Tecmo tricked former Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki into releasing an unfinished version of PlayStation 2 brawler Dead or Alive 2, so claims the eccentric developer.

Speaking at the DICE summit in Las Vegas earlier today, as reported by Wired, Itagaki revealed that his team was only give two and a half months to port the fighter onto the PlayStation 2 in order to make the console's launch.

"All of the staff, led by me, fought for a victory with all their energy," siad Itagaki. "But unfortunately, the result wasn't what we expected."

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SoulCalibur 5 has entered the weekly Japanese software chart at number two, but sales are well below its predecessor.

The latest entry in Namco's beat 'em up series sold a modest 34,328 copies on PlayStation 3 in its first week on shelves, compared to the 74,607 SoulCalibur 4 managed back in 2008.

It was beaten to the top spot by last week's number two, Resident Evil: Revelations. Capcom's 3DS adventure saw sales drop 70 per cent week-on-week to 43,575, but that was still enough to take the chart crown.

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Sony made a gargantuan £1.3 billion loss during October to December 2011.

Sales of its many products decreased "significantly" year-on-year because of the floods in Thailand, the "deterioration in market conditions in developed countries" and "unfavourable foreign exchange", Sony said.

Sony made a profit in the third quarter of its previous financial year.

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From StarTropics to Star Fox Adventures, many a Zelda clone has aimed for the stars. But only one brought the stars to us. Quite literally, in fact.

In Okami's opening moments our canine sun goddess Amaterasu summons a dragon deity in the form of a constellation by filling in the missing star with her 'celestial brush'. This godly device allows players to manipulate the environment and manifest objects. Fancy changing the time? Draw a sun or moon in the sky to switch between day and night. Want to blow up a cracked wall? Paint a cherry bomb beside it. Need to traverse hazardous liquid? Create a lily pad as a makeshift raft, then scribble a gust of wind for a gentle push.

It's impossible to ignore that all of these items and abilities were ripped straight from Nintendo's flagship series, but the difference is in their implementation. The magical effects of Link's ocarina or wind baton bare no sensible correlation to the player's interaction. You'd play a ditty, watch a cutscene, then poof - wind! Drawing with the celestial brush is a more tactile action and the results correspond directly with your input. This is one of those grand ideas, deserving to be as revered as Portal's titular gun.

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Naruto, that weird spiky-haired manga beat-'em-up franchise that spits out games you probably ignore, has achieved 10 million sales now.

Streamers!

North American people bought most of the Naruto games (4.3 million), followed by Europe (3.8 million) and then Japan (1.9 million).

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The first entry in Guerrilla Games's Killzone FPS franchise is on its way to PlayStation Network, publisher Sony has announced.

According to GameInformer, it will be available in the US on 24th January priced at $9.99. A European release is yet to be confirmed.

Those hoping for a flashy HD make-over, prepare for disappointment - it's the dusty old PlayStation 2 original ported over wholesale.

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Sony sold an impressive 500,000 PlayStation 2 units over the Christmas period, the platform holder has announced.

It pointed to "emerging countries and regions such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America" as the main markets for the decade-old warhorse.

Anyone care to hazard a guess at how many new GameCubes or original Xboxes were snapped up over the same period?

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Hold your horses - Sony hasn't named Kaz Hirai as Sir Howard Stringer's presidential replacement just yet.

The company's top suits issued a statement to say that "nothing has been determined at this time".

Japanese news outlet Nikkei reported on Friday that Hirai could replace Stringer as soon as April.

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Green and white supermarket Asda believes there are 12 million "outdated" games consoles lurking in homes up and down the UK.

But what does "outdated" constitute?

"We asked people to quantify how many items (from a list) they owned but no longer used," Asda explained to Eurogamer.

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Final Fantasy 13-2 entered this week's Japanese software chart at number one, but sales of the game were way down on that of its predecessor.

The RPG sequel sold 525,271 to take the top spot, but that's nearly a third of the 1.5 million copies Final Fantasy 13 moved in its first four days back in 2009.

The game is due out on these shores on 3rd February 2012.

