The line-up includes well-known casual games like Angry Birds along with Reckless Racing and Toy Soldiers. No word from the source as to whether the titles will be paid or free, though Microsoft has said before that, during the pre-official launch later this year, only free apps will be supported in the Windows Store.

The preview Windows Store – and the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 – are expected to be released later this month. Recent leaks suggest Microsoft has killed off the Start button, though that won’t be confirmed until the preview arrives.

Of course, there’s more to Microsoft’s gaming strategy than Solitaire. The company has previously said that it plans to integrate Xbox LIVE into the new PC OS, just as it has with Xbox 360 and Windows Phone. That opens the door to cross-platform challenges and more.

• Hydro Thunder
• Toy Soldiers
• Reckless Racing
• Angry Birds
• Ilomilo
• Rocket Riot
• Full House Poker
• Tentacles
• Crash Course
• Ms Splosion Man
• Wordament

The Call of Duty Elite Drop 1: Liberation will take place in a militarized Central Park in the heart of NYC. It features a vast landscape great for long-range sniper and LMG kills with mounted turrets on each end of the map. Elite Drop 2: Piazza takes place in a seaside village where blind corners and complex branching pathways means danger lurks at every turn and ensures plenty of close-quarter combat.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3′s content season is co-developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software. The new maps have already been released for the Xbox 360 last month due to an exclusivity deal between Activision and Microsoft. Hence, new DLC content for Call of Duty will always be available first for Premium Members on Xbox 360, but Premium Members on PS3 will also get the content ahead of non-premium members on the PS3.

[via Gamasutra]

Soul Calibur hit arcades way back in 1998, but it wasn’t until it hit the Sega Dreamcast as a must-have launch title that it gained serious recognition. The updated graphics, smooth animation and varied weapon-based fighting system made it  an instant classic, and despite the eventual demise of Sega’s little white console that couldn’t, it helped spawn a series that’s now working on its fifth entry. (Soul Calibur is itself a sequel to a Soul Edge/Soul Blade, from 1996.) The game was re-released on the Xbox Live Arcade back in 2008 to general applause.

The iOS version includes all the original fighters and stages, though at the moment multi-player is a no show. Namco-Bandai claims that the graphics have been updated to support the iPhone’s Retina display, but true Sega fans know that the original supported the Dreamcast VGA adapter, outputting to computer monitors at as much as 1600 x 1200 resolution. That being the case, we can expect a version for Android’s 720p phones and tablets any day now, right, Namco? Right, Namco? 

[via TechCrunch]

After a hands-on with the peripheral, it seems very well built and I honestly wanted to walk out with one. Playing Modern Combat 3 on my phone would be so much better with a controller. They didn’t know if it was directly compatible with MC3, but gave us a list of many other popular titles, such as: Asphalt 5 HD, No Gravity, Silverfish, Zenonia, and 150+ more.

And just like many of the other wireless controllers already available, you can undock your device from the controller, hook it up via HDMI to your TV, and play games with a truly console-like feel. The only thing missing is a pair of built-in quality joysticks. Expect the controller to retail for approximately $60, and hit shelves before April of this year.

The Age of Zombies is a shooter and adventure game created by the makers of the popular Fruit Ninja game. It should be a fun casual game that will also be available on iOS and Android. Bullet Asylum is from UberGeekGames and was first announced back in late 2010 for WP7, the Xbox 360, and PCs. The game looks pretty awesome from the early preview video shown below.

GeoDefense Swarm is a sequel to the popular tower defense game by Critical Thought and will also be available on iOS. And then there’s Tamagotchi, which many are familiar with as that Japanese electronic pet game that was all the rage back in the 90s.

Other upcoming games include Ghostscape, Jet Car Stunts, and Mush. But dates for when all these new games will arrive have not been revealed yet.

[via Engadget]

The sale will begin on Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 10:00am PST and continue until the following Thursday, January 5, 2012 10:00am PST. Some of the popular titles to go on sale include Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus, N.O.V.A. 2 HD, Order & Chaos Online, and The Adventures of TinTin.

All titles will be priced at $0.99 throughout the sale period with the only exception being Modern Combat 3. This latest release will go on sale for just one day.

[via DroidGamers]

On the 3DS, Resident Evil Revelations will be landing on February 7. There is also a new Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater coming in Q1 for the 3DS. In the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS will be a number of new download games including Dillon’s Rolling Western tower defense strategy game are coming. There are a number of other games coming to the eShop too like NightSky.

