The latest batch of video game ratings by the ESRB reveals a listing for Konami's classic RPG Suikoden that may indicate the title is destined for a PlayStation Store re-release. Suikoden is rated as released—or to be released—for both the PlayStation 3 and PSP, as with other PSN …

When Midway announced at their recent Gamers Day event in Las Vegas that the Mortal Kombat franchise was going to get a boost from the superheros and superheroines of the DC universe, it made us wonder, "Why?!?" It also made us wonder, "Hey, what about those signature fatalities? Surely, Kano can't …

To: Bash From: Crecente Re: Riding the Vomit Elevator Good lord that sounds disgusting. I'm surprised it didn't kick off a Monty Python-esque vomit train. Speaking of which, I better go lay down. What you missed: Lord of the Rings: Conquest Gallery FTC: It's Increasingly Difficult for Children to …

Motorstorm? Loved it. Probably loved it more than you did, as I played through the entire thing, sticking up for it during the public picking apart of it's graphical promise. "It doesn't look like that E3 2005 footage!" they said. "La la la! I can't hear you! Vrrooom!!" I said. Motorstorm 2? I'm …

Could you win a Nobel Prize in Medicine for playing a computer game? Foldit is a game for the PC and Mac that takes the Folding@Home concept and adds a more human element to the mix. Instead of having a network of computers work through all of the possible shapes for folding proteins, a problem so …

AQ Interactive and developer Artoon are set to bring one of the worst games of the current generation to the PlayStation 3, announcing Vampire Rain: Altered Species for the PlayStation 3. Why exactly they would do such a thing remains a mystery, but insiders around Kotaku Tower suggest they're going …

The Entertainment Software Association confirmed late last week that two of its members—Activision and Vivendi Games—were no longer with organization, after they decided to "discontinue their membership." The pair were just two of the publishers who opted to bail on E3 this year, showing …

Put these pieces together. Realtime Worlds made Crackdown. Realtime Worlds are now at work on an MMO called APB, which is not entirely dissimilar to Grand Theft Auto. Realtime Worlds were founded by David Jones, who created Lemmings. Oh, and Grand Theft Auto. Last month, Realtime Worlds bought back …

newVideoPlayer("legions508_kotaku.flv", 480, 380,""); InstantAction.com draws closer and closer to the wide release of the Tribes-channeling Fallen Empire: Legions, a first-person shooter with jet packs for the innovative web-based gaming community. It's not a bad little game, if a bit simplistic …

Jonathan Mak's one man show Everyday Shooter is now available to PC gamers via Steam. Like the PlayStation 3 version, it's a mere $9.99 USD—actually $8.99 in its debut week on Valve's digital distribution platform—a bargain for such a fabulous little, Independent Game Festival award …

Rumors about Microsoft entering the waggle market with a specialized, Wii Remote concept swiping controller have been popping up for the better part of a year. Talk of a partnership with Gyration, speculation that Bungie had quashed a proposal for a motion controller tied to Halo 3 and murmurs that …

Gaming site Kombo got themselves a nice exclusive today in the form of purported concept art from Factor 5, artwork that was reportedly used in a pitch to Nintendo for a potential Kid Icarus game for the Wii. According to Kombo, the Lair and Rogue Squadron developer is actively pursuing a Wii entry …

The latest "Iwata Asks" segment, this time touching on Link's Crossbow Training and the Wii Zapper, is a doozy. It's Miyamoto and Iwata kicking back, enjoying tea and biscuits, and telling us all about some of the crazy, crazy shit they may or may not have actually planned for not only Link's …

Oh Sega. What, you don't know that the mere premise of teaching people English by having them type zombies to death guarantees sales? It does. So while the flash demo you've provided of one of the game's cheesy tutorial levels (the real typing of the dead comes later) is greatly appreciated, it's …

What, me worry? Activision CEO Bobby "Robert" Kotick says the game industry is not headed for a slowdown. Things are buzzing! Fear not!! In a conference call, Kotick said: The video-game market fundamentals have never been stronger. There's no evidence that this growth will slow... A lot of this …

Publisher Take Two has inked its first movie deal. According to Variety, underwater corridor FPS BioShock is getting a big Hollywood film adaptation. The biggest film-to-game deal since Peter Jackson's ill-fated Halo movie, the BioShock Universal produced flick will be helmed by Pirates of the …

In an interview with SCEE blog Three Speech, Naughty Dog's Evan Wells has been answering a bunch of questions sent in by Three Speech "readers". Most are fairly run-of-the-mill, but one's pretty interesting, if only from a cultural standpoint. The question was, basically, why can't I shoot the fish …

A patent's been uncovered by VentureBeat, which Apple first filed in November 2006. It's for a pointer/remote device, that communicates via IR, and has a sensor bar you place in front of the tellie to detect 3D movement. You know, just like a Wii Remote. The patent states the following: ...the …

What's there not to like about this? It involves GTA IV, so it's topical. It involves Beelzebub himself taking credit for all the muder simulator parts, so it's...topical. And it gives me a chance to link to the super-fantastic Dinosaur Comics. All thanks to the one image. Brilliant. [Dinosaur …

Whenever a developer who works for a company that doesn't make MMOs pipes up and says "PC gaming is dead", they really mean they just can't make money selling what they're selling. Maybe it's because of piracy, like many say, but hey, maybe it's also because they don't make MMOs, because NPD figures …

