PSP Video Games News

Sitting on top of a variety of movie and music labels, Sony Corp should be in the strongest position to deliver the all-encompassing media hub that virtually every company in the sector is striving to create.

For decades, Sony has attempted to unify its diverse range of hardware manufacturers and content companies, bringing the material created by the likes of Colombia Pictures and Epic Records to products that it creates.  However a long history of corporate infighting and a lack of insight have thwarted such plans in the past.

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We're not the biggest fans of pipe music; pan pipes are for hippies and the less said about bagpipes the better.  But Link has always been a fan of the wind instruments so we're willing to look beyond our own prejudices in this case.

Nintendo today announced that you'll need to master such instruments in the forthcoming The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.  Thankfully it doesn't seem as though you'll have to whistle songs into the DS' microphone, instead using the stylus and touchscreen to control the pitch and play the correct melodies to restore the tracks to each of the temples featured in the game.  

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The English translation to Nintendo's Q&A session following the company's recent six month financial results has finally arrived.  Much of the information has already been revealed via hasty Google translations of the original Japanese transcript; however, like my mother always says, the devil is in the detail.

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The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will mark a landmark in the history of Zelda games. Not only will it cast aside the archetypal damsel in distress storyline, but it will also place Princess Zelda alongside Link as they fight together to save the land of Hyrule.

Zelda, who has traditionally been saved by Link at the end of his many epic adventures, will now be able to command Phantoms with her spirit and provide handy navigational tips for Link (uncovering new areas, storyline arcs, and items) as he drives Spirit Tracks' train.

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A lack of key Wii releases and the recent price drop were cited as determining factors in Nintendo posting a 52% drop in net income for the six months ended September 30th 2009 compared to the same period last year.

Net sales for the six month period ended September 30th 2009 amounted to 548.06 billion yen, which represents a 34.5% drop compared to the same period last year and 21.7% below forecasts issued earlier in the year.

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Despite only a few days ago denying that a new Nintendo DS was in the pipeline, the Japanese hardware giant today unveiled the Nintendo DSi LL, due to be released in Japan on November 21st for 20,000 yen (£134).

As previously reported the new version features larger 4.2" screens compared to the DSi's 3.25".  As a result the dimensions of the device have increased by approximately 15% to 161mm x 91.4mm x 21.2 mm, and weighs 100g more than the DSi.  The format will initially be available in three colours: Wine Red, Dark Brown and Natural White.

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Following increased speculation that Nintendo is on the verge of announcing a new Nintendo DS, the Nikkei Shimbun is reporting that the fourth iteration of the popular handheld will feature larger screens.

The article fails to reveal any further specifications, although reports from GI.biz indicate that the screens will now measure 4 inches compared to 3.5 inches on the current DSi and is designed to compete with the iTouch/iPhone instead of the PSP.

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According to a job posting on Gamasutra, EA and Steven Spielberg's collaborative game series, Boom Blox could be set to make the jump from its Wii spawning grounds to the higher tech. surroundings of Sony and Microsoft's current-gen consoles.

"Our last two titles were Wii-based, but our next titles will be for the next generation," reads this job ad for work at Electronic Arts' LA studio (thanks, Superannuation). The ad also specifies that successful applicants will be working on, "The BAFTA-winning Boom Blox team".

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EA has announced that its Need For Speed series has passed through the milestone of 100 million lifetime sales, collating an impressive $2.7 billion (£1.63 billion) in total sales revenues along the way.

The arcade racing game series has been iterated through 15 separate titles across 14 different platforms since its inception in 1994, with gamers logging over 279 billion miles on the various race tracks and roads featured throughout the series' history (how EA figured out that stat is anybody's guess).

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The European PlayStation blog has recently posted a belated interview from Gamescom with Hideo Kojima.  Responding to questions from the community regarding a possible update to the popular mech space-opera series, Zone of Enders, Kojima-san suggested that a sequel is certainly on the cards.

"A lot of the users gives us lots of love calls about Zone of the Enders especially," Kojima-san told the PS blog.  "We actually do love the tile as well at Kojima Productions and we always want to create on the next-gen as well."

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Since the days of the GameCube Nintendo has stuck with ATi to provide the graphics processors behind many of its machines.  However that could be about to change, as a report on Bright Side of News alleges that nVidia will produce the graphics chipset for Nintendo's next handheld.

The article suggests the successor to the Nintendo DS will utilise a Tegra chipset, which has previously been employed in Microsoft's Zune HD player.  Citing inside sources, nVidia will provide a Tegra system-on-chip processor, which contains a CPU, GPU, a media processor and system memory on a low-power consuming chip.  The fact that the Tegra chipset is based on an ARM 11 processor hints that backwards compatibility with DS titles appears likely.

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Hideo Kojima is pretty well known for teasing a waiting audience and playing tricks, so the revelation that he has a surprise in store for Peace Walker on the PSP comes as no surprise.

"I'm putting everything I want to do on a portable console into this game," Kojima-san told Famitsu (translated by 1UP). "I haven't announced this yet, but there's another feature in here that will surprise people, to the point where they'll want to go out and buy a PSP right now!"

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How long does it take to draw thousands of nouns from the English language, put them in a videogame, and then designate specific properties to each object? Only a year and three months, according to the visionary behind recently released DS title, Scribblenauts.

"About a year and three months, which is crazy," said Jeremiah Slaczka, the co-founder of 5th Cell, Scribblenauts' developer. "That's probably the only thing I don't like about 5th Cell's development. It's just how it is. That's the way it is. We're competing against companies like Square Enix and Nintendo, triple-A products.

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Development on Tekken 6 has finished ahead of the game's release on October 30th for the PlayStaiton3 and Xbox 360.

In addition, Namco-Bandai has sent along details of the online modes that feature in the game along with information on the game's exclusive content found in the Home space on PlayStaiton3.

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Watching Ryo Hazuki race alongside Sonic, Eggman and Ai-Ai in Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing may not be the return that Shenmue fans hoped for, but at least it signals the first time we've seen him in over eight years.

On the plus side it does have Ryo racing around in a forklift truck - and for that we're very, very happy SEGA.  What used to be mild curiosity over a fanboy kart-racer has now turned into something we're genuinely craving over, simply to see Ryo in action once again.

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Could game rentals be on their way to PSN? It would certainly be the next logical step in the digital distribution chain and, if these latest reports are anything to go by, then Sony's PSP may be the first console to harbour the service.

Gamespot has picked up and confirmed a story from a blog called The Retail Gamer, which indicates that Sony has added extra functions to help players group their games in the PSP's XMB interface. The only thing is, these grouping options make no sense given the handheld's current capabilities.

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Despite assurances from Sony that sales of the PSPgo are in line with its expectations, UK retailers have already started to drop their asking price for the handheld while one outlet is reporting slow sales of the console in its first week on the market after it launched on October 1st.

Although Sony has set a £224.99 RRP for the PSPgo, retailers including Amazon, Play, Game, and HMV have already knocked that price down to £199.99. We can confirm via a Google cache that at least one of these retailers was selling the system at £224.99 a week ago.

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EA Sports' FIFA 10 has become the fastest selling FIFA game in UK history and the second biggest game launch ever, with only Rockstar's GTA IV selling more copies during its launch week.

This is according to official Chart Track figures, which place FIFA atop the UK charts following its release on Friday. FIFA 10's sales at launch were 48% higher than its predecessor, while the format spread was 2% higher on the Xbox 360 than they were on PS3 (Xbox 360 - 48%, PS3 - 46%, other formats - 6%).

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EA discovered the perils of releasing unfinished features in a finished game across the launch weekend of FIFA 10.  Attempts to use the Game Face technology or Live Season 2.0 failed abjectly, with servers allegedly struggling to keep up with the sheer demand.

Players struggled to log-in to the website www.easportsfootball.co.uk, and on the rare occasion when the editor was actually available, problems such as editing or saving meant that a lot of disgruntled customers were intensifying the heat in EA's official forums across the weekend.

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Codemasters has announced a UK release date of 20th November for F1 2009 on PSP and Wii ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend (where Jenson Button could seal the deal). The game will release across the rest of Europe on November 19th and the US on November 17th.

That's about it really, apart from this snazzy new trailer for the Wii version showing footage from F1 2009's Suzuka circuit...

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UK Supermarket Tesco is currently offering EA's FIFA 10 at £24.97, which is a markdown of 50% from the game's RRP of £49.99, while other retailers have attempted to follow suit with similar price reductions.

We purchased our copies at the store this morning from a promotional display that was setup front and centre at our local Tesco Direct but, if you can't be bothered to make the journey, then there's always the online option via the TVG Store.

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With Sony's PSPgo launching worldwide today, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has released details of the 13 PSP Minis games that will be launching via the PlayStation Store today for the PSPgo and all previous PSP consoles.

Alien Havoc: Sounds like a platformer with ZX Spectrum homebrew sensibilities from developer Creat Studio. As an alien trying to transport cows onto your spaceship, you must avoid the attentions of farmers trying to stop you.

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Nintendo has announced a UK release date of December 11th for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Link's latest adventure on Nintendo's DS platform.

Judging from our hands-on with the E3 build of the game earlier this year, Spirit Tracks is very similar in format to 2007's Phantom Hourglass. The major new additions include a steam train instead of a boat in the exploration sections, while Link now has control of a Phantom companion for the puzzles.

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Although Sony previously said that it was looking into the feasibility of a service that would allow PSPgo adopters to convert their UMD discs into digital files for use with the UMD-less handheld, the company has now confirmed that it will not be supporting such an initiative for the time being.

"We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time," a SCEA spokesperson told Kotaku. Put another way, don't hold your breath.

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Major Nelson has just confirmed the arrival of a PES 2010 demo onto Xbox Live. Demos for PS3 and PC are also scheduled for release today as the game prepares for its full retail launch on October 23rd.

According to Nelson's blog, the demo supports multiplayer and allows players to sample PES 2010's new tactical slider settings, which you can have a good look at in the trailer below.

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Although we're undeniably entering the age of digital distribution, hardware manufacturers are still playing a cautious game in order not to upset retail where the vast majority of game sales still occur.  But it seems Sony has been a little too quick to jump on the bandwagon and distance itself from the unmitigated failure that was the UMD with the launch of the UMD-less PSP Go!.

