The launch of the much-awaited World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at HMV’s Oxford Street branch last night turned out to be the biggest in UK. Yes, it beat the previous UK record for an entertainment launch held by the WoW: Burning Crusade launch last year, which brought in a good 1,500 people.

There’s still no official headcount, but suffice it to say, an HMV representative estimates that the Burning Crusade record was broken by more than 25 to 30 percent, with 2,000 to 2,500 people waiting in line to get their copies.

As with any WoW event, the crowd showed up donning their favorite game costumes. Of course, event organizers weren’t about to be mere wallflowers. They also had someone dressed as the Lich King, Arthas, as well as an ice sculpture of the game logo.

Paul Sams, Blizzard operations chief, was also there to join in on the launch, as well as to sign copies by the eager fans.

Have you had your copy yet? Now hopefully the servers will survive the onslaught of Lich King players.

• A traverler’s guide to Northrend: need to know info on Wrath of the Lich King
• Blizzard explains why they charge for character customization in WotLK
  

It seems that Midway’s financial woes has again ended in layoffs. The publisher has just confirmed that some members of its Chicago headquarters have been let go following the shipment of Midway’s frontline titles, Blitz: The League 2 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) and Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3).

About 20 to 30 people are estimated to have been affected, although Midway didn’t disclose any exact figures. A Midway rep said was that the number of people laid off was “well below 10 percent of the studio population, and many of those people were reassigned elsewhere in the company.”

This news comes after Midway posted big quarterly losses of US 75.9 million, more than double last year’s US 33.5 million net loss. Midway Austin also underwent layoffs earlier in the year, while the company’s LA studio was shut down.

• Midway closing LA studio, moving operations to San Diego
• Midway Austin confirms “routine” layoffs
  

Age of Booty is now on the “Capcom store” on PSN. For ten bucks, you can get your hands on the newest booty in gaming today. Certain Affinity president Max Hoberman shares a few insights on what to expect from the game.

That’s right, mateys. Y’arr the captain of your own pirate ship, one of the many pirate groups in the hexagonal seas. Yes, the environments are 3D hexagons, giving you tile-based gameplay. It’s odd though that you only control one unit in this tile-based game. Usually, turn-based strategies come to mind where you control an entire team.

“I know, a strategy game with just one unit seems pretty odd,” Hoberman says. “it actually works amazingly well. The camera is de-occupied from your ship, so you find yourself constantly scanning the map.” You get to have strategic advantage in terms of navigation, as well as ability to set up infrastructure and manage resources. “Until you’ve played the game, you won’t appreciate how much is really going on,” he added.

If you want to know more about the Age of Booty and other stuff Hoberman shared, just follow the source link.

• Capcom Storefront on the PlayStation Store - Age of Booty is the booty

It’s classic light vs. dark action, with all the wall-running and boss-slaying. Another great title under Ubisoft’s already impressive CV.

• Lessons in life, brought to you by Prince of Persia

Buy: Prince of Persia [(Xbox 360), (PS3), (PC)]

On the shores of the continent of Northrend, distant, unholy cries shatter the frozen silence. The Lich King’s undead army stirs, bent on nothing less than the extinction of all life on Azeroth….

But they have to get through you first.

Welcome to Wrath of the Lich King.

I’m sure if you haven’t already landed on the Howling Fjord or the Borean Tundra, you’re probably keen to spend some time stocking up on information to better prepare you for the difficult road ahead. Hence, we’ve put together this article with the basic and the not-so-basic need to know info on World of Warcraft’s second expansion from Blizzard Entertainment.

Are you taking a knife to a swordfight? This would be fine if you play a Rogue, but what I was actually referring to was the state of your computer and how updated it is.

It seems that Bliz is going to be revamping the graphics engine a little and adding stuff to keep the game reasonably fresh. Remember, this game’s four years old now and it’s starting to look its age with the release of stuff like Age of Conan.

The graphics updates will include: a new shader for certain areas in the game, improvement of the basic elemental effects to make them appear more realistic, and improvement of shadow detail and textures. The cost of the improvements in system requirements isn’t too steep but it’s a good idea to check first anyway:

I’m a PC

• Windows XP SP3 or Vista SP1 (Windows 2000 no longer supported)
• Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1.5 GHz (up from 800 MHz Intel/AMD). Dual-core recommended.
• RAM: 512 MB/1 GB for Vista, same as before. 1 GB/2 GB recommended.
• Video: GPU with hardware transform and lighting and 32 MB VRAM, same as before. Recommended 128 MB VRAM.