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Back in October 2001, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto 3 exclusively on PlayStation 2 and everything changed. A genre was defined by a gameplay formula that still persists to this day, many millions of copies were sold, and a megabucks franchise was born. 10 years later, Rockstar has unleashed a celebratory new version of the game for iOS and Android mobile devices - so what better opportunity for Digital Foundry to begin its long-threatened Retro Face-Off coverage?

In this article we'll be examining this iOS GTA running on iPad 2, and seeing just how Rockstar has converted it onto mobile platforms, noting the improvements made and perhaps the opportunities missed. We'll also be factoring in the PC version of the game, released seven months after the original in 2002, and most intriguingly of all we'll be examining the classic Xbox conversion, released precisely two years after the original once Sony's exclusivity period had expired.

In our usual Face-Off coverage it's rare that we actually see enormously significant differences between platforms these days. There's seldom any kind of financial imperative in making different versions of the game that utilise the respective strengths of each set of hardware to produce exciting, unique features, so instead it's all about finding a balance. With GTA3 on Xbox though, it was different, and with Rockstar Vienna on development duties the Xbox version was enormously improved over its predecessors on PS2 and PC.

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Rockstar has revealed why Grand Theft Auto 3 had a silent protagonist - ten years after the ground-breaking open world gangster game launched.

GTA 3's infamous protagonist, Claude, kept his mouth shut throughout the entire game. Rockstar said this was mostly because it had other things to worry about during development, and "this did not seem like a major issue".

"It may now seem obvious that people should all talk in games, but this was not necessarily the case in 2001, certainly not in an open world game," wrote the studio on Rockstar Newswire.

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The HTML 5-powered interactive game universe lays out the series' story with an interactive timeline and media player module. You can explore the MGS universe via navigational waypoints.

You can share your own MGS content and memories, too.

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Alterations were made to distance the game's fictionalised Liberty City setting from New York City, and a mission that mentioned terrorists was also trimmed.

"As far as I recall, we changed the colour of the cop cars so they weren't identical to NYPD, we altered the flight path of a plane so that it didn't look like it was flying into or behind a skyscraper, and we removed one mission as it made a reference to terrorists," Rockstar exec Dan Houser told Edge (via CVG).

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3DS sales were up over 200 per cent in Japan last week, following the launch of Super Mario 3D Land.

The new handheld's first Mario title, out here next week, sold a whopping 343,492 copies in its first four days on sale to take the software crown.

For context, Super Mario Galaxy sold 256,341 in Japan during its first week, while Super Mario Galaxy 2 managed 337,569.

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Sony has been put on a negative credit watch by financial ratings agency Standard & Poor.

As reported by Reuters, its credit rating was downgraded to A- as a result of concerns over the company's long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings.

"There are no signs of a halt to the deterioration in the earnings of the company's core flat panel TV business," read the report.

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Worldwide PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sales are now only two million units apart.

As of 30th September, 55.5 million PlayStation 3 units had been sold, Sony today revealed.

As of 30th September, 57.6 million Xbox 360 units had been sold.

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The PlayStation 3 version of zombie FPS Dead Island debuts at number five on this week's Japanese sales chart.

As reported by Andriasang, it shifted 39,945 copies on PS3, while the Xbox 360 version shuffled in at 10, with 13,147 sales.

Mech anime crossover Macross F Sayonara no Tsubasa topped the chart, with FIFA also seeing a top 10 debut down at seven. It seems PES, which entered at number one a few weeks back, retains its vice-like grip on Japanese footie fans, despite FIFA's recent domination of the Western market.

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God of War creator David Jaffe isn't interested in returning to the franchise unless he could reinvent the template he laid down in the PlayStation 2 original.

Jaffe, who's currently hard at work on Twisted Metal for PlayStation 3, explained in a blog post today that he now only wants to make titles that put gameplay ahead of story, a stance that might be at odds with the cinematic action that God of War has become famous for.

"A lot of people ask me if I'd ever make another God of War (assuming that opportunity was offered) and I always say the same thing: if it were God of War meets something like Zelda (formula wise), then yes (aka Darksiders, right?)," he wrote

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Ace Combat: Assault Horizon was the best-selling game in Japan last week, according to the latest Media Create data.

