The next game from ex-Microsoft subsidiary and Halo creator Bungie may not be an Xbox 360 exclusive, the studio has revealed in a new interview.

"No, we're not [tied into a specific platform for the new IP]," community and PR director Brian Jarrard told GamesIndustry. "We haven't gotten that far yet to be totally honest. In theory we do have every means to go out and find the right ecosystem, the right partners, to align with."

Bungie is known to be working on three projects, with at least one of those being an original non-Halo property. The studio is also preparing a new Halo game, titled Halo 3: Recon, which will be published by Microsoft and released for Xbox 360 in fall 2009. Microsoft holds the rights to Halo, which ensures that the blockbuster franchise will remain exclusive to Microsoft hardware.

"We're very happy with Microsoft, the Xbox 360's been great to us and they're a world class publisher," Jarrad added. "So who knows what the future will bring us. "

The community director also noted the studio's enthusiasm for its first non-Halo game in over seven years, claiming that "the guys who are working on this project are really passionate and invigorated. A lot of it just seems to be going back to the old school vibe of Bungie--now there are guys just doing what they do best, being creative, unrestrained, thinking about what they want to do."

Just a few days after the conclusion of the Tokyo Game Show, the CESA, Japan's ratings board and TGS organizer, has announced its "Future Awards" winners, 12 games that put on the best showings at Japan's biggest annual games expo.

The Future Awards are interesting in that they're platform- and genre-agnostic, meaning that the awards aren't limited to just one RPG or just one Xbox 360 game.

Gamasutra also noted that a new award, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Prize (named for a Japanese government ministry) was instituted and awarded to Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto for "expanding the definition of video games through products with new game concepts that address themes such as 'healing', 'family communication' and 'health,'" no doubt for his contributions to perpetual best-seller Wii Fit.

This year's winners, reproduced from Kotaku, are as follows:

• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule, PS3)
• Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, 360, PS3)
• Star Ocean 4 (Square Enix, 360)... Read more

Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida showed up at this week's Tokyo Game Show and, typical of a Sony executive, had quite a few opinions on his company and his competitors.

Yoshida was generous in his praise toward rival Microsoft and the Xbox 360, saying that he would "really like to see both PS3 and 360 succeed [in Japan]" in an interview with Eurogamer. He added a compliment for the upcoming New Xbox Experience: "I think it's quite nice. I like the Avatar designs they're working on."

The New Xbox Experience: Sony-approved

"The new games coming out on 360 and PS3 help to get consumers more interested in this generation of gaming," Yoshida continued, intentionally leaving out... Read more

Furthering the media bonanza of the Tokyo Game Show are screenshots from Level-5's PlayStation 3 exclusive role-playing game White Knight Chronicles, many of which are available in full 720p resolution for the first time.

Arriving in Japan on December 25 with an unspecified North American release following, the action-RPG sees otherwise normal humans transforming into stories-tall Knights. Along with the single player story, White Knight sports a separate four-person online mode in which players quest with their customized characters.

New screenshots from the PlayStation 3-exclusive open-world action game Infamous have been released, clearly showing the use of electrical powers in the game. In development at Sucker Punch Productions, Infamous will be released during the first half of 2009.

The Tokyo Game Show has its fair share of costumed girls all over the Makuhari Messe convention hall outside Tokyo. Capcom, not to be left out, brought their own schoolgirl to the party, and she's Sakura, the brawler from Street Fighter Alpha 2.

Sakura won a poll among Japanese gamers asking what character they wanted to see in the fighting sequel. The guy with the white hair on the right? Sheng Long.

Street Fighter IV is currently sneaking into American arcades but will hit the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next year.

Microsoft is taking steps away from the direction of removing under-performing games from Xbox Live Arcade, according to a new interview from the Tokyo Game Show.

Microsoft VP John Schappert told IGN that "the information about XBLA de-listing had been taken out of context and that there was no plan to do any such thing." Microsoft had only put in place "parameters by which we can delist" games but is not moving forward with any plans to start removing games from the downloadable marketplace.

The New Xbox Experience: Saving Mediocre Games From De-Listing

Schappert's statements deny those of Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten, who claimed in May that Microsoft would enact a new policy of delisting underperforming titles which had been out for six months, scored less than 65% on Metacritic, and had a conversion rate of less than 6%.

To boot, Schappert indicated that the New Xbox Experience, the Xbox 360 dashboard overhaul due in November, would improve sorting options and make de-listing unnecessary.

The sequel to Interlink's PSP rhythm-action game Patapon has surfaced at the Tokyo Game Show, bringing with it a trailer full of Japanese wackiness.

Designer Hiroyuki Kotani told 1UP that the game will feature a 4-player cooperative mode and an "easy mode" in addition to new songs.

The game does not yet have an American release date but will arrive in Japan in late November.

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Sony announced during the Tokyo Game Show that 24 publishers have signed on to produce content for Home, the Second Life-esque 3D social network for the PS3.

Most of the publishers were big-name Japanese houses like Capcom, SNK Playmore, Q Entertainment, Konami, Koei, Sega, and Tecmo. However, a few larger Western studios--Activision, Ubisoft, and Walt Disney Japan--were also on the list.

Sony provided a few examples of the kinds of content that will be included. IGN highlighted character dolls from Capcom's Street Fighter IV along with content from games like Resident Evil 5 and Hot Shots Golf 5.

