Xbox 360 owners can come a little closer to being able to toss their original Xboxes, as today a new backwards compatibility patch was released, adding Xbox 360 support for oft-requested games such as Double Fine's Psychonauts, Rare's Conker: Live and Reloaded, Team NINJA's Dead or Alive Ultimate, Pandemic's Destroy All Humans!, Quantic Dream's Indigo Prophecy, Sega AM2's Shenmue II, and others. All in all, over three dozen titles were added or updated, with some applying to only North America or Japan. For the rest, check out the full list. Upon hearing the news, Double Fine founder Tim Schafer published a celebratory news post, in which he commented, "Are the reports true? I DON'T KNOW! Why are you asking me? I am just a lowly game developer! Why should I get official, advanced notice about anything?" Now get to work on Panzer Dragoon Orta, Microsoft.

As usual, Xbox 360 owners without a broadband connection can visit Microsoft's backwards compatibility site for alternative means of installing the update.

Like many successful developers, Bungie has a tendency to spawn new independent studios founded by former employees. The latest such example of this is Certain Affinity, founded by ten-year Bungie veteran Max Hoberman. Hoberman most recently served as the company's multiplayer team lead for Halo 2 and the upcoming Halo 3. In addition to Hoberman, Certain Affinity is made up of other former employees of Bungie, as well as developers hailing from Origin Systems, Digital Anvil, and elsewhere, with credits on games from series such as Ultima, Wing Commander, Asheron's Call, Ghost Recon, and of course Bungie titles such as Myth and Halo.

The Austin, Texas-based studio is currently working on a new Xbox 360 game, though it has not yet given any details as to its content. In more immediate news, the company is partnering with Halo developer Bungie and publisher Microsoft to develop new multiplayer maps for Halo 2. No details were released as far as pricing or gameplay content of the upcoming maps.

"We're not setting out to change the industry," says Hoberman. "We're creating games by choosing strong leaders, talented and experienced developers, and solid partners. This partnership with Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios is a piece of that puzzle and we hope it's the start of a long and fruitful relationship."

As one of the old guard PC developers, Epic Games is accustomed to providing free content to its consumers after games have been released, and it looks like the company plans to continue that tradition even on microtransaction-laden consoles. Speaking to SpikeTV following its recent 2006 Video Game Awards, Epic Games president Mike Capps indicated that the company has had free downloads in the works for some time. Epic designer CliffyB seemed to want to keep the cards closer to the chest. "We're Epic and we're known for supporting our games," he hinted. "That's all we're saying right now."

Capps soon came clean with a clearer picture of the situation. "We started long before the game ever came out," he said. "We always take care of our customers, we always give them stuff for free, and we're going to keep doing that forever. That's how we do it, man. This is Epic."

Neither Capps nor Cliffy gave any indication of what specific content is coming or when it will come, but the news is certain to be well received by Xbox 360 owners.

Prior to the release of PSP launch puzzle/platformer Archer Maclean's Mercury, developer Awesome Studios (now Ignition Banbury) promised support for a future USB motion-sensing peripheral. That never quite materialized, even with the release of the sequel Mercury Meltdown. Now, it looks like the team will finally get its chance to release the game with motion control, as publisher Ignition Entertainment today announced that the game is joining fellow sphere-based platformer Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz and coming to Wii as Mercury Meltdown Revolution. Mercury Games put the player in control of, fittingly, a blob of liquid mercury, which must be guided around complex environments and past various obstacles. It will feature over 150 levels as well as hidden unlockable content and features, and promises "full interaction using the Wii Remote tilt sensor. "The Wii Remote is a true compliment to the Mercury series as the original game design was intended for a tilt controller," said Ignition Entertainment president Paul Robinson. "Now gamers can fully interact with the Mercury blob, navigating through the labs with precision and unprecedented speed."

Mercury Meltdown Revolution is being developed by Ignition Banbury, and is slated to ship for Wii to North America in spring 2007.

According to the ESRB's website, Capcom's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior has been content rated for Wii (in case you were wondering, it got a "T for Teen" for violence), suggesting that the game is coming to the system's Virtual Console service. The entry almost certainly refers to the SNES edition of the game rather than the arcade release, given Virtual Console's purpose and existing library. Notably, it also marks the first time there has been any indication of Capcom bringing content to Virtual Console, an encouraging development as the publisher contributed many of the most well-loved games to 8-bit and 16-bit consoles.