Sony just rattled our mailbox to let us know that, presumably just as a single copy of GT5 Prologue was slid into a plastic bag and handed to a customer somewhere in Japan, that the combined sales from the Gran Turismo series have now reached 50 million units in the ten years since the series …

We haven't seen corporate smack talk like this since Sony exec Peter Dille went apeshit last July! Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg takes the puffy sparring gloves off, picks up a battle axe and swings it at Sony. (While dropping bombshells like: "Today Xbox 360 has a 5-million-unit console sales …

What, Ben Heck, coming up with excellent, craft, gaming-related things? You don't say. This is his latest contraption, a heavy-duty pedal designed to work with Guitar Hero to give it that extra dash of authenticity. After Heck did some one-handed GH controllers for the Games for Health conference, …

Nintendo's doing great! Making tons of money — just look at it go, go, go. What does that mean for its competitors? It means things are hard and not easy. Publisher THQ had a disappointing year with its Disney movie games. According to company CEO Brian Farrell : The kids' market was …

Get out those wallets, 'cause Microsoft and Tecmo have some tender-lovin' DLC they want you to buy. With Ninja Gaiden II being released this June, three Ryu Hayabusa ninja outfits will be available for purchase at 200 MS points a pop. That's right, the equivalent of US $2.50 for skins! In Europe, …

I'm going to level with you: Project Gotham Racing 4 is my favourite racing game of all time. Hands down. Yes, other games feature more content, and yes, other games are more "realistic", but you know, I don't care. They can't match it for visual flair, they can't match it for sound design, and they …

When Nintendo's not making games, it's redesigning hardware. When it's not redesigning hardware, it's denying hardware revisions. Previously, Famitsu boss Hirokazu Hamamura said a new DS was coming to E3, a rumor which Nintendo and Hanamura later denied. Now game site GamesRadar contacted Nintendo …

When the DS Lite and the Wii were unveiled, there was a lot of chatter of how Nintendo and Apple had a lot of similarities. There was even talk of how the two companies would benefit from working together. Now it looks like Apple could possibly be copying the Wii concept for Apple TV gaming. It …

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Online If you're not the type of noob to simply dial up your new pal "Multiplayer" and leap blindly into a hail of bullets and screaming 12-year-olds (er, "18, right?"), then you may find Rockstar's just published -- and carefully reproduced after …

Filed under: Features, Microsoft Xbox 360 It seems like Xbox 360 Fanboy is right on the cusp of the oncoming storm of great entertainment. Sure, GTAIV is great, but with E3 right around the corner, news of the next wave of 360 titles is slowly trickling in. Below you will find links to the latest on …

Filed under: Culture Friends, we have a traitor in our midst. Our very own Law of the Game columnist, Mark Methenitis, has given the enemy a point-by-point plan on how to regulate games. He thought we wouldn't find it on his personal blog, and many Bothans died to bring us this information, but here …

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, ActionIn a surprise announcement that completely defies typical industry practices, Sierra has revealed that it will soon capture the "intense action-adventure, fantastic creatures and epic locations" in Hollywood's third money-making Mummy …

Filed under: Culture Variety reports that Universal has signed a deal to turn Bioshock into a movie. Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) will head the project and Aviator writer John Logan may write the screenplay. Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick, who was in charge of Fox …

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business GameFly has opened a new distribution center in Austin, Texas, and will begin sending out its first shipments tomorrow. Over the coming months, the new location will ramp up support for Texas and …

Wondering how to spend your tax rebate? Let the staff of Game Informer give you suggestions on how to give it to the fine folks at GameStop! And give some thanks to WiiCast for finding this helpful brochure. Here are today's stories:JoystiqueryX3F Week in Review: May 2, 2008 - May 8, 2008PSN …

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving, Business Downloadable content is a prized nugget we all not-so-secretly hope awaits us after taking any game home, but like the midday sun on a carton of fresh milk, it also has us spoiled. However, with Bizarre Creations now parking its ride in Activision's …

Personally, I’m struggling to keep my health up so I can continue playing this game, but if you’re the other way around, and in Baltimore, check out the second day of the Fourth Annual Games for Health Conference 2008. And, dear reader, if you are attending, drop us a note about how the …

My goal for this Link Dump Friday was to feature five games with one word titles. Did I succeed? Nope. Does that mean my mutant powers are waning? NEVER! It's just due to the position of Jupiter in relation to Capricorn, you see... And besides, one word or two, all the games are still fun, right?

Recently I made some strong remarks about NASA's decision to pull (or "reconfigure") the funding plan for their long-planned educational MMO. Virtualpolitik tracker Liz Losh has since authored a far more sophisticated analysis of the situation. Go read the whole thing, but in brief Losh attributes …

a boy named woo writes "Tired of justifying your gaming addiction? Now you can really help accomplish something while you play... thanks to Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher David Baker at the University of Washington." In collaboration with others, Baker has designed a game, called "Foldit …

Alex writes "I've just uploaded the video of a piece of classical electronic music I wrote for 2 Guitar Hero controllers and software (which I created). More information about this piece, its software, and the notation involved in playing it is at alexwroten.com/works.asp and alexwroten.com/excuses. …

