Revolution Portal: Because it won’t be televised.

Namco Bandai has a full plate of Soulcaliber these days, with Legends coming out on Wii and IV in the works for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. 

Legends producer Jin Okubo recently explained about their strategy of sharing the wealth.

“Ever since Soulcalibur III, we’ve had pretty much what we call a “core team”…and some of those key members are working simultaneously on both titles.  Going back and forth,” he told Gamasutra.

“And, obviously, since some of the team members are working on both games, it helps to facilitate flow of progression between the two…So they’re sharing technology and ideas, and trying to make sure that the franchise, whether it be fighting or action-adventure, has some unity.”

Naturally, for Nintendo’s console Namco Bandai is focusing more on the control scheme than the graphics, with Okubo explaining that “they’re trying to take advantage of the specifics of the hardware. For example, with the Wiimote, obviously the control is built around it.”

“There are small touches, such as the fact that when you swipe with the Wiimote, the sound of a swishing sword plays out of the controller’s speaker. Small touches like that.”

Soulcaliber Legends is slated for release this Winter in North America, Soulcaliber IV’s North American release date is sometime in 2008.

THQ Inc. today announced that two all-new titles in the irreverent sci-fi action gaming franchise Destroy All Humans!  are currently in development and scheduled to ship simultaneously in early 2008. Destroy All Humans!  Path of the Furon  follows Crypto on a journey of enlightenment and Hi-Fi destruction as he faces his most dangerous enemy yet and lampoons the pop culture of the Funked Out 1970s. Destroy All Humans!  Big Willy Unleashed  will serve as the story prequel to “Path of the Furon”, taking advantage of the unique Wii Remote  controller and allowing Crypto to unleash massive destruction in an all-new character in the series –Big Willy, a prototype alien mech, masquerading as a fast food restaurant mascot.

“The Destroy All Humans! franchise has consistently delivered a unique combination of fun and original gameplay delivering irreverent humor and over the top destruction that has garnered worldwide critical acclaim and commercial success,” said Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. “The simultaneous release of two all-new Destroy All Humans! titles means gamers can expect different experiences that utilize the unique technology of the leading gaming platforms.”

“Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon will take advantage of the powerful Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, offering high-definition graphics, expanded open-world gameplay and a humorous story following Crypto on his journey of enlightenment and destruction,” said Jack Sorenson, executive vice president of worldwide studios, THQ. “The Wii’s capabilities served as a springboard in designing Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed, and the game will take full advantage of the Wii Remote, allowing gamers to cause massive destruction on foot, in Crypto’s UFO or at the controls of the Big Willy mech.”

About Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon
Destroy All Humans!  Path of the Furon  redefines the brand’s irreverent Sci-Fi action gaming experience for the next-generation Xbox 360  video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION 3 system with new weapons and mental abilities, high-fidelity destruction and expanded open-world gameplay. In Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon, players will pick up where prequel Destroy All Humans!  Big Willy Unleashed  leaves off, controlling Crypto in the Funked Out 1970’s when a mysterious new enemy attacks, launching a conspiracy that unravels Crypto’s groovy new way of life and threatens the very survival of his Furon race. Developed by THQ’s newly formed internal development studio Sandblast Games, Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon takes players on a journey of Enlightenment and Destruction to help Crypto gain new powers from an alien Kung Fu Master in order to take on his most difficult enemy yet.

About Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed
Designed from the ground up for the Wii  home video game system, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed fully utilizes the Wii Remote to deliver an all-new sci-fi action gaming experience. As the storyline prequel to Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon, players control Crypto as he travels the world in the Funked Out 1970’s, unleashing massive destruction on foot, in his UFO and for the first time, in the Big Willy mech. Designed by THQ’s internal development studio Locomotive Games, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed will also be available on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and PSP  (PlayStation Portable) system.

Source: THQ

If you’re going to spend a few hundreds bucks on Wii or PS3, you might as well get an SD gaming card for saves, photos, and all that other fun stuff.  Some people think all cards are the same and you should just go for the cheapest, but Transcend thinks that you should purchase theirs.

Shocking, no?  The release from Transcend follows. 