Capcom has not officially commented on the listing, which did not give any indication as to the game's potential release period.

According to a post made today by an Ubisoft employee over on the official Ubisoft forums, the Xbox 360 version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas now has an auto-update available through Xbox Live. It fixes a couple single-player bugs, but mainly addresses a wide range of multiplayer issues. The patch corrects many crash-causing bugs, one related to incorrect score management, one dealing with an achievement, several related to cooperative mode, and others. It also improves search menus, removes proximity voice chat in team games, and more. Head over to the Ubi post for a complete list.

Despite Sony yesterday calling its online vocabulary "too funky fresh," admitting to being "Busted. Nailed. Snagged.," and promising to continue to update its all i want for xmas is a psp marketing campaign, the site now appears to be taken down entirely. There's no word on whether it's just some unexpected downtime, or whether the whole thing may have just been creating more ill will than positive buzz, but the latter seems like a safer bet.

Microsoft today announced that Epic's anticipated third person shooter Gears of War (X360) has gone gold and is ready for production. To celebrate the game's launch on November 12, 2006, Microsoft will be holding a variety of online events via Xbox Live. Starting at 12:01am on November 12, there will be a 24-hours leaderboard tournament; the player on top at the end of the contest will receive a unique Gears of War guitar and a guaranteed spot in an official Gears of War worldwide tournament to be held next year.

During that same 24-hour period, several other offers and opportunities will be running: hourly sweepstakes including prizes such as a Samsung surround sound system; a freely downloadable gamer pic and theme; online gaming featuring the members of Megadeth as well as Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski; a launch video from CliffyB; and an MTV feature on the game.

A new Gears of War trailer is currently available via Xbox Live.

Electronic Arts today proclaimed the existence of its Chicago-based development studio. While the publisher has maintained development operations in Chicago for over two years, partially as a result of the acquisition of Chicago-based developer NuFX, the group moved into its current downtown location this past July. Today's announcement comes alongside the studio's officially inauguration, held on site.

"We want to be a premier next-gen developer," said studio general manager Kudo Tsunoda speaking to Shacknews, which for some reason was present at today's event. "With the next-gen consoles coming out and the spirit of innovation that's here at EA Chicago, we're really focused on developing a new way of playing games. ... In the long term, plans of the studio as we move forward are to start developing more intellectual property for EA."

EA Chicago has already released the multiplatform boxing game Fight Night Round 3, and is currently working on the recently revealed fighter Def Jam: Icon. Def Jam: Icon is expected to ship in March 2007.

Ubisoft today announced that it has opened a new office in Mexico City. The new location is solely a business office and will not be handling development. "Opening an office in Mexico is a strategic decision for Ubisoft," said Ubisoft Canada and Latin America general manager Olivier Ernst. "The Mexican market shows more stability than before and we believe it provides an amazing opportunity for growth in video games."

Later this week, Ubisoft will maintain a presence at Mexico City's Electronic Games Show, where it will demonstrate titles such as Red Steel (Wii), Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii version shown), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Wii version shown), Open Season (PS2 version shown), and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Xbox 360 version shown).

According to online reports sourcing back to a photograph posted on Flickr, some retailers have already put up Wii accessory displays and are presumably selling the showcased goods. The photograph in question was taken at a Target store in Lafayette, Louisiana. It shows a number of largely cosmetic and storage accessories rather than actual gaming accessories such as controllers, which are sure to fetch mind-boggling prices on eBay if they turn up at retail prior to the machine's launch on November 19.

Microsoft has released via Xbox Live Marketplace an "interactive video" about Rare's colorful Viva Pinata. Despite what one might infer from the name, the 755MB file pays only lip service to interactivity, allowing the user to choose which pinata character will read the narration that accompanies gameplay clips showcasing various aspects of the game.

Rare's Viva Pinata is slated to ship November 9, 2006.

Publisher Acclaim went bankrupt in September 2004, and since then the company's assets, including the rights to many games both released and unreleased, have been slowly making their way to various buyers. The Acclaim name itself is now in use by an Asian MMO import company. Last September, a list of Acclaim games for sale indicated that The Red Star, a comic book licensed shooter, had been sold, but the buyer was not disclosed. Today, XS Games announced that it will be publishing the PlayStation 2 version of The Red Star this August. XS has not yet decided if it will release the Xbox version of the game.

An XS representative also noted that it will be publishing Moss Ltd.'s top-down arcade shooter Raiden III for PlayStation 2, the publishing rights to which were acquired from Taito.

