For the weekend directly leading up to the E3 event, it sure was jampacked with news, wasn't it? If you've been hanging around the industry for a while now, you'd know that the usual occurrence during this time of the year (or whenever there is an event, actually), is to have some kind of drought in news in the days leading up to the event.

But not this year. As you will see in our QuickPeek Edition for the week past, you'll be surprised - and glad, nonetheless - at the tidbits we managed to pick up. Most of them are rumors and "leaks", yes, but I dare say that only adds up to the excitement of the upcoming E3, right?

It's just but a couple of weeks away. Soon, it will be upon us all, and we can all dive ourselves into the merry land that is the gaming world for the rest of the E3 year once more. Break a leg, you publishers and devs (rather a leg, than our hearts). Let's hope they keep the disappointments to a minimum this year.

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Straight from the left field, we saw some earth-shattering, mind-boggling news items burst into the PSP blog the past week. Spearheading the pack of surprises was the "leaked" PSP Go images and videos, coupled with a confirmation later on.

Link: PSP Weekend Warrior

For the homebrew front, we saw the gates burst open with applications especially designed for the ChickHEN homebrew enabler. Homebrew games and emulators also rained in, a much welcome respite from the dry spell we had some couple of months back.

Link: PSP Homebrew Weekend Warrior

Taking the spotlight yet again is the Kojima teaser production, thanks to its cryptic and exciting updates. Is it Raiden? Is it the Big Boss? Do those letters spell PS3? MGS? E3? What? What?

Link: PS3 Weekend Warrior


Microsoft had some heavy-hitters as well, with the unveiling of the new Zune HD. Just before the week ended, they also announced their XBL's partnership with Sky TV. Itagaki also stole some thunder with his comeback announcement, unveiling his new team, and teasing us with his new game - exclusive for the Xbox 360.

Link: Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior


Nintendo is definitely all geared up for their appearance on E3, confirming the attendance of their bigwigs: Iwata, Reggie, and Cammie. Sound like characters from a kickass fighting game, huh? Let's see if they're gonna be able to score some major points this time around with their E3 presentation. No need for maracas, please.

Link: WiiDS Weekend Warrior


As if there weren't enough iPods going around already, news -- or rather, a rumor -- broke out identifying a new iPod nano and iPhone models. The big surprise: the nano will come with a built-in camera. Expanding much, eh?

As for software, more games for the iPhone and the iPod Touch are making their way to the App Store, making Apple all the more merrier, skipping their way to their banks.

Link: iPhone Weekend Warrior

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Industry News:

• This is most certainly good news, especially when we all thought print publication really is just about on its last curtain call. Gamers' favorite magazine, EGM, has been reacquired by its founder, Steve Harris, and will be back on the presses ASAP this year. Link
• Phil Harrison steps down as Atari president, assumes non-executive role. At least he'll be sticking around, right? Link

E3 2009 Watch:

With the final stretch of the pre-E3 week down to a close, it would be an exercise on futility on our part if we list down everything that we covered that's related to this highly anticipated event.

And so in practice of brevity and efficiency, we suggest you keep a close watch on our E3 articles by checking out the title; it should have "E3 2009" as the header. The banner images would also be decorated with E3 identifiers, so that shouldn't be too hard to do. Have your fill, cos there's definitely more this week.


QJ Front Page:

Beyond the hardware (which we had a lookback on last week), we also had a software retrospective, checking back on the games that were presented at last year's event, and how they fared later on in the E3 year. The most spot-on, basically, would have to be Sony, although it was Microsoft who had the biggest shocker with the revelation of an Xbox 360 version for Final Fantasy XIII. Nintendo, well, they were all smiles (that was their theme), and they gave us quite a laugh with their Wii Music presentation.

Link: QJ QuickPeek Special Edition: The E3 2009 software retrospective

Right at the tailend of this weekend was another QuickPeek Special Edition, this time looking forward to what the publishers and other attending companies have to offer to us at E3 2009 in the LA Convention Center. Wanna catch a recap of all that was said to have "More details at E3 '09"? This is the list for you.

Link: QJ QuickPeek Special Edition - The games of E3 2009

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Aaaaaaaand, that's it. You know what comes after this: E3 2009. All those weeks of anticipation have finally come down to this. We're certain it will be a blast, and we're hoping that the big folks out there won't disappoint.

This is one big spark the gaming industry needs. We're all positive that this will be just the right jumpstart that we all need to come back with a bang from the slump we've all been through the past year.

Here's to us all crossing our fingers for the success of E3 2009. Keep it right here, we're definitely gonna be bringing you all that you need to know from E3.

Keep it jumpin'!