222w ago - With the news surfacing about BioWare - who is now wholly owned by Electronic Arts - formally announcing Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360 and PC, it has become rather obvious that this wasn't heading to the PS3 and here's a few possible reasons why.

First of all, back when BioWare wasn't owned by Electronic Arts, Microsoft had already published the first game for the Xbox 360 with intentions (much like Gears of War) to maintain a new franchised trilogy for the Xbox brand. People can argue semantics, publishing and trademark rights all they want, but consider Col. Sheppard the tertiary mascot next to Master Chief and Marcus Fenix.

It was reiterated time-over and again that Mass Effect was going to be an Xbox 360 trilogy. And even while Casey Hudson denied plans for a PC rendition of Mass Effect in an interview with Gamer 2.0, it was obvious the big bad MS wasn't going to let gold slip through their fingers...especially considering that the Games for Windows platform is utter crap and needed something good in its library.

The fact that Hudson lied about the PC version could prompt some gamers to believe that Mass Effect 2 could still be heading to the PS3. However, the difference...

222w ago - Today NVIDIA announced that its popular PhysX technology will be available to all registered Sony PlayStation 3 developers free of charge.

To quote: NVIDIA announced it has signed a tools and middleware license agreement with Sony that makes the binary version of the NVIDIA PhysX technology available to registered PS3 developers.

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has signed a tools and middleware license agreement for PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCEI).

As a result, the binary version of the NVIDIA(R) PhysX(R) technology software development kit (SDK) is now available to registered PS3 developers for free download and use on the SCEI Developer Network.

The NVIDIA PhysX software development kit SDK consists of a full-featured API and robust physics engine, designed to give developers, animators, level designers, and artists unprecedented creative control over character and object physical interactions by allowing them to author and preview physics effects in real time.

The continued adoption of NVIDIA PhysX technology by the world's leading content developers is resulting in games that not only look as realistic as possible, but also provides gaming experiences where the world's literally come to life: environments become...

222w ago - Sanzaru Games President Glen Egan provided confirmation today for those still with PS2 consoles that Secret Agent Clank is on the way.

To quote: My name is Glen Egan, I am the President of Sanzaru Games, a San Mateo, CA based independent video-game studio. We are just putting the finishing touches on Secret Agent Clank for the PlayStation 2.

The debonair spy will be bringing his unique brand of Clank-fu to the PlayStation 2 on May 26, 2009 and I just wanted to use this brief post to tell everyone a little bit about our studio and the game.

Seven of us started Sanzaru Games in January 2007 with a mission to bring together a group of talented individuals to share a common vision to develop fun to play, visually stunning and technically spectacular console games. Over the last couple of years the team has grown to nearly 30 and will continue to expand as more talented and experienced developers are drawn to the studio.

The name Sanzaru refers to the famous 3 wise monkeys - the founding philosophy for Sanzaru Games is that great games are a function of good design, beautiful, clear visuals and a strong technology base to deliver these. Should any one of these three pillars be missing then the game will suffer.

We are all huge...

222w ago - In February, analyst Mike Hickey indicated a PlayStation 3 price drop would hit near the end of the month. Didn't happen. He also passed on speculation that Sony would drop the PS3's Blu-ray drive.

Wait. What? Drop the thing that makes the entirety of the PlayStation 3's physical game library playable? That's what he said. See?

"We are also hearing continued speculation that Sony is working on a non-Blu-ray PS3 console, which could enable them to make the aforementioned hardware price reduction," Hickey wrote in a note to investors last month.

Sony says there's no way that's going to happen.

"That would pretty much destroy the PS3's backbone, our games were built on Blu-ray," Sony marketing manager Kim Nguyen tells Business Insider. "Quote that: Blu-ray will always be part of PS3."

Glad we got that sorted out. Also, duh!

222w ago - If you ask just about any ill-informed PlayStation fanboy on any forum what Sony has in store for them in 2009, they will almost certainly reply to you with a list of games that looks a little like this:

• God of War III
• Heavy Rain
• Uncharted 2
• MAG
• inFamous
• Killzone 2
• Gran Turismo 5
• Quantum Theory

Then they would go about spouting first-party studios they have not heard from in a while, claiming "Team ICO's unannounced project".

How many of these games do you expect to see the light of day in 2009? Let's take a look back over the years so far. In the past we have seen top-notch first-party exclusives such as LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2 being delayed over and over again and third party games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 receiving similar delays, it is clear that it isn't just Sony dropping the ball.

It is highly possible that many of these developers over-estimated their skills at programming, making a game from the ground up seemed on a system deemed by developers as 'difficult to program for'.

First, let's get these unannounced games out the way, if they are unannounced, the chances of them releasing any time within the next year are unlikely. It is still within possibility...