Gadgets and Video Games

2K Sports has unveiled the 10th Anniversary edition of NBA 2K10 — or, rather, TeamXbox has discovered it as 2K Sports was about to unveil it — and it may be the most overblown limited-edition release of any game yet. The $99.99 package includes the game (obviously), an exclusive Kobe Bryant figurine by McFarlane Toys, a Kobe Bryant poster, a video about the NBA 2K series, and an account on the “Gold Room,” a special VIP online lobby for the game. Oh, the package also includes a storage locker designed to hold 20 games. That’s furniture . This game comes with furniture

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NBA 2K10’s oversized 10th Anniversary Edition revealed

Sir Howard Stringer has big plans for PSN . He said as much last month, commenting that as long as PSN is tied solely to the PS3, the network would never be able to reach its full potential. It’s set to reach for the stars in Spring 2010, apparently, as Kaz Hirai recently commented to CNN . “It’s now a matter of what all the services need to look like for each device, and coming up with a rollout plan,” said Hirai. “It’s like city planning here, and we can start small

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Sony: Expect bigger, better PSN around Spring 2010

While expanding the unrelenting grasp of World of Warcraft to home consoles would undoubtedly net Blizzard an extra googolplex subscribers, there’s a number of hurdles keeping MMOs from succeeding on non-PC platforms — hurdles that were identified by Blizzard’s executive VP of game design, Rob Pardo, in a recent interview with IndustryGamers . Some hurdles are self-evident, such as the lack of a “keyboard and mouse” input device, and the massive amounts of storage space required for most online games ( WoW is up to 10 gigs). Some have to do with the policies of the hardware manufacturers themselves, such as Microsoft’s lengthy certification measures which would make WoW ’s frequent patches a nightmare to publish. However, according to Pardo, Microsoft has asked Blizzard for MMO advice, and has shown the company “some stuff they have in development.” Halo MMO re-confirmed ! (No, not really.) Pardo’s MMO outlook for the current generation of consoles is poor, but he thinks the next round of hardware is more likely to get it right — at which point, people will be able to play WoW on any platform they want, and pretty much everyone will stop leaving the house. Hooray

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Blizzard still hesitant about console MMOs

As PlayStation Portable morphs into the all-digital PSP Go system, many consumers might be wondering just how much space they will need to set aside for each future downloadable title. Sony representative Al de Leon spoke to Joystiq recently at an event in NYC about the storage issue, saying most titles will average around “600-800MB in size.” This means, de Leon further added, that the PSP Go’s 16GB capacity — without any additional memory unit — could hold up to an “average of 17-18 games.” Considering the Go can handle an extra 16GB of M2 storage, the number of games could easily be doubled. Although 700MB is the point we should be expecting most games to gravitate towards, there will still be other titles that will be far below this mark or even way above it. Smaller scale titles like Patapon 2 (which is less than 400MB) for example, could take as little as half the average footprint.

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Sony: Downloadable PSP titles will average around 700MB

Tags: addictive, characters, extreme-battles, japan, legendary-wolf, Microsoft, single-junction, Storage, table-border, terry-bogard, traditional, unique

According to Gamestop’s Sterne Agee analyst, Arvind Bhatia, retailers have nothing to fear from digital distribution — not for the next five years, anyhow. Speaking to Industrygamers , Bhatia disclosed that Gamestop management has been conducting thorough studies on the capabilities of digital downloads and its potential adoption for several years now and that the findings are still in favor of brick-and-mortar establishments. Bhatia predicts that a market for downloadable titles won’t put serious pressure on retailers until 2014, which he proclaims will be a time when “25% of the population” will have easy access to download technology and when price and storage capacity won’t be such a concern. Although Gamestop’s study might sound like it’s trying to combat digital distribution, Bhatia states it’s not about competition but more on adaptation and learning how to profit from the changing distribution channels

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Gamestop: Digital distribution not a threat for another five years

The Xbox 360 Arcade pack just got a bit more useful. The mysterious 512MB Arcade unit seen yesterday is real! Microsoft confirmed to Eurogamer that it has doubled the memory on the “Jasper” motherboard of the hard-drive-free system. However, of course, not all of that space will be available to the owner: “The Xbox 360 system software uses some of the included 512MB memory;” Microsoft’s statement reads.

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Confirmed: New Xbox 360 Arcade systems have 512 MB on-board memory

We’re not sure how this one sneaked by, but it looks like Microsoft slipped a new Xbox 360 Jasper motherboard past us earlier this year, according to a poster in the XboxHacker forums. Found in a Japanese Xbox 360 Arcade this past April, the new motherboard is essentially the same as the previous (read: probably the most reliable 360 model so far) with one small difference. Rather than 256MB of internal storage, this one appears to be packing 512MB. While the unit pictured above is Japanese, some members of the Xbox-Scene forums claim to have the board as well, meaning the new hardware may already be available in North America

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Xbox 360 Jasper units with 512MB internal memory spotted in the wild

Update: A video from the June issue of Qore is now available on YouTube (and after the jump). In the video, Qore host Veronica Belmont discusses the new PSP Go handheld with Sony’s John Koller who mentions the handheld (which features 16GB of internal storage, a memory slot for expandable memory and bluetooth) will not replace the current PSP-3000 — they will coexist. According to Koller, new titles will be revealed for the platform at E3, specifically: a new Metal Gear Solid and Jak & Daxter.

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PSP Go revealed in June issue of Qore [update]

Tags: 360-download, cracking-style, drive-or-the, live, memory-unit, Microsoft, online-battle, Storage, ultimate, Xbox