Though Bungie's long running Weekly Updates have continued unabated for years now, they have been less informative recently, simply by virtue of the fact that the studio hasn't been able to talk much about what it's been doing. Now that Halo 3 (X360) has been officially announced via an E3 trailer, Bungie's updates are getting a bit meatier again. In the latest edition, Bungie's Frank O'Connor reveals that there are daily multiplayer testing sessions going on at the Bungie offices, suggesting that the anticipated game is shaping up well. Last December, a weekly update revealed that Bungie's next game, which at the time was technically not yet confirmed to be another Halo sequel, was already in vaguely playable form.

Nintendo has finally announced the European release date and price point of its updated DS Lite, which has already launched in Japan and is planned for launch June 11 in North America. DS Lite will be available on June 23 throughout Europe for GBP 99.99 (inc. VAT) in the UK, and 149.99 Euro in the rest of Europe. This news confirms recent rumors regarding DS Lite's launch information. Two colors will be available on launch day, the Crystal White that will be coming to North America as well as a new glossy black not announced for any other territories.

A new version of Nintendogs was also announced for Europe: Dalmation & Friends, due June 16. The game includes a total of twenty breeds of dog, with six--including the previously difficult to unlock Dalmation--available from the start. Nintendo has not revealed if or when the game will be coming to other territories. Nintendogs has been a success in Europe, where 2.5M of the game's 6M worldwide sales were made, perhaps indicating why it is the first to receive the next version of the game.

Cellien Studios was founded in July 2004 and, in the following year became a subsidiary of Ireland-based Star Cave Studios. Cellien is currently developing an MMO for PC, Terra: Formations, as well as the upcoming freeware shooter Illumina. Last week, the company sent out a press release stating that the comapny is shifting its development focus from PC to Nintendo platforms, including Wii, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. Currently, Cellien is working on original games for DS, and is also looking to port other publishers' multiplatform titles to Nintendo systems.

Oddly, the announcement refers to Cellien as a "former subsidiary." When contacted by Shacknews regarding the meaning of this phrasing as well as whether current PC projects would be shifted to other platforms. In response a Cellien representative stated, "Both Star Cave & Cellien Studios will issue further press releases this week that will answer some of your questions."

In keeping with its goal of deriving an increasing portion of its revenue from licensed properties, Ubisoft has announced that it will be developing and publishing a game based on the television series "Lost." Ubisoft's well known Montreal studio will handle development of the game, which is expected some time in 2007. No gameplay or plot details were revealed. The game is targeted at unspecified home and portable consoles as well as PC.

Speaking of responses to Sony's E3 showing, Microsoft's Peter Moore commented on the competing machine. He stated that there has been "somewhat of a collective yawn from the gaming community about the motion sensing technology," casting doubt on the decision to replace force feedback with the new tech, and expressing surprise at the reveal of the price.

Joystiq has a chat with Epic's CliffyB, who speaks on a variety of subjects. Surprisingly, given rather strong remarks last year by company VP Mark Rein, Bleszinski noted that the developer is currently speaking with Nintendo. Though Bleszinski is a self-professed lifelong Nintendo fan, the company has not traditionally developed on Nintendo systems.

Each Monday for the next several weeks, Nintendo will be releasing audio or video podcasts relating to New Super Mario Bros. (NDS). Today's video podcast is an interview with designer Shigeru Miyamoto. The Toronto Sun also has a full interview with Miyamoto, in which he comments on Sony's motion sensing controller and various other topics.

IGN has a video interview with developers from Ubisoft Montpellier, on Rayman Raving Rabbids (PS2, Xbox, GCN, PS3, X360, Wii), mainly discussing the Wii version of the game.

Throughout the week, there have been numerous statements on the part of Sony executives, industry analysts, and game publishers giving various details and opinions about the upcoming PlayStation 3 launch. Here's a recap:

- As far as how many games Sony is claiming will launch with the system, Sony Computer Entertainment America president Kaz Hirai stated that the total number may be as high as 15. Several games previously slated for PS3's November 17 launch are now scheduled for 2007. SCEE's David Reeves confirmed this week that Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword, SCE Worldwide Studios Liverpool's Formula One, and Evolution Studios' MotorStorm will all be hitting the console next year. While a specific launch period was never announced for PS3's first EyeToy game, Reeves also noted that it too will be out next year, narrowing it down to a release by March 2007. Sony's SingStar, which it frequently showcases at press conferences, will be out this year, though likely not at the system's launch. Finally, as a bright spot amidst the news of delays, Insomniac's anticipated shooter Resistance: Fall of Man was confirmed as still on track for the system's launch.