We took a quite open way in development when we started working on Dead Wake game. We set up the forums and started launching a public version every 1-2 months. Right from the beginning. I’ve been pleased with this experiment and can confirm that having some kind of versions right from the …

by: Charles HusemannNEWS - Here's the official version of the Killzone 2 trailer that Sony released at the Sony day earlier this week.  I can't say that my socks were knocked off by this but we've got a while before the game ships and I'm way more stoked for Resistance Fall of Man 2. …

by: John YanNEWS - The folks at Pandemic Studios are working to bring hobbits, orcs, and Balrogs to life as they have just announced The Lord of the Rings: Conquest today. This time around you'll be able to join the evil forces of Sauron instead of playing as the good guys only. Some images of the …

by: John YanNEWS - The Wii Fit Balance Board is coming to the US soon and like the WiiMote, it takes batteries to operate. Nyko's got a solution for you if you don't want to buy batteries. The Energy Pak for the Wii Balance Board installs on the underside of the board and will let you play and …

by: Charles HusemannNEWS - Here are a few things I missed while checking if my ISP was throttling my bandwidh: The Analog Gamer is back with a D&D Bar Fighting game...I'd kick ass my with +4 Tankard of ass kicking brew Totilo wonders if reviewers needs to finish games, the overhype of …

Came across a Japanese casual pasta restaurant next to Carl's Jr in 1Utama the other day, and I thought I'd give it a try. I ordered their onsen tamago to kinoko pasta, which is a cream pasta with wild mushrooms and 'hot springs' egg - basically a poached egg. Ala carte is RM18 while a set, which …

I thought "The Sims 2 Free Time" was going to be the last expansion after "The Sims 3" was announced. "The Sims 2 Kitchen and Bath" stuff pack came with...

Short post tonight to highlight some of the recent FREE games that have been made available recently here at Shrapnel in case you’ve missed hearing the news when it happened. Today multi-award winning Digital Eel (Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, Eat Electric Death!) made available a …

First, the North wind will take us south to Florida, for a brief holiday with my wife's family. Next, the East wind will take us west to Colorado, to visit my brother-in-law. Then, the South wind will take us north...

In response to this, I’ve decided to draft a short message: To Glenn Beck: I have a lot of respect for you and your opinions. I especially appreciate the way you’ve been able to overcome and rise above adversity, and there have been many times I’ve found your views to be especially …

Falcon, meet Jasper. That’s the codename for the latest Xbox 360 chipset, the task has been assigned to IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The new chips, which utilize the ATI Xenos graphics and memory controller hub, will use less noise, less electricity and less complex cooling …

Codemasters’ newest racing title: Grid now has a demo available on XBL. The ‘Codies are the brilliant folks behind DIRT, which I absolutely loved and still do, and TOCA Race Driver series. Grid is quite similar to DIRT in not only presentation, but in entering events, earning reputation …

Warren was right…we just can’t promise that we’ll stop talking about Fairies and Dragons any time soon. After all, our characters have been making their way across Europe for over a month now, and we’ve still got plenty of markets to cover. So far, the toys have been …

After numerous close-calls, the Nasdaq stock market has removed Atari from its listings, the game maker announced Thursday.

The next entry in the Call of Duty franchise will be spread across six platforms and will take place in a new theater of war, Activision said during an earnings call Thursday.

Activision has again expressed how it plans to bring industry-leading innovation back to the Tony Hawk skating franchise, and reveals the next entry will be DS-only.

Activision has been dropping heavy hints about more multiplatform Guitar Hero titles coming for the holidays.

UPDATE - Activision has posted record fiscal year results and a strong fourth quarter on the back of hit titles such as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4; hardware projections within.

Pandemic Studios will be exercising its action game experience with the newly-announced The Lord of the Rings: Conquest.

The NPD Group has released new data showing that online subscriptions in the US gaming market exceed $1 billion annually.

The Federal Trade Commission has found that game retailers are significantly better at keeping mature-themed products out of the hands of minors, especially when compared to music and movie retail.

Following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV on April 29, Xbox 360 sales have jumped 54 percent week-over-week in the US, according to Microsoft.

UPDATE - NCsoft recently cancelled its plans to publish Spacetime Studios' space-faring MMO Blackstar, but the studio announced Thursday that it has acquired the Blackstar IP from the publisher.

Ich erstarre. Meine eigentlich schon müden Augen weiten sich. Ich stehe auf und hüpfe wie ein Besessener vor Freude durch die Bude. Everyday Shooter für PC. Jetzt. Hier. Hallejullah, ich wurde erhört! [via]

Today was a good day for Boom Blox! Mail has been coming in all day, as friends get the game… and we are all thrilled to see it topping charts at Metacritic, Gamestats and Amazon! It is da bomb! More importantly: I wanted to send a special thanks out to folks (you know who [...]

David Lakritz, President & CEO, Language Automation, Inc., previews his "Top Global Markets for Online Games (and How to Speak to the Gamers)" lecture at the 2008 ION Game Conference. Additionally, in this interview he tackles what has often proven to be a tricky subject for online …

With challenge #6 currently being judged, GI has already set its sights ahead for challenge #7, set to run from May 30th - July 12th. Hit the jump for rules and info.

Now available free of charge, a production-proven and professionally supported system to develop massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) - a completely revised version of the Torque MMO Kit has been introduced in April 2008 by the German company TalentRaspel.

This isn't an announcement, but a prediction. Provided the porting of Daxter from the PSP to the PS2 is true (see here, originally seen here), then Sony has to be seriously considering porting God of War: Chains of Olympus to the PS2 as well. Keep in mind that both Daxter and God of War on the PSP …

The good news is that Ninja Gaiden II will have three downloadable costumes for Ryu in July. The bad news is each will cost 200 MS points ($2.50). I’m kind of stunned. That’s a lot of money per outfit. This will suck even more if there aren’t any “free” costumes in the game to unlock. …

“All video games are crap,” a student asserted at an IGDA Chapter meeting some time ago, “they can’t tell a story worth a damn.” I, of course, disagreed… mostly. The problem, I’ve come to realize, is not that video games are inherently bad at providing a …

Surprise! We seem to have an exclusive at Kombo regarding the new Kid Icarus title, and from the looks of it, our little angel warrior is all grown up. The artwork we've published comes from a pitch document we got...

