News

Activision has announced the release date for the first to content drops for Modern Warfare 3 on the PlayStation 3.

Premium Call of Duty Elite subscribers who play MW3 on their PS3 will be getting access to the first two multiplayer maps to be released for Elite users.

Liberation, an open sniper's haven set in a militarised interpretation of Central Park and Piazza, a tightly laid-out close-combat map set in an Italian seaside village will arrive on PSN to download on February the 28th an full month after the Xbox 360 release.

This is the first two drops on content in a plan which will see Call of Duty Elite subscribers fans drip-fed DLC until September. The content will also be available in packs later on this year for those who haven't signed up to the Premium Call of Duty Elite package.

THQ has outlined the new core titles that they hope will help the company's ailing fortunes.

There are 17 titles in all, beginning with this month's release, UFC Undisputed 3 running into 2014 which will hopefully reverse the damage done by the expensive failure of THQ's uDraw tablet device and a slew of poor children's titles.

2012's other releases are their action RPG sequel Darksiders II, the newly announced RPG South Park: The Game and their annual WWE title.

Metro: Last Light has been pushed into the beginning of 2013 and now joins Tomonobu Itagaki's The Devil's Third, and two more unannounced core projects (one of those potentially being another WWE title).

Currently slated for 2014 are the first of Guillermo Del Toro's collaborations with Volition, inSANE, Homefront 2 at Crytek, Patrice Desilet's project at THQ Montreal, one unannounced title by Turtle Rock Studios and another four unannounced titles based on THQ-owned IPs. Also in the pipeline is the Vigil-developed MMO Warhammer 40K: Dark Millenium.

Thanks MCV.

Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney has called on Sony and Microsoft to really step up their game with the next generation of console hardware.

Sweeney unequivocally wants a "dramatic" improvement in hardware performance over the PS3 and Xbox 360. He also described the extended life cycle of the current generation as a bit of a mixed blessing.

On the next generation Sweeney said, "With each generation, we think really deeply about what it's going to take to fundamentally distinguish it from the previous generation. We dont want it just twice as good. We want it dramatically better. We fight really hard with our partners to get there. We do our part on the software side. ... we do that with each generation. Some of the conversations you will hear about, but these are also going on the behind scenes. The conversations happen across the board, not just with the console makers."

"On the game side, it's been really great for our business," Sweeney explained about the current gen. "We have been able to ship three Gears of War games on the same generation of hardware, each one with dramatic improvements over the last and a two to three-year development cycle. So it's been a very good thing for a game business today. With each new title, there is a bigger and bigger Xbox 360 installed base of users, so the games can sell more. On the other hand, it gets harder to generate the same excitement from the same hardware. That is when the new hardware is justified. But then you reset the installed base to zero and it's a lot harder to sell a lot of games again."

Even though Nintendo's Wii U is out at the end of this year and rumours have pointed to announcements from Sony and Microsoft at E3 both platform holders remain insistent that there will be no new home hardware from them in 2012.

Thanks VentureBeat.

THQ has admitted that they will need help to get their ambitious new MMO, Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium to market.

CEO Brian Farrell revealed to investors that the development costs and potential risks involved with the game mean that they will need to find a partner to help release Dark Millennium.

Farrell explained: "While the game in development promises to be a high-quality consumer offering, because of the large financial commitment and associated risks, we are being realistic about our resources and we are actively seeking a partner for this compelling MMO."

Dark Millennium has been on the radar since 2007 with Vigil finally showing off some gameplay footage last year. It is now not expected until 2014 at the earliest - if THQ can find that essential publishing partner that is.

Thanks GamesIndustry.biz.

THQ's restructuring seems to be taking its toll and despite the success of Saints Row: The Third hasn't delayed the need to cut staff.

240 staff will be axed by the 31st of March outside of THQ's development staff and the CEO Brian Farrell will be taking a one year 50 percent pay cut (from 718,500 USD to 359,250 USD).

This is all part of THQ's restructuring plan to refocus their attentions on core games in an attempt to reverse their fortunes and hopefully stave off a potential NASDAQ delisting if the share price doesn't rise above 1 USD by the summer.

On initial examination refocusing on core gaming might prove a shrewd move for THQ as their numerous family and kids licenses have failed to score any kind of success whereas Saints Row: The Third has managed to shift 3.8 million copies and is projected to break the 5 million mark in its lifespan.

Thanks Edge Online.

Remedy Entertainment and Nordic Games have partnered up to finally bring Alan Wake to the PC.

The new PC version of Alan Wake will also include the original Xbox Live downloadable content, The Signal and The Writer and has been refined to support all the features that PC gamers have come to expect like scaleable graphics, choice of aspect ratio between 16:9, 4:3 and 16:10, full support for both Nvidia and AMD stereoscopic 3D technologies and quad core multithreaded processors. It also adds some requested modes including a hide-HUD mode to increase the immersiveness of the experience.

Remedy's Markus Maki said, "We've done our best to do justice to the PC version and do things the way they should be done for PC. The PC version looks absolutely beautiful. Were bringing the game to life in a whole new way."/p>

Alan Wake will launch or PC on Steam on February 16th with releases on other digital platforms due soon after. A retail version is also in the pipeline.

Those looking forward to Syndicate's FPS return later this month will be relieved to find out that it will not be featuring EA's Online Pass.

EA has revealed that, because Syndicate only features co-operative multiplayer, they have decided not to include the Online Pass in order to get as many people as possible enjoying the multiplayer.

