LittleBigPlanet Delayed Due To Qur'an References

Several readers over at Slashdot have pointed out that Sony's much-awaited LittleBigPlanet has hit a snag and will be delayed worldwide. The delay came after it was discovered that a song licensed for use in the soundtrack contained audio samples from the Qur'an. All advanced copies sent to retailers for the target release of October 21 in North America, 22 in PAL territories, and 24 in the UK and Ireland, have been recalled.

Get a free copy of LittleBigPlanet here.

Found on Slashdot.

Next Tony Hawk Game To Include Skateboard Peripheral

Found this article on 1up.com

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Analyst Doug Creutz of Cowan and Company has looked into his crystal ball and believes that Activison will include a skateboard peripheral with the next edition of the Tony Hawk series. Expected to be released sometime next year, Creutz feels that the addition of peripherals with games will boost sales for the franchise after a year's absence from the market.

According to a report from GamesIndustry.biz, in his latest letter to investors Creutz stated:

"We believe that the extra year of development time and the opportunity for consumers to shake off franchise fatigue could contribute to better unit sales than the franchise has enjoyed in recent years.

"We also view it as highly likely that the game will include some sort of skateboard peripheral with all SKUs when it ships, given the massive success (and higher price points and profitability) of Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero franchise."

It's worth remembering that a similar story was leaked this summer, so this certainly isn't the first time we've heard about the possibility of Tony Hawk sporting an added peripheral. Furthermore, the move is pretty much a no-brainer considering how popular Wii Fit has been with its Wii Balance Board accessory. With Nintendo and other developers working on ways to integrate the board into future IPs, the days of owning a lone controller have quickly become a thing of the past.

If you factor in the how popular the music gaming genre and its peripherals are, it's clear that gamers have no problem paying extra for something that will enhance their gameplay experience. Keeping that in mind, it's safe to say that Creutz probably isn't far off in his predictions for the Tony Hawk franchise -- even if this obvious assumption of theirs is something gamers have known for a long while now.

Dude is ADDICTED To World Of Warcraft

From Yahoo Video Game News:

Get a World of Warcraft Gaming Package here.

Think you play too much World of Warcraft?

Compared to "Prepared," you don't.

In a case of game addiction gone officially bananas, gaming blog Joystiq reports on what is surely the biggest Warcraft fan of them all. Known only under the moniker "Prepared," the gamer plays a stunning 36 World of Warcraft accounts on 11 different computers...simultaneously.

Stemming from a desire to manage raids -- large-scale gameplay sessions that typically require the teamwork of multiple players -- all by himself, the die-hard gamer seems undaunted by both the financial and lifestyle commitments to such a geeky endeavor.



"It costs me exactly $5711 in subscription costs per year with 36 accounts on the 6 month pay schedule," he writes. "Not bad considering I'm looking at it like it's a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft."

Like yachting, perhaps. And despite the downturn in the economy, Prepared can't wait to get his hands on the upcoming Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

"I plan to be at the store when it opens and will purchase 36 copies of it. With tax, it should be about $1500 for all of them."

Word of Prepared's over-the-top addiction comes on the heels of the annual Blizzcon Convention, a fan-oriented celebration of the games created by Warcraft publisher Blizzard.

World of Warcraft Gaming Package

First Wii Music Tracks Revealed

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Get a copy of Wii Music here


The Japanese website for Wii Music is listing six of the songs featured in the game BUT IS IT A GAME OR IS IT A TOY OR IS IT ART OR IS IT A GAME OR OR OR.

According to Siliconera, they include the theme tunes to Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing: Wild World.

You can also expect Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Ode to Joy from similarly dead composer Beethoven. And finally there's My Grandfather's Clock - a bluegrass song since covered by J-Pop artist Ken Hirai.

Wii Music is out in Japan this Friday, and will be released in Europe on November 14th. OR WILL IT yes actually.


Found here

Obama Campaigning On Xbox 360

This article was found here.

Free Xbox 360 here

Last week we noted unconfirmed sightings of an “Obama for President” billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Today we’re able to report that it is, in fact, an official advertisement placed by the senator’s campaign team.

