It might not say a thousand words, but this picture says enough to bring into question statements by LittleBigPlanet community manager Sam_Protagonist, who claimed the development team had "no plans to introduce" image importing into the game. Clearly, this "work in progress" (as it's called), which appeared in Media Molecules Flickr stream yesterday, shows that the team is developing an "Image Import Tool" that pulls images from the PlayStation 3 hard drive and sticks 'em to players' creations. Indeed, in his denial, Sam_Protagonist did admit that importing is "very much technically viable."

Still, as Sam implied, there are obvious copyright and balls-on-the-walls issues that complicate the introduction of an image-importing tool. Until those are resolved, consider this update for internal use only.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/05/me...e-import-tool/ ...

A report by Verdict Research (via BBC) finds that UK game sales will surpass both music and video in 2008. Video game sales have been on a rampage in the region, with a report earlier this year by the Entertainment Retailers' Association (ERA) stating it had surpassed music sales. The Verdict report predicts a 42% growth in game sales this year to £4.64 billion, with sales of music and video combined at around £4.46 billion.

The ERA counters that the Verdict report is a bit misleading because it includes hardware sales. The organization is confident that game software sales of £1.7 billion will beat out music's (continually dropping sales of) £1.4 billion, but that video revenue will still be about £2.2 billion.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/05/uk...ssibly-movies/ ...

Rare has confirmed that Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts' unclear text on standard definition televisions will not be fixed. The issue came to light following the release of the demo last week and now Rare states that the issue is "too expensive in terms of time, resources and money to alter."

SDTV haters aside, let's accept the fact that this is a serious oversight on par with Dead Rising's tiny text. Adding insult to injury, CVG points out that Xbox Live Arcade games must be playable, which includes text being readable, on a 14" SDTV. Too bad Microsoft doesn't seem to hold its first-party retail games to that strict standard.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/05/ra...ie-text-issue/ ...

What does an Obama presidency mean for video games? 1UP asks the question in a lengthy analysis of Obama's relationship to gaming culture. Obama first entered our scene in December 2007 with comments presented to Common Sense Media on the topic of game violence legislation on his way to being dubbed the most "gamer-friendly" Democratic candidate. But the President-elect is better known for targeting youth voters with a $44.5K in-game ad campaign during the election season. (And apparently, it worked.)

Obama did urge us to "stop playing Game Boy" and put down the Wiimote (see screencap above -- from his Election Day ad), but the sentiments were geared toward encouragement rather than scorn. 66 percent of voters ages 18-29 (you know, gamers) supported Obama yesterday, according to CNN. Perhaps the next US President can show some love back by bringing Wii to the White House.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/05/ye...az-gamer-prez/ ...

It's been less than two weeks since T-Mobile's G1 hit shelves, and Android's already been jailbroken. Folks over at the xda-developers forum discovered an easy way to start telnet on the device, log in as root and get full system access and read and write. While the Googlephone is nowhere near as restricted as the iPhone, there were apparently still a few walls that needed to be broken down and now, anything goes. Check out modmygphone for the full list of jailbreak instructions.

http://modmygphone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4351 ...

A simple gtk interface for search an address and add as POI on TangoGPS

http://projects.openmoko.org/projects/gtkaddpoi/ ...

via IGN


With a little over one month left until the Japanese release of Dissidia Final Fantasy, coverage in publications like Famitsu and Dengeki appears to be increasing for the title. Our latest update comes from Famitsu, which offers this week a look at the game's Final Fantasy VI characters and modes of play.

The FFVI characters were first revealed at the Tokyo Game Show. Joining the Dissidia cast from the Super NES classic are Cefca Palazzo and Tina Branford. Both characters focus on magic attacks, and both gain the ability to float during EX Mode.

Primary modes of play for the title include Story Mode, Quick Battle, and Wireless Mode. These shouldn't require too much explanation. The magazine confirms that your character parameters from the Quick Battle mode can be carried over to the story mode. The Wireless mode lets two players face off in local play. The magazine also speculates that you'll be able to go to the Wireless mode to set up your AI characters for trading with other players.

While you won't be fighting, expect to spend a lot of time in the various gallery modes. The PP Catalogue mode lets you exchange PP that you've earned in quick battle and story modes to purchase battle BGM, Another Forms for each character, and other items. The Museum mode lets you view items that you purchased in the PP Catalogue mode and movies that you encountered throughout the game.

Dissidia is so big that it has two modes for settings. The Player Data Settings mode lets you set your name, and review how much time you've spent playing the game. The main Options mode lets you set up camera controls, audio levels and all the other things you'd expect from an options menu. You can also chose to install the game to Memory Stick for faster load times. The installation lets you select from 245, 373 and 528 megabytes, depending on how much space you want to give up.

Square Enix appears to be trying out some new things with Dissidia to keep players playing. In additon to the above modes, the title screen displays the date and time and even gives you access to a calendar of some form. On certain days, you'll see special icons indicating that you can get more experience by playing on that day. It's possible that there are other bonuses as well, although Square Enix ain't talking yet.

There's definitely a lot packed into the Dissidia experience, and thankfully there's just over a month to go until the Japanese release. You can bet we'll be importing this one and delivering plenty of impressions and movies. ...

via IGN


With a little over one month left until the Japanese release of Dissidia Final Fantasy, coverage in publications like Famitsu and Dengeki appears to be increasing for the title. Our latest update comes from Famitsu, which offers this week a look at the game's Final Fantasy VI characters and modes of play.

The FFVI characters were first revealed at the Tokyo Game Show. Joining the Dissidia cast from the Super NES classic are Cefca Palazzo and Tina Branford. Both characters focus on magic attacks, and both gain the ability to float during EX Mode.

Primary modes of play for the title include Story Mode, Quick Battle, and Wireless Mode. These shouldn't require too much explanation. The magazine confirms that your character parameters from the Quick Battle mode can be carried over to the story mode. The Wireless mode lets two players face off in local play. The magazine also speculates that you'll be able to go to the Wireless mode to set up your AI characters for trading with other players.

While you won't be fighting, expect to spend a lot of time in the various gallery modes. The PP Catalogue mode lets you exchange PP that you've earned in quick battle and story modes to purchase battle BGM, Another Forms for each character, and other items. The Museum mode lets you view items that you purchased in the PP Catalogue mode and movies that you encountered throughout the game.

Dissidia is so big that it has two modes for settings. The Player Data Settings mode lets you set your name, and review how much time you've spent playing the game. The main Options mode lets you set up camera controls, audio levels and all the other things you'd expect from an options menu. You can also chose to install the game to Memory Stick for faster load times. The installation lets you select from 245, 373 and 528 megabytes, depending on how much space you want to give up.

Square Enix appears to be trying out some new things with Dissidia to keep players playing. In additon to the above modes, the title screen displays the date and time and even gives you access to a calendar of some form. On certain days, you'll see special icons indicating that you can get more experience by playing on that day. It's possible that there are other bonuses as well, although Square Enix ain't talking yet.

There's definitely a lot packed into the Dissidia experience, and thankfully there's just over a month to go until the Japanese release. You can bet we'll be importing this one and delivering plenty of impressions and movies. ...

via Games Industry


Capcom's director of production Adam Boyes has said that online console gaming via the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade are still in their infancy.

The company recently canned its digital title Talisman - based on the Games Workshop table top game - with Boyes citing the difficulty of replicating the close social interaction users experience when playing board games.


However, Boyes does agree that board and card games can succeed on PSN and XBLA, where gameplay isn't so time consuming, and Capcom is still open to bringing such product to the services.


The rights to create a game based on the Talisman board game have now reverted back to Games Workshop. ...