Via Eurogamer

Rare has officially confirmed its involvement in the development of Diddy Kong Racing on Nintendo DS, marking the first - but not necessarily the last - collaboration with its former partner since the studio was bought by Microsoft.

Arguably producing some of their best work with Nintendo, there was serious and justifiable doubt as to whether or not the two companies would work together again after Microsoft coughed up $375 million for Rare - but it's all turned out all right.

In a post on the company website, Rare revealed: "Yes, Diddy Kong Racing is our first official DS project."

Apparently it's "based on the N64 classic but improved and expanded in ways that only the DS allows," and will feature remodelled and retextured tracks. You can also expect a new mode called TT's Wish Races which that lets you design and race around your own custom-built course.

There's also a bunch of new characters to play with, customisable vehicles, new weapons and gameplay modes, plus eight-player single and multi-card Wi-Fi play. Oh, and touch-screen and microphone functionality - and Rare says that's only the half of it.

No release date for the title has been set yet, but check back for more details soon. ...

Via Engadget

Somehow, we suspect Sony's brass are not very happy right now. Instead of spending their time at E3 fielding softball questions about the Playstation 3's graphics, they're playing defense, as they continue to face queries about the new console's pricing and the missing features on the lower-priced version. In an interview with CNN, Sony's Kaz Hirai said the pricing -- $499 for the 20GB PS3 and $599 for the 60GB version -- was justified by the inclusion of technologies like the Cell processor and Blu-ray, and added that the "totality" of the product is a "good value for consumers." Hirai also defended the lack of HDMI on the 20GB PS3, commenting that "there's not a discernible difference between what you get between HDMI and other forms of high definition." While that might be the case with current Blu-ray flicks, all movie studios (including Sony Pictures) have reserved the right to implement the Image Constraint Token in future discs, which could force anyone using analog outputs -- including owners of the 20GB PS3 -- to watch downgraded video. We assume Hirai's familiar with the issue, so we have to wonder whether his claim that the PS3 is "future-proofed" is just a little bit disingenuous. All it would take is one Blu-ray disc with ICT for owners of 20GB PS3s to realize they've been locked out of the future. ...

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Via CVG

The new Dual Shock 3 pad has been met with a mixed reception at E3. Eschewing the boomerang look unveiled at E3 2005, the Dual Shock 3 now has added 'tilt functionality' which developers are divided about. The new 'PlayStation' button on the pad, which takes gamers online, isn't present on current Dual Shock 3 pads on the show floor - suggesting that both functions were added at the eleventh hour.

A senior EA source working across playable versions of PS3 sports titles admitted that they were only told about the new pad functions on Monday 8th May. "the Sony conference came as a shock, we didn't expect that" said the source. Current games in development such as Madden and Tiger Woods will now face increased development time due to the need to incorporate the motion sensitive tilt functions.

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima intends to do add tilt functions to Metal Gear Solid 4 but said he would rather work on Nintendo Wii."As a game designer, it really is the game hardware that I want to work most on" Kojima said. ...

Via CVG

The Metal Gear mastermind has new plans for Nintendo and Microsoft consoles.

Hideo Kojima today announced that he considered the Metal Gear Solid series to be 'made for for PlayStation platform'.

Kojima Productions will be working on Wii and Xbox 360 titles but, crucially, they won't be featuring Solid Snake. "If I was going to do a game on Wii or Xbox 360, I would do a completely different game - not Metal Gear Solid" said Kojima.

Kojima also went on to say that MGS 4 will have important online elements and will use the motion sensing properties of the Dual Shock 3 pad. Taking a swipe at pre rendered PS3 demos currently doing the rounds at E3, Kojima confirmed that the new MGS4 trailer is completely real time "one thing I want you to know is that these cinematics are done in real time on the demo kit". ...

via CVG

Until this week, details about the forthcoming Final Fantasy VII prequel have been harder to come by than a moogle without its pompom. Square Enix threw anxious FFVII fans a bone at their E3 press conference when they screened a brief trailer of the game and also announced fresh plot details. Better get yourself a cup of tea, this might get a little complicated.

