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There were almost as many solid rumors as real news this week. Here are the highlights! It is widely rumored that Acer, the Taiwanese discount laptop maker, will enter into the console market. According to the company’s senior vice president, James T. Wong, Acer wants to build a game machine that is an open platform for game developers rather than proprietary systems that hamstring their genius and budgets. Whether this new platform will be a true console or some kind of a PC / game machine remains to be seen. The Beatles song catalogue can’t be downloaded from iTunes, but it may be available for you to shred in your living room. According to the Los Angeles Times’ conversation with Sony/ATV executive, Martin N. Bandier, the company may be toying with the idea of releasing Beatles content for Guitar Hero. The company owns the rights to the publication of the Beatles’ music and has been tentative in its release, but it looks like the gaming outlet will suit its goals nicely. There has been no confirmation from Activision as to the validity of the rumor. It seems like the music would be far better suited to Rock Band and maybe Mr. Bandier said Guitar Hero out of simple brand recognition. We’ll bring you the facts as they roll in. The battle for E3 hype positioning has already started with Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime firing the first salvo, followed up quickly by “sources” from Sony. Supposedly both companies have something absolutely monumental to announce at the gaming conference. Of course, there are no details surrounding any of the planted hype, and we can only assume that Microsoft “sources” will chime in next week. According to industry insiders, top quality games like MGS4 and Resistance 2 are just too big for Blu-ray disks. Both games are reportedly weighing in at a whopping 50 GBs. There is no word from Sony as to whether a larger Blu-ray Disk will be developed to accommodate the shortage in space. Most-likely the titles will have to settle for multiple disks or suffer the effects of the cutting room floor. Check back next week for all the buzz! |