I’m a Mac

• Mac OS X 10.4.11 (10.3 no longer supported)
• PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo. G4s are no longer supported. Intel 1.8 GHz recommended.
• RAM: 1 GB, up from 512 MB. 2 GB recommended.
• Video: Hardware transform and lighting, 64 MB VRAM. 128 MB VRAM recommended.

Who knew 10 levels made for so much work? On the bright side, the last ten levels will be soloable through quests  just as in the previous expansion.

To get you started on this long and difficult road, head over to either the Howling Fjord or the Borean Tundra. They’re both accessible via an alliance ship or a goblin Zeppelin.

I’d recommend visiting the the Borean Tundra first as there are numerous quick and easy-to-complete quests there, but really, it’s your decision.

Here’s the breakdown of the Northrend zones and their recommended levels:

• Howling Fjord: 68-72 
• Borean Tundra: 68-72
• Dragonblight: 71-75
• Zul’Drak: 73-76
• Grizzly Hills: 74-76
• Sholazar Basin: 75-78
• The Storm Peaks: 77-80
• Icecrown Glacier: 77-80

If you’d like a more complete description of the zones, check out our previous WoWLK article.

New/ Updated Instances

What’s a new expansion if there are no new playgrounds to romp through? Several 5-, 10- and 25-man dungeons (God, but I miss those 40-man headaches…)

• Utgarde Keep - An instance in the Howling Fjord filled with the Vrykul, a Viking-like  race devoted to serving the Lich King. It has two wings - Utgarde Keep (lvl 70-72), and Utgarde Pinnacle (lvl 80).
• Azjol-Nerub - The contested capital of the Nerubian race of  spider-people. (lvl 72-74)
• Icecrown Citadel - Players will battle Arthas the Lich King, the ruler of the Undead Scourge. (lvl 80)
• Naxxramas - An updated version of the original Naxxramas, redesigned to cater for 10- and 25-man content. It has been stated that Naxxramas will be the entry level raid of WotLK at level 80. 
• Nexus - There will be at least three instances there, a lvl 70 one set in the Ice Caverns, a second, higher lvl one, and a final raid instance against the Blue Dragon Aspect Malygos.

In addition, a new instance in the Caverns of Time will appear letting you play through the scenario when Arthas butchered the people of Stratholme.

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DEATH KNIGHT

Yes, I meant to spell it in all caps. Rather appropriate, wouldn’t you say? Stifle and lore-based complaints now. Death Knights, much like the Orcs and Tauren before them, are entirely too cool to not become playable characters.

The Death Knight is the first hero class available in WoW. They won’t be accessible until a player has at least one other lvl 55 character on the same server. Death Knights start at level 55, which thankfully means no hordes of naked lvl1 DK mules dancing atop the town mailbox (just the occasional lvl 55 one).

They appear to be another hybrid class, albeit  a very powerful one. They can melee dps, magic dps, use pets, and tank (though how well without a shield is debatable). They will have “sigils” which work in the same way as a Paladin’s librams or a Druid’s idols.

Their pets, ghouls in this case, are to work in much the same way as a Mage’s Water Elemental. They have a set duration and limited controllability. With the right talent points, the pet could eventually become fully controllable in the same way a hunter’s would be.

A new mechanic will be implemented for DKs. Rather than mana, energy or rage, they’ll be using “runes.” The runes or combinations thereof are used to trigger abilities. Each rune has a cooldown of around ten seconds before it can be used again. Using runes also builds “runic power” that fuels the strength of certain other abilities. Runic power decays over time much like a warrior’s “rage.”

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World PVP/ Siege Warfare:

Strand of the Ancients

This is the new Battleground available for the Wrath of the Lich King. From the way Strand of the Ancients plays, it seems someone in Bliz has been watching “Saving Private Ryan” again.

SotA will be a Titan-themed sea-to-land invasion, with land-based defenders heavily fortified. “Demolisher” vehicles will occasionally spawn in for attacking players to use to break into the defender’s fortifications. The goal of the game is for attackers to capture the Titan Portal by knocking through a series of fortified gates. The defender’s job is obviously to stop them.

