Kojima Productions: major announcement at Metal Gear event next week

Kojima Productions is celebrating Metal Gear’s 25th anniversary next week with an event at Tokyo Midtown. It appears that Hideo Kojima may be planning some surprise announcements at the event as teased by his staff that will be earth shattering.

According to the latest official Kojima Productions podcast [via Gaming Everything], the crew, Ken Mendoza and Chris Johns revealed that there will be “a lot of exciting announcements” made next week at the Metal Gear event.


Johns revealed that the announcements will not only be big for fans of the Metal Gear franchise, but will shake the industry to its core by the announcements.





Kojima revealed previously that he is producing two games, Zone of Enders and Project Orge. According to Kojima Project Orge is a new open world IP that will be running on the new Fox Engine. The game will feature upwards of 100 hours as gamers will be able to explore within the world in great lengths.

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Microsoft scavenging laid-off OnLive employees with networking mixer

There is an interesting development as a by-product of the collapse of OnLive involving Microsoft. Apparently the company will be hosting an event with the specific goal of picking through and hiring select employees laid-off from OnLive.

As reported, OnLive went through a form of bankruptcy at which point it was bought out by a venture capitalist. In the process of the transaction over 50 percent of the 200 some employees were laid-off.


According to Venture Beat, It appears that Microsoft is taking this opportunity to staff up for its own cloud computing services by inviting the former OnLive employees to a networking mixer at its Mountain View, California campus.

With Sony picking up Gaikai for a cool $380 million, it wouldn’t be all that shocking to see Microsoft augment its workforce with former OnLive employees. Analysts have speculated that Microsoft would not buy OnLive as the company would probably pursue its own homebrew solution.

However, this OnLive networking mixer may be a clear sign that the company is also thinking about cloud gaming for the Xbox 360 and not just focusing on its Microsoft Azure cloud solution, which is geared towards applications.

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Dev wants to bring Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse via Kickstarter

The classic point-and-click Broken Sword adventure games from 24 years ago found new life recently after making its way onto the iOS platform. However, the studio behind the franchise has its sights set on creating a new entry in the franchise with The Serpent’s Curse.

This will be Revolution Software’s fifth Broken Sword game in the series, and first original entry since 2006. Instead of looking for a publisher to fund the game, Revolution is turning to Kickstarter to finish the game. Apparently, The Serpent’s Curse has been in development for six months and the studio is look to raise $400k. So far the Kickstarter campaign is off to a great start with $181k raised after only one day.


The Kickstarter rewards start at $15 which include a digital copy of the game and $100 for the collector’s boxed version and up.

Check out the promo trailer for the game.





If your fans of the old school point-and-click adventure games and want more new games head on over to the Broken Sword Kickstarter page. All I’m waiting for now is a Day of the Tentacle sequel Kickstarter campaign by Tim Shaffer.

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OnLive was $30 to $40 million in debt, CEO to remain with company

With the death of OnLive a new company is born with the same name and around half the existing workforce. According to the latest reports it appears that OnLive CEO, Steve Perlman will also be remaining with the company.

OnLive faced imminent closure recently due to lack of cash to even sustain the company for more than a few days. The company’s CEO Perlman gathered the 200 some staff members and took the blame for the state of the company.


He stated:


I’m the one that brought you here. I’m the one that ultimately made decisions. And I’m the one that ultimately takes responsibility. So I am sorry, and it didn’t end up exactly as we’d hoped.

According to Perlman the company had purchased 8,000 servers and only had 1,600 concurrent users to sustain them. According to Mercury News, the company apparently owned $30 to $40 million to various creditors and was unable to pay them.

The collapse of OnLive was substantial as it even impacted mobile manufacturer HTC, as the company also invested nearly $40 million in OnLive’s integration with its devices. According to reports, HTC’s $40 million is completely lost and cannot be recouped.

OnLive entered ABC (Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors) a form of bankruptcy, at which point venture capitalist, Gary Lauder stepped forward to assume liability of the company. According to a letter Lauder Partners sent to OnLivefans.com (yes, there is a fan site for OnLive), the new owner of OnLive has decided to keep Perlman onboard as CEO of the newly formed company.


Steve continues as CEO and is currently concentrating on the transition; once this is complete, he’ll be very focused on our next product releases and the vision. There will be changes to the organization both with old and new OnLive staff that will be bringing new features and games to the service.

