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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. Ubisoft got things started. It appears their next Prince of Persia outing is well underway and set to release in time with the motion picture. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will continue the narrative fleshed out in the Sands of Time story arch. The Forgotten Sands is expected to drop in May 2010. Of course, Ubi didn’t stop there. In the Ubisoft investor call this week, CEO Yves Guillemot noted that the company is jumping into developing software for both Microsoft Natal and Sony’s motion controller. Anywhere from 10-15 games are currently in development for the next-gen motion controllers. Most of these games will new, more casual IPs, however, some existing properties will be given varying degrees of motion control support. The big three console makers shared some good news. Last week’s Black Friday sales in the U.S. were significant, helping get the holiday shopping season off to a great start. Sony sold nearly a half million PS3s, Microsoft had their best week of the year, and Nintendo sold 1.5 million consoles – a million of which were DS and DSi handhelds. Conspicuously, Sony didn’t report on PSPgo numbers. Perhaps the system’s greatest problem is that current PSP owners can’t use their existing UMDs on the system and are worried about upgrading. If the Internet buzz is to be believed, Logitech is currently working on an external UMD drive solution to help prospective owners transition to the new Sony portable. Microsoft is getting into the game selling business for Windows PCs. The Games on Demand digital delivery service launched through Xbox LIVE in 2009 is now headed to Games for Windows LIVE. The new service will initially include a handful of popular games such as “Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerilla, and Battlestations: Pacific, along with digital titles like Osmos and World of Goo” when it launches on December 15, 2009. EA confirmed that their Medal of Honor franchise is leaving WWII behind and moving into the realm of contemporary warfare. The rebooted Medal of Honor will take place in Afghanistan. The game is being developed both by EALA (single-player campaign) and EA DICE (multiplayer). It seems like infamous is likely set to get a sequel, as Sucker Punch has been releasing lots of infamous-related news bits. Earlier in the week it was confirmed that the original title is getting discounted down to just $39.99, the pre-order exclusive GigaWatt Blades are being made available to all users for free via PSN on December 10, 2009. Then, on Friday, Sucker Punch let it be known that the original has sold 1.2 million copies – another important indicator that a sequel’s in the works. Last week, we got the sad news that Pandemic was closing. Fortunately, THQ is expanding. THQ is setting up a development studio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The studio is headed by Dave Gatchel, plans on employing around 400 people over the next five years, and will release its first game in 2013 if everything goes according to plan. Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week! |