On Gear Live: Samsung S95C: The OLED TV You Can’t Afford (to Ignore!)

RedOctane Denies Faulty 360 Guitar Rumors, Gives Suggestions

Xplorer Xbox 360 Guitar Hero ControllerA few sites out there were reporting yesterday about supposed problems with the whammy bar on the Xbox 360 Guitar Hero “Xplorer” controller. Today, a rep from RedOctane responded to these rumors, stating that they were categorically untrue and had not heard of any systematic problems with the controller… they offered the following up for users who are having problems with the guitar.

“We’re currently in the process of having our internal QA and production teams look into this possible issue, and are working to quickly isolate this if there is one,” he stated. “In the meantime, we suggest our fans try to replug in their guitars without holding down any buttons or the whammy bar, and that may help immediately resolve the issue.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if this “fixed” a lot of the problems folks have been seeing - I’m sure there are more than a few gamers out there that may have accidentally mis-zeroed the controls. Now just remember to put the disc in shiny-side down too, OK?

Read More | Next Generation.biz

Gallery: RedOctane Denies Faulty 360 Guitar Rumors, Gives Suggestions


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Final Fintasy XIII Exclusivity “Under Discussion”

FF XIII ArtDo you hear that? That muffled, banging sound? Yep, that’s the sound of yet another nail being driven into the PS3’s coffin. With Devil May Cry 4, Ace Combat, Grand Theft Auto, and Assassin’s Creed now non-exclusive (am I missing any more??!), and with the fairly lackluster launch of the PS3 in Europe, the 360 must be looking pretty good as a platform of choice for next-gen developers. Sony appears to be in such a pickle that even SCEE Vice President Georges Fornay has said that the exclusivity of system-seller Final Fantasy XIII is now up in the air.

Roughly translated by Google, a Jeux-France article quotes Fornay:

(Lastly, for Final Fantasy XIII, I can say to you that exclusiveness is under discussion).

My guess is that Microsoft has found itself in a good bargaining position and has been pressing their argument for non-exclusivity on game developers. And with next-gen development costs soaring, going multi-platform must be sounding like a progressively better idea to publishers and developers alike. We’ll wait for the Metal Gear Solid non-exclusivity announcement, and then I’m going to count the PS3 as officially dead.

Read More | Jeux-France

Gallery: Final Fintasy XIII Exclusivity “Under Discussion”


The Playstation Home Fiasco And Its Aftermath

Slap fight!!For you gamers out there reading our blog who don’t also visit Kotaku.com regularly, you should! These guys have shown themselves to have real journalistic/bloggeristic integrity this week. For those of you that missed out, here’s a blow-by-blow account of what will one day doubtlessly be known as “The Playstation Home Fiasco”

For a few weeks, Phil Harrison had been talking about how the PS3 news to be presented at the GDC would make gamers “very happy”. Around this time, Kotaku starts hearing from “sources” rumors that Phil’s big announcement will be Playstation Home, described as fellows:

Basically, you get to make an avatar for your console (like a Mii) and this avatar has a room. As you play games and accomplish certain tasks, you will receive items with which to adorn the room that are specific to the game (achievements). The kicker is that this is going to be a new requirement for every PS3 game.

Before posting this story, Kotaku asked Sony if they had any comment. Instead of just replying with a standard, coy “Sony does not comment on rumors and speculation”, the reply this time was “post that story and you won’t enjoy the consequences”. So, being the good journalists that they are, Kotaku ran the story.

Well, this evidently went and made some folks at Sony very mad (thus only adding to the veracity of the rumor), and Sony decided that they would no longer deal with Kotaku. In fact, Sony dis-invited Kotaku from all future exclusive events, and asked for their PS3 dev kit back. Then the uproar REALLY began. Joystiq, noting that this meant the rumors were obviously true, reported on how Sony was blackballing Kotaku, a story that got some serious diggs.

In the end, Kotaku and Sony kissed and made-up, but I think Sony learned a valuable lesson about treating their bloggers right. Next time, let’s just keep people salivating with a standard “we don’t comment on rumors” reply, OK Sony? It’ll save everyone a lot of grief.

Read More | Kotaku

Gallery: The Playstation Home Fiasco And Its Aftermath


Warhawk PS3 Downsized, Downloadable

Warhawk PS3It looks like the rumors that Warhawk for the PS3 was in trouble might have been correct. Sam Kennedy at 1up is visiting Incognito to preview the latest developments on the follow-up to the Playstation title, and he indicates that Warhawk has been downsized from its original ambitions as a retail PS3 title. Supposedly the title is now slated to be a downloadable title with multi-player support only, a pretty drastic change from the original offering. If the title can bring a strong multi-player experience while maintaining the graphic quality at a reasonable download price, Sony might have a good reason to get on the Playstation Network, but it will still be pretty far from their original promises for the game.

