Talk about a case of bad timing. On the eve of the big launch for the New Xbox Experience -- which, remember, marks "a new dawn in home entertainment" -- we've learned that Netflix streaming won't have quite as many films available as we had been hoping. Joystiq learned earlier this evening that a number of films -- including both Ghostbusters and Bad Boys -- are now unavailable to be streamed to ...

The rumors of a portable iteration of LittleBigPlanet continue, but now they have some company. Sony has expressed interested in not just expanding LittleBigPlanet beyond the PlayStation 3, but Rock Band and Guitar Hero as well.Speaking with the MTV Multiplayer blog, head of Sony America hardware marketing John Koller called LittleBigPlanet "expansionary," saying that Sony would certainly be look ...

During his keynote address back at TGS, Microsoft's John Schappert revealed that Live had reached 14 million global subscribers. Not to be outdone for too long, in a post celebrating the PS3's second birthday on the Official PlayStation Blog, Sony says they now match that number with 14 million active accounts on their PlayStation Network.The post adds that 273 million pieces of content have been ...

Sure, retro-chic fare like Mega Man 9's all the rage now, but the trend of new, purposefully old-school releases arguably started with last year's Japanese import Game Center CX: Arino's Challenge. XSEED's publishing the localized DS collection as Retro Game Challenge, set for a January release. (For a more in-depth look at the overall game, check out our preview of the Japanese version.) As in th...

Don't be ashamed to admit that you find the recent deluge of Tales titles a tad daunting -- even dedicated disciples of Namco Bandai's prolific role-playing franchise occasionally have a tough time keeping all of its myriad subseries, spin-offs, sequels, and remakes straight. Some, such as the recent Xbox 360 offering Tales of Vesperia, deliver fresh, newbie-friendly thrills, but Wii-exclusive Daw...

Hyperbole comes in all sorts of different forms, but Microsoft's new push going out today strikes me as downright silly. A press released entitled "A New Dawn in Home Entertainment for Everyone Begins Nov. 19" was sent out today containing the objectionable comparison between the release of the New Xbox Experience tomorrow and the release of the color TV in 1954. With the expectation of reaching 2...

Two key things will undoubtedly run through your mind as you play Valve's first-person survivors-versus-zombies shooter Left 4 Dead: the phrase "oh, s***!" repeated ad nauseam in response to a stressful turn of events, and the phrase "goddamn sadistic Director system" after either surviving or failing that stressful turn.The Director system in question is what makes L4D so special, although a lot ...

Away: Shuffle Dungeon might be the most taxing game I've ever played. The exhaustion isn't a matter of reflexes, however; like most top-down action-role-playing games, it doesn't require thumb dexterity so much as cautious play. That's the rub, though: Caution only goes so far when the dungeon's rearranging itself every few seconds.Shuffle Dungeon is a conceptual riff on the notorious recurring ti...

People still can't seem to get enough of the Wii, at least judging from its monthly dominance of the sales charts, but one place it hasn't dominated is online gaming. Its reliance on players exchanging twelve digit "friend codes" to connect with each other flies in the face of the Wii's approach of being so easy to use anyone can pick it up and play right away. They've left the door open for someo...

Sonic Unleashed has been delayed in North America, reports IGN. While the Wii and PS2 versions should be hitting stores today, the Xbox 360 version has been pushed to next week, November 24. To make matters worse, the PlayStation 3 version has been given an indeterminate "December" release date. This comes shortly after we heard that the game had been delayed until Spring 09 in Japan, so North Ame...

In January 2008, EA struck an exclusivity deal with the NCAA, which means their annual college hoops title, NCAA Basketball 09, is all alone at center court this season. That's doubly disappointing for hardcore fans, as 2K's College Hoops has outdone EA's efforts since the jump to HD gen (two Bs for 2K versus two C+s for EA), particularly now that NCAA Basketball 09 proves little more than mediocr...

It's hard to find much fault in Gears of War 2's deliriously fun online multiplayer -- not if you can get into it, anyway. It seems complaints have been flooding in from gamers experiencing unusually long matchmaking wait times, and now Epic Games has acknowledged the problems on the official Gears of War forum (via Shacknews), and promised they're hard at work to develop a solution."We're aware t...