The full list of publishers, reproduced from IGN, follows:

• Irem Software Engineering
• Activision
• Acquire... Read more

Sony's Bend Studio, developer of the PSP shooter Resistance: Retribution, borrows more than the name from Insomniac's PS3 shooter series. The handheld game can be modified by Insomniac's upcoming Resistance 2 if connected to a PlayStation 3.

"Once you connect to [Resistance 2], Resistance: Retribution becomes 'Infected,'" exclaims a presentation slide from the Tokyo Game Show appearing on the PlayStation Blog. The Infected version of Retribution grants an alternate storyline, health regeneration, underwater breathing, and weapons borrowed from the PS3 game.

While connected to a PS3, Retribution will also support the DualShock 3 controller. With the console controller, auto-aim is turned off and the difficulty is ramped up while vibration support is enabled. Players can also use the PSP-2000 and 3000's video output feature to replicate a traditional console experience.

On an aside, seven new screenshots for Retribution were released, which can be found on Shacknews. The portable shooter is still on track for a spring 2009 release.

Developer Konami has announced that a new entry in its vampire-slaying Castlevania franchise in is development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, reports ITmedia.

Few details are known at this point. Following a brief teaser trailer depicting a well-dressed man with a glowing red sword, series producer Koji Igarashi commented that he hadn't expected the game to be announced yet.

The new title will mark the first Castlevania game designed for the PS3 and Xbox 360. While the franchise traditionally has players exploring a 2D or 3D castle, the series is soon expanding into the fighting genre with Castlevania Judgment (Wii).

In continued celebration of this year's Tokyo Game Show, Capcom has released a trailer from GRIN's Bionic Commando, the modern, 3D retake on the classic action franchise that just got revived with GRIN's own Bionic Commando Rearmed.

Now due in "very early 2009," Bionic Commando will arrive on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 before a PC port that may or may not be delayed for piracy and polish.

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It's a good day on LittleBigPlanet as the game picked up Sackboy versions of video game icons Solid Snake and Sephiroth as well as confirmation that levels made in the ongoing beta will be playable after the game's October 21 release.

As shown in the screenshots above, Metal Gear Solid 4 hero Old Snake joins Final Fantasy VII villain Sephiroth in transmogrification into LittleBigPlanet's iconic Sackboy characters.

"To be involved with [Metal Gear Solid] is... slightly bizarre. When we were looking at what options as a studio we'd have to work with, they were under the 'yeah, right!' category of games," said Alex Evans, co-founder of developer Media Molecule on the PlayStation Blog.

Evans also let slip to 1UP that levels made in the game's somewhat open beta will survive into the final retail release of the PS3-exclusive, roll-your-own platformer. In so doing, he put to rest lingering confusion surrounding the state of the game's already impressive array of levels and digital miscellany.

New screenshots of Ensemble's Halo-themed Xbox 360 strategy game have arrived, offering a glimpse of an UNSC base and two scenarios from the campaign mode. In addition to the new shots, developer Ensemble, which will close after the completion of Halo Wars, has clarified that the game is now due out in early 2009, instead of the vague "first half of 2009" estimate that was provided during E3.

The studio also revealed that the game will, as expected, include the Flood, the parasitic blight of the Halo universe, though it is not yet known if the Flood will be playable.

Showering us with an abundance of color, publisher Microsoft sends forth a new trailer and screenshots from Rare's vehicle-building/platforming hybrid Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, due on Xbox 360 come November 11.

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With the new Xbox 360 dashboard and its revised interface arriving November 19, Microsoft has released new screenshots of the free system update that adds Netflix streaming, customizable player avatars, optional game installs, and more.

New screenshots of GRIN's Bionic Commando (PC, PS3, 360) accompany today's Tokyo Game Show festivities, showing off more of the swinging-focused action game.

Bionic Commando is slated to hit by next spring, with the developer telling Kotaku that the console versions should be expected in "very early 2009."

Meanwhile, the PC version arrive a bit later because of piracy and extra polish.

"The PC is always a slippery slope because of piracy, stuff like sorting out DRM, making sure we don't have too little or too much," explained GRIN employee Ulf Andersson.

"But also because we want to make sure it doesn't feel like a port, so we can add a little extra polish to the PC version," Andersson added.

Developer tri-Ace's first Xbox 360 release of the Star Ocean role-playing franchise will hit North American retailers on March 3, 2009, publisher Square Enix announced today.

Alongside some new screenshots, the company noted that the Japanese version of Star Ocean: The Last Hope and its action-based battle system will arrive a few weeks before, on February 19, 2009.

Today's announcement but made no mention of an eventual release on other platforms. However, the title was once again not billed as an Xbox 360 exclusive, suggesting that a later PlayStation 3 version is possible, a la Square's The Last Remnant.

With Tekken 6 now slated to hit both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in fall 2009, developer Namco Bandai has provided a trailer and screenshots of the console releases, which are based on the Blood Rebellion update that recently graced the arcade edition.

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Expanding upon last night's official announcement and trailer of Halo 3: Recon (360), publisher Microsoft has confirmed that the Bungie-developed expansion will be a standalone DVD release that does not require the Halo 3 (360) to play.

Set prior to the events of Halo 3, Recon follows the exploits of a ODST drop soldier, which Microsoft claims will "greatly resemble that of previous Halo experiences" but "will require players to employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before."

Packing exclusive new multiplayer maps, the title will sport all of Halo 3's community features, including four-player co-op, the Forge map editor, and Saved Films.

Halo 3: Recon is currently scheduled for a fall 2009 release.