Andriasang reported that the latest entry in Namco's aerial combat sim sold 149,470 copies to see off fellow new entry Just Dance Wii in second place.

Elsewhere, Forza 4 debuted at number five, selling 24,854 copies, while Dead Rising 2: Off The Record entered at seven. Here's the full top 20:

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FIFA 12 outsold PES 2012 by a factor of 25 to one based on equivalent first weekend sales, claims EA.

Speaking in an interview with GamerZines, EA Europe VP Keith Ramsdale hailed the publisher's remarkable turn-around in the annual FIFA vs. PES tussle.

"When you look at Pro Evolution Soccer versus FIFA, only five years ago in the UK PES was outselling FIFA. On its first weekend like-for-like we've just outsold PES by 25 times," he said.

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EA intends to close down Harry Potter developer Bright Light.

A consultation process with staff has begun at the Guildford-based studio, Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz reports.

"After a review of all current and future projects, Electronic Arts has started a formal consultation process with its Bright Light employees over the proposed closure of the studio," said EA.

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As detailed by Andriasang, the PlayStation 3 version of Konami's footie sim sold 272,036 copies to take the top spot ahead of PSP dating sim AKB1/48 in second.

Other new entries in the top 10 included Codemasters' F1 2011 at three and id FPS Rage down at eight. Here's the top 20 in full:

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Rockstar is porting 2001 mega-hit Grand Theft Auto 3 to mobile devices.

The launch is part of the 10th anniversary of the groundbreaking sandbox action game, set for 22nd October 2011.

Grand Theft Auto 3 is down for "select new generation iOS and Android devices" this autumn.

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"They are coming, I don't have an ETA yet but I have heard they are 'on route' [sic]" wrote PlayStation's Andy Stewart on the EU PlayStation Blog.

PS2 classics are part of the Only On PSN promotion and went live in the US on 4th October.

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93,000 Sony accounts were accessed by hackers recently, Sony has revealed.

Of those 93,000 accounts, 60,000 were PlayStation Network / Sony Entertainment Network accounts, and 33,000 were Sony Online Entertainment accounts.

It amounts to one tenth of one per cent of Sony's total PSN, SEN and SOE audience.

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"The GMG team are delighted to be distributing EA products in the UK through our partners Ztorm. EA have a fantastic selection of titles that that we know our gamers will enjoy. Whilst we are only supplying our UK based customers at the moment we are hoping that we will be in a position offer EA products on our local language European GMG partner websites in the near future."

ORIGINAL STORY: Digital shop Green Man Gaming has pulled all EA games from its virtual shelves in all regions but the UK.

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Could Naughty Dog's pre-Uncharted PS2 work be ready for a comeback?

BT Games' listing (via Digital Spy) is sparse; no contents are detailed, and the game carries an ETA of 20th January 2012.

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At least one exclusive PSN title will be released each week throughout the month, starting this Wednesday with Rochard.

In the US, the confirmed line-up is Eufloria and Rochard for this week and Sideway: New York for next.

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Speaking in an interview with Develop, Cage argued that many publishers are underestimating customers' appetite for more daring game concepts.

"The games I make don't include a gun," he explained.

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For that hour all PSN services, including Store, Registration, Customer Account Management and PlayStation Home, will be unavailable.

And Sony warned PSN may remain offline after the hour is up "for testing purposes".

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As detailed in a blog post on its official site, the game was in development back in 2002 for unspecified consoles.

"Dungeon Duel combines fast-paced RTS strategy with the addictiveness of card game trading in a unique fantasy setting - a true RTS game built specifically with consoles and their controllers in mind," read the pitch.

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Finally! Over 14 months ago we heard that Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were being remastered in high definition for the PlayStation 3, and we offered up some HD emulation to give you some idea of how these classic games could look on the latest Sony console. Since then, aside from a trailer or two, there hasn't really been much we could follow up on.