Its surprising to hear that the new owner of OnLive wishes to keep Perlman running the company considering the state it was in before. It will be interesting to see how much influence Lauder will have in the day to day operations of the company.

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Sony shuts down WipEout dev Liverpool, relocating some of the staff

It’s a sad day today in video gaming and especially for WipEout fans as Sony has announced that SCE Studio Liverpool is being shutdown. Apparently, as part of Sony’s regular project review process the decision was made to cancel all of Liverpool’s projects and to close the studio.

Word around the studio’s closure came out earlier today on GRCade forum, as user Shadow wrote:



They got rounded up this morning and Michael Denny [Senior Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios] explained the company was being ‘reorganised’.

This news was shortly confirmed by SCE Studio Liverpool’s Facebook page which read:


As some of you may have heard Sony have chosen to close Studio Liverpool as of today.
This page will no longer be maintained by the WipEout Team.
We have loved making every game, every minute and every one of you. Keep the faith, keep loving WipEout.
Thank you for everything, Pilots. It’s been an amazing journey and we’ll miss you.





As reported by Eurogamer, Sony has issued a statement explaining the reason for the closure of the veteran studio. According to Sony as part of a regular review process, decisions were made to make some changes to the European Studios after assessing all “current and planned projects for the short and medium term.”


As part of SCE Worldwide Studios, we do regular reviews to ensure that the resources we have can create and produce high quality, innovative and commercially viable projects in an increasingly competitive marketplace. As part of this process, we have reviewed and assessed all current and planned projects for the short and medium term and have decided to make some changes to our European Studios.

It has been decided that Liverpool Studio should be closed. Liverpool Studio has been an important part of SCE Worldwide Studios since the outset of PlayStation, and have contributed greatly to PlayStation over the years. Everyone connected with Liverpool Studio, past and present, can be very proud of their achievements.

Sony revealed that while the team Liverpool will be disbanded the Liverpool Facility will continue to operate as it houses other vital World Wide Studios Europe and Sony Computer Entertainment Departments in the building.

A Sony spokesperson stated that the company will work with the team to try to relocate those affected to other studios.


We will be looking to relocate the team members throughout the studios, but unfortunately some redundancies will be necessary and in those cases we will assist staff in any way we can.

According to Eurogamer’s sources, Liverpool was working on WipEout and a Splinter Cell style game for the PS4. The source revealed that the WipEout game has been in development for 12 to 18 months and the Splinter Cell style game started out as a gangster game but later evolved. Apparently the Splinter Cell style game was using similar tech used by Team Bondai for LA Noire.

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Rockstar drops three new screens from Grand Theft Auto V [UPDATE]

After months of silence about Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar recently dropped some screenshots from the game. The screens show off some of the transport modes that will be found in GTA V, showing a bicycle, exotic sports car and a fighter jet.

The first screen is of a man riding a bicycle across the beach that looks similar to the one seen in San Andreas. Incidentally the last GTA game that had bicycles in the game was San Andreas also. It is widely believed that the bicycle was the least popular transport method due to it requiring rapid button mashing to get speed on it.




The second screenshot shows an exotic sports car labeled as the Cheetah. For those that have played the older GTA games on the PS2 will recall the Cheetah in San Andreas and in the previous iterations of the game.

While the Cheetah wasn’t the fastest car in the previous games, it was popular for its overall speed, super easy handling and braking. According to the screenshot it appears that Rockstar has ditched Ferrari car design for the Cheetah in favor of the Koenigsegg Agera.



Lastly, the final screen should have many gamers excited as it shows a fighter jet as one of the transport methods that will be available in the game. It is speculated that the fighter jet is an upgraded version of the Hydra from San Andreas that was slated for GTA IV but was taken out.

If you closely into the cockpit of the jet, you can see the supposed main character for GTA V, Alberto De Silva flying it.



These pictures are probably taken from the PC version of the game, but they still clearly show a dramatic improvement in graphics from GTA IV. The first screenshot shows off some pretty advanced particle effects and blurring with the second showing off smoke effects for the game.



UPDATED with new screenshots of leisure activities in the game:

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OnLive is dead: venture capitalist retains less than 50% of the employees

Shocking news to come out over the weekend is around the collapse of OnLive, the cloud-based game streaming service. OnLive made headlines just a few short years ago for bringing an innovative concept to market as analysts predict that the future of gaming is in the clouds.

