After Lair received disappointing reviews, Factor 5 announced that they would be moving back to developing for Nintendo. Naturally, everybody began speculating that Factor 5 may be working on a new Rogue Squadron title. Well, according to a rumor, Wii owners might be getting the next best thing. Apparently LucasArts has licensed out all of the Rogue Squadron games to another publisher. The supposed purpose of this is so that the publisher in question can put all three (both Gamecube titles and the Nintendo 64 original) on a single Wii disk. The disk will possibly be put under the “Play for Wii” brand. Keep in mind, though, at this point it is only a rumor and nothing official has been announced.

The filing of a trademark is hardly proof of a game being in development, but Activision Blizzard has filed for a trademark for Dance Hero with the US Patent and Trademark office.

The trademark was specifically filed for the purposes of “computer game software and related instruction manual sold together as a unit; interactive video game programs; computer game cartridges; computer game cassettes; computer game discs; downloadable computer game software; video game controllers; interactive video game comprised of a cartridge or DVD sold as a unit with a video game controller.”

Fans of party-style gaming might recall the popularity of Dance Dance Revolution which had its heyday shortly before gaming became pandemic and wonder if Activision Blizzard are hoping for a resurgence. It could just be that they’re holding the name in case they want to use it. We have yet to hear anything about Guitar Villain.

It seems that in spite of their practice of not charging for their online games Sony might be altering that plan for the aptly named Massive Action Game. According to website the Bitbag a survey was sent out via email to Playstation Underground members that asked a lot of questions aimed at probing the participants’ response to being charged for the epic shooter.

The plan might be to charge either a yearly or monthly fee, with Activision and EA  being Sony’s partners in the hosting effort.

Sony has thus far refused to comment, but it seems a plausible rumor. The amount of processing power and bandwidth needed to keep a 256 player match running at a smooth clip is vastly more costly than twelve or twenty-four player matches, so it’s likely that whatever good will they garnered offering free online multiplayer could be more than offset by the high costs of keeping those servers running.

For whatever reason Xbox 360 achievement lists are almost always leaked to the internet well in advance of the game’s debut. Luckily for we online journalists that gives us even more to talk about than the official press releases. A possible achievement list (the problem with all leaks is until they’re either confirmed or the game is released, they’re suspect) for the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe fighting game has been leaked and offers a glimpse at the roster.

So far we’ve been shown several characters that were essentially a ‘gimme’. No MK game would be complete without fan favorites like Scorpion and Raiden, while DC would alienate their fans if they didn’t include comic book icons like Superman, Batman and the Joker. The full list features twenty-two characters with an unsurprising 11-11 split between the two universes and an equally unsurprising gender divide with eighteen male characters and only four females. The full list is given after the break.

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If the above image is to be believed, and it looks pretty legit, there will be 750 gamer points worth of achievements added to Halo 3, seemingly focusing on obtaining online medals along with new skulls.

Below is a list of all the supposed achievements compiled on post from Ascendent Justice:

Heretic Skull - 25gs
Citadel Skull - 25gs
Assembly Skull - 25gs
Sandbox Skull - 25gs
Orbital Skull - 25gs
Longshore Skull - 25gs
Tank Dropper - 25gs
Zombie Repeller - 25gs
Delicious Brains - 25gs
Save This Film - 25gs
Have Fun Respawning - 25gs
Killtacular - 25pt
Awww, Too Bad - 25gs
… Get the Horns - 25gs
Post Mortem - 25gs
Ghost Patrol - 25gs
Blades of Fury - 25gs
Pull - 25gs
Hammer Time - 25gs
Look Both Ways - 50gs
Road Rage - 25gs
Flag Dropped - 25gs
Defend This - 50gs
Came… From… Behind… - 50gs
Alas, Poor Yorick - 25gs
Double Double - 25gs
Vidmaster Challenge: Brainpan - 25gs
Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 - 0gs
Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch - 0gs
Vidmaster Challenge: Annual - 0gs

You can probably guess how you might go about obtaining some of these achievements with others like Alas, Poor Yorick not so much. There is still some speculation surrounding this leak so I guess we will have to wait and see this little rumor unfolds.

