There was a dog here. It's gone now.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Dead Space screenshots, Quantum of Solace first screenshot

• A new game in the Driver series is in the works.
• The estate of Mario Puzo is suing Paramount Pictures, claiming to be owed at least $1 million from sales of the Godfather video game.
• Using the ESRB database to get early word of unreleased games may be a thing of the past. A new ESRB publisher contract adds the option to choose when a game's rating is uploaded to the website.
• LucasArts says they're still attending E3.
• Neil Young has left EA to manage his own company.
• Metal Gear Solid 4 has debuted on top of the new Australian and Japanese sales charts.
• Saboteur will be arriving in early 2009.
• THQ says Saints Row 2 is very different from GTA4, which was "more character- and story-driven" whereas Saints Row 2 will be about "tongue-in-cheek ... silly, over-the-top gameplay."
• Graphics processors from game consoles are being used to calculate financial data on Wall Street.
• A new political ad for John McCain uses music from Medal of Honor: European Assault. This has annoyed the composer a bit, as he's an Obama supporter.
• Forbes talks about the games Europeans like to play by making lots of generalizations. "Guns and gore also don't sell as well in Europe because Europeans like short, so-called casual games, rather than the long, epic tales that keep gamers pounding on their consoles for hours at a stretch." Hey, it turns out Europeans are women!
• Ben Heck, who apparently does absolutely nothing but mod game systems, is back with a new creation: a portable Atari 7800.
• Warren Spector believes "100 hour games are on the way out." They've never been that in, really, other than RPGs.

PC and mobile news

New GameTap titles: Cosmic Osmo, Descent II, MDK
New media: Oregon Trail gameplay footage
New content: ATI Catalyst 8.6 drivers, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword Patch 3.17 patch

• World of Warcraft is getting level 30 apprentice mounts.
• There's some concern over the Spore Creature Creator demo phoning home, with some suspecting the demo contains SecuROM. It doesn't make a lot of sense to put in a demo, but it's been done before.
• Over 360,000 creatures have been made using the demo so far. At least 250,000 of those have involved penises in some way.
• But at least one person managed to get over their juvenile tendencies long enough to make a living Xbox 360 controller.
• Dragon Age will be released in early 2009.

Nintendo news

• Ugggghhh. Ubisoft has created a whole new brand dedicated to mini-game collections and party games for the Wii.
• Gamasutra has an opinion piece talking about Nintendo's training games as modern day snake oil. "Dr Kawashima (Brain Training) and Dr Kageyama (Maths Training) are figures that act as endorsements from the scientific community of each product, shifting Nintendo’s output from entertainment to something closer to medicine. But the science behind the sell is at best misleading, at worse, televangelical in its deceit."
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars games have been announced for the Wii and DS.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Baroque for $25.99.

Sony news

New content: Pain features

• The Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Database has been added to the Playstation Store. It's a free download that features storylines, character profiles, relationship diagrams and more.
• Square Enix denies reports that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is on hold. "The truth of the situation is that when free, some staff from the Versus team have been helping with the XIII team on development of Final Fantasy XIII. Development for both titles is continuing as originally scheduled."
• Square is holding a private event in Japan on August 2 and 3. The new Final Fantasies will only be there in video form, but Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep will be playable, as will Dissidia Final Fantasy and Sigma Harmonics.
• Sony admits that the PSP's piracy problem helps fuel hardware sales. "...but on balance we are not happy about it."
• Sony has two Playstation trucks traveling to various concerts and events this summer. The Playstation Experience truck includes a LittleBigPlanet demo.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Baroque for $25.99.

Microsoft news

New content: NCAA Football 09 demo, Guitar Hero III tracks
New media: Tales of Vesperia screenshots

• Raiden IV is coming to the 360.
• Ubisoft is asking fans to vote on a Prince of Persia achievement.
• Zoids Assault has been delayed to September.
• Konami Digital Entertainment will be creating and distributing a Blue Dragon collectible card game in North America.