I never thought I'd see a video game act clingy, but leave it to Wii Fit to crank up the creepy factor. Aussie-Nintendo.com has torn into the new casual not-a-game and posted some images of the setup process including this...

I know sometimes that it seems as if there are a handful of topics that just spin around and around, forever, without any change in outcome. Nintendo of America's continued mistreatment of the Earthbound / Mother franchise is one of...

Next week I will be in Seattle for Ion (formerly OGDC) to sit on a panel pontificating on what’s up with online games in 5 years. (I’ve already done a powerpoint!) If you’re going to be in the area, feel free to yell at me.

I know that a percentage of those who visit this site are interested in breaking into the game industry. Whether a student, someone looking to change careers, or someone already in QA looking to move up it does seem from...

Forget what you've heard! EA does not think The Sims is a casual game. No, way, no how. Just listen to what EA's dedicated Sims division boss, Nancy Smith has to say: I don't think of it as casual. We were one of the first games that started to attract a broad audience. We were one of the first …

MotorStorm dev Evolution was acquired by Sony. Have things changed after going from indie to corporate monolith? Says Evolution's Paul Hollywood: There is commercial pressure from Sony who want us to create a viable business product but we're more after the critical acclaim. I think there's less …

Worst. Secret. Ever. Ah well, it's public knowledge now, with Pandemic finally releasing the first details on their upcoming Lord of the Rings game. Called Lord of the Rings: Conquest, it's a "spiritual successor" to the studio's previous work on the Battlefront series, and as such will be a fairly …

S'OK, PS3 owners. When McDonalds inked their little Rock Band advertising deal with Harmonix and MTV, they weren't just catering to the 360-owning demographic. They're thinking of you, too. So while the initial announcement may have come from Microsoft, MTV have since contacted us to let us know …

Chip rumor time! Word is that Microsoft is moblizing IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to roll out the rumored Jasper chipset for the Xbox 360. Compared to the current Falcon chip, Jasper uses less noise and simpler cooling systems. Not confirmed, but the chip apparently drops in August …

SingStar news! First item: SingStar producer Paulina Bozek has told PS3F that unlike certain other music titles available at the moment, the SingStar team have "no interest" in locking certain songs to certain regions of the world. Good news, that comes with a catch: they won't do it on purpose; …

Sony have been putting out the official Formula 1 racing games for years now. But if rumours at TG Daily are to be believed, they've turned down an offer to renew the partnership, after a disagreement with the sport's governing body over costs. According to TG Daily, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone …

Kristen Forbes, senior producer for Mind over Mutant, talks up the upcoming title and explains some of the development decisions made in this vid.

To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: Hello? Helloooooo? Ah, E3! Can't wait. Every day when I go pick up my kid at school, I go to a bus stop near my house. There's only one other kid who gets off at that stop — a younger kid who lives in the same apartment. His mother is always waiting there, …

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser. Earlier this morning Electronic Arts officially announced the long-rumored Lord of the Rings meets Battlefield title, Lord of the Rings Conquest. The game, under development by Pandemic Studios, will give gamers a chance to fight …

Turbine is celebrating the first anniversary of the Lord of the Rings Online as previously mentioned, and they're giving lapsed players a chance to come back and see what's changed since they bucked up and kicked the hobbit (so ashamed of myself). Between now and May 12th, players who have cancelled …

THQ has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Entertainment that will allow them to make games featuring all of their most popular superheroes...in tiny, super-deformed size. Further cementing their position as the child-friendly publisher established with brands like Nickelodeon, they've earned the …

In 1999, moviegoers were thrilled by Brendan Fraser in The Mummy. In 2001 they were titillated by The Mummy Returns. A year later they kinda scratched their heads at The Scorpion King, but this year the filmmakers are off The Rock and things are back to normal with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon …

It takes a big man to admit that he made a mistake, or an even bigger company. Sony execs have been pretty candid about the missteps made in the early life of the PlayStation 3 lately, and now SCEE's David Reeves admits that the development of Home was hindered by too big of a focus being placed on …

About 20 percent of underage teens were able to buy Mature-rated games during a recent nationwide undercover shopper survey conducted by the FTC, down more than half from last year, the FTC reported today. The survey, which also looked at R-rated movies, DVDs and "Parental Advisory"-labeled music, …

What exactly is The Blackstar Chronicles? Blackstar is a futuristic massively-multiplayer game that features both ground -based character combat as well as space-based ship combat on a massive scale. The developers at Spacetime Studios say it's based on the single-player traditions of "Wing …

Several Gamecock titles will be available for digital download through PC download portal GamersGate, starting with Stronghold Crusader Extreme in May, Insecticide in June and Velvet Assassin to follow in Q3, the companies announced today. Gamecock demoed its lineup in more detail earlier this year …

The major consoles' digital download platforms have the potential to offer new avenues for indie game developers and innovative titles like flOw and N+, to name just a few. But in a new GameSetWatch opinion column, Gamasutra editor and Independent Games Festival chairman Simon Carless compiles …

