If you're coming here expecting me to blow sunshine up your arse about the improving state of the European PlayStation Store, get out of here. You've got it all wrong. Being a PAL update, we deal in misery and despair here, not things like "hope" for some "brighter future". Makes it easier to click through and see an update with only seven items. Especially when two are wallpapers/themes, and two are interviews with Korn.

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It's hard to tell whether these quotes - from a recent interview Shane Kim had with GI.biz - are genuinely new, or just pulled from a stock template Microsoft's had ready since 2002. Because when asked about how Microsoft are doing in Japan, their thoughts, etc etc, he says "We've been very realistic about our near-to-mid term opportunities in Japan, specifically with respect to the current console generation. Obviously it's a challenging market with well entrenched competitors". He goes on to say how great it is to see Japanese developers making 360 games, how he hopes their fortunes there will "turn around", and "I think that's a longer-term effort, to be frank". You know what I love? Not whether he's right or wrong, but the sheer perseverance Microsoft are displaying. We could be seeing the same quotes in 2012. Actually, we probably will.

Shane Kim: Japan is a "longer-term effort" [GI.biz]

Whenever we mention the letters "ESA" around here, I see most people whining on about how E3 isn't what it used to be. Great, it's not. We're all upset. But organising E3 isn't the only thing the ESA do. Most of the time, they're lobbying politicians. Meeting, greeting, contributing financially, that kind of thing. And they do a lot of it. For example, CNN have found that for the first quarter of 2008, the ESA spent $US 714,000 lobbying Washington, on issues like piracy, IP protection, fighting anti-gaming legislation, that kind of thing. If you've ever wondered where all that money publishers pay to be a part of the group goes, that's where it goes. Whether it does anything or not, well, that's another matter for another day.

Video game makers spent $US 714,000 to lobby in 1Q [CNN, via Ars Technica] [Pic]

Broad answer: they "evaluate the fanbase and see if there's a market for it". More specific answer: "Sometimes we see games on eBay, and that's how you see what games people are willing to spend $AU 85.14 on". That's Capcom's John Diamonon. Course, he's quick to stress that's not the only way they check, and it's probably not even near the top three mthods they employ. But it sure is an interesting one. Probably more effective than the blood-stained letters I've been sending them for the last ten years, threatening/pleading for a new Captain Commando game.

Capcom Checking eBay To See Which Games To Port [MTV]

If you've already got Metal Gear Solid 4, you're probably not even reading this! You're probably playing your way through it. And as a died-in-the-wool Metal Gear fanboy/girl, that's OK, because you'll know all this stuff anyways. But if you're not, and are a little curious as to why everyone seems to be freaking out over Metal Gear, watch this. It's as brief a summary of the series' convoluted (and I'm being kind) backstory as you're going to get.

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We've been a little down on Robbie Bach lately. Mostly because he - like many other former walking quote machines (Looking at you, Reggie) hasn't been talking nearly as much shit as we're accustomed to, and damnit, that's what we love to see in a corporate exec. But could he finally be inching his way out of his shell? Looks like it! Watch, as he unloads on the PSP in an interview with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi:

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If only it were this easy...

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Couldn't get your hands on a gunmetal PS3? That's OK. Most people couldn't. That's not going to stop reader rupinderpaul from rubbing your faces in it. He's sent these pics in of his freshly-unboxed gunmetal PS3, and says of the new surface: "The feel of the console is much better than the regular piano black PS3; no more fingerprints for me!"

Hardware sales in Japan were down a bit for every console that didn't get its own version of Namco Bandai's Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit. PSP sales continue to cool as Monster Hunter drops further down the software charts. We'll know next week how much of a helping hand Metal Gear Solid 4 gives the PlayStation 3. For now, Media Create sales charts for the week of June 2 to June 8.

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Scarygirl is a Flash 9 game - specifically a platformer - being developed by Touch My Pixel. The studio is based in Collingwood, Victoria, a suburb well-known for its frightening little ladies... or so I imagine, judging by this clip.

It looks like Grim Fandango mixed with Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. At least, that's what I think it is. The developer says it'll be good for 1-2 hours of gaming when it's done.

Touch My Pixel [Official site]

Tax cuts for Australian game developers. It's not a big ask, and certainly a justified one; the industry rakes in around $136 million a year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We know the last federal government had little interest in the idea, and that Labor senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, promised a committee on the matter if his party was elected. It was.

It seems the Game Developers Association of Australia and the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia want to make sure our current government continues to investigate the issue and as such, the two organisations have joined forces.

Said Tom Crago, Tantalus CEO and GDAA president:

"Australian game developers cannot be expected to be internationally competitive when global market conditions are 'not level'. We owe it to the companies themselves to offer these incentives and we also need to make an investment into Australia's 'smart economy'."