Jeff Gamon from EA Partners explained, "We want as little resistance or barriers to entry as possible. The co-op is equal billing in this. We wanted everyone who owns a copy of the game to have access to the entire product. Under normal circumstances it would have had an Online Pass, but because it didn't have competitive multiplayer and because we wanted as many people as possible to be playing co-op, we got away with it. Maybe another reason for not having the Online Pass is we were confident in the scope of the online game... To progress your character and upgrade a few weapons is a heap of content. That and the single-player campaign means hopefully we won't see much in the way of early second-hand sales and rentals."

Syndicate returns to the market on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February the 24th. The co-op demo is currently available to download on PSN and Xbox Live but hurry if you want to try it as it is only around for a limited period.

Thanks Eurogamer.

That's right, to celebrate the launch of Soul Calibur V Namco Bandai have had two characters from the series' latest effort into the side of a mountain.

New character Pyrrha and series favourite Mitsurugi have had their likenesses carved into the granite face of a mountain near Tanum in Sweden.

The master stonemason in charge of the engraving, Goran Andersson said, "This is the by far most complex and detailed engraving I have ever performed, but it was very fun to do."

The engraving is located close to a UNESCO-protected world heritage site filled with Bronze-Age stone carvings.

Towards the end of 2011 Origin and the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic kept EA looking pretty healthy for this financial year.

Origin, EA's rival service to Steam managed to rack up 100 million USD in sales for EA from 9.3 million customers. This may not quite be the 40 million customers that Steam sees but it is an impressive start for EA's fledgling digital service.

Star Wars: The Old Republic didn't do too shabbily either selling 2 million copies since launch just before Christmas. More importantly, it hasn't lost too many of those customers yet with 1.7 million active subscribers and more joining all the time.

That's not all for EA in this financial year as they have still to launch Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (due next week), Syndicate (which arrives at the end of February) and the game everyone has been waiting for, Mass Effect 3 (which is ready to drop in the first full week in March).

Thanks GamesIndustry.biz.

Last week Valve unleashed their new iOS and Android Steam App for beta testing and it seems to have performed pretty well as now it's fully available to all.

The new Steam App allows Steam users to access community groups and user profiles, view screenshots and user-generated content for their favorite games, read the latest gaming news, stay up to date on unbeatable Steam sales as well as chatting with friends on the go.

The Steam App is available for free on the App Store or the Android Marketplace. Just download it and log in to Steam and away you go.

If you do log on head to the Call for Communication Steam community group that will be mounting a protest by playing Half-Life 2 at the weekend to encourage Valve to give up some information about Half-Life 3.

The lead designer on Firaxis's X-COM: Enemy Unknown, Jake Solomon has nothing but good things to say about their publisher 2K Games's approach toward creative titles.

In an interview about their new X-COM strategy title Solomon praised the fact that 2K Games aren't afraid to take a risk on games that are a bit different.

"I'm telling you, with us, we absolutely love 2K because they're so creatively brave," Solomon began. "A lot of times I work with them from a creative standpoint, its never a question of like 'Well, whats the numbers, what's this and that'. I've had a lot of other publishers over the years but with 2K, the conversation is almost always creative, like 'How are you going to make this work, how is this unique to players, and how are we going to do this and that. I guess what I'd say is I have absolutely loved working with them."

He continued, "So when we went to 2K and said we really want to do this they didn't say 'well, what game is it like?' or 'well, that's not like the other games that you've done'; they were intrigued by the idea of the fact that X-COM is unlike any other game and so they were very very supportive of us. Our development time has been long, they've always given me anything that I've needed, the time I needed, the people I needed".

X-COM: Enemy Unknown was revealed for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC last month and is due out some time in the autumn.

Thanks Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Last month, it was rumoured that Kaz Hirai had been named as successor to Howard Stringer as the CEO and president of Sony. These rumours were vehemently denied.

Today Sony has named Kaz Hirai as the new CEO and president of the company effective from the 1st of April.

Stringer said of his successor, "Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature. I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead. I look forward to helping Kaz in every way I can so that succession leads inevitably to success. It was my honor to recommend him to the Board for the positions of president and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now."

Hirai's appointment should signal interesting times for Sony especially on the PlayStation front given the long time he spent with Sony Computer Entertainment.

Thanks GamesIndustry.biz.

In a move that may prove almost as popular with retailers as the download-only PSP Go Sony has confirmed that the downloadable versions of their PS Vita games will be cheaper than their boxed retail counterparts.

A user on NeoGAF spotted a disparity between the prices of PS Vita game cartridges and their respective download codes on the Best Buy website with the downloadable versions costing 10 percent less than the boxed versions.

A Sony representative later said: "I can confirm that there will be a discount on the downloadable PS Vita titles from PSN. Exact details have not yet been revealed, but be on the lookout for an announcement in the very near future."

The 10 percent price difference will probably be cancelled out by the fact that Vita owners will still have to stock up of the new and fairly expensive PS Vita memory cards (which range from 17.99 GBP for 4GB to 44.99 GBP for 16GB)so this point may be moot. Still it is an indication that Sony is aiming to shift towards a digital distribution model in the future.

Thanks ShackNews.

Bungie will be saying a final farewell to the Halo series as they hand over the last vestiges of online data to 343 Industries next month.

343 Industries have already had their first stab at the Halo series with their entertaining remastering of Halo: Combat Evolved and they are currently working on Halo 4 which will probably arrive in the autumn of this year.

This last action by Bungie will see all responsibilities for the Halo series resting in the hands of 343. Bungie has promised that all the data they have made available on Bungie.net will still be available as long as the servers are still functioning.

Bungie stated, "Thanks for making the Halo-era version of Bungie.net more successful than we could have possibly imagined. You complete us. See you starside."

Thanks MCV.