Electronic Arts today confirmed that the Bio-Ware-developed MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch December 20 in North America, and December 22 in Europe. Since June, the publisher has been proclaiming a general 2011 release window for the game. Don’t for get to check out the video!

Call of Duty $400 hardware bundle features redecorated 320GB system with custom sounds, two controllers, and a copy of Activision’s newest first-person shooter.

Microsoft and Activision have announced the special-edition Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 package, featuring a 320GB version of the hardware carrying a motif inspired by the upcoming first-person shooter. Available for Modern Warfare 3′s November 8 launch, the console pack will include the redecorated Xbox 360 with two matching controllers and a copy of the game.It will also feature some custom sounds for when the system is powered on or off, and when the disc tray is ejected. The $400 bundle will also include one free month of Xbox Live Gold and exclusive items for Xbox Live avatars.

Microsoft is also releasing a pair of Modern Warfare 3-themed accessories to be sold separately. The hardware bundle controllers will be sold on their own for $60, and a Modern Warfare 3-themed Bluetooth wireless headset will also be available for $70. Both will come packed with codes for unspecified but exclusive downloads.

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Has the Xbox 360 failed in Japan? Why? What next for Microsoft? Does this mean the PS3 has won the war? Does this spell doom for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft in Japan?

If you had all these questions and more then you’re in the right place. First and foremost let’s address is concern of the failure. It honestly…is no big deal for Microsoft. “Japan constitutes 18% of the global gaming market and is declining rapidly” says analyst Michael Pachter described the country as “about as important to western publishers as Scandinavia.”

Microsoft did some really smart things as it attempted to win the hearts and minds of Japanese consumers. It managed to win support from leading developers (usually through the expedient of hard cash). It spent a lot of marketing dough. It’s difficult to see what the company could have done better. But still it failed.

Japan has become less and less important to games industry spreadsheet jockeys, as they plot their future revenues. The growing markets are in Eastern Europe and South America, both of which are way more receptive to Western cultural tropes than Japan and Asia. Put simply, they just don’t expect Japan to deliver much into their coffers.

Xbox 360 always had one hand tied behind its back, not helped by the view – expressed by various commentators over the years – that the console and the controller’s form-factor are too vulgar and clunky for Japanese tastes.

Microsoft is also not an entirely natural fit for Japanese gamers. The company may be styling itself as the casual platform of the future, but for most people, even in the West, Xbox 360 means Gears of War, Call of Duty and very obviously Western-influenced yarns like the Tolkeinesque Fable or Oblivion. Shooters are growing in popularity in Japan, but not those with an obviously Western theme.

Michael Pachter, the well-known analyst, tells a funny story about this one time when Activision boss Bobby Kotick visited Tokyo. “Bobby walked into a games store and he was delighted to see a big pile of Activision games, underneath a huge sign,” retells Pachter. “He asked what the sign said. An interpreter politely translated – ‘Western Dogshit’.”

But let’s give Microsoft some credit. The company has sold over a million units in Japan (estimated). It has won some credibility as the console for super-hardcore gamers. In Japan, it’s the machine for nerds, and that can’t be such a bad thing.

The Japanese experiment helped release Sony’s stranglehold on Final Fantasy and it helped to make Xbox 360 a solid host for decent Japanese RPGs like Lost Odyssey. Xbox was even the exclusive console home for massive arcade hit Idol Master, a coup that Sony and Nintendo would not have enjoyed one bit.

Japan’s importance for Microsoft must still be as a creative power-house rather than a source of revenue. The company worked smartly to bring Japanese developers on board. And even if Japan remains a marginal destination for Western games consoles and Western games, it’s still been well worth keeping the country sweet. The company will keep trying, may even make greater inroads in the future, but Xbox 360′s fortunes do not hang on Japan, and never really did.

source: IGN

A couple of months back we had covered the upcoming WWE ’12 game. The game coming out this year will no longer go by the ‘Smackdown vs Raw’ franchise. The stiff animations, the characters warping into place for certain moves, the confusing right analog stick controls for grapples — WWE ’12 is addressing all of that and feels good so far. That’s pretty damn exciting.

Although you can’t make out much from the screenshots; so we’ll actually have to get our hands on it to experience it. In the meantime THQ has taken it on themselves to reveal the roster thus far.