The Circle Pad Pro is also set for launch on February 7 via GameStop locations and online for $19.99. The Wii is getting notable games like PokePark 2: Wonders Beyond and Mario Party 9. Check out the gallery to see the full line up of games.

Warner Brothers quietly released the game today on Apple’s iTunes App Store in New Zealand with the game likely to roll out to other parts of the country very soon. The game is a one-on-one fighter developed by Mortal Kombat’s NetherRealm Studios that will have you beating up the Joker, Two-Face and more, as well as the Batman Arkham City Lockdown exclusive character Deathstroke.

You’ll also be able to choose from several Batman skins and power-ups as you fight to clean up Gotham City of the escaped inmates and iconic villains. Although it will likely not be as intense as the full console and PC versions, it’s graphics so far look rather impressive from the screenshots. The game is priced at $8.29NZ, which will make it probably $5.99USD when it hits the US App Store later today or tomorrow.

[via JoyStiq]

What’s neat is that all the scenes were done with what appears to be a minimal amount of post-production effects. The video also includes clips towards the end to show how some of the scenes were created. For instance, the Flight Control scenes involved a birds-eye shot of a large painted topography with the airplanes done using remote controlled toys.

The song itself is also quite catchy and it’s aptly called “Why don’t we do something?” You can download the song via iTunes and if you enjoyed the video, do make sure to find out more about the band, which plans to debut its album in early 2012.

[via Reddit]

Now that the South Korean policy has changed, Google is reassuring developers to check the “South Korea” box when submitting games as well as localize their apps for the particular region as necessary. Google claims that “Korea is now the second-largest consumer of apps worldwide,” and that “Korea has quickly become one of the top countries in Android device activations”, so there’s plenty of incentive for developers to do just both. Developers, rev your engines, as you have a whole new country now to please with hordes of mobile games.

Google also stated that “with the huge popularity of games on Android and the convenience of direct carrier billing in Korea, we expect to see a jump in game purchases and downloads in the weeks ahead.” This is especially true of Korea, who seems to thrive on video games in general (see Starcraft, Warcraft, and basically every online multiplayer game made by companies like Blizzard and others). Google’s made a smart decision to open up once again the Korea market. Now that the floodgates are once open, all they have to do is sit and wait for the developers to introduce a huge supply, and the Korean consumers, a huge demand for Android games.

[via Android Developers Blog]

Until Apple removed the app today, users who purchased a monthly subscription from Big Fish Games would have been able to play games that the game publisher has made available through a dedicated app. Games were initially being streamed to users’ iPads from Big Fish Games’ data centers, thereby requiring the user having access to a Wi-Fi network to play. And as always, the Cupertino company, in agreement, maintained their 30% cut of revenues with the developer, a model that has been long-standing for the last several years.

According to the company, the app had been available since Nov. 18. Furthermore, Paul Thelen, founder of Big Fish Games, stated that “We were notified that the app was removed. We’re trying to follow up with Apple to try to figure out what happened.” Thelen said he did not anticipate the move since Big Fish Games had worked with Apple “for several weeks to ensure that it met the requirements for recurring monthly charges made through the App Store, a method most commonly used by magazines and newspaper publishers.” “It was officially approved,” Thelen verified, and Apple had evidently even recognized the app’s press release before it was published. We’ll keep you updated once Apple decides to release some more information.

[via Bloomberg]

So basically, users who purchase a monthly subscription from Big Fish Games will have the ability to play games that the game publisher has made available through a dedicated app. However, games will be initially streamed to users’ iPads from Big Fish Games’ data centers, thereby requiring the user having access to a Wi-Fi network to play. And as always, the Cupertino company will maintain their 30% cut of revenues with the developer, a model that has been long-standing for the last several years.

When it came to the process of the game company convincing Apple of the subscription model, the Big Fish Games’ founder Paul Thelen stated: “It took longer than usual to be approved…they needed to be convinced there’s a reason to charge customers every month.” We’ll see how sales do with the new subscription model. SlashGear readers who own iPads, feel free to leave your thought about how this may change your gaming habit on the iPad.

