The Rockstar team have been sending out an e-mail of thanks to all those gamers who offered support to them over the controversial Manhunt 2 games title. The e-mail states that the team hopes to have more information on the status of the game soon but overall thanks the gaming community for messages of support.

Rockstar's email to Manhunt 2 supporters.

We wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to contact us about Manhunt 2, which we had been planning to release on PlayStation 2, PSP and Nintendo Wii. As you know, Manhunt 2 was effectively banned around much of the world, after it was refused certification in the United Kingdom, prohibited in Ireland, and denied an M rating in the United States.

We are very proud of Manhunt 2 and believe it builds on what the team accomplished with the first title in the series. The game was developed as a horror experience, and to be an M rated title, aligning it with similar horror content created in other forms of media. Unlike many other people, we do not think video games should be singled out for special treatment from the authorities. We hope to have more information for you soon, but in the meantime, we wanted you to know how much we value all of your messages of support.

Speaking in a recent interview, Sony's Phil Harrison brushed off concerns regarding the PS3's loss of exclusive titles by stating that Sony has a larger platform dedicated to development than their competitors combined. This results in all the best games complete with the best technology becoming exclusive to Sony platforms.

One area in which Sony has succeeded in the past is platform exclusives. But recently, many traditional Playstation exclusives have gone to Xbox 360 as well - Virtua Fighter, Grand Theft Auto, and Devil May Cry, for example. Is there anything you can do to combat this trend, or is the era of exclusives coming to an end?

Well, from a third-party exclusive point of view, that doesn’t fall under my remit, because I’m looking after Worldwide Studios and our first-party output. But, obviously, I’m looking at the platform as an entire portfolio. And yes, I’m always concerned to make sure that consumers can buy the best games and get the best game experiences to validate their system purchase. [But] as long as the games they get are great, [consumers] don’t care if they are third-party or first-party…What I do believe is that the investments we have made in Worldwide Studios globablly - U.S., Europe, and Japan - will yield the best quality software and the highest quality experiences that are clearly going to be exclusive to the platform…We have a larger platform-dedicated development resource than our competitors combined. So all of that goes towards the fact that the best games with the best technology are coming exclusively to [Sony] platforms.

News Source - Gamers-creed.com

Ted Price, the CEO of Insomniac Games believes the gaming media has been far too critical of the PS3. He believes that the PS3 and Sony have become something of a 'whipping boy' for the press but has the utmost belief that the powerful machine will have a great Christmas period. Price also says as Resistance was synonymous with the PS3, any criticism directed towards Sony and the Playstation also affected Insomniac.

News Source - Gamedaily.com

SCEE has spent out a list of confirmed games that will be heading to the PS3 and PSP during this year in Spain. As far as PS3 is concerned, some of the big name titles include GT5: Prologue and Ratchet & Clank.

PS3 Titles

Singstar Next Gen: August 22
Warhawk: August 29
Heavenly Sword: September 12
Lair: September 26
Folklore: October 10
Eye of Judgment: October 24
Ratchet & Clank: November 7
Time Crisis 4 & GunCon 3: November 18
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: November 21
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: November 28

PSP Titles

SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 2: July 4
PaRappa the Rapper: July 11
WipEout Pulse: September 10
ATV Offroad Fury Pro: September 19
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice: September 19
Patapon: October 19
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow: October 24
SOCOM Tactical Strike: November 7
Everybody's Golf Course: November 7
Loco Roco 2: December 7

Microsoft has kicked off a legal blitz aimed at fighting software pirates located in California and Florida who are deemed to be selling counterfeit software. The latest filings bring the total number of legal actions issued by Microsoft up to 125 during the past year. MS claims they are conducting these huge assaults on software pirates to protect honest resellers who are finding it difficult to compete against companies selling pirated software.

News Source - Vnunet.com

In order to be released in Germany without fear of a criminal offence, the developers of The Darkness on the Xbox 360 have gone back to the drawing board to change a few elements of the game. The most major change is the the removal of Nazi symbolism as well as the removal of the four Darkling kill methods and the ripping out of the heart animation being relaced with sucking out souls via a green mist. It may be possible for German gamers to source the 'uncut' version from the rest of Europe but this in itself could carry a maximum jail sentence of three years.
Buy this game for just $56.95

After several debates on why people should pay for the Live and not the Sony Network, the Xbox community team and also the PR manager has looked to justify the pricing of Xbox Live. Some of the reasons given are that there are huge bandwith costs, there is voice cummnication, text comunication, cross platform functionality and a regularly updated market place. Michael Wolf, an MS PR manager tried to push the value you get as a Live customer by stating that he pays $100 a month for cable but uses his $50 live subscription a lot more, so therefore it presents great value.

News Source - gamepro.com

Coming off the back of one of its best selling PSP months, Sony seem in rather buyouant mood regarding the future of the PSP. Senior Marketing manager John Koller believes the PSP has the ability to drive some big revenues for Sony as things finally start to come together for the portable handheld. Koller also defended PSP developers and the high propensity of PS2 to PSP ports, he said they were not being lazy but were just thinking that because they have a great brand with one game, it should transfer over well to a portable machine too.

New Source - http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/interview/?id=16632&page=2