- Speaking to MCV, Sony Computer Entertainment UK's Ray Maguire stated that the dual-pricing configuration may not be in the cards for PS3 in the UK. "The lower-end 20Gb version of PlayStation 3 has no wi-fi, no HDMI and none of the other slots in it, so it's really a question of where we would position it," Maguire noted. "It's more likely that we will only launch the 60Gb version." That system would likely launch at GBP 425 in the UK, which at current exchange rates places it at the equivalent of about $800, $200 more than the $599 price point for that model in the US. Maguire did note that with several months until launch, plans have not yet been finalized. However, one decision that does seem final is that the UK will definitely not be using the store-bought online payment cards Sony showcased at E3, used to make purchases through Sony's online service without use of a credit card.

- A few publishers were vocally critical of Sony's handling of third party PS3 development so far. Speaking to Bloomberg Japan, Sega of America president Simon Jeffery said, "A lot of developers have not gotten the kits,'' adding, "There certainly will not be a lot of titles available." THQ CEO Brian Farrel echoed Jeffery's comments, noting that the publisher was unable to make a PS3 version of its upcoming Sopranos game, as it "didn't have enough information" about the system. "It was too risky to do it," said Farrell. "It made no sense." Two other publishers, however, had a different view of the situation: #1 US publisher Electronic Arts and #2 US publisher Activision. EA president Paul Lee said simply, "We're happy with the development kits." Activision CEO Robert Kotick said, "While we may not have the final, final hardware, we know what the processor's capacity is. We have active development under way." Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot noted that the first PS3 games will not take full advantage of the system, but then neither did the first Xbox 360 games.

- Analysis firm DFC intelligence took a pessimistic view this week of Sony's recently announced pricing scheme for PS3. "The video game business model has been to build an installed base of tens of millions of users in a very short-time frame," said a DFC report. "A key factor in this model is relatively low cost hardware." The firm postulated that while many will pay the asking price, Sony's overall audience will be much smaller than the previous mass audience it captured with PS2. DFC noted that Xbox 360 is seeing an increasingly strong library, particularly after last week's announcement of Grand Theft Auto IV launching simultaneously on the two systems, which makes it all the more crucial for Sony to differentiate its machine and justify its price. This could result in problems for the whole industry, not just Sony, DFC noted. "Unfortunately, there is a sinking feeling that things may have spun out of control for Sony and thus price cuts will be slow in coming," read the report. "While that may be good news for Microsoft and Nintendo it could spell rough times for publishers that have come to rely so much on Sonyâ s ability to build a huge market of devoted video game consumers."

Rumors have been swirling for months that legendary Sega designer Yuji Naka had quit his employer and founded his own studio, and now Idle Thumbs offers a confirmation based on a Japanese press release from Sega. Naka's new company is named Prope, and will be partially funded by Sega. With him will be going ten members of Sonic Team, with which Naka formerly worked.

Sega will have first publishing rights to any Prope games. It is unknown what current projects are in the works from the studio. Several rumors have surfaced recently that Naka is developing a sequel to cult favorite NiGHTS Into Dreams (SAT) for Wii. Most recently, Electronic Gaming Monthly reported the rumor in its latest issue, though a specific platform was not noted.

Nintendo UK's David Yarnton may be spending a bit too much time with diehard Nintendo loyalists online. Speaking to trade publication MCV, Yarnton claims Sony "didn't innovate, they copied," resulting in the company's recent removal of its controller's rumble feature. Yarnton's implication is likely that the feature's removal is directly connected to Sony's ongoing legal battles with haptic technology provider Immersion. The Nintendo UK executive also took a potshot at Sony's Phil Harrison, suggesting that Harrison may have displayed hypocrisy by previously downplaying the then-named Revolution controller, with Sony later implementing similar technology into its PlayStation 3. Yarnton followed this up with a rather cringe-inducing claim: "I donâ t know what their decision making process is but I think if you look back, any innovation that has come in gameplay has come from us."

It's a great day for hubris on the part of European console executives, I guess. Speaking to Computer and Video Games, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO David Reeves had high expectations for PS3's launch despite any hitches it may potentially have. PS3 would sell millions even if it had no games, he claimed. "We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of PlayStation in 1995 and PS2 in 2000 that the first five million are going to buy it, whatever it is, even [if] it didn't have games," said Reeves.

