GAMESPOT RAINS ON MY SOUL

Gamespot has cast some doubt on the GameDaily report that Soul Calibur IV is now in production. According to Gamespot, they feel that there may have been some errors in translation as far as the comments regarding Soul Calibur IV went;

” Because it’s a paraphrased response in an almost certainly translated interview, it’s impossible to parse words here and see if there might have been some misunderstanding on either Uchiyama’s part or the writer’s. In any case, it just says that a new Soul Calibur was taking up the development team’s time when the Bandai-Namco merger was finalized. Uchiyama doesn’t appear to mention Soul Calibur IV by name, so the new game could be a PSP version of an existing Soul Calibur game, or maybe even a project that was already known about.

The Bandai-Namco merger was finalized in September. Soul Calibur III was released in October, so there’s even a slight chance Uchiyama was referring to that game as the incomplete Soul Calibur project in question. However, that seems unlikely, given how close to completion the game already was. ” – Gamespot

It certainly would be a bit of a downer if it turned out just to be an error in translation. Hopefully Namco Bandai will give some type of official word either way in the coming days in response to the story. You can check out the Gamespot article here and the original GameDaily story here.

XBOX 360 HOLIDAY PRICE CUT RUMORS ARE BACK

UK game site Britbox is reporting that a source close to Microsoft has told them that the company is working on redesigning the hardware for the Xbox 360 in hopes of lowering the price in time for the holiday season and the launches of both the Sony Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. As per their source;

“A new version of the Xbox 360 would be cheaper to manufacture and debut about a year after launch.

“If they hit their targets, the Microsoft would be able to cut the costs of its console in the autumn of 2006. Microsoft would have the option of slashing the price of its console, just as rivals come out with their first consoles.

“That would put a lot of pressure on Sony and Nintendo.”-Britbox unnamed source

I’m not sure what to make of this one. While I’m sure Microsoft is working hard on lowering the production costs of the 360, the wording of the quote above strikes me as odd. It almost sounds as if it was said much longer ago than this week – you’ll note how it doesn’t talk about “this holiday”, but rather “a year after launch” and “in the autumn of 2006” rather than this fall. It just strikes me as odd. While the price drop certainly would be welcome to many people still on the fence about the 360, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it. Check out the BritBox article here.

GEARS OF WAR DESIGN TEAM BLOGS

Yup, more Gears news, because once you get me going about it, I just can’t stop. The official Gears of War website has been updated with a set of links to the personal blogs of several members of the design team. I’ll be looking over all those sites in the coming days to see if I can find any more juicy tidbits about just what we can expect come Emergence Day. Check it out here.

CLIFFYB’S NEXT PROJECT? LOOKS LIKE IT’S GEARS OF WAR 2

You didn’t think a week was going to go by without me having something to report on Gears of War, now did you? Videogamesblogger is reporting that in a Yahoo News chat session, when asked what his next project for Epic would be once Gears of War is completed, CliffyB responded “Gears of War 2, I’d imagine.”

While certainly not a revolutionary bit of news, as I’m sure we all realize that if Gears of War does as well as it’s expected to it would inevitably get a sequel, it does make a point that whatever is going to happen in Gears won’t be limited to just the first game. CliffyB mentioned in his podcast interview with OXM that Gears of War would start dark and only get darker, and this could be an indication that the entire story arc may take more than one game to complete. Check out the Videogameblogger report here and be sure to get your copy of Gears of War reserved asap. You can also check out our write up of that OXM podcast interview here.

THE SOUL STILL BURNS: SOUL CALIBUR IV CONFIRMED

GameDaily recently scored an exclusive interview with Namco Bandai Chief Producer Daisuke Uchiyama. In the course of the interview, Uchiyama let slip that Soul Calibur IV is already in production. GameDaily also added some speculation that the title may go direct to home consoles and may be the rumored Xbox 360 Soul Calibur game that was hinted at back when Soul Calibur III was released exclusively on the Playstation 2. It should be noted that Uchiyama did not give any further details regarding the general release window for the game or what consoles it would be appearing on.

As one of my all time favorite games, and certainly my all time favorite fighting game series, I for one could not be more stoked. Find out more by heading over to GameDaily at this link.

ELECTRONIC ARTS TO ACQUIRE MYTHIC ENTERTAINMENT

Electronic Arts announced tuesday that they have reached a tentative agreement to acquire Mythic Entertainment, makers of Dark Age of Camelot as well as the upcoming Warhammer Online, for an undisclosed sum. Fans of both DAoC and Warhammer can breathe a slight sigh of relief as the press release indicated there would be no cutbacks in Mythic’s development team;

” Upon completion of the acquisition, Mark Jacobs, the President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Mythic, will become Vice President, General Manager of EA Mythic. Rob Denton, the Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Mythic will assume the role of Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of EA Mythic. Mythic’s 175-person development team will remain in Fairfax, Virginia.” – EA Press Release

While I’m sure this will mean an added big push for Warhammer Online when it’s released, I have to wonder if this bodes well for Dark Age of Camelot and it’s chances for long term survival. You can check out the full press release here.