189w ago - Today Wal-Mart has started selling pre-owned video games in many of its US retail locations.

Apparently the chain promises that each pre-owned game is polished, tested and inspected prior to its re-sale.

To quote: "US supermarket giant Wal-Mart has begun selling pre-owned games for the first time.

The ASDA parent has previously installed trade-in kiosks in its stores - a move which has been followed by the likes of Best Buy and the UK's very own GAME.

Now, however, Wal-Mart has also launched a standalone in-store pre-owned section - suggesting its kiosk experiment has been a success.

According to the firm's Web site, each pre-owned game the grocer handles will be 'polished, tested and inspected prior to shipping'."

196w ago - It appears Sony Europe has money to burn, as they will be selling PlayStation Network Cards in standard Blu-ray game cases in Europe.

They will be available in September, in both £20 and £50 denominations.

To quote: "PlayStation Network Cards are, for some, the only way to add credit easily to your PlayStation Network wallet.

The idea is simple - purchase a PlayStation Network Card from a shop, enter the 12-digit code and fill up your Store wallet.

The odd thing? SCEE will be using real plastic Blu-ray boxes to house them in, presumably so it makes you think you're getting something tangible and also, we guess, to make the retail outlets a bit happier."

200w ago - It's no surprise that Michael Jackson had a passion for video games. His Neverland Ranch arcade collection was a testament to this, but he also signed a PlayStation once.

That Michael Jackson signed PlayStation is now for sale on eBay, seemingly authentic in signature by the late King of Pop.

To quote: While the starting bid is not ludicrous, the Buy It Now price on eBay certainly is. The seller is willing to part with it right now for $1.5 million.

It's doubly special, according to the seller, being the 1,000,001st PlayStation to roll off the assembly line. Funny, that somehow sounds a little less believable than the Moonwalker actually scribbling "I Love You, Michael Jackson" on a game console.

205w ago - Quantic Dream has announced that it is selling its motion capture data (as seen in Heavy Rain) in library packages to other game developers.

The offering will be what Quantic Dream calls "the industry's first high-end, off-the-shelf solution for real-time 3D character animation."

Considering they spent nearly a year doing motion capture work on Heavy Rain, it only makes sense to recovering the costs of the enormous project.

To quote: Motion Kit Collection Vol 1 will feature 2 motion kit libraries (one for both sexes), each comprising 84 generic motion animations, which totals 2 X 7 linear minutes of animation data.

With each humanoid animation captured using Quantic's 28-camera Vicon MX-F40 system, the motions can be used for building motion kits for both playable real-time characters and NPCs. Quantic has said this process will "reduce time and budget outlays for prototyping, pre and full productions."

The animation package is available in .fbx format, which are linkable with 3D software pipelines such as MotionBuilder, Maya, 3DS Max or XSI.

The animations were recorded at Quantic's Virtual Actor Studio in France.

206w ago - It appears that InFamous has set the standard for new IPs that are exclusive to the PS3 in the US.

Below are some stats, courtesy of VGChartz and NPD, as follows:

• InFamous (May, 2009) - 176K first week
• Resistance (Nov., 2006) - 42K first week
• Motorstorm (March, 2007) - 107K first week
• Warhawk (August, 2007) - 70K first week
• Lair (August, 2007) - 69K first week
• Heavenly Sword (Sept., 2007) - 75K first week
• Uncharted (Nov., 2007) - 32K first week
• Haze (May, 2008) - 91K first week
• LittleBigPlanet (October, 2008) - 110K first week

To quote: Of course, established IPs have sold quite a bit more in their first week. Metal Gear Solid 4 sold upwards of 400,000 units, while established first party IPs such as Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 both sold close to 300,000 units in their debut.