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The Week in Review news piece summarizes and highlights the most important gaming related news and rumors over the past week. This weekly article will keep you plugged in and in-tune. There wasn’t a lot of news this week, but there were a few important developments. First off, Ubisoft announced that, in an effort to go green, they are eliminating printed game manuals from their upcoming releases. While they will certainly cut-down on their carbon footprint and save lots of trees, they also stand to gain financially; that is, if consumers don’t get too angry. Ubisoft denies that such a move will actually retain revenue for them, as they foresee more man hours going into the development of online game manuals—don’t be fooled by the rhetoric, Ubi’s definitely making a fiscally-sound decision here. What’s more, eliminating game manuals leaves little advantage to picking up a retail copy; consumers might as well just get their Ubisoft games via digital download. We’ll have to wait and see how this pans out, but it looks like Ubi’s making a move with an eye toward solvency. Warner Bros. continues to make acquisitions in a bid to become an industry leader. Recently, the gaming side of the company picked up a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios. This week, they purchased Turbine as well. Turbine is well known for their work on The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited. It appears Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be making an MMO in the future. Guinness World Records confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the most successful entertainment IP launch of all-time. Within the game’s first 24 hours it grossed a massive $401 million. In a very interesting bit of marketing, Microsoft will launch the first two episodes of a live-action prequel to Alan Wake available for viewing this weekend via Xbox LIVE and a couple days later on BrightFalls.com. The live action prequel will be delivered in six parts, with the final two episodes dropping on May 17 th . On the rumor front, a report from CVG, citing unnamed “UK industry sources”, confirms that Nintendo has plans to launch the Nintendo 3DS handheld in October. If true, this isn’t entirely surprising, though it is a bit early. Perhaps Nintendo senses a Sony handheld development in November. Finally, Microsoft may be developing a television channel for Xbox LIVE consumers. While more content is welcome, paying extra every month or annually is not ideal. According to early reports, Microsoft may charge $1 or $2 extra in subscription fee per month if such a channel is brought to the service. Hopefully the channel will be made optional, or a new Platinum tier of service is created without losing functionality Xbox 360 owners already have. Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week! |