Xbox 360

“I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, told me via email, noting that EA regularly allows ad placements in their online games. “Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates,” she continued. “Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”

To my knowledge, this Burnout ad is far and away the most prominent use of a major online game to promote a presidential candidate’s campaign. There have been near-misses, of course: In 2006, for example, when he was seriously considering a run for the Democratic nomination, ex-Virginia Gov. Mark Warner made an avatar-based appearance at a press conference in Second Life.

Of course, detractors could accuse Sen. Obama of sending out mixed messages; earlier this year he was telling audiences that parents need to “turn off the television set, and put the video games away.” Then again, since the Burnout billboard specifically advises gamers to vote early, maybe it’s his subtle way of trying to get them off the couch.

World's Coolest Slot Car Track

Get this here

I remember playing with slot cars when I was a kid. This trumps any slot car set I've ever seen. At almost 64 feet its the longest one I've ever seen (that's what she said).

Nintendo Plush Pillow

First the Xbox pillow and now this crazy NES pillow set.

Insane.





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21 Hardest Nintendo Games

NES, SNES, GBA, DS, Wii, GC games all included. Enjoy!

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Get a free DS here!


21. Jackal (NES)


20. Metal Slug 3
With its propensity for lobbing out insta-kill poisoned apples, the final mother brain boss in Metal Slug 3 is a graduate of the same school of evil as the Disney stepmothers.

Naturally, having survived helicopter attacks and close encounters of the bite-your-face-off kind, you'd be foolish for expecting SNK to just let you win at this final hour, but the random patterns of the golden delicious airstrikes make for a violent hike up in deaths.

19. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz


18. Super Mario Galaxy
A walk in the most delightful astro-park for 119 stars, there is one particular challenge that almost put an end to our sanity. You probably know the one: Luigi's Purple Coins in the Toy Time Galaxy.

A field of panels stretch out beyond you. Touch one and it'll disappear. The conundrum? How to ooh, ahh, waa-hoo to the scattered 100 coins without destroying your route back to where the star appears.

Free Wii
Free DS

17. Maximum Carnage (SNES)

16. Etrian Odyssey

15. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Aside from Neotank units and a smattering of new terrain features to cower behind, Advance Wars 2 wasn't much of a change.

So how could it destroy even the most experienced COs? Thrown in at the deep end, it was as if the developers saw this as a direct continuation of the original campaign (i.e. starts at the difficulty of that title's last mission and only grows harder).

14. Kuru Kuru Kururin
What does the title mean? It's the sound of your teeth grinding through your chin as yet another spinning stick journey through a don't-touch-the-walls maze ends with another loss.

13. Trauma Center: New Blood

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Free DS

12. Super Ghouls and Ghosts
Super Ghouls And Ghosts had to feature somewhere - it is, after all, a genuine hardcore SNES classic that'll happily send you and your heart-dotted boxer shorts to the pearly gates within your first 15 steps.

The GBA version features here for some chug-tastic slowdown that transforms the tricky kneejerk reactions into a task of Sisyphean pointlessness.

If the wolves, skeletons, knights, demons, bats and zombies don't get you, the framerate will.

11. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevanias have us wailing through the night. However, we reckon the prize goes to Circle Of The Moon. A GBA launch title, the dark gothic graphics were designed before the GBA's contrast specs were known, leaving gamers with a black screen which only an intense light source could interpret.

10. Batman: Dark Tomorrow

9. Zack and Wiki

Descending into our gaming inferno, the uniting factors in most of these games are reaction times and finger dexterity. Not so here. Unlike the frantic experiences of previous pages, Zack and Wiki is all about calmly letting you dig a massive logical pitfall, and serenely watching you fling yourself in.

Using that old thought muscle of yours, you'll burn bridges and hack through second chances without even noticing. Then do it again. And again.

8. Guitar Hero 3

We can argue about the toughest song until the cows come home - the fact of the matter is Guitar Hero 3 is freakishly hard. 'Through The Fire And The Flames' on Expert is a moving walkway of rainbow tiddly-winks, spilt over a seven minute hell-slog, and Raining Blood has us spitting the stuff.