According to Joystiq, OnLive CEO Steve Perlman gathered his 200 some staff to announce that OnLive is folding as the revenue earned is not nearly enough to sustain the massive costs associated with running the server farms.

Perlman stated, “I’ve been a non-stop fundraising machine… and I finally got to the point where I just could not bring in enough funding to carry this thing forward.” After Perlman’s speech another staff member stated, "All of us, technically, as of today, our jobs have ended – our current jobs with this company."


It appears that OnLive will be entering ABC, or Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, another form of bankruptcy where an assignee takes responsibility of the assets and debts of the company.

According to Perlman, the assignee taking on OnLive’s assets and debts is a “very accomplished and well known venture capitalist.” Apparently, the venture capitalist is “Very wealthy” as is described to be “an extraordinary guy” by Perlman, confirming rumors that OnLive is being bought out by an individual and not a company.

It is speculated that over 50 percent of the staff will be laid off in the process as the individual, while wealthy will not be able to afford to keep the 200 staff members.


…the people that come on board are the essential people, as needed, to go and accomplish that goal of getting this thing to cash-flow positive…The people that are gonna be coming on board here, that will come out of the group … I’m gonna tell you, most of the people will not be coming on board.

Perlman explained that the reason the company is collapsing is due to poor estimation of the server scale. OnLive apparently initially acquired thousands of cloud servers which can’t be maintained with the current low user base.

Perlman told employees, "If you’ve got 8,000 servers and 1,600 users, how could we ever get to cash flow positive, right?" According to reports, OnLive user subscription tops out at 1,600 concurrent users. The company reported nearly two million signups in the past, but this does not account for purely active users.

Incidentally, the collapse of OnLive happened just weeks after Bruce Grove, GM for OnLive stated that companies like Sony buying up Gaikai defeats the purpose of cloud gaming.

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Former PS3 Sony game ‘Adrift’ returns as ‘Remember Me’ by Capcom

Adrift used to be a Sony funded second party game with Dontnod studio a few years back but was canceled along with a bunch of other incubated projects. Dontnod has since partnered with Capcom and dramatically evolved the game into a fresh and stylish game titled Remember Me.

Remember Me takes place in the distant future where memories can be digitized, bought and sold. Memory has become an economical factor in the market place giving power over certain wealthy individuals.


The game centers around a female character, Nilin, who is a former memory hunter that can hack into other people’s minds to steal their memories. After getting her own memory wiped she sets out on a journey to figure out who she really is. From the preview shown at gamescom, the game plays a lot like Assassin’s Creed with a strong emphasis on platforming and scaling buildings.


According to Dontnod Remember Me is drastically different from the game that was under development with Sony as the concept of memories didn’t even exist. It is not clear why Sony decided to cancel such a promising title at that time, but apparently the game has been under development for over four years and have gone through several iterations.

According to Joystiq, Dontnod creative lead, Jean-Maxime Moris stated that at that time Sony was canceling a bunch of projects which included Adrift.


I won’t go into too many details, but basically they cancelled a bunch of projects, and we were just one of them. It felt bad at the time. And now, in retrospect, it’s just one step toward where we are now.

There was a point a few years back when Sony determined it was making too many games and was canceling projects left and right which included Eight Days and The Getaway.


The recent gameplay shown during gamescom has piqued my interest level as the world has a Bladerunner/Deus Ex vibe to it. Remember Me is set to launch May 2013 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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gamescom 2012: Sony wrap-up: Cross-Buy, PS Plus for Vita, PlayStation Mobile and more

Sony’s press conference is now behind us with everyone now crawling around the show floor to get their hands on the goods. However, there were some interesting announcements at Sony’s presser that does deserve mentioning.

Sony has been dancing around this idea of the PlayStation Mobile (formerly Suite), but took it one step further by revealing more details about the app during the press conference. The company announced that PS Mobile will be available for ASUS and Wikipad in addition to the select Android devices and PS Vita.


This app will tie your PSN ID across multiple devices allowing you to access your games between platforms. This is fantastic news as this means that you will now be able to start playing a game on your vita and resume on your smart phone or tablet. Sony revealed that 30 new titles are being developed for the platform by various studios and publishers.

Apparently studios invested in PlayStation Mobile include SEGA, THQ, Necrosoft, Tecmo Koei, Q? Entertainment, D3 Publisher and more. The list of partners that will be creating content for PSM top out at 38 international companies and 46 Japanese companies.