Wintergrasp

This is an open PVP zone located in Northrend. There is a fortress in the northern portion of the map that may be occupied by a faction. If you’re not one of the players holding the fortress then your job should be obvious: break in and take the fortress for yourself.

Many buildings and walls in Wintergrasp are destructible via siege vehicles produced through factories accessible to both offense and defense. Obviously the key to victory will be through good use of these vehicles.

Victory in Wintergrasp means a damage debuff to the opposing faction characters in the zone making it easier for controlling faction members to collect the high level elemental materials located there. “Stone keeper’s shards” will also be collectible from Northrend dungeon bosses, which may later be traded for weapons and equipment. Blizzard also hints at an “ancient titan vault” under the fortress. Intriguing…

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Professions:

Inscription
I’m sure if you’ve been active in World of Warcraft recently, you’re already familiar with the Inscription Profession.

To those that aren’t, Inscription is basically the creation of Glyphs, which are enchantments that increase an aspect of a player’s abilities (such as cooldown, duration, etc.) Each player can have up to six Glyphs; three major and three minor. Glyphs may be sold or traded.

General
The skill cap is up again from 375 to 450. Blizzard promised to make lvling from 300 to 375 a bit easier but whew it’s gonna be tedious.

In the upside though, we’ve been given some additional incentive for having a particular profession. These come in the form of Passive Bonuses. See the list below it’s not yet complete but more will follow soon:

• Alchemists get roughly a 20 percent bonus to the effects and duration of their own potions when they use them.
• Miners get a bonus 500hp.
• Skinners get a 25 to their critical strike rating bonus
• Herbalists will get an instant cast HOT for 2000 hp over 5 seconds. (self only, 3 min cooldown).
• Scribes (Inscription) will have an additional unlockable major glyph slot.
• Enchanters may now sell or trade enchantments over the Auction House (sold as armor scrolls)
• Jewlcrafters have a chance of creating “Perfect” gems when cutting uncommon Northend gems
• Tailors can find additional cloth on Northrend humaniods.

Numerous new recipes for all the professions have also been added… but I suppose that’s to be expected.

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Miscellaneous Changes/ Additions:

Barbershop
After four years of bitter, pitched battle from the hellish depths of the Molten Core to the swirling chaos of Netherstorm, my warrior’s hairdo could probably use a touch-up. Hairdos, hair color, and piercings may now be changed for a small fee. Sorry, plastic surgery is still not available.

The Achievements window
It’s now easier than ever to keep track of your achievements with the new Achievements window.

The top of the window displays the total number of points you’ve received for completing achievements. Below, each achievement appears with its name, description, point value, the completion date and a progress bar. New achievements to WoWLK have been added so you can put this new feature through its paces.

Also included in the window are “Feats of Strength.” Feats record your character’s past glories such as old pvp rankings, rare items found, etc. They’re worth no points but are nice to get all nostalgic about.

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Related Wrath of the Lich King Articles:

• Wrath of the Lich King: Everything you need to know, part 1

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So, anyone wanna play the name game? See if you can guess the characters from their special forms alone - and no looking at their in-set normal picture at the bottom right. If you want it spelled out though, today’s batch sees Taichi Ci, Xhu Huang, Yue Ying, Sun Jian, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei.

Koei’s Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is heading to North America and Europe next year.

Many thanks to Peter Bauer for the tip!

Related articles:

• New screenshots for Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce
• More screens, characters for Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce revealed; official site goes live

They currently have a countdown running down to what is is supposedly an unannounced Bahamut game. They went ahead and announced the game anyway without waiting for the clock. They even provided the title, platform, screenshots, and even some game details. These were revealed in the latest issue of the Japanese mag, Shonen Jump.

The game is titled Blood of Bahamut, and - shock! - will be released on the Nintendo DS. Square Enix seems to be infatuated with the handheld lately. Anyway, judging from the single solitary gameplay screen from the scans, the game does look like a Shadow of the Colossus-type game, Square Enix style.

Here are some details from the mag, followed by the scans:

• The game will feature two protagonists Ibuki and Yui.
• They live in a fortified city built on the back of a giant.
• The giant will wake up during an enemy attack, our heroes must fight and defend their city.
• Cooperative multiplayer mode for up to four players locally available.
• The game will be presented at Jump Festa expo in Japan at the end of the year.