Free Wii
Free DS

7. Battletoads

The whole descent into hell idea? Pinched from stage two of Battletoads. Not only is the toad's abseiling journey hard in itself - steel ravens can snip your cable in the blink of an eye - but reaching the bottom means facing stage three.

Turbo Tunnel is the stuff of agonizing legend - a journey through the densest network of insta-kill obstacles imaginable. Most galling? Despite the brutality, we still think it's one of NES's most original and underrated titles.

6. Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels

And not that turnip yanking silliness Nintendo tried to feed the West, either. We're talking the real deal - the Japan-only sequel so hard that Nintendo were allegedly frightened it would collapse puny Western minds.

On the surface it may look like the original Super Mario Bros., but poison 1-up mushrooms, flying bloopers and gusts of wind that suffocate movement offer vast swear-volumes of evidence to the contrary.

5. Bart vs The Space Mutants

4. Gradius Galaxies

There's more than a smidgen of guilt in developer Mobile 21's decision to include a hints feature in their GBA take on Konami's space-shooter classic.

By offering exact routes for each section of the game, they were admitting that (as with all Gradius games) you just have to learn the set paths of every bullet in the game - all eight billion of them. While in space no one can hear you scream, sitting on a bus surrounded by old people is a different matter.

3. Contra 4

2. Mega Man and Bass

Like Contra, the trickiest Mega Man is open to debate. Victims of the original will claim it the hardest, but only because the experience was so horrible that it prevented them from playing another game since.

Modern times brought a modern enemy: this GBA reworking of Japan-only SNES title Mega Man And Forte, breaking you with both stilted platforming and entirely unfair health regeneration. Feel the GBA crumble like old paper.

1. F-Zero GX

Never have eight missions presented such grief - we'll see Rayman made the official Nintendo mascot before we complete the F-Zero Grand Prix story mission on Very Hard.


Free Wii

Free DS


Found here

Spore Announces Expansion Pack

Get A Free Copy Of Spore Here!

It seems the ephemeral Spore expansion that appeared on Amazon and GameStop earlier this month (only to quickly disappear) is indeed launching on November 18, as those listings seemed to suggest. A brand new listing for the "Creepy & Cute Parts Pack" has appeared on none other than EA's own online store (via Joystiq), showing it's already available for pre-order and confirming the earlier reported November release date.

Spore

Sure enough, the expansion pack has also reappeared on GameStop (but not yet Amazon). But all this hullabaloo over where and when the expansion is or isn't listed seems to miss the real question raised here -- is $20 asking a little bit too much for an expansion that at least seems to only offer some new creature parts not two months after the game released?

We know Maxis has a track record for releasing innumerable expansions, and we know Spore expansions have already been planned for a while, so it seems like this is just the first sign of many, many more expansions to come. We just hope the "Spore Ikea Parts Pack" won't be following anytime soon.

Found here.

Free Copy Of Spore!

Kid Gets A PS3 For Christmas; Freaks Out

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Just like the N64 kid.



Freak out and get your own PS3 here.

Xbox 360 Pillow

Xbox 360



Soft and cuddly.

Get a real one here.

Grill Steak On Your PS3

Playstation 3



Next Generation Graphics. Blu-Ray Player. HDTV Support. BBQ Grill.

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50 NES Games in 7 Minutes

This is awesome. I can name most of them. See if you can get all 50.




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AC/DC Version of Rock Band to Get Exclusive Achievements, Trophies

Some interesting Rock Band 2 news. Get a free copy of the game here.

Although it could be purchased for under $5, Sneak King still had Achievements, so why shouldn't the upcoming standalone expansion for Rock Band? Xbox 360 Fanboy is reporting that upon being asked if the game was going to include the meta content, a Harmonix developer going by the handle HMXHenry replied "Yes! There will be unique Achievements and Trophies for the AC/DC Track Pack, as well that are song specific."

Henry didn't indicate whether or not the additional Gamerscore possible would total 200 or 1,000 points, but we're tentatively guessing the latter since that's how much other similarly priced titles -- such as Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise -- include.