I'm not sure if this is exactly what the star of Grand Theft Auto IV is wearing in the game (well at least one of his outfits), but Game Daily did a really good job of at least finding bits of real world clothing that look like what he's wearing. The breakdown, which somehow forgets Bellic's super …

Soon after Grand Theft Auto's launch, when I went to start playing online matches, I noticed that the instruction manual was almost totally devoid of multiplayer details. In fact, the Brady Guide for the game, a virtual encyclopedia of GTA facts, was also missing any real information about …

Justin Marks, writer of the Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li film, is aware that most gamers have wanted to wed Chun-Li (and possibly worse) since we were yay high, but it looks like we can expect a dignified treatment of the leading lady, played by Smallville actress Kristin Kreuk. But... but what …

CCP's EVE Online fans have a "surprise gift" in store for current subscribers who log in after May 6th, to celebrate the game's five-year anniversary. Ooh, what is it? The MMO biz is a capricious one, and most online games tend toward a naturally short lifecycle. Five years is a big deal for EVE, …

The business of rhythm and music games is sort of like the real music industry. Classy little cult hits like PaRappa The Rapper, Vib Ribbon and Ouendan were once the sole territory of the especially hip. You could boast about your Taiko No Tatsujin skills to your rhythm-less pals, or quirk a brow at …

Nonprofit advocacy group The Entertainment Consumers' Association is hailing the results of a recent Federal Trade Commission study that showed 80 percent retailer compliance with the ESRB's ratings system, a continual year-over-year increase that puts games ahead of other media in self-regulating …

Parents' groups might be convinced that we "learn" how to steal cars and kill whores from GTA. But if San Andreas has taught us anything, it's that graffiti is a dark and serious business. "GreatFox" normally disdains the tagger's vandal's stain on our city streets, but couldn't resist snapping a …

We've seen the theme before: Video games, forsaking all outdoor activity to play them, can lead to obesity. Recently someone sent me a video, which does a great job of getting that message across. It also reminds me of this idea I had last year for a game that would use over-the-counter heart rate …

Nintendo's mascot racin' funfest Mario Kart Wii cannot be toppled, even by the crossbow powers of Link. Zelda's constant savior aimed for third on the Japanese sales charts with Link's Crossbow Training, Mario Kart Wii and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G still holding tight at numbers one and two for …

The Parent Television Council is apparently making the rounds among newspaper reporters trying to drum up a little attention at the cost of Grand Theft Auto IV and the truth. Arizona Daily Star reporter Phil Villarreal received one of their emails this morning, asking if he'd be interesting in …

Activision saw a record $2.90 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2008, the publisher announced today - $602.5 million was in the fourth quarter alone, as compared to $312.5 million during the same period last year. Strong worldwide sales for Call of Duty 4, Guitar Hero III and …

Microsoft is teaming up with the Boys & Girls Club of America to help kick-off the inaugural National Family Fitness Day on May 12. The event will take place at the Children’s Aid Society’s Dunlevy Milbank Center Boys & Girls Club, New York and inclide a chance to play DanceDanceRevolution …

Remember the dark days? The PlayStation Store update Thursdays with nary a downloadable worth the background download? Long gone, we hope, forever! This week, there's plenty of stuff to slake your download thirst, with demos for Haze, GRID and The Bourne Conspiracy joining extra content for …

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3 Through the hard times, through the delays, fans of LittleBigPlanet -- or at least people who think they will be fans of LittleBigPlanet -- have been comforted by the fact that whenever the game arrives they'll be getting an early look at it through the oft-promised …

Filed under: Culture We're not sure if at this point, five months after the origin of Gerstmannia, you can still point to people leaving Gamespot as a "trend" per se, or if it's just a case of people moving on. Regardless, we thought it worth bringing to your attention that staffer and host of …

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Nintendo WiiSure, we all love the above image, but have you ever stopped to wonder where all those Benjamins are going? Apparently, it's into the waiting mouth of former Nintendo chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi who, according to Forbes, has devoured enough bills to be worth $7.8 …

Filed under: Business We're not sure if you've heard (you're not really the target demographic, after all) but Marvel is creating a new kid-friendly brand called the Marvel Super Hero Squad that will put (adorable) heroes like Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Thor, Fantastic Four and Captain America into …

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving You know why you're reading this instead of playing Grand Turismo 5 Prologue or Burnout or any of the multitude of other racing franchises available? Because they're boring. It's a true, scientific fact straight from Codemasters who said they're going …

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Business Reports that Xbox 360's Jasper chipset will begin shipping in August continue to hum along, as China Economic News Service has named three Taiwanese companies that have been contracted to manufacture, test and package the pair of 65nm microprocessors in …

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Business Peter Moore tells Eurogamer he wishes Sony's Home service would just ship already. The former Xbox exec turned EA Sports president says he's interested in working with Home, but he's "disappointed" that it keeps getting pushed back.Moore expresses that he …

Filed under: Nintendo Wii When fans debate which of their plentiful wells Nintendo will be returning to for their next big title, Kid Icarus is always a popular suspicion. Now, IGN's Matt Casamassina has basically confirmed that it's on the way to Wii. On episode 7 of the IGN Nintendo Voice Chat …

Filed under: PC, Meta (about Joystiq)What's been missing from the Joystiq family? The console fans all have their homes, handhelds too, and even MMO enthusiasts and WoW players have a corner to call their own. Today we're happy to give PC gamers a place to call home at our new sister site, Big …