The Dutch retailer Nedgame has confirmed on its website that it will not be stocking the latest iteration of Sony's handheld format, claiming that consumers still want a choice between physical and digital distribution and cite the increased retail price for the unit as key reasons behind its decision.

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The creators of Wallace & Grommit will be bringing a series of short films to the Nintendo DS during the run up to Christmas.

The shorts will be created by Aardman's Tim Ruffle with Flipnote Studio, a flipbook animation application available for free via DSiWare.  The first of which, 'The Sandwich Times' will be available to download from September 16th.

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Following an appearance in the latest issue of Famitsu further details on Okamiden - or Okamiden: Chisaki Taiyou to give its full title - have come to light.

The DS outing is a full-blown sequel to the critically-acclaimed yet commercial failure PS2/Wii title, and not an adaptation as first believed.  The sequel takes place barely months after the events of the original, but features a new protagonist going by the name of Chibiterasu.  

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The rumours surrounding 'Okamiden' were true... well nearly.  Revealed in the latest issue of Famitsu, Okamiden is confirmed as being a new title on the Nintendo DS.

Next to no details are known about the game at this stage, although judging from the Famitsu images it appears that Okamiden remains faithful to its PS2/Wii predecessor.

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Rockstar has announced via Twitter that the PSP version of GTA: Chinatown Wars will be released on October 20th in the US, which suggests that the game will launch in the UK on October 23rd.

Further details from the Twitter announcement also reiterated that the game will be available via PSN as well, although there's no confirmation of whether or not the digital download will be released day-and-date with the UMD version at retail.

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Konami has announced from GamesCom that PES 2010 will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on October 22nd, which is a mere three weeks after the currently slated release date for FIFA 10.

October 22nd is a Thursday though, so we'd expect that date to be for continental Europe with the UK receiving it one day later on the Friday. PSP and PS2 versions will then arrive shortly after this on November 5th and, true to Konami's promise, the Wii version will launch this side of Christmas on November 19th (both dates are also Thursdays).

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Even though Sony announced price points of $250 and 250 euros for its PSP Go console at E3 earlier this year, it's taken until now for the manufacturer to announce an RRP of £224.99 for the UK market.

Similarly to the PS3 Slim's UK price tag of £249.99, this PSP Go pricing is hardly kind to the British market where the original PSP launched for £179 on September 1st 2005, which will be over four years prior to the PSP Go's scheduled release on October 1st of this year.

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FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter has just revealed a new mode for FIFA 10 at EA's GamesCom keynote address in Germany. The new Virtual Pro feature will incorporate EA's Photo Game Face technology into FIFA for the first time.

The technology, which allows a user to upload a photo of their face into the game and paste their likeness onto an in-game avatar, has been previously used in EA Sports' Tiger Woods series.

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A European release date of February 9th has just been announced by EA for Dante's Inferno, with a North American launch to follow three days later on February 12th.

This announcement comes via EA's GamesCom keynote, where a couple of new gameplay features were also revealed for the hellish hack 'n slash game.

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Eidos has announced that a demo for IO Interactive's next opus, Mini Ninjas, will be released for Xbox and PC on Wednesday of this week (via Live and the official Mini Ninjas website respectively), while a PS3 demo will surface on PSN a day later on August 20th.

The cartoon styled action adventure follows the story of Mini Ninjas Hiro, Futo, and Suzume as they travel through feudal Japan and try to restore a harmonius equilibrium back into the world by eliminating the chaotic dark forces that have overpowered it.

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Beaterator, a collaborative project by Rockstar and "urban music" uber-producer Timbaland, will be released for the PSP and PSN on October 2nd, Rockstar has just announced.

The music sequencing game, which allows users to put together tunes using loops and beats that are unmistakably Timbaland^TM, was originally released as a flash game on the Rockstar website, but is now being transferred over to PSP and PSN by the clever folks at Rockstar Leeds (of GTA: Chinatown Wars/Liberty City Stories/Vice City Stories fame).

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This year's Football Manager has just got the announcement treatment from SEGA and Sports Interactive, which includes a range of new features as well as a release date of October 30th for both PC/Mac and PSP versions of the title.

Highlighting the new features is a Match Analysis tool, which will allows users to "see where shots, passes, crosses, headers, tackles, fouls and interceptions have been made on the field for all players on the pitch." This information is available both during and after a match, allowing users to analyse the data and either pick apart the opposition or improve their own team's performance.

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Namco Bandai has just announced a UK date for Tekken 6, which will arrive in the territory on October 30th accompanied by Collectors and Arcade Stick special editions of the game.

The Collector's Edition seems to be taking a leaf out of the complimentary art book of Modern Warfare 2, as MCV is reporting that Namco Bandai is pricing it at £69.99 (£10 higher than a typical RRP for a Collectors Edition game in the UK).

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The usual heavyweights of World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty fuelled Activision-Blizzard's results beyond expectations for the fiscal second quarter ended June 30th 2009.

For the period, the world's largest third-party publisher posted GAAP net revenues of $1.04 billion and a GAAP operating income of $218 million.  On a non-GAAP basis, the publisher recorded net revenues of $801 million and an operating income of $156 million for the period.

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Although we’re still some time away from day one releases on Games on Demand, Microsoft today released the list of titles that we can expect when the service launches with the Xbox 360 dash update on August 11th.

The full list includes:

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According to reports that have surfaced overnight, a Wii version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward's 2007 original) will be released alongside the series' highly anticipated sequel this November 10th.

This news comes from a Kotaku report, which states that Activision will officially announce the game today and, with Activision's Q1 financials incoming tonight, it wouldn't surprise us one little bit if the report is accurate.

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Activision has announced a DS companion for this November's Modern Warfare 2 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilised, which will release alongside the home console versions on November 10th.

A wide range of warring gameplay has been promised for the handheld spin-off, such as taking control of battle tanks and spy drones, manning an AC-130 gunship's cannons, and hacking computer terminals.

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Plunging worldwide Wii sales and a lack of software releases has led to Nintendo posting decreases in net sales, operating income, and net income for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30th 2009.

Nintendo's net sales for the period dropped by 40.1% to 253.50 billion yen compared with 423.38 billion yen in the previous year.  As a result operating income for the period plunged to 40.40 billion yen, representing a 66.1% decrease on 119.19 billion yen for the same period in the prior year.  Net income for the period dropped by 60.6% to 42.32 billion yen compared with 107.27 billion yen in the previous year.

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Sony's exclusivity period in Europe for Terminal Reality's Ghostbusters will end on October 23rd of this year when the game will release on the Xbox 360, Wii, DS, and PC according to Namco Bandai Partners' latest release schedule.

Up until May of this year, Namco Bandai Partners (then Atari) was poised to release the game across all of its originally slated formats until Sony swooped in and purchased an exclusivity deal for the title, which then released for PS3 and PS2 in June (a PSP version is still planned for a later date).

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Disney Interactive has announced the development of an Alice In Wonderland game that will release in conjunction with Tim Burton's upcoming film starring Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. The game is being released in the same week as the film's release (March 5th 2010) for the DS, Wii, and PC.

As with the film, the game's story is set after the events of Lewis Carroll's original stories when Alice returns to Wonderland in her late teens. Alice must find her way through Underland by solving puzzles and unravelling mysteries, before ultimately defeating the Red Queen and Jabberwocky to restore Underland back into Wondelrand.

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We were certainly surprised by Sony's decision not to put a second analogue stick on the PSP Go. The single analogue 'nipple' on previous PSP iterations has been a bone of contention for Sony fans since the design's inception in 2004/05 as it limits the amount of control players have in third and first-person action games.

So, why didn't Sony incorporate a second stick into the PSP Go? It's something to do with the platform's mid-life cycle and back compatibility according to the latest issue of Game Informer. Sony Worldwide Studios President, Shuhei Yoshida explains:

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This year's PES certainly looks the biz judging by the screens and footage we've seen so far, but Konami isn't limiting itself to aesthetics this year as the publisher has today detailed a range of new features for the game's Master League mode.

It looks like the biggest addition will be a new youth team feature, which allows gamers to develop youngsters by investing in them at a young age and fast-tracking their skills before introducing them into the first team.

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The first game didn't exactly set our pulses racing but still managed to sell relatively well, so the fact that a sequel is on the cards is hardly surprising;  but then again, a superhero movie adaptation timed alongside a Hollywood blockbuster is never really a hard thing to push. 

"Renowned" comic-book author Matt Fraction will pen an entirely new script for the game (in between moving to the coast), which borrows elements from the forthcoming motion picture and the Iron Man comic-book universe.  The game promises to offer fans characters and elements that are not in the movie sequel, including new enemies such as Crimson Dynamo.

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The third portion of DLC for Call of Duty: World at War, imaginatively titled Map Pack 3, will be coming to PSN and Xbox Live this August according to an Activision announcement this afternoon.

Four new maps will be included in the DLC, three of which will be for the adversarial multiplayer ('Battery', 'Breach', and 'Revolution') as well as one entitled 'Der Riese' for the Nazi zombie co-op mode.

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Swedish heavy metal rock outfit Opeth has let slip that THQ's open-world gangsta Saints Row series is on its way to the PSP.

In an update to the band's official website, the band claims:

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In the run-up to E3, the gaming community couldn't get enough of Kojima Productions' 'Next' teaser site. Here at TVG, we spent shamefully long periods of time taking screengrabs of the site's periodic lightning strikes in an attempt to unveil new symbols and characters, not to mention being transfixed by that 'Mask' teaser.

Now, in an interview with Konami, Hideo Kojima has revealed the meanings behind the various symbols in the teaser. Here's what he had to say on the matter:

It turns out that our various hypotheses were close to the mark in some cases and miles off in others. How did you do? Let us know in the comments...

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Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has shed further details on the series latest outing on the PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which was announced at this year's E3 event.

Confirming that the concept of Peace Walker began during the development of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Kojima-san exclaims that he originally intended for the title to be handled by "the next generation of creators at Kojima Productions", but ultimately decided that it was still a little too early to leave it completely in their hands - he just can't leave MGS alone.

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Following the announcement that Colin McRae DiRT 2 would see a slight delay on PC in order to gain fancy DirectX 11 powered visuals, Codemasters today confirmed that the sequel will be appearing on the Xbox 360, PlayStation3, Wii, DS and PSP on September 11th.