A job posting went up on Australian/New Zealand game developer website seeking people for a variety of positions to develop an action game based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the science fiction tabletop army strategy game. The ad says “We want the most talented, most enthusiastic and motivated developers to join us and help push Brisbane and THQ Studio Australia to the forefront of Australian development.” The advertisement doesn’t specify what the title is, but a listing on the THQ website says that “we are currently looking for people to work on a next-gen brutal, intimate melee combat game using a world-class brand”. While of course the sci-fi nature of Warhammer 40,000 allows for lots of cool armaments like missile launchers, machine guns and the like, some of the truly cool stuff is in the hands of various melee soldiers. Everything from chainsaw swords to lightning claws that can rip through armor like tinfoil.

While the Nintendo DS has done a lot to revolutionize handheld gaming with its touch screen, it’s always seemed that it’d have made more sense to make both screens touch capable. Many games involve switching screens to manipulate whats on one particular screen. That’s probably why news site Kotaku is reporting that according to several industry sources there is a new DS design in the works. It features larger screens and a touch screen on the top as well as the bottom. There’s nothing but denials as of right now from the Nintendo camp, but what company has ever said “oh well you found out, cat’s out of the bag, you’re right”.

The official announcement isn’t planned until 2009 however and while that seems like an odd time frame for an announcement with the holiday season right around the corner, does Nintendo want to frustrate customers by having two hard-to-find products on the shelves? It’s also likely that given the continued success of the DS they’ll want to wait for a point where the sales begin to fall off before introducing a new handheld.

Sure, there’s no confirmation from Microsoft that Halo 4 is being developed by Gearbox but there are even more rumors floating around. If you check Gearbox’s website you’ll notice that they’re currently developing an unannounced mystery game. Gearbox president Randy Pitchford said “I’ve started a new project. It’s big. It’s, like, ‘look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger’ kind of big. I’m directing it myself. I can’t mention it publicly yet. When you find out what this is, you’ll likely agree that I can’t oversell this one.” While the newest Aliens title is certainly impressive, a Wii rhythm game and yet another World War II title don’t offer much in the way of potential, so ‘bigger’ than their current lineup doesn’t take much. However a ‘big project’ that couldn’t be publicly mentioned is certainly potential for a Halo title.

It seems that whether or not the Wii is a fad, motion detection in games has been picked up eagerly by the industry. Rumors at E3 are circulating that the DS will be getting motion detection capabilities. Activision is reportedly creating an accelerometer cartridge that will fit into the GBA cartridge slot on the handheld system. One of the first games that’ll take advantage of this is a new Tony Hawk game.

An even more exciting rumor is that the next generation of DSes will not only be sleek, slimmed down and much less expensive (word on the street is a sub-$100 price tag), they’ll include their own built-in accelerometer. The new DSes might also no longer feature the GBA cartridge slot, so the built-in accelerometer would be necessary.

Thanks to the internet reporting has become rather easy at times. Who needs a reliable source when you’ve got someone else’s reliable source? That’s why I’m glad to report that courtesy of an associate of Joystiq we have some interesting news. An image taken directly from the Walmart intranet shows a rather vague listing of a product called Halo “Blue”. Of course with no real word of this having come from Bungie it’s hard to conjecture as to the nature of the product, but it’s got a rating of M and is listed as a shooter for the Xbox 360 with a release date of September 30th.

Motion-sensitive controls are the rumble of the new millenium. After the PS3’s SixAxis controller and the Wiimote, the big question was whether or not this was just a fad. Although the SixAxis hasn’t made a huge impact upon the gaming world, the Wii certainly has and rumors have been circulating for some time that Microsoft plans to get in on the action.

The answer is “we think so“. Given the potential for add-ons with the Xbox 360 controller it’s not unlikely that Microsoft could simply create a motion sensing attachment that would work with some games. In a promotional video for the upcoming Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts Ken Lobb, the creative director for Microsoft Game Studios says: “So you basically grab with the wrench and then you twist the controller around and it’ll move different things in the game.” That certainly sounds like a motion control option.

Some companies keep a tight lid on their upcoming announcements. In many industries it’s all a matter of who gets a product out first that determines its success. In the video game industry though it’s a different matter. Screenshots and bits of news are trickled down to the public to keep us salivating and saving our pennies. Bungie has dropped some clues- which the ever-vigilant folks at Kotaku picked up- in a podcast that there’ll be something big announced on Monday July 14th. Some images of a strange plunger-wielding avatar have been circulating the internet which could have something to do with a new character or IP, which given the somewhat cartoonish/humorous nature of the picture could indicate a venture outside the rather serious Halo/Marathon universe.

