First 007 Legends trailer arrives

Two sets of 007 trailers have been released, one for the November-bound Skyfall flick and the other for 007 Legends, the new game from Activision.

The trailers are both in the video below, which also reveals the first mission for Legend (Moonraker. Jaws!) as well as its planned release date, October 16th.

Here we go:

Diablo III auction house launches this month

The launch of Diablo III‘s real-money auction house has been given a new date.
The service was originally planned to open its doors this coming Tuesday but was delayed due to the overwhelming launch of Diablo III, which caused severe loads on Blizzard’s servers.
They slip isn’t a big one though, merely a week. The new date is May 29th.

Dragon’s Lair to arrive in May, with Kinect support

Microsoft's announced that the Xbox Live port of Dragon’s Lair is due out on May 18. Announced back in March, the game will feature Kinect support, as can be seen in a trailer here.

Update: God of War multiplayer confirmed

The rumorang was true once more; God of War: Ascension is to have a multiplayer component.
The details will be revealed during a live broadcast in abuot an hour and a half, at 8 AM PDT. For now, here’s this bit from game director Todd Papy: “We wouldn’t do multiplayer in God of War unless we knew we could do it right. That’s why I’m extremely excited to finally be able to talk publicly about it and share all the gory details with you live. I even have some exclusive gameplay footage to share with you, so be sure to tune in to see it all live.”
8AM, PDT. Here.
Update: A presser that’s arrived promised the mode to “combine the brutal gameplay and large-scale battles that God of War is known for.”
The multiplayer mode allows players to compete both online and off. The whole thing is based on the single-player campaign and supports up to eight players and a number of different modes.
Warriors can align themselves with the likes of Zeus, Ares, Poseidon and Hades to gain special abilities, armor and weaponry, which can be customized.

A few screenshots came as well:



And some video:

Angry Birds creators exit Rovio, found Boomlagoon

Two Angry Birds creators, lead server architect Antti Stén and lead artist Tuomas Erikoinen — or Mr. Plan and Mr. Action as they refer to themselves — have left Rovio to start a business of their own, in the hopes of coming up with something as giant as the phenomenon they leave behind.
“If we play our cards right, we just might end up with the next Angry Birds,” Stén’s told Venture Beat.
The new company is called Boomlagoon. Yet to raise any money, it’s just Stén (chief executive) and Erikoinen (chief creative officer) for now, though they are looking for investors.
As for what they’ll be making; nothing has been announced yet, but expect to see “convivial and intriguing” games on both mobile and web.
“We know a thing or two about successful games and high volumes, and we’ll use this knowledge to spawn something very cool and new.”

Top 10 video games of 2011

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)
Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft Entertainment)
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks)

Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts)

Madden NFL 12 (Electronic Arts)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard)
Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros. Interactive)
Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)
Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft Entertainment)
Assassin's Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft Entertainment)

Best Buy Closing 50 Stores and Begins Hunt for New CEO
Best Buy is closing 50 U.S. stores by the end of 2012 and is on the hunt for a new CEO. The retail chain store already closed two stores this year (one in Kansas City, Mo., and one in Scottsdale, Ariz.), and it notified five Twin Cities stores and one San Antonio store that they will close later this year. On Saturday, it confirmed the identity of the remaining store locations that will close later this year, most of which will permanently close by May 12.
The Best Buy Board of Directors also announced it has launched the process of searching for a new CEO and said it could take six to nine months to complete. When Best Buy announced the resignation of Brian Dunn as chief executive officer and director on April 10, the company said "there were no disagreements between Mr. Dunn and the company on any matter relating to operations, financial controls, policies or procedures. There was mutual agreement that it was time for new leadership to address the challenges that face the company."
But the Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter," said the board was exploring whether Dunn had misused company assets in the course of an alleged relationship with a female subordinate.
The board named director Mike Mikan interim CEO. He introduced himself in a message on Wednesday and said he was very pleased with the priorities the company had established including "improving the customer and employee experiences, re-energizing the store portfolio, reducing costs and driving our global growth strategies (Connections, Services, e-commerce and China)."
The company said it was closing the 50 stores as part of an initiative to "increase points of presence, while decreasing overall square footage."
It will remodel some key stores with a new "Connected Store" format and will build additional Best Buy Mobile small format stores throughout the U.S. The company said it would continue to share details of such actions as the year progresses. "We are committed to making it easier for customers to shop with us, whenever and wherever they want."
A list of the store closures follows.

