Rumor: Microsoft May Debut New Xbox 360 Motion Controller Next Week
kotaku.com/388741/rumor-microsoft-may-debut-new-xbox-360-motion-controller-next-week
Rumors about Microsoft entering the waggle market with a specialized, Wii Remote concept swiping controller have been popping up for the better part of a year. Talk of a partnership with Gyration, speculation that Bungie had quashed a proposal for a motion controller tied to Halo 3 and murmurs that Rare was now tasked with leading the waggle wand brigade have been bubbling up frequently. Microsoft and Gyration have both denied or brushed off the rumors, but we’ve just heard it pop up again.

Rumor: Realtime Worlds hopes APB becomes GTA Online
www.joystiq.com/2008/05/08/rumor-realtime-worlds-hopes-apb-becomes-gta-online/
As far as rumors go, this one isn’t much of a surprise. A mysterious masked man told Eurogamer that developer Realtime Worlds recently bought the distribution rights to its forthcoming MMO All Points Bulletin (APB to you kids) with one specific goal in mind: “so that it could try and sell it to Rockstar as GTA Online.”

Gran Turismo Races Past 50 Million Sales
www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10389&Itemid=2
Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that worldwide shipments of its Gran Turismo racing franchise have exceeded 50 million units.

Activision: Guitar Hero 4 this “holiday”
www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=138270
Activision bigwig Mike Griffith has said the next instalment in the Guitar Hero series will be out this “holiday”, or Christmas as we quaintly like to call it.

Wrath of the liche king!
www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/page2.html#685315
Blizzard has revealed some new details of the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Along with the new information they’ve posted some brand new fly-over footage of the new areas and a few other interesting details. What we know you can expect from Lich King so far:

A new icey zone called the Borean Tundra, populated by many new beasts, including a race of Walrus people NPCs
Large dungeons called Zul’Drak, Dragonblight
New zones called the Grizzly Hills, the Howling Fjord
A lush, jungle area called the Sholazar Basin that looks to be a miner’s dream
VEHICLE COMBAT!!!!
The Death Knight will have the ability to raise the recently fallen from either side of a fight as Ghouls, which will then fight for you
Death Knights will have a new Disease ability
We’ll upload the videos and link to them in this post as soon as humanly possible. Stay frosty.

Next Call of Duty Due This Year on PC, Consoles; Takes Place in ‘New Military Theater’
www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52603
The next entry in the Activision-owned wartime shooting franchise Call of Duty will take place in a “new military theater,” according to Activision Publishing CEO and president Mike Griffith.

Skype headset finally available (for real!)
www.pspfanboy.com/2008/05/08/skype-headset-finally-available-for-real/
We’re glad that SCEA finally confirmed the availability of Skype-compatible PSP headsets at retailers today. When we first discovered the peripheral, it was supposed to release last month for $20. Well, looks like things have changed. The peripheral is now available at a MSRP of $30 at your favorite retailer. We checked amazon.com, buy.com, and GameStop — and it appears that buy.com is still your best bet.

Best Year Ever: Activision Rocks with Nearly $3 Billion in Sales in Fiscal ‘08
www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/best-year-ever-activision-rocks-with-nearly-3-billion-in-sales-in-fiscal-08/?biz=1
Activision today reported record revenues for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, marking an incredible 16 years of consecutive growth. Net revenues for the full year soared from $1.51 billion last year to $2.90 billion, while net income exploded, growing from $85.8 million to $344.9 million. Sales in Q4 totaled $602.5 million, nearly doubling last year’s Q4 ($312.5 million). Fourth quarter profit also was way up, climbing from a net loss of $14.4 million to net income of $44.2 million.

Mortal Kombat’s Creator Talks
www.gametap.com/articles/gamefeatures/mortal_kombats_creator_talks-05072008
When we first heard about Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, after we got over the WTF? factor, we asked “what about fatalities??” We couldn’t imagine DC would let, say, Noob Saibot rip out Batman’s spine, but we also couldn’t imagine an MK game without fatalities. Turns out, the game will have something in the middle.

Here’s what the game’s creator, Ed Boon, said about it:

We did acknowledge that we won’t be able to do the same kinds of outrageous moves, like tearing someone’s head off and the spine being attached to it. But there are a lot of assumptions that there will be no blood in the game, that there are no fatalities in the game. It’s an assumption that, because the DC characters will be in there, those features will have to be dropped. My response is that, no, we’re modifying fatalities. But I have every intention to keep finishers. You know, to let gamers do a really cool secret button combination and follow with a really outrageous finishing move to end the match. The names of these moves, and the level of violence we use, are to be determined. But it’s certainly not a feature we plan on eliminating from the series.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Announced
au.ps3.ign.com/articles/872/872391p1.html
Pandemic has announced The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, a title envisioned as similar to their Star Wars: Battlefront games, but set in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

The game will allow you to play out any of the battles from the Lord of the Rings series. The scope is epic, as you might expect, with up to 150 characters on-screen at any time, as many as eight players online, with four players co-op through the main campaign, either online or via four-player split-screen. And with two distinct campaigns to play through, including an original take on what would happen if Sauron regained control of the One Ring, Pandemic promises plenty of scenarios to wage battle through.

I put on my robes and wizard hat!

–

‘GTA IV’ Breaks Three Guinness World Records!
geeksofdoom.com/2008/05/13/gta-iv-thieves-guinness-world-records/
It would seem that Niko Bellic’s car-stealing, carnage-creating antics have resulted in the book being thrown at him — that book being the Guinness Book of World Records, with Grand Theft Auto IV stealing not one, but three records in the process!

A Playboy model that’s a serious gamer?
kotaku.com/390324/playboy-cyber-girl-of-the-year-is-a-true-player
Shes logged a 100 hours on FFXII and has played many other RPG’s. I think she might actually be a hot gamergirl….and here I thought they didn’t exist. The search still continues however for a hot chick that cooks and cleans.

The 10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies of All Time
www.cracked.com/article_16247_10-most-terrifying-video-game-enemies-all-time.html
Since the Golden Age of Atari, there have been video game enemies who are so unpleasant that they made us question the existence of a higher power. We at Cracked pay tribute to the rogues’ galleries of yesteryear with this list of the 10 most trouser-soiling bad guys in gaming history.

Spore to remove SecuROM!
kotaku.com/5008454/spore-to-use-online-authentication
“Despite some hand-wringing by fans, EA today announced that their hugely anticipated Will Wright game Spore will not make use of SecuROM’s 10-day periodic re-authentication and instead use a modified version to require online authentication.” Hurray!

Girl Gamers Are On The Rise
www.smh.com.au/news/articles/game-girls/2008/05/07/1209839660016.html
Despite this, the profile of the typical gamer has changed drastically over the past decade, with middle-aged housewives now as likely to play games as teenage boys. The average gamer in Australia is now 28 years old, up from 24 just two years ago. And despite being largely ignored by the game industry, 41% are female. Women and. . .

First Guitar Hero IV Details Shed
www.primotechnology.com/2008/05/12/first-guitar-hero-iv-details-shed/
Guitar Hero IV will follow closely in the footsteps of Rock Band, offering new instruments including a bass, microphone, and six-piece drumset that includes two cymbals.

No Wii-kly Update This Week — Enter WiiWare
news.filefront.com/no-wii-kly-update-this-week-enter-wiiware/
As promised, WiiWare has finally launched today. Wii owners can now head to the Wii Shop Channel and start downloading any of the six previously announced launch titles. With the launch of WiiWare, there won’t be any releases on the Virtual Console today, but the normal Wii-kly Update schedule will resume next week.