There are only so many features you can load onto a handheld before it starts to look like something out of a science-fiction movie.
News Blips:
The first images of a PSP2 developer kit have surfaced at VG247. The fuzzy photos depict the handheld's front- and back-facing cameras, a PSP Go-style sliding screen, twin thumbsticks, and a back-facing "trackpad." The website noted that the device's shape isn't finalized, as an anonymous source said that a newer, non-sliding hardware kit is already in the hands of a few developers. The PSP2 is supposedly slated for a late 2011 release. I wonder if an EMP bomb went off right when these photos were taken.
Valve pushes back the release date of Portal 2 to April 18, 2011. Calling it "the shortest delay in Valve's proud tradition of delays," the company jokingly noted the impending convergence of real time with Valve Time. "Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date," said Valve's official announcement. That's a relief. Valve Time is a vortex of temporal nightmares. I was getting ready to run to the hills.
Gears of War 3 Design Director Cliff Bleszinski chainsaws rumors of Kinect support for the upcoming third-person shooter. A tersely blunt Tweet by the developer squashed suppositions of motion-control technology being featured in the game: "No Kinect in Gears of War 3." Luckily, I do know for a fact that an endless supply of manly, gruff-voiced muscle-junkies will be in Gears of War 3, so we can always look forward to that!
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter describes how an online subscription for Call of Duty games would work. Concocting a "hybrid offering" of subscription rates and micro-transactions (while keeping online play free for those who wish it), Pachter outlined a variety of pricing options for gamers "ranging from virtual items for $1 apiece, $5 monthly subscriptions that entitle the gamer to play one game online and have access to all virtual items and map packs, $10 monthly subscriptions that offer all of that plus access to three or four games, and $15 subscriptions that offer all of that plus access to every game made by a particular publisher." And in a far-off palace opulently decorated with statues of crying gamers, Activision Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick pricked up his ears in sudden interest. (Let's hope not.) [Industry Gamers]
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