Based around the third-generation of the EGO engine, DiRT 2 promises to "take racing games to a new level".  Featuring over 100 different events set across diverse and demanding real-world locations, from the muddy tracks of the Malaysian rainforest to spectator-packed stadiums of London and Los Angeles, players compete in "contemporary off-road race disciplines" such as Rallycross, Trailblazer, Raid, Landrush, and Rally.

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FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter isn't one to mix his words and he's also quite the perfectionist. This is one of the major reasons why FIFA 09 (the first FIFA game that Rutter produced) was such a huge improvement over its predecessors.

Like all perfectionists though, Rutter is never happy with his previous achievements and wants to keep making things better. Perhaps this is why he admitted to hating FIFA 09 now that his EA Canada team is improving the formula so much with FIFA 10:

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We suspected that this was the case but never expected an EA Producer to admit that he already knows the major new features for the next three iterations of an EA Sports series. Nonetheless, that's exactly what FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter has revealed to TVG in a recent interview:

"I know already what the major new features will be for FIFA 11 and 12," explained Rutter at a recent FIFA 10 preview event. However, before you get all hot under the collar and start petitioning EA for all the new features to appear in this year's game, Rutter went on to explain why it's not that simple:

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EA has just announced that this year's FIFA will be reaching European shop shelves on October 2nd when it will release across all formats.

Be sure to check out our freshly posted Q&A with FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter and a hands on preview that reveals a number of new features including the Create-a-Set-Piece mode.

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Gran Turismo's outing on the PSP has been a mysterious title to unearth.  Originally touted as a port of the PlayStation2 title Gran Turismo 4 under the guise of Gran Turismo Mobile, even now with the alleged US release date of October 1st fast approaching specific details are still a little thin on the ground.  However an interview on the Official US PlayStation Blog with the game's US producers has shed a few details. 

Dashing hopes that car damage will appear in the title, the response claims: "Damage? No. 800+ cars, 35 tracks, on-the-go awesomeness, and a lifetime's worth of racing, yes."

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PES fans with a Wii won't have the traditional months to wait after PES 2010 turns up on the other consoles, with confirmation that the Wii version will follow shortly after during the Autumn.

Boasting the same improvements to the Master League mode as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 versions with closer integration of the UEFA Champions League, PES 2010 also boasts a number of notable gameplay improvements currently being implemented by Akiyoshi 'Greyhound' Chosogabe and his dedicated Wii PES team.

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Rumours that first emerged towards the end of last year regarding Imagination Technologies' involvement with a supposed PSP2 system have surfaced once again, this time in the form of a quad-core graphics processing unit for the alleged handheld (not to be confused with the officially announced PSP Go).

The unconfirmed reports once again surround Imagination Technologies' SGX range of chipsets, which have been used in palmtops and notebooks in the past as well as Apple's iPhone 3GS.

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Colin McRae DiRT 2 will look a little bit better on the PC thanks to the game gaining DirectX 11 support.

The latest version of the API isn't scheduled to arrive until October 2009 alongside Windows 7, making this one of the first games to confirm support.  Key improvements include the addition of Shader Model 5.0, providing enhanced depth of field, ambient occlusion and shadows, while hardware tessellation results in improved water appearance and crown animations.

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EA's decision to introduce critically acclaimed yet commercially weak titles based around new IPs last year is well documented; the simple fact is neither Mirror's Edge or Dead Space sold as well as EA originally expected.

In an interview with Gamasutra, EA's Game Label president Frank Gibeau has revealed the lessons that the world's second largest publisher has learnt from the exercise and pledged support to continue the faith behind quality.

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Move over Lionel Messi, Liverpool's golden boy, Fernando Torres, is set for equal billing on the PES 2010 box art.  But more important then that is the release of new details, as Konami attempts to wrestle back its crown from last year's resurgent FIFA.

Promising enhanced realism that focuses on the "triangulation" of passes and off-the-ball movement, Konami promises an end to "soft goals" with players needing to work the flanks and use the precision play of great players to make the difference.

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It seems the success, or lack thereof, of Rockstar Games' GTA: Chinatown Wars on the Nintendo DS has prompted a rethink, with confirmation that the latest handheld GTA outing will be making an appearance on the PSP later in the year.

Rockstar Games ahs confirmed the PSP version will appear on UMD and as a digital download, boasting enhanced widescreen visuals, improved lighting and animation, along with additional story missions.

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Although they'll admit otherwise, the simple fact is that Sony is struggling to match its dominance with this generation.  Although 2009 is marked as the year that the PS3 would emerge as the superior platform, we've yet to see any tangible proof to such claims.

More troubling for Sony is the fact that its under-performance could begin to affect its relationships with third-party publishers; a concern that the world's biggest publisher today expressed in an interview with The Times.

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Harold Ramis, who co-wrote and starred in the Ghostbusters movies, has been talking about some of the challenges that game writers face when they're trying to pen a funny script.

Ramis explained that because game scripts are so long, the challenge of writing enough comic alternatives to make the dialogue funny is like producing three hit movie scripts.

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Activision and Treyarch have announced that last year's Call of Duty: World at War has now passed through the 11 million unit sales mark, making it one of the most commercially successful games released in 2008.

World at War has reached this milestone in approximately half a year, while its predecessor (Infinity Ward's original Modern Warfare title) has totalled 13 million unit sales according to Activision figures announced earlier in the year.

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Speaking at E3 last week, the Producer of Assassin's Creed and its incoming sequel, Patrice Désilets has stated that the original game has now totalled sales of a whopping 8 million copies, putting it right in amongst 2007's commercial heavy hitters.

Désilets made the comments in an interview with Joystiq where he said, "We sold some eight million copies of it, you know," while fielding a question about the original game's mixed reviews and criticisms of repetitive gameplay. "Some people really enjoyed and loved the game," he continued.

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If you're a European Xbox 360 owner and a little peeved that there's going to be no Ghostbusters action (for a little while at least), there could be a solution to ensure you're busting ghosts and getting slimed with Venkman, Ray, Egon and Winston.

Destructoid reports that the North American version of Ghostbusters on the Xbox 360 is region-free, meaning that if you're desperate to play the game then you simply need to check out your local game importer or scour the web for a copy.

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EA today outlined the big new features that are set to ensure FIFA 10 continues the improvements laid down by its predecessor.

More sophisticated ball control and enhanced physical interactions between players are top of the list, along with the "first ever-true" 360 degree dribbling system allowing skilled dribblers to face the defender and use highly responsive dribbling to skip past him. 

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Comments: (90)

As we suspected, Hideo Kojima is probably the most popular guy in town right about now.  Following his appearance at Microsoft's conference last night, Kojima-san turned up at Sony's even to reveal Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP.  OK it wasn't the announcement we were expecting, but eh!

Set in 1979 – ten years after the events of Snake Eater – Peace Walker is described as a true sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, with Kojima-san heading development along with the rest of the team at Kojima Productions.  Once again players take on the role of Big Boss, Peace Walker takes place in Costa Rica with an unknown enemy forming what will become Outer Haven – the original Metal Gear.

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Joining the unveiling of the PSP Go, Sony has lifted the lid on Gran Turismo's eagerly awaited debut on the handheld format.

Featuring over 800 cars and 35 different tracks, Gran Turismo PSP aims to emulate its home console siblings in every department.  PSP owners will be able to trade cars between one another, which is designed to make car collecting an easier and more sociable experience.

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During its presentation at E3 today, Nintendo announced three new projects for the DS by publishers THQ, Ubisoft, and Square Enix.

As far as Sqaure Enix's RPGs are concerned, Nintendo announced Golden Sun DS and a US release date of September 29th for the DS exclusive Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

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Sony has revealed what is officially the worst kept E3 secret; the PSP Go will be arriving later in the year, removing the UMD drive and focusing on the digital lifestyle.

Aimed to compete with the iPhone/iTouch with a stronger design on the digital lifestyle, the PSP Go will be released alongside the existing models, for those still wishing the UMD drive.

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Sony's Jack Tretton has recently confirmed that the Assassin's Creed will be released during November 2009.  No further details on the title, such as whether it's based on Altair, Ezio, or another member of the assassin's clan have been confirmed.

[update]

We now know the game will be a direct sequel to the original Assassin's Creed and provide the link with this year's sequel.  Players once again take control of Altair, as he attempts to hunt down the ascending members of the Templars as they retreat to the island of Cyprus.

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Nintendo has announced that the hit DS game in Japan, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, is coming to the Western market this autumn.

The game puts gamers in control of a shrunken Mario and Luigi as they attempt to escape from Bowser's innards.

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DSi owners will soon be able to upload pictures taken with the handheld console straight to their Facebook profiles, Nintendo has just announced at its E3 Presentation.

The online functionality is coming this summer according to Nintendo and follows Microsoft's announcement of Facebook integration with Xbox Live yesterday.

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By way of its E3 announcement of the PSP Go, Sony has revealed that a new Metal Gear Solid game is coming to the PSP as well as a long-rumoured Gran Turismo title for the handheld.

Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing, John Koller said in a leaked Qore interview, "games like Gran Turismo that're being announced at E3," will be available for the PSP Go, before adding that, "there's even a new Metal Gear Solid coming."

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Leaked footage and screens displaying Sony's PSP Go handheld have surfaced, displaying the long expected repositioning of the console that drops an aging UMD format and replaces it with digitally distributed content.

Although info on the game is officially at the "leaked" stage, with a full reveal imminently set for E3, an interview with Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing, John Koller, has pinned down the system's full specs.

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EA and Slightly Mad Studios have today announced the car and tracks lists for Need For Speed Shift, revealing an impressively large line-up of vehicles to please even the most petrol-headed enthusiast, as well as some of the most famous circuits from across the globe.

The BMW M3 GT2 has also been announced as the cover vehicle for NFS: Shift (meaning that it will appear on the box), with EA noting that the one-of-a-kind car is the most powerful ever to feature in a Need For Speed game.

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Embattled publisher Atari signalled a statement of intent last year with the appointment of Phil Harrison, formerly President of SCE Worldwide Studios.

However it appears that the recent announcement that Atari Europe will fall under the Namco-Bandai family has ruffled a few feathers, with confirmation that Harrison will no longer serve as President of the publisher.  Instead Harrison's new role is the slightly less significant position of non-executive director of the group.  Atari adds that he will continue to assist, support and guide the company's strategy.