Citing a Kotaku report, CVG reports that development on Heavenly Sword 2 was canceled due to the game “no longer seen as commercially viable.” The original did not fare well at retail.

The game is said to have been canceled after six months of development at the Sony Cambridge Studios. Kotaku’s report also suggests that tension may have built up between Sony and Ninja Theory, with the latter moving to a new location out of the Sony Cambridge building.

Sony has responded with a resounding “no comment” on the matter.

Having caused a tsunami of speculation with their original tease, PC Gamer has announced that the big reveal in their August issue is NOT Diablo 3.

“We’re officially squelching the Diablo rumor,” the magazine clarified to Voodoo Extreme. “We’ve got two big announcements coming in our August issue, but neither is from Blizzard.”

The speculation opened after the magazine teased that its cover story was so huge that they “had to go to [CENSORED] to get it,” with many believing “[CENSORED]” stood for “hell”, a possible reference to the action-RPG. It was further reinforced by fan site Blizzplanet, which noted that this year’s Blizzard Worldwide Invitation takes place on June 29, the eighth anniversary of Diablo 2’s release. The studio revealed StarCraft 2 at least year’s invitational.

When Kombo claimed they had an insider informing them of a Kid Icarus project in development, I dismissed it pretty quickly as just another rumor. But since they broke the story, it’s been confirmed, although not by Nintendo or Factor Five, but by refutable sources like IGN (who discuss it constantly on their podcast).

Now once again the site has broken news on the project, this time with concept art for Kid Icarus. However, the kid is not so kiddy anymore.

Factor 5 is pitching a grown up version of Pit, “cursed for thousands of years for a crime and becomes a ‘fallen angel. A tattoo on Pit’s arm bears the inscription of Pit’s crime.”

The concept art is simply across the board, and there is no saying one which one they will settle, but the concept is pretty clear, an adult version of Pit will certainly be featured in the game. Although maybe we’ll still see a Kid in the title ala Ocarina of Time in order to hold up the name.

You’ll definitely want to check out the concept art for this project, although not planned by Nintendo but instead fully executed and pitched by Factor 5, it’s certain to become a major push for the Nintendo line up.

While the only PS3 available is now down to just the 40 GB model, users still have the ability to buy a larger harddrive to replace the old, or just plug in a USB enabled external harddrive to fulfill their storage needs.

Well, David Reeves, head honcho over at SCEE, has recently hinted at the possibility of a PS3 branded external harddrive to give consumers a larger array of storage devices to choose from.

However, this does not mean that Sony is in any rush to launch new storage devices for the console, rather than completely new PS3 models, because consumers can already expand on the storage using the methods mentioned above. Based on Reeves recent sayings, its very possible that sometime in the future we will see various official options for expanding the PS3’s storage.

It’s nice when rumors are true, but unfortunately a good portion of them turn out to be wrong. An old countdown clock on Rockstar Games’ website had everyone talking about Grand Theft Auto 2 getting a re-release on the Playstation Network and/or Xbox Live. In a display of supreme irony, this clock has only popped up due to a fix for the Y2K problem which caused the code to act as if the 21st century didn’t exist. The clock is from 1999 and was the countdown clock to the release of Grand Theft Auto 2 on the original Playstation.

Golden Sun, considered one of the best original role playing games on the Gameboy Advance, could be seeing another sequel for the Nintendo DS. When Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi of Camelot were asked about any future plans for the series, they responded:

“We want to play that game too, just as much as you. We love Golden Sun! We are working on a lot of different things - a lot of different design documents and so on, including some different RPG ideas. Don’t worry, we’re thinking about RPG stuff! We’ve got all these ideas, many many different things we’re thinking about - but of course, we still have just one team, so we’ll see what happens.”

The original game received exceptional reviews and praise from critics, as well as selling many copies. A new entry in the series would definitely satisfy the hunger for new RPGs on the Nintendo DS.

Read (GWN)

The success that Call of Duty 4 has received thus far can be contributed to Infinity Ward’s top-notch development team which is great news because, rumor has it Infinity Ward could have possibly extended their contract with Activison to become the sole developer for the Call of Duty franchise. While Call of Duty 3, developed by Treyarch, was a great game, judging by the buzz on the internet Call of Duty 4 is was much more well received.

