UbiSoft has officially announced the fourth Ghost Recon, titled Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Xbox 360 owners will enjoy an exclusive multiplayer beta test for the shooter for people who buy Splinter Cell: Conviction. The game will be released for the 360, PlayStation 3 and PC during the 2010 Holiday season.

The announcement is unsurprising, predicted by several sites this week, not to mention the trademarking of “Ghost Recon: Future Soldier” in December.

UbiSoft also promised the PC version will have additional features to be revealed at a later date.

Click “Read more…” for the press release.

UBISOFT^® EXPANDS TOM CLANCY PORTFOLIO WITH TOM CLANCY™’S GHOST RECON: FUTURE SOLDIER™
* *
Exclusive Multiplayer Beta Available This Summer
*LONDON – February 9, 2010 –* Today Ubisoft announced that Tom Clancy™’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier™ is in development at Ubisoft’s Paris studio and is scheduled to be released worldwide Holiday 2010.

Created by the award-winning team behind Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter^®  and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter^® 2, the game will feature cutting-edge technology, prototype high-tech weaponry, and state-of-the-art single-player and multiplayer modes. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will go beyond the core Ghost Recon franchise and deliver a fresh gameplay experience, with an unparalleled level of quality that will excite long-time fans and newcomers alike.

Ubisoft is offering gamers a chance to be the first to play Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s Multiplayer Beta this summer 2010. This exclusive beta invitation will be available for a limited time to customers who purchase Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction™ for the Xbox 360^® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, which releases on 16 April 2010.

For ongoing updates about Tom Clancy™’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, please visit: www.GhostRecon.com

According to a recent post on in the BioWare community forums, there will be two new items available for download tomorrow. This will be available via the Cerberus Network interface, so if you purchased the game brand new, or coughed up 1200 Microsoft Points, you will eligible for the download.

The two items are new pieces of equipment, first there’s the Cerberus Assault Armor which will give players a +10% upgrade to shields and health. Next there is the M-22 Eviscerator Shotgun which is has armor piercing shells and can be fired long range.

If you bought Mass Effect 2 new, both items are free. Otherwise, you may as well wait for DLC to be worth $15 before commiting to the Cerberus Network.

Bluesnews is reporting that the Xbox 360 version of Need for Speed: SHIFT will be getting an exclusive DLC Ferrarri car pack on February 16 for 800 MSP ($10 USD).

Ferrari Races into Need for Speed SHIFT announces new DLC for Need for Speed SHIFT that adds 10 different Ferraris to the racing game, as well as Ferrari-specific challenges. This is apparently not coming to PCs, however, as word is: “The Ferrari Racing pack is the latest downloadable content for Need for Speed SHIFT and will be available worldwide today exclusively on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system for $10.00 or 800 Microsoft Points (Need for Speed SHIFT and Xbox LIVE® account required).”

The Ferrarris included are the 1996 Ferrari F50 GT, the 2005 Ferrari F430 Spider, the 2005 Ferrari FXX, the 2005 Ferrari Superamerica, the 2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, the Ferrari F430 Challenge (Online/Quick event only), the 2006 Ferrari F430 GTC (Online/Quick event only), the 007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia, the 2008 Ferrari California, and the Ferrari 16M Scuderia Spider. 800 MSP is awfully steep for a car expansion pack – are the 10 Ferrarris and eight racing events included enough to make it worthwhile?

Click “Read more…” for the full press release.

Ferrari Races into Need for Speed SHIFT

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that, after a seven year hiatus, the venerable automaker and elite racing brand Ferrari is returning to Need for Speed. On February 16^th, players of Need for Speed™ SHIFT will be able to download a content pack that delivers 10 extraordinary Ferrari cars including the 430 Scuderia and the ultra-rare FXX and F50 GT. Now, Need for Speed SHIFT players will feel the rush of being in the driver’s seat, realizing the true driver’s experience of being behind the wheel of a Ferrari car.

“We are thrilled to be partnering again with Ferrari.”

The Ferrari Racing pack is the latest downloadable content for Need for Speed SHIFT and will be available worldwide today exclusively on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system for $10.00 or 800 Microsoft Points (Need for Speed SHIFT and Xbox LIVE® account required).