As for the song-specific Achievements, I hope their titles are as clever and entertaining as the STD-inspired lyrics of "The Jack," which just so happens to be one of the songs on the disc. Feel free to propose a few names in the comments section below.

Found here.

Free Rock Band 2 here.

Save Wii Games To SD Cards

Awesome news.

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With just 512MB of built-in storage capacity, it doesn't take many Virtual Console or WiiWare games to fill up the console.

Fortunately it appears that Nintendo is finally doing something to address this issue. Beginning in Spring '09, gamers will have the option to download games directly to SD cards. Still no USB HDD option though.

Found here.

Now Nintendo Says New DS Coming

Contradicting an earlier report Nintendo plans to release a brand new DS. Get a free Nintendo DS Lite and other handheld systems here!

Nintendo plans to launch a new version of its popular DS portable gaming device with a camera and music player function, according to a report in the Sunday edition of The Nikkei Business Daily.

The new version will have better wireless capability for connecting to the Internet and will cost under ¥20,000 (US$189), the report said. It will be offered first in Japan, it said.

Nintendo was not immediately available for comment.

The company is scheduled to present an unnamed "new product" at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday and speculation has been rife that it would be a new version of the DS.

The DS first went on sale in 2004 and a second version, called the DS Lite, debuted two years later in 2006. Both have sold extremely well with worldwide sales of the DS products at 77.5 million units as of the end of June this year.

In Japan, a total of 23 million of the devices have been sold in the country -- roughly one for every fifth person -- but in recent months sales have started to slow. In the April to June quarter Nintendo sold 580,000 units in Japan versus 2.1 million in the same period of 2007 so analysts have predicted a refresh of the DS might be coming to stimulate sales.

For the current fiscal year to the end of March 2009 Nintendo predicts it will sell 28 million units of the DS.

Found here.

Get a free DS here!

GTA IV Won't Be Banned In New Zealand! Gamers Win!!

Good news for all you Kiwis out there!

Get a free copy of GTA IV Special Edition here!

Australians may not be getting Silent Hill: Homecoming, but at least they can purchase Grand Theft Auto 4 safely. Their pals over in New Zealand almost lost the latter luxury when the Society of Promotion of Community Standards petitioned to have the Film and Literature Board of Review take another look at the classification of GTA IV. Well, as Game Politics reports, now they have, and nothing's changing.

GTA4 will retain its rating of R18 and will continue to be sold. Chalk up another win for gamers and common sense. Gamers win again!!

Found here.

Free GTA IV here.

Ten Best Games For Nintendo Wii

Here is a list of the Top 10 Nintendo Wii Games. A pretty good list in my opinion. I also included the link to get a Nintendo Wii for Free. You can also find a link for all of these games and more for free. Agree or disagree with this list? Let me know below!

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl



2. Super Paper Mario



3. Mario Party 8



4. The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess



5. Super Mario Galaxy



6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption




7. Warioware: Smooth Moves




8. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock



9. Wii Sports



10. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Bungie Announces Halo 3 Expansion Pack, Releases Trailer

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The biggest title coming out for Xbox 360 in the next few months is... Halo 3? Bungie would sure like you to think so. That’s right, Bungie’s at it again with more Halo, as Microsoft shows their dedication to downloadable content.

This morning a countdown ended on Bungie.net to reveal an all-new teaser trailer for Halo 3. The game set records when released exclusively for the Xbox360 platform last year, but Bungie soon after split from Microsoft, becoming an independent game studio once again.

They proved today that they have not abandoned Microsoft’s system or the millions of Halo fans, announcing an expansion pack adding to the campaign mode. How exactly it will add-on is yet to be seen. The game gave a sense of finality to the Halo trilogy, leaving fans a bit bewildered as to how an expansion will work.

