LucasArts will be presenting three brand new video game titles at San Diego’s Comic-con this year. The titles have been highly anticipated in the gaming world, and include STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED (to be released Sept. 2008), FRACTURE (Oct. 2008), and STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (Holiday 2008). Lucas Arts will also unveil a new trading card game for the Star Wars franchise called “STAR WARS GALAXIES: CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE”. Click here for AWN’s detailed description of each game.

AWN reports that Wii is the number one console in U.S households according to an independent sales tracking study by the NPD group. More than

666,000 Wii consoles sold for the month of June, and nearly 10.9 million Wii consoles have been sold in the United States in the 20 months following its November 2006 launch. The system is credited with breaking down the psychological barriers between gamers and non-gamers.

According to the same study, 6 out of 10 best-selling games for the month of June were also for the Wii system including “Guitar Hero on Tour”, “Mario Kart” and “Wii Fit”.

AWN reports that SEGA announced at E3 their new lineup of games which include some new stars as well as the return of SEGA icons like Sonic. They will be showcasing these titles at their booth #107, at the LA Convention Center for E3. The titles include:

• MADWORLD for the Wii– Releases March 2009

• Sonic the Hedgehog returns in Fall 2008 for two games SONIC CHRONICLES: THE DARK BROTHERHOOD (Nintendo DS) and SONIC UNLEASHED (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Wii).

• RPG thriller ALPHA PROTOCOL (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows-based PC) releases February 2009

• Music/rhythm game SAMBA DE AMIGO (Wii exclusive) releases September 2008

• BAYONETTA, a new action game by Hideki Kamiya (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) releases 2009

• BLEACH: DARK SOULS (Nintendo DS exclusive) releases Fall 2008

• DINOSAUR KING (Nintendo DS exclusive) , based on CW 4Kids animated hit, releases Fall 2008

• EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR (Windows-based PC), a new game for the TOTAL WAR franchise releases February 2009

• Strategy game STORMRISE (PlayStation 3 system, Xbox 360 & Windows-based PC) — Releases 2009

• Action RPGs GOLDEN AXE: BEAST RIDER (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) and SPACE SIEGE (Windows) releasesin Aug./Sept. 2008

• Historical RPG VALKYRIA CHRONICLES (PlayStation 3 exclusive) releases November 2008

• YAKUZA 2 (PlayStation 2 exclusive) releases September 9, 2008

Just days before it’s conference at E3 this Tuesday, Nintendo has announced a new addon to the Wii Remote that it will be debuting at the show. Dubbed the “Wii MotionPlug” accessory, it plugs into the bottom of the Wii Remote and provides

an unmatched level of precision and immersion.

Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play.

More details on this accessory and other topics will be discussed this Tuesday at their E3 media briefing.

For the first time, fans of the “Civilization” series can now play the game on a console, not just on their PCs. 2K Games are presenting “Civilization Revolution” created by Firaxis Games for the Playstation 3 and XBOX360. Variety’s Ben Fritz says

Previously, the fastidious turn-based “Civilization” games have required no small amount of patience, with full games easily lasting in excess of twenty hours. In “Revolution,” players can trace the rise of their own civilization in a single evening and still have time to watch, say, “Birth of a Nation.”

The developers have made that possible by ruthlessly streamlining the basic “Civilization” design. There are fewer armies, fewer technologies, fewer numbers, and fewer buttons to press. While long-time fans might write this off as “dumbing down”, it’s still a complicated game. But now it hews much closer to designer Sid Meier’s maxim that a good game is a series of interesting decisions. Here are fewer and broader decisions, each less precise but more important. Is it better than the previous “Civ” games? That’s the wrong question. It’s different. And it works on its own terms.

“Civilization Revolution” is Rated E and retails for $60 US.

The Hollywood Report is reporting that The merger between Activision and Vivendi is expected to be approved in the next few days, creating the largest video game company in the world worth a total of $18.4 billion dollars. This would put them ahead of the current largest game company Electronic Arts, currently worth $14.1 billion.

This merger will create a company that not only has successful console games (Guitar Hero, Call of Duty) but also has a place in the emerging MMO Market (Vivendi’s World of Warcraft is the reigning champ of that arena) as well as the burgeoning Asian Market (where Vivendi’s Starcraft is aired on television as an E-Sport), two areas that Electronic Arts has not been successful in and Activision needs help with. Whether EA can reclaim it’s spot at number one or not, a new giant in the video game industry has been formed and it will change the way every game company conducts business.

Chris Chike, known online in the game world as Iamchris4life, has broken his own Guiness World Record of 840,647 according to AWN. He achieved this feet on the hardest song in Guitar Hero “Through the Fire and the Flames” with a flawless 100 percent notes hit, a score of 987,786 points, and a 3,722 note streak. He managed to videotape his accomplishment and posted it on YouTube where it has become one of the top viewed videos and has been seen over 1.6 million times.

Chris recently singed with Ant Commandos Guitar and Peripheral Company to be their next spokesperson and help design their next guitar. In addition, he was recently challenged for his Guinness World Title. But Chris isn’t too concerned. “”It is pretty hard to beat 100 percent.”

Novint Technologies, a pioneer in 3-D touch in consumer products has announced that they have entered into an agreement with Valve Corporation, a leading gaming company.

The agreement states that support for Novint Technologies Falcon, a new robot-like device that enables users to experience force feedback while still being as accurate as a mouse, will be added via patch to Valve’s best selling games. These games include Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Portal, the new Left 4 Dead as well as the entire Steam library. Together these games total over 30 million units sold worldwide, countless awards, and more than 80% of the PC online action market.

The Falcon itself can be bought for $189.99 or in the upcoming Falcon Orange Box Bundle which includes the new Black Falcon, Pistol Grip and a touch enabled version of the Orange Box (a $249.98) for $189.99.

Source

Today, Microsoft will hold it’s “Games for Windows Presents: The Big Picture” showcase event in San Francisco. There, attendees will get a chance to have hands on experience with a variety of PC games from some of the largest publishers. The titles exhibited range from fun and family friendly games for casual gamers to action packed shooting games for hardcore gamers.

Microsoft will also be announcing 16 other games that will be released under the Games for Windows line including Crysis Warhead, the sequel to last years hit Crysis. Games for Windows now has more than 85 titles from nearly every major publisher.

Also present will be NVIDIA and ATI to debut their newest graphics cards and GPU’s.

This event comes right after the announcement of the most successful PC gaming launch of 2008 with the Games for Windows-branded title “Conan: Hyborian Adventures” which shipped an astounding 1 million units worldwide, one of the biggest Games for Windows debut and the most successful massively multiplayer online game launch since World of Warcraft.

“The big picture of the PC gaming market is unparalleled growth,” said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Windows gaming in the Entertainment and Devices division at Microsoft. “By all accounts, Windows continues to lead the gaming industry worldwide in both users and total revenue, and DFC Intelligence expects the PC gaming market to grow by a staggering 73 percent from 2007 to 2013. Compelling online experiences, industry-leading graphics, high-quality games and innovative hardware are driving that growth, and we’re proud to partner with other leaders and showcase the best of Windows gaming at this event.”

Prior to the release of “Grand Theft Auto IV” analysts had predicted a large increase in hardware sales which usually accompanies a high profile game like “Grand Theft Auto:IV”. However, this has not happened. While “Grand Theft Auto IV” was the top selling game two months in a row, those same two months the Wii (the only current gen system that “Grand Theft Auto: IV” is not on) doubled the sales of PS3/360’s combined. This has caused some to wonder whether casual market games such as “Rock Band” and not high profile AAA titles will lead gaming from now on. However, others such as this Variety blogger are not yet convinced. That blogger claims that it is still to early to tell.

To make any really definitive claims, I think we have to wait until the end of the year. That’s when we’ll have seen huge PS3 exclusive “Metal Gear Solid 4,” huge 360 exclusive “Gears of War 2,” and the holidays. If none of those 3 things, along with “GTA IV,” can move hardware sales, then we can probably say that the two systems are about tapped out, at least at their current prices. And then we’ll have to start asking some really serious questions about the wisdom of high powered, high priced game systems.