We know how awesome tax rebates have been for game developers in other countries, so there are no problems as far as logic is concerned. The government just needs to get its act together.

Full release after the jump.

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Remember Nyko's wireless nunchuk controller for the Wii? Seemed kinda pointless to me. Not Nintendo! Thy don't see it as pointless. They see it as an infringement on their patent designs and trademarks, and as such, are suing Nyko, claiming the company's Kama Nunchuk "wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the colour and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller". Nyko's response? "We have not knowingly violated anyone's intellectual property and we're still examining this". I don't know whether "we accidentally violated Nintendo's intellectual property" will hold up in court, guys.

Nintendo Sues Nyko Over Copies of Wii Nunchuk Remote [Bloomberg]

With over 1.1 million hardware units sold in the United States in May, Nintendo has a right to be pleased. Coincidentally, it is! It's also relatively measured in talking about its success, describing excellent software sales of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii "healthy" and indicative of a "strong consumer response".

With seven of the top ten titles on Nintendo platforms and six of those published by the big N itself, we think Nintendo of America's EVP of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway could stand to sex up sales talk beyond "continued consumer response". But, hey, we don't run the place.

Other things Nintendo seems pleased about besides May's performance is its U.S. lifetime to date sales, with 10.2 million Wiis and over 20 million DSs in American hands. And 5.8 million copies of Wii Play in the wild? We expect the majority of games to have "Wii", "We" or "Oui" in the title by Summer 2009.

Full and classy Nintendo gloat after the break.

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Well, here it is - our first entry in "Game A Week", an exclusive Kotaku AU feature where you guys come up with ideas for simple games and I try and code them in seven days.

This little guy is called Wizkill. It's a roguelike, which means it's nothing but ASCII graphics, letter-shaped monsters, gold and dungeons. Roguelikes are traditionally quite hard and have a steep learning curve. I've tried to minimise the latter by limiting the number of keys, removing classes and providing a single goal (killing monsters), but who knows, it might still take a while to come to grips with.

There's a score component, calculated when you die or hit level 25. Feel free to post your highest score in the comments for this post. Oh, and if you notice any bugs or want to suggest some changes, add them here as well. If there are enough, I'll make the appropriate tweaks and release a "final" version on Monday.

If you'd like to start playing, you can download the game after the jump. I've also included a write-up on the design and development process, and what I'll be taking across to my next Game A Week project.

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The Xbox 360 may have been outsold by the competition in May, with the console looking to lose its first place position in the U.S. to the Wii any second now, you'd think the boys in Redmond would be bummed. On the contrary! They're pleased as punch, at least according to the May NPD sales corporate response.

As expected, Microsoft brags about the performance of GTA IV on the 360, which "outsold the other platform's version 2:1". In fact, it's all about third-party power ($AU 117.45 million in May!) and attach rates (7.7 per Xbox 360!) for MS. Third parties have raked in $AU 4.16 billion on the platform since launch. That's almost four billion dollars!

Sure, boasting of "more playing time" on the Xbox 360 among 10-26 year olds may smack of desperation and demographic cherry picking, but when the Nielsen Games GamePlay Metrics service shows that the Xbox 360 "gets roughly 75 hours of use per month", buddy, you get a pass!

Also, just you wait until E3, Microsoft says, as the company has "quite a few aces left up our sleeve". Oh, do tell!

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Sony fired first with a set of carefully chosen numbers that highlight its U.S. sales performance for the month of May. Responding to NPD sales data, the company was quick to point out that the PlayStation 3 eclipsed Xbox 360 hardware sales, achieving 155% year over year growth. Sony sounded pleased with PSP and PS2 sales, revealing that the latter moved 132,000-plus units in May.

The reason it had such a "solid" month? Enthusiasm! Specifically, enthusiasm for games like Grand Theft Auto IV, Singstar and (wait for it...) Haze. All told, 1.26 million units of PS3 software were sold, with Sony boasting that 32% of PS3 owners have picked up GTA IV.

Other notable Sony percentages include 234%, 6%, 6.7%, 46%, 98%, 20.4%, and 19.2%. Impressive!

Jack Tretton, president and CEO of SCEA said "momentum" twice and bragged about the "prized exclusive" Metal Gear Solid 4 in his official statement. Handcrafted corporate gloating, Sony style, is after the jump.

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We just found out that Marvellous Entertainment's Wii-exclusive"Project O" has a real name, if you haven't heard: Little King's Story. It's due for a May 2008 release in North America, and today we learn that it will hit the PAL territories in the first quarter of 2009, being published by Rising Star Games (Xseed handