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VIDEO GAME NEWS

Hollywood sends 3D home - in videogames (Reuters)
Reuters - Coming to a living room near you -- 3D videogames.

Sony's Eric Lempel on Digital Downloads, PS3 Home Integration (PC World)
PC World - What sort of digital content's coming for PSP owners in 2009?

Sony CEO dismisses price cut chatter on PlayStation (Reuters)

Reuters - Sony Corp Chief Executive Howard Stringer brushed off concerns that the PlayStation 3 video game console is too expensive, and said the company is unlikely to sell parts of its business amid the recession.

Sony's Eric Lempel On PS3 Updates, Firmware Rumors (PC World)
PC World - Is Sony's austere PlayStation 3's dashboard due for an extreme makeover, per recent rumormongering? What about universal voice chat? Searchable memory cards? Discrete feature updates? The battery display fluke de-glitched? And what's up with Hulu video service blocking? I tracked down Sony Director of Network Operations Eric Lempel to get answers to those question and others in the following two part interview. Part two is here. This is part one.

Ubisoft to open Toronto studio (Reuters)
Reuters - French videogame maker Ubisoft Entertainment SA is set to open a Toronto studio that will create 800 jobs over 10 years, the Ontario government said on Monday.

Ubisoft opening videogame studio in Toronto (AFP)

AFP - French videogame titan Ubisoft said Monday it plans to open a studio in Toronto, ramping up Canadian operations that have delivered blockbuster titles including "Assassin's Creed."

Getting the Message: Storytelling in Video Games (PC World)
PC World - The Bioware guys, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, dropped a few crumbs about Star Wars:

"Asteroids" lands at Universal (Reuters)
Reuters - Universal Pictures has won a four-studio bidding war to pick up the film rights to the classic Atari video game "Asteroids."

In China, Games Get Serious (Investor's Business Daily)
Investor's Business Daily - When Sohu.com, a leading Web portal in China, announced plans last year to spin off its fast-growing online games business, investors balked.

Xbox 360 Dashboard Ads to Get Animation, Audio (PC World)
PC World - What's worse than paying $50 a year more than Games For Windows Live gamers, just to play Xbox 360 games online?

Meet the cast of 11th `Big Brother' (AP)

AP - Chima Simone couldn't think of a better place to spend the recession than the "Big Brother" house.

Is it All or Nothing for Game Releases in 2009? (PC World)
PC World - Eidos life president Ian Livingstone has declared it's "all or nothing for new releases in 2009," painting either a blithely Machiavellian or cynically gloomy picture of the video games industry this year, depending on your vantage.

Blizzard Kills StarCraft II LAN Support (PC World)
PC World - Upcoming real-time strategy Windows game StarCraft II will ship without Local Area Network multiplayer support in an effort to combat piracy, says Blizzard, in an official statement sure to annoy if not outright confound series fans the world round.

Sony Patents PS2 Software Emulation, Already Offers It (PC World)
PC World - When it comes to the PlayStation 3, it's apparently easy to confuse the game blogs. They've picked up on an incidental story by a tech site that communicates in fragments concerning Sony's recent filing to patent emulation of its legacy PS2 Emotion Engine vis-a-vis its "cell" processor. The cell processor, you'll recall, is the cerebral cortex of the PS3's multi-processing brainpan.

New Harry Potter ships for Mac, other platforms (Macworld.com)
Macworld.com - Electronic Arts (EA) on Tuesday announced the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a video game based on the upcoming movie. It debuts simultaneously on multiple platforms including the Mac. It costs $30.

SKorean intelligence agency runs 'spot the spy' game (AFP)

AFP - South Korea's normally publicity-shy intelligence agency is creating a stir among liberal groups with a "spot the spy" flash video game offering a variety of prizes.

PSP Game Players May Be Able To Phone Home (NewsFactor)
NewsFactor - In a move to compete with Apple's iPhone and iPod, Sony may develop a hybrid cell phone-video game handheld with the PlayStation Portable device at its core.

Sony May Finally be Revving up a PlayStation Phone (PC World)
PC World - The Sony rumor that just won't die has reared its potentially beautiful head again: a PSP phone may be in the works. The latest back room rumblings come courtesy of Japan's Nikkei Business Daily, which says Sony is about to open up a new department that will explore a "cell phone-game gear hybrid," according to Reuters. Sony's secret department could begin work as early as July, and so far the PlayStation maker is declining to comment on the rumors.

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 Price Drops This Fall? (PC World)
PC World - When it comes to console price drops, especially when it involves the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, most of the rumors have gotten it wrong, so echoing another one's a bit like strapping yourself to the mast of the Titanic. We know Sony and Microsoft will, but the when's about as accessible as a crystal ball locked in a safe sheathed in cement at the bottom of a well.

Xbox users in France to get Canal+ films, soccer (Reuters)

Reuters - More than a million French users of Microsoft's Xbox 360 will be able to watch films on demand, premium drama and soccer from Canal Plus on their games console thanks to a deal between Microsoft and the pay-TV group.