Sony also announced a new Cross-Buy program that should have many PS Vita and PS3 owners excited. This is a new initiative that Sony is backing as a major feature that will offer a free Vita version of the game if you purchase a PS3 copy and vice versa.

The Cross-Buy program will kick off this November starting with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and will include other titles such as Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault. This is a brilliant idea as PS3 owners will already have a library of PS Vita games before even owning the handheld.

In addition to the Cross-Buy program, Sony also unveiled the all new PlayStation Plus subscription for the PS Vita as well. The company indicated that this program geared towards the mobile handheld will follow in the footsteps of the PS3 PS+ program. In addition to this exciting news, Sony announced that Europe will receive Red Dead Redemption for free as part or PS+ next month. There is no announcement for NA yet.

To top things off Sony also revealed that PSOne titles will now be available for purchase over the PS Vita store as well.

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Final Fantasy VII re-release disappoints

Final Fantasy VII is back with a vengeance, this time getting a PC re-release that adds several new features. Unfortunately it hasn’t added enough to really make it worth purchasing.

I’m sure I’m not alone amongst the Blorge faithful in absolutely loving Final Fantasy VII. It was one of the games that upon its original release in 1997 proved to me that gaming wasn’t going to be a hobby I gave up on purely because I was entering adulthood (I was 20-years-old at the time). If a game could be this good, tell a compelling story, grip me emotionally, and persuade me to give up 50 hours or more of my life, then why would I give it up?


In the 15 years that have passed since Final Fantasy VII was originally released the games industry has changed a great deal. Even the Final Fantasy franchise has evolved considerably, and not necessarily for the better. But FF7 is one of those games that has stood the test of time very well. Yes, the graphics look horrible, and the lack of voice acting is jarring to modern ears, but it still provides a damn fine experience.

This week saw the PC re-release that was announced in July finally drop. For $10 retro gaming fans can get a digital copy of the game complete with achievements, saves to the cloud, and a character booster that means lazy people can avoid grinding through the levels needed to beat the hardest bosses.

The problem is that the achievements are distinctly lacking in any variety, the visuals haven’t been touched, and the whole thing feels like a wasted opportunity. I still own an original copy of this game for the Playstation (along with Origins, Anthology, VI, VIII, and IX) and I’ll be sticking to that rather than paying out again for something that could have been much better than it has turned out to be.

Those who are interested, however, can head to the official site.

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gamescom 2012: new Sony IPs Part 2: Rain and Puppeteer

Continuing Sony’s gamescom press conference recap, the company unveiled two games in the works at Sony Japan Studio. The first title is Rain, a stylistic game about a character that only exists when it rains and the other title is Puppeteer, a story about a boy that has been transformed into a puppet.

Rain looks like an interesting title that seems to have many layers underneath the surface. The game is about a boy that awakes to see a silhouette of a girl in the rain. He quickly finds himself lost in the world as he has become invisible and can only be seen in the rain. As the rain starts to pour in the game a hidden world becomes visible to you.


There seems to be some platforming, puzzles and a good bit of adventuring mixed in. The trailer shows off an atmospheric world within the game that will easily have you mesmerized.


The other title coming out of Japan Studio is Puppeteer, an action packed adventure game that takes place all within a “magical theatre.” Apparently the game was born from the mind of Gavin Moore, Game Director of Japan Studio. According to Moore, the game is about a young boy named Kutaro that is transformed into a puppet with the ability to swap heads providing different abilities.


Here is the full description of the game from the PlayStation Blog:


Puppeteer takes place in a magical puppet theatre, owned and run by the slightly eccentric but thoroughly charming Professor Gregorious T. Oswald. His latest production is the weirdly titled "The Perilous Journey of a Boy Named Kutaro."

On one dark, moonlit night, the star of the show, a young boy named Kutaro, is carried away by the maleficent Moon Bear King to a black castle, where the unlucky lad is transformed into a puppet. Kutaro then displeases the terrible tyrant who duly devours the boy’s wooden head and casts away his body. But the headless hero is not alone, for he discovers a very special pair of magic scissors, which will help him on his harrowing quest to find his head – and his way home.

Unlike most games where you move through the world, the world of Puppeteer actually moves around you, with all the action taking place on the same stage. The sets are continually moving and changing, taking you on an adventure with surprises in every scene. It’s packed full of weird and wild situations that we think you’re going to love.