According to Square Enix, Crisis Core is a prequel to the original Final Fantasy VII, which was released way back in January 1997 on the PlayStation. It's actually the final installment in the four-part Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, which also included the Advent Children DVD/UMD. The all-new Crisis Core storyline centres around a character called Zack who returned to the Lifestream some time before the events of FFVII, and promises to reveal more secrets about the behind-the-scenes skullduggery of Shinra.

That's about all we've got for now, more as and when Square Enix drip feeds it to us ...

Via CVG

The man who heads up Microsoft Game Studios has called Sony's PS3 online service into question, claiming that it is already way behind Xbox Live and can't match up with the new Live Anywhere system.

Speaking exclusively to CVG at E3 today, Kim told us that "Sony still has a lot to prove with its online service" if it's going to challenge the established might of Xbox Live. When we asked him what would happen if Sony's online service matched Xbox Live, Kim's doubts over the PS3's ability to match up were evident. "It's a big if," he said. "We've already gone to the next level, and I don't think Sony can do what we're doing."

But Kim pointed out that there were no plans to 'spoil' the launch of the PS3 with Halo 3 - or any other game. "If we wanted to use Halo 3 as a pawn in our strategy then yeah, we'd release it on PS3 launch date. But Halo 3 is not a pawn. It won't do anybody any good to have Halo 3 rushed out just to spoil someone else's console launch."

Kim reckons that the Halo 3 trailer - shown for the first time at Microsoft's Pre-E3 press conference yesterday and available for viewing right here - was a far stronger statement than either Sony or Nintendo managed. "It was a great way to end our briefing as opposed to the way some other people ended theirs. It was great to finally confirm that the new Halo game will be the third in the trilogy and that Master Chief will be finishing the fight in 2007."

And what about those rumours that the next Halo game would be some kind of spin-off from the trilogy? "Hopefully we've put to bed any concerns or confusion about what Bungie is doing with the Halo universe. They're very focused on Halo 3 and they're going to make it bigger and better and everything everyone expects."

Kim is also confident that the Xbox 360's line-up of games is strong enough to compete with the PS3. "Xbox 360 is going to be the only place you can play Gears of War, Forza Motorsport 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. I really think Gears of War is shaping up to be the next big blockbuster and we have that exclusively. That's why I believe we have the very best lineup available on the next-gen consoles."

As for the PS3's pricing, Kim echoed Peter Moore's comments to us earlier today that Sony has priced it too high. "I also think we have a pricing advantage," he said. ...

Via Gamesindustry

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at E3 this week, Microsoft's games boss Peter Moore discusses his reaction to Sony and Nintendo's conferences, and Microsoft's own plans for the future of the games business.

GamesIndustry.biz: All three companies laid their cards on the table earlier this week - from your perspective, what do you make of the three conferences and the reaction to them so far?

Peter Moore: I think that we came here with a very focused view on what we needed to communicate at our press conference. I was quite frankly surprised at what Sony had to show - and I was a little surprised at the pricing announcement. We weren't quite sure about whether they were going to come clean with the pricing. Having two SKUs sounds familiar, having a global launch in November sounds familiar...

I'm trying to rationalise $500 and $600, though. I don't know what that is in pounds - they haven't announced pricing yet - but I remember the abuse we got for ��. I'm trying to rationalise whether Blu-Ray, a format that hasn't hit the market yet, can justify that pricing - and whether, when I look at their games and look at our games, I can see a $200 or $300 price differential in the quality of their games versus our games. I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing that yet.

Maybe I'm missing it, but when I see Gears of War... When I know that what you saw from Halo 3 is in-engine... Actually, blown up on the big screen, I didn't like the way it showed, because I've seen it on things like this [gestures to LCD screen] which is the way you should see it, and the game was spectacular. That was not CGI, that's in-engine work.