While North America has known when it will be getting Nintendo's updated DS Lite for a few weeks now, Europe has been in the dark about its own release dates and price points for the machine. According to trade publication MCV, that will change on Monday, May 22. That's right, folks, a rumor announcing an announcement. But hey, if you were wondering, you know?

In terms of more specific, yet equally unconfirmed, rumor, a potential date and price of June 23 and 150 Euro have been floating around various European news outlets. Take that as you will.

Gamasutra has an incredibly fascinating interview with several executives of Tose Software, one of the best-kept secretes in game development. The company has created over a thousand games across almost every system since 1979, but willingly and actively strives to keep its name off of credits and game boxes, sometimes going so far as to have staffers use false names. All of its games are done for external publishers, who are credited for the games' development; for example, many Square Enix titles have in fact been developed by Tose, as well as those for numerous other major Japanese publishers. Nintendo's recent Super Princess Peach (DS) was in fact a Tose product. Tose's Starfy series is the first case in the company's history it has owned any part of the properties it develops; the franchise is co-owned by Nintendo and Tose. Tose is currently trying to establish itself among publishers in US and Europe, but is having some trouble as despite its enormous portfolio, few people have actually heard of the company. You have likely played Tose games without knowing it.

Planet GameCube chats with Nintendo EAD's Takashi Tezuka, currently supervising all Nintendo-developed Wii games, in an interview that's surprisingly informative (for a Nintendo interview, anyway).

Gaming-Age has an interview with Epic's CliffyB, talking about Gears of War and...well, a bunch of other stuff.

Probably the last day of new E3 previews today. If you're interested, check that out at Game Informer, GameSpot, Eurogamer, IGN, GameSpy, and surely others. And hey, if you missed ours, here it is.

Speaking to Reuters today, Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates confirmed that regardless of whether the Xbox 360 achieves the number one market share position in the video game world, a title currently held by Sony, Microsoft is in the gaming business for the long term, noting that "we learned a lot in the first round." Indeed, toppling Sony from its peak is a formidable goal, given that the company currently holds a massive 70% of the console market.

"In terms of how we've balanced technology in the machine, we feel certain we've done a better job than Sony," Gates said. "You won't really know that until a year from now, when people are talking about how the games on our machines compare to the games on Sony's machines." It's probably worth noting that a year from now, Xbox 360 developers will have had a year's worth more time acclimating themselves with the development environment of the 360 than PS3 developers will have had with their machine--assuming, of course, the PS3 ships during 2006 and not 2007 as some have speculated.

In its bid to break into the gaming world, Microsoft's home and entertainment division has famously spent almost $5 billion on the Xbox, and though revenues are growing the group is still posting losses. Of course, Microsoft can afford to be less thrifty than its major competitors--most divisions of Sony (with one notable exception being its PlayStation family) are losing money, and Nintendo is purely a gaming company, without other divisions to fall back on. However, Gates said that, "It's not about spending at this point," rather it is about the games. After his notorious May declaration that PS3's launch would be combatted with the anticipated but unconfirmed Halo 3, however, he now declines to name a specific killer app.

Microsoft's official Xbox 360 launch party, Zero Hour, is currently in full swing in Palmdale, California. The event houses a few thousand gamers who are getting the chance to try out the Xbox 360 launch titles as well as a few anticipated upcoming games. GameSpot is reporting from the event, mainly describing the entrance procedure and look of the event. Gamers received free Xbox 360 memory cards, and some received free Xbox Live Gold subscription cards. Most notably, they will also get the chance to purchase an Xbox 360 a little early, when the Best Buy representatives in attendance put the consoles on sale at 9:00 PM PST.

Next Generation is also present at the event, giving a look at gamers' reactions to actual games. Interestingly, Next Generation found reactions to launch titles such as Perfect Dark Zero (X360), Project Gotham Racing (X360), and Kameo: Elements of Power (X360) to be on the whole less than jubilant. It was the upcoming titles that seemed to impress showgoers the most. Epic's Gears of War (X360), which has become Microsoft's next-gen flagship and designer CliffyB its next-gen poster boy, drew the biggest crowd. Q Entertainment's Dynasty Warriors-esque Ninety Nine Nights (X360) also received quite positive feedback from those who tried it out. Next Generation also notes that Final Fantasy XI (PS2, X360, PC) drew a bit of a crowd, possibly due to the novelty of Square Enix's MMO appearing on the 360.

