Uh-Oh! Corporate bigwig Bobby Kotick has been befuddled over the successes of Sony’s PlayStation 3. Or lack there of, according to the Activision CEO.

I’m sure most of us have read the headlines concerning an interview with Mr. Kotick and The Times concerning the thoughts surrounding the CEO involving his blunt warnings that he may have to pull support to the PlayStation 3, citing poor returns on the console and lack of growth in market share.

But would he really? Would he?
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Disc formatting was all the rage back in the 90s. Discs made cassettes obsolete. They outmoded tapes. And they enshrined those good ole’ fashioned game cartridges as relics of the past.

However, with the Internet so readily available and unimaginable amounts of data so easily accessible, will the disc, and any other physical memory storing device for that matter, eventually give way to a future of online distribution?

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Winning many Best of E3 awards, King of Fighters XII is looking to become a strong contender for the fighting genre on current consoles. With online play and boasting an outstanding cast; King of Fighters XII could bring back sprite-based fighters that have all but vanished from next generation consoles.

Here is a new trailer featuring some great gameplay.
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Did somebody say Robot Punch!?

Breaking from the seriousness of the past few installments, this we we cover some of the more light-hearted stories to break the surface. First, Pikachu wants to be your workout buddy. A real-life giant robot has invaded Japan. And a Hollywood hottie loves to tear out people’s spines!

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Sam Lake is the lead writer behind Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake. His scripts helped propel the Max Payne series to positive reviews, and his writings will be equally essential to this new title’s success.

But it’s rare for developers to prioritize the role of a writer like this. Frequently sidelined as an afterthought, writers — also known as narrative designers, depending on your opinion — hardly ever work as closely with a development team as Mr. Lake does.

Rather than marginalizing writers, more developers should take Remedy’s approach and embrace them. We’ve seen the success of story-driven games like Metal Gear Solid. Narrative designers make games come alive, and we simply can’t afford to treat them like dirt anymore.

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The wide world web is an incredible vast area and is brimming with almost a bajillion ways to eat your precious time at any given click. Needless to say there happens to be almost an equal number of flash games that are readily available as long as you have a magical window to the web (or in English — a web browser).

Flash games have been continually receiving more credibility and, in fact, the first flash game gone console hit was Alien Hominid back in 2002. This has helped pave the way for other originally free webgames to make the jump to consoles whether is be full release or Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network.

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There is a reason why advertisement is big business. The way a product is marketed can easily lead to its success or failure.

The movie industry knows this better than anyone, and they have developed a formula that has worked out pretty well for them. Grab some Hollywood stars, jumble together some pivotal scenes, mix in moving music, and add the guy who does all those dramatic voice overs and you have yourself a potential blockbuster.

Unfortunately for many game developers - especially RPG developers - the same recipe can not be simply transferred over.

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Remakes are cheap, easy, nostalgic and give younger gamers a chance to play a classic they missed due to being in the womb. After major gaming conglomerates (mostly Capcom) realized how much money they could make more and more have been popping up these days.

Within the next year gamers will see a good number of remakes; check out a handful that we can’t wait to get our grubby little paws on.

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