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Sonic's quite a versatile hedgehog.  Not merely content with running from left-t-right (and occasionally loop the loop) at supersonic speeds, we've also seen him spin around pinball tables, hit a few slices at the tennis court, and sprint around the Olympic running track.

Having recently taken a step into Arthurian legend and restored some pride in the occasionally brilliant Sonic Unleashed, it seems the blue hedgehog and chums will be taking a break by burning some rubber on the track with the announcement of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

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The first game announcement from E3 has dropped a fortnight before the expo is due to begin, as an Entertainment Software Association (ESA) promotional list for the event has unveiled The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest.

Warner Bros. Interactive is heading-up the project in what will be the publisher's first Lord of the Rings title since the game rights were dropped by EA. And what are they doing with the license? Making a LOTR game for kids, it would seem:

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LucasArts' Star Wars Battlefront series will get its first outing on Nintendo's DS if recent postings by the American game ratings board, the ESRB, are anything to go by.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron is listed for both Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP in the game ratings, which have surfaced prior to any official announcement from LucasArts.

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Since leaving Countdown, Carol Vorderman has never been short of endorsement opportunities, charity work, and television shows.  But now it seems she's going to be keeping DS owners fit and healthy with the announcement of Nintendo's Active Health with Carol Voderman.

Now forgive us for being slightly cynical, but don't you think Nintendo is taking this whole fitness thing a little too far?  Nintendo's Walk With Me! for the DS is on the horizon, and like this title, that also includes a pedometer and keeps a track of your activities throughout the day.  Couldn't they have used Vorderman's talents a little wiser, perhaps promoting mathematics or debt consolidation?  Soon we'll have Walk Yourself To Wealth with Alan Sugar!

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MTV Games and EA today revealed the full tracklist for Rock Band's PSP debut.  Covering bands from the 60s through to the 00s, Rock Band Unplugged includes a number of tracks exclusive to the PSP outing - for a timed period at least.

And if 41 tracks isn't enough for you, we also have details on the first tracks that will be made available as DLC following the game's release on June 12th.

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THQ has officially unveiled its next instalment in the MX vs. ATV series, MX vs. ATV Reflex, which will come to Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, and DS this year during the run-up to Christmas.

New features for the series include some impressive looking surface deformation technology, a dual thumbstick system for weight distribution and steering controls, as well as a renewed focus on making the series more accessible for the average gamer while retaining its hardcore audience.

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A drop in sales along with the appreciation of the yen has resulted in Sony Corp posting a smaller than expected loss for the financial year ended March 31st 2009, but it still represents the company's first annual loss in 14 years.

Sales for electronics giant slumped by 12.9% during the fiscal year to 7.73 trillion yen (£53.50 billion).  The company posted an operating loss for the period of 227.80 billion yen (£1.58 billion) leading to a net loss of 98.90 billion yen (£684.55 million).

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Comments: (757)

Atari's global operations will soon be narrowed down to the US only as Namco Bandai is reportedly set to acquire Atari Europe from parent company Infogrames next month.

Having already acquired a 34 percent stake in Atari Europe last year, Namco Bandai is now expected to purchase the remaining 66% of the company next month (reports MCV), when it will be swallowed up by the newly formed Distribution Partners (a.k.a. Namco Bandai Partners).

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Having been toppled from the s with the release of the outstandingly brilliant FIFA 09, it appears that Seabass and his team at Konami are taking things slightly more serious this season if the first screen from PES 2010 is anything to go by.

Showcasing Lionel Messi, it certainly seems as though the graphics engine has been given a complete overhaul to bring it closer to FIFA's level of visual prowess.  The game now supports dynamic lighting effects, along with player expressions, individual skin textures and different fabric weaves for the various shirts featured in the game.

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Activision Blizzard has announced its earnings for the first quarter of its 2009 financial year (January 1st - March 31st 2009) and is reporting net revenues of $981 million (£651 million) for the quarter, which is $121 million (£80 million) up on its previous predictions.

That equates to a net income of $189 million (£125 million) for the company during Q1, $146 million (£97 million) more than its net income for the same period last year. As a result of these figures, Activision Blizzard is raising its year-long predictions for calendar 2009 by $100 million (£66 million) to $4.3 billion (£2.6 billion) in net revenues.

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Defying recent pessimism and suggestions the Wii had lost some of its steam, Nintendo today reported an increase in net sales, operating income, and net income for the fiscal year ended March 31st 2009.

Record breaking net sales for the period increased year-on-year by 9.9% to 1.84 trillion yen (£12.29 billion).  Operating income for the year stood at 555.26 billion yen (£3.71 billion), leading to a further record breaking net income of 279.09 billion yen (£1.86 billion).

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Comments: (343)

Ghostbusters has now gone through three separate publishers in its bid to reach the market following a deal between Sony and Atari that will bring the title to PS2 and PS3 initially, with a PSP version to follow.

This is according to gi.biz, which reports that Terminal Reality's game will now come to Sony's PS2 and PS3 exclusively on June 19th alongside the Blu-ray launch of the original films, while a PSP version of Ghostbusters is now planned for release several months later.

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If you're one of the few people not inspired by the change in the forthcoming Need for Speed: Shift, then news of two new DLC packages for Need for Speed: Undercover is likely to be

The first package, Challenge Series, is available for free and introduces 60 new challenges across two new game modes:  Highway Wars promises to blend Highway Battles and Sprint Racing, with players racing through congested highways against three AI opponents to become first across the line.  Highway Checkpoint is a race against time to make the next checkpoint before the timer runs out.

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Comments: (141)

War is set to continue waging across the world in June with confirmation of the second Call of Duty: World at War DLC, featuring three new multiplayer maps and a brand new zombie map.

World at Wars fans can fight to gain control of a tall river bridge deep within enemy territory on the Banzai map, come face to face in a ruined Russian train yard, or fight to gain control of a bombed out submarine base in the constrained Sub pens map.

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Following the reasonable Heroes of Might & Magic V and the somewhat flawed Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (let's not even mention the atrocious 360 port), it appears that Ubisoft are returning to the enduring franchise.

Nested deep within its latest financial report is confirmation that Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is currently slated for a Q1 release (Apr-Jun 09) for the Nintendo DS.

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Despite fourth quarter sales of 2008-09 dipping to 206 million euros (£184.54 million) from 217 million euros (£194.39 million) for the same period last year, Ubisoft managed to post full year sales of 1.06 billion euros (£949.56 million), representing an increase of 14% year-on-year.

A strong showing of Wii titles during Q4 ensured sales were inline with previous predictions for the French publisher, with sales of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X also passing the million milestone during the period.

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Namco Bandai has announced that its premier fighting game franchises, Tekken and Soul Calibur, will both appear on Sony's PSP later this year with Tekken 6 in the autumn and Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny in the summer.

The PSP will now join the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms that Tekken 6 has previously been slated for release on, with an IGN report specifying that this PSP version will feature ad hoc multiplayer for one-on-one fights and infrastructure support for players who want to upload ghosts online.

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The heavily rumoured new PSP is on track for an unveiling at E3, according to reports from 1UP quoting inside sources working close to the project.

Although 1UP reports that the PSP-4000, dubbed the PSP Go!, will feature a sliding mechanism and remove the much-maligned UMD drive, it appears that the model will be a revision of the existing hardware and not necessarily the sequel that was previously rumoured.

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Since Codemasters picked up the F1 rights we've had very little to go on.  However a report in motoring publication, AutoSport, has unleashed further details, confirming the fact that two games are actually in the pipeline.

Due for release later in the year, F1 2009 is currently in development for Wii and PSP.  This title will be followed next year with a version appearing on Xbox 360, PlayStation3, and PC.

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Following a record breaking year in both revenue and profit, UK retailer GAME has released details on the lifetime sales of the major formats in the country

It makes for a largely unsurprising read, with Wii leading the charge at 4.9 million units to-date since its launch back in December 2006.  Despite making an appearance beforehand, the Xbox 360 is in second spot with 3.2 million units, while the PlayStation3 has sold 1.9 million since March 2007.

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Comments: (343)

Handheld formats appear to be having a tough time in the fight against piracy.  The notorious R4 cartridge has long kept some DS gamers entertained with hours of pirated software, however it seems the PSP also has its problems despite Sony's regular firmware updates and hardware revisions.

Speaking to Gamasutra, SCEA's Peter Dille reveals that the third-party publishers were on the verge of pulling support for the beleaguered format completely and suggests that piracy is a considerable problem for developers and publishers.

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We already knew of its existence, but MTV Games and Harmonix have today confirmed that Lego Rock Band is being developed by TT Games and is scheduled for release later this year on PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii (a DS version is also being developed by Foundation 9 Entertainment).

As you might expect, the title will be aimed at a more casual audience, with the press blurb stating that Lego Rock Band "will allow families, tweens and teens to experience a wild journey to rock stardom".

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Avid Twitterer (is that the right colloquial phrase for one who Tweets?) Stephen Fry has revealed via the networking site that he's currently doing voice-over work for the sequel of a video game, strongly suspected to be a LittleBigPlanet title.

"Morning all. In studio today voicing 2nd edition of a video game. Will check when I'm there if I'm allowed to say what it is...," Fry said via Twitter.

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It seems the fact that Mature themed video games just don't do well on Nintendo has been cemented, with NPD sales figures for March 2009 alarmingly revealing that both GTA: Chinatown Wars and MadWorld fared pretty poorly.

Rockstar's foray onto the DS, widely considered a test bed for future GTA iterations on Nintendo formats, only managed to shift 89,000 units for the period.  The figure represents a considerably poorer performance than the 200,000 - 400,000 sales that analysts had previously predicted.

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The Game Team Producer on Need For Speed: Shift, Jesse Abney, has detailed some of the car customisation elements in the game such as nitro boasts, as well as confirming the inclusion of drift events.

Despite a change in direction for the series in this year's game, with Shift putting the emphasis on realism and closed circuit racing, Abney has confirmed that some stalwart Need For Speed features will return in this year's game.

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Comments: (87)

Satoru Iwata and the naysayers of doom and gloom appeared to be right, as the release of March's NPD figures revealed a 17% drop in Wii sales for the month compared to last year.

