Guillaume de Fondaumiere claims that the PlayStation 3-exclusive title has lost out on between €5 to €10 million due to sales of their flagship title in the second hand market.

These comments are sure to add more weight to the critics (mainly developers and publishers) who are fighting for the use of  ‘online passes’ for all games in future that offer an online experience. The idea behind the passes is that the original buyer gets a free pass with the new copy of the game and then any subsequent purchases of that disc must by the online pass to access all the features.

This has hit a sore nerve with many gamers, namely the ones who like to buy games on a budget or those who buy early and trade-in their games while they still have a high value.

The UK pricing for the game is currently set at £16.99 (PSN) or 1600 MSP (XBLA). This may seem a little steep for a game that is now 4 years old, but rest assured Crytek have been hard at work porting the game using the latest engine’s features. They tell us to expect improved lighting and effects as part of the new release.

Keep an eye out fora firmer date over the next few weeks.

Activision have only gone and released the official launch trailer to Call of Duty: Black Ops in anticipation of the game’s release in just over a week from now.

You can see the trailer in all its glory below and start getting yourself psyched for what is most likely going to be the biggest selling game of 2010, if not all time by the way things look to be going.

I think this trailer helps to clear up any concerns gamers may have had about Treyarch being able to fill the gap left by Infinity Ward and their Modern Warfare series.

The bundle will only be available for a short period of time and is sure to sell out rapidly given the popularity of the Halo series. It features an extra controller, so you get two in the pack, both of which are styled to match the sleek silver look of the Halo: Reach Xbox 360 itself.

As the console is the new slim version, you also get a 250GB hard drive and the super-fast built-in WiFi N. Not to mention the important part for many; a copy of the game, Halo: Reach, of course.

If you live in the US, you can pre-order the console from Amazon right now for the great price of $399.

If you live in the UK like me, I’m afraid you are going to have to buy it from GAME or Gamestation as they have bagged exclusive rights to sell the game here – it will be retailing for £249.99.

Pre-order Halo: Reach Limited Edition Xbox 360 now on Amazon US.

The images make up a chart of pricing for the motion control gaming setups that has Kinect coming out cheapest, with Nintendo second and Sony last with the PlayStation Move.

This has garnered quite a big debate as of late, due to the fact that Microsoft has included a balance board in the Wii list of items and two navigation controllers on the PlayStation list, which some argue isn’t required as you are able to use existing PS3 controllers instead to save money.

This is an argument that can go either way, depending on how each company chooses to market it – the PlayStation Move offers a cheaper upfront cost if you start with just a one or two player setup. Meanwhile, the Kinect is probably the cheapest overall system because it doesn’t require any add-ons or controllers – something that is also touted as its limiting factor.

Source: Kotaku via Aiming at Gaming

The details, which were posted on the new site (http://callofduty.com/blackops/) were quite scarce, but it has been revealed in a tweet that the first proper trailer will be going live tonight on SpikeTV. Here is the full tweet from @treyarch:

“The world-premier teaser for the next Call of Duty airs Friday NIGHT (12:40AM) on SpikeTV! http://bit.ly/9TF07″

Well, that’s everything I’m afraid, for any more details on the game itself you’ll just have to wait until the official teaser is launched later today.

Patrick Seybold, PlayStation representative, has tweeted the following:

“Congrats to Bungie. Marrying their creative minds and incredible talent to the power of PS3 will be like giving PS3 fans Halo on steroids.”

This shows that Sony, or at least Seybold, is extremely happy with this turn in events and could very well lead to some promising results for all those involved. One thing for sure is; it definitely will not be a new Halo as Microsoft own the rights to that game not Bungie.

How does this affect you?

When the original Xbox Live stops running, some of the classic games server will be taken offline with it. This includes big hitters like Halo 2 and Battlefront 2 – games that still garner a lot of support from their respective fan-bases. Halo 2 and similar games will still have their single player functionality, but all online attributes will no longer be available after today.

I was personally never a fan of the Halo series and haven’t touched an original Xbox game in years, but statistics show there are still plenty of people playing these games on a regular basis.

A software update for MW2 was supposed to release alongside the Stimulus Package, which adds support for the map pack as well as new playlists to try them on. Unfortunately, the timing has all gone askew and the patch didn’t go live on time. No doubt Microsoft will rush this thing out as quick as they can, but there is no word on whether there is a problem with the update itself at this time.

The game patch will also improve matchmaking by better prioritising low ping servers based on the player’s locale.

This isn’t just your average port, the XBLA version of Perfect Dark has improved visuals (up to 1080p HD) – though the old school texture styles have been retained – and also boasts 2-12 person online multiplayer using Xbox Live that supports AI bots. It will also run at a super smooth 60 fps at all times.

The game also still features a local split-screen multiplayer mode for up to four players. This is something I have been looking forward to the most, as it takes me back a few years to the crowded rooms of fun that used to take place.

I hope they have that Villa challenge against the team of computer-controlled aliens – that used to be a torment in my younger years.

The good news is, Infinity Ward have come up with the perfect cure, and it will be out at the end of this month!

To rid yourself of Mapathy for a period of time, simply obtain the latest Modern Warfare 2 DLC when it is released on March 30th. Unfortunately, all those sufferes on the PC or PlayStation 3 will have to wait a month longer for the MW2 DLC cure, as it is exclusive to Xbox 360 until then.

“Mapathy (n.) (or map-uh-thee – often expressed as, “How the hell did you know I was there?!”) is a state of indifference to the same old maps one has been playing for the last several months. The Mapathetic individual no longer derives pleasure from blowing up people hiding in the cockpit or on top of the crane. More than 20 million people may be at risk for Mapathy.”

Source

The official website also contains a number of countdowns to locked areas of the website, presumably so they can drip-feed information to the Sonic fans worldwide and bring the old hype train out of its station. There are three interesting things to note from the website:

• It clearly states ‘Episode 1′ under the Sonic The Hedgehog 4 logo – so it will be an episodic game
• The game is to be released digitally, via the PSN, Live and Wiiware platforms.
• There is another platform (or platforms) that are currently hidden – possibly iPad/iPhone?

If you want to see the trailer, you will have to go over to Gamespot for now, as they have an exclusive on it – but we’ll get a video here as soon as it gets YouTube’d.

In total there are 72 hours of free zombie-killing time available until it reverts back to a gold-only state on Monday 18th January. Left 4 Dead 2 is an exciting zombie infested romp, even in its offline mode, where two players can play locally, with the Source Director 2.0 technology taking up the reins of your two other companions, as wells as the hundreds of zombies that horde you at any given time.

That being said, if you haven’t already, it is definitely worth taking advantage of this free time to give the online a proper try. The online multiplayer modes are really where L4D2 begins to shine.

The usual process of updating applies – simply start up the game as normal from the XMB and you will be prompted to download the 1.06 patch (presuming you are connected to the internet at the time).

We already know the Xbox 360 version is currently being certified by microsoft so expect that one to hit shortly too.

That’s about all there is for this post. Go have fun not worrying about the next person you knife in MW2 exploding like a mini-nuke.

Whether or not you have been the victim of said atrocity, you’ll be glad to hear that the Modern Warfare 1.06 patch is currently being certified at Microsoft (and presumably Sony). According to Robert Bowling’s (aka fourzerotwo) Twitter feed the 1.06 update will fix:

• The Javelin bug
• An infinite care package glitch
• Geographical exploits in certain maps

So, don’t be expecting any new features, but be glad that it is going to be harder for certain people to ruin the game for the rest of us.