PEGI represents the “gold standard” today, and will undoubtedly be the best system for tomorrow. PEGI is clearly the only ratings system which has the power to prevent game publishers distributing unsuitable content to children, online and offline. Only PEGI fully assesses all games content. It is designed specifically for interactive software. It understands games and their potential for infinite variations. That’s why it is backed by the vast majority of the computer games industry.

And it's not only the ELSP that supports PEGI, but also Nintendo UK, Ubisoft UK, SEGA of Europe and EA UK, Ireland and Nordics. Hit the jump for comments from each of those companies:

David Yarnton, UK General Manager of Nintendo, said: “The PEGI age ratings system is favoured by Nintendo. It has the ability to assess and rate all game content and does not rely on a sample of game play to form its decisions. The fact that there is also an EC proposal for member states to adopt PEGI only adds further weight to the solid arguments and facts for its UK adoption as the sole system of choice for games ratings.”

Rob Cooper, Managing Director of Ubisoft UK, said:“The PEGI system is future proof. It’s as simple as that. It is a self-regulation system that is operated by experts that are best qualified and experienced to do the job. As an international business selling games across the World, we urge Government to understand the depth of importance of this decision as we enter a period in which games will grow exponentially.”

Mike Hayes, President and CEO of Sega Europe, said:“If you look at the PEGI system against the film ratings board in the UK, you will see that PEGI is the only system that has the power to prevent games publishers distributing unsuitable content to children. It can ban a publisher’s entire output, rather than just a single title. This power is backed by the entire industry.”

Keith Ramsdale, Vice President and General Manager of EA UK, Ireland and Nordics, said:“The Government’s proposed changes will create extra administration and cause delays in getting hit games into the hands of British consumers. Only PEGI is built to address the fast changing nature of the games industry and is best placed to deliver the needed protection for minors.”

Those are some big companies in PEGI's corner.

GAMES INDUSTRY CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO EMBRACE PEGI AS SINGLE GAMES AGE RATINGS SYSTEM [MCVUK]

GfK acquires ChartTrack [MCV]

£500m bill for Xbox red ring of death [Daily Mail]

Game

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, £6.99

Packs

Guitar Hero 3 - July 4th 2008 Holiday Single, FREE

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2:Gift Pack, FREE

Buzz! Australian Culture Quiz, £3.49

Buzz! UK Culture Quiz, £3.49

Buzz Rock Legends, £3.49

Buzz Sci Fi, £3.49

Video

Movement - Movement Ep1 ‘Lets hit the road’, FREE

Movement ep2 ‘Paris Respects to Jim’, FREE

Movement Minitel Rose Be with you, FREE

Movement Minitel Rose Continue, FREE

Movement Minitel Rose Interview, FREE

Movement Pravda Interview, FREE

Movement Pravda ‘Je suis french’, FREE

Movement Pravda ‘Tu es l’Ouest’, FREE

BIA HH Ubidays Trailer, FREE

Haze Launch Trailer, FREE

Wallpapers

Top Spin 3 Wallpaper, FREE

Elefunk Forest Wallpaper, FREE

Elefunk Circus Wallpaper, FREE

Themes

MGS4 OTC Theme, FREE

Elefunk Theme, FREE

Echochrome Theme, FREE

PSP content available to download via PS3 Console store

Demo

Space Invaders Extreme Demo, FREE

PC store

Demo

Space Invaders Extreme Demo, FREE

Video

Movement - Movement Ep1 ‘Lets hit the road’, FREE

Movement ep2 ‘Paris Respects to Jim’, FREE

Movement Minitel Rose Be with you, FREE

Movement Minitel Rose Continue, FREE

Movement Minitel Rose Interview, FREE

Movement Pravda Interview, FREE

Movement Pravda ‘Je suis french’, FREE

Movement Pravda ‘Tu es l’Ouest’, FREE

Themes

Space Invaders Extreme, FREE

フランスにおける子会社設立に関するお知らせ" [Capcom]

No Euro date for Rock Band 2 after all [Eurogamer] [Pic]

If we launch a game that is on 360 and PC simultaneously, we basically shoot ourselves in the foot by allowing the German market to choose to play the PC version – because they are more likely to buy that than spend their money on the Xbox 360.