A couple of weeks back, Bluepoint Games' conversions finally arrived, allowing us to finally compare the new code with the original PlayStation 2 games from Sony's Japan Studio. Let's kick off with the game that stands to get the biggest image quality upgrade. Ico originally ran in a very low resolution, even by PlayStation 2 standards - 512x224 - so the jump to full 1280x720 is quite remarkable. (Note: While the video below is 720p, Ico can run at native 1080p)

In this Digital Foundry comparison video, we've matched up PS3 and PS2 versions shot-by-shot to the exact frame, and thanks to the lo-fi nature of the footage, we're able to run this video as is, without the usual need we have to slow down our comparison videos to 50 per cent speed. In turn, this means we can use the original audio too - another welcome bonus.

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According to Andriasang, Nintendo's handheld took the top spot with 54,744 sales - down slightly on last week's 60,781 tally.

Elsewhere sales were largely flat, with PlayStation 3 taking second place, followed by PSP, Wii and the DS. Oh, and the PSP go finally hit single digits. Here's the full chart:

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I thought it would be a good idea.

After writing a couple of retrospectives of some entertainingly awful games (Driver 3, Soldner), when a developer approached me saying he'd worked on Driver 3, but suggested I try out another game he'd been involved with that was even worse, how could I resist? Someone telling me that a 2006 PS2 game so obscure it hasn't even troubled Wikipedia, let alone Metacritic, is so bad that it deserves attention. I went straight to eBay and found myself a copy.

Games like Daemon Summoner can slip through the cracks. They can go forgotten by the mainstream media, and by gaming at large, and that's a tragedy. Because when a game is as bad as Daemon Summoner, not being aware of what it's up to can only be dangerous. It would be like discovering a portal to hell, and thinking, "Meh, best left ignored." No, that's how the end of the world begins, and I'm not about to let that happen.

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As reported by Andriasang, Nintendo's new handheld topped this week's hardware chart by a big margin, selling 60,781 compared to the PlayStation 3's 33,141 in second place.

However, sales of the portable are dropping quickly. It moved 105,639 last week and 196,077 the week before. Where will it bottom out?

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Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi heads up the new team. According to Japanese magazine Famitsu (translated by Andriasang), Yakuza Studio is not a Yakuza-exclusive developer, despite its name. In fact, its first game is Binary Domain.

Following that game's launch, Yakuza Studio will create Yakuza Black Panther 2 for PlayStation Portable, the sequel to the PSP spin-off. In Japan it launches in spring 2012.

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As reported by Andriasang, Sony's console sold 29,666 units compared to 20,239 the week prior.

That was only good enough for third place in the hardware chart though. The 3DS is still doing brisk business following its own price cut, selling 105,639 units to take the spot. That's more than all other systems combined.

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Creative director Marcus Smith told Gaming Union he "can definitely see" Insomniac handing off the PlayStation exclusive shooter series to another developer.

"As far as Resistance being the flagship... I think Insomniac has always branched out," he said.

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When that happens, Sony will have to "seriously consider" launching the PlayStation 4, worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer.

"Looking at the platform cycle, when the platform becomes something game developers are not able to improve their creations with, that's the time we have to really seriously consider shifting to the next generation," Yoshida said.

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As reported by Kotaku, the new Deathwing raid is a massive boss fight set partly on the enormous dragon's back as it soars through the air.

Update 4.3, which is currently without a launch date, will also include three new dungeon instances and a couple of major new features.

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As detailed over on Andriasang, Ocarina of Time 3D climbed to sixth on this week's Japanese software chart selling 31,772 copies – up a whopping 548 per cent on the week before.

Nintendogs + Cats re-entered the top 20 at 12, with One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP back in at 14 and Star Fox 3D leaping from 38th to 18th.

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ORIGINAL STORY: Deliveries of Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs throughout the UK could be affected after a huge warehouse was set alight by rioters in London last night, Sony has said.

Sony's giant Enfield DADC centre was torched by rioters and looted during widespread chaos in London.

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I absolutely, categorically do not understand what everyone has against Escape From Monkey Island. While I admit I had been horribly wrong about The Curse Of Monkey Island, everyone else is entirely wrong about the fourth game in the series, and it's time for this mad prejudice to come to an end.

And there's no better time to do this than now, because this 11-year-old game is in fact currently incredibly topical. I know of no other game thats central motif is openly mocking Rupert Murdoch and his attempts to buy everything in the world. Well, I guess we can't say that for sure. Perhaps they were spoofing some other rich Australian grump who tries to take over everything he encounters.

