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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. Four important game industry developments came about this week. For starters, EA gleefully released a press release confirming that Battlefield 1943 is the fastest title on the Xbox LIVE Arcade to reach the 1 million units sold mark. This bodes really well for high-end games via digital delivery. PS3 Firmware 3.21, released on April 1, eliminates the add “Other OS” functionality previously available for the PS3. Apparently, Sony had to implement this in order to combat possible security threats; i.e. piracy. Sony mentioned that PlayStation 3 owners will have the “option” not to upgrade, but they’ll have to sacrifice online play as well as Blu-ray video and software playback that requires compatibility with 3.21. On an amusing note, a Bulgarian city council member was relieved of his committee duties for playing too much Farmville on Facebook. Apparently, Dimitar Kerin – the shamed virtual farmer – was not the only one abusing the tax payer-issued laptops and Wi-Fi; Mr. Kerin even went so far as to put up the noob defense, stating he had “reached only Level 40, whereas Daniela Zhelyazkova, a councilor from the rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, was already at Level 46.” Finally, the most important news of the week is the imminent release of the Apple iPad. If the flood of press releases that absolutely inundated my inbox on Friday is any indication, developers and publishers are keen to make iPad a true gaming console. The first wave of iPad releases are mostly re-mastered versions of games that already exist for iPhone and iPod Touch, but we’ve also learned that high-end releases are on the horizon. Moreover, there are rumors circulating that a controller is being developed by Apple to frame the iPad (and iPhone/iPod Touch) to make the platform more gamer-friendly. Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week! |