Filed under: Features, Meta (about Joystiq) In the world of professional game blogging, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the bloggers who investigate the stories and readers who make silly comments. These are the first group's stories. Name: Justin …

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PSP, Action, Driving, Business French site Jeuxvideo.fr states that PSP games Daxter and Wipeout Pulse are being ported to the PS2. The story seems probable considering how many PSP to PS2 ports there have been, but at this time it's an unconfirmed rumor. Given …

Filed under: Culture A bipartisan bill proposed in the House seeks to require video game retailers to check IDs before selling M- or AO-rated games to minors. Variety reports Reps. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Lee Terry (R-Neb) have proposed the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act to protect children, …

Filed under: Sony PSP Sony has announced the release -- finally! -- of the PSP headset with remote control, ideal for your handheld Skype yammering. The headset is currently available at Amazon and GameStop for the MSRP of $30 and buy.com for $20. The headset was originally due out last month for $ …

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Fighting When Midway announced that DC characters were splicing worlds with Mortal Kombat for a T-rated fighting game, we prepared our eulogy for the fatality, a staple of the MK universe that seemed to run against the DC philosophy. Not so fast, …

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Exergaming EA Sports president Peter Moore tells Eurogamer that the division is working on a Wii fitness game utilizing the pressure-balancy-board thing. The game will release under the new casual-oriented Freestyle label and will focus on "western" cardio workouts instead …

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Online While confirming Home will "definitely be coming out in Autumn," SCEE president David Reeves said that "maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that." In an interview with CVG, Reeves continued …

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Online We're sure PS3 owners can carve out a little time today from all the GTA IV and echochrome playing to check out the demo for "exclusive" shooter Haze. Of course, what most are probably excited about is that PixelJunk Monsters' expansion is out today at a …

Filed under: PC For the PS3-deficient amongst you, you've got a second chance to play ... nay, experience Jonathan Mak's procedurally generated musical shooter, Everyday Shooter. If you've got a Windows PC, Valve's Steam client, and an unused $10 bill, you could show up to this rock party a measly …

Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360 As far as rumors go, this one isn't much of a surprise. A mysterious masked man told Eurogamer that developer Realtime Worlds recently bought the distribution rights to its forthcoming MMO All Points Bulletin (APB to you kids) with one specific goal in mind: "so …

Filed under: Business Activision had itself a very good fiscal year '08 with record revenues and its 16th year of consecutive growth. GameDaily reports the publisher's revenues hit $2.9 billion, with net income growing from $85.8 million in FY07 to $344.9 million this past year. Amazingly, the …

A Review of Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archaeology of Forms, 1959-1995By Christopher T. FunkhouserUniversity of Alabama Press2007 408 pp.$75.00 cloth/$39.95 paper This is an incredible compendium of decades of seldom-noticed work, guided by poetics, that has been done with language and computers …

I liked it more than I thought I would. When you pull off an assault against an entrenched enemy with minor losses and combined arms, it really feels nice. It looks pretty good, too and the reinforcement based on objectives is a great way to encourage action and progress. Ultimately, it comes apart …

Chronotron is a platform-puzzle game with a really innovative (and addictive) twist. If you're a fan of time travel theory or if you enjoyed any of the amazing time-based games (Timebot, Time Raider, and Super Earth Defense, in particular) from our replay-themed game competition last summer, then …

Alan Probe: Amateur Surgeon is a cartoonish and casually offensive entry into the simon-says-surgery genre made famous(ish) by Atlus' Trauma Center. Your job is to follow the exact requirements of each surgery as quickly and as accurately as possible. The game is blessed with the finest production …

spoco2 writes "The id Software site has announced that work has begun on the next sequel to their most famous game, Doom. Will they be able to resurrect the series after what many considered to be a serious misstep with Doom 3? Oh... and they're hiring for the team, so maybe you can steer them in …

Ian Lamont writes "Terrence Russell has outlined an interesting theory about what industry Apple intends to break into next. He points to games. Forget Pippin II, or an iMac gaming rig — he thinks the mobile realm is where Apple will make a big product push. It's not the first bit of …

Following up on their profiles of the Commodore 64, Vectrex, Apple II, and Atari 2600, game historians Loguidice and Barton examine the lifespan of Mattel's cult '80s console the Intellivision, from Astrosmash to AD& D and beyond.

by: Randy KalistaNEWS - With a beta version planned for September -- around its first anniversary -- the tactical (and free to play) flash MMORPG, DOFUS, is about to go DOFUS 2.0 this fall.  The code's been completely rewritten to exhibit greater fluidity of movement, over 2,000 animations …

by: Dan KeenerArticle - Dan checks in to see what the ESRB has been cooking.Comment

by: Randy KalistaNEWS - Though the site is currently nothing more than the press release they put out today, SparkWorkz, a division of inXile Entertainment, aims to serve as "a highly entertaining and engaging online destination for people to show off their creative talents across a number of …

by: Charles HusemannNEWS - If you live in Columbus and can pry yourself away from Grand Theft Auto IV for 90 minutes you might want to head down to Columbus State's Nestor Hall Auditorium from 6-7:30 to listen to a panel talking about video games as the Convergence of Art and Technology.  The Q …

by: Dan KeenerNEWS - Here are the stats sent out by Microsoft on the performance of Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. The numbers provided are quite impressive, but this is Microsoft's internal take from retailer feedback on the sales figures. We probably wont know the true impact …

by: Randy KalistaNEWS - Demo Can't get enough detective work?  Investigate this demo for The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes. The historical war game, Sango 2, has a demo mirrored at AtomicGamer. Articles If you've been following along, Defunct Games is up to chapters 11 and 12 …

by: Nathan MurrayNEWS - Shrapnel Games is looking for a few good testers. Open Beta testing for their game War Plan Pacific is starting soon. The game is PC based war strategy goodness that takes place in a war torn World War II era Pacific ocean. The game is mostly Naval warfare but I wouldn't be …