It is unjust - simply awful - that this game is so weirdly dismissed, even hated, by fans of Monkey Island. Because despite (and even with) the 3D this is an absolutely stunning adventure game. It's one of the funniest, most involved, and downright strange in all of LucasArts' collection, and you - yes YOU - are a fool for the way you've been pretending you don't like it for all these years.

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It's called Ico: The Castle in the Mist, costs just under a tenner and goes on sale on 16th August from Viz Media.

"A boy with horns, marked for death," reads the synopsis. "A girl who sleeps in a cage of iron. The Castle in the Mist has called for its sacrifice: a horned child, born once a generation. When, on a single night in his thirteenth year, Ico's horns grow long and curved, he knows his time has come. But why does the Castle in the Mist demand this offering, and what will Ico do with the girl imprisoned within the Castle’s walls?"

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So I ran this guy over. I guess I didn’t like the look of him. He gets up twice, but I pop him back down again until he runs out of getting up juice. This causes the police to arrive, two of them. They screech to a halt nearby, get out of the car and then stand still. One stands in front of his police car, which proves a mistake when a van crashes into the back of it, causing the policeman to be run over by his own abandoned vehicle. The other cop reacts by sprinting off down the road, remembering himself, then turning around and running back, colliding with the bonnet of another van and running madly on the spot. The previously squished cop gets up, charges off down the road, and starts shooting his gun at a passing taxi.

So the cab driver gets out, shoots the cop dead then runs toward me, firing. I shoot him, for my own protection, causing two more cops to instantaneously arrive and kill me on the spot.

Welcome to Driv3r. A game that almost equals Soldner for levels of mad-faced brokenness. And that’s not a compliment I hand out lightly.

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"We're back online, everything's live again around the world, and the amazing thing through all of this is that the customers have all come back, and network performance is better than ever, sales are better than ever, and we've been very, very pleasantly surprised by the experience. And we're in a place where we're really looking forward again to what's next, what's new, and how we can keep growing the network. It's a pretty crazy event that we went through but we survived, and we're back strong, and ready to go."

"It's dramatic but that the lesson we learned from this process is that there are some crazy things going on in the world right now, and in the beginning we were very concerned that we were the focal point for this attack, and it was all about Sony, and what was Sony doing."

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A report by Newzoo (via MCV) said 52 per cent of the UK population, or 31 million of the 60 million people in Britain, are active gamers.

22 million of us play casual games on websites, 21 million play console games, 20 million play on mobile devices, 18 million on social networks, 16 million on boxed PC and Mac games, 15 million on PC and Mac downloads and 11 million on MMOs.

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What's more, Zumba managed to outsell the next four titles combined: Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, L.A. Noire, F.E.A.R. 3 and Virtua Tennis 4.

This week's newcomers, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and UFC Personal Trainer, are slow to start - finishing 21st and 22nd respectively.

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Kaz Hirai, of "Riiiidge Raaacer" fame, is now, wait for it, Representative Corporate Executive Officer and Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation, and President of Consumer Products & Services Group (CPSG). He's now also the Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment. Bet that looks pretty on his business card.

Andrew House, who was previously Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss, now has Hirai's old job at the top of Sony Computer Entertainment. From 1st September his business card will read: President and Group CEO of the entire Sony Computer Entertainment Group. Congratulations!

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Crytek UK, which formed from the ashes of Timesplitters creator Free Radical Design, said that despite the team having ideas good to go, it was felt the psychic-powered Second Sight "didn't have any momentum".

"Overall it didn't generate sufficient interest for us to feel it was worth making a sequel," Crytek UK boss Karl Hilton told Destructoid.

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Majesco's rights to the psychic powered platformer have lapsed, according to a tweet by Double Fine programmer Anna Kipnis:

"Omg Double Fine is now the sole publisher of Psychonauts!! If you buy it now (on Steam, for instance), the proceeds go to us!"

