As many of you have probably read already, as of this past Thursday, Mr. Ken Kutaragi has stepped down and retired from his position as chief executive officer and chairperson of Sony Computer Entertainment. Kutaragi will still have a role as an Honorary Chairman, but for all intents and purposes, will no longer be working directly with Sony.

As a little recap, Kutaragi was the inventor of the original Playstation gaming console, and has been dubbed the “Father of the Playstation”, and it’s subsequent sequel systems. With this act, the Playstation franchise became the the most profitable division of Sony. However, Kutaragi will end up passing the torch at the next Sony shareholders meeting on June 19, 2007, where it is said he will then venture off to work on his own projects.

““It has been an exciting experience to change the world of computer entertainment by marrying cutting edge technologies with creative minds from all over the world. I’m looking forward to building on this vision in my next endeavors.”

Additional news and press release information can be found here.

Of course, rumors of conspiracy are abound and in full swing. With Sony having to deal with $2 Billion in losses related to their gaming division over the past year, and the underwhelming failure of Playstation 3 sales, this will do anything but give the company new momentum and direction. Kutaragi admitted himself that the shortage of Playstation 3 consoles sent to North America and Japan retailers, as well as the postponement of the console’s release, led to Sony’s declining strength in software. Sacrificial lamb? Who knows. All that is known now is that Sony is losing a brilliant mind and the original driving force behind the Playstation franchise. What this means for the company’s future will remain to be seen, though it seems like it very well could be just another nail in the coffin for their reputation.

Hideo Kojima, mastermind of Metal Gear Solid, has played Super Smash Bros Brawl. Not only has he played it, he said:

The game already feels very complete, it’s already a lot of fun and that you guys (Sakurai’s studio) could put it out now, and it would sell millions of copies.

This is very, very good news. For Hideo Kojima, since he got to play it and we didn’t. The rest of us will have to put up with the fact that what will surely be the biggest Wii title yet is coming along great. I guess a 2007 release date isn’t out of the question?

This news comes from the Kojima Productions podcast, which I never would’ve suspected is in English!

Latino Review‘s El Mayimbe has scored a read of the 22 page treatment for the Gears Of War movie we heard about a while ago.

While its a treatment, not a full script and could be subject to many revisions, it sounds like an amazing companion to an amazing game. The game tossed you right into the most action-packed part of the story, with very little in game to go over the background of what happened before. This movie fleshes out Marcus and Dom’s military career before the game, and also shows off Emergence Day. We’ll also see Cole actually playing thrashball!

I realize making Halo into a movie might’ve been crazy. The male lead never shows his face, the female lead is a computer program. The story is there, the action is there, but its a huge leap for a studio to take. Gears on the other hand is a lot more cinematic than Halo, and has every right to be turned into a great war movie with some sci-fi action. What do you think? Are Marcus, Dom, Baird, and Cole destined to be the next great movie team? Who could even direct this monstrous movie? Leave a comment!

Bloody Disgusting reports on the next project to be released from Director James Cameron. Its not Avatar, its not Jesus, its Marylin Manson.

Marylin Manson will release a new album soon titled “Eat Me, Drink Me” and the man himself has conceptualized another shocking video for the track “Heart Shaped Glasses.” Academy Award winner Cameron filmed the clip using his new favorite 3D technology so you at home can feel like you’re in a bloody sex scene. Watch a short clip at YouTube, but not when your boss is around.

It’s been about a week since Anime Boston 2007 came to pass, and post-convention funk has already seeped into the souls of most of us. However, I’ll take the time to touch upon a few things that I personally can report on in terms of my opinions about this, the convention’s fifth year of existence.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

The Tubes have been abuzz the past few days with rumors that Blizzard Entertainment will announce a sequel to their smash hit strategy game, Starcraft.

The initial rumor, here, indicates that Blizzard will make an announcement on May 19th at the World Wide Invitational that will supposedly reveal that Starcraft 2 is currently under development. Accompanied with this would be some rough videos of the progress so far.

According to this link, Blizzard has responded with the following statement:

We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don’t have anything new to announce in that regard at present.

I’m not convinced that the announcement will be something other than Starcraft 2, but there is a high chance it will be Diablo 3 instead.

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

Source: USA Today

Botcon.com posted some images today of Exclusive Classics Thrust that have eased any concerns I had on the figure. Images of both modes have been mirrored below. As the last of the original seekers to be revealed, it was significant that his wings have been remolded to more accurately portray his original namesake. Dirge and Thundercracker did not really need any retooling. While all the ‘coneheads’ (Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge) had differently molded wings, Ramjet and Dirge’s wings were similar enough that a straight repaint was not out of left field. Thrust, however, had very different wings in that they had VTOL fans in the center and were placed in the mid section of the fuselage with additional tail fins, whereas on the other jets the main wings were based further back on the fuselage.

You can view some pictures of the original toy and its cartoon counterpart here. To see the previously announced exclusives, see here for Dirge and here for Thundercracker.