Sales of Wii dropped to 601,000 units, representing the first decline in 14 months since supply issues hampered sales back in January 2008.  As a result of the drop, Nintendo's share price dropped by 6.6% to close at 26,180 yen, representing the biggest decline since February 2nd.

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Comments: (343)

The CEO of American retailer GameStop, Dan DeMatteo, has suggested that Nintendo may have a "key property" in the works that's due for release later this year.

Speaking to CNBC, DeMatteo said, "We think there will be a Nintendo key property coming out by the end of the year. They haven't given us any insight, but they have told us to reserve [shelf] space."

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Ken Kuturagi, Phil Harrison, Chris Deering... the original founding members behind PlayStation took another surprise departure today with confirmation that David Reeves SCEE President, CEO, Co-COO and Deputy President of SCEI will be standing down from his position.

Having joined SCEE back in 1995, Reeves is widely considered as establishing the PlayStation brand across Europe and establishing the region significance alongside North America and Japan.

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Comments: (757)

Nintendo today confirmed that the Wii MotionPlus peripheral will be available across the UK from June 12th... however the debut title Wii Sports Resort won't hit these shores until July 24th.

When plugged into a Wii Remote the MotionPlus peripheral provides a greater sense of motion sensing capabilities with compatible titles, of which only Wii Sports Resort, Virtua Tennis 2009, Grand Slam Tennis, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 have been announced so far. 

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Comments: (343)

A large disparity in sales projections for Rockstar's GTA: Chinatown Wars has surfaced between various industry analysts as the US market research firm, NPD prepares to publish its sales figures this week for the month of March.

According to Gamasutra, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich has predicted a figure of 200,000 unit sales for the title during March, while noting that these sales would make it the best performing mature title on Nintendo's DS.

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Japanese publisher Konami has announced a new title for DS, Miami Crisis, which is due for release on the handheld this coming September and is set to offer a blend of action and puzzle solving gameplay.

Players will take control of two characters in the game: a hard-nosed Miami PD officer called Martin Law (kudos on the surname, Konami) and the bloodhound-like crime solving nose of FBI agent Sara Starling.

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Satoru Iwata has announced, via a speech to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, that 600,000 units of Nintendo's DSi console have been sold in North America and Europe during the handheld's first two days on sale.

According to Iwata, the sales were split down the middle between each territory, with both the US and Europe tallying up 300,000 unit sales each.

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The first Rock Band game for Sony's PSP, Rock Band Unplugged, will release in North America and Europe from June 9th and will retail in the UK at £24.99, EA and MTV Games have announced this afternoon.

The game, which is being developed by Harmonix in partnership with Backbone Entertainment, will feature the first in-game store for downloadable content on Sony's PSP, which will be powered by the PlayStation Network and is also accessible via PC.

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In an IGN interview, Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America VP sales and marketing, confirmed that we can expect to see plenty of her at Nintendo's E3 conference following the infamous appearance at last year's event.

Promising there will be no snowboarding or mother's day cards on show this year, Dunaway maintains that all she'll talk about this year is the games (although we're not entirely sure that's necessarily an improvement).

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Comments: (343)

Japanese publisher Konami has officially announced PES 2010, which will be released on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP, and PS2 this coming autumn and is set to improve on a number of the features in last year's title.

By making some new additions to PES Productions' backroom staff in Tokyo, Konami is now able to promise a greater commitment to providing downloadable content for PES 2010, a strategy that has been introduced this year with team license and transfer updates for PES 2009.

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Following the Wii's recent adoption of high capacity SD cards it seemed almost inevitable that Nintendo would look towards video services on the format.

Today, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has provided the first official confirmation that the Japanese hardware giant is looking into the opportunity, although expectedly it will be with a slightly different slant.

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Comments: (343)

The UK Market has swallowed up Nintendo's DSi, with early figures tabulating 92,000 unit sales of the handheld console in its first two days on sale after launching in the territory last Friday.

This is according to official ChartTrack figures (reports MCV), which back-up earlier reports that the DSi has topped the combined sales of every other platform over the weekend.

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Following recent sightings, Konami today officially lifted the wraps on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, confirming a PS2 version in the process alongside the reported Wii and PSP titles.

A "re-imagining" of the original shares the twisting plot of the PSone title, .  Familiar characters will offer different responses and can be found in different locations, along with new clues and paths to be found through the adventure as Harry Mason attempts to find his missing daughter.

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It appears that confirmation of LEGO Rock Band took a step further during the weekend, with the title appearing on a GDC presentation slide recently taken from Harmonix' designer Dan Teasdale's blog.

TVG discovered from an inside source earlier in the year that LEGO Rock Band was very much on the cards alongside other LEGO themed titles - we're just hopeful that the brick-based music peripheral does actually make it as well.

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Comments: (5)

It all seemed so plausible: a PSP version gets added to an ESRB rating for Atari's upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game, thereby handing the publisher a clean sweeping all platform title for one of its biggest releases of the year.

Not so fast, though, as the PSP listing has since been pulled from the ESRB's website and Atari has now told Eurogamer that any claims of a PSP version being in the works are just "not true".

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A string of new titles from THQ and rough release dates were recently spotted from a sheet during an investor's presentation, courtesy of Gamespot.

New titles slated to arrive during the current fiscal year (01/04/09 - 31/03/10) that we didn't know about are an untitled Marvel Superhero Squad title (with a follow up in the following fiscal year, and the year after that), a new Drawn to Life title along with SpongeBob's Tenth - presumably to celebrate his tenth anniversary.

Confirmed for fiscal year 2011 (01/04/10 - 31/03/11) are Saints Row 3, an untitled action title from Relic Entertainment, and a racing title, alongside the customary WWE, UFC, Drawn To Life and SpongeBob titles.  WWE Online could end up being focussed on the Asian markets like Company of Heroes Online.

During fiscal 2012 (01/04/11 - 31/03/12) we'll see the follow-up to the as-of-yet unreleased Red Faction: Guerrilla with the release of Red Faction 4, along with a Darksiders sequel and the long rumoured Warhammer 40k MMO.

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Rumours of a Silent Hill remake appear to have been spot on, with confirmation coming in the latest issue of Nintendo Power - well the Wii version at least, it's not like they're going to talk about the previously sighted PSP version.

Described as a "re-imagining" of the original, Nintendo Power suggests that although you'll still play as the original protagonist, Harry Mason, things will be significantly different to the 1999 Psone original.

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While Daxter may have appeared in his very own PSP spin-off a few years back, Sony has now announced that the first title to feature both the furry Ottsel and his partner Jak together on PSP will be Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier.

The game is heading to both Sony's handheld and the PS2, with SCEE pinning an autumn 2009 release window on the title at this stage.

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Comments: (52)

A listing on the ESRB website, the ratings board for games in the US, has added the PSP to its list of platforms for the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game title from publisher Atari.

The PSP title is listed with the PlayStation 2 and Wii games, so we assume it must be the version under development at Red Fly Studio. Different versions of the game are also being developed by Zen Studios for DS, and Terminal Reality for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

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By way of an announcement for an animated movie tie-in of its Dante's Inferno game, EA has revealed that it expects the title to ship during 2010 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The game, which is based on Dante Alighieri's 14th century poem The Divine Comedy, will see players travelling through the nine circles of hell as Dante in search of his beloved Beatrice.

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Contrasting the typical controversies and negative headlines usually associated with video games, a report featured in the journal Nature Neuroscience by a team of scientists has highlighted the benefits that playing video games bring to a person's night vision.

Scientists at the University of Rochester in New York, found that playing action games can significantly enhance people's ability to see objects in the twilight hours, when colours gradually diminish into shades of grey.

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The proposed takeover of Eidos by Japanese publisher Square-Enix is set to go ahead as planned next month after Eidos shareholders voted in favour of the bid by a majority of 85%.

Once Eidos' shares are delisted, which is estimated to happen next month according to gi.biz, Square-Enix will takeover the company at a rate of 32 pence per share.

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As widely expected, Satoru Iwata came to the rescue of Wii owners' storage problems with confirmation that the Wii can now download and store WiiWare, Virtual Console titles, and Channels to High Capacity SD cards.  The new compatibility is available via today's system update, but does require that games launched from the SD card will require an equivalent amount of internal Wii memory – so plenty of swapping around awaits it seems.

In addition Iwata-san used his keynote speech to announce a new Legend of Zelda title currently in development for the DS.  The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks employs the same control setup as Phantom Hourglass, while the early information centres around concept travelling across the world via a steam locomotive.

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Arguably the most impressive looking driving game for 2009 has been given what seems to be a rock-solid release date of September 18th 2009, when it will launch on the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and PSP.

Alongside the announcement, EA also detailed a few features from the game such as one of the tracks (Brands Hatch), a few of the cars that will be in the final game (Pagani Zonda, Lotus Elise, and Porsche 911 GT2), as well as an exposition of the game's visual effects such as "perception based G-forces".

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Comments: (87)

It'll be no huge surprise to most gamers that Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 10 has been confirmed by EA, with the game preparing for its 12th round of golf since its inception in 1998.

As with last year, Tiger Woods 10 will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, and PSP. Once again, the DS and PC have not been included in the list, so we can only assume that EA has withdrawn the series from those two platforms.

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Having posted a teaser website last week, EA has officially announced that Rios and Salem are set to return in a sequel to last year's Army of Two. Avoiding the pitfalls of titling the game Army Of Two 2, the publisher has instead opted for Army of Two: The 40th Day.

Due for release this coming winter on the Xbox 360 and PS3, this sequel also marks a new outing for the series on Sony's PSP. Exactly how the game's co-op game mechanic will play-out on the handheld is unclear at this point, although we're hoping for plenty of ad-hoc integration.

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With an arsenal of "evergreen" titles and an ability to sell virtually anything, it's fair to say Nintendo is doing pretty well at the present time despite continued global financial insecurities.  However it wasn't that long ago when their fortunes weren't so rosy, the GameCube was languishing in third place in a three horse console race, and wild rumours suggesting that Nintendo might pull off a 'SEGA' and ditch the hardware race began to circulate.

In a recent interview with Famitsu (translated by 1UP), Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto has spoken of the sadness that this period, most notably the GameCube era, instilled in him and the initiative it provided to shift Nintendo's philosophy.

