Game Downloads

PSP owners are in for a nice update on the PlayStation Store for PC this week, so long as they don’t mind forking over some cash. Two new retail PSP games (one decent, one good) are now available for download — LocoRoco ($22) and Kingdom of Paradise ($11).

Def Leppard’s Guitar Hero III outing and the obligatory weekly dose of Rock Band tracks (now finally with a full album!), there’s a ton of great new content now available on the PlayStation Store. The biggest release is certainly the Variety Map Pack ($10) for Call of Duty 4 which naturally includes four new multiplayer maps.

One of the many obvious questions that I think anyone would want to ask Square Enix with regards to Crisis Core would be why the game is on PSP and not DS. (And also what the hell is up with the DMW.) If you look at the re-releases of Final Fantasy games, you’ve got the first two on PSP, the next two on DS, Tactics on GBA and PSP… so why did Crisis Core end up on PSP and not the DS and its larger install base?

Mature ratings be damned, they won’t be able to stop the dedicated efforts of underage kids across the country from getting Grand Theft Auto IV. What They Play ran an interesting story recently, which had various anonymous teenagers sharing their plans for picking up the hottest release of the year.

Unlike in Japan, where Wii owners were presented with a launch of nine games and then nothing new for the next few weeks, those in the US can expect a more staggered release schedule. Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Aime told Wired that the schedule for WiiWare game releases will be more spread out than what we saw Japan go through.

Electronic Arts has been criticized in the past for its handling of development studio acquisitions, and rightly so. More recently, particularly since John Riccitiello came to the helm, things seem to be much better, but that didn’t stop Activision CEO Bobby Kotick from taking a shot at its main rival in a recent interview.