"Xbox Vice President and Chief XNA Architect J Allard is so stoked about the launch of Xbox 360, we can't get him to put down the controller!" Well, he might put it down long enough to go biking in an extreme fashion, as evidenced by the photograph on the page from which that quote is sourced. But not tomorrow! Tomorrow, Xbox Vice President and Chief XNA Architect J Allard will be playing Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360) and Rare's Perfect Dark Zero (X360) all day long, and if you happen to be placed into a random game with HiroProtagonist, that means you're playing with XVP&CXAJA himself! Should this occur and your trembling fingers become fit enough to type, send an email to xlmail@microsoft.com with the subject "GWF J Allard" and proudly proclaim that you played with the one and only Architect, upon which I have it on good authority that you will win "some very exclusive schwag."

Gamasutra reports that Rockstar Games will be opening up a new game development studio in London, where the company already maintains offices. The new dev house will almost assuredly be called Rockstar London, in the tradition of Rockstar San Diego (Midnight Club), Rockstar Toronto (The Warriors), Rockstar Vancouver (Bully), Rockstar Vienna (Rockstar's Xbox ports), Rockstar Leeds (GTA: Liberty City Stories), and of course Rockstar North (GTA proper). No details on any current projects for the new studio have been released.

Infinium Labs, home of the ever elusive yet doggedly persistent Phantom console, has announced that recent CEO appointee Kevin Bachus has left Infinium to pursue other directions. Bachus is mainly known in the gaming world for being on Microsoft's original Xbox team, helping to bring the machine to market. It was somewhat of a surprise when he signed on with Infinium, a company coming rather frequently under fire for possibly not even existing. Bachus joined in December 2003 as president and COO, and was named CEO this past August. Replacing Bachus is, fittingly enough, a former executive from Microsoft's biggest competitor in the gaming world. Greg Koler, a founding exec of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and until now head of Infinium's European division, will inherit Bachus' recently vacated position.

The oft-delayed Phantom Gaming Services is currently slated to launch in mid-2006, which if true may ensure it faces some stiff competition from Sony and Nintendo, both of whom plan to launch their next generation consoles in mid to late 2006.

Following a bidding war last week, Dimension Films has obtained the distribution license for the Dead or Alive film adaptation. The movie, being directed by noted action choreographer Corey Yuen, is currently in post-production and slated to hit North American theatres in Fall 2006. Yuen has worked on many Hong Kong action pictures as an actor, choreographer, and director, and is best known to Western audiences for his contributions to The Transporter and its sequel, X-Men, Romeo Must Die, and Lethal Weapon 4. The film features Devon Aoki (Sin City), Derek Boyer in his first role that's not Himself in TV special World's Strongest Man, Sara Carter (Final Destination 2), Jaime Pressly (The Karate Dog), Collin Chou (The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions), Robin Shou (Mortal Kombat), Steve Howey (Reba), Kane Kosugi (Street Fighter Alpha), and others.

GameSpot spends some time with Microsoft's Peter Moore regarding the Xbox 360 launch.

Contrary to expectations, Microsoft did not provide a launch game lineup for Xbox 360, slated to ship at the end of November. However, the publisher did give a partial list of eight games confirmed for launch, which was mainly comprised of EA games. Today Take-Two and Activision chimed in with their contributions, though Microsoft has not commented on either of the two announcements. The publishers and their titles are as follows:

- Microsoft: Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing 3, Rare's Kameo: Elements of Power and Perfect Dark Zero
- EA: Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, FIFA 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted
- Take-Two: Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, NBA 2K6, NHL 2K6, Top Spin 2, Amped 3
- Activision: Neversoft's Tony Hawk's American Wasteland and GUN, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 2, Raven's Quake IV

This makes for 17 games that have been announced by publishers as launch titles, which falls within the 15-20 range that Microsoft has been constantly reiterating. There are several other games, however, which many hoped to see at launch, including Monolith's Condemned: Criminal Origins, Team NINJA's Dead or Alive 4, Volition's Saint's Row, and Pseudo's Full Auto. For those, we'll just have to wait and see.

Monolith's upcoming Condemned: Criminal Origins (X360, PC) has been tapped for a film adaptation. The film, which will be entitled Species X, is being written by "The Shield" co-executive producer Kurt Sutter.

