Game Downloads

Metal Gear Online has had its fair share of troubles since launching with Metal Gear Solid 4 back in June. Konami is still plugging away at it though, and loyal fans will soon be rewarded with the new Meme Expansion.

One of Square Enix's current goals is to broaden its horizons and expand its international portfolio, with one specific mark being to generate 50% of its revenue from outside of Japan (up from the current 10-20%). Senior VP Michihiro Sasaki explained, "We need to seek cooperation with a US publisher -- we need local content. Our strength is in role-playing games and fantasy titles, so it is a bit difficult to appeal to the US market."

The idea of comic book superheroes (and villains) duking it out with the Mortal Kombat series' eclectic cast of costumed weirdos goes well beyond the realm of absurd. Yet, somewhat ironically, this ridiculous concept is the best thing that's happened to MK in the past 13 years. After all, when you really think about it, how different are these two universes? Answer: not terribly.

You know a franchise is oversaturated when it feels like a clich? to mention that there are too many games using its license, but that's Naruto. Fortunately, it's a license with mostly well-made games, so to help clarify what makes Broken Bond (the follow-up to last year's Rise of a Ninja, and Ubisoft Montreal's second Xbox 360 Naruto game) unique, we spoke with producer Stefan Cardin.

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi reported on a number of interesting remarks made over the weekend by Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft's games group, at the Play conference at the University of California at Berkley's Haas School of Business. Kim pointed to the new Xbox Live Experience due out this week as one way they hope to improve at reaching gamers beyond the hardcore market. Making Live easier to navigate should get more people socializing online and checking out the videos and music available on Live. For such an important part of the Xbox 360's fall, it was somewhat disturbing then to see that with regard to the update he said, "God willing, it will work." Not exactly the vote of confidence 360 owners want to hear as they get ready to update their systems.