Below is THQ’s announced roster for “WWE ’12,” as of Sept. 2, 2011:

SUPERSTARS (* – debuting in “WWE ’12″)

• Alberto Del Rio*
• Alex Riley*
• The Big Show
• Chavo Guerrero
• Christian
• CM Punk
• Cody Rhodes
• Daniel Bryan*
• David Otunga
• Dolph Ziggler
• Drew McIntyre
• Evan Bourne
• Ezekiel Jackson
• Goldust
• Heath Slater*
• Husky Harris*
• Jack Swagger
• John Cena
• John Morrison
• Justin Gabriel
• Kane
• Kofi Kingston
• Mark Henry
• Mason Ryan*
• Michael McGillicutty*
• The Miz
• Mr. McMahon
• R-Truth
• Randy Orton
• Rey Mysterio
• The Rock (pre-order exclusive)
• Santino Marella
• Sheamus
• Sin Cara*
• Ted DiBiase
• Triple H
• Tyson Kidd
• The Undertaker
• Vladimir Kozlov
• Wade Barrett
• William Regal
• Yoshi Tatsu
• Zack Ryder

DIVAS

• Beth Pheonix
• Eve
• Kelly Kelly
• Layla
• Maryse
• Michelle McCool
• Natalya

LEGENDS

• Arn Anderson
• Booker T
• Demolition Ax
• Demolition Smash
• Eddie Guerrero
• Edge
• Kevin Nash
• Ricky Steamboat
• Road Warrior Hawk
• Road Warrior Animal
• “Stone Cold” Steve Austin
• Vader

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT

• Jerry “The King” Lawler

NON-PLAYABLE SUPERSTARS

• Ricardo Rodriguez
• Justin Roberts
• Michael Cole

What’s missing?

Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Randy Savage – amongst many others. What’s interesting is some of the Legends – I’m impressed with that list so far. Especially Road Warriors and Demolition. The inclusion of Kevin Nash and Vader is very interesting. Like I said though – where’s HBK, Bret Hart and Randy Savage?

On the superstars side they’ve got pretty much everyone covered. Good to see Sin Cara and Daniel Bryan making their WWE video game debut.

Stay tuned for more!

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or CS:GO is debuting in early 2012 on Steam (for the PC and Mac) Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network, Global Offensive features new game modes, weapons, maps, and characters to the franchise. This will mark the series’ first appearance on XBLA and the PSN.

Additionally, gamers will be able to be able to fight on updated versions of original Counter-Strike maps including de_dust and others. Lastly, Global Offensive will support matchmaking and leaderboards.

Valve also today shared new sales statistics for Counter-Strike. The publisher said that the Counter-Strike franchise–which debuted 12 years ago this month–has sold over 25 million units. Global Offensive is currently in development at Valve Software and Hidden Path Entertainment, which also codeveloped Counter-Strike: Source.

It’s official..Borderlands 2 has been announced.Currently in development, the title is being created by Gearbox Software, who developed the first title. Like the previous title, the game is slated for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

“Combining invention and evolution, Borderlands 2 features all-new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story,” said publisher 2K Games in an official statement. “Players will reveal secrets, and escalate mysteries of the Borderlands universe as they adventure across the unexplored new areas of Pandora.”

Borderlands 2 is scheduled to be released between April 2012 and spring 2013.

On the 2nd of September, 3D Realms president George Broussard posted a cryptic picture of pigs flying. The reason is now clear. At PAX Prime in Seattle, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford took the stage to announce that his studio has taken over Duke Nukem Forever, which had been in development at the now-all-but-defunct 3D Realms since 1997.

Speaking to a shocked and enthusiastic crowd, Pitchford said, “We can’t let the Duke die, right? The guys at 3D Realms who put their hearts and souls into this, so we wanted to make sure it hits all the platforms. It’s coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2011.”

Pitchford also told the Wall Street Journal that Gearbox took over the game in late 2009, following the quasi-closure of 3D Realms and tit-for-tat lawsuits between 3D Realms and Duken Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two Interactive.

“Clearly the game hadn’t been finished at 3D Realms but a lot of content had been created,” Pitchford told the Journal. “The approach and investment and process at 3D Realms didn’t quite make it and it cracked at the end. With Gearbox Software we brought all those pieces together. It’s the game it was meant to be.”

If you were planning on getting a little fear on with F.E.A.R. 3 this year; well you’ll just have to hold on a little longer.  Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has confirmed that the survival-horror shooter is now expected to ship for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in 2011, having initially been scheduled for this fall.

Unlike previous installments in the F.E.A.R. franchise, primary development of the game is being handled by Day 1 Studios, which worked on the PS3 and 360 console ports of the original F.E.A.R. Monolith Productions, which was the lead developer on the first two F.E.A.R. games, will not be involved, having “passed the torch” according to Warner Bros. Previous Day 1 titles include Fracture for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and MechAssault 2 for the original Xbox.

F.E.A.R. 3 will be the third full-fledged installment in the first-person shooter series, which began in 2005. The forthcoming game will continue the franchise’s storyline but will add an all-new “divergent co-op” mode that will let players assume the role of one of two characters. Players can step into the shoes of Point Man, the genetically engineered supersoldier who appeared in the first F.E.A.R., or his brother, Paxton Fettel, who has telekinetic powers. Warner says the two characters will provide completely different storylines from each individual’s perspective.

In an effort to enhance the horror element of F.E.A.R. 3, Warner Bros. has enlisted horror film director John Carpenter to advise on development of the game. After coming to prominence with the 1978 cult hit Halloween, the filmmaker has been behind the camera on such cult hits as Escape From New York, the remake of The Thing, and They Live.