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Activision announced that gamers have spent 1.2 billion man hours playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. That is longer than the time that has passed between now and the beginning of the last glacial ice period. You’ll have to excuse me. I’ve just discovered WolframAlpha.com, and you’re gonna be getting a lot of intros like this one.
News Blips:
The next Nintendo console will be officially revealed on June 7 around 9 A.M. in Los Angeles. That’s noon EDT. Members of the press have been invited to Nintendo’s pre-E3 press conference where they’ll be pulling back the curtain on Project Café. After they chained 3DSes to women last year, the world is left to wonder how the hardware giant will top themselves with their home console’s introduction. My money is — as always — on Greco-Roman wrestlers with LCD monitors strapped to their chests and the new console in one arm. It’ll be wonderful.
Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3DS will be sneaking out of the shadows this November. When Nintendo first introduced the 3DS to the world, famed Konami producer Hideo Kojima was right there to debut Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater. Obviously, you can’t have a new console without bringing along the internationally revered Solid Snake for maximum bonus points with fans. Originally scheduled for spring, the espionage title is now expected in mid-fall. Good, I prefer to snap necks while dead leaves cover the ground. [ShackNews]
The Xbox 360’s spring 2011 update will arrive on May 19. According to a Joystiq source, the update will include support for PayPal as a payment option and the new Microsoft disc format. PayPal will open up the console’s Live Arcade to international markets that Visa couldn’t care less about. Meanwhile, the new disc will act as another layer of protection against pirated games. Finally — and I can’t confirm this, because I may have dreamed it — but the update will allow Xbox Live to confirm that it has been sentient for the last few months and is responsible for hacking PSN.
Microsoft Game Studio's Alan Wake 2 was mentioned on artist’s LinkedIn profile. The item was listed on said artist's resume as “Video Game, Alan Wake 2 (in-game cinematic),” while the artist was employed by Halon Entertainment. Halon is the company that provided the Deliver Hope trailer for Halo: Reach. The reference to the sequel was removed from the LinkedIn, but this is the most concrete evidence that a new game is on the way. We could very well get a glimpse of it at the coming E3. Hopefully, we won’t also see it at the following five E3s like we did with the first Alan Wake.
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