The trailer starts with a stark but peaceful metropolis, cutting quickly to the image of a large metallic asteroid burning through the atmosphere. A heads-up display evaluates the cityscape, then takes a street-level look, with cars lining it, a storm hitting, and a large red sign that ominously says “evacuate” over “City of New Momelisa.” Whoever is in this city knows something is coming. Scanning the skies above, the image now sees a swarm of vehicle flying high atop the skyline, as the HUD cuts in and out. A large-scale explosion goes off in the distance, and several metal objects drop from the sky.

In an alert screen familiar to fans who’ve been watching the website, the viewer is told to “Please Remain Calm” in several languages. “Pardon our Dust” and “Keep it Clean” are also flashed across the screen before a seemingly random series of green-on-black letters and numbers scrolls across, including a date hidden in the “code” that says “01/06/09,” ending in a reboot of the HUD, warning of a metropolitan disaster. The same areas scanned before are shown again, this time in fire and ruins. The scan shows a population of zero, and a final metal object falls from the sky, cracking the camera. “Prepare to Drop” is the final tagline shown before the logos.

So there you have it, Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios are releasing a campaign expansion to Halo 3, likely on January 06, 2009. Will this expansion make you prioritize a year old game above all the great looking games coming this holiday season? Sound off below!

Watch the trailer for yourself right here at Newsarama by clicking here.

Found here

Free Xbox 360 + Halo 3 here

Wii Shop Channel Update: Mega Man 9, Super Dodge Ball, Vectorman, Plattchen twist 'n' paint

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In addition to the promised release of Mega Man 9--also coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 within the next week and a half--today's update to the Wii's online shop brings two retro downloads and a new painting puzzle game.

Today's releases:

-Mega Man 9
-Plattchen Twist'N'Paint
-Super Dodge Ball
-Vectorman

All four games will be downloadable from the Wii Shop Channel beginning today at 12 PM EDT, 9 AM PDT.

Found here.

Get a free Nintendo Wii here.

How To Unlock Every Rock Band 2 Song Right Away

Rock Band 2 was released today! Get a free copy of the Special Edition Here!



It was a little frustrating to pop in “Rock Band 2″ and have most of the music locked away.

Thankfully, there’s a way around that.

Harmonix has introduced “game modifiers” into “Rock Band 2,” which includes such options as a long-needed no fail mode — and a secret song-unlock code.

The catch? You need to know the code! But we’ve already figured that out for you. You simply input the original “Rock Band” unlock code — Red, Yellow, Blue, Red, Red, Blue, Blue, Red, Yellow, Blue — in the game modifier screen.

Once the code is entered, the unlock song modifier will be unlocked. Voila! You have just unlocked all of the songs available in “Rock Band 2.”

Found here.

Free copy of Rock Band 2 here!

Spore Limited to 1 Account Only

Sad news. Its a good thing you can get a Free Copy Of Spore Here!

Spore users are up in arms on the EA forums over the DRM attached to Will Wright's latest creation. Apparently the game is limited to one account per installation. This means households with multiple people who play the same game must buy multiple copies of Spore in order for each person to play. According to EA_Violet, there was a misprint with the game's manual and you can only setup one Spore account per game:

"That section in the manual was a misprint and will be corrected in future printings of the manual. There is one Spore registration/account per game/serial code so you are correct in that you cannot make multiple accounts at this time. I have sent your guys' feedback to the game team though since I can understand the desire to share a game on a system that you entire family uses."

Right about now you're probably thinking this is EA's way of milking consumers for more money, but according to another post from MaxisLucky (one of the game's developers), the EULA was designed this way for multiple reasons:

There were many reason why we chose to have one account per copy of the game - some had to do with how saved games work and some had to do with limiting the online feature only to the one person who bought the game. We aren't charging a subscription fee for the online features and given the load to our servers we were very interested in making the experience for paying customers not be slow and laggy because of many multiple accounts per copy of the game. 2x to 1000x the number of people with accounts per game equals 2x to 1000x the number of creations on the server.

Please don't take it out on the mods. They are just trying to keep things civil.

Limiting accounts to 1 install per game is unprecedented. It's pretty baffling to me that Maxis didn't foresee the backlash this would create when they designed the game. If their reason for doing this is due to online play, perhaps they should remove this prohibitive restriction for offline gameplay.

Found here.