Transcend information showcased its new SD gaming cards designed specially for game consoles, such as Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii, at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The growing popularity of game consoles has catapulted the need for higher performance and bigger capacity flash memory cards. Transcend has focused on the research and development of SD memory cards for many years. Therefore, its SD gaming card is a great choice for the next generation of game consoles, which include a memory card slot as standard. Now you are able to save and manage game saves, photos, MP3 music, or video clips in the new generation game consoles using Transcend’s SD gaming cards. Transcend’s SD gaming cards are now available in 1GB and 2GB capacities.

Among mainstream flash memory cards, the SD memory card is the most commonly used format and enjoys the highest market share. Transcend’s SD memory cards are frequently rated among the fastest and most reliable solutions with most reasonably prices for storing and transferring documents, pictures, music and videos for personal and business purposes, across the globe. Only top quality chips and controllers are used to ensure highest quality of Transcend SD gaming cards, which the mechanical write protection switch keeps data safer for longer by preventing accidental deletion or writing over your important data. In addition, all Transcend SD gaming cards are backed with lifetime warranty for highest customer service satisfaction.

Product Features

• Compatible with Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 game consoles for saving and managing game saves
• Download and backup Virtual Console (VC) games from the Wii™ Shop Channel
• Compatible with all other media devices equipped with a SD slot for storing photos, pictures, MP3 and video files
• Lower power consumption, which maximizes battery life in small portable devices
• Includes Error Correcting Code (ECC) to detect and correct errors
• Mechanical Write Protection Switch
• Life time warranty

It’s been over a month since both Wii and PS3 launched and yet there are still multitudes of people who are still without a console — the most tragic being myself.  But over the holiday weekend, Amazon put Nintendo Wii and PS3 back on the shelves for a very limited period of time. 

Unlike the last “lottery” system of purchasing a console, Amazon reverted back to the first-come, first-serve strategy.  From LAist:

The Nintendo Wii will again be available for purchase on Amazon.com on 12/29, Friday morning, at some point between 7am and 11am PST. We will be limiting purchases to one per household. We anticipate that we will sell through our inventory very quickly as demand for this product continues to be very high. At this time, we do not have any information on future offers, but we will post updates on future availability on this page.

Naturally, the page now reads:

We are currently out of stock. Allocations of the Wii have been limited but we are working with Nintendo to secure future allocations. We will provide updates on the product detail page as well as in the customer discussions on this page when we have availability.

Yup, same goes for PlayStation 3.  Guess we’ll have to shoot for Martin Luther King’s birthday to pick up a next-gen console.  I, too, have a dream.

People thinking about buying an Xbox 360 over a Nintendo Wii or PS3 got a small boost recently when Microsoft announced that the previous warranty time period of 90 days was going to be extended to a full year.   The decision is retroactive as well, so people who have already paid for repairs will get a big fat check from the company.

From Microsoft: 

In a move to benefit customers, Microsoft Corp. announced today that it will change the Xbox 360 warranty from 90 days to one year from the date of purchase in the United States and Canada. Microsoft extended the warranty in these territories to be consistent with the standard one-year warranty that is available throughout most of the world. The news is reason to celebrate this holiday season; it applies to both would-be purchasers and those who already have Xbox 360 and are still within their first year of ownership.

Effective today, the one-year warranty is now the standard for the console. Customers who experience hardware issues with their 360 within one year of purchase can have their consoles repaired at no cost. Moreover, the new warranty policy is retroactive, so consumers who may have already paid for an out-of-warranty repair within one year of purchase will be eligible for reimbursement of their console repair charges.

“Customer satisfaction is a central focus and priority for the Xbox 360 system,” said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “In addition to jaw-dropping features such as high-definition graphics, an amazing catalog of over 160 games, and social online and entertainment experiences on Xbox Live®, the Xbox 360 system now offers this extended warranty upgrade. It is truly the industry’s most compelling home entertainment offering.”

Customers who have already paid out-of-warranty repair charges within their first year of ownership can expect reimbursement checks for the amount of their console repair in approximately 10 weeks. Reimbursements will be automatically distributed, so customers need not contact Microsoft. Customers who have questions regarding this policy change or experience any hardware issues should visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/contact where they can check their warranty status, find troubleshooting information for common issues and find Xbox support contact information.