Then, having that little announcement of making sure that Grand Theft Auto IV debuts on our platform on day one, October 19th in Europe - when I roll all that together, and throw in this little thing called Xbox Live, and all of the opportunities that has provided for gamers to look at different ways to play, for publishers to have the opportunity to commercially transact with consumers who are totally connected. Xbox Live and Marketplace continues to be a monster phenomenon.

I add all that together, and compare it to what I'm seeing from the other guys, and I'm feeling pretty good that we're certainly in the right place. You know, having ten million units head-start - it's funny, you wrote about it at the ELSPA Summit last summer when I said that ten million was important. People kind of laughed at that and said there was no way we could do it, but we'll hit ten million way before the holiday of this year.

We think that a head-start of that magnitude is a virtuous cycle. There's a lot of goodness for publishers, there's a lot of goodness for retailers - but more importantly, we're driving Xbox Live, driving Marketplace, driving Arcade, driving fresh, downloadable content.

Providing gamers around the world - as we're dong right now, in real time - the ability to download hi-def content. We put everything you saw at the conference up on Marketplace last night, so that the guys who can't get to E3 can experience it on their hi-def TVs or whatever way they want to experience it. We're getting the numbers right now, but I can feel the heat from the servers as they handle those downloads. The Gears of War demo is being downloaded, the video of that, the trailer itself - and of course, Halo 3, the in-game video that we showed.

So I'm feeling comfortable that we're delivering what we say we're delivering. I don't think we've ever said things that we haven't delivered on, at this point. Last year was tough for us, because we took the high road; you, and everyone else, criticised us for having alpha kits running, but to me it would have been disingenuous to show videos of things that we needed to ship that year.

I haven't had a chance to go over to Sony's booth - I'm sure there's a ton of playables over there, I don't know. I want to go see Killzone, and see what it looks and feels like that.

You'll be disappointed on that front I'm afraid, there's no sign of it this year.

Yeah, well. There's a surprise.

From our point of view, we're completely focused on delivering volume and supply for retail this year - because it's going to be another tough holiday if we don't step up our volume.

Despite what Sony will tell you, they really don't know - they don't know what their yields are, they don't know what issues they're going to face in production. While I hope for the good of the industry that they hit the numbers that they say they're going to hit, it remains to be seen whether you can ramp at that level. That's a lot of units ramping; they've got to start making it very soon. Complexities of Blu-Ray, complexities of Cell technology, silicon yields and what have you... They'll figure it all out, but they know it's not easy.

You mentioned GTA IV a moment ago, but is it really a huge coup for you just to get equal treatment from Rockstar on a game? Is a simultaneous multi-platform launch really worth tattooing yourself over?

Well, here's the deal - yeah, absolutely. Many people would attribute the success of the PlayStation 2 to the success of Grand Theft Auto 3. It is our view that in the next generation, third party exclusives will become harder to find - so what people were missing, and maybe it wasn't made clear, is that day and date is important to us because when we do our research and ask PS2 owners why they're going to buy a PS3, they say it's because the only place they'll get Grand Theft Auto. That is empirical data that we've been amassing.

So when you talk about neutralising ...

Via GiBiz

SCEI president Ken Kutaragi has declared it will be up to consumers to decide whether the PS3 is worth the asking price - as they did when the original PlayStation was released.

In an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Kutaragi said: "Price setting is always a headache for us. No game machines are comparable to the PS3, which is neither a genuine game console, home electronics [product] nor a personal computer. It is a new kind of product."

The PS3 is set to launch globally this November, priced at USD 499 / EURO 499 for the 20GB version or USD 599 / EURO 599 for the 60GB model.

According to Kutaragi, it will be "consumers who decide whether it's expensive or cheap. If a product offers charm, then buyers will be convinced."

Kutaragi then referred to the original PlayStation, which launched in December 1994 with a price tag of YEN 39,800 (EURO 280).

"With Nintendo's 16-bit machine selling for about YEN 12,000 (EURO 85) at that time, the media criticised us for priciness - but it became an explosive hit." ...