thsoundman writes with this excerpt from thegamersblog:
"We live in a world where we have multiple platforms for gaming: PC, PS3, 360, Wii, etc. Each platform has varying amounts of power when it comes to playing games. Activision, one of the leading cross-platform publishers, wishes to move away from the 'walled gardens' set by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. ... [Activision CEO Bobby] Kotick’s solution is to turn to the PC, where it can set its own model for pricing — not unlike what Blizzard has done with World of Warcraft and Battle.net. Kotick stated that Activision would 'very aggressively' support the likes of HP and Dell in any attempt at making an easy 'plug-and-play' PC that would hook up directly to the TV."

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...eplaced-By-PCs ...

A new entry in Level-5's Inazuma Eleven series of football role-playing games for the Nintendo DS has dominated the weekly sales charts in Japan, with just over half a million sales in its debut.

Like the last sequel the game is sold in two Pokémon style variants named Spark and Bomber. In part due to the continuing excitement over the World Cup the title's 505,000 first week sales are considerably higher than the around 300,000 debut of the previous sequel.

In a relatively busy week of new releases the third entry in the popular Taiko: Drum Master DS range of games entered the charts at number two with 70,000 unit sales.

Also new at number three is the PlayStation 3 version of 2D beat 'em-up BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, which improved on the debut of the first game in the series with a total of 50,000 unit sales. The Xbox 360 version entered the charts at number 11 with less than 16,000 unit sales.

The final new entry in the top 10 is Namco Bandai's Digimon Story: Lost Evolution. The fifth title in the franchise on the DS saw 34,000 sales in its first week.

Although the rest of the chart is composed of the usual evergreen titles, and last week's more popular releases, previous number one seller Monster Hunter Frontier Online for the Xbox 360 has fallen all the way to number 14. It is currently unclear whether stock problems have contributed to the sudden collapse in sales.

The Media Create Japanese software chart for the week ending July 4 is as follows:

01 Inazuma Eleven 3: Challenge the World!! Spark/Bomber (DS)
02 Taiko Drum Master DS: Dororon! Great Demon Decisive Battle!! (DS)
03 BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (PS3)
04 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
05 Digimon Story: Lost Evolution (DS)
06 LovePlus+ (DS)
07 Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side 3rd Story (DS)
08 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010: Blue Samurai Challenge (PS3)
09 Art Academy (DS)
10 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010: Blue Samurai Challenge (PS3)

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...umber-one-spot ...

Over a third of mobile phone-owning Americans use their handset to play games, according to the Mobile Access 2010 report.

The Pew Research Center's survey claimed that 34 per cent of US phone owners are now gaming on their mobiles, up from 27 per cent last year.

In addition, some 60 per cent of younger owners use their phones as a gaming device, the report states.

The iPhone is a major contributor to mobile gaming, with Apple confirming earlier this week that it had sold 1.7 million units of its fourth-generation handset within three days.

The survey also reveals that mobile phone internet access is on the rise, with 40 per cent of the 2252 respondents using their handsets to web browse, email or instant message - a rise from 32 per cent in 2009.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...n-their-phones ...

Wii exclusive Metroid: Other M will be released in Europe on 3rd September, Nintendo has confirmed.

The Team Ninja/Nintendo collaboration blends Ninja Gaiden-style gameplay with Metroid's well-known platforming and puzzle-solving.

You can switch from third-person to first-person views by changing the way you hold the Wii Remote.

And, of course, you can turn into a little ball.

The story begins immediately following the events of classic platforming shooter Super Metroid, when a baby Metroid gave its life to protect Samus. The game's got English voice acting and more than one hour of rendered cut-scenes.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/metroid-other-m-dated ...

Activision has insisted Bizzare Creations' recently released racer Blur was not a commercial flop, despite disappointing US sales.

The publishing behemoth also revealed that Freestyle's peripheral music title DJ Hero, which many consider to be a commercial failure, has sold an impressive 1.2 million copies to date.

Blur sold 31,000 copies in the US in May, although it had only been on sale for five days at the end of the month.

"The audience was split three ways," Activision's Dan Amrich said in a blog post.

"Blur came out a week after Split/Second and the same day as ModNation Racers. I'm not sure what your budget looks like, but I can rarely afford to buy three games in eight days - nor do I have the time to play all of them at once anyway."

Amrich described NPD's sales data for May, which only represents one week in the month, as "very outdated".

"Blur shipped 25th May in the US, 28th May in the UK. Since the June data is not yet available (and won't be for a few more weeks), we are looking at one week of sales and no international data."

Amrich likened Blur's sales performance to DJ Hero's, a game he said benefited from a "long tail".

"While big sales out of the gate are always preferred, a slow first week no longer means a death sentence. A perfect example: DJ Hero was dubbed a flop on its release too, but what it needed was time for its audience to find it, a price break, and positive word from both friends and reviews to circulate. October and November were soft, but after the holiday, DJ Hero had hit about 800,000 units; today it's 1.2 million units and counting, all of which come with a turntable controller. That's not a flop; that's the long tail at work.

"So to suggest a game is a failure because it didn't sell hundreds of thousands of units in its first 168 hours is pretty ridiculous. June's data will be very interesting to see, and I don't expect to hear much about any victories it might represent, since it's a less sexy story than 'Blur failed in week one'. Bad news travels fast."