Prompted by this post at ThreeSpeech made today, we’ve decided to use this opportunity for some trivia too. As you may have guessed, this isn’t much of a news piece, but rather, more of a retrospective.

Below is a video taken from the early years (circa 2007) of LittleBigPlanet. It shows a prototype of the game, complete with Yellow Head, the pre-cursor and ancestor of what we now affectionately call Sackboy.

Some other interesting trivia that might save your life one day:

• The idea for the game was first discussed by Media Molecule co-founders Mark Healey and Dave Smith after watching Studio Ghibli’s animated movie Howl’s Moving Castle.
• In its prototype stage, the game’s working title was “Craftworld”.
• Control design was first implemented using a PS2 controller connected to the PC. Almost akin to controlling a Katamari, Yellow Head’s right arm was controllable by the right analog stick, while the left arm, the left analog stick.
• When LittleBigPlanet was first presented - this would have been during GDC 2007 - the game had only gone less than one year into development.

So where does this bring us now? Seeing LittleBigPlanet in its infantile years sure makes you think up of a lot of other things in the future: for example, I believe Media Molecule might want to rack up on some sentimentality and actually bring back Yellow Head here as a Sackboy costume. That’d be way cool!

• New SackBoy costumes for US LittleBigPlanet this Thursday
• LittleBigDLC: Sony outlines downloadable SackBoy costumes

Unlike other studies though, this one doesn’t offer conclusions like “violent video games is teh evilz.” Their study only offers what the data says, with a methodology that’s direct to the point and simple, if a little limited in scope and test groups.

Their study asked boys aged 12-15 to play two different video games at home in the evening, one violent, and one with ponies non-violent. Monitoring their heart rate, they found that the violent game had a higher effect on heart rate than non-violent ones, lasting even into sleep.

While the boys themselves said that they didn’t sleep poorly after playing the violent games, the results suggest that the biological system is affected - to a degree - by violent video games without us even being aware of it.

The study offers no conclusions as to the long term effects, but it does give a definite link to violent video games and biological functions. Mental links are a different matter altogether, despite what Jack Thompson would have you think.

• ECA: recent study on violent video games is wanting
• Violent video games make you aggressive
• Look, Ma! No hands! Study suspects violent games are healthy for kids
• Study: Video games activate reward regions of brain in men more than women
• Bet you didn’t know: video games are good for you; study shows social, political, civic effects
• Study shows playing video games may damage brain
• Pyschologists: obsessive video game habits are part of larger issue

According to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, both the Xbox 360-exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV DLC and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS have been delayed. Says Zelnick:

[The GTA IV DLC is] close to being complete. That said, it may move into the second quarter. Downloadable content is a big undertaking. It is important to be really special.

We might not see it until Spring of 2009. Chinatown Wars, on the other hand, is now promised to be released in the first of the fiscal year, which translates to April of next year.

It’ll be interesting to see how this will go down. If you guys have been following news on the Houser brothers, the creative think tank behind the GTA franchise, you’d know that their contract expires this February. If both games will be released after their contract expires, does this mean suggest that they will renew their contract with T2 after all?

• Rockstar’s Dan Houser: we’re focused on quality, no date on GTA IV DLC yet

I doubt this is what they meant, though.

Turns out that the touted PS3 exclusive DLC for Mirror’s Edge isn’t so exclusive after all. Gamecyte managed to get EA on the line and confirmed that the DLC will be “downloadable content for both platforms,” according to the spokesperson.

This news isn’t exactly generous with the details though. Is it a timed exclusive? Or will both platforms have completely different DLC like what EA did for Dead Space?

At any rate, sucks for Sony.

Yay for another big batch of screenshots! Today, we get up close and personal with the many friendly faces we’ll be meeting in Resident Evil 5. Alirght, everyone! Compress a little, move a bit closer, yeees, now say cheeeeese!

It’s the same batch of recycled baddies: from axe-wielding butchers to rabid dogs (aaw, it’s Fluffy!). RE4’s burlap-faced chainsaw-wielding Los Ganados has his own reincarnation here too. He gives an entirely new definition to Sackboy-ness. Ain’t he cute?