In addition to 10 new cars, the Ferrari Racing Series will also extend SHIFT’s career mode with 46 new Ferrari specific challenges designed for the Ferrari cars to participate in including hot laps, eliminators, endurance races and a world tour. Completing the perfect Ferrari package are an additional 125 gamerpoints as a reward for undertaking various exciting challenges. All Ferrari cars can also be taken online where players can prove who has the skills to master these high-performance Italian racing machines.

The Ferraris available include:

1. 1996 Ferrari F50 GT

2. 2005 Ferrari F430 Spider

3. 2005 Ferrari FXX

4. 2005 Ferrari Superamerica

5. 2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano

6. 2006 Ferrari F430 Challenge (Online/Quick event only)

7. 2006 Ferrari F430 GTC (Online/Quick event only)

8. 2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia

9. 2008 Ferrari California

10. 2008 Ferrari 16M Scuderia Spider

“Need for Speed is recognized globally for showcasing amazing cars, including some of the world’s most desirable high-performance vehicles,” said Keith Munro, vice president at EA. “We are thrilled to be partnering again with Ferrari.”

Need for Speed SHIFT features an intense first-person crash dynamic and a signature cockpit view that delivers a true driver’s experience. The game further personalizes the experience through the all-new driver profile — a unique persona based on the driving skill and style of each player. With a perfect ‘10’ score from GameSpy.com and G4TV.com, and 90+ scores from IGN.com, Official Xbox Magazine, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Team Xbox.com, Game Daily.com, Gametrailers.com and more, Need for Speed SHIFT is the highest rated Need for Speed game in years.

Need for Speed SHIFT is now available on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360, PC, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, mobile and the iPhone™. More information can be found at www.needforspeed.com or follow us on Twitter at NeedforSpeed.

Press can download assets at http://info.ea.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS^TM, EA^TM, EA Mobile ^TM and POGO^TM. In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO and Need for Speed are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. The names, designs, and logos of all products are the property of their respective owners and used by permission. Microsoft, Xbox and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. “PlayStation” and “PSP” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The publishing giant is looking to release Visceral Games’ Dead Space 2 as well as BioWare’s Dragon Age 2 no later than March 31 of next year.

EA also revealed that we should expect a title that has yet to be named from Epic, as well as a new Need For Speed title.

A year from now seems awfully soon for Dragon Age 2, but you can bet like Mass Effect 2, the endgame save file will be transferrable.

Let us know what you think.

Lucasarts has confirmed LEGO Star Wars III, and that it will take the animated series The Clone Wars as its template this time around.

The game will again be developed by UK studio Traveller’s Tales though it does promise brand new gameplay elements. It will include characters and settings from both Clone Wars TV series.

Our official reaction is a tremendous yawn and a dismissive “Ugh”. The LEGO games have not only been beaten to death at this point, but what is this manic obsession with the idiotic prequel crap George Lucas seems to be spewing out? The only way the franchise will grow, it seems, is if he kicks the bucket like Gene Roddenberry did, who, too, interfered with his own product.

Note to Lucas: the prequels stunk. Stop foisting these uninteresting characters on us. No one cares. Just enjoy the royalty checks and give someone else the reins to the IP. Please stop taking long dumps in your own drinking water. Now.

Rant over.

“There’s some very, very big things happening in Fable,” Molyneux said in a GameReactor interview, “Bigger than you think, and it’s going to really upset people. I’m really scared when I go out and tell people what it is they’re going to get super pissed off, they really are.”

What decisions could happen in Fable III that could frustrate a gamer? Could it be related to whatever Project Natal will be controlling in the game? Whatever the case, expect Fable III gameplay footage soon.

Let us know what you think.

(Thanks, Xboxic.)

Electronic Arts has its eye on the social space in a big way, moving aggressively toward digital revenue models and buying up Playfish — and it looks like one of its next moves will see the Madden NFLfranchise coming to Facebook.

“We have to make Madden more accessible,” EA Sports boss Peter Moore told Bloomberg. “You’ll see us on Facebook going forward.”

It’ll be interesting to see how they turn Madden into a football social game. Will people own franchises? Have play-by-email games? Let us know what you think.