From The Day the Music Died, I learned that Microsoft is pulling the plug on the servers used for verification of their MSN Music service. Even Wired repots that Microsoft is pulling support for MSN Music DRM. So what happens on August 31, 2008? On that day, Microsoft will turn off the servers that …

Anyone up for a little driving? "Bus Driver" has over 30 routes with passengers waiting for you to pick them up and drop them off. Something a different from trying...

This week, Josh, aka Z from Tripletags.com was nice enough to join us to talk about their site and add insight to our gaming podcast. We also decide to break out into an acapella version of Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills”. Scary, so make sure to have ear protection at that point …

MotorStorm Pacific Rift’s creative lead tells Next-Gen how life has changed since Sony acquired Evolution, about the PS3's tricky development learning curve and why the company's latest title is no ordinary sequel.

Evolution Studios and MotorStorm creative lead Paul Hollywood says that PS3 development is tricky but that the system is full of rich potential.

Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai says that the PlayStation 3 will dominate the market in years to come.

The new Xbox revealed, Nintendo's Snoop Channel and Peter Moore on Sony. PLUS this guy (pictured on left), who we really love for being, just, great.

Former Nintendo president and chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi has become Japan’s wealthiest man thanks to the success of the Wii.

The middleware business is a tough game, as proved by the potted history of Irish physics company Havok.

Think Revolution Software and you think Broken Sword, but Charles Cecil’s point and click love affair began with this unforgettable Amiga, Atari ST and PC adventure.

Want to know which iPhone games are creating the biggest buzz in the marketplace?

Rockstar has released a patch to ease the strain on Grand Theft Auto IV’s servers, meaning irritating game freezes may soon be a thing of the past.

THQ has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for videogames based on Marvel's kid-friendly Super Hero Squad.

Dutch games industry revenues approached €1 billion last year, exceeding those of Holland’s film industry for the first time.

A new US legislative attempt to regulate videogame sales, proposing that retailers check a buyer’s ID in order to keep violent games out of kids’ hands, has been launched in Congress.

Wow, gerade eben mitbekommen wie auf SWR3 (Regionaler, öffentlich-rechtlicher Popsender) hier in den Börsennews über GTA IV geredet wurde! Erwähnt wurde der fulminante Erfolg (mehr Umsatz als bei jeden Kinofilm zuvor) und eine sehr korrekte Beschreibung des Spiel, an der ich nichts zu bemängeln …

Leave it to me to write a solid paragraph about the mystery behind Take-Two's silence regarding the Grand Theft Auto 4 sales numbers and then, when I wake up to post the news (written the night before), see that they were just waiting to ambush me. So, yeah, GTA4 sold 3.6 million copies on its …

Like Amazon, GameStop appears to be in dangerously short supply of Nintendo's upcoming balance simulator Wii Fit, with employees of the company writing to us today bringing word that pre-orders for the title have ended, officially, at some stores. Wii Fit pre-orders are no longer being offered on …

newVideoPlayer("conan_gta_gentle.flv", 475, 376,"");As Late Night host Conan O'Brien has already pointed out, Grand Theft Auto IV has a gentler side. Not really, but it's a good gag and we like Conan so much that we're more than happy to retread the territory with him. Today's helping of gentle GTA …

GameTrailers TV isn't the only outlet getting a helping of Gears of War 2 video exclusivity, as 1UP—read GameVideos—is touting its own must see clip. It's hitting the internet at 10:30 PM Pacific Time, beating Spike TV's programming in some time zones. 1UP makes no promises about Cliffy …

PlayStation boss man Kaz Hirai has been a chatty fellow this week, talking about the PlayStation 3's bumpy start and its association with Grand Theft Auto IV. He also sat down with the BBC, giving his totally unbiased opinion about where the PS3 will rank against its peers. The news? Good! Well, …

We got our first glimpse of Rubik's World earlier this month, pitched as an "otherworldly game [that] will look and play like no other game on the market", a "collection of extremely addictive, easy-to-play puzzle games will increase in difficulty as the player delves deeper into this 3D world." …

For those of you who missed out on the Official PlayStation Blog's free Eye of Judgment card giveaway last Friday, do not fret! The response for the free cards was so overwhelming that they've decided to go another round. This Friday at 5PM Pacific you can hit up the OPB and submit your email for …

Hot numbers! We got hot numbers, folks, fresh from the Microsoft sales and marketing team! The company's Gamerscore Blog is stuffed with statistics, revealing that Xbox 360 console sales were up 54% during the week of Grand Theft Auto IV's release. Of the millions of copies of GTA IV sold, MS says …

Apparently Yahtzee's review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl received so much negative response that he decided to dedicate this week's Zero Punctuation to you, his viewing public. More specifically, the members of his viewing public that saw fit to bombard him with letters about how wrong he was about …

Europe is already knee deep in Haze demo enjoyment, but North Americans will get their fill of Ubisoft's first person shooter starting tomorrow. That is, provided that your fill of Haze is the game's first level and a sampling of drop-in, drop-out four-player co-op. It may have the most hyphens of …

