavy Weapon is due sometime soon, if not on January 17.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not Bogus, but nothing is official. ...

When Konami released Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation 10 years ago, it was a resurrection of sorts for the undead franchise. By incorporating gameplay elements from Nintendo's Metroid series of games, Symphony of the Night established a template for 2D Castlevania entries that has endured through multiple installments on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.

Now the publisher is bringing that formula back to the realm of the living (room), as Konami is showing off Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the Xbox Live Arcade at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. As with most older games brought to Xbox Live Arcade games, Symphony of the Night won't be a mere port. Konami has said the game will feature enhanced graphics and sound, widescreen support, achievements, and leaderboards. Players will be able to choose between the original graphics or enhanced visuals that mitigate sprite pixilation when the game is played in high-definition.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is expected to release on the Xbox Live Arcade later this year.
via gamespot ...

via gibiz

Nintendo has raised its full-year profits forecast by 20 per cent, expecting net income to climb to 120 billion yen (EUR 774.9 million) for the year ending March 31st 2007.

The company raised forecasts for the DS, expecting sales of the handheld to rise 15 per cent to 23 million units, with software growing by 22 per cent, to reach 100 million games sold.

Targets for Wii software have also been raised, with Nintendo expecting to reach 21 million games for its new home console, compared to an earlier estimate of 17 million.

Hardware forecasts for Wii consoles remain at the previous target of six million units.

Nintendo now expects 900 billion yen (EUR 5.8 billion) in sales this year, compared to a forecast of 509 billion yen (EUR 3.2 billion) in October. ...

via gibiz

Nintendo has raised its full-year profits forecast by 20 per cent, expecting net income to climb to 120 billion yen (EUR 774.9 million) for the year ending March 31st 2007.

The company raised forecasts for the DS, expecting sales of the handheld to rise 15 per cent to 23 million units, with software growing by 22 per cent, to reach 100 million games sold.

Targets for Wii software have also been raised, with Nintendo expecting to reach 21 million games for its new home console, compared to an earlier estimate of 17 million.

Hardware forecasts for Wii consoles remain at the previous target of six million units.

Nintendo now expects 900 billion yen (EUR 5.8 billion) in sales this year, compared to a forecast of 509 billion yen (EUR 3.2 billion) in October. ...

via gibiz

Nintendo has raised its full-year profits forecast by 20 per cent, expecting net income to climb to 120 billion yen (EUR 774.9 million) for the year ending March 31st 2007.

The company raised forecasts for the DS, expecting sales of the handheld to rise 15 per cent to 23 million units, with software growing by 22 per cent, to reach 100 million games sold.

Targets for Wii software have also been raised, with Nintendo expecting to reach 21 million games for its new home console, compared to an earlier estimate of 17 million.

Hardware forecasts for Wii consoles remain at the previous target of six million units.

Nintendo now expects 900 billion yen (EUR 5.8 billion) in sales this year, compared to a forecast of 509 billion yen (EUR 3.2 billion) in October. ...

Capcom's Mark Beaumont has said that the company will produce Dead Rising games "for years to come".

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, Beaumont attributed some of the game's success to punters' willingness "to take more of an experiment in what games they'll try" at the start of a hardware cycle.

Others would probably point to the 360's shortfall in first-party titles along the back straight of 2006, and the game's superb critical reception.

"Bringing out Dead Rising has allowed us to establish a new franchise that we can use for years to come," Beaumont added, which ought to give those Resident Evil slackers something to think about. Come on, what's happening with number five?

via eurogamer ...

via eurogamer

More details have emerged of Jeff Minter's XBLA game, Space Giraffe.

So far, work on the engine has finished and fundamental gameplay mechanics are in and doing what they should. The next few weeks will see levels fleshed out (over 100, apparently), the difficulty curve assessed, new enemy types added and display graphics tweaked. Minter also expects the game to begin resembling an Xbox Live Arcade title, adding high-scores and achievements to the package.

On his LiveJournal, below the picture of him hugging a sheep, Jeff is confident of the game's progress, reckoning it's fast approaching the first testing phase.

"Looking forward now over the next few weeks to actually shaping this into an actual game with a beginning, an end, lives, hi-scores, achievements and such - something I can actually ship out to guinea pigs to play and get coherent feedback about."

Space Giraffe is a psychedelic shooter which follows on from popular Atari Jaguar title Tempest 2000. It will cost you about 400 Microsoft points and is expected to launch sometime this year. ...

Microsoft games head Peter Moore launched an unprecedented attack on Sony's PlayStation 3 business at CES in Las Vegas yesterday, saying the company lacks the talent or the company make-up to ever deliver a suitable online console service for consumers.

"It's going to take [Sony] a couple of years to get up to speed on this, and I'm not sure that they necessarily have the talent, or it's built into who they are as a company," said Moore regarding PlayStation 3's online feature set. "They're struggling with some of their hardware issues, and apparently they're going to deliver another five million in the next 90 days. But this business is about hardware, software and services now. And the consumer expects that."

via eurogamer ...

via engadget



The bad news: in case you haven't heard, the iPhone's still a few months off yet (boo!). The good news: Cingular is more than happy to take down your 411 right now and you'll be "among the first" -- along with virtually every Internet-enabled citizen in the world -- to hear when it hits (yay!). Contain youselves, folks, and continue to use your indoor voices, please; there's really nothing new here. Big Orange's signup page looks pretty stock, and we wouldn't be terribly surprised if it'd been cobbled together only after actually finding out yesterday just what it was it signed up to exclusively offer along with everyone else. We've also managed to score Cingular's iPhone announcement for business customers; its similarly unrevealing, though it does make note that Apple has banned Cingular from offering discounts on the most important consumer device ever iPhone to business customers. Sorry, Premier customers, but not much of a surprise there. ...