The Mole

I can't think of any more euphemisms for the latest gaming news so from now on any new gaming rumors will be under the heading "The Mole". Try not to think of that horrible D-list celebrity reality show when you see it.

Turn that Xbox 360 into a home version VH1 - Last Thursday Microsoft announced an agreement with Epic records that makes music videos available to Xbox 360 owners. Every month for the next year, 12 "up and coming artists" will be featured, one new artist each month. This month British singer Natasha Bedingfield (who is taking America by storm according to Microsoft) is the artist of the month. There are no fees for this new feature.

Stan Lee and the Master Chief team up - Bungie and Marvel comics have joined forces to develop a 128 page "Halo" novel (essentially a very long comic book) to be released July of this year. Expect the Master Chief cookbook, "My favorite recipes, Covenant style" to be released later this year.

Surprise! PS3 release delayed until early November - In a move surprising no one, Sony announced the Playstation 3 has been pushed back to an early November release instead of this Spring. Sony also announced their online service, tentatively called the Playstation Network Platform, will have features almost identical to Xbox Live. Surprisingly, Sony stated their base online service will be free. No details were given if there would be a premium service that will require a fee.

Sony PSP price slashing - Sony announced the PSP will drop in price from $250 to $200 at the end of March. I'm sure hoping you didn't buy one recently. The company also announced plans for two new PSP peripherals to be available before the end of the year - a camera and a USB GPS receiver that will work with certain games. Sounds pretty cool.

I told you so! - This morning Microsoft announced it has made its Xbox Live Server Platform available to game developers and publishers. This will allow them more creative control of their titles features available online. Now developers can make changes and add new modes to the online experience. This can also lead to new content and even possibly (here's the 'I told you so' part) entire games being downloaded from Xbox Live. Not that I'm bragging (yes I am) but I called this months ago. See, I know what I'm talking about. At least half of the time.