Oh Peter.

MGS Europe: Simultaneous releases would "shoot ourselves in the foot" [GI.biz]

We are delighted to confirm that DUALSHOCK 3 will be released in SCEE territories in early July. We hope this will add to the intense gaming experience for our fans, as we continue to evolve PS3, its software and its peripherals.

DUALSHOCK®3 Wireless Controller available for PLAYSTATION®3 this summer Feel the full power of your games as the eagerly awaited DUALSHOCK®3 Wireless Controller arrives on PS3™

June 27, 2008: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced that DUALSHOCK®3 Wireless Controller will be available for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) in Europe on July 2, 2008. The eagerly awaited wireless controller with vibration function will put truly responsive gaming power into players' hands, shaking up gaming experiences when it arrives on PS3 this summer.

It's not what you see - it's what you feel that makes DUALSHOCK 3 the first choice for all gamers. More than 28 million DUALSHOCK controllers have been sold since the first DUALSHOCK release for PlayStation® in 1998. Now DUALSHOCK 3 puts some serious power into existing and future PS3 titles, with its vibration function offering even more interactive play between gamers and the many games - past, present and future - which support the vibration functionality. DUALSHOCK 3 also retains the high-precision, high-response motion-sensitive aspects that have made SIXAXIS so popular.

David Reeves, President and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, commented, "We are delighted to confirm that DUALSHOCK 3 will be released in SCEE territories in early July. We hope this will add to the intense gaming experience for our fans, as we continue to evolve PS3, its software and its peripherals."

Almost all future PS3 releases will support DUALSHOCK 3, and the controller is already compatible with many existing PS3 titles (firmware upgrade 1.94 required). Face the heart-pounding fear of alien warfare in Resistance: Fall of Man™, hold tight as you tear through the streets of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue™, or feel the thrill of treasure hunting in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune™ - your favourite PS3 games like you've never experienced them before.

Making your gaming experience more immersive, more intuitive and more realistic, DUALSHOCK 3 is the only Bluetooth® controller combining vibration function and SIXAXIS™ features, and the first choice for anyone wanting to get the most out of their PS3 gaming experience.

Leipzig Games Convention Not Moving [Next-Gen]

We have some very aggressive plans in terms of investing in this market to be successful. We are in Europe to win. We’re not here to come second or third... We are going to invest to win in Europe. There is no question about that.We understand the challenge in the region. We understand what we need to do to continue to drive the growth of the business. What we need to do is not just pay lip service to this but really invest.

Keyword here is "invest", it seems.

'Aggressive investment will ensure Xbox win' [MCVUK]

360 cruises past 5 million in Europe [MCV]

"The government's proposed changes to the existing age rating systems will create further delays in getting hit games to the UK," he said. "An extra and unnecessary layer of administration beyond a single system slows the process, and that delay will get passed on to the players themselves."

If you ask me the UK just needs to have the whole shebang handled by PEGI and be done with it, but that isn't a very British way of doing things. Why they have to go and make things so complicated?

New ratings system could delay UK releases [Eurogamer]

So you want me to announce the game before our announcement? No offense, but I think there's like 300 people here, and I'll be ripped apart by 8000 people there [at the Invitational] if I pre-announce it — but it's going to be really exciting. I think everybody here will be really excited about the announcement.

Sounds really exciting, and yes, we're really excited.

Blizzard to unveil new title at Worldwide Invitational? [Games Industry] [Pic]

OSAKA, JAPAN (June 25, 2008) — Capcom Co., LTD., a leading developer and publisher of video games, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to license Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games, Inc. This is the second agreement between Capcom and Epic Games on licensing Unreal Engine 3.