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Konami's recent press conference offered us our first opportunity to take a look at some post-E3 Metal Gear Solid 3DS footage, the vast majority of which is gleaned from the real-time engine cinematic that kicks off the game and looks very, very faithful to the PlayStation 2 original. But how close is it, and what - if anything - can we learn about the Metal Gear 3DS engine tech based on what's been revealed thus far?

We unearthed a copy of Snake Eater on PS2, captured it via HDMI on our backwards compatible PlayStation 3 and put together this head-to-head video (please excuse some creative licence on the logo sections!).

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I'd never played the Kingdom Hearts games before. In fact, I only really noticed they exist very recently. I'm not sure how that happened, but I decided to put it right by delving into the original PS2 version of the first Kingdom Hearts. It's important to plug these gaps.

To say that Kingdom Hearts is a game that doesn't start well is a bit like saying some famous footballers occasionally entertain the notion of putting their winkies in the wrong places. I swear I occasionally felt physical pain as I struggled through the opening few hours of tortuous, tedious, turgid nonsense. Why on Earth would anyone care about this bilge?

Things begin in a jumbled dream sequence that makes less sense than even my own dreams. If the central spiky-haired character, as he fell from Disney-themed stain-glass platform to Disney-themed stain-glass platform, in between emo mumbling on a beach, had suddenly turned into a crocodile queuing for a bus, before realising he's late for his exams but his legs are stuck in potted plants, it wouldn't have been any more difficult to follow.

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"Hey @Sony, you know we're making off with a bunch of your internal stuff right now and you haven't even noticed? Slow and steady, guys" reads a tweet published by the hackers this morning.

LulzSec, as the group is known, threatened Sony with what it describes as an "operation".

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NeoGAF user "miladesn" spotted the trademark.

What does Square Enix have in mind?

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The focus this time around is on "the instinctive way the game can be played and on teamwork". The game's AI engine has undergone a "major" overhaul.

Attacking play is described as a "cornerstone" of the game. A more open approach allows players to "dictate the pace of movement".

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The device launched on most other UK networks in April, but O2 held back to address undefined issues it had with the hardware.

According to the O2 blog, it seems those kinks have now been ironed out.

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But according to new data, video game prices are going up – and it's the supermarkets who are raising the average price the most.

UK game sales tracker Chart-Track said the average price of a video game in 2010 was £24.32, up 7.2 per cent on 2009.

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"We began our tenure on Red Dead Redemption (known as RDR2 from here) at the beginning of 2008 after we had finished work on Manhunt 2 and Bully: Scholarship Edition," wrote Matt Kazan on his online portfolio, spotted by Superannuation.

"Our primary task at Rockstar Toronto was to redo much of San Diego's earlier artwork on RDR2, mostly props. RDR2 had began as a Sixth Generation era game, and much of the content we were redoing was artwork geared toward the PlayStation 2/Xbox.

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Maguire joined SCE way back when the original PlayStation launched and went on to become senior vice president and UK MD. He also oversaw Sony's business in the Irish, Nordic and Mediterranean regions, as well as Benelux.

"Having been here right from the start and after a lot of soul searching, I feel that now is the right time for me to move on," said Maguire.

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The Atlus-created title is published by Ghostlight. A PlayStation Network download version is also expected.

The Collector's Edition includes a 48-page hardback art book, an A3 poster, a slipcase and other gubbins.

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The review aggregation site blamed poorly detailed credits for the decision.

"We have no plans to bring it back. Right now we just want to see if we can build the database, take a shot at it, see what we can do," co-founder and games editor Marc Doyle told GamesIndustry.biz.

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Yesterday reports emerged that Metacritic had begun collecting the score distribution of developers and working out an average career score.

It determined whether a game developer played a part in the creation of a game by having a gander at the credits entered on GameFAQs, which, like Metacritic, is owned by CBS.

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By comparison, the UK government appears stingy. And culture secretary Jeremy Hunt knows a change needs to be made.

"We need to offer the video game industry a package as financially competitive as Canada," Hunt told The Guardian.

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It collects the score distribution of developers and works out an average career score.

Industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong series, has a career score of 80.

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The Neversoft-created music game generated an eye-watering $830.9 million in revenue for Activision in North America alone.

Guitar Hero III, which launched in November 2007, beats out Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops, which has raked in $787.4 million since launch late last year, in NPD's list published by CNBC.

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Website Androidandme noticed NVIDIA's Tegra Zone app updated with an announcement relating to Sony's hardware neutral game framework PS Suite.

The thrust of the release concerned the announcement that the Suite will come to Tegra-equipped Android phones and tablets later this year - the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, due out later this month, was previously the only device confirmed to offer PlayStation titles.

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The centre, run by children's charity SpecialEffect, was formally opened by Cameron and the charity's patron, Matt Hampson. It offers a central hub where technology can be tested and shared to help young people with disabilities to play videogames.

Speaking at the launch, attended by Eurogamer, Cameron said: "The work of SpecialEffect brings together three things that I am passionate about: helping those with disabilities, the innovative use of technology and corporate social responsibility.

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Projects at Sony London, Sony Liverpool and Evolution Studios have been axed.

"It has been decided that production on a small number of projects within London Studio, Studio Liverpool, and Evolution Studios will be streamlined or closed due to a portfolio review and project prioritisation," Sony said in a statement issued this afternoon.

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"Through this last transition to the PS3 era... for a whole bunch of reasons that aren't worth getting into in a short answer, I think it's fair to say we dropped the ball," CEO John Riccitiello said at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, reported by Gamasutra.

"Our IP deteriorated, our costs went up, and we didn't really have an answer for the rise in digital."

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StarCraft Ghost was to be an action spin-off for PS2 and Xbox (and GameCube, once upon a time). You'd play as nimble super-spy woman Nova and mission through an experience not a million miles away from Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid.

Announced in 2002, StarCraft Ghost changed development hands twice before being "indefinitely postponed" by renowned perfectionist Blizzard in 2006. The reason? So all attention could be focused on the new flock of consoles - the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Ha!

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The PS2, which was first sold in March 2000 in Japan, is the best-selling console of all time.

An eye-watering 1.52 billion units of PS2 software have been sold worldwide as of the end of December 2010.

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A viewer complained that the use of the EA Sports logo was "irrelevant", "unnecessary" and "blatant" during a match - and sparked an Ofcom investigation.

The complaint, according to Media Week, relates to the Everton versus Manchester United game from 11th September last year. During the Sky Sports 2 match EA branding popped up 14 times, such as around match statistics.

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Sales decreased by 6.4 per cent year-on-year, but Sony won't be too bothered: it expects to sell more PS3s this financial year than the previous financial year. It forecasts it'll shift 15 million PS3s worldwide by the end of the financial year. It sold 13 million PS3s during the entire financial year last time around.

6.3 million PS3s were sold during the quarter, down slightly by 0.2 per cent, although Sony has already met its sales projection for the year. Total global PS3 sales now stand at 47.9 million. Xbox 360 has sold 50 million worldwide.

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The move is part of a strategy that will see a total of 85 shops shut down over a three-year period.

GAME has opened or relocated stores in the past nine months and dropped 25 shops that were in Debenhams.

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It's a couple of hours after today's momentous PlayStation Meeting, the Tokyo event at which Sony unveiled its lavishly-specced successor to PSP, codenamed Next Generation Portable, or NGP.

A cab ride has taken me from the briefing to the imposing, minimalist Tokyo HQ of the entire Sony Corporation. I'm here to interview Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, about what I've just seen and heard.

At the conference, Sony also made the surprising announcement of PlayStation Suite, a PlayStation-branded platform bringing classic PSone games as well as new developments to Android-powered phones and tablets. The idea seems to be that PS Suite will fight a rearguard action against Apple and the iPhone, opening the smartphone market up for more traditional gaming, while NGP takes the fight to Nintendo's 3DS with an equally gimmicky gaming gadget – albeit one with much more horsepower and, it appears, superior online features.

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While on stage at Sony's PSP2 reveal press conference this morning, PlayStation boss boss Kaz Hirai said Sony had exceeded over 69 million PlayStation Network accounts as of 25th January.

That 69 million figure represents PSN accounts registered across all networked Sony products (such as televisions), and not just on PS3 and PSP.

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ACS: Law has sent thousands of letters to alleged file-sharers, including gamers.

