Harry Potter will be the next film franchise reduced to blocky form for a LEGO videogame, according to a report from CVG which cites anonymous sources.

The supposed LEGO game would likely be timed for release with next summer's Harry Potter "movie event," Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Harry Potter film distributor Warner Bros. recently published Traveller's Tales' LEGO Batman: The Videogame. Shacknews has contacted WB for comment on the rumor.

The "little" PlayStation 3 surprise Capcom recently teased looks to be downloadable Street Fighter-themed outfits for Media Molecule's PS3 platformer LittleBigPlanet.

The above images recently surfaced on Spanish PlayStation fansite PSN!, but were quickly removed at the request of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Fortunately, Ripten and 1UP were able to archive the pictures before their removal.

If legitimate, and it certainly appears so given the SCEE-mandated removal, Street Fighter's LittleBigPlanet appearance mark the latest set of game-referencing outfits. Other promised costumes include Final Fantasy 7's Sephiroth and Metal Gear Solid 4's Old Snake, with a Resistance 2 Chimera costume recently added... Read more

With developer CD Projekt RED teasing a major announcement, a supposed leaked video has revealed that the developer's acclaimed PC RPG The Witcher is heading to PS3 and Xbox 360 and will "look much better" than the PC release.

"The controls are very different in the console adaptation," designer Jakob Stilinsky stated in the video, embedded below. "They are actually better than in the original."

"We created a completely new combat system that is more dynamic and more engaging," he added. "In the console version, players have full control. There are hundreds of new mo-cap animations in the console version."

Along with a new combat and motion-captured animations, the release will sport enhanced visuals, with Stilinsky claiming the console versions "look much better."

When reached for comment, CD Projekt marketing VP Tom Ohle did not confirm or deny the game's existence, telling Shacknews: "We haven't made any official statements about upcoming games... before anyone blows a gasket about... Read more

Shack tipster Chris Spargo has recently spotted employees of Outerlight, the developer of the Half-Life mod-turned-game The Ship: Murder Party, playing a mysterious title called "Hollywood Murder Party" on Steam.

After some checking, Shacknews can verify that Outerlight employees have logged over 130 hours on the unannounced game so far.

Outerlight's The Ship is a multiplayer game set on a 1920s cruise liner that challenges players to assassinate their assigned victim before being similarly murdered.

The developer has previously stated that the follow-up to The Ship would diverge from the first title in both environment and name. Hollywood Murder Party sounds about right.

We've contacted Outerlight for comment.

Reports are coming in from all over the internet that the latest revision of the Xbox 360 hardware, codenamed Jasper, has begun appearing at retailers.

The revision is said to shrink the Xbox 360's GPU down to 65nm, reducing internal heat and power consumption. With reduced power consumption comes a redesigned power unit that only outputs 150W--one of the supposed identifying characteristics of a Jasper.

Problems stemming from internal heat are widely believed to cause the "Red Ring of Death" hardware failure that afflicts Xbox 360 owners and caused Microsoft to extend the system's warranty. The arrival of Jasper hardware has been anticipated by many, as some speculate the model will be less prone to hardware failure.

The Jasper units are believed to have entered production in August, with various Xbox-Scene posts specifying that the first Jasper systems have been the Xbox 360 Arcade model, which pack no hard drive and were made on 10-23-2008 in Lot #0843X.

Arcade versions of the Jasper units appear to pack 256MB of internal... Read more

Investigating a fabled third entry in Relic Entertainment's sci-fi RTS series Homeworld, Eurogamer came up with some curious answers from senior staff members.

The THQ-owned studio is known to have three games in development--Dawn of War II, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, and the Asian-geared Company of Heroes Online with developer Shanda--and acquired the Homeworld IP from Vivendi last year.

"[Homeworld 3 is] as it always has--behind closed doors. Blacked off," Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor designer Chris Degnan responded when asked of the mythical project. "Homeworld 3, obviously, I'm not at liberty to tell you anything about."

"We're really happy the IP has made its way home, and yeah, we're definitely looking at it. We'll see what happens in the future," Dawn of War II lead designer Jonny Ebbert said. Upon further inquiry, Ebbert noted "there's always that chance" that Homeworld 3 could be among the studio's current projects.

General manager Tarrnie Williams revealed that the studio has "three or four" titles in the works, saying that "it depends how you count; whether you use the old math or the new math." He refused to specify the difference between old math or new math.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe will be getting "more competitive in price from March 2009 onwards," according to a new rumor that apparently stems from an internal Sony Europe briefing.

Citing an anonymous source named Legends, D+Pad further noted that an unannounced sequel to Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 game Uncharted was shown in trailer form, alongside Guerrilla's Killzone 2 and SCE Santa Monica's God of War 3.

The Uncharted 2 footage supposedly had an Aztec theme to it, with the source noting it "looks the same as Uncharted 1, no bad thing."

The report also claimed that the PS3 has a larger installed base in Europe than the Xbox 360, and stated that LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm are coming to PSP.