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gamescom 2012: new Sony IPs Part 1: Tearaway for PS Vita and Until Dawn for PS3

Sony’s gamescom press conference is the talk of the town receiving glowing praises from various media outlets. With all the recent talks of the industry going stale with sequels, Sony is still bringing new and experimental IPs to its platforms.

The first new IP Sony showed off during the presser is Tearaway, a new title by Media Molecule, creators of LittleBigPlanet. Tearaway puts you in control of Iota, a paper messenger living in a paper world. You set out with Iota to help him deliver an urgent message meant for you. However, in order for Iota to deliver this message, you must navigate him to his destination.


Along the way you will encounter enemies and obstacles that can only be overcome by your “interference” in the Paper World. According Media Molecule’s great description of the game on its Blog, you will be given god-like powers to interact with the Paper World as you see fit. You will be able to poke your fingers into the world from the back of the PS Vita, breathe into the mic to cause a storm or just turn the world upside down.




0Sony also unveiled a new PS3 IP titled Until Dawn, developed by Supermassive Games set for release in 2013. The game will utilize the PS Move and is inspired by classic teen horror movies.

According to the studio, this game has been in development for quite some time working with Hollywood writers and TV talents to craft the title. The studio wants to create a unique experience that harkens back to the days of campy but suspenseful horror flicks.

You will play through the story as seven different characters to unravel a mystery surrounding the disappearance of friend.



On the anniversary of their friends’ disappearance, a group of classmates visit the site of the mystery to bury their ghosts and get some closure. Little do they know, they’ll end up burying each other instead.

It’s teen horror so obviously it’s isolated, the power’s out and the phones don’t work! You’ll play through the story as multiple characters, sometimes with a friend and sometimes on your own to discover who it is that’s intent on killing off you and your friends. It’s up to you how you play, so we don’t know how your story will go or who’ll be there with you at the end.

The game definitely looks interesting as the gameplay mechanics have you using the PS Move controller naturally like shining a flashlight or interacting with the world as you normally would.

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gamescom 2012: PS Vita – Killzone Mercenary, Call of Duty Declassified and new Assassin’s Creed Liberation trailer

During Sony’s gamescom press conference the company unveiled a slew of PS Vita games at the show. Sony released the debut trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, Killzone: Mercenary and more.

Activision’s Call of Duty game for the PS Vita was MIA during E3 which lead many to speculate that the game may be delayed. However, Sony debuted the official trailer for the game during the presser.


According to the trailer Declassified will offer four versus four multiplayer on the go over Wi-Fi with new maps never seen before as well as fan favorites such as Nuketown. The game is set in-between the first Black Ops game and the sequel, meaning that the game will likely take place during the modern era.


The game will feature single player missions, and everything you have come to love about Call of Duty such as progressive leveling to Prestige, perks, and ability to create-a-class.

The most visually stunning PS Vita game at the show was the unveiling of Killzone Mercenary. The game is being developed by Cambridge Studio in coordination with Guerrilla Games. The trailer shows off a dark and grittier side of the Killzone universe as the game focuses on mercenaries.


You earn currency for the way you execute your enemies as well as how the objective or mission was accomplished. Sony hasn’t revealed much details about the story or multiplayer aspect of the game, but you can expect more details this week.

Sony also released a new trailer for PS Vita exclusive, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation at gamescom during the presser which showed off the game’s unique gameplay mechanics using the touchscreens on the PS Vita. Liberation is definitely shaping up to be a visually impressive and fun game. Check out the new trailer below:

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Polyphony boss reveals studio is working on Gran Turismo 6

Kazunori Yamauchi, the head of Polyphony Digital and creator of the wildly popular race sim, Gran Turismo revealed that the studio was hard at work on the next iteration of the franchise. However, he did remain tight lipped as to when we will see the game.

Gran Turismo is the best selling race car driving game series with nearly 66 million units sold worldwide. Gran Turismo 5 sold 7.4 million units with GT5 Prologue shifting 5.3 units on the PS3 alone.


Yamauchi recently attended the Gran Turismo 5 Asia Championship 2012 event, which is part of the overarching GT Academy program. At the event Yamauchi confirmed that the studio was working on the next iteration of the franchise. However, when asked as to when fans of the series can expect the game, he refused to even drop a hint.

According to Andriasang, he stated:


If I carelessly say when it will be released, you’ll end up with people saying things like ‘it’s been delayed again!?’ so I will no longer say at this type of event.