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Establishing the Nintendo DS in a small bracket of hugely succesful video games formats, Nintendo has today announced that shipments of the popular handheld have surpassed 100 million units worldwide.  Such success has also seen 83 DS titles passing 1 million sales, whilst seven of these have sold over 10 million copies.

Labelling their uncanny ability to continue selling things months after their initial release, Nintendo's "evergreen" quality seems to suggest we can expect much more along the lines of Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What To Eat? And Walk With Me: Do You Know Your Walking Routine? from the illustrious Japanese publisher.

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A recent listing on the BBFC website has added to the rumours that a Silent Hill remake is heading to Wii and PSP.

The listing of the game's cut-scenes references characters from the PSone original, including Harry, Alessa, Lisa and Cybil, leading us to believe this is a remake of the iconic 1999 survival/horror.

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We've known that a sequel to EA Montreal's buddy action blockbuster, Army of Two, has been on the cards for a little time.  So the appearance of a teaser site has fuelled recent rumours that the announcement will shortly be forthcoming.

There's few details to be garnished at this stage, although internet reports allude to an announcement next week.

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Sony UK has announced two milestones for its PS3 and PSP consoles, with the home console having sold 2 million units so far and the handheld pulling in 3 million unit sales in the region.

Ray Maguire, the Managing Director of Sony in the UK, spoke to MCV about the figures and was optimistic about the longevity of the PS3 going forward:

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Comments: (757)

The tiring debate surrounding a possible successor to the PSP, whether it's PSP2 or PSP-4000, took a further twist overnight as Sony's head of marketing went on the defence and Acclaim's David Perry continued his campaign to out the PSP2.

Speaking to the MTV Multiplayer blog, Sony's John Koller expressed his concerns over the sheer lack of PSP titles last year, but maintained that the hardware giant has spent the last 18 months actively touting the handheld's strengths to third-party publishers.

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Following a string of PSP new game announcements last week it appears that Sony's handheld resurgence is set to continue, with Joystiq suggesting a return for Kratos in a sequel to Chains of Olympus.

Citing inside sources, Joystiq maintains that Ready At Dawn is once again working on the sequel, which could possibly arrive in time alongside God of War III on the PS3 in 2010.

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You wait months and months for PSP news and then all of a sudden it seems barely a day goes by without one. 

If you missed out on Konami's big PSP titles then this is surely an offer not to be sniffed at, with confirmation of the release of two Konami 'double packs' for just £19.99.

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Thinking about stimulating your mind with one of many 'brain trainers' on the market for Nintendo DS in order to stave off the signs of cerebral old age?  Well it seems that the latest research into the effects of titles like Dr Kawashima's Braining Training has proved that there's at best weak evidence to show they actually work.

The latest research, conducted by consumer group Which?, has shown that many of the positive claims about brain trainers is actually false.  Showcasing the products in front of several neuroscientists, Which?'s report has suggested that the same levels of blood flow to the frontal cortex of the brain – said to enhance memory – could be achieved by just surfing the web and engaging in conversations.

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EA Sports has today confirmed two titles compatible with Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus dongle, which allows for 1:1 motion control.

The first, Tiger Woods PGA World Tour 10, is perhaps no surprise.  Featuring some of the world's greatest golfers and courses, World Tour 10's MotionPlus functionality will now mean that players won't be able to blame the restrictions of the Wii-remote.

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We're not quite sure what happened planets one to fifty, but the video game tie-in to upcoming indie animation Planet 51 has found a publisher in SEGA.

The CGI animation, currently in production at Ilion Animation Studios in Spain, is due for release this winter.  The video game adaptation is being developed by Ilion's sister-company, Pyro Studios, which previous worked on Commandos.

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In a little over two years since its launch on November 11th 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that registered PlayStation Network accounts have surpassed 20 million.

The milestone has risen sharply in the years since its launch, which stood at 5 million users after the first 14 months and 10 million users in 20 months.  Today's figure exceeds Microsoft's recent total of 17 million Xbox Live accounts as of January 2009.

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Following on from confirmation that LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm are to make appearances on the PSP in 2009, is news that MTV Games' Rock Band will also jump onto the Sony handheld in the form of 'Rock Band Unplugged'.

Although things are a little sketchy at the moment, several details about the title have been released from a number of online sources including Primotech.  Sounding suspiciously like cult PlayStation 2 rhythm title Amplitude (which was developed by MTV Games subsidiary Harmonix), Rock Band Unplugged's tracks will be broken up into musical phrases played via the PSP's face buttons.  Players can jump from instrument to instrument with the shoulder buttons, though they run the risk of leaping too early and losing their multiplier bonus in the process.

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Long rumoured, PSP versions of LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm have today been confirmed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Causing ecological damage will be MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, taking the arcade racer to an all new latitude in 2009.  In development at BigBig Studios, the handheld outshoot of MotorStorm's Evolution Studios, Arctic Edge will include six classes of vehicles, new vehicles (the snowcat and snow machine), together with a single-player campaign and online multiplayer for up to eight players over Ad Hoc and Infrastructure modes.  The game will also get a home console release on PlayStation 2.

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News from Codemasters' Gamers Day event in San Francisco has percolated through to TVG, revealing launch windows for FUEL, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Colin McRae: DiRT 2, Jumpgate Evolution, and the publisher's second wave of Overlord games.

On the driving game side of things, FUEL and DiRT 2 are scheduled for releases in May and September respectively, with both games being pinned down for release on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC (as well as handheld outings for DiRT 2 on PSP and Nintendo DS).

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Nintendo has announced that it will be releasing the next iteration of its DS handheld console on April 3rd in Europe. The DSi will set UK gamers back £149.99 at retail and will be available in white and black colours.

This new handheld will come to Europe two days earlier than the US, where the system is expected to launch on April 5th. According to an MCV report, Nintendo UK is confident that the DSi won't experience hardware shortages at retail, as was the case for the system in Japan where demand far outstripped supply.

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The legal wrangling between Epic Games and Silicon Knights may have disappeared under the radar in recent months, but it seems that a fresh studio vs. studio battle is brewing ever stronger. A day after SimBin Studios confirmed it was looking into the possibility of legal action against Slightly Mad Studios, for alleged 'certain statements made by Slightly Mad Studios that we [SimBin] find to be incorrect, misleading and has a negative impact on our reputation,' the London-based outfit has responded with a statement of its own.

Released to US industry site Gamasutra, the statement was made by Slightly Mad Studios' chief Ian Bell, one of the founders of SimBin before later setting up Blimey! Games, which went into administration back in January.

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The Swedish studio behind Atari's upcoming RACE Pro on Xbox 360, SimBin Studios, has today released a statement revealing that it's currently considering legal action against UK outfit, Slightly Mad Studios.

Slightly Mad has recently been revealed as the outfit currently working on Need for Speed: Shift for Electronic Arts, and is made up of “the core development team on the critically acclaimed and multiple award-winning GTR - FIA GT Racing Game, it’s successor GTR2, and the classic sports car racing game, GT Legends,” according to its website.

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Comments: (87)

Last week, Square Enix revealed that a bid to acquire UK publisher Eidos had been made, which would see Lara Croft, Agent 47, and augmented humans fall under the House of Cloud Strife.

Although the deal had the strong backing of the Eidos board, there were two potential banana skins: a vote by Eidos shareholders, and the opinion of Warner Bros, which currently has a 20% in the publisher.

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Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that sell-in rates for the PSP have passed the 50 million mark worldwide. 

Yet another term to muddy the waters, 'sell-in' refers to units that have been passed onto retailers, but doesn't necessarily indicate the total number of units sold.

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Comments: (30)

SEGA Europe has today confirmed the first details of 'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games 2', which has been formally retitled, 'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games'.

The game, which will be heading to Wii and Nintendo DS in time for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, once again features some of the iconic characters from the two franchises, as they go head-to-head in a series of official sports from the Games.

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Disgaea DS, an updated version of the original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness on PS2, has been given an April 3rd European release date by publisher square Enix having been released in Japan and the US last year.

New additions to the game in this updated version will include a duel multiplayer system, wireless connection support that allows users to swap items with other Disgaea DS players, and an all-new story mode that follows Etna's quest to become Beauty Queen Ultimate Overlord.

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Nintendo has today confirmed a May 22nd UK release date for Pokemon Platinum.  The Nintendo DS game, which has already shipped nearly 2.5 million units in Japan since it launched there last September, features a massive selection of new Pokemon to collect and duel with, along with new gameplay options.

Set in the Pokemon world's Sinnoh region, Platinum includes a new 'Distortion World' that's bizarrely 'governed by neither time nor space', offering a new gameplay mode along the way.  Legendary Pokemon (including Dialga and Palkia) will be available to collect too, with Diamond and Pearl owners also free to transfer the Shaymin Pokemon to Platinum, unlocking its new Sky Shaymin forme.

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It's emerged today that Square Enix has put in an offer to acquire ailing UK publisher, Eidos.  The deal, which is being recommended by Eidos' director, is worth £84 million, 129% of Eidos' current share price on the London Stock Exchange.

The deal has to be approved by at least 75% of Eidos shareholders, and could pass by before the end of April.

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Walk with me! Do you know your walking routine?, Nintendo's pedometer infused walking game for its DS handheld console, has been delayed from its original February 20th release date in Europe.

Nintendo has stated that a new release date for the game will be announced shortly, so in the interim you can get some practice in by walking somewhere.

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Go, Joe! Not only is the veteran of many American toy wars set to sidle up to the silver screen later this year, but he'll also have his very own movie tie-in game published by EA to boot.

The game is due for release this summer alongside the movie, which comes to theatres on August 7th 2009, and EA plans to publish the game across all major home consoles and handheld systems.

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Treyarch has announced the first piece of downloadable content for Call of Duty: World at War. The DLC will include four new maps for the game, three of which will be for the adversarial multiplayer will a further map will be thrown in for the co-op Nazi zombies mini-game.

The competitive multiplayer maps include 'Nightfire' (featuring a flame lit, night time depiction of war ravaged Berlin), 'Station' (set in an underground train station), and 'Knee Deep' (where combat takes place across the island of Peleliu, which also features in the single-player game).

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After SEGA announced last week that it had obtained the official license to produce games for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, it seemed that it would only be a matter of time before Mario & Sonic 2 would get confirmed - a matter of six days in fact.

