We can't open the week without some speculation, now can we? Today we hear of the latest batch of rumors from UK's OPM publication. Though this batch of rumors come from the Official PlayStation Magazine, they do touch on some cross-platform franchises. (EA, I'm looking at you!). PSP 2 rumor, check. Rumors of sequels, check. Rumors of spin-offs, check.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Lumines, Rez fame) just loves our news blog so much that he's decided to name his upcoming game after our site! (Or... not.) Whatever the case, Atari's recent press conference had former Sony bigwig Phil Harrison handle the proceedings. Some of the biggest news they've announced in the event involves Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest rhythm game and the upcoming Ghostbusters multi-platform title's release window.

The classic Dreamcast game Rez HD is coming to Xbox Live Arcade. The original game made use of the Trance Vibrator: a device that pulses in time with the music. To bring the concept up to speed with the Xbox 360, the game will instead be using the console's controllers to substitute for the Trance Vibrator peripheral. What's more - the game could soon appear in the PlayStation 3 too. Details in the full article.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man behind memorable Sega titles such as Sega Rally Championship and Space Channel 5, talks about his experiences in creating Rez HD, the next-gen version of his six-year-old title Rez, for the Xbox Live Arcade. He also mentions what changes he made on the remake, as well as future plans of seeing the titles on other console platforms.

Check out the rest of the interview after the jump!

European Xbox 360 owners who find themselves growing a little weary of the contemporary shooting game scene may have  some fresh air coming their way very soon. Game maker Q Entertainment has revealed that they might release Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2 classic title Rez HD on XBLA very soon. Go to the full article for more details.

This year's GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo and Conference, a three-day affair that showcases the latest in games, hobbies, and electronic entertainment, will be kicking off tomorrow in Perth (that's in Australia, by the way). The expo part will last the whole three days, while the conference will be held on March 30 and 31.

The featured speaker for the GO3 conference is Hideo Kojima, the man behind the Metal Gear series. Kojima's session is scheduled for March 31 at 2:30 in the afternoon and will focus on the correlations between the evolution of technology and changes in game design.

Other speakers include Suda 51 of Grasshopper Manufacture and Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Epic Games' Rod Ferguson will also be on hand to talk about Gears of War and how Epic handles launching a new videogame franchise. You can check out a full list of speakers as well as the schedule by clicking on the "read" link below.

If you enjoyed Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Lumines Live! and Every Extend Extra, then this update should make you very excited.

Q Entertainment has promised to reveal its next Xbox Live Arcade game at this year's Game Developers Conference which is currently being held in San Francisco. Aside from the announcement, Q Entertainment wouldn't reveal anything else just yet.

Meanwhile, there are speculations that the new game could be a revival of the  Dreamcast original, Rez. This title which was released back in 2001 is really a musical shooter, but its plot revolves around the female A.I. named Eden who began to ponder the meaning of her existence, and thus fell into an unconscious state. The player will then have to navigate the vast network of Eden's mind in order to re-awaken the sleeping A.I.

On the other hand, it could be a new project altogether. Whatever that secret title may be, we hope that it is not as expensive as the previous ones,  or that it's at least worth the extra dollars for us to give it a try.

The GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo over at Australia has been extended. At least, its early bird booking initiative. The added time will be until February 15th, and students will even have a special rate to boot.

The trade event happening in Perth will be taking place on March 30 to April 1, and will be bringing forth a line-up of internationally renowned speakers. To name-drop a couple of them, Rod Fergusson, producer on Gears of War for Epic Games, Chris Williams of Lucas Arts, Harvey Smith, creative director of Midway Studios Austin, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Q Entertainment will all be having a thing or two to impart to the audience.

The GO3 is a three-day affair that will showcase the newest and hottest in the scene of games, hobbies and electronic entertainment. Both companies and consumers alike, harboring a passion for state-of-the-art and interactive leisure pursuits are welcomed here. So, get those early bird wings on and register now.

We know that there's a lot of you who are big fans of Lumines, be it Lumines 2 on the PSP or Lumines Live on X360 via the Xbox Live Arcade. Actually, so many things have been said already about these two versions. Being on different platforms, not to mention from opposing companies, things such as those can't be avoided.

At any rate, we have something today that will make both sides happy. If you are a Lumines fan, it is highly probable that you are familiar with the in-game hit song Heavenly Star. Developer Q Entertainment excitedly announced today that the song is available for download both in U.S. and Japan via iTunes. According to the company's Chief Creative Officer, Tetsuya Mizuguchi:

We are delighted to introduce our first self-produced song Heavenly Star on iTunes. It is an important element in Q Entertainment's global entertainment and distribution strategy. As the world's most popular digital download store, iTunes is a key platform for serving our existing audience as well as introducing our work to others around the world.

Heavenly Star is currently being employed as the background music for the PSP version. On the other hand, it will be introduced to Live early this coming January as the Heavenly Star Pack. The said track was performed by the band Genki Rockets and was produced by Mizuguchi himself.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a trade organization of TV, film, and new media producers (by "new media" we mean electronic media like software and podcasts as opposed to old-school TV). They've picked their 50 most innovative producers in the field of Digital Entertainment.

Many of us remember Testsuya Mizuguchi for Sega's Rez (who's old-school enough to have the box for the Dreamcast release of this game?). But many more of us know him for founding Q Entertainment, thereby bringing forth to the world games like Lumines (PSP), Lumines Live (Xbox 360), Meteos (DS), Gunpey-R (under development for DS), and Every Extend Extra (PSP).

Hideo Kojima is basically Konami's writer, producer, director, or any combination of the three for every single Metal Gear Solid game out there (and if there was one Metal Gear Solid he didn't take part in, I personally haven't heard of it because it must have sucked, hehehe). Kojima is Metal Gear Solid. So the recognition he's received is not surprising.

And then there's Ryuta Kawashima, neuroscientist, the Brain Age guy. It's not your typical game, and he's not your typical producer, but the fact is, "new media" is a big umbrella. You and I and all of us are lucky that we have producers (and the occasional brain scientist) who explore different avenues for our handhelds and consoles.

By the way, maybe you'd like to know that the PGA has a New Media Council. It's got some lofty goals, and we're glad that game producers get some representation.

The hard part about producing things for electronic media is dealing with the demand for more technology, technology, technology. I personally get pissed off by friends who insult my favorite games because they want the exact same thing, only with more pixels. Yeah, we whine when the graphics aren't perfect. But you know what, those graphics don't mean sh@t when there's no story, design, or idea to glue those pixels to.

Better technology exists so that the better producers can make better games. So let's applaud the better producers.