Locations of 2012 U.S. Best Buy store closings
Store Name	Address	City	State
Casa Grande	1004 N Promenade Pwy	Casa Grande	AZ
Lake Pleasant	10134 W Happy Valley Rd	Peoria	AZ
East Palo Alto	1751 E Bayshore Rd	East Palo Alto	CA
Westwood	10861 Weyburn Ave	Los Angeles	CA
Manteca	934 Perimeter Dr	Manteca	CA
Moreno Valley East	27220 Eucalyptus	Moreno Valley	CA
Ontario	4120 E 4th St	Ontario	CA
Pittsburg	4405 Century Blvd	Pittsburg	CA
Jamboree	2857 Park Ave	Tustin	CA
Arapahoe & Parker	15800 E Briarwood Cir	Aurora	CO
The Forum	9370 Dynasty Dr	Fort Myers	FL
Oldsmar	11655 W Hillsborough Ave	Tampa	FL
Fayetteville	128 Pavilion Pkwy	Fayetteville	GA
Loganville	4014 Atlanta Hwy	Loganville	GA
Addison	1038 N Rohlwing Rd	Addison	IL
87th & Dan Ryan	8900 S Lafayette Ave	Chicago	IL
Deerfield	200 S Waukegan Rd	Deerfield	IL
Matteson	4707 Lincoln Mall Dr	Matteson	IL
Mundelein	1100 N Rt 83	Mundelein	IL
West Dundee	979 W Main St	West Dundee	IL
Speedway	10500 Parallel Pkwy	Kansas City	KS
Back Bay	360 Newbury St	Boston	MA
Wareham	2421 Cranberry Hwy	Wareham	MA
Inner Harbor	600 E Pratt St	Baltimore	MD
Hunt Valley	118 Shawan Rd	Hunt Valley	MD
Biddeford	405 Mariner Way	Biddeford	ME
*Brooklyn Center	5925 Earle Brown Dr	Brooklyn Center	MN
*Edina	3200 Southdale Cir	Edina	MN
*Hutchinson	1350 Hwy 15 S	Hutchinson	MN
*Lakeville	18350 Orchard Trl	Lakeville	MN
Rochester South	4540 Maine Ave Se	Rochester	MN
*Rogers	20870 Rogers Dr	Rogers	MN
Ellisville	15678 Manchester Rd	Ellisville	MO
Monroe	3151 W Highway 74	Monroe	NC
Rocky Mount	1100 N Wesleyan Blvd	Rocky Mount	NC
Millard	12210 K Plz	Omaha	NE
East River Plaza	517 E 117th St	New York	NY
Steelyard Commons	3506 Steelyard Dr	Cleveland	OH
Salem Mall	5031 Salem Ave	Dayton	OH
Caguas	Las Americas Expry PR52 Zafiro	Caguas	PR
Middletown	890 W Main Rd	Middletown	RI
Hickory Hollow	5255 Hickory Hollow Pkwy	Antioch	TN
Techridge	12901 North I-35	Austin	TX
*Woodlake Parkway	6218 Woodglen	San Antonio	TX
Landmark Mall	5901 Stevenson Ave	Alexandria	VA
Cosner's Corner	9745 Jefferson Davis Hwy	Fredericksburg	VA
East Richmond	4410 S Laburnum Ave	Richmond	VA
Mill Plain	16611 Se Mill Plain Blvd	Vancouver	WA
* indicates stores notified March 29, 2012 of closure plans Note: Two stores in Kansas City, MO (Metro North) and Scottsdale, AZ (Shea) permanently closed in February 2012.

