Gadgets and Video Games

Immediately following his well-attended GDC panel , Nintendo’s Yoshio Sakamoto talked with us about (what else?) Metroid: Other M . In addition to all sorts of questions on the unique Team Ninja collaboration, we asked Sakamoto about the long-rumored Metroid Dread project and, barring a confirmation of that product, when we’d see another 2D handheld Metroid. Joystiq: Speaking of the core Metroid development team that last worked on the GBA, there have been rumors of a game known as ‘Metroid Dread’ – purportedly a 2D Metroid game for DS

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Metroid Dread concept is something Sakamoto ‘can’t say never existed’

Infinity Ward may have tried to distance itself from the rumors about the Call of Duty franchise going down Subscription Lane[TM], but Activision head honcho Bobby Kotick said otherwise during the publishing giant’s recent earnings call. “If you think about the success that we’ve had in other product categories on subscription, you can get a sense of the direction that we want to take that franchise,” he said. It’s by no means a confirmation that you’ll be Oscar Mike to the Inn before heading into the Den of Eternal Bunnyhoppers or whatever.

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Activision expresses interest in subscription-based Call of Duty

Akira Yamaoka, composer of every Silent Hill score except one , and producer on every title in the series since 3 , has joined Suda 51’s studio, Grasshopper Manufacture, following his departure from Konami last month. Yamaoka has already contributed tracks to this month’s No More Heroes 2 and is working on music for EA’s mysterious Suda/Shinji Mikami action horror game . Though we were once concerned about the long wait time for the collaborative project (or any information about it), now that the wait has resulted in the addition of Yamaoka to its development team, we don’t mind. At all

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Silent Hill composer Yamaoka joins Suda 51’s ‘video game band’

The development of Star Wars Battlefront III has been rocky, to say the least. Work began at Free Radical before Crytek snapped up the company , then the game was rumored to be in Rebellion’s care before it eventually dropped from the face of the earth. Meanwhile Pandemic, the recently shuttered studio behind the first two games, apparently had nothing to do with the title at all . The latest rumor, courtesy of Kotaku , puts development of a brand new Battlefront project, entitled Star Wars Battlefront: Online , in the hands of Slant Six Games and LucasArts

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Rumor: Star Wars Battlefront: Online in the works

So long rumors! We’re live from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to bring you real coverage of Apple’s “Latest Creation” event. Follow the complete liveblog on Engadget or stick around here for Joystiq’s gaming coverage of Apple’s not-so-mystery device . Wait, it plays games, right? Right! Don’t tell us we flew all the way out here for nothing … Event start time by location 08:00AM – Hawaii 10:00AM – Pacific 11:00AM – Mountain 12:00PM – Central 01:00PM – Eastern 06:00PM – London 07:00PM – Paris 08:00PM – Ludwig 09:00PM – Moscow 03:00AM – Tokyo (January 28) Live from Apple’s ‘Latest Creation’ event originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:56:00 EST.

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Live from Apple’s ‘Latest Creation’ event

There’s still time for a few more quick Apple tablet rumors before Apple totally surprises everyone by announcing a tablet! The latest pre-announcement rumors come from entrepreneur Jason Calacanis (who used to own us ), who claims to have been given the device in advance due to his “pundit” status. In a series of tweets, he listed a bunch of possible details about the device, including an OLED screen, HDTV tuner, ability to run multiple apps simultaneously (currently not present in iPhone OS), wireless keyboard connectivity, and $599, $699, and $799 price points for various models depending on size and memory. It also features front and back cameras like the DSi. Speaking of Nintendo, Calacanis said that ” Apple tablet games are sick. Basically nintendo wii-level innovation.” He cited an “insane” custom implementation of Farmville to be shown on the stage today.

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Apple Tablet games are ’sick,’ Calacanis tweets

Let’s get this straight: There are rumors about video games, and then there are crazy internet rumors about video games that are so intriguing you can’t help but get excited about them, even though you don’t believe they’re anything more than products of an overactive fan imagination. This post is about the second kind. Information has bubbled up from the Japanese 2chan message board about the new Wii Zelda game and, while 2chan ’s record on rumors hasn’t been bad (they’ve broken information on Japanese anime, Resident Evil and other games that later turned out to be true), these rumors are crazy. Like Majora’s Mask crazy. See what we mean after the break

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Rumor: Zelda Wii to be Majora’s Mask sequel

Filed under: Features Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq (“LGJ”), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games : So, you heard the rumors about EA working on NBA Jam , and then the confirmation of a new NBA Jam for the Wii , and you, like so many other people, thought to yourself, “Hey, what ever happens to trademarks that aren’t being used? And why can’t we figure out what’s going on with NBA Jam before the press release by searching the Trademark office?” Well, I’m glad you asked, because these are questions that it’s high time I answered. Most people have a good idea that a trademark is a brand name or logo, and most people know that they can be registered with the government to be better protected. But what about those other general trademark issues?

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LGJ: Nagging Trademark Questions

Now this is just demoralizing. According to a report in the rumors section of the Feb. 2010 issue of Game Informer (which doesn’t name its source) there won’t be “any game from the [Half-Life] franchise in 2010.” As if that weren’t crushing enough, the magazine says it’s not even sure there will be a Half-Life 2: Episode 3 , postulating that the next Gordon Freeman adventure might be Half-Life 3 proper. Alright, listen, Half-Life : You take as long as you need, but we know you’re holding Portal 2 in there somewhere. Just let GLaDOS go unharmed and you can develop until 2020 for all we care.

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Game Informer: No Half-Life 2: Episode 3 for you in 2010

If rumors of day-one DLC for Mass Effect 2 sent shivers down your wallet’s spine, take heed of BioWare’s soothing tweet : “BioWare will not be charging extra for any new Mass Effect 2 content on launch day.” While that could mean about 50 different things depending on how you parse it, we at least feel comfortable with the idea that we won’t be doling out more than $60 right at the outset. The tweet goes on to say that more details would arrive this week, so don’t expect to be in the dark much longer. And yes, we did just turn a 130-character tweet into an unnecessarily elaborate news post. Thank you so much for noticing

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Bioware: Mass Effect 2 day-one DLC will be free