Gadgets and Video Games

We brought word yesterday that Section 8 was on its way to PS3, and that’s simultaneously gotten more and less solid — a phenomenon we’re pretty sure would freak even Bill Nye out. While we know concretely that it will arrive on Sony’s console this spring, we also learned it won’t be arriving in a solid form at all, as the title will be exclusively available on PSN. Moreover, this new version will include the three maps 360 and PC players had to pay extra for and the ability for players to host games on their PCs (as seen in the Xbox 360 version ). We worry that a bit too much time has passed to get PlayStation owners interested in Section 8 , but putting it on PSN seems like a darn smart way to do it

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Section 8 coming to PS3 download-only with added content

We’ve been wondering why it’s taken Square Enix so long to churn out another installment in the core Final Fantasy franchise, seeing as how the last game came out approximately forever ago . The answer recently came in the latest Dutch issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, which contains a revealing interview with Squeenix’s Yoshinori Kitase. According to a fan translation of the interview , Kitase said ” Final Fantasy XIII was originally meant to be a PS2 title, but we had to switch systems due to the arrival of the PS3

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FFXIII development started on PS2, delayed launch by a year and a half

Kotaku is reporting that Red 5 Studios, a studio comprised of some key ex- Blizzard personnel, is the latest to be handed its walking papers. A source claims that nothing but a “skeleton crew” remains at Red 5 Studios now, which at one point had offices in Irvine, CA and Shanghai. The latter recently shut its doors, though the relevant press release on Red 5 Studios’ site has since been pulled.

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Rumor: Red 5 Studios gets the axe

Though we know the gargantuan, scarlet-coiffured late night host … err, former late night host will soon find new (and hopefully more stable) employment, we’re going to miss him profoundly. Not only did he provide us with regular belly-laughs, he also began frequently poking fun at video games during sketches on The Tonight Show

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Weekly Webcomic Wrapup will miss you, Conan

We’re not sure what makes a franchise a good fit for unconventional adaptations, but Silent Hill certainly has it. First it was transformed into a haunted house , now a group of fans in Sweden has put together a stage play based on the second game in the series. Though the play will be subtitled and put on to YouTube eventually, we don’t have any details about the production just yet. We assume, however, it’ll basically be like Miss Saigon if everyone in Miss Saigon had a pyramid for a head. Sure, the critics will say it’s unorthodox, but they also said Babs was too young to play Dolly Levi and we all saw how that turned out .

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Silent Hill adapted for the stage

Look, just feign surprise, it makes these financial posts so much more exciting: Activision today reported net revenues of $755 million (on a non-GAAP basis) in the quarter ending September 30, 2009 — that’s $55 million more than the suits hoped to stack, according to previous projections. While the blockbuster adaptation of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen might have played a part in this outpouring of our money, we’re gonna go with Kotick’s explanation: “Our performance was driven by positive audience response to Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero 5, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, and the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises, as well as Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft .” In fact, the CEO called Guitar Hero the year’s “#1 best-selling third-party franchise in North America and Europe” through September, claiming that U.S. sales of music games increased 72 percent year over year in September. Last year’s big-band-box edition, World Tour, and Call of Duty: World at War combined for total, world domination, becoming this year’s “#1 and #2 best-selling third-party titles” in North America and Europe through September, according to Activision. Additionally, World at War DLC map pack sales continued to climb last quarter and have now surpassed 7.5 million purchases.

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Guitar Hero, Call of Duty franchises lead Activision’s ‘better-than-expected’ Q3 2009

Has your homebrew SNES masterpiece, Secret of Manilow , been trapped within your computer for a decade or so due to technological restraints? Time to dust off your old ROM file — the Quickdev16 SNES developer cartridge has all you need to get your brainchild up and running on Nintendo’s Super console. The cart includes an Atmel AVR ATmega644 with boot loader, a USB connection with which to upload a ROM, 16 megabits of SRAM, and an RS232 converter. We’re assuming that if you possess the technical know-how to craft custom SNES games, then you probably know what all that stuff means. We’re also assuming that you’d be more inclined to pony up for the cart’s $120 price tag than we are

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Quickdev16 cart opens up wonderful world of SNES homebrew

We’ll start with the good news about the upcoming Western release of Monster Hunter Tri : according to statements given to MTV Multiplayer by Capcom Community Specialist Shawn Baxter, the North American version of the game will use Capcom-hosted servers, like the Japanese version does, enabling players to connect and play online, free from friend codes. The other part isn’t necessarily bad news, but it could be in the future: Capcom still hasn’t decided whether to use the pay-for-play model found in all online Monster Hunter games in Japan, or whether to make online play free like it has for those same games in North America so far. It’s likely that Capcom will do things the same way as before (which means free online), but with the company not saying anything, we can’t be sure yet

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Capcom still undecided about Monster Hunter 3 fees

My my, how time flies. On this date one year ago, World of Goo entered our lives and, well … it made everything all gooey . (The good, warm kinda gooey.) To celebrate the game’s birthday, 2D Boy is offering the title for — wait for it — whatever price you want to pay

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World of Goo on sale for ‘your’ price; iPhone port coming

Does he have a goatee or not? Click to find out! Why is Jak so angry on the cover for Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier ? A) It’s been four years since Jak 3 ! Even Daxter got his own game! B) Franchise creator Naughty Dog abandoned Jak for Nathan Drake , a man that can’t even transform! C) Okay, Jak’s been emo since Jak II . This is nothing new. D) This

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Jak and Daxter find a release date: November 3