God of War III tops US sales figures for March
 
Kratos fought his way to the top of the video games sales list for the month of March in the US, according to figures released by marketing research group NPD. God of War III sold 1.1 million copies, with Pokemon Soulsilver Version for the Nintendo DS coming in second with 1.02 million units sold and Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) rounding off the top 3 spots with over 828 000 copies sold.
 
In related news, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII is proving (in the US at least ) to be more popular on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) than on its new platform, the Xbox 360. Over 828 000 units of the PS3 version were sold during March in the US, while the figure for the Xbox 360 versions sold came in under 500 000.
 
Gears of War concludes in a year
 
This week saw the announcement that all Gears of War fans were waiting for. Gears of War 3 will be hitting Xbox 360 consoles on 5 April 2011 in the US, 7 April 2011 in Japan and 8 April 2011 in Europe and the rest of the world. You can view the ‘Ashes to Ashes’ trailer for the game on the Gears of War site.
 
EA gains from Activision’s loss
 
EA announced on Monday that Jason West and Vince Zampella, creators of the Call of Duty series, have joined EA’s gaming stable after forming a new game development studio called Respawn Entertainment. The two former Infinity Ward heads were fired from Activision last month and are still engaged in a lawsuit against Activision (as well as Activision’s counter lawsuit against them).
 
“Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me,” said Vince Zampella, general manager of Respawn Entertainment. “For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise. We’re very proud of what we built - and proud that so many millions of fans enjoyed those games. Today we hope to do it all over again -- open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA.”
 
MGS creator ponders his next game
 
After his platformless gaming prediction last week, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was again in the gaming headlines. He started tweeting about a new game idea on his official Twitter page, with the English translation here. “I’m pondering over the next project’s voice cast,” Kojima wrote. “I still do not have the details embedded, but everything is running simultaneously in my head. The title, game design, story, characters, setting, mechs, casting, direction of the graphics, sound, beginning & ending, and key story sequences. It all moulds[sic] together naturally in my head.”