Activision’s Executive Vice President of Worldwide Studios, Dave Stohl, says that the company will have it’s several studios focusing on delivering one game at a time.
Stohl said that the current multi-game strategies that have studios working on simultaneous projects "doesn't make sense anymore."
"People want the freedom to put all their resources against the big opportunity, and that's what we're trying to do." He added:
"We saw it kinda’ coalesce around one or two titles a publisher. On the Guitar Hero side, yeah, we're not pursuing the strategy of doing as many SKUs as we were. And that's a good thing, because that will simplify the strategy around one release on the Guitar Hero side and focus on innovation there."
"We are focusing on our licensed business, from a business standpoint, to see what makes sense. I think we're trying to make every one of those launches really notable."
Well, if this means that we don’t end up with a truck load of mediocre Tony Hawk, Spider-Man and Guitar Hero games then we’ll happily give a massive thumbs-up for Activision.
It’s time for another research study which proves that video games are more evil than WMDs, Germany and piranhas combined.
This time, the study shows that children who play more than two hours of video games a day are 67% more likely to suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The report from the Official Journal of the American Academy of Paediatrics, which followed 1,323 elementary school kids for a year, "strongly" suggested that video games could be doing significant damage to young children’s attention spans. The report suggest that TV and games are so stimulating to youngsters that they can no-longer pay attention to the real world. "Others have hypothesized that because most television programs involve rapid changes in focus, frequent exposure to television may harm children's abilities to sustain focus on tasks that are not inherently attention-grabbing."
But the study’s author, Edward Swing from Iowa State University, admitted that children with ADHD could turn to TV and video games for stimulating entertainment, and says that more research is needed.
"It wouldn't surprise me if children who have attention problems are attracted to these media, and that these media increase the attention problems," said Swing.
According to Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid 3DS could take a page out of Peace Walker’s book and feature some sort of co-op mode.
The Metal Gear Solid creator admitted that the demo that was shown at E3 was just an experimental sample of what the 3DS is capable of. But Kojima isn’t sure what direction to take with the new game.
In an interview with 1Up.com, Kojima said:
“I did handle direction work on the E3 demo, but where I go from here hasn’t been decided yet.”
“For a full-size game, just having things pop out at the player all the time will get old fast, so I think the emphasis will be on visual depth instead. We haven’t settled on the details yet, but I’d like to get Co-Ops and some of the other things we did in Peace Walker into this game as well.” Although the idea of co-op play sounds very interesting, Kojima said that the story of Metal Gear Solid 3DS will remain the same as the PS2 version.
“We cant change MGS3’s story, but we are thinking about Co-Ops and other things we can use the 3D technology for.”
So what do you think? Should a co-operative mode be put into the 3DS version of MGS3, or should Kojima leave it be? Let us know in the comments below.
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the WipEout series Sony has launched what could possibly the best thing to have ever been on PlayStation Home: The WipEout Museum.
Ok, so on the surface it doesn’t sound awfully great, but there’s some awesome stuff on offer. Not only will you be able to look back through the history of WipEout, but you’ll also be able to have a little bit of fun. There's a top-down WipEout racing mini game called WipEout 2D, a gallery-style blaster called WipEout Shooter and an interactive DJ area that lets you blast music from the game. There's also a Team Logo Hunt activity, which gets you poking around the space on a treasure hunt.
And on top of all that there’s also some free WipEout themed clothes for you’re virtual self to wear including T-Shirts, accessories and hats.
So is this the best use of virtual space in PS Home. So far the survey says ‘Yes.’
According to a report from news network, Bloomberg, Microsoft made over $1 billion from Xbox Live last year.
"About half" of Live's 25 million users paid an annual Gold subscription in the year ended June 30, which made Microsoft an estimated $600 million.
Sales of digital content such as movies and TV shows topped subscription revenue for the first time, according to Xbox COO, Dennis Durkin, Xbox, which suggests that the service made more than $1.2 billion in sales last year. Xbox Live made approximately $800 million the year prior.