Basically, this means that if the rumors are true, Infinity Ward will be the developers of Call of Duty 6 and onward, that is, if Treyarch is in fact developing Call of Duty 5.

We will keep you updated when more information becomes available.

Read(Joystiq)

Elebits was one of my favourite, if not contention for my favourite Wii release titles. Or semi-first as I recall is came along in North America a few weeks later. Sure there were big Nintendo efforts in Wii Sports and Zelda that hogged the glory, but Elebits was an amazingly fun title that strongly showcased IR functionality. Not to mention basically the only thing to actually use Wii connect 24 at launch.

Elebits had a sequel rumored for the Nintendo DS, but apparently that’s not the case, as one is inbound for the Wii instead. With a longer development time, and the right development team, Elebits could truly wind up being a top tier title. It sold half decently (as most launch games tend to do), but it would probably have to pump things up a bit to catch attention in this rumored outing.

This would certainly explain some of the delays we’ve been seeing with the game. An inside source has informed CVG that LittleBigPlanet is also PSP bound, likely to also line up with the PS3 release in September. Link up options also would seem to be a very likely candidate, although nothing was given in great detail by the source, so the information is mildly lacking. The game is apparently being developed by the Sony Liverpool office, although they were obviously not forthcoming and have yet to comment on the story. I’ll bet it’ll be something along the lines of them not commenting on rumor and speculation. If indeed true, its certainly been held quiet for a while already, with September rapidly on the horizon.

We’ll keep you up to date if we hear anything more about this rumor.

The facts: Eidos Montreal is currently developing Deus Ex 3, but they have also just started work on another project that just so happens to begin with the letter “T”.

The speculation: In the Eidos portfolio, they have two major projects that start with a T. The first being Tomb Raider, but Crystal Dynamics another studio at Eidos already has the reigns on a Tomb Raider project. That would be a little Tomb Raider overload, wouldn’t it? The other project that is a possibility is 2004’s Thief, a little gem in their portfolio that we haven’t heard a lot from since.

Although, a new IP could also be in the works, but that leaves us pretty much totally in the dark. Mark this down as a big speculative rumor.

Oh how I love it when a major website accidentally posts a news story that obviously should not be done. Eagle eyed readers may have caught a very quick posting and all too prompt removal of a story about Pandemic studios developing a new Batman title, that would likely tie into the Dark Knight movie releasing in May. It certainly seems a decent fit and all too likely given we don’t yet have a movie tie in for the movie releasing in May announced. This was first rumored almost a year ago, and to see a new story leak out from IGN, almost can be taken as officiating the rumor. Of course, this did not occur on April 1st, and it was by no means up there long enough for it to be considered a joke.

If Batman is on the horizon, expect the story to actually go live within the coming weeks. EA is obviously showing it off, but IGN must have slipped it out and quickly removed it without permission.

The May issue of the Playstation Magazine carries a subtle but interesting tidbit amongst its page for readers. It may be a hollow promise, but it is at least more word then we seem to get out of any Sony official these days regarding some of their hot holiday properties like Home, Little Big Planet and Killzone 2.

This tidbit however is exclusively reserved to Home however, remarking, “we’ll be opening up Home beta to the public very soon and hope to see you there.” Naturally nothing is official, but with the release of Home hopefully still looming, very soon would certainly indicate within the coming months at the latest. Although with everything so subtlety slipped in and still no one actually willing to commit, we’ll have to hold out on any wild speculation on this consistently delayed online service.

I guess we will just have to pretend it was a cruel April’s Fools joke, but Microsoft has once again denied that Lite-On will be making a 360 sporting a Blu-Ray drive, despite rumors we’ve been hearing on the very subject. While this persistent rumor will clearly not die until the time Microsoft announces something, because we know they eventually will, Microsoft seems pretty adamant that at least in this scenario, we’ve got it all wrong. A rep made this very clear statement,

“No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360. As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available. For our customers who want a premium movie experience we offer the largest library of on-demand HD content available and the ability to play back DVDs in high definition.”

But all is not forlorn, OXM editor speculates that for now, our timing is just off, “I’m not surprised. If they were going to announce something like this then they would certainly not do it right now. As I’ve said in the past, they haven’t ruled out Blu-ray on 360 and if we ever were to see anything, then I would imagine it would be announced much nearer to Christmas.”

So keep waiting, and I’m sure when Microsoft is ready (E3), we’ll hear more.