While the report could be a collection of existing or obvious rumors, God of War creator David Jaffe has seemingly lent credence to at least one aspect. On his blog, Jaffe revealed that God of War 3 is in presentable form, as he saw it last week... Read more

Electronic Arts has shut down its super-secret Blueprint division, going by an unconfirmed Variety report that cites an anonymous ex-employees.

Blueprint was started in mid-2007 by 11-year EA veteran Neil Young, who then left the company in 2008. With its dozen or so employees, the division was reportedly tasked with fighting high development costs by coordinating various small teams.

"Using distributed people and leveraging technology in a significant way would allow us to break the high-priced model of game development where everybody is on-site, hired as a full-time regular employee," the source told Variety.

One of Blueprint's projects was apparently a sequel to EA Los Angeles' and Steven Spielberg's physics-based action-puzzler Boom Blox (Wii). It was also tasked with several other EA efforts, including Spielberg's mysterious LMNO action game.

The report indicates that all Blueprint games will live on at different studios, adding that it was "never officially killed" but "simply doesn't exist" as it has no employees.

Armature, founded by veterans from Metroid Prime developer Retro, was apparently one the developers on board with Blueprint, though its project is not publicly known.

A new batch of screenshots have appeared for Epic's Gears of War 2 (360), showing an unreleased multiplayer map covered in Imulsion, the energy-filled natural resource central to the shooter's backstory.

The screenshots reproduced above appeared on the Flickr page of user yourichurkoff and are generally believed to be legitimate. Two multiplayer modes, King of the Hill and Guardian, can be seen in action on the map.

The screenshots have sparked speculation that the map is downloadable content set to be released in the future.

Microsoft has not commented on the screenshots. However, as the original game offered DLC multiplayer maps, and the sequel was part of a new generation of games to ship with DLC in the box, downloadable expansions to Gears of War 2 are expected.

Unless the image at left is a painstakingly produced fake, that's the current incarnation of the character selection screen in the upcoming home versions of Capcom's Street Fighter IV (PC, 360, PS3).

The image, reportedly a photograph taken at the N.E.X.T. consumer expo in Belgium, was featured on the Shoryuken fighting game forums and picked up by gaming blog Kotaku.

25 characters are shown on screen, with a question mark-filled space saved for those who want to play with a random character. Second from the left on the bottom row is believed to be Rose from Street Fighter Alpha.

If Capcom confirms the legitimacy of the image and the inclusion of Rose, she would be the latest character to join the ever-expanding ranks of console-exclusive fighters in Street Fighter IV. Recently, Fei Long, Dan, Cammy, and Gen were premiered, prompting Shacknews editor Chris Faylor to call Fei Long a misogynist.

The increasingly-complex console version of Street Fighter IV will hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February with a PC port following later.

Vancouver-based Blue Castle Games is the developer of a Dead Rising sequel for publisher Capcom, according to a report today.

Eurogamer cites an anonymous source inside Blue Castle who is reportedly working on the zombie-killing action game. "Everyone's really excited; the team has obviously seen the rumors and it's been hard to keep quiet, but they can't wait to show off the game," said the source.

The original Dead Rising released in 2006 to critical and commercial success on the Xbox 360. A Wii version is in the works, and Capcom has teased that players "haven't seen the last of Dead Rising" on Sony's official PlayStation forums, signaling that the game could be headed for the PlayStation 3 as well.

Blue Castle, founded in 2005, is best known for the arcade-y baseball game The Bigs (360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP).

Capcom has not commented on the matter, but partnering with a Western company on a multi-platform game does fit the publisher's stated strategy very well.

Reports indicate that licensed game publisher Brash has essentially run out of cash, leaving many of its projects, such as an unannounced Superman game from Lair (PS3) and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series (N64, GCN) developer Factor 5, in limbo.

According to Variety, the publisher has laid off 20 employees and is seeking to raise funds by pairing with other companies, returning some of the licenses it holds, or selling them to another publisher. Only two of the company's many planned games are still confirmed for release: Six Flags Fun Park and Saw.

While the Superman game was unannounced, Brash previously confirmed a development partnership with Factor 5. Other games in danger are Prison Break, Night at the Museum 2, 300, Clash of the Titans and Tale of Desperaux. The report further claims that Brash has stopped paying developers for their work.

Upon its formation last year, Alvin and the Chipmunks publisher Brash announced that it has raised over $400 million in funding. But not all of that money was delivered upfront, with Variety reporting that most of the undelivered cash has "dried up" in the current credit crisis. The company has also suffered three high-profile depatures.

Update: Shacknews has confirmed, via sources, that Stuntman: Ignition and Pilotwings 64 developer Paradigm Entertainment was indeed dissolved by THQ today.

Fellow THQ subsidiary Mass Media was also closed today, according to Shacker PowerLlama. As for Juice Games, Develop claims the studio will lose about a third of its staff, but will remain open.

In addition, Helixe, Locomotive Games and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon developer Sandblast Games appear to have joined Mass Media and Paradigm in closure, as THQ no longer shows them on its studio list, which now numbers 11.