Monks get the spotlight in Diablo III trailer

Time to take a quick peek at the Monk class in Diablo III. They apparently like to follow the will of their 1001 gods, even in death. Guess the gods want much dungeon-raiding to be carried out, then.

And the next James Bond game is…

Activision has announced a brand new James Bond game for PS3 and 360, 007 Legends, celebrating 50 years of Bond films.
It’s neither a third GoldenEye remake nor a new 007 story, rather a sort of ‘best of’ that ties together the plots of six of the historic franchises’ greatest films and allows us to play key scenes in each. One such plot will be the upcoming Skyfall, the 23rd film in the franchise due out later this year.

The rest haven’t been announced, and we don’t know if this means that Daniel Craig will assume the role of James Bond across all of these stories like he did in GoldenEye. All we know is that if you take out Lazenby, there’ll be hell to pay.
The Mi6 Ops introduced in last year’s GoldenEye: Reloaded will return too, as does developer Eurocom. Multiplayer is also in, with four-player split-screen and online modes taking content from the series’ deep catalog. Let’s hope for maps in Blofeld’s hollow-volcano and the chance to control giant space laser beams, then.
No date beyond “fall” yet but look for one at E3, perhaps.

Free Apps

Sony shows off free Vita apps

Three new apps are heading to Sony’s PS Vita.

The PlayStation Blog recently detailed these new additions to the system, revealing them to be Paint Park, Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club.
Out now is Paint Park, an app that lets you paints and sketch using the system’s touchscreen. Vita’s camera can be used to draw over pictures and there’s even a five-player mulitplayer mode to put artistic skills to the test.
Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club are to be released soon. Treasure Park uses near (the Vita’s location-based app) to get players to search for puzzles from friends, while the Wake-Up club allows you to sync the system’s alarm with other people’s alarms so that you can wake-up at the same time. We’ll admit that last one sounds a little odd.
The good bit is that these apps are all free.  Now, how about some more games for our happy little systems, Sony?

Diablo III beta closes May 1

Alas, dungeon crawlers of Diablo III, all good things must come to an end—for a little while at least. Blizzard has announced that they will be shutting down all beta servers for their upcoming action-RPG in about two weeks, on Tuesday, May 1.
No need to worry though, as the game is set to launch just a couple weeks later, on May 15. Until then, rest your carpal tunnel-riddled wrists while Blizzard prepares their servers; it should be worth the wait.

UK industry suffers in March

Given the issues with Game Group, it should come as no surprise that business in the UK games industry was down in March.

As MCV reports, 2.6 million games were sold during last month. That’s down 34 percent year-over-year, from 4.1 million in March 2011. £67.7 million, down by 33.5% for March 2011. Q1 sales were down 30% in comparison to Q1 2011.
Just looking at recent UK charts listings shows that EA had an iron grip on March sales with big releases like Mass Effect 3 (the month’s biggest selling title), SSX and FIFA Street.
Game Group, the country’s leading specialist high-street retailer went into administration towards the end of the month. The company had to close a range of stores, which undoubtedly had its hand in these figures. Now that the retailer has been bought up things will hopefully be back on track in April.

Sony to up its game, confirms job cuts

Sony CEO and former PlayStation man Kaz Hirai has revealed plans to lead the company out of its recently financial issues and back into profitability, highlighting gaming as a key component.

A company press release revealed the current plan of action, VG247 reports.

“Sony is positioning digital imaging, game and mobile as the three main focus areas of its electronics business and plans to concentrate investment and technology development resources in these areas,” it read.

“By growing these three businesses, Sony aims to generate approximately 70% of total sales and 85% of operating income for the entire electronics business from these categories by FY14.”
PS3, PSN and PS Vita were said to be pivotal to this plan.
“The Company also aims to increase sales by enriching its catalog of downloadable game titles and subscription services available through the PSN platform, and also by expanding the lineup of PlayStation Suite compatible devices and content.
“Sony will target game business sales of one trillion yen and operating income margin of 8% by FY14.”
Sadly though, this restructuring will result in roughly 10,000 job cuts this year as rumored.
What the future holds for a more game-focused Sony we don’t know but hopefully it bodes well for the PS4/Orbis.