Free copy of Spore here.

Google Games?

Could Google get into gaming? Fortune’s Chris Morris thinks so.

The 10-year-old company has hired a former Sony executive to head up their games division, and while the company has denied plans to enter game publishing or development, the gaming market is huge right now, with millions of gamers right now playing casual online games like Sudoku, and MMORPGs like World of Warcraft raking in millions in revenue each month. In-game advertising is also quickly taking off. Morris speculates that Google could even tie in many existing products into potential games: imagine logging flight plans with the aid of Google Earth for example.

It's all speculation of course, but do you think Google Gaming would be good for the industry? With all the consolidation going on at the moment, another game publisher would certainly add some spice to the industry provided they could deliver a nice blend of compelling games...

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Warhammer Online "Head Start" Begins in 3 Days!

Get a Free Copy of Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning Here!

Following the recent launch of the open beta for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, developer Myhtic Entertainment has revealed exactly when North American pre-order customers will get their promised early access to the live game servers.

Those that pre-ordered the Collector's Edition will be able to start playing on Sunday, September 14. Access for those that pre-ordered the regular edition will follow on Tuesday, September 16.

Unlike the beta that is currently underway, any progression made during the "head start" program will be retained when the PC MMORPG officially launches on September 18.

Found at Shack News

Free Warhammer Online is here

Poll: Which System Do You Own?

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Free Video Games

I've received a few emails from people asking where they can find other free video games. I did some searching and compiled a list of some of the more popular things people asked about. I will continue to update this blog with more findings.

Xbox Live Gold Cards

Nintendo DS (I posted about this earlier)

Playstation 3

Wii Fit

A Ton Of Different Wii Games. You Choose Which Game

Nintendo Wii

Xbox 360

Xbox 360 AND an LCD TV

$250 Towards Xbox 360 Games


There you go.

Nintendo Say No New DS

Get a free Nintendo DS here.

There have been certain rumors floating around, indicating that console manufacturer and video game publisher Nintendo is working on a spanking new edition of their handheld gaming system, the Nintendo DS. The news spread across numerous web sites, hinting the possibility of a new Nintendo DS - presumably, the new product would be announced in early 2009. Incidentally, the company didn't revise its Nintendo DS since the DS Lite model, which was released back in 2006.

Anyway, it wasn't long before Nintendo denied the whole thing, regarding the story as nothing more than "rumor and speculation." Disheartening news for handheld-console-nerdos, I'm sure.

Found here.

Get a free Nintendo DS here.

No Price Cut For PS3 In 2008

This is sad new for consumers. Especially with the economy so bad. Hopefully my free PS3 will be arriving soon. I'll update you guys when I get it.


Sir Howard Stringer says that his company isn't planning a further console price drop; says Wii "may be a superior business model" in terms of hardware profitability.

In the wake of last week's announcement of a new $499 160GB PlayStation 3, executives at retailer GameStop predicted a $50 price cut for the 80GB model by year's end. However, in an interview published today, Sony Corp CEO Sir Howard Stringer ruled such a move out. Speaking with the German Newspaper Die Welt, the Welsh-born executive--and first non-Japanese chief of Sony--was asked if his company planned to reduce the PS3's price by the holidays. "I think not," the executive stated flatly.

Stringer also had some choice words to say about one of the PS3's rivals, the Wii. He admitted to playing Nintendo's console, which he diplomatically described as offering "a different experience." He also said that he doesn't consider the console as a threat. "The Wii is not succeeding at our expense--it is not hurting us," he explained. According to last month's NPD figures, the Wii was outselling the PS3 in the US by two-to-one, with the Xbox 360 running a close third place.

Stringer continued, "The Wii is a well-made device that has found a new target group. For a while, we held the same target group with the SingStar karaoke game. But perhaps we neglected to pursue that avenue. PlayStation games are rather designed for those who play a lot. Although it's a different strategy, it pays off... The major difference lies in the fact that Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone, which may be a superior business model."

