Kotaku

GTA IV DLC Arriving This Summer?

Rockstar's "Lazlow" (one of the game's DJs) made another appearance on the Opie and Anthony show this morning. This time he claimed that the Xbox 360's DLC is being worked on at the moment and could see the light of day as early as this summer. Not much was said about PS3 DLC other than he hoped to see it happen in the future. Our guess is that Microsoft will release the DLC whenever it works best with their general plan of attack—be that as soon as Rockstar finishes the content or months later—since paying $50 million and ruling a platform probably affords you such luxuries.

O&A talk GTA IV [Loot Ninja via Maxconsole]

Microsoft Slashes Xbox 360 Prices Through Asia

Microsoft, apparently having some difficulty infiltrating Asian markets, has reduced prices of the Xbox 360 in many areas. The biggest price reduction (20 percent to $366) happened in Singapore, though Taiwan's price drop wasn't far behind (17 percent to $340). Hong Kong and Korea both received smaller price reductions as well.

I'm not positive that increasing Xbox sales in Asia is as predictable as the rest of the world where the drop price, grow sales technique reigns supreme. But, you know, it probably won't hurt.

Microsoft Cuts Xbox 360 Prices in Four Asian Markets [Bloomberg via Gamasutra][image]

GTA IV Runs At 630P on PlayStation 3, So What's That Mean?

Microsoft Rejected Portal For XBLA

I'd love to sell Portal on Xbox live. [But] the platform holders aren't doing that right now. There's a size limit and all kinds of other things.

Blockbuster Brings Video Games To Sacred New Release Area

Score one for games. With the release of GTA IV, Blockbuster will begin to feature video games in "new release" retail space formerly reserved exclusively for movies. I know, it doesn't sound like a big deal to rearrange some stuff on the shelf. But trust us, these retail guys get sweaty in the crotch just thinking about signage. As Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes explains:

This is a big event for Blockbuster. The new release wall is sacred ground for us...We think that's going to attract a lot of people to our game offerings.

Blockbuster putting videogames in "new releases" starting with "Grand Theft Auto IV" [Variety][image]

Lost Odyssey Receives Tiny, Triple Bonus Pack DLC

While English speakers are waiting for some of the better Lost Odyssey DLC to be localized, we will be getting a small offering to tide us over. The Triple Bonus Pack is available today for 200 points. It includes a new dream sequence called "The Shattered Beyond," a "memory lamp" to view dreams (we're assuming from anywhere on the map) and a Battle Ring for fighting magic weaponry.

Surprisingly, the multimedia book dream sequences may have been my favorite part of Lost Odyssey. Every time I discovered a new dream, I'd say, "Geeze! Not another one!" And then, I'd lock the doors, remove a carton of Ben & Jerry's from the freezer and weep in solitude, my face covered in salty, melted chocolate.

Live GTA IV Player's Xbox 360 Goes RRoD

When you steal a game before release and broadcast its play over Justin TV for seven consecutive hours, sometimes, apparently, your console will RRoD. Is it karma? Sony sabotage? Or just shoddy Xbox 360 craftsmanship? We'll let the commenters sort that little life lesson out.

UPDATE: Oooh, apparently that Xbox looks mighty like this Xbox. Yeah, not looking so real now. But still very funny.

GTA IV: The Guy Gets 3 Red Rings of Death While Playing on Live Streaming Video [N4G]

18% Of Consumers Bought HDTV For HD Gaming

We already know that over 65% of PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers play on an HDTV. But we didn't know that 18% of HDTV watchers played Xbox 360 or PS3.

That stat was compiled over HDTV sales from only the last year, but the trend is contributed to the falling prices of HDTVs, allowing more of the 21-34 demographic to purchase sets—precious souls between 21-34 want to play their games in HD. And by "HD," we mean "huffing daffodils." It's the only way we'll play anymore.

Survey finds 18 percent of people bought a HDTV for gaming [Maxconsole][And yes, that image is real]

Free Rides At The Bourne Conspiracy Train Depot

While we've heard quite a bit about Sierra's The Bourne Conspiracy, we haven't gotten much of a taste of the straight gameplay. So here's a big, ice cold scoop for your enjoyment. Hight Moon Studios obviously put a lot of time into capturing the quick cuts of the Bourne films. And while it looks like the effect will work, but we'd have to play it to find out. Otherwise, it's actually reminding us quite a bit of Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. You know, on a subway and stuff.

Works? Check.
Combines two otherwise cluttering peripherals? Check.
Takes like 5 seconds and requires no adhesives? Check.
Seriously? We're really lazy. Check.
Sends at least one fanboy into "angry coma?" Check.

SOLD!

The Wii60 wheel [GoNintendo]

Rockstar To Track Early GTA IV Players?

Journalists in the UK who were receiving advanced copies of Grand Theft Auto IV had an interesting caveat—beyond wanting to know which platform was preferred for testing, Rockstar wanted to know their LIVE Gamertag or PSN IDs. While Rockstar's email request has been pulled from the source site, it's speculated that they intend to track various non-approved players, looking for regions where GTA IV might be leaking early. But from what we know about LIVE and PSN, Rockstar will have no way of differentiating downloadable copies (that have just leaked) from retail discs actually being sold early. So it all becomes an exercise in futility.

GTA IV: Microsoft and Rockstar tracking Gamertags before April 29 [videogaming247 via Gaming Today]

Rumors have abounded regarding an upcoming motion control device for the Xbox 360, purportedly codenamed "Newton" — first, a loquacious anonymous source told MTV that such a controller is in development with support from developer Rare, and next 8bitjoystick pegged patents from Gyration, the same company responsible for Nintendo's Wii remote technology, as the likely tech behind Microsoft's top-secret project.

Gyration, however, unequivocally denied yesterday that it has any such project in development with Microsoft. However, talking to Rare, Microsoft and a company called Motus revealed more items of interest regarding the "Newton" — the picture seen above is Motus' "Darwin" controller.

Unreal Tournament 3 To Bring Bigger Mods To Consoles

Unreal Tournament 3 has served as a console gamer's diplomat, successfully pulling mods long restricted to PCs to the PS3 and *fingers crossed* the Xbox 360. But past mods have been in small pieces, like Samus skins, more meant to customize the game than fundamentally exploit its robust engine.

Now the user-based developers behind Tactical Ops (a classic UT mod similar to CounterStrike) are talking about bringing Tactical Ops 3 to consoles. While the team doesn't think that the first release of TO3 will support the PS3 or Xbox 360 (due to issues like button mapping), they're confident in the possibility for future releases. And when console mods become the size of full games, we can't stand behind a waist-height object fast enough.

Huge Unreal Tournament III mod whets PS3 appetites [CVG]