God of War IV getting announced next week?

PlayStation’s official Facebook page is teasing a mighty big reveal for next Thursday.

An image at the top of the page displays the message “Will vengeance bring redemption?” complete with the date 04.19.12.

That’s all the clues we’ve been given but it might be more than enough. The PlayStation-exclusive God of War series has always carried a heavy theme of vengeance in its plots. In the conclusion to the main trilogy, God of War III, protagonist Kratos finally got the revenge he had long sought, bringing about some heavy consequences along with it.

Redemption, then, would likely be a key theme for God of War IV which is being heavily rumored right now. We could be wrong of course, but it sure does look that way, doesn’t it?

Max Payne coming to iOS, Android devices

Bringing heavy-hitting games (both classic and new) to mobile devices such as iOS and Android phones is becoming common practice today. The latest doing this is Rockstar Games, which intends to bring the “full classic Max Payne PC experience” to iOS devices next week, on April 12th. Max Payne Mobile, which will boast “HD graphics, high-resolution textures, Social Club connectivity and user-customizable controls,” will be available on numerous (but yet to be detailed) Android devices two weeks later, on the 26th, as well.

As for the iOS devices that’ll support the game, these include: iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S and the original iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad. So, pretty much, all of them.

Free GOG backups for all PC copies of The Witcher 2

Another one of the announcements made by CD Projekt at its Spring conference yesterday was a free backup copy of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for PC all users, no matter when or where you bought it, digital or otherwise.

Once people buy a game, they shouldn’t have to buy it again, the developer reasoned.
The backup copy will be the most complete digital version, too. Not to mention the free content and updates that make up the upcoming PC version of the Enhanced Edition, due out digitally on the 17th, alongside the Xbox 360 version’s retail release.

New Uncharted 3 maps next week

Naughty Dog are bringing about a new map pack for Uncharted 3 next Tuesday; the Drake’s Deception map pack will add all-new locations to the game’s multiplayer, based off of the latest adventure in the blockbuster franchise.
Four maps will be included. There’s Graveyard, Old Quater, London Streets and Oasis settings, based off of the campaign’s various settings. The dynamic events that the multiplayer pitched itself on this time around will also return, with boats showing up to gun players down, or supply planes that drop crates out of the sky.
The DLC goes free to anyone with the Fortune Hunter’s Club membership, and $9.99 otherwise. The club’s offerings actually come to a close on April 17, but the Dogs have promised more U3 DLC will appear afterwards.

Ms. Splosion Man coming to PC, mobile

Ms. Splosion Man is making the jump (or rather, splosion) over to PC and mobile platforms soon, developer Twisted Pixel has announced.
A long list of new platforms have been added to the XBLA hit, including Steam, Games for Windows LIVE, Windows Phone 7, iPad and iPhone. Iron Galaxy, Fire Hose and Panic Button studios have been
recruited to help port the game over.

The PC versions holds true to the original with 50 single player levels, 50 co-op levels for up to four players locally or online, ghost replays, achievements, unlockables like ‘2 Girls 1 Controller Mode’, and more. The mobile versions are promised to be more unique, with exclusive modes and controls.

These new versions will release this Summer.

Borderlands 2 — 5+ minutes of gameplay

Nearly six minutes of straight up Borderlands 2 gameplay? Yes.

Way of the Samurai 4 heading to US PS3s

Xseed has confirmed via the PlayStation Blog that it’s bringing Way of the Samurai 4 over to North America as a PS3 exclusive.

The fourth entry in the cult series sets an interesting scene; picturing a Japan on the brink of globalization as the country opens its borders to the British. Players can either join forces with the anti-foreign resistance or fight against it. Either or that or hang somewhere in the middle, trying to stop the conflict.

The usual distractions will be in place too: casinos, customization and side quests will all feature as normal.
A release date and pricing aren’t available right now, but it’s always good to see the series head over to a less familiar audience.