Yamauchi’s comments came during a stage event with real life race car driver, Lucas Ordonez. Interestingly enough, Ordonez became a professional race car driver through winning the GT Acadamy program back in 2009.

For those that may have lived under a rock, GT Academy is Yamauchi’s yearly program that pits the cream of the crop Gran Turismo gamers against each other in order to get an opportunity to go pro with a sponsorship and the whole nine yards.

Last year, GT Academy took place in the US, with the event being judged by three famed race car drivers: Tommy Kendall a former Trans-Am race car driver and broadcaster, Danny Sullivan an Indianapolis 500 winner, and Liz Halliday, notable Le Mans Series winner.




Not only is Gran Turismo a fantastic racing simulator, the game can apparently help improve your lap time in real-life. As reveled previously, Yamauchi’s dream has always been to create a sim good enough to help aspiring race car drivers to transition to the real thing, which is what GT Academy is all about.

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PlayStation boss: Social gaming “difficult to sustain,” satisfied with PS Vita sales

Jack Tretton, Sony president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America shared his thoughts on the whole social and freemium gaming scene. He also spoke a bit about the state of the PlayStation Vita.

In an interview with GI.biz, Tretton revealed that he feels much better about the PS Vita currently then where it was four months ago. When asked about the low sales figures for the handheld, Tretton pointed out that the handheld business is similar to the console business in that it’s a marathon and not a sprint.



In this industry, you can’t get too high or too low, because it moves very quickly. I think there’s an acceptable number – and [the number] we’ve sold: That’s acceptable. If it was triple that, I’d be happier. If it was one-third, I’d be disappointed.

Tretton believes things will start trending up for the PS Vita, as the support for the device is there as there is a PS Vita exclusive Call of Duty (Declassified) and Assassin’s Creed (Liberation) game set to launch this holiday. Sony is still projecting to sell 10 million units by end of fiscal calendar year despite the slow start the handheld experienced this year. Could Sony have something in the pipeline that we aren’t aware of?


Anything with great rewards is going to come with great challenges. We felt if the tech was there, and the game support was there, then the audience would be there. … I feel much better about it now than I did four months ago.

Tretton is also excited about where the PlayStation division is positioned within Sony, especially with Kaz Hirai taking the top CEO spot of the entire company. The PlayStation division is now aligned with the mobile and digital imaging divisions as the three pillars of Sony. This is dramatically different than from when TV and music dominated the company.


When I joined Sony Computer Entertainment, I’d meet people from other Sony divisions. I’d be at an industry event and they’d read my name badge and say ‘Sony Computer Entertainment? What the hell is that? I work for Sony music.’ Sony Computer Entertainment was very much an offshoot and not an intimately familiar division of Sony. … To go from there, where you’re a science experiment, for lack of a better word, to one of the three major pillars of the corporation is great.

Tretton was also asked about Sony’s strategy of focusing on core gaming experiences while social media and free-to-play models dominate the mobile landscape.


[Social and free-to-play] is a business I think a lot of companies are learning is difficult to sustain for the long term. It’s an adjunct or it’s an add-on, but it’s not where gaming is headed. It’s an additive diversion. There’s a place for social and freemium, but it’s not going to replace the business models that are out there.

The crisis Zynga currently faces may be telling of Tretton’s belief as social media gaming seems to be on a sharp decline. The industry faced a crash back in the late ‘70s due to over commercialization of video games but was saved by Nintendo. There may be some merit to Tretton’s point, as core gamers are probably much more loyal than social gamers and in turn will help keep your business sustained for the long haul.

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Sony’s gamescom press conference next week – “future of PlayStation" to be revealed

gamescom is just four days away now as Sony prepares its press conference to kick things off at the biggest trade show in the world. gamescom for Sony is turning out to be an exciting event as various rumors of new announcements have been swirling around the Web.

Sony has setup a page dedicated to gamescom on the PlayStation site. Gamers can tune in August 14th at 1pm EST or 19:00 CET / 18:00 BST / 03:00 Sydney (Wed) as the entire presser will be streamed here.


The company will be going right into a Q&A session right after the press conference, which may mean that whatever Sony is announcing will have everyone buzzing.

After the Q&A session there will be a ‘Games as Art’ debate with several panelists which include: Shuhei Yoshida, SCE Worldwide Studios President, Kellee Santiago, co-founder of Thatgamecompany (Journey), Alex Evans, co-founder of Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet) and Ian Dallas, co-founder of Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan).

