Lannisters to take on the Starks in various new Game of Throne titles

The popular Game of Thrones TV show is a firm favourite here in the TechSmart office, and now, according to USA Today, there are three new games based on the Game of Thrones series to look forward to.

The first of these is an RPG (role playing game) being developed by Cyanide Studio, the same studio behind the PC strategy title, A Game of Thrones: Genesis. It will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 as well as Windows PC. It will be based on the original story by author George R.R. Martin with HBO providing video footage from the TV series.

The second title will be a free-to-play Game of Thrones MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), developed by Bigpoint. In this day and age of Facebook and Farmville, a social networking game is also in the works, with no info available yet on the developers.

All three games should see light of day next year.

Another Assassin’s Creed coming before end of world in 2012

During an investor call this week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot announced that there will be a major new entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise, set to be scheduled before world’s end 2012.

According to Eurogamer Guillemot wasn’t more forthcoming with details around the title, but stated: “There will be another great, full-fledged Assassin's Creed title next year. It will be another major release and we will be communicating more about it in the coming months."

This announcement falls in line with comments around a forthcoming new title, made to Eurogamer last month by the series creative lead Alexandre Amacio. "In Assassin's Creed we set up a timeline with this whole end of the world plot of December 2012," Amacio explained. "That's fast approaching, and the story we have to tell, we obviously need to do it before we arrive at that point."

If 2012 is too far away for you, then check out this gameplay trailer of Assasin’s Creed: Revelations, which will be released this month.

Uncharted 3 set to become biggest game within the series

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has announced that Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has achieved sales of 3.8 million units on its first day, looking set to become the best-selling part of the popular trilogy.

Nick Caplin, head of communications at SCEE, commented: “Uncharted 3 is a blockbuster and these incredible sales figures reflect that. Consumers are clearly as eager to play the game as critics were to heap praise upon it, and the team at Naughty Dog deserve this fantastic reception at retail.”

WoW inhibited by a million less players over a nine month period

According to Develop, World of Warcraft subscriptions have shrunk by 800 000 subscribers ( a 7% drop), from 11.1 million in June to 10.3 million in September. This latest subscriber exodus follows the about 300 000 gamers who stopped playing the game in the previous fiscal quarter (Q2). This means that the WoW subscriber base has shed more than a million users thus far during 2011.

In a conference call, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime stated that the biggest fall in subscribers was occurring in China. He did however state that WoW remains to be one of the most popular titles in China and is still the most popular subscription-based MMORPG in the world. Blizzard is looking to curb the subscriber loss trend with some new new updates as well as the recently announced expansion Mists of Pandaria.

Square Enix announces collector’s edition for Final Fantasy XIII-2

Square Enix announced a collector's edition for Final Fantasy XIII–2, which will be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by the end of January 2012 in the US and in February in the UK.

Final Fantasy XIII–2 is the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, and according to the Japanese games publisher, the new title will boast extraordinary level design that will encourage exploration, an enhanced battle system allowing players to command monsters and a variety of options that support multiple playthroughs.

The Final Fantasy XIII–2 collector’s edition will be available in limited quantities and will sport  artwork by Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, the four-disc official soundtrack and a collection of concept artwork. The full colour concept art collection contains material from the making of the game and features a variety of never–before–seen illustrations and environments.