Update: Sony has officially denied the rumors to Kotaku with a non-denial denial stating that they “have not made any decision with regards to distribution for Warhawk

Read More | 1up

Gallery: Warhawk PS3 Downsized, Downloadable


Game Crazy POS Shows Black Xbox 360 Date, Price

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Rumors, Xbox 360,

Xbox 360 BlackA post on the Cheap Ass Gamer forums indicates that a new Xbox 360 SKU has been loaded into the system, appearing as

GM-XBOX 360 (black/ 120GB) $479.99 NEW $439.99 USED

. The release date is currently listed as 5/1/2007. Some of the posters in the forum were able to confirm this, and Kotaku was able to get independent confirmation from various Game Crazy stores as well. Now, this could be just a phantom in the system, an update created based on speculation at Game Crazy, so one can’t really describe this as a confirmation that there is a black Xbox 360 coming out, but this, along with the previously released alleged box art would seem to be tipping the scales further and further in favor of its existence.

Read More | Cheap Ass Gamer via Kotaku

Gallery: Game Crazy POS Shows Black Xbox 360 Date, Price


What Will iPhone Gaming Be Like?

the iPhoneThe iPhone looks to be one of the first great, albeit pricy, “convergence” gadgets out there. Running a version of MacOS X that will allow you to surf the web, play 4GB worth of MP3s, watch videos (in near-widescreen format), and make phonecalls, the iPhone holds a lot of promise. Still, nothing’s been mentioned yet about the real reason folks will be picking up this $499/$599 monster - it’s a new way to play Snood, Solitaire, and Bejeweled on the go!

Apple may not have announced anything yet, but Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Electronic Arts is in talks with Apple to produce games for the new gadget. EA has already produced games for the ubiquitous Apple iPod, including translations of Mahjong, Mini-Golf, Tetris, and Sudoku built for its click-wheel interface. Given that the iPhone will have a multi-touch interface, a faster processor, and a nice widescreen display, it seems that EA could be able to produce some really advanced content for this piece of hardware. Perhaps a Madden clone where you can draw-out your playbook on the screen? Or a first-person shooter where you aim and shoot with touch-controls? We’ll have to wait and see how ambitious EA gets, but it’s looking like there’s a lot of promise in this platform.

Read More | GamesIndustry.biz

Gallery: What Will iPhone Gaming Be Like?


Ghostbusters Game In The Works? Maybe…

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Mods/Hacks, Rumors, Trailers, Xbox 360,

Whether it be a mod of Gears of War, a dedicated fan, or a pitch for a game that never came to be, these videos on YouTube have us wanting more… and remind me that I should go back and watch the original Ghostbusters again. Chances are we’ll never see this game on a console, but we can dream, can’t we?

The videos on YouTube feature some Gears-style 3rd-person gameplay, some very nicely lit driving movies and what look like tests of the Bill Murray character model. Be sure to click the jump for the rest of the videos!

Click to continue reading Ghostbusters Game In The Works? Maybe…

Gallery: Ghostbusters Game In The Works? Maybe…


Rumor: Saints Row Coming to PS3?

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, PlayStation 3, Rumors, THQ,

PS3 Saints Row?

EBGames/Gamestop’s website is quickly becoming the source of choice for new game rumors that end up being true. So when their website listed Saints Row for the PS3 and then quickly took it down, it set off quite a buzz. Now keep in mind, Gamestop probably has their fair share of bad web programmers and crappy database administrators working for them, so this could all just be a simple mix-up of placing the game under the wrong console. But if we didn’t fan the flames of interesting rumors, we wouldn’t be good bloggers, now would we??!

Read More | destructoid.com

Gallery: Rumor: Saints Row Coming to PS3?


Xbox 360 To Get IPTV? We’ll Know Soon Enough

Xbox Video Marketplace Details are sketchy at the moment, but it appears that Microsoft may be planning on integrating some sort of IPTV into the Xbox 360. Whether this means that you’ll be able to watch streamed (instead of downloaded) video content on your 360, or that you’ll be able to stream purchased videos from your 360 to some sort of mobile, wireless-enabled device *COUGH* Zune! *cough*, we can’t yet say. What we can say is that Dean Takahashi posted and then quickly removed an article about how the Xbox 360 would soon function as a set-top box for IPTV.

Could this be Microsoft’s response to PS3’s LocationFree streaming capabilities? We should know soon enough…

Read More | Engadget.com

Gallery: Xbox 360 To Get IPTV? We’ll Know Soon Enough


Radiant Silvergun 3, Nights Appear On Japanese Release List

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Rumors, Wii, Xbox 360,

Radiant SilvergunInsert Credit is reporting that Japanese gaming site G-rev has listed Radiant Silvergun 3 for the Xbox 360 and Nights for the Nintendo Wii on an upcoming software release list. Insert Credit stresses that the site’s credibility isn’t the best, so gamers should consider this a weak rumor at this point, but both of the titles would be much anticipated releases for their respective platforms, particularly a Nights update that takes advantage of the Wii’s motion-sensing remote.

Read More | Insert Credit

Gallery: Radiant Silvergun 3, Nights Appear On Japanese Release List


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