[via Bloomberg]

Among those 1 million paying subscribers Activision’s press release mentioned that over 600,000 were signed up by Gamestop alone, a pretty impressive number if you ask us. Regarding the rocky and troubled launch Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing had this in response:

“The demand for Call of Duty Elite at launch was so overwhelming, that for the first several days, the service did not perform up to our or our fans standards. I want to personally thank our fans for their patience. Our teams have been working around the clock to get the service scaled up to meet demand,”

“I’m very pleased to announce today that the service is now performing stably and anyone who wants to try Call of Duty Elite is now able to do so.”

Currently the Elite’s status page reads “Service Is Intermittent” although all premium paid members should have full access while the over 4 million free users should see the service as Activision gets everything stable, and opens the gates for the masses. Feel free to keep checking in as Elite rolls out to all users but be patient.

Pair the news of over 1 million paid premium subscribers with the fact that Call of Duty MW3 sold almost $800 million worth of the games in the first 5 days alone — breaking sales records, I’d say COD MW3 and Activision are doing pretty great right about now.

[via Kotaku]

For all you bean counters out there, here are the more specific statistics for all things Minecraft; there are 241,920,000 logins per month, around 1,000 players login per hour on average, with 4,000 players or so logging in per second after the official 1.0 launch. Two billion files have been downloaded by the launcher. And last but not least, 11,000 in-game skins are being downloaded per every second. And at the current moment, Minecraft has 16,804,266 registered users, and 4,129,151 have bought the full game from Mojang. These numbers are downright mind-boggling, for, well, what’s essentially an indie game still in the works until this weekend.

Did I tell mention that Minecraft, is, um, entirely an indie game? Well, an indie game that’s already made 33 million dollars over six months ago. And now it’s finally an indie game that has actually officially released, to the much-welcomed relief of my roommate, and 16 million other users out there. Are any SlashGear readers also Minecraft players? Let us know in the comments what you’ve built in the game (which, honestly, can literally be anything, from entire replicas of the U.S.S. Enterprise, to working computers inside games, running on computers themselves, just to name a few of the insane creations from the wildest imaginations possible). Surprise us.

[via PC Gamer]

The game’s day one sales already set a record with more than $400 million worth of retail sales, surpassing its Black Ops release last year, which debuted selling $360 million. At this rate, Modern Warfare 3 would certainly hit the billion-dollar mark, with the entire franchise having already exceeded $6 billion in revenue overall.

Activision’s Call of Duty titles continue to crush the competition although EA really stepped it up with its Battlefield 3 title that came out last month. Battlefield 3 grossed more than $300 million in its first week. Although less than half of what Activision scored with Modern Warfare 3, it is nonetheless EA’s fastest selling title in the company’s 29-year history.

[via TechCrunch]

Robert Altman, CEO of ZeniMax (Bethesda’s parent company) announced that “We are grateful for the fans’ response to Skyrim. Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda Game Studios have crafted a very special game. Anticipation for Skyrim has surpassed any game in our company’s history, and we are pleased that sales and reviews have reflected the quality and hours of amazing gameplay it provides.” Kudos to legendary game designer Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda indeed. They deserve every ounce of praise they get, having personally seen the game being played in real life.

From our most recent article about Skyrim, we know that seven million copies of the game were shipped to retailers, which comes out to be over 50% of stock already having been sold. Bethesda director Todd Howard proclaimed that “Without a doubt, this has been our most ambitious project ever. After over three years of development, we’re finally excited to get it into everyone’s hands.” The latest Elder Scrolls game has also encountered stellar success on Steam, where it has topped the Steam gaming charts with more than 287,000 players playing concurrently. Now that’s a game launch success.

Have a peek at this trailer for the game if you’ve not seen the game before:

[via IGN]

One bundle features the Everybody Dance title and comes with the 320GB PlayStation 3 console plus one DualShock controller, a Move controller, and a PlayStation Eye camera, all for $299.99. That’s about the price you would normally pay for just the console itself. This bundle will be sold exclusively at Target.

The second bundle may suit you better if you already have the PlayStation 3 console, as it only comes with the Move accessories and two game titles. The games are Sports Champions and Medieval Moves Deadmund’s Quest. This bundle goes for $99.99.

[via PlayStationLifestyle]

Microsoft is warning users to not play the Modern Warfare 3 game before the release date. Xbox Live Director of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse had initially sent out a tweet yesterday giving everyone the “OK” to play these legit copies that were accidentally released early, but after double-checking with Activision, Toulouse tweeted another message, warning against doing so.

“clarification: dblchk’d with Activision. Mw3 pre-release play not authorized. So pls be patient. Playing early may impact your account!”