The Wired Blog reports that a new study showsmotion controls don't contribute to levels of aggression in players of violent videogames. Conducted by Dr. Patrick Markey at Villanova University, the study gauged "hostility and aggressive thoughts" while playing Manhunt 2 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. 68 female and 50 male college students took a "psychoticism" test before and after playing the two ga...

The New Xbox Experience may be just another 24 hours away, but doesn't it feel so much better when you get something just a little bit early? Well if you were one of the many who managed to apply for an early preview of the New Xbox Experience, congratulations -- you get to download it today. Major Nelson has announced that everyone who successfully registered their console with a valid console ID...

The idea of comic book superheroes (and villains) duking it out with the Mortal Kombat series' eclectic cast of costumed weirdos goes well beyond the realm of absurd. Yet, somewhat ironically, this ridiculous concept is the best thing that's happened to MK in the past 13 years. After all, when you really think about it, how different are these two universes? Answer: not terribly.Mortal Kombat vs. ...

You know a franchise is oversaturated when it feels like a clich? to mention that there are too many games using its license, but that's Naruto. Fortunately, it's a license with mostly well-made games, so to help clarify what makes Broken Bond (the follow-up to last year's Rise of a Ninja, and Ubisoft Montreal's second Xbox 360 Naruto game) unique, we spoke with producer Stefan Cardin.1UP: What's ...

Disney Interactive Studios has unveiled the full tracklist and release date for their peripheral-free rhythm game Ultimate Band. Although the Wii and DS versions of the game feature songs and gameplay unique to their respective platforms, both are scheduled to go on sale November 25. The complete setlist for the two games follows:Wii Song List"Girls Not Grey""Complicated""Hanging on the Telephone"...

I wasn't sure what to expect when Square Enix invited me and Game Developer magazine's Christian Nutt to have dinner with the creators of The Last Remnant. Mainly awkwardness, I suppose. It's difficult to have a casual, relaxed conversation with Japanese developers, which is more a matter of cultural barriers than language; Japanese devs tend to be guarded around the press, and Square Enix's creat...

Huxley 'Battleground' videoBased on information received from an NHN USA representative, Big Download (via Eurogamer) is reporting that MMO-shooter hybrid Huxley will not be making its late-2008 release due to the development team needing more time to localize content. Although the representative didn't specify whether both the PC and Xbox 360 versions have been pushed to 2009, it's probably safe ...

At the same BMO Capital Markets' conference last week in New York where he gave an update on upcoming GTAIV DLC and Chinatown Wars, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick offered a glimpse further down the road. In his "Negative Approach" blog for cnet, Dave Rosenberg related these remarks from Zelnick:The Holy Grail is taking a business, already a very large and successful business that's focused on packag...

Bemanistyle reports that Activision and Konami appear to be working together to make an arcade game based on the popular Guitar Hero franchise. The cabinet is said to feature between eight and ten speakers, more than 500 LED lights, and a 32" monitor. The rumor also states that the cabinets will be hooked to the Internet for online tournaments. The rumor sounded a bit fishy, but an update with a p...

Rare is hoping to turn heads with its new game offerings, according to a report on GamesIndustry.biz. In an interview with GI, Rare studio manager Mark Betteriedge said that the company's next games will "surprise a lot of people, both in terms of what they are and the different styles." Rare has generally been the casual and kid-friendly arm of Microsoft Game Studios, which has come with its shar...

Strong Bad: Ep 4 'Dangeresque 3' trailer HDThis week, Strong Bad proves itself to be one of the few episodic games that are actually sticking to an episodic schedule, with Strong Bad Episode 4: Dangeresque 3 arriving on WiiWare. Joining it is Target Toss Pro: Bags, with the SNES version of Space Invaders and Forgotten Worlds for the Genesis hitting the Virtual Console.Strong Bad Episode 4: Dangere...

Don't look now, but Atari is alive, kicking and even showing a bit of a spark. Witness their latest first-half of the fiscal year financial report, which has Atari showing a net 44.5 percent year-on-year increase.Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that the perpetually troubled company's net revenue rose from EUR 91.2 million ($115 million) to EUR 131.8 million (USD 166.8 million) from last year. The p...

Over the weekend, Microsoft acknowledged the growing complaints of Xbox 360 gamers around the net and confirmed they were hard at work to resolve connection issues that had been plaguing Xbox Live. Well, whatever the problem was, it's apparently been fixed, as the latest update in a very crowded Major Nelson post announces everything should be back to normal."I have been informed by e that these i...