There’s also a couple of screens with Chris Redfield and whatsherface trying to dispatch the motorcycle riders. Note the co-op mode gameplay elements.

Warning The screens are HUGE. (Gotta love press kits from Capcom!) You might want to wait for the page to load in FULL before you start clicking on the thumbs.

Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is to be released on March 13.

• TGS 2008: Resident Evil 5 gets split screen for offline co-op

Now, Microsoft chimes in with their numbers, saying that they’re actually “pretty comfortable” with the economy. Says Microsoft’s Minny Mount (seriously, that’s her name):

We’ve seen some pretty drastic developments in the broader economic picture. I think everyone’s rightfully concerned about how consumers may be behaving in the coming months […] but we think that the interactive entertainment business is poised to weather this storm a lot better than other businesses.

It’s not to suggest that video games are recession proof, but… even in hard times, people want entertainment more than ever, and video games offer a greater value for the money. […] We feel pretty comfortable that we’re positioned well for this holiday and the months beyond.

Oh, she also says they’re beating the PlayStation 3 2-to-1: “Later today, NPD is going to release October sales… and we expect these numbers will show that we continue to outsell [PS3] by a ratio of two to one.” Well, we’ll see once the NPD numbers are released.

Sony recently explained that only levels containing obscenities and copyrighted materials are being moderated, and of all the levels published so far, only 0.5 were deemed such. In order to shed further light on the subject, SCEE released a statement to clarify some things:

Sony Computer Entertainment and Media Molecule would […] like to take this opportunity to praise the fantastic spirit that our online community has displayed. The vast majority of content uploaded to date has been fun and suitable for all of our community members.

In a very few cases we have upheld complaints regarding unsuitable content or infringement of intellectual property, with less than 0.5 of levels actively moderated as a result of complaints from other users.

Sony Computer Entertainment are committed to continually improving our moderation procedure and the methods of communication we use, in particular regarding the reasons that user complaints are upheld. In the meantime, here are some suggestions for all of our creators:

Ensure that the content you share with other users is suitable for all ages - everybody has access to your level if you publish it.

Please respect other people s intellectual property rights. For example, don t use images, brands or logos that you re not entitled to use.

If you come across any content that you feel the need to report, then please do it responsibly. Hoax report.

There you go, folks. Don’t use copyrighted content, and stop making pee-pee levels.

The entire campaign will be running on three different TV spots, each only 15 seconds long. Those three ads are supposedly hinting at the bigger campaign which is supposed to launch on November 23.

Here’s the first TV spot, entitled “Alley”:

“Whuuuut?” Exactly. I was half expecting that the guy would suddenly break out into song, all Oliver Twist-like or something. Food, glorious fooooood…

They say it’s got something to do with Resistance 2, which isn’t that far of a reach once you notice the finer details in the ad: for one, it’s got the same ominous epic vibe to it. Also, the guy in the alley seems to be watching a car explode. How did I know? Notice the reflection in the water - car goes ASPLODE!

Ooooh, so that’s why the campaign is called “Reflections”! Heh.

Check back for when we get whiff of the other ads in the campaign!

• PS3 Matrjoska ad to make you go …whuuut?
• The PS3 baby commercial is TEH CREEPIEST

Sony has sent out word on the PlayStation forums that version 1.0 will hit the closed beta soon (but not that soon), and will be inviting a large number of extra testers once it happens.

Here’s the official outline of events to come in the following weeks, as posted by Ted:

1.  The version 1.0 Patch Notes will be published in the closed beta forum so they know what to expect and to help plan testing.
2.  A couple of days later Version 1.0 will be released into the Closed beta. That will not happen this week.
3.  SCEE will be inviting a large number of extra testers into the closed beta to load test and that process will start within a day or so of v1.0 going live. We wont invite them all straight away, we’ll ramp it up over a a period of time. We will be inviting non-English speaking testers for the first time. Languages covered will be English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Please remember these are languages, not countries, so more than the immediately obvious countries will be included to a degree. The lists have been chosen already, don’t try changing your language to get included!
4.  Once we start inviting people in to the Closed Beta the public SCEE Home forums will become the Home beta test forums.
5.  The date of Open Beta start will be announced in advance
6.  Open Beta starts and that will be just as it implies, Open to all

Well that’s that folks. PlayStation Home is coming, but not in the immediate future - basically same news as always.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Resident Evil 5 senior producer Jun Takeuchi hinted that a demo for the game may be going live soon for the PS3 and Xbox 360. He didn’t go into details about it, and only mentioned that Capcom will be “making an announcement about that relatively soon.”