But besides the tweets, it’s not clear how else Microsoft and Activision plan to get the word out to all potential users and how serious they are about implementing the consequences. However, Microsoft has been quick to ban Xbox Live accounts in the past for modded consoles, pirated games and such. But in this case, it’s really the retail stores at fault, so we’ll see.

[via Gamasutra]

The huge success for EA was partly backed by a smooth marketing campaign with a trickling of gameplay footage leading up to E3 2011 and plenty of word-of-mouth and positive critic’s reviews. The game received 2.5 million “Likes” on Facebook with over 200,000 followers on Twitter and gamers have already executed 73 million savior kills, 48 million revives and destroyed 67 million vehicles.

The game uses the Frostbite 2 game engine that creates massive fully destructible environments and also allows players to pilot all sorts of vehicles including jets, tanks, and choppers. The game also offers the Battlelog social network service to keep players connected. However, the popularity surpassed EA’s expectations and the company’s servers had intermittently gone down for some players over the last week, but stabilized to about 98.9% over the weekend.

Although stellar results for EA, its arch rival Activision has consistently won on the numbers with its Call of Duty franchise of games. The Call of Duty Black Ops sold more than $650 million worth of games in the first week when it launched last year and now Activision is getting ready to debut Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on November 8. It’ll be interesting to see how the numbers compare this time around.

[via VentureBeat]

The game is being described as a board game that features “political battle” style gameplay with key characters and locations from the the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The characters will include those from Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, but not the characters from this year’s Revelations title. It will also support multiplayer gameplay.

The Assassin’s Creed Recollection board game is said to pack an 8 to 10 hour campaign, quite lengthy for an iOS game, along with the short film Assassin’s Creed Embers. Ubisoft revealed little else about the game besides that it’s scheduled to arrive sometime in November. Although the format change seems a bit odd, it is being developed by Ubisoft and could be a nice addition for iOS gamers this holiday season.

[via Cult of Mac]

The Special Edition version of the game will feature whole new adventures with five new levels plus seven mini levels. It is designed to take advantage of the capabilities of the Move controller and lets you create your own Move games, record fluid motions, paint stickers, and do all sorts of fun creative stuff in the game. Also included are five new levels and two mini levels along with other goodies for the Disney/Pixar Toy Story game titles as well as $35 worth of DLC content.

The PlayStation Move bundle includes all the good stuff from the Special Edition game plus the Motion Controller, the Navigation Controller, and the PlayStation Eye Camera. The Special Edition alone will cost $59.99 while the Move bundle costs $129.99. Both will be available starting November 15.

[via PlayStation Lifestyle]

The shots reveal packaging for a previously unannounced Mayhem Edition PS Move kit that includes a Sharpshooter peripheral along with Resistance 3 and Killzone 3 game titles. There’s also a box for what’s called the Complete Entertainment Bundle, which includes a 160GB PS3 game console, the game titles Little Big Planet 2 as well as Ratchet and Clank: All for One, and one free month of PlayStation Plus.

The Complete Entertainment Bundle is expected to be around $250 and the source of the images notes that an order invoice for the packaging suggests that they are to be available for Black Friday. The source also included images of the packaging for the 320GB Uncharted 3 bundle and Goldeneye 007: Reloaded Sharpshooter set, which are both already up for pre-orders.

[via Engadget]

Dug up by AppleInsider, the patent applications reveal that the iOS Game Center avatar interface would start with a blank canvas and then allow users to choose basic features like type of eyes, nose, mouth, and hair, etc. Other accessories like glasses or hats can also be added. All the selections, including rotating and resizing, would be easily made on the multi-touch screens of the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch,

Both manual and automatic avatar creation is offered to simplify the process and similar to how avatars work in Wii games and Xbox Kinect games, the iOS Game Center avatars would also appear within games. They will also be displayed on users’ profiles along with users’ game scores and achievements. The patent applications were originally filed earlier this year in April.

With Infinity Blade 2 we should see amazing graphics never before seen with a mobile device. With amazing special effects, physics, real-time lighting and more. Using features and physics from games such as God of War, we can all expect this game to be stellar. The original Infinity Blade stunned users and mobile gamers everywhere bringing unrivaled graphics and immersive gameplay to iOS devices. The original was the first game to make use of the Unreal Engine 3 for mobile and we can expect even greater things from the next release.