Vancouver 2010's Director of Licensing and Merchandising, Dennis Kim, is the source of today's news. He told The Province that SEGA intends to make use of the license by developing an official game of the event as well as a Mario & Sonic tie-in. 

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Electronic Arts has today confirmed that a new mode for FIFA 09, 'FIFA 09 Ultimate Team', will be available to download from Xbox Live and PlayStation Network from March 19th.

Sounding like a crazy cross between Fantasy Football and Magic: The Gathering, FIFA 09 Ultimate Team will give players the opportunity to collect virtual playing cards, create the ultimate starting line up of footballers, add tactics and managerial prowess, and them test them out against the dream teams of other players online.

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With the release of its latest financial reports for the nine-month period ended December 31st 2008, SEGA-Sammy became the latest Japanese publisher to suffer from the global credit crunch and the impact of the strong Yen.

Despite posting a 15.4% decrease in net sales to 309.02 billion yen (£2.29 billion) from 342.09 billion yen (£2.54 billion) in the previous year and a resulting operating loss of 2.76 billion yen (£20.47 million), SEGA-Sammy managed to reduce its overall net loss to 10.84 billion yen (£80.39 million) from 15.77 billion yen (£116.95 million) in the nine-month period from the previous year.

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Tomb Raider fans looking forward to the release of 'Beneath The Ashes', the first downloadable content taking place in the remains of Croft Manor, will have to wait a little longer it seems.

Originally due for digital release exclusively on the Xbox 360 tomorrow, Eidos has sent word that the package has been delayed due to technical issues.

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The appearance of a Transformers video game return to coincide with this year's Hollywood sequel was probably one of the least surprising entries from a marketing research leak last year: good sales of the original? Check; this summer's movie blockbuster? Check; generic, low-risk game design? ... Check.

So confirmation from Activision of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is hardly going to astonish, neither is the fact it's coming out on virtually every format imaginable.

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Speaking in a lengthy Q&A session after the release of Nintendo's latest financials, Satoru Iwata has confirmed that core Nintendo fans have been screaming out for ages... Wii Music was a disappointment.  TVG has summarised the most important bits but it's still a lengthy read, so be warned.

Responding to a question about Shigeru Miyamoto's latest creation, Iwata-san responds:

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Comments: (343)

SEGA Europe has today confirmed that it's secured the license to produce and publish video games based on the 2010 Winter Olympics, which are due to take place in Vancouver, Canada.

News of the deal comes after successful titles based on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, including the multi-million-selling Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, which is currently sitting in 12th position in the UK All Format All Price Top 40.

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Capcom counted the cost of not waging into the Christmas chaos with net sales down to 47.22 billion yen (£360.37 million) for the nine-month period ended December 31st 2008, a reduction of 8.6% compared to the same period in the previous year.  Operating income fell by 57.2% to 2.61 billion yen (£19.92 million) largely as a result of the strong yen, while net income plunged by 95% year-on-year to 179 million yen (£1.37 million).

Beyond the issues surrounding the exchange rate and the lack of high profile releases, Capcom attributed the drop to "slacking performance" of its arcade operations and contents expansion business, but remained optimistic that Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, and Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop will ensure Capcom meets the full year expectations that were posted in May 2008.  As a result Capcom's forecast for the full year ending March 31st 2009 remains at net sales of 95.30 billion yen (£727.30 million), an operating income of 14.60 billion yen (£112.32 million) and net income of 8.6 billion yen (£65.63 million).

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Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has today confirmed three new PSP colours for the territory, due to launch this month and March.

Two of the colours, exotically described by SCEE as 'Mystic Silver' and 'Pearl White', will launch in the UK before the end of February, with the third colour (Radiant Red) set to arrive in March.  Mystic Silver had been planned to form part of the PSP-3000's launch last October, but it seems that only 'Piano Black' made it to stores.

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Californian publisher THQ has today confirmed losses of over $191 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended on December 31st 2008, despite the launch of several 'high-quality' titles like Saints Row 2 and WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2009.

News of the net losses comes as THQ revealed that net sales also dropped during the three-month period, from $509 million in the third quarter of FY 2008, to $357 million.

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Despite Sega's Iron Man adaptation falling woefully short of the mark it still managed to sell relatively well.  So news of today's renewed partnership between Sega and Marvel Entertainment to release Iron Man 2 alongside the movie in 2010 comes as little surprise.

SEGA Studio San Francisco (formerly The Secret Level) is believed to be residing over the game, having previously worked on such renowned hits as Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Final Fight: Streetwise, and the previous Iron Man title.

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It's another week atop the UK Charts for Wii Fit, which has now notched up three weeks on the trot at No.1 and eight total weeks atop the charts since it was released last spring.

Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: World at War is refusing to let go of No.2, hanging on for the fifth week running despite an 11% drop in sales over the last week. Having spent 12 weeks on the charts in total, the game has never dropped below No.2, enjoying six of these weeks at No.1.

The only new entry into the top 10 this week is Need For Speed: Undercover, which re-entered at No.10 and pushed another EA title, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, into No.11 from No.5 last week.

The remaining seven games in the top 10 were also there last week, although all but one of them have swapped positions. FIFA 09 moves up one place to No.3, Professor Layton jumps from No.10 to No.4, while Skate 2 drops two places to No.5.

The bottom half of the top ten is then made up of Mario Kart Wii at No.6 (up two places), Wii Play at No.7 (down one), My Fitness Coach at No.8 (also down one), and then Tomb Raider: Underworld holding its No.9 position from last week.

Those are the figures for Chart Track's all formats chart, which calculates the total sales for a game across all the platforms it was released on. The individual formats chart, which calculates sales for the individual SKUs of each game, reveals that Microsoft's Xbox 360 is the best represented console on the chart this week with 13 games in the top 40:

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Take-Two Interactive has today confirmed that the Wii and Nintendo DS versions of 2008's Xbox 360 title, Don King presents: Prizefighter, is due to release across North America on March 31st.  Whilst there's no confirmation about a European release, we can surely expect it to arrive on this side of the Atlantic on April 3rd, the following Friday.

Now known as 'Don King Boxing' – perhaps it's impossible to be a Prizefighter on DS and Wii – there's more than just a name change going on.  The Wii edition will be compatible with the Wii Balance Board, that bit of white plastic currently gathering dust now that our girlfriends have stopped 'playing' Wii Fit, enabling gamers to keep their centre of balance as well as judge a good clean punch.  Over twenty real-world boxers, together with locations such as Madison Square Gardens, feature in the game, which had been developed by 2K Games' outfit in China.

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After years of failing to deliver on its glory days, Electronic Arts has today confirmed that the Need for Speed franchise is undergoing a dramatic overhaul in 2009, with three titles arriving before the end of the year.

The revelation, which comes off the back of further staff cuts from the publishing giant, will see Need for Speed become a sim on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a casual racer on Wii and Nintendo DS, and a PC online racer.

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Details on the third Mario & Luigi RPG have been a little thin on the ground since its unveiling back in October.  However a recent update to the game's Japanese website has revealed a surprising twist.

With the ability to take control of Bowser alongside the brothers previously being revealed, it appears that both Mario and Luigi have found themselves exploring the insides of Bowser. 

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Bucking the financial gloom and despite a stronger than expected Yen Nintendo today reported a 17% increase in net sales for nine-month period ended December 31st 2008. 

Net sales for the period increased to 1.54 trillion Yen (£11.92 billion) from 1.32 trillion Yen (£10.24 billion) for the same nine-month period a year ago.  As a result operating income increased by 27% to 501.33 billion Yen (£3.89 billion) from 394.04 billion Yen (£3.06 billion), while net income saw an 18% decrease from 258.93 billion Yen (£2.01 billion) to 212.52 billion Yen (£1.65 billion).

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Comments: (343)

Sony Corporation has today published its financial performance during the third quarter of the current fiscal year, which ran from October 1st to December 31st 2008.

Announcing an operating loss of 18 billion Yen (£140 million), down from an operating income of over 230 billion Yen (£1.79 billion) year-on-year, the Corporation blamed several key factors, including an appreciation of the Yen, the current global financial crisis, and intensified price competition.

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Comments: (757)

Never underestimate the selling power of fitness products during the bloated month of January, as Wii Fit has proved for Nintendo by staying atop the UK charts for the second week running with a 21% rise in sales.

Even though Wii Fit has visited the top spot seven times since it was released last April, this is the first time that the balance board aided phenomenon has managed to hold on to No.1 for more than a single week.

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Nintendo and Dr. Kawashima, or more specifically their partnership on the unit-shifting Dr. Kawashima: Brain Training, has come under scientific criticism during the weekend.

Following news of positive reports from a team of researchers based in Scotland last year, The Times is reporting on a French survey that suggests the title brings no benefits, and could actually make your memory worse!

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Comments: (7)

It's a portable gaming platform, a foreign language aid, and a virtual guitar, but the Nintendo DS will be adding a new string to its bow in Japan soon, with the launch of Hoshizora Navi – that's Starry Sky Navigator.

Developed by Japanese astronomy software producer, AstroArts, Hoshizora Navi allows DS users to track the intergalactic positions of over 9,000 astral bodies, including the Moon and the planets of the Solar System.  In fact, their positions from the years between 1900 to 2099 can be charted – just in case you ever wanted to know where Uranus was the day you were born.

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Eidos has today confirmed the release dates for Tomb Raider: Underworld's Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable content.  The DLC, two new chapters, 'Beneath the Ashes' and 'Lara's Shadow', expands the storyline of the main campaign and feature addition costumes for the iconic Lara Croft.

In Beneath the Ashes, Lara returns to the ruins of Croft Manor and discovers crypts and caverns, which are used to protect (somewhat ominously) a 'deadly source of power'.  As for Lara's Shadow, Eidos is keeping quiet...

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Ubisoft has confirmed a raft of titles for the 2009/10 fiscal year, which runs from this April to the end of March 2010, including follow-ups to Ghost Recon, Assassin's Creed, and the long-awaited return of Splinter Cell.  News of the games came off the back of the publisher's latest financial results, which saw sales slightly higher than past forecasts of 500 million Euros.