"Unreal Engine 3 is a perfect fit for this project being developed in Europe, and is capable of ensuring a high-quality game experience. Not only does the development team have thorough knowledge of Unreal Engine 3, the general versatility of Unreal Engine 3 will fully meet the requirements particular to this project", said Keiji Inafune, Managing Corporate Officer, R&D Management Group of Capcom. "Unreal Engine 3 comes with a wide variety of functions required for next-generation game development, and it provides ease of use. On top of that, one of the major advantages is the well-established support system. We are delighted to enter into this license agreement, and have strong backup by Epic Games. With Unreal Engine 3, we can expect high development efficiency as well as high creativity within the development team."

"We’re very excited that Capcom has, once again, chosen to use Unreal Engine 3 for one of their upcoming games,” said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic Games. "Capcom is a legendary company in our industry and it is an honor to be able to work with them."

What is Make 10? Apparently, you "will be challenged to master mental arithmetic to overcome the inquisitive inhabitants and understand the true power of the number 10." Finally. Math.

NoE also dates Wario Land: The Shake Dimension for a September 26 release on the Wii. Surely the North American ship date can't be too far behind. European ates for many third party games, including Samba de Amigo, Manhunt 2, Okami and the lovely Soulcalibur Legends await you at the official site.

NOE announces summer 2008 release schedule [Nintendo]

We definitely have the ambition for it [the PSP] to feature very strongly in the future, both on its own and also complimentary to PlayStation Network environment and the PS3. But we'll have to wait a while before we can fully reveal the direction we're going in. Ten years is certainly the long-term plan though.

No clue if Sony is planning slimmer PSPs in the future or what. But still, having a long-term plan is good. Not having them can make one look unprepared, you know.

Sony exec points to a ten-year lifespan for the 'PlayStation Networked' PSP [Pocket Gamer] [Pic]

The Metal Gear Solid series has again proved its huge potential, and we are delighted with the fantastic response the game has enjoyed at retail... MGS4 is nothing short of a masterpiece — an epic conclusion to the Solid Snake story. We are extremely pleased with the positive feedback we have received from retail and consumers alike, and will keep satisfying their needs with updates to the game's 'Extra' option, and via new content to Metal Gear Online.

Since Europe doesn't have a single chart tracker for every territory, it'll be a while until we have exact figures. (Konami will have to work off internal sales data for all of Europe.) But for now, this shipped figure will have to suffice. Full press release in all its confusing glory after the jump.

Metal Gear Solid 4 blows retail away!
Huge first week sales as Hideo Kojima's epic PLAYSTATION®3 title enjoys storming first week
Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced that sales of its newly-released Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots title for PLAYSTATION®3 have exceeded one million units within the first week.

Konami has shipped over one million copies of the game to retailers across Europe to meet the exceptional demand, with high sales confirmed in all European territories and securing the Number One position in the relevant sales charts.

Released globally on June 12th, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots marks the final adventure for series hero Solid Snake. With his body failing and ageing at an accelerated rate, Snake is called on one last mission to halt the plans of his long-term nemesis Liquid Snake. Liquid has seized control of a series of private armies for his own nefarious needs and, in a mission that spans the Middle East, South America and returns to Shadow Moses, Snake must stop Liquid at all costs. Also included on the disc is Metal Gear Online, a dedicated online game featuring locations from and inspired by MGS4.

In addition to the high sales across Europe, Konami has also confirmed that the limited edition MGS4 sets that comprised a 'Making Of' Blu-Ray, soundtrack CD and 'Old Snake' mannequin. 25,000 sets were made available across Europe, but were snapped up almost immediately by fans of the series.