 Goldman Sachs analyst, Sarah Friar believes that Xbox Live has gross margins of about 65 per cent, while Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft said:
"Xbox Live has helped sell a lot of consoles and created a lot of loyalty. Everyone has been talking about Microsoft's inability to innovate, but this is a pretty good example where they have innovated. They timed it just right with this one."
With the upcoming release of Kinect, we can only expect Microsoft to keep on racking-in the money. Or in their case, the bags with dollar signs on them.
Microsoft’s Major Nelson has announced through hi blog that the Xbox 360 is set to get a new browser for the Arcade marketplace of Xbox Live.
The Xbox Live community man said:
“Next week we'll be launching another way to browse content on Xbox LIVE Arcade and we're calling it Destination Arcade.”
“With a growing library of over 250 Arcade games, Destination Arcade will allow you to discover new games and content you enjoy through an easy-to-use visual browser. You'll have the ability to sort by price, community rating, and more! Also, stay up to date on the latest arcade releases through a news feed and also find out what games your friends like and recommend. This brand new recommendation engine & visual browser app will be available in the US on July 14th from the Games Marketplace section of the dashboard.” We don’t know about you lot out there, but we think that the new look is pretty pants. Not to mention pointless and unnecessary. But that’s just us.
Disney's has announced that Split/Second: Velocity will be making it’s way to the PSP.
The handheld version of Split/Second: Velocity will include unique handling and controls designed specifically for the platform. It'll also feature an exclusive new track, challenges not found on the current versions, and four-player local multiplayer. Although the consoles versions of the game didn’t sell many copies as first expected, the premise of the game is really intriguing. Being able to trigger explosions in order to throw your opponents, and subsequently change the layout of the track, sounds really cool to us. Unfortunately it would seem that a lot of people didn’t share our thoughts.
Split/Second: Velocity for the PSP to due to be released this winter, ready for the Christmas season.
 Sony have announced that a white PlayStation 3 will be hitting shelves across Japanese retailers later this month.
The new console will be released with two different hard drives. The first being a 160Gb, which will retail at the current price of the 120Gb being 29,980 Yen (£225) and the second console having a whopping 320Gb for the small sum of 34,980 Yen (£262).
But will we see this new console here in Europe? Well a spokesperson from SCEE said:
"We will consider every possibility based on the market demands, but have nothing to announce at this point in time."
So, besides the beefy hard drive and different paint job, it’s the same console that been available over here for ages. So why do we suddenly have the urge to buy one of these? You have to admit, it looks awesome.
We’ve were told that the Nintendo 3DS would be out in October 2010, then we heard it wouldn’t be out ‘til Q1 2011, and then it was announced that it would be out in time for Christmas. Now Play.com have posted a release date of November 2010 on their website.
The popular online retailer has posted a listing for a 3DS DragonBall game to be released on November 19th, 2010 followed by a Gundam game to be released on March 25th, 2011. It’s interesting to point out that these two games are the only 3DS titles on Play.com that have very specific release dates attached to them. Even more interesting is the fact that both games are being developed by Namco Bandai. Perhaps they know more than we do.
In any case, we’re taking this information with a pinch of salt, especially after the numerous changes to the 3DS’ release date. We think that a 2011 release date sounds more plausible.
Atindriya Bose, the country manager for Sony Computer Entertainment India (yes, they have an office in India) has revealed that there will be not one, but two special editions of Gran Turismo 5.
In a recent interview, Bose said:
"One is the game plus some added content and collectibles, while the other is in a really big package with a lot of paraphernalia that goes beyond the game. It's all car-related, but I'm unaware of the exact contents."
"Being so expensive, we may not directly order it from Europe, but we could bring in limited quantities from Sony in the Middle East." The game, which many GT fans have been waiting for over the past 3 years, will be released on November 2nd in America. Thankfully the games developer Kazunori Yamauchi had promised that there will be no further delays leading up to the games release.
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