Meanwhile, he also revealed that they’re taking the matter of mandatory game installs seriously with RE5. Will Chris Redfield follow the footsteps of Dante and Nero or not? There’s still no final word yet, however, it seems that Capcom was traumatized by how Devil May Cry 4’s mandatory install (a mere 20 minutes!) was received by the gamers.

This time for RE5, they’re going to be weighing the feedback they’ve gotten from DMC4. Takeuchi elaborates:

We’re still working on those technical elements in the last couple of months, but we can tell you that if users are dissatisfied with that kind of thing, then it’s certainly something we keep in mind when we develop. We’ll do our best to come up with something that users will not criticise, but love…

Back when the DMC4 install time was made into an issue by the masses, Capcom had to douse the flames by explaining the benefits of the HDD install time: on top of the long term benefit of faster game loading times, the actual installation proper included a DMC series recap.

Apparently, the explanation wasn’t enough for the gamers. Even today, it remains a sensitive topic to some. Question is… are we having another redux in RE5? Here’s to hoping Capcom manages this dilemma well this time around. But for what it’s worth, I myself wouldn’t mind a mandatory install.

Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is to be released on March 13.

• Resident Evil 5 - more gameplay details from the devs
• TGS 2008: Resident Evil 5 gets split screen for offline co-op

The fashion conscious might have given a hair flip of approval when they found out that character customization also provides options to change even fundamental qualities like facial features and skin color. Maybe even go on a gender bender.

But, why oh why, does Blizzard have to charge its gamers for wanting to display a bit of flair to match their good looks? Well according to Blizzard’s Paul Sams and Lee Sparks, it’s to discourage players from changing their characters looks too often.

Says Sams:

When you create your character, often times you wish you’d done things differently. You wish you were on a different realm, you wish you’d had a different name or you wish you’d chosen a different look and feel to your character.

This is a way for [players] to be able to do that, but it’s something that’s taking a lot of time and energy for us to be able to put in place. We also think that it’s important to have some consistency in the game, we don’t want people changing their look and feel every day.

Says Sparks:

Yeah, and I think the reason for the monetary expense is more of a barrier so that people don’t do it every day. We want to give you the ability to do this, but we don’t want you to do it all the time time.

The same thing goes for paid character transfer, we don’t want people bouncing back and forth. [It] also allows us to have the staff to be able to continually manage the population

It probably doesn’t hurt that they’re getting more money either.

Following the sarcasm and wit (not to mention, annoyance, to a degree) of those “Dude, get your own” adverts, this comes as a breather. Sony’s rolling out a new PSP advertising campaign - and it goes a little something like this:

Catchy, yes? It’s fun and light-hearted - and for some reason, I feel like having a Big Mac.

As implied by the ad, Sony’s new campaign for the PSP goes by the title: “Your Whole World in Your Hands”. As such, it’s got the whole “Your games, Your music, Your movie, etc etc” thing going on, thus carrying the entire “PSP isn’t just a games device” motto.

• Dude, get your own ad for Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
• Leaving on a jetplane: A “Dude, Get Your Own.” advert

Part of the reason is probably its split from its original partner, Vanguard. The studio is currently busy finalizing its Oddworld 2.0 business plan. Don’t worry though, the project is still in development. Says OWI’s Sherry McKenna:

Citizen Siege is a project near and dear to our hearts so while we are no longer developing it with Vanguard due to the famous ‘creative differences’, it is still in development.

We still care about creating games although perhaps not in the way we did in the past. We are just in the process of finalizing our new Oddworld 2.0 plan.

Unsurprisingly though, we are not given any more more details on the project other than that. At least we know it hasn’t evaporated, so that’s something.

For those who missed it, OWI president Lorne Lanning is now, uh, not president of OWI. It was announced yesterday that Larry Shapiro has taken his stead. Under Oddworld 2.0, Lanning will now concentrate on the creative side of production, while Shapiro will “get to deal with all the ’stuff’ presidents of companies have to deal with,” says McKenna.

• Maxis co-founder, OddWorld Inhabitants developing new game with CG movie quality graphics