Apple’s Game Center has seen continued success thanks to all the popular games. Today they announced that the Apple Game Center has over 67 million active accounts and growing every second. If that isn’t a reason to develop games on iOS (as if devs didn’t need a reason anyways) I don’t know what is. Infinity Blade 2 will hit the App Store on December 1st so be ready to snatch it up and enjoy mobile gaming like never before.

Zynga has so far only offered Zynga Poker on Google+, making CityVille its second title for the fledgling social network. CityVille has quickly grown to become the company’s largest game on Facebook and it seemed logical to “build a presence for it” on Google+. In this way, the game will become even more accessible to everyone regardless of their preferred platform.

Cityville on Google+ will be joining 17 other popular games, including Angry Birds, SuDoku, and Bejeweled Blitz. The Google+ games reside on their own tab and are said to be less intrusive than those found on Facebook. Google also hosts the games on their own servers, potentially providing a faster gaming experience.

[via PCMag]

Select Battle.net account holders who opted in for the closed beta get to start testing out the game today and can play all five of the character classes, including Monk, Wizard, Barbarian, Demon Hunter, and Witch Doctor. They can also play all the way through to the Skeleton King encounter and will meet both new and returning characters along the way.

The start of the beta testing signals that the game is getting close to launch. The game has been speculated for a launch later this year and is one of the most anticipated titles for this holiday gaming season. However, Blizzard exec Mike Morhaime has insisted that the company isn’t committed to a 2011 release date.

[via VentureBeat]

The exclusive PS3 titles include Everybody Dance, Carnival Island, EyePet & Friends, and Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest. These games will hit stores on October 18 for the Everybody Dance title and November 15 for the other titles. The coolest of those games seems to be the Medieval Moves one that lets the player sword fight and more.

The other Move titles include LittleBigPlanet 2 Move Pack: Rise of the Cakeling, inFAMOUS 2, and inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood. The games will land with Move support on September 13 for the LittleBigPlanet 2 game and inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood on October 25. These games should prove to be very popular for the holiday season.

The revamped system is being called a new hybrid technology platform, where passengers can access various content and surf the web via the seat-back monitor as well as connect multiple personal devices to the system’s WiFi simultaneously. This means that content such as music, movies, or TV shows offered through the new RED system can be listened or watched through each passenger’s own personal devices.

The system is already in development in partnership with Lufthansa’s IT group called Lufthansa Systems, which designed the BoardConnect on-board WiFi network. BoardConnect requires only a few access points to allow all passengers to connect to the system, making it much more scalable than the current Virgin America system.

The new in-flight entertainment system is set to launch in late 2012 and is currently undergoing backend testing on Virgin America’s new Airbus A320 named the #nerdbird. The current fleet of 40 Virgin America A320 planes is expected to grow to 57 by mid-2013.

[via PC World]

According to Rovio’s North American sales manager Andrew Stalbow, the game has been downloaded more than 350 million times and is played on mobile devices more than 300 million minutes collectively each day. However, it’s quickly expanding beyond the mobile platform and into multiple media formats, including in short films on YouTube, where it’s gotten more than 170 million views.

The game has also had movie tie-ins with the 20th Century Fox produced animated film called Rio. Rovio has plans for more “interesting entertainment partnerships” in the future that will continue expand the game franchise.

Additionally, Rovio has plans to penetrate the Chinese market with over 200 merchandise stores over the next three years and is currently selling 1 million Angry Birds T-shirts and plush toys each month. The company also recently sought funding that could value its business at $1.2 billion.

[via VentureBeat]

Once built the little paper Mario is controlled by a straw that sticks out the front of the box. It appears that the box opens automatically and you get to scroll along dodging the Goombas and other things you don’t want to run into with your Mario character. The scrolling gets faster the longer you make it.

If your Mario crosses one of the obstacles in the paper game, you die, and the game resets. The resetting also appears to shut the box lid automatically. You can see the play action in the video below. If you want to make your own version the full parts list, instructions, and software are offered on Teagueduino.

[via Neatorama]

This version of the game features all awesome bits you’ve been perhaps seeking before you’ve gotten a full taste of the game, that being multiplayer mode, the career, the purchasing of multiple cars as you advance through the game, and now you’ve got a brand new car through a special WCG 2011 menu, a car by the name of “Samsung WCG 2011″! Elite and amazing! What we can hope for now is this awesome offer to jump over to the rest of the Galaxy S II units in the world (namely the USA versions coming out this month) and for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to get it too.