It will be interesting to see if Alex Evans will be announcing his new project in the works at Media Molecule.

The most interesting comment on the PlayStation page is the heading:


Join us live from Cologne on 14 August 2012 when we’ll be revealing the future of PlayStation as well as hosting a live panel with industry experts.

It makes you wonder as to what Sony means by the future of PlayStation, as the company could be talking about the PS4, or its future plans for Gaikai or the next iteration of the PS3.

The biggest rumor going into gamescom for Sony is definitely the super-slim PS3 and a price drop for the console. With leaked pictures and speculation from industry experts, it looks likely that Sony will be unveiling the next model of the PS3.

The other rumor is around two unannounced games Sony will be revealing at gamescom. The games are rumored to be “Rain” and “Until Dawn” as Sony trademarks the names right before gamescom.

What else would you like to see at Sony’s press conference?

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Battle.net has been breached – Diablo III and other data stolen

Blizzard has issued a statement notifying users that Battle.net online service have been breached recently with user data stolen in the process. This breach impacts user data related to games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo III and Starcraft 2.

According to Blizzard’s statement, email addresses for Battle.net users, personal security questions, and information relating to authenticators and scrambled passwords were compromised.


Blizzard doesn’t believe that the stolen information alone is enough to gain access into a user’s account. However, Blizzard urges users to change their password immediately and a mandatory change to security questions will be enforced shortly. It doesn’t appear that credit card information was taken according to Blizzard.


At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.

It is a bit concerning that the hackers were able to make off with the authenticator information as I also use a mobile authenticator. Blizzard stated that users will be asked to also update their mobile authenticator software for iPhones and Android devices soon.


In the coming days, we’ll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we’ll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.

Click on the link above to read through Blizzard’s FAQ on the situation. With the launch of the Real Money Auction House, I can see Battle.net becoming a target for hackers. Just recently, a user revealed that he was able to earn around $10,000 or $1,500 per week by selling loot on the Real Money Auction House. With this kind of money changing hands, I wouldn’t be surprised if Battle.net may have to be fortified like a bank

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Sony reveals insane God of War Saga and Infamous Collection edition

Just yesterday Sony announced two brand new collection editions, confirming the rumored God of War Saga along with an inFamous collector’s edition. As rumored, God of War Saga will indeed contain every single game released for the franchise.

According to the PlayStation Blog, GOW: Saga will include: God of War, God of War II, God of War III, God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta. The game will also include exclusive bonus content, voucher for 1 trial month of PlayStation Plus.


All of the PS2 and PSP games are remastered in HD with trophy support.




The inFamous Collection will include: inFamous, inFamous 2, inFamous: Festival of Blood, extra missions and additional character costumes, power ups and weapon styles.

Both God of War Saga and inFamous Collection will retail for $39.99, which is a fantastic deal especially when considering that the GOW: Saga contains five whopping games!




Ratchet & Clank Collection, which includes all of the PS2 games in 1080p HD glory for $29.99 will release August 28th via retail and PSN along with an exclusive demo for the upcoming Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time game for the PS3.

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PS3 version of Assassin’s Creed 3 to include 60 minutes of exclusive gameplay

The Assassin’s Creed games have really become a staple franchise on the PS3, with most of the iterations boasting additional content for that platform. Almost all of the Assassin’s Creed games contained PS3 exclusive content in some shape or form.

Sony announced at E3 that Assassin’s Creed III will continue that tradition with additional content for the PS3. Ubisoft and Sony really didn’t provide too much details around the content during announcement, but some more information have surfaced recently.


Amazon has updated its preorder page showing the new box art for Assassin’s Creed III. The box art details that the game will contain 60 minutes of exclusive gameplay exclusively for the PS3 edition of the game.




This is actually quite impressive, as its substantially more exclusive content over what was in Brotherhood. Although, one could also argue that AC: Revelations did come with a free copy of Assassin’s Creed I for the PS3, which is also substantial.
It appears that PlayStation fans will be able to experience the full Assassin’s Creed treatment with the PS Vita also receiving the impressive looking Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation that has cross-play functionality with the PS3 version.

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Android apps come to Macs

A company that already lets you use Android applications on a desktop PC is now doing the same for Mac users. BlueStacks is able to bridge the technical gap between the various systems, but will only do so with the authorization of the app developer.

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