"I'm a big gamer, one who feels that, in the last five years, some of the smartest and most innovative ideas have come out of the gaming world," Sutter said.

In the course of a murder investigation, the protagonist cop has reason to question who he is as a man, until he realizes he's not a man. A tug-of-war emerges among a faction of good and evil aliens.

The property is owned by WB Interactive Entertainment, a game publisher owned by major motion picture studio Warner Bros. Sega will handle the actual publishing of Condemned. WB Interactive, apparently already fairly convinced of the game's success, hopes to create a multi-medium franchise rather than simply having either the movie or the film be an adaptation of the other. Designer American McGee has expressed similar desires for properties of his such as Bad Day L.A. and American McGee's Oz.

The film is set to come out concurrently with the game's sequel, which is reportedly already in development.

A couple details were revealed today regarding extra non-retail content to be available on Xbox 360. First off, Microsoft and GarageGames announced that Marble Blast Ultra (X360) will be made available soon after launch through Xbox Live Arcade. The all-ages game is part of GarageGames' Marble Blast franchise, and will be exclusive to Xbox Live. Players control a marble through various environments, collecting powerups and avoiding hazards. Presumably, the game will only be downloadable to hard drive-equipped consoles, though a GarageGames representative indicated that it should be small enough to fit on a memory card--if the console supports downloading games to memory cards.

Microsoft's outspoken Chief XNA Architect J Allard also revealed what will be pre-installed on the 360's hard drive: a documentary called "The Making of Xbox 360" as well as a couple other unidentified videos, an unidentified custom soundtrack, and the puzzle game Hexic. Hexic was designed by legendary Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, and can also be played at MSN Games. The content will be included both on individually sold hard drives as well as the units included in the premium Xbox 360 package.

So apparently the PSP version of EA Sports' Madden 06 is just completely broken, causing random crashes and loss of save data. I guess if you have the game, you probably know this already, and if you don't have the game, it doesn't mean much to you, but it seems to have upset The Internet, so I am newsing it. Penny Arcade has a rant and comic up about it, and some kind of protest site has been created. Plus, you know, forum posts.

The response from EA seems to be fairly minimal, offering a workaround that most claim does not actually fix anything.

Despite yesterday's megaton DS updates in LNC, there are a few tiny details remaining. It was also confirmed that Lost Magic (DS), Taito's upcoming RPG featuring Studio Ghibli artwork, will contain some kind of online mode using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Contact (DS), the RPG from Marvelous and Killer 7 studio Grasshopper, will also feature online support in some way. Finally, Treasure's Bleach (DS) fighting game will be playable online, though that game shouldn't necessarily be expected to make it out of Japan.

The Australian High Court ruled that PlayStation mod chips are legal, and do not commit copyright infringement. Unauthorized reproduction of a PlayStation game is still considered copyright infringement, but the mod chip itself does not enable illegal copying. Mod chips also allow the use of imported games; the High Court as well as other Australian officials consider the blocking of imported games to be a barrier on trade and competition.

The ruling marks the end of the four-year-long trial of Eddy Stevens, against whom Sony took legal action for modifying PlayStations. It is expected that the arguments presented in the case will be considered by legal teams tackling similar situations in other countries.

Despite the upcoming Xbox 360 launch, FBR analyst Shawn Milne expects holiday season video game sales to be down five percent in the fourth quarter and 10-15% in September, compared to those same periods in 2004. This is a prediction that has been echoed by various analysts over the last few months. Milne sees the drop being mainly due to the lack of must-have titles in comparison to the huge blockbusters of last year. Certainly, last holiday season was pretty unstoppable, with Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, and more. However, he predicts that publishers EA and Activision, both of which have extremely long lineups through year-end, will still show solid numbers.

Game Informer sits down with good old CliffyB regarding Epic's Gears of War (X360).

Eurogamer has the second half of its interview with Clive Gratton about Creative Assembly's Spartan: Total Warrior (PS2, Xbox, GCN).

Since IGNCube apparently never gets tired of making rendered concepts for possible Revolution peripherals, they've gone ahead and made a completely utterly hypothetical charge station for the controller.

Tokyo Games Show is now actually getting underway, and with it come more game announcements. Here they are, grouped by platform and sorted alphabetically by title. Descriptions will be brief and in many cases nonexistent:

Though the Revolution-revealing keynote by Nintendo's Satoru Iwata has been the biggest news of TGS thus far, Microsoft's Robbie Bach also delivered his own address before Iwata's. Microsoft seems to be sticking to its guns with its HD Era pitch, with the keynote title being "The Dawn of a New Era" (you know, the HD one). Another main point was the dovetailing between Windows PCs and Xbox 360s, which will work together in order to form the centerpiece of consumers' digital lifestyle.

That good old CliffyB, who seems to be rapidly becoming Microsoft's favorite Xbox 360 poster boy, also came to the stage to give his schtick on Epic's upcoming Gears of War (X360).

Bach also explained the workings of Xbox Live, though the information all seemed like details that have already been outlined. He also paid his compliments to Nintendogs (DS), something that even portable Nintendo challenger Sony has acknowledged positively, as being a good example of customizability in video games. The Xbox 360 apparently also aims to deliver customers with a customizable experience.

As far as the PS3, Bach claimed that the system will be roughly comparable to Xbox 360 in terms of power, but that Xbox 360 will deliver a better personalized and online experience, making it the superior console. He also claims that Xbox 360 will be more than just a game system. This is a claim that has also been made by Sony regarding most of their gaming products; Nintendo has rarely if ever made similar statements regarding their systems.

Of course, Bach was also sure to reiterate his company's devotion to the Japanese market, claiming that while Microsoft did not see much success there in the last generation he expects a very different situation starting with Xbox 360's release.

IGN reports that amongst all the trailers and announcements, there are not actually any playable PS3 consoles at Tokyo Games Show. When questioned regarding the prospects of the system itself being on display in the near future, Sony provided no response. So, we'll see. The system won't be out for a while, though, so there's plenty of time.

Everyone's favorite wacky attorney Jack Thompson has slammed Rockstar Games for a fictional website set up by the company. The suggestively-abbreviated Citizens United Negating Technology website is linked from Rockstar's GTA: Liberty City Stories website. The GTA:LCS site also includes an email from "JT@CitizensUnitingNegatingTechnology", explaining that "Only last week, I was using the Internet to look up some information for my 15 year old niece, who is a keen water skier and state wide sailor. Trust me when I say this - searching under the subject matter "Teenage girls water sports" is not for the faint hearted." It also notes that "the Internet is an unambiguous evil," and "the only things worse than the Internet are computer games and liberals."

Thompson in response:

"Take-Two/Rockstar has created and paid for an actual Internet website for the purpose of furthering the notion that its most abiding and most effective critic, Jack Thompson, is himself a sexual pervert. When you click on the fake email, you will find that JT (Jack Thompson) likes to surf the Internet for pictures depicting deviant sex acts by teenage girls. Additionally, there is at the site an audio ad featuring a man whose name is "Jack" who is found naked by a mother in her son's room. Bisexual paedophile Jack Thompson is the combined message."

The other combined message is "extremely annoying and hilarious Jack Thompson."

Frontier Developments, the studio behind the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise and Dog's Life (PS2) (which was actually pretty fun), is developing a new action thriller for next-gen systems, most likely PS2 and Xbox 360. The announcement was not made at Tokyo Games Show. The game will be politically-oriented and will apparently strive to give players a wide range of choices in their actions.

A more detailed description is here, in which David Braben, chairman of the independent studio, claims that the game will be one of a new breed of games going beyond effects-driven action titles.

Eurogamer talks to Nintendo's Jim Merrick about the recently-unveiled Revolution controller.

GamesIndustry.biz interviews Marko Hein, head of Nintendo's European Developer Business.

Game Informer chats with two members of the Castlevania team: Koji Igarashi, producer of Dawn of Sorrow (DS) and Curse of Darkness (PS2, Xbox), as well as composer Michiru Yamane.

IGN gets the full packaging of GBA Micro, detailing just what comes in the unusually-shaped box.

Microsoft Japan pegged July 25 as the day that it will disclose final details regarding the Asian launch of the Xbox 360. It has been previously hyped as a "product unveiling on the scale of E3" that includes many surprises not yet revealed anywhere. While the event will clearly focus on the Japanese side of things, it should offer us Westerners a glimpse of some of the unique titles being developed with the Japanese audience in mind. And if MS Japan is true to their word regarding "final details," we may even get an idea of what this sucker will cost.

The original Resident Evil is going to be remade yet again and this time it's for the portable market. Capcom revealed to the British mag NGC that it'll re-create Resident Evil for the Nintendo DS, incorporati