Everyone deserves the right to play this fracking amazing game! That said, yours truly is already playing it on several devices including the desktop – where it almost seems TOO good. Next we’ve got to pay close attention to Gameloft in the future, not only because they’ve released some pretty awesome games already, but because a tie-in with an event such as this means they’ve only got one direction to go in: up!

Check out how many times the word Gameloft has come up in reviews of devices – they’re getting in where they fit in!

Thanks for the tip, Jim!

This major rebranding will consolidate all the services into one portal and will also eliminate the Qriocity brand, although the PlayStation Network brand will remain intact. The original “Video On Demand powered by Qriocity” will now simply be called “Video Unlimited” and the same goes for its music on demand service, which will now be called “Music Unlimited.”

The PlayStation Network online games will now be accessed through SEN with all the content providing partners remaining the same. SEN will be accessible across multiple channels, including PCs, Bravia TVs, the PS3, PSP, and Android devices, of which Sony has recently launched the Tablet S and Tablet P.

[via Sony]

The boxed PC version of the Deux Ex: Human Revolution game was prepackaged with a coupon from OnLive that gave customers a free online version of the game to encourage customers to try the OnLive cloud-based gaming platform. When GameStop discovered this, they issued a memo to employees asking them to remove this coupon.

Many gamers wanting to purchase the title and to receive the coupon were outraged at GameStop. However, the publisher behind Deus Ex, Square Enix, has issued a statement in support of GameStop’s decision. Their statement reads:

“As part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s boxed offering on PC, Square Enix included a third-party coupon. GameStop was not made aware of this inclusion and Square Enix respects the right of GameStop to have final say over the contents of products it sells and to adjust them where they see fit in accordance with their policies.”

GameStop has issued a new email to employees asking them to place all the regular PC editions of the Deus Ex: Human Revolution game in the backroom, where they’ll wait to be recalled. The company has also openly stated that the OnLive service directly competes with its own streaming service that is still under development by its Spawn Labs Cloud Gaming Division.

[via Wired]

In an email from GameStop Field Operations Manager Josh Ivanoff, employees were asked to “Please immediately remove and discard the On Live coupon from all Regular PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Our desire is to not have this coupon go to any customers after this announcement.”

GameStop has officially confirmed that it is pulling these coupons, stating that Square Enix, the game publisher of Deus Ex: Human Revoltuion, pre-packaged the coupons without first informing GameStop. When asked by VentureBeat, a GameStop spokesperson said:

“We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores. Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge.”

Additionally, GameStop has its own cloud gaming ambitions as digital distribution of game titles is increasingly eating away at the company’s core business of buying and selling physical copies of games. However, OnLive expects to offer more combo package deals like this one that will give customers a digital copy that they can access anywhere when they purchase a physical copy. Some of those upcoming titles include Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Space Marine, and Saints Row: The Third.

[via VentureBeat]

The new Xbox LIVE features include avatar awardables, which function like achievements but are wearable. These items will automatically appear in your avatar’s closet once you’ve unlocked it and can be worn as badges on your avatar’s sleeves. The game title Chickens Can’t Fly will be among the first to offer this feature.

Several upcoming titles will also offer game add-ons where in-game virtual items can be purchased using Microsoft Points. For instance, in the title Beards & Beaks, extra mushrooms along with other items can be purchased with to enhance gameplay.

Also, there will be more parental controls as well as improved multiplayer and turn-by-turn gameplay with faster syncing.

Microsoft also revealed 14 new Xbox LIVE game titles that will be available to its upcoming Mango handsets. The titles include Beards & Beaks: Cave Area, Bug Village, Burn the Rope, Chickens Can’t Fly, Collapse, Gravity Guy, Farm Frenzy 2, Fight Game Rivals, IonballEX, Kinectimals Mobile, Mush, Orbital, TextTwist 2, and Toy Soldiers Boot Camp. Also, the first M-rated Windows Phone title will be Splinter Cell: Conviction, which will arrive later this fall.

[via Windows Phone Blog]

If you’d like to know more about the Nintendo 3DS, you can check out our full review of the device as it appeared when the device was first released. If you’d like to pick up the Aqua Blue or Cosmo Black version of the device right this moment for the discounted price, you’ll be able to do so across the board: Amazon.com, Best Buy, GameStop, Kmart, Target, Toys R Us, Walmart, and Sears. The Flame Red version of the device, on the other hand, is only available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Best Buy, GameStop, and Walmart.

One gigantic reason you may want to pick this device up is the release of Star Fox 64 3D, one of the most awesome names in Nintendo-specific space battle games in history. And it’s in 3D, so it’s going to be twice or three times as awesome, right? Meanwhile we’ve still got an apologetic open-letter from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s president, speaking on the fast-changing games ecosystem and the need to convince game publishers of the console’s potential on the price cut so soon after the release of the device itself.

What do you think? Look like the system for you yet?

A new game ticker

In essentially the same manner Google+ will soon have a separate stream for games from its main feed of shares made by people in a users circles, Facebook will now have a separate stream of friends’ game activity, including scores and achievements in a ticker. Each story will continue to be in a similar format to what we’ve been seeing in games in the main news feed now, linking in to games your friends are playing with updates about those games. You may also control who sees which updates about the games you’re playing (much in the same fashion Google+ uses circles) by heading to your Settings.

More room to play

Each game will now have what appears to be a much larger screen for playing, many apps now able to expand to full screen. CityVille, Zoo World, Monster World, and Mystery Manor will be upgraded to this full-size ability inside the next few days. Go big!

Bookmark your Favorites

A new menu header will now be added to the left side of your screen for “Apps.” To work with this new bookmark menu, click the menu next to the bookmark and poof! There it goes. You may also remove, edit, and rearrange as you see fit, as well as edit settings.

What do you think?

Seem similar to the Google+ Games release from earlier today? Or is it just a coincidence that Facebook had this release prepared for today? And what about social gaming? Will you be sticking with the Facebook crowd, or will you move over with the Google+ crowd for games like Farmville? How strange would it be to start over if you’ve been using your Facebook account for years?

The valuation figure comes from two sources familiar with the recent discussions, who say that Rovio is considering taking a strategic investment from a company in the entertainment business. This coincides with rumors that Rovio is in talks with Zynga about possibly an acquisition or a partnership, although this is purely speculation at this point.

The funds that Rovio is seeking will likely be used for further expansion, since the company has plans to produce an Angry Birds movie as well as open offices outside of Finland and to conquer China. Back in June, it was revealed that the company has plans to open over 200 Angry Birds merchandise stores throughout China within the next three years.

Rovio has also begun development of Magic Places, which incorporates NFC and location-based technology into Angry Bird’s gameplay. Users can unlock special content by tapping NFC-enabled phones together or by traveling to certain locations. Its first implementation has been through the NOOK Color in partnership with Barnes & Noble.

[via Bloomberg]

The games button at the top of users streams will lead them to featured games, games bookmarked, and a stream showing games your friends have played recently. This tab is also where users will find game invites and interactions of all kinds, with their main news feed still reserved for all other interactions outside gaming. This may well be the most important differentiation between games offered on Facebook and games offered on Google+, Facebook in this case looking to be the much more noisy option while Google keeps it separated.

This new tab still works with sharing inside circles and all games work in a very similar manner to what you’re used to (if you’ve played them elsewhere already, that is.) If you’re a developer of games, you can head over to Google’s already created [Google+ Developers Submission Form] You’ll also be able to follow along with developer news at googleplusplatform.blogspot.com. The full gaming platform will be gradually rolled out to users starting today.

Once the Games page is appearing for users, they are encouraged to try games out and give the Google crew feedback as, believe it or not, Google+ is STILL in development mode, and isn’t at its full launch at the moment this post is posted. Gundotra promises that this is still just the beginning. “Fun that fits your schedule” – bring it on, Vic!

UPDATE: a user at PCMag is one of the lucky first to have the update roll out to them, he revealing a possibly concerning page requesting permissions of the user upon loading a new game:

[via Google Blog]

A hacker installed the Couch Surfer browser on a jailbroken Apple TV and was able to demonstrate an HTML5-based game, Casino BlackJack. Now, the game is fairly bare bones and although it may not be the most impressive of feats, it does remind us of Apple TV’s potential beyond movies and TV shows.

It’s rumored that Apple may be bringing iOS to Apple TV, which is not surprising considering that rival Google has already announced Android 3.1 Honeycomb to power its next-gen Google TVs. This will provide a unified ecosystem that will allow access to Android Market apps, make it easier to develop for both platforms, and deliver a more streamlined user experience for customers.

[via TUAW]