Microsoft will reportedly overhaul the management structure at its entertainment and devices division.
According to the Wall Street Journal (via Reuters), the company may make official announcements regarding a restructuring of the unit as early as this week.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that Killzone 3 is in development and will be playable in stereoscopic 3D.
A press release confirming the sequel to 2009’s Killzone 2 promises jet-packs, “more vehicles, explosive high powered weapons and a vicious close-combat system” as players “resume the fight against a remorseless Helghast Army of colossal proportions.
A number of Gaikai investors have pumped a further $10 million (£7m) into the ambitious cloud-based game streaming service.
The series B funding comes from TriplePoint Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners, Benchmark Capital and an unnamed partner.
Rustic Canyon Partners’ Nate Redmond has joined Gaikai’s board as part of the latest investment round.
Comments from Sony Computer Entertainment Australia head Michael Ephraim suggest that new PSP hardware may follow in PSPgo’s footsteps and take the digital-only approach to content.
Speaking last week as rumours of a UMD-free PSP2 intensified, Ephraim told GameSpot in a video interview:
Bungie has announced that Halo Reach will launch worldwide on September 14, except in Japan, where it will debut a day later.
The developer also said that more than 2.7 million people logged 16 million hours on the beta for the upcoming shooter, which should allay some of the fears the studio has had about "Halo fatigue".
Sony has acknowledged that there's work to be done if its Minis project is to be deemed a success.
Bite-sized downloadable PlayStation Network titles that launched for PSP last October and for PS3 before Christmas, Minis were first announced at E3 last year.
Midway Games’ liquidation plan has received approval from a US bankruptcy court.
The ruling provides a recovery for creditors from Midway’s sale of assets last year to Warner Bros, when the firm acquired the Mortal Kombat franchise and the publisher's Chicago and Seattle-based development studios.
J Allard, chief experience officer and chief technology officer at Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, may be on his way out of the company.
That’s according to ZDNet’s unnamed sources, who claim the 15 year Microsoft veteran is on sabbatical and is unlikely to return to the firm.
Media Create has updated its Japanese hardware and software sales data for the week ended May 16.
On the hardware front, PSP remained the individual bestselling system, but combined DS sales topped those of Sony’s handheld.
Elsewhere, PS3 jumped ahead of Wii while PSPgo slipped below PS2 in the weekly rankings.
Weekly hardware sales totals (previous week):
PSP - 24,475 (35,233)
PS3 – 20,463 (26,185)
Wii - 17,570 (31,399)
DSi LL - 15,879 (26,733)
DSi - 9,990 (15,739)
Red Dead Redemption debuted atop the UK all formats chart for the week ended May 22.
The Xbox 360 standard and limited editions accounted for 65 per cent of total sales and the PS3 versions the remainder, according to Chart-Track, which called the game "the biggest title of the year so far".
Format: Wii
Release: Out now (US), May 28 (EU)
Publisher: Ubisoft (US), Rising Star Games (EU)
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
MTV Games' general manager Scott Guthrie has admitted that sales of The Beatles: Rock Band were below expectations, and that “we underestimated the competition and they took mind share away from us.”
Speaking with MCV, Guthrie insisted that the music genre itself was not in jeopardy, and that its yearly decline simply reflects the inflation caused by instrument peripherals now widely installed in homes.
The German government has called off plans for a ban on violent videogames following a successful online petition.
The petition, posted in July 2009 on the official forum of the Bundestag (the German Parliament), has received over 73,000 signatures. German law requires that any petition passing the 50,000 mark must be reviewed and discussed by government.
Joris De Man’s work for Guerrilla Games’ Killzone 2 has won the inaugural Ivor Novello award for a videogame score.
Also nominated for Best Original Video Game Score were Armin Elsaesser for his Savage Moon: Waldgeist score, and Empire: Total War, a joint effort from Richard Beddow, Richard Birdsall, Walter Mair and Lorenzo Piggici.
To thee, unbeliever: have you never had a religious experience? Perhaps you were a devotee of Counter-Strike or have been absorbed into the cult of WOW. Maybe you are a missionary for Far Cry 2. Can you still read Ultima runes and name all the Virtues and corresponding Mantras? So why baulk at the pale ASCII universe and pantheon of 26 alphabetical monsters that is Rogue? It’s a hallowed tradition of 30 years and numerous denominations: ADOM, Spelunky, NetHack and, yes, even Dwarf Fortress.
This week’s Friday Game has no grand theme. I’ve moved house and, stuck without the internet for a while, I’ve ended up playing a few of the games I recklessly bought for my iPhone in the good old days when I had all the wifi I could possibly want. What follows, then, is a fairly random selection of iTunes treats, old and new: the only thing they have in common is that it took the removal of the bounteous other distractions of the App Store to make me actually try them out.
FarmVille creator Zynga has made its fourth known acquisition in two years, its purchase of Beijing’s XPD Media marking its first foray into the Asian market.
More than provide a gateway into Asia, though – Zynga has also announced the opening of its own Beijing studio, its second international office after Bangalore, India) - the deal is designed to fill key senior positions and enrich the company’s talent pool.
UK newspaper the Daily Mail said in a report recently that Red Dead Redemption's lengthy development could have cost Rockstar up to $100 million (£70 million) - a figure which was subsequently widely reported. But that figure, the paper has since admitted, was simply conjecture.
Namco Bandai Partners VP Olivier Comte reckons the typical £40 price of modern videogames is too high, and the industry needs to pull together to think about another business model for the future.
Speaking with MCV, Comte said: "I feel all the big videogame companies need to join together in a worldwide summit to discuss the future of our industry. I think we have to pull our thoughts together.
GameStop has said that a decline in its hardware sales for the first quarter of 2010 is down to shortages in supply of the latest consoles.
The US retailer reports that it's seen a 12% decline in Q1 2010 hardware sales, which it said during a recent earnings call was "primarily due to the supply constraint on new video game consoles", as well as "reduced hardware price points".
EA has launched an Online Pass system in an effort to slow the sales of used games - a significant market from which retailers make money but games publishers don't. But these new initiatives aren't a threat to US retailer GameStop, apparently.
Online Pass gives purchases of new games a one-use code to get full access to its online play features. For second-hand buyers to access online features, they need to purchase a new code of their own for $10.
Major US retailer Walmart has turned its Sauron's Eye onto gamers with the launching of its new 'Gamecenter' online videogame portal.
It's billed as the place where gamers can get trailers, previews and other more extensive peeks at the games than the little packshot and bullet-point list of features you usually get on online retailer sites.
Format: 360, PS3 (version tested)
Release: May 28
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Yuke’s Co.
Screenshot gallery
Game In Scotland, the free game industry recruitment fair, expects its biggest year yet when it opens its doors this Saturday.
Last year’s event attracted 500 visitors (the capacity of Dundee venue Fat Sam’s Nightclub) to its presentations and discussions.
Among the 15 companies attending this year’s event are APB developer Realtime Worlds, community-driven portal and Game Maker provider YoYo Games, and compiler specialists Codeplay.
Development tool provider Unity has unveiled two new branches of its technology at Google's annual I/O developer conference: Unity Android, a platform for Google's mobile phone OS, and Native Client, which allows Unity content to be played without a plugin in the Chrome browser.