At the recent Gamefest event in Seattle, Xbox Live GM Eric Kilgore has confirmed that yes, developers will be able to incorporate the new Xbox Live Avatars into Xbox 360 titles. Don't think you'll be able to replace Marcus Fenix with your Avatar in Gears of War 2, though, as Kilgore also said that only games rated E10+ will feature Avatar integration. At first, at least. More in the full article.

Alex St. John, the CEO of online video game company WildTangent, has predicted at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle that consoles will be "extinct" by 2020. He said that "the PS3, the Wii and the X-box are the last generation of consoles that you either see or that anybody regards as successful in the market." Want to know what else he had to say? Well, the "read more" link is right below, use it.

For the gamer, good downloadable content is one means of reigniting the fun factor they have with their favorite but otherwise well-worn titles. For Microsoft's Alvin Gendrano however, DLC more than just boosts a game's staying power, it also makes it more profitable in the long run. You can find out more on his point over in the full article.

Remember that news bit that we picked up about the Xbox 360 Wiimote clone project? It had a lot of us riled up, didn't it? There's more fuel being thrown to the fire as a new post suggests that the project's name is "Newton"- after the great physicist who gave us the three laws on motion. Details are in the full article.

There has been a lot of buzz about the upcoming 2008 ION Game Conference. If you plan on attending the event, then you might be interested in knowing that early registration for the event has now been opened and will close by March 17 this year.

For more information on the 2008 ION Game Conference, scoot on over to the full article.

Ever since the Online Game Development Conference (OGDC) started, more than a few big names have graced the event. However, it won't be known as the OGDC for much longer. Evergreen Events has announced that it will now be known as the ION Game Conference.

Want to  know more about this change? Head on over to the full article by clicking on our "read more" link below for more information.

Thanks to the game spearheaded by John Woo, Midway Games moved up the ranks to take 35% of Europe's market share after Stranglehold (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC) reached target sales numbers earlier than expected. Stranglehold remains on the top ten of UK's best selling Xbox 360 titles, and gives Midway a bright future for 2008. "Our goal was to get to 35 per cent in 2008. We've gotten there this year," said Midway CEO David Zucker after crediting Stranglehold as one of the major factors.

More details and Tequila at the full article!

Team USA has won the overall championship in the recently-concluded World Cyber Games (WCG) 2007 held in Seattle, Washington this weekend. The champs bagged a total of 6 medals, just one medal shy of a deadlock with South Korea's seven-medal record.

The Americans dominated in various platforms and came out on top in Gears of War, Dead or Alive 4, Project Gotham Racing, Tony Hawk's Project 8, and Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs

This year also saw the emergence of Germany in the RTS genre with 4 medals, topping powerhouse South Korea's three-medal performance. The United Kingdom also put on a stunner as they swept Starcraft with an unbeaten streak in the Singles game courtesy of star player Apollo.

When all was said and done, more than 700 players from 74 nations expressed their fulfillment in their participation throughout the event. Victory may not have been for everyone, but there was much happiness to be shared.

The World Cyber Games is the biggest e-sports gathering in the planet. It was founded in 2001 and has been one of the industry's most celebrated shindigs ever since, attracting fans and media from all over the world.

A small group of journalists was invited to an exclusive preview of Halo 3 in Seattle. There they were given control of the human forces to what may be mankind's final battle as they face off with the Covenant. But they did so only for two missions.

The group previewed the third and fourth missions of Halo 3, both set in South Africa. The third mission, named Tsavo Highway, is the first vehicle mission of the game. The mission starts with you riding a Warthog through a mountain path as you fight your way through enemy forces.

You are eventually forced to leave your vehicle and move forward on foot, through a destroyed highway and over a bridge. Suddenly, you are ambushed by Covenant Brutes backed by a Covenant Wraith tank.

The fourth mission, called The Storm, takes you through a factory complex where you will face off with hostile forces until you come face to face with the Scarab. The battle, as one of the group testifies, "has more enemies and allies than the entire first mission of Halo 1."

The Scarab will have have improved AI in this game. Jamie Griesemer, the design lead, describes it:

In Halo 2, he was a big piece of moving geometry. He wasn't really real. He was hand-animated and didn't really react to what you were doing. He had a scripted path that he went on. But in Halo 3, he's an AI (artificial intelligence). He'll chase you around, he'll acquire targets. If he can't find you, he'll search for you. He's the biggest character we've every done, essentially. And there are dozens of ways to kill him.

Developers promise that this game will provide all the answers to the huge questions by the end of the game. Halo 3 will be released this September 25 on the Xbox 360. It's time to finish the fight.

Multiplay is encouraging all LAN game enthusiasts to come and participate in i31 event which is now one of the biggest game gathering of the sort in Europe.

Spanning 1,500 square meters of space, players can bring along their own computers and hook it up on the LAN. Once underway, the gamers can compete in multiplayer skirmishes on titles currently on the World Cyber Games (WCG) lineup, on both PCs and Xbox 360s open to the public use.

Samsung is one of the main sponsors of the event along with other industry heavyweights like Asus, Packard Bell, Intel, Scan, Philips, Crucial and Antec. All of the firms have come to participate to show their support for the popularity of gaming on the PC.

Software giants are also there to add spice to the shindig. EA will be giving a demo of Crysis, THQ will show off Frontlines: Fuel of War and Activision will let players get their hands on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The winners will then be flown to Seattle where the best of the best are poised to prove once more who the king of the PC gaming hill is.

Multiplay Managing director Craig Fletcher was proud to comment "this is the largest and most interactive exhibition we have ever organised".