1Up is reporting that there’s some new Metroid: The Other M information given by the series’ co-creator about what will be in this game, announced in last year’s E3.

…In the pages of the latest Famitsu (via Andriasang), Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto explained a bit of what the game’s focus will be.

“[Different] from the rest of the series, this time we’re strongly depicting the human side of Samus through such things as movies,” Yakamoto said. “She’s a strong woman, but she also has a fragile side. We want to make a game whose charms can be felt from the story areas and these human touches as well. It’s an action game, but it’s capable of having a clear emotional side.”

No doubt the team-up with CG studio D-Rockets is where those movies come into the picture, and the announcement trailer at E3 last year (above) was already evidently filled with story-driven cut-scenes.

Let us know if you’re interested in the latest Metroid game for the Wii.

Speculation began earlier today when Ubisoft Community Developer Aymeric Evennou tweeted: “I’d only say: ‘Big announcement coming up next week.’ and I mean BIG!” Our friends at IGN picked up the trail and began putting together the pieces:

Ubisoft announced Ghost Recon 4 during an investors call last April. Since then, several trademark names have been registered, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and Ghost Recon Predator, which means the title could have a new name.
During Ubisoft’s latest investor call in January, the publisher noted its new, and still unannounced, Ghost Recon title will be out during its fiscal 2011 year, which begins on April 2010 and ends March 2011.

Are you a Ghost Recon fan? Are you hoping the game returns to its roots seen in the first and second games? Let us know.

Siliconera comments:

A rough comparison of how Strider looks in arcades to a teeny-tiny cell phone screen is above. Small, huh? This isn’t the first (and it probably won’t be the last) port of Strider so I’d wait for another version even though this is only 315 yen ($3.50).

Interesting to see Capcom breath life into Strider this way. They could have created an HD remix for PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade. Actually, Capcom doesn’t even have to remake it. A Virtual Console Arcade re-release with no bells and whistles would be acceptable too.

Would you like to see Strider as downloadable content? Let us know.

According to Major Nelson:

I wanted to let you know that on April 15, 2010 Microsoft will discontinue Xbox LIVE service for original Xbox consoles and games, including Xbox 1 games playable on Xbox 360. Our first step in this process will be to turn off auto-renewals for those members who only use Xbox LIVE on a v1 Xbox. While I can’t comment on the specifics, this change will allow us to continue evolving the LIVE service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox LIVE community. We did not make this decision lightly, but after careful consideration and review we realize that this decision will allow us unprecedented flexibility for future features.

Xbox LIVE general manager Marc Whitten (Gamertag Notwen) has posted this letter to the community which provides additional context.

What does this mean? It means players should get all the DLC content possible for their Xbox 1 games; backwards compatibility will be unaffected otherwise, since it’s software driven on the console. It also means that Friends lists will be able to support more than 100 Gamertags.

This will also allow Twitter/Facebook functionality from within games, allowing gamers to upload screenshots to Facebook, for instance. It will probably allow Facebook updates and Tweets from anywhere. On the other hand, Xbox gamers who haven’t upgraded to the Xbox 360 will be out of luck if they aren’t able to use software like XBConnect.

Let us know what you think.

Sony has released a new MLB 10: The Show gameplay video, and you can see the graphics are really improved from previous versions, which had nice models but looked like upscaled PlayStation 2 graphics. MLB 10: The Show matches its MLB 2K counterpart in looks now – and since MLB 10: The Show has far superior realism and gameplay, it makes it one of the best baseball games ever.

The video also includes a home run replay review. These guys just keep up with the times, don’t they? Meanwhile, MLB 2K10 has had checkswings removed.

In a recent interview with IGN, Sony Senior Vice President of Marketing, Peter Dille is quoted as saying:

“I’m confident we’ll be around in 10 years and I can say that because we’ve done it twice. PS3 will be around in 10 years and probably much longer than that. I have my own opinion, but I’ll ask you the question. Do you think the 360 will be around in 10 years?”

Really, Peter? The PS3 is still going to be around in 2020? You do realize that the PS3 is not even close to being as successful as the PS1 and that machine lasted 12 years (1994 to 2006). Based on declining sales and a lack of new software titles, 2010 is looking to be the final year for the PS2 which would give it 10 years (2000 to 2010).