In a statement read to the patent court in London, reported by the BBC, solicitor Andrew Crossley said he had ceased all such work.

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The estimate is based on information received from "a number of publishers", UK Interactive Entertainment told Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz.

It was attempting to clarify a BBC report which claimed people who play illegal copies of videogames on chipped or modified consoles cost at least £1.45 billion in lost sales in 2010.

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The competition begins this summer at the University of Abertay Dundee.

The prize is the BAFTA Ones to Watch award. Apply at Dare to be Digital's website. Doors close on 3rd April.

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Trade-ins were huge over Christmas, Group CEO Ian Shepherd told MCV.

"Even in the run-up to Christmas, when you would think most of our customers are buying games new in order to give them as gifts, you still have a lot of trade-in happening," Shepherd said.

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That's the assessment of Capcom producer Motohide Eshiro, who told Official Nintendo Magazine the Clover Studio classic suffered under the weight of announcements by Nintendo and Sony.

"I can't comment officially but, personally speaking, I think it had a lot to do with the announcements for new consoles," Eshiro said.

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Some poor soul at Guinness HQ sat down and counted a total of over 5000 expletives in Radical Entertainment's 2006 game adaptation of the notoriously rude Al Pacino mobster flick.

The latest edition of Guinness' annual gaming enchiridion, in shops today priced at £14.99, also details 'Most people to sing to a karaoke videogame' (10,490), 'Youngest gamer to achieve a perfect AAA score on Dance Dance Revolution' (9 year-old Ryota Wada), 'Oldest voice actor in a videogame' (87 year-old Brit thespian Christopher Lee) and 'Most perfect games on Wii Sports bowling' (2,850), among many records.

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The world's fastest-selling videogame had played second fiddle to EA's FIFA 11, which this week falls to two.

Sony's brand new superhero MMO DC Universe manages its first week in 10th.

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Here are some of the thoughts I've had while playing third-person platformer action Ratchet & Clank, organised into categories:

I like things

I like platform games with lists of quests. Sure, I'm just running around hitting things and jumping up buildings, but I'm doing it with a strong sense of purpose. Here it's to send the buddy team of cat-fox thing Ratchet and snooty robot Clank on an adventure to save the galaxy.

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Inside the new device is a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM and a Qualcomm Adreno 205 graphics chip, according to Engadget's roundup of a Hong Kong forum-based leak.

The screen measures four inches, apparently, and can pump out a resolution of 854x480 pixels.

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Enterbrain, owner of Famitsu, recorded 2.96 million sales of DS between 28th December 2009 and 26th December 2010 (via Andriasang). A mere 73,233 sales behind is PSP, with 2.89 million sales.

That gap widens to the third-place Wii (1.73 million) and fourth-place PS3 (1.59 million). Xbox 360 managed 208,790 sales.

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The cull begins on 11th January, when EA will shut down the online service for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360 and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king for Xbox 360.

"Our licensing deal with Middle-earth Enterprises has expired, forcing us to shutdown the online services for The Lord of the Rings games," EA wrote on its website.

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The UK games market was worth £2.875 billion in 2010, according to official figures from UK trade body UKIE, reported by MCV.

The Xbox 360 was the UK's most lucrative console with hardware revenues of £232 million. The PS3 followed with £229 million. The two platforms combined shifted 2.3 million units.

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As in previous weeks, FIFA 11 dribbles close by in second, and is followed by Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit in third, Just Dance 2 in fourth and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in fifth.

Gran Turismo 5 keeps on chugging in sixth, Donkey Kong Country Returns beats its chest in seventh, Medal of Honor salutes in eighth and Wii Fit Plus puffs in ninth.

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The thing about sequels is you know what to expect. The conventions of the franchise are usually well established; they're familiar, comforting even. They're what gives the game its identity.

Games critics try to approach sequels with an understanding of what the franchise in question does well and where it could improve. Plus, most of all, the elements which define it as that type of game. Like any gamer, if we loved the previous instalment we really want more of the same, but better.

Then the inevitable occurs. A formula starts to feel old, so Leading Publisher X promises a dramatic reinvention for Huge IP Y with a focus on Flavour Of The Month Game Feature Z.

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