Several of the publisher's big name titles in the fiscal third quarter (Oct-Dec 2008) enjoyed a strong showing at retail, including sales of 2.9 million units of Far Cry 2, 2.3 million units for Shaun White Snowboarding, and 1.5 million units for Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party.  The Prince of Persia reboot sold 2.2 million units globally, representing a slower up take than Ubisoft had anticipated.

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While rumours abound that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games 2 is in development, TVG can confirm that the licensee for the International Olympic Committee (International Sports Multimedia) is currently in talks with game publishers regarding the license for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

When we asked International Sports Multimedia whether it was in talks with games publishers regarding the official license for Vancouver 2010, the company could confirm that this was the case although it was unable to give any details of the progress of these talks or which publishers were involved.

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As widely reported last week, Sony today revised its results forecast for the year ended March 31st 2009, confirming the company's first operating loss in 14 years.

The expected 260 billion yen (£2.10 billion) loss for the year is considerably larger than the 98.28 billion yen (£792.09 million) deficit predicted by financial analysts and the media last week.  The loss is attributed to sliding demand for Sony projects and a stronger yen, which has affected Japan's export industry - and we can't imagine consumer electronics proving too popular amongst Japan's ageing population.

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Comments: (757)

Nintendo's Wii Fit has returned to the No.1 spot for the fifth time since it was released in April 2008, uprooting last week's top scorer (FIFA 09) on the UK all formats chart and holding off the threat of Call of Duty: World at War, which stands fast at No.2.

An 18% rise in sales is responsible for Wii Fit's triumphant rise from No.4 last week and it'll be interesting to see whether the title can stay at No.1 next week. Even though it's held the top spot five times previously, Wii Fit has never managed to hold on to the position for more than a week.

With only 2,500 unit sales separating the top three games in this week's chart, staying at No.1 next week will be no mean feat for Nintendo's balance board aided exercise game. As well as CoD's seemingly unrelenting chart run to contend with, Wii Fit will also have to fend off the highest new entry this week with EA's Lord of the Rings: Conquest at No.3.

FIFA 09 has done a direct swap with Wii Fit, moving from No.1 to No.4 this week, while Wii Play is a non-mover at No.5. The rest of the top 10 retains some of the same faces as last week, while two re-entries to the sharp end of the chart have also appeared, according to Chart Track's week 3 figures for 2009.

Take 2's Carnival: Funfair Games comes in at No.9 (from No.11 last week), while Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training refuses to exit the top 40 gracefully having been on the market for a year and a half, jumping from No.13 to No.10 over the last week.

Need For Speed: Undercover, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Guitar Hero: World Tour all hold on to top 10 spots at No.6, No.7, and No.8 respectively. While Mario & Sonic is a non-mover, NFSU and GHWT both drop places.

A pair of shooters return to the top 40 this week, with Halo 3 (No.29) and Resistance 2 (No.39) both posting new entries on the chart. The biggest chart jump in the top 40 goes to Rockstar's GTA IV. Thanks to a price promotion, the title enjoyed a 26% rise in sales and moved from No.33 to No.18.

Despite the PC release of Mirror's Edge this week, this couldn't stop EA's faltering parkour runabout dropping four places from No.23 to No.27 due to a 38% drop in sales.

According to Chart Track's top 40 by individual formats, the Xbox 360 has once again achieved the highest number of games on the chart, while the PC still trails with one game and the PSP fails to chart a single title on the top 40.

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Danish outfit Io Interactive, which has the Hitman games and Freedom Fighters amongst its list of previous accolades, has announced its latest project Mini Ninjas. The title is due for release in autumn 2009 for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, and PC.

Mini Ninjas follows the story of Hiro, a mini ninja who's on a quest to restore a world that's been sent into darkness by a band of evil samurai. Using an array of powerful Kuji magic and special skills, Hiro must battle through waves of evildoers into the game's ultimate conclusion against the Evil Samurai Warlord in his Fortress of Doom.

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Word on the web is that Nintendo's next upgrade to its hugely successful line of DS handheld consoles, the DSi, could be headed for an April 4th release with a $179.99 (approx. £125) price tag.

Multiple sources close to Nintendo have apparently relayed this information to IGN, noting that the handheld will come to the US market in the first half of the year, with Nintendo of America allegedly relaying to its partners that April (most likely April 4th) is the planned launch window.

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FIFA 09 has beaten out Activision's Call of Duty: World At War once again this week, making it the only game in Chart Track's all formats UK chart to sit on the No.1 spot so far this year.

However, the gap in sales between CoD and FIFA 09 went from small to minute over the last week, shrinking from 5,000 to just 400 units.

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Comments: (126)

It's been a long two years since we first laid eyes on the tech demo that was Indiana Jones at E3'06.  Since then we've heard virtually nothing on the title as LucasArts concentrated on mastering the power of NatrualMotion's Euphoria and Pixelux' Digital Molecular Matter in Star Wars: Force Unleashed

Depending on which side of the US reports you wish to sit, Indiana Jones has either been quietly cancelled according to IGN, or, alternatively, Joystiq reports a LucasArts representative stating:

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UK publisher Eidos has today revealed that global sales of its winter blockbuster, Tomb Raider: Underworld, have topped 1.5 million units – below internal forecasts.

Making the statement in a trade update, Eidos' Chief Financial Offier, Robert Brent, acknowledged that whilst Underworld “performed well against both competitive products and recent iterations of the franchise” in Europe, the game didn't quite have the same impact across the pond:  “In a difficult North American economy we have seen retailers restricting inventory levels and triple-A products being price discounted above our expectation.”

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Having opened its doors at the end of last year, Home now has 3.4 million registered users according to Sony, with $1 million (£650,000) being spent on virtual goods by users of the service so far.

The electronics giant revealed this first raft of Home stats at its keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, while re-iterating news from last year of 17 million unique users now populating its PlayStation Network, making for a 20% attach rate for Home at this point.

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Comments: (757)

On top of beating out Call of Duty: World at War for the Christmas No.1 spot and returning to the top of the UK charts for the first week of 2009, EA's FIFA 09 has sold over 2 million units so far in the UK alone, making it the fastest selling FIFA game in the series' history.

"The studio created a game that appeals to everyone. We've listened to our consumers and delivered the game they wanted with rich gameplay and innovation," EA's Marketing Manager in the UK, Dan Holman, told MCV before adding: "We have now sold in excess of 2 million in the UK making it the fastest selling FIFA title to date."

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Comments: (126)

Following the launch of the Escalation Pack last December, Ubisoft has today confirmed the release of the 'Faction Elite Pack' for Tom Clancy's EndWar.

The DLC, which costs 300 Microsoft Points or 3.99 Euros from the PlayStation Network, features new battalions and unit upgrades including the JSF 15th Special Operations, Ceramic Armour, and Caseless Ammo.

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It may have been inadvertent, but Sony Pictures has today revealed that Atari's recently acquired ex-Sierra title, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, will launch simultaneously with the 1984 movie's release on Blu-Ray.

Featuring a new storyline written by creators Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, the video game had originally been pencilled in for a late 2008 launch, but was dropped following the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games.

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With the football season entering the crucial second half and with EA never one to miss out on the possibility of squeezing a brand for all it's worth, EA today announced EA Sports Football Academy is heading its way exclusively to the Nintendo DS in March 2009.

Boasting a collection of mini-games and challenges to improve your football knowledge, Football Academy appears to be targeted towards the more casual DS owner than the FIFA fanatic - we won't be charging our DS batteries quite yet then.

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Following the continued success of the LEGO themed videogames in 2008, anonymous sources confirmed to TVG that this year will continue to be filled with brightly coloured blocks.

Amidst rumours of Harry Potter undergoing the brick treatment and some suggestion that the unlikely sounding Rock Band could follow, our source claimed that the first title to emerge will likely be the rumoured sequel to LEGO Indiana Jones.  Tentatively entitled LEGO Indiana Jones 2, TVG understands that the game will primarily be based around last year's movie Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, complimented with challenge modes based on key moments from the rest of the series.

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After pinching the Christmas No.1 spot from right under the nose of Call of Duty: World at War last year, FIFA 09 has retaken the top spot on Chart Track's UK charts for the first week of 2009.

EA's footie juggernaut dropped back to the No.2 spot behind CoD last week after spending the Christmas week at No.1, but now sits atop the chart for the first week of 2009 despite a 41% drop in sales. 

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Activision's Call of Duty: World at War has once again shown why it's the 3-1 favourite to retain the Christmas number 1 spot on Chart Track's UK all format sales chart, with this week's chart bringing the shooter in at the top of the pile for the fifth week running.

While the Christmas number 1 will be crowned with next week's chart results, CoD: World at War's refusal to budge from the top spot for the last five weeks would make it the longest running, uninterrupted, chart topping run-in for Christmas number 1 in Chart Track history, if it were to retain the spot next week.

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Originally planned for a winter 2008/09 launch, Rockstar Games has today confirmed that the debut of Grand Theft Auto on Nintendo DS, Chinatown Wars, will arrive across Europe from March 20th 2009.

Set in the GTA IV interpretation of Liberty City, Chinatown Wars is the latest instalment in the GTA franchise to arrive on a Nintendo platform, following Grand Theft Auto and GTA 2 on GameBoy Color, and Grand Theft Auto Advance on (surprise, surprise) the GameBoy Advance.  Featuring a raft of DS-enabled functions, Chinatown Wars is currently in development at Rockstar's handheld specialists in Leeds, in conjunction with Rockstar North.

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Although we already knew that a Dante's Inferno game was in the works, EA has now sent out official word on the project being developed at its Redwood Shores studio.

Billed as a third-person action adventure, Dante's Inferno will draw its inspirations from the 14th century poetic masterpiece by Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy.

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According to online reports, US entertainment outfit, Time Warner, has completed the purchase of ten million new shares in ailing UK publisher, Eidos.

News of the latest acquisition of shares by Warner comes from UK industry mag, MCV, which reports that the US conglomerate now has a stake in Eidos of a little over 19%.  Time Warner had previously increased its share to 16% back in October.  Under an agreement signed between the two outfits, Warner cannot exceed a 30% stake before the end of January, although a clause that stopped the media giant from purchasing more shares before then, has been lifted.

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Nintendo of America today celebrated the Wii achieving its best ever non-December month, with sales passing the 2 million mark during November.

It was an equally successful month for the Nintendo DS with sales surpassing 1.56 million across the period, representing the second-highest, non-December month for the handheld.

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