Nintendo’s new Wii MotionPlus was not the only peripheral revealed at this year’s E3. During the Nintendo Press Briefing on Tuesday morning, Nintendo’s Katsuya Eguchi appeared on video to tell the whole, wild world about Animal Crossing: City Folk. The long-expected Wii incarnation of Nintendo’s anthropomorphic virtual life series, Animal Crossing: City Folk will include a wide number of expected features, including the ability to send messages to other consoles’ towns. What’s more, Eguchi unveiled a brand-new peripheral which will see its first use through City Folk: the Wii Speak, a TV-mounted microphone which will allow voice chat between Animal Crossing denizens (and, one assumes, players of future Wii games). Continue Reading

Earlier today, CD Projekt announced a new distribution system for PC gaming — a service called Good Old Games, so named for its intent to focus on the treasured classics of our youth. Including semi-old-school favorites like Fallout, MDK, Freespace, and others, GOG’s intent is to re-invigorate gamers’ enthusiasm for these disappearing titles — selling them for under $10 apiece, updating them to work under Windows XP and Vista, and keeping them 100% DRM-free. Is such a thing possible? Will people be willing to pay for these games if they’re made cheap and easy enough to get? Are we ready for yet another collection of retro games or another digitial distribution service? Will I finally stop being the only person who ever played Sacrifice?

We spoke with CD Projekt’s VP of PR and Marketing, Tom Ohle, for more insight into GOG’s revival of the classics. Click ahead for insight into licensing abandonware, building a community for the classics, and whether or not I would steal from Tom. Continue Reading

Unless you’ve been living under a rock — a rock enchanted with Resist Gaming News, Level 10 — you probably know that Blizzard announced Diablo III this past weekend. The news was practically plastered all over the internet. But how? The company didn’t conduct a massive PR campaign. To inform the general audience that the fire n’ brimstone, hack n’ slash sequel was incoming, Blizzard didn’t do so much as lift a finger. Instead, with a simple viral marketing ploy and a clever picture, they relied on multiple existing audiences to do all the work for them. Continue Reading

Ladies and gentlemen, the future of gaming is almost upon us. Yesterday, Valve Software introduced “Steam Cloud,” a set of innovations for its Steam digital-distribution platform that will bring users one step closer to true cloud gaming. Step one? Think Gmail, only for your personal game data. Continue Reading

For the attending journalists, press events are a blast, filled with free food, first looks at the hottest games, and an ocean of PR spin in which to blissfully sink or frantically attempt to swim — but as a mere member of the gaming audience, you typically have to wait for your news until the event is over and done with. But perhaps not for much longer. Today, Sony revealed that its PlayStation Home has hosted, and will continue to host press events inside its virtual walls. Continue Reading

Following the Thursday reveal that Microsoft would delist underperforming game titles from their Xbox LIVE Arcade service — ostensibly in an effort to filter their existing collection — the company today clarified that retroactive purchases will be fully functional and can be redownloaded even after they are delisted. Continue Reading

Xbox LIVE policy is changing, and we’re not talking about their ridiculous gay banhammer. No, today Next-Gen has an exclusive interview with Microsoft’s Marc Witten, who reveals that after selling over one-quarter of a billion dollars in digitally-delivered content, Redmond has decided to improve the quality of that content with some controversial yet exciting new policies. Continue Reading

PopCap Games, creators of infamous time sinks Bejeweled, Zuma, Bookworm and Peggle, has today become a part of the equally infamous WildTangent former spyware/bloatware casual game advertising network and digital-delivery platform.

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Sony has received its fair share of flak for online platform/social net nexus Home, mostly because of frequent delays and the growing realization that nothing Sony’s console has can hold a candle to Xbox Live. Typically, Sony likes to shrug off such shortcomings by trotting out the PS3’s supposed 10-year lifespan, and in that context the postponements don’t seem so bad — what’s one more year if people then have another seven in which to relish their investment? But PlayStation Home may outlast even the PS3. Continue Reading

Next-Gen is reporting that PMOG, or the “Passively Multiplayer Online Game,” has been launched by GameLayers. Played in a Firefox browser by surfing with a free extension, PMOG transforms a user’s typical web-crawl into an online battlefield, where visiting one’s usual sites can allow you to find missions and items, or stumble over booby traps left by other users. Continue Reading