"The Metal Gear Solid series has again proved its huge potential, and we are delighted with the fantastic response the game has enjoyed at retail," commented Martin Schneider, Sales and Marketing Director Germany for Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH. "MGS4 is nothing short of a masterpiece – an epic conclusion to the Solid Snake story. We are extremely pleased with the positive feedback we have received from retail and consumers alike, and will keep satisfying their needs with updates to the game's 'Extra' option, and via new content to Metal Gear Online."

Primeros Títulos Platinum [ElOtroLado, via VG247]

4Players' EIC Jörg Luibl says that Atari's lawyers have accused them of "breaking the law and violating the rights of their client (Atari)", all because 4Players reviewed the game prior to its release, but without using a copy sent to them by Atari. 4Players maintain that, like many other games not sent to them by publishers, they secured a copy via a "trusted dealer". Which could well just be a firendly local GAME manager cracking open his shipment of the game before the street date, it could be point #1 (the leaked copies of the game), who knows.

It's interesting that Atari are so worried about publications securing their own copy of a game. Do they fear that, because these outlets may have received copies of the game "early" (ie from pirated copies), that they're somehow reviewing incomplete code, which could affect their opinion of the game? Maybe. Pessimists could, however, be forgiven for thinking it's a convenient excuse for Atari to attack negative reviews of the only game they're releasing in 2008 that has any chance of making them some money.

UPDATE - Tor-Steinar Nastad Tangedal, from Norwegian site Gamer.no, has contacted us with a similar story. He writes (though without proof we're unable to confirm this):

Gamer.no was the second publication in the world to publish a review, and we also gave it 3 out of 10. The review was based on a retail copy obtained from a store on Tuesday this week. Atari contacted us just minutes after it was published, claiming that our review is probably based on a preview or pirated copy, and requested it to be removed. We never removed it, of course.

The current revenue streams we have are quite simple — hardware sales and packaged media. But that is the old model. The new model is such that our income streams will change — packaged goods sales and hardware sales are still there, but already we are getting into the era of network sales of full titles... We do believe that the disc-based delivery system will fall as the power of the network base rises. At the same time the overall industry growth will continue to go upwards as we push out into emerging markets... We have not got our heads in the sand. To some extent the music industry did — we are trying desperately to not make the same mistakes... The next five years are going to be turbulent, but I think it is going to be the most exciting period that we have ever seen in the past ten years of video games...

More exciting as Reeves claims that the adoption rate for the PS3 is higher than the PS2. Good to hear that the game industry is being so forward thinking about downloads.

Era of Games Downloads Looms [MCVUK] [Pic]

There is a piracy problem on PSP. We know about it, we know how it’s done. It sometimes fuels the growth of hardware sales, but on balance we are not happy about it.

Plus, minus, frowny faces. We're sure David Reeves will get this all figured out. JUST YOU WATCH, BUSTER!

There Is A Piracy Problem [MCVUK]

Oh, and the music used in this video is FRIGGIN' AWESOME.

WoW Fit [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

We definitely detect that they [gamers] are serious and we know there is an issue in this, so it's something that we're working on.

Great! So we're getting an external storage solution, then?

Uhh...no.

Definitely there's no plan to issue hardware, an external hard drive, but we know that we have an issue in that area. It's very obvious and we're perfectly aware of it, but there's nothing we can say beyond this.

How terribly cryptic. And terribly unhelpful.

Fischer: Nintendo "working on solution" to Wii storage issue [GI.biz]

Update: OK, got enough verifications on this to bump it up to "confirmed".

“I have huge respect for those who, like me, share a common passion for Nintendo and want to make it clear that I would never use and I didn’t use this terminology in such a context or way to cause offense,” he said.

“I regret that this misunderstanding has created such offense and disappointment within the community.”

You know, in all honesty "geek" and "otaku" are way low in the list of things I've been called that cause me offense, but I can certainly see how some people would get upset. As for Laurent, all I can say is always talk as if what you say is going to end up on the front page of a major gaming blog, because it generally is.