To: Bash From: Crecente Re: So, Yeah, I Finally Watched A Blu-ray Movie And... So yesterday I was up to my eyeballs in dealing with pre-E3 planning, the Sony Gamers Day in London, and the regular insanity of running Kotaku. At one point I was on my cell phone and home phone at the same time talking …

Blizzard's big time RTS StarCraft II is coming alone nicely. Here, Lead Producer Chris Sigaty and 1Up Editor-in-Chief James Mielke. Check out the game's latest build footage and producer Sigaty's flowing locks. They are magnificent. New Interview [VideoGamesBlogger]

The newly launched in North America Nintendo Channel shows off the first batch of WiiWare titles to hit Western shores, revealing potential pricing on at least one of the debut games. The initial quintet of potential WiiWare releases—revealed by way of the "What Is WiiWare?" video— …

Sony's been on a good run since Christmas. In large part, they can thank the settling of their hardware offerings for that, as the maddening SKU confusion of 2007 has given way to a stable lineup of PS3 consoles. Thing is, that stable lineup consists mostly of a 40GB HDD, which in the coming years …

New legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that aims to enforce ESRB ratings with required age identification checks, reports Variety. The "Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act"—a bill introduced by Republican representative Lee Terry and Democratic representative …

You want a single man's fortunes by which you can gauge the current success of Nintendo? Look no further than former chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi, who in the past three years has gone from being Japan's 11th-richest man, to it's 3rd-richest man, to now it's richest man. That's what happens when you own …

What's the new Nintendo Channel do? It lets you download DS demos. It lets you check out stuff like trailers. Oh, and, if you let it, it'll quietly take stock of your Wii and your gaming setup, then report back to Nintendo HQ with its findings. Some of the information it will share includes your net …

If you're a Barack Obama fan/supporter/whatever, and you want to get your political point across at this minute in time, you've got two ways of getting people's attention. One's using Iron Man, because right now, Iron Man is hot. Or, you use GTA IV, because right now, it's even hotter. Attack of the …

They're still making the Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li flick, and yet, there's already talks of sequels! The film's scribe Justin Marks, who's also adapting Voltron and HE-MAN for the silver screen, says: There are always plans [for sequels]. We've seen this as being a really drawn-out way …

Needs more pink! Some Japanese lady thought a MG Gyan Gundam figure wasn't girly enough, so she was "inspired" to give it a more "feminine air." The customized model has been covered with faux jewels, and the plastic surface has been treated and lacquered. The attention to detail is astounding (like …

NVIDIA's Roy Taylor is not, as you can probably hazard a guess, a fan of piracy in the PC games market. So much so that, while speaking with Eurogamer, he's made an impassioned plea, employing the language of the youth of today in order to get his point across: I think that we've arrived at a point …

Hrm, thought we'd seen the last of this topic. Seems a British TV commercial for PC World has been taken off the air by the Advertising Standards Authority. Why? It contained "misleading" information about the PS3, claiming the PAL 60GB unit "plays your PS2 games as well", even though it, well, does …

April 29th. Remember that? Some game called Grand Theft Auto IV went on sale (wha?) pretty much in planned regions save for India. According to Indian game distributors E-xpress interactive, the game has been delayed for Xbox 360 and PS3. The reason? There are global shortages. You know, we hear a …

Got $10,000 handy? Love horse-riding? Hate horses? Well is this the deal for you. This is the Ridemaster, perhaps the most overblown horse-riding adventure we've seen this side of Barbie Horse Adventures. For your 10gs you get a fake horse (which is full of sensors, so you can kick it for being …

Japan loves many things. For example, Louis Vuitton. Japan loves Louis Vuitton. iPods, Japan loves iPods. Japan does not love the Xbox 360. What does Bill Gates think about that? While visiting Japan, Microsoft founder Bill Gates did offer this: Product share varies from country to country. In the …

Wii Fit's a guaranteed hit. In no way will it not sell millions of copies. So competitors (or imitators, if you're not feeling so kind) are bound to spring up. First off the bat? EA, of course, with EA Sports' boss Peter Moore identifying a gap in the market Wii Fit may not be addressing: bored …

Certainly! By now you must have seen the credit sequence for anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Catchy, huh? No wonder the Wii Haruhi game is going to be a dancing game. Well, not a straight up dancing game as it'll have a "Story Mode" (with dancing) and a "Free Mode" (with dancing). The game' …

Artist Peter Gronquist's currently holding an exhibition in LA, where he takes famous designer labels and associates them with weapons. Think a Chanel RPG, Gucci AK-47, etc, and you're on the right track. One of his exhibits are these delightful, golden Pac-Man grenades. I've no idea which label …

Once again proving that the Xbox 360 is the console for discerning consumers, 3D computer erotic game TimeLeap [NSFW] is getting an Xbox 360 version. In a newly released TimeLeap visual guidebook, the game's producer confirmed that an Xbox 360 version is planned this year. Interesting as the erotic …

Thought we were kidding when we said Peter Moore bleed neon green? Nope! After getting some strange Wii analogies, Moore's back to moan and groan about Sony's Home. Says the former Xbox employee: Yeah, I just wish it [Home] would ship. I [previously] questioned it a little bit, whether I'd want to …

Did you know that there are many different languages in Europe? Not everyone speaks English! Mind officially blown. That means localizing games for Europe is a gianormous pain in the ass. Says Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe honcho David Reeves: But even if you talk to Guerilla, Namco, Square …