But if we’re to take Dille at his word, and really, since the launch of the PS3, we can rarely take the word of any Sony executive that the PS3 is somehow going to eclipse both of it’s predecessors and become a stunning triumph lasting from 2006 to 2020 – a whopping 14 years. Even if you assume that Dille is just confused and is thinking this is still 2006, and that the 10 year lifespan he’s talking about will come due in 2016, there’s still a fatal flaw in his reasoning.

The idea that the PS3 will eventually out-sell the Xbox 360 is based on the premise that Microsoft is going to stop selling the 360, allowing the PS3 to surge ahead against a new “Next Gen” machine. This was the conventional wisdom back in 2005/2006. Consoles, naturally, have a 5 year lifespan so if you push your hardware to 10 years and everyone else in your generation has quit the market, you stand a chance of jumping into first place – due to no competition.

This plan was first put into practice by Nintendo with the SNES. They had lost the 16 bit generation, but when Sega moved forward with the Saturn and Sony launched the original Playstation, Nintendo held back. In the end they were able to outsell the Sega Genesis but only because Sega had abandoned the platform in favor of the Saturn.

The problem is that nobody can afford to launch a new console generation in 2010 as the original conventional wisdom said 5 years ago. Nobody saw the economic collapse coming. Nobody saw the restrictions on lending which are required to get chip development and production lines up and running. So we aren’t seeing new platforms launch this year the way everyone thought.

That means the 360 isn’t going anywhere. Let’s look at NPD sales for North America (50% of the video gaming market). The Wii, 360 and PS3 have been on sale head to head for 38 months. This does NOT count the year of sales that the 360 had to itself.

Of those 38 months the Wii has taken first place 34 times, a stunning level of dominance. The 360 outsold all comers just three times (November and December 2006, when the Wii and PS3 were hard to find and September, 2007 when Halo 3 launched.) The PS3 has earned first place just once, in September 2009 when the new Slim version was introduced with a significant price cut.

Really, what we’re looking at, is a race for second place. Out of the 38 month period, the Xbox 360 has taken the silver 27 times. It lost out to the PS3 just eight times; the remaining 3 times it did not place 2nd it took 1st. The Wii is rarely in 2nd, having been dropped there just 4 times, the first two months of release, the month Halo 3 came out and the month of the PS3 Slim/Price cut.

Looking at 3rd place, the PS3 is the solid winner, taking last place 30 times out of 38 months. The 360 has claimed that dishonor eight times and the Wii has never dipped to third, not once.

Total North American Sales since November of 2006 put the Wii in a commanding lead with 21,074,900 unit sales, the 360 in a distant second with 13,003,400 machines sold and the PS3 in a solid 3rd with 8,241,400 consoles moved to the public. To give you some idea just how badly the PS3 is doing, it’s been outsold by BOTH the PlayStation 2 and the PSP over the same 11/06 to present timeframe. It’s not even in first place among Sony hardware.

The good news is that 2009 has been the best year for the PS3 yet. It finally broke 1 million units sold in a single month in North America, a milestone that it hasn’t really been close to, ever. Of course, that’s the same milestone that the 360 hit one year after it came out, way back in December of 2006 and has hit every December since then. The Wii is the only console to break 2 million in a month and they’ve done that 3 times, including this past december where they shattered the 3 million mark and were knocking on four!

Even though the PS3 did better in 2009 than they ever have, they still took 3rd place for the year, running behind the 360 by about 400,000 units – 4,770,700 for the 360 and 4,334,500 for the PS3. Both were smoked by the Wii who sold more than the 360 and PS3 combined. 9,594,000 total.

To put things in perspective… in order to catch the Xbox 360 the PS3 needs an entire year where it’s sales match those of 2009 and the Xbox 360 sells nothing. Realistically that’s simply not going to happen.

The next licensed game by Traveler’s Tales stars everyone’s bespectacled student wizard, Harry Potter. Us Muggles can check out the trailer for LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4, for Wii, Xbox Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PSP, and PC. They’re missing the GameCube, Xbox, Dreamcast and ColecoVision versions.

A multiplayer demo for Alien Vs. Predator has been released on Xbox Live Marketplace and Steam – check out some of the action in the video above.