In an interview with the Financial Times, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick, stated that he sees an opportunity for game publishers to break the video game consoles’ “walled gardens” by using new gamer-friendly PCs that are designed to be plugged into a TV.

 

Gaming console makers are raking in the cash with their online gaming services, predominantly Microsoft which has reportedly made over $1.2 billion within a single financial year from its Xbox Live online gaming service.

 

“We’ve heard that 60 per cent of [Microsoft’s] subscribers are principally on Live because of Call of Duty,” said Kotick. “We don’t really participate financially in that income stream. We would really like to be able to provide much more value to those millions of players playing on Live, but it’s not our network.”

 

“We have always been platform agnostic,” stated Kotick. “[Consoles] do a very good job of supporting the gamer. If we are going to broaden our audiences, we are going to need to have other devices.”

 

The company will now “very aggressively” support Dell and HP’s efforts to connect PCs to TVs.

 

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. is in talks with portable gaming console makers concerning the addition of 3G network connections to the next generation of hand-held consoles in a push to expand connected-game play. 

 

“Videogame makers know that in order for portable game machines to take the next step forward, they need wireless communication,” NTT DoCoMo president Ryuji Yamada said. “We are discussing this with various players.” He didn’t want to name these companies or devices involved in the discussions.   

 

 

More details concerning Ubisoft’s upcoming Michael Jackson game have emerged. According to Gamerzines, the game will be called Michael Jackson The Experience and will be launched in November of this year on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and DS, as well as the PSP.

 

Ubisoft has stated that players will be able to fill the shoes of Michael Jackson by re-living his most iconic performances through their own singing and dancing, while utilising Microsoft’s Kinect motion-based, controllerless sytem for the Xbox 360 and the PS3’s PlayStation Move motion-based controllers.

 

 

According to Quick Jump Gaming Network, Star Wars: Force Unleashed II will be coming out on 26 October 2010 in the US and 29 October 2010 in Europe on the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS, PlayStation Portable (PSP) as well as the PC. 

 

 

The associate producer of the Assasin's Creed series, Ubisoft Montreal's Jean-Francois Boivin, told Eurogamer that it might be time to give the series a “breather” after the release of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood later this year. 

 

"Honestly, I think for the benefit of everybody – and business can come back and override everything I say because at the end of the day it's about selling games – I believe that this license needs a breather. You can't plough a field every year. Once every three years – or once every something – you have to let it breathe. You have to let the minerals back in. I think it's the same thing with any license, really," Boivin said. 

 

"I don't think there's going to be an Assassin's Creed in 2011 (...) This [Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood] is the end of Ezio's story. This is it."

 

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will be released in the UK on 19 November for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

 

 

According to IGN, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima in an interview with Japan’s Weekly Famitsu magazine said that he will not be working on Metal Gear Solid Rising. “I’m not making it. As executive producer, I’m leaving it up to the youngsters.”

 

Kojima did however state that his next new project might end up being either Metal Gear Solid 5 or something original. “The next project is amazing. The plan is pretty much solidified.”