Exclusive: Nintendo’s Laurent Fischer “regrets” geeks and otaku remark [videogaming247]

As is always the case with Nintendo’s press events nowadays, the dirty word ‘casual’ was raised at its WiiWare preview, only to be dismissed in favor of a distinction between gamers and non-gamers. Playing these semantic games is fine, but when a pertinent question about the limited Wii system memory was raised, Laurent Fischer, managing director of marketing at NOE, easily slipped into talking about how “geeks and otaku” were the only people who would want this issue addressed. This is oversimplifying something that will only become increasingly important as Wii developers explore the console’s online service, whether through WiiWare or DLC, and is of concern to not only a niche section of the market that wants to buy into that content.

Because we all know that soccer moms will so be all over those WiiWare games. Laurent Fischer? Marketing genius.

Nintendo's Mixed WiiWare Messages [Next-Gen]

PlayStation.Blog is a Year Old Today [PlayStation.Blog]

Des nouveaux packs PS3 ? [Game-Class, thanks Frank!]

Of course those of you in the UK who already have a PSP they don't wish to replace with shiny silver goodness still get to benefit from the exclusive special edition, so while it might take a bit longer for you to get the games, Square Enix and SCEE definitely love you guys the best of all.

FFVII PSP Bundle Bound For Europe [Next Generation]

The Last Remnant Release [Famitsu]

Infinite Undiscovery Dated [Famitsu]

I think that Sony is disappointed with sales and it's unsure as to which way to take it.

Sony needs to show us a bit more about what its plans are to convince the publisher to invest lots more money into it. Especially when you've got the DS selling at such a tremendous pace.

I suppose it's almost too technical for the casual person, those that are buying the DS at the moment, who want a few buttons and not a lot more. It's so simple what [Nintendo] has done. That's where I think Sony has gone a little bit too complicated, they've over-specced it, the price is too high and they need to go back to the drawing board and start again.

Uh, whuh? Rob, meet Japan. Japan, Rob. Don't think you've met. Japan, what he means is, making real games is hard, so why isn't the PSP more like the DS, where they can just dump any old shit on it and make some money?

Ubisoft urges Sony to act on 'directionless' PSP [GI.biz]

Unboxing MGS4 LE [Kotaku Australia]

Meanwhile, in Germany and Sweden, Conan is laying waste to the sales charts, soundly trashing GTA IV on both consoles. Seems like a clear win, but you also have to take into account that many people buying GTA have already bought it, and this is Germany and Sweden we are talking about, where Conan isn't just a book...it's a way of life. If you close your eyes you can almost hear the melodic death metal ringing across those icy hilltops as players in both countries talk about frame rates in OOC chat for hours and hours.

GTA IV Surrenders to Conan in European Charts [Next Generation]

The PAL PlayStation Store update's got more meat on its bone this week. While its lacking in videos, trailers and demos, it does manage three full games, which is nice. One of them, OK, it's very, very late. Almost a year late. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. The others are the original Rayman along with MediEvil: Resurrection, given a third lease of life as a downloadable title.

Games and Demos
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Rayman
MediEvil: Resurrection

Expansions And Add-Ons
Army of Two: Veteran

Game Videos
Metal Gear Solid 4: E3 2006 Trailer
Overlord Raising Hell
Super Stardust HD

Themes and Wallpapers
Prince of Persia Prodigy Arabesque Wallpaper
Prince of Persia Prodigy New Prince Wallpaper
PixelJunk Monsters Wallpaper

As seem in the video walkthrough we posted earlier this month, the Nintendo Channel is a place to download videos, get recommendations, and check out upcoming products from Nintendo and friends. Basically a very convenient way for you to be marketed at without having to get off the couch and type in a web address.

The Nintendo channel also includes the DS download service, though you have to agree to send your console usage data to Nintendo in exchange. No big deal though. It'll just make the marketing a bit more focused, that's all.

Wii's Nintendo Channel set to launch [GamesIndustry.biz]

EU is second largest videogaming territory [GI.biz]