Unfortunately, by his own account, the CEO said that it will be a while until the PlayStation 3 hardware becomes profitable. Although Sony's PS3 manufacturing arm has hit a "production bottleneck" due to demand, Stringer joked that Sony won't make back its hardware-production cost "for as long as I live."

"The traditional business model for the PlayStation envisaged us making a loss with the hardware in the early years until the production costs had decreased to a point that enabled us to break even," explained Stringer to Die Welt. "In the meantime, we earn money with the games. We are currently at the stage in which we need to get a grip on the production costs. That takes time. We are already making more money with the games than we are losing with the hardware."

Found here.

Free Playstation 3 console is found here.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed

Some news on this game. I'm really looking forward to it.

The saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a video game developed by LucasArts which casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy.

The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi -- and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.

As its name implies, The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking full advantage of newly developed technologies that will be seen and experienced for the first time: Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), by Pixelux Entertainment, and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd.

Paired with the powerful Havok Physics™ system, these new technologies create gameplay only possible on the new generation of consoles. DMM incorporates the physical properties of anything in the environment so that everything reacts exactly like it should -- wood breaks like wood, glass shatters like glass, plants on the planet Felucia bend like plants on the planet Felucia would, and more. Meanwhile, as a revolutionary behavioral-simulation engine, euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act and even think like actual human beings, adapting their behavior on the fly and resulting in a different payoff every single time.

Working with its sister company Lucas Licensing, LucasArts is preparing an unprecedented promotional effort around the launch of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, encompassing a full line of toys and game-based action figures from Hasbro, as well as a full publishing program from Dark Horse, Del Rey and Palace Press.

More information about the game can be found at the official website, here, which will continue to release details throughout the year, including updates from the development team.

This game looks great. I found this at the official Star Wars website. I've found the free offer for this game here. I will periodically update this blog with cool news stories and games I find.

If anyone else finds anything like this or has any questions, let me know.

Playstation 3 Offer Review

This is the first of many “free” offers I will review related to Games & Toys.

A little about myself – I am a 26 year old gamer. I love video games, though the only console I currently own is an Xbox 360 and my PC. I was born in Russia and moved to the United States when I was 13. While in college in the United States, I frequently used similar “free” offers to help me get items for very little cost and sometimes no cost. I mostly used these pages to get gift cards to various shops.

Since I already own an Xbox, I figured the next step would be the PS3. I really want to upgrade to a Blu-Ray player anyway, so why not? Today I will examine the Playstation 3 offer using the following criteria and answering frequent questions about these types of offers.

1. How and where can I find this?
Well, you could just click here or find this through organic search listings on Google by searching for “playstation 3”. You can also find this under Google paid listings. Paid listings are the sponsored listings located at the top of the search page and on the right side-bar. Searching for “free ps3” should bring this offer up.

2. Who is offering this?
This is part of the current corporation I am examining called “World Avenue”. This firm specializes in these free offers and they have many different categories for different products (see links to the right for blogs pertaining to those different categories).

3. What is required to receive this- in terms of effort and cost (if any)?
You’ll need to have basic mailing information (name, address, email etc.), anywhere from 35 minutes to 2 hours to spend reviewing and signing up for low cost offers, a secure internet connection (I’m assuming you have one if you’re reading this), $0 if you use the Refer-A-Friend option (we’ll get to that later).

4. My personal experience with this offer:
I went through the offer path slowly to document my experience for you. After a few short survey questions I got to the sponsored offers page. Here is where you can choose to sign up for trial offers and subscriptions such as 30-day Netflix or Blockbuster memberships (which some of you probably want to get anyway). You also have the option to use Refer-A-Friend to receive any of World Avenue’s offers without paying any cost. I found this intriguing and will definitely test this route next time.

It took about an hour and a half (it would probably be quicker if I didn’t stop to examine every page) to completely sign up for each offer and reach my confirmation page. Along the way I spotted offers from Netflix, Seattle Coffee, Teeth Whitening, EMusic, Blockbuster, Video Professor etc. There was a wide variety of different sponsor offers to choose from.

So, I completed the path and am anxiously awaiting my PS3. I’m very excited and will update when it is received. Metal Gear Solid anyone? :)