He added: "For what it's worth, I played Blur a fair amount this weekend, both PS3 and 360, and it was smooth sailing for me. I have never logged on and found less than several hundred players in the lobby, eager to race. Hundreds to thousands of people playing online every day, stable servers, positive reviews…folks, this game is not a failure, and it's an irresponsible disservice to use that word to describe Blur. All it's really guilty of is coming in third in a three-way race. And that was just the first lap."

While some doubt the commercial success of Blur and DJ Hero, both games were critically acclaimed. Blur managed an 8/10 on Eurogamer, as did DJ Hero.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ac...-not-a-failure ...

Mick Hocking is a pretty important man in Sony towers.

As well as being a senior director of SCEE, he runs three major Sony development studios in the UK.

Oh, and he's the company's worldwide studios boss for 3D games.

Basically, when he talks about 3D, it's wise to listen... which is exactly what we did today, when Mr Hocking gave a presentation of what we can expect from PS3's 3D powers at an exclusive London event.

Below are the very words he used - and if you're a hardcore gamer, it's pretty difficult not to get very, very excited about what's coming down the line...



This year is obviously a very big year for us. There's the launch of Sony 3DTV, and also, crucially, the upgrade of the PlayStation3 to support 3D games.

Now, in June this year we did the 3D Firmware update. Every PlayStation 3 that's connected online now has a new version of this Firmware.

At the last count we've got 35.8 million PlayStation 3s out there - that means there's an instant market of around 36 million 3D-ready PlayStation 3 consoles. The upgrade basically makes every PlayStation 3 HDMI 1.4 compatible - that's the standard that governs 3D displays.

What this means is that there is no setup at all required. If you have a PlayStation 3 and you buy a 3DTV, you simply connect via your HDMI cable and your PlayStation 3 will automatically recognise that you've got a 3D display attached.

It knows the size of the screen as well, which is very important for actually rendering 3D correctly and giving you the right sense of depth.

And in our games you'll see the menu to play the game in 3D automatically. You don't have to press any buttons or go through any menus - it's all completely automatic and seamless, which is jolly good.

We've launched four titles in June to support the 3D ready PS3 - and these are also bundled with our 3D Bravia TVs for free. If you've already purchased them [in 2D] from our PSN store, they're also free to download - or you can go along and buy them if you don't have them yet.

There's Wipeout, Motorstorm, Super Stardust and PAIN - which involves throwing a character into scenery and hurting them as much as possible. All these are full games except for Motorstorm, which is a demo.

In September this year, we're launching another Firmware upgrade - and this one is going to upgrade the PS3 to support Blu-ray movies in 3D. Again, you won't have to do anything - just connect your PS3. For the film market that's a very significant event.

Then later in the year - we're not going to date it yet - the PS3 is going to support 3D photos. Of course the popularity of 3D isn't just going to come from movies and games. There's 3D cameras on the market, there's 3D camcorders coming on the market in the next 12 months as well, and 3D broadcasts.

Crucially for us, PlayStation 3 will be able to store all types of 3D content. And we can do this through properly upgrading the Firmware on the platform.

more --> http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Successors to the Wii and Xbox 360 are more likely to arrive before the release of the PlayStation 4, according to a top Sony exec.
“Looking from the outside, it was Microsoft that released the first of this generation of consoles. Naturally, in my opinion, Microsoft will make the first move," Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Develop.
“Or, because Nintendo’s approach was not to upgrade much on its basic hardware – Wii doesn’t even support HD resolution – so they might be the first to move."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39917/Xbox...-PS4-to-market ...

Successors to the Wii and Xbox 360 are more likely to arrive before the release of the PlayStation 4, according to a top Sony exec.
In an exclusive interview with Develop, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said he imagined either Nintendo or Microsoft will jump first to the next generation of consoles.
Five years into the current console generation and the three big platform holders have decided against discussing future hardware. When asked why he thought this was, Yoshida said:
“Looking from the outside, it was Microsoft that released the first of this generation of consoles. Naturally, in my opinion, Microsoft will make the first move.
“Or, because Nintendo’s approach was not to upgrade much on its basic hardware – Wii doesn’t even support HD resolution – so they might be the first to move.

“Probably the watch should be on these companies, in my opinion. Because PS3 was later than Xbox, and is more powerful, so it has a longer lifespan.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...next-gen-first ...

Rockstar has announced it will release a series of downloadable content packs for Red Dead Redemption.
The four packs will be released on both PSN and Xbox Live over the next few months, starting with the Legends and Killers Pack next month. Also named was the Liars and Cheats Pack, Free Roam Pack and Undead Nightmare Pack.
“We want to continue to provide Red Dead Redemption’s fans with a steady supply of innovative new content,” said Rockstar founder Sam Houser.
“Our goal is to continue to pack as much entertaining gameplay and as many surprises as we can into the massive world of Red Dead Redemption over the coming months.”
Each Pack will add new content, characters, environments, weapons and more to the multiplayer mode – although the Undead Nightmare Pack will also add single-player missions as Marston faces off against ghosts and zombies.

With the exception of the Free Roam Pack, each DLC has been priced at £9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points. The last one, Undead Nighmare, will be released this autumn.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39915/New-...-DLC-announced ...