Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia now in HD

Ubisoft fans will be pleased to hear that there will be HD releases of Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia collections on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD and Prince of Persia Classic Trilogy HD will be on retail this March.

Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy will feature the original Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, and Chaos Theory in the form of a disc release. The games will be getting not only an HD upgrade, but will support stereoscopic 3D as well for Playstation owners.

The Prince of Persia collection will feature Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones; they'll be getting the same upgrades as the Splinter Cell collection.

Both will be available at retail on March 22 for $39.99 a piece. Digital bundles will also hit PlayStation Network at the same time.

Hudson Shuts Down

A blog post by Hudson Entertainment brand manager Morgan Haro reveals that Hudson Entertainment, the California-based American arm of Japan's Hudson Soft, is closing down. "It was revealed today," Haro said in the post, "that all of Hudson's previously planned projects have been canceled and that our office will be closing it's doors at the end of February." Hudson Entertainment has been active since 2003; prior to that, "Hudson Soft USA" published games from 1988 through 1995.

The closing is a result of Konami's full acquisition of Hudson Soft, after which Haro speculates "there apparently won't be any need for the talents within the San Mateo offices of Hudson Entertainment." Haro also speculated that the difficulty of finding an audience for Japanese games in the west, and the proliferation of both giant publishers and indies, as recent problems for Hudson. "You're either a hit, or an indie developer looking to be a hit."

Hudson's most recent American release was Lost in Shadow on Wii.

Via:

Joystiq

Guitar Hero / DJ Hero Dead?

Activision/Blizzard announced that they will be dropping development the Guitar Hero game scheduled for 2011 including any future DJ Hero games. They will also be disbanding the whole Guitar Hero division as stated by the company:

“Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011."

As for the future of the series, nothing is confirmed. Perhaps Guitar Hero will be back in 2012 or so but no music games will be coming out of Activision this 2011.

Development on True Crime: Hong Kong has also been stopped because it was "just not good enough" to compete in the open world genre. Which is probably why you haven't been hearing much about it for a while now.

Activision/Blizzard will instead focus on Call of Duty titles, the development of a "best-in-class digital community surrounding the Call of Duty franchise". A new Bungie IP and some new and "innovative universe with broad appeal" that will be revealed at Toy Fair later this week.

If you're all wondering about Guitar Hero DLC, that'll be done after the month of February too. All previously announced DLC will be released and that's it.

Source:

G4TV

DTOID

LG wants to ban PS3 sales in the US

Electronics firm LG has filed a patent infringement suit against Sony, demanding that the platform holder stop selling PlayStation 3 consoles and Bravia televisions. LG claims that TVs infringe four patents, while the PS3's Blu-ray player infringes a further four. According to the suit, the problems stem from the way in which the PS3 handles multiple data streams and reproduces data from read-only sources.

Sony, for its part, isn't just the receiver in this legal buggery, having already gone after LG cellphones for seven patent violations, and filed a civil suit over LG Blu-ray players. Looking at the history, it seems as if LG is acting out and attempting to give as good as it gets.

This eye-for-an-eye way of using the legal system just strikes me as rather petulant, if anything. Likely nothing will come of this, and it's just two companies bitchslapping each other for nobody's gain. Both of 'em can shut up.

Via: DToid LG Fires Back at Sony in Patent Fight Over TVs, Phones [Bloomberg]

L.A. Noire Orientation video

Rockstar games released a video showing gameplay footage of L.A Noire. The video is similar to how they presented Red Dead Redemption's features last year which is a good touch if you ask me.

The video pretty much gives you the run down on what to expect from L.A Noire  and seems like a game that can't be missed. The core gameplay is investigating crimes like a real cop back in the 40's and the detective work in this game looks quite impressive. Take note on the facial expressions because that's what really caught my eye.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO0W27D1TrY]

L.A Noire will be released May 20, 2011 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.