Tri-ace shows off Star Ocean 4 trailer

PSN Redesign Revealed

SCEE has unveiled its PlayStation Store redesign, which is scheduled to launch in "mid-April." Weekly content updates will cease for the next two weeks until the redesign goes live, but "users can look forward to a special update in mid-April," Sony Europe teased in a press release. In addition, users will continue to have access to the store's back catalog as they await the mid-April relaunch. The redesign will not affect existing PlayStation Network accounts or the virtual wallet.

SCEA has announced the North American "revamp" will arrive via firmware update in "mid-April" (presumably day and date with the European update). Sony clarified that beginning April 3, no new content will be added to the store until the redesign is launched.

Tri-ace Teases us with Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One

Gears of War film shoots for Summer 2010 release

Gears of War film producer Wyck Godfrey has told Coming Soon that the production company is shooting for a Summer 2010 release of the video game adaptation. Said Godfrey: "We've got our script on and a director we're about to attach. We'll hopefully make that early next year for the summer of 2010."

The script was written by Stuart Beattie (Collateral, Pirates of the Caribbean), who recently said in an interview that the production will likely be heavy on green screen usage, à la 300. The Gears of War film will be released by New Line Cinema, with CliffyB as executive producer. You should probably get in line now, you've only got 24 to 27 months before this Romantic Comedy of 2010 marches into theaters.

[Via Joystiq]

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Nearly 1.3m play COD4 "every day" News

Infinity Ward has revealed that its Xbox Live-topping shooter Call of Duty 4 is attracting "between 1.2 and 1.3 million users every day" just on Microsoft's service - with PS3 numbers "monstrously huge".

Speaking to Eurogamer in London last week during the unveiling of the new downloadable maps for the game, producer Mark Rubin revealed that Infinity Ward had been hitting these figures "consistently for the past two-to-three months, Monday through Sunday. It's crazy."

He added: "That's just 360. There's even more on the other platforms [PS3 and PC], but we just don't have the same numbering system. Overall, even without the other consoles, we are beating the competition. PS3 numbers are monstrously huge. No other game has come close, either online current, or total unique users in a day."

The hugely popular contemporary update to the studio's previously WWII-focused war franchise has been fighting with Bungie's Halo 3 for the top spot on the Xbox Live rankings since its release, but has pulled clear in recent months. Speaking on the rivalry, Rubin commented:

"We've created a lot of heartache for a lot of companies who go up against it. I think Halo's website says they get something around 845,000 to a million [per day]."

Call of Duty is understood to have sold over 7 million units so far. While Rubin refused to confirm the percentage of online users, he admitted it had exceeded expectations:

"I don't have an exact number for you, but it turns out to be a startling number of people. For a lot this is there first time playing a multiplayer game on console or PC. We're getting really high numbers."

The Variety Map Pack for Call of Duty 4 is due for release in April. You can read the full interview with Rubin here.

[Via Eurogamer.net]

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