A recent patent request by Square Enix, which credits Square luminary Tetsuya Nomura as inventor, may offer a glimpse at the next big thing from the mind behind Kingdom Hearts.
Speculation has been rampant since EA Canada Community Manager Alain Quinto tweeted that EA Sports would announce an entirely new game in January. Some guessed that the new title would be a WWE or baseball game. The current rumor is that the game in question is much more novel than previously suspected.
No need for alarm, Nintendo’s next console is most likely not called the Nintendo Zii, and hasn’t been trademarked as such. SiliconEra, which loves to dig up this stuff, found a Nintendo trademark for “Zii” in Japan, and speculated that this was perhaps the name for a high-definition Nintendo Wii, noting that three years is a bit late for something as simple as name protection. But after doing some digging, Engadget found that this is likely just a renewal of a trademark request from 2006. Also, trademarks from Nintendo were found for Bii, Cii, Oii and Yii. Why the Big N didn’t go the extra mile and trademark Xii, Uii, Iii and Nii is beyond me, and my Mii.
![demonssouls1 Demons Souls DLC? Somethings Brewing [Update: No]](http://gamercrave.frsucrave.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/demonssouls1.jpg "demonssouls")
Update: A few commenters have pointed out that this is likely a white world tendency event, much like the black world tendency event that took place on Halloween. That makes much more sense. Feel free to ignore the speculative difficulty rant below.
Sony seems to be planning something for fans of Demon’s Souls, myself included. “Heroes of Boletaria, take heart: rumor has it the Old One’s power will falter in the days following the winter solstice #demonssouls,” reads a Tweet from Sony’s Playstation Twitter account. Blend Games did a quick and dirty analysis of the cryptic message and speculates that the game will get an optional easier difficulty setting, due to fall after December 21 (when the winter solstice begins).
So you bought the PSP Go, but suddenly you’re wishing you had the PSP-3000, with its glorious optical drive, instead. Logitech may be working on a solution, according to a source speaking to CVG. As you’d expect, the add-on will let you play games on UMD, thanks to an attachable drive, though it’s not clear how the drive would mount onto the device. “The only problem is that it’ll make the PSP a little bulky,” the source said. That suggests the add-on would be something you attach rather than simply plug in by wire, but it’d still have to go through the handheld’s multi-use connector, which sounds a little screwy.
I really liked Mirror’s Edge. Amidst 2008′s heavy hitters — Gears of War 2, Resistance 2 and Fallout 3 among them — the first-person parkour drama was a welcome respite. And though all the leaping across buildings and sliding under railings got a bit repetitive, the game was short enough not to wear out its welcome, and there was lots of potential for improvement. With that mini-review in mind, I’m happy there’s a slight chance Mirror’s Edge 2 is a reality. Oscar Carlén, a lighting artist at EA’s DICE studio, listed the project along with Battlefield 3 in his portfolio, according to Joystiq (both mentions have reportedly been removed). EA, who previously said it will cull underperforming franchises, told Official Xbox Magazine that it has “nothing to add” to the rumor, but the company did announce Mirror’s Edge for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Details and screenshots after the jump.
Whoops, it appears that a few photos of Facebook integration on the Playstation 3 briefly appeared on Sony’s Web site. They are, of course, down now, but as you know nothing can ever really be removed from the Internet. So as you can see, these photos, first provided by a tipster to ScrawlFX, are tiny. You can’t really see what’s going on or how the concept would work, and if it weren’t for that big fat Facebook logo in the top left screenshot, you might not even know that this is Facebook.
Microsoft is yet to announce a release window for the Xbox 360′s motion-sensing camera, codenamed Project Natal, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from having its say. On the word of unnamed sources, MCV reports that Project Natal will be released in November 2010, with a price tag of under £50. We’ve heard “fall 2010″ before, both from Peter Molyneux who said that’s the earliest Project Natal will arrive and in a report from 1UP that said Microsoft will launch an updated console along with the motion controller (Microsoft has denied this). The release window certainly makes sense, with Molyneux working on the Natal-supported Fable 3 for next year, but what’s most interesting here is the price point.
That Steve Ballmer, always getting Microsoft into trouble, like with yesterday’s tidbit that Xbox 360 owners could someday get Blu-ray as an accessory. As Microsoft’s chief executive officer, Ballmer can say what he likes, but here’s Xbox Live’s director of programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb (at right, above) on follow-up: “Steve was referring to Blu-Ray accessories for the PC. As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360.” Hryb then talked up the 1080p online video streaming, which will soon come to the Xbox 360. Eh, Blu-ray for the Xbox 360 was probably a bad idea anyway. [via Major Nelson]