Original Story: THQ will close "four to five studios" this week, according to Kotaku.

Of THQ's 16 studios, Juiced franchise developer Juice Games and Stuntman: Ignition veteran Paradigm Entertainment are said to be among those facing closure. Earlier this year, THQ announced that it would no longer produce Juiced or Stuntman games.

No reason was provided for the rumored closures, though some speculate the global credit crisis is playing a factor, as it has negatively affected such major companies as Sony, Nintendo and Electronic Arts.

THQ will present its Q2 2009 fiscal results on Wednesday.

Installing games to the Xbox 360 hard drive may do more than just reduce load times. According to Variety's Ben Fritz, it made Lionhead's Fable 2 look prettier:

Fable 2 looks noticeably better. The graphics are sharper and brighter. So much so that it's like the game, or my graphics processor, has gotten an upgrade.

Optional game installation is one of the many features packed in the New Xbox Experience, a free software update coming November 19, though it still requires the game disc to be present in the system. A public test of the update is underway.

Shacknews has contacted Microsoft for more information on the matter.

Talking to GamesIndustry.biz, Bethesda publishing executive Paul Oughton let it drop that a new Elder Scrolls game could "potentially" be released in 2010.

Asked about the possibility of Bethesda developing for Nintendo platforms, Oughton acknowledged Nintendo's succesful mass audience push, but noted the company has no currently plans to support the Wii or Nintendo DS.

"At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010," said Oughton. "At the moment we're not that interested in the Wii. We're going to stick to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC."

The previous Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion, was met with massive critical and commercial success upon its release for PC and Xbox 360 in 2006. A PlayStation 3 version followed last year.

Ubisoft has released a duo of trailers from Ubisoft Shanghai's Tom Clancy's EndWar--which, as you can see below, may in fact be a prequel to Fallout 3.

The voice-activated RTS is set for a November 4 release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

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Update: When contacted by Shacknews, Epic Games VP Mark Rein called the Variety report that Legendary Pictures is in talks to acquire Epic "just another rumor."

Original story: Film production company Legendary Pictures--co-producer of the upcoming Gears of War movie adaptation--is currently in talks to buy Gears developer Epic Games, according to Variety.

The news has apparently been corroborated by multiple sources, though neither company involved has issued any official statements.

Legendary Pictures has co-produced recent Hollywood hits such as 300 and The Dark Knight. Its future projects include the aforementioned Gears flick, as well as the World of Warcraft movie.

Legendary CEO Thomas Tull has shown a long-lasting interest in the gaming industry. Tull recently resigned from a position on the board of Brash Entertainment, a game publisher which focuses mainly on creating titles based on licensed movie properties.

Electronic Arts has confirmed that its urban basketball series NBA Street is now on hold, with rumors suggesting that Midway's NBA Ballers franchise has been halted.

"We'll still do traditional sports, but we're going to do them a different way," EA Sports president Peter Moore explained to ESPN. "In the old days we had things like SSX that were our own intellectual property, but since then we've kind of moved away from that. We need a mixture of experiences that are not only for the hardcore."

"If Wii Sports has taught us anything, it's that people will sit there and play big head tennis all day long," he explained. "We need to have something for that sports fan who might not necessarily be a sports gamer, but who wants that 15-minute... Read more

Amidst widespread criticism, E3 2009 will significantly loosen attendance criteria for the invite-only video game trade show and should see "tens of thousands" of attendees, according to game-oriented news network G4.

Correspondent Blair Herter announced the shift on tonight's episode of X-Play, noting that the 2009 show will occur in the usual LA Convention Center location from Tuesday, June 2 though Thursday, June 4.

"The old E3 is making a comeback," Herter proclaimed, promising that more details and information would arrive tomorrow via an announcement from event organizer ESA.

"A broader range of industry guests will be invited. While the event won't technically be open to the pubic with ticket sales, this does mean that more people will have a shot at attending, and yes, I'm talking about you," he promised G4 viewers.

A separate report from respected game journalist N'Gai Croal claims that the show will actually run through Saturday, June 6, and will be open to the public... Read more

Sony may be trying to tempt gamers into the PlayStation 3's new Trophy achievement system, according to the latest rumor from the world of print magazines.

"We've heard that SCEA is mulling over some sort of Trophy reward system," says the Official PlayStation Magazine as quoted by CVG.

"We doubt it'll be cash (or the equivalent)," continues the mag, "but we suspect it might be exclusive access to early betas and the like," the magazine speculates.

In recent months, small purchases like Sony's Qore magazine and game pre-orders have granted players early access to betas and demos like Resistance 2, Motorstorm Pacific Rift, and Valkyria Chronicles.

Blake's Take: Whether or not it's confirmed, it's a great idea. Rewarding players' skill is a worthy alternative to only rewarding gamers who shell out money in stores, whether retail or online. And for the gamers who have long resisted achievement systems, saying they don't care about the digital badges of honor, it's a solid way to incite a little enthusiasm.