Sony to announce blockbusters at Leipzig

AFTER THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Final Fantasy was coming to the Xbox 360, SCEA vice president, Peter Dille, has hit out against Microsoft's purchasing of exclusive content.

The Multiplayer MTV blog spoke to Dille regarding the game, whereupon he stated: "What you have with Final Fantasy XIII is a lot like what they've paid for with GTA. It's not an exclusive on their platform. It's now a cross-platform game. I think if you look at how GTA behaved in the marketplace and how it drove, or didn't drive, either console, that's what I'm talking about.

"They spent a lot of money, I'm sure, to get Final Fantasy onto the 360 but at the end of the day it's on our platform as well," he claimed.

Xbox 360
Bungie said it is working on 'three distinct projects', which has provoked some excitement in the Xbox community.

We've been asking for some time how much longer Microsoft can keep charging customers for Xbox Live - and even the mainstream press is picking up on the same questions. The Guardian has its report here.

Microsoft confirmed this week that the next phase of its XNA initiative would arrive later this year.

The Community Games channel will be added to the Xbox Live Marketplace in the US, Canada and some European markets.

XNA games will be sold at three pricing levels: 200, 400 and 800 Microsoft Points.

Microsoft has said the company will share up to 70 per cent of game sales-revenue with its developers.

PS3/PSP
At a European media briefing, SCEE president David Reeves spoke to MCV and stated that globally-related announcements and 'blockbuster' revelations will emerge from the Leipzig games conference in August.

"It's not just Euro-centric - there will be some global announcements," said Reeves. "The announcements we make will be more important for the local markets that come to Leipzig."

However, this is similar to statements coming from Nintendo regarding E3, and that was somewhat of an anti-climax.

Gizmodo has gotten its hands on more PSP 3000 'spy-shots', viewable here.

Konami has apologised to players of Metal Gear Online after the release of the Gene Expansion pack caused major technical problems.

Wii/DS
It seems Nintendo hasn't been as forthcoming about its upcoming devices as games devs would have liked.

Apparently, most third-party firms found out about the new Motionplus Wiimote dongle at the same time as everyone else, irking the development community somewhat.

The Wii might be also getting a Grand Theft Auto of its own, similar to the recent unveiling of an inbound GTA game for the DS, according the Wiire.

And, after a spate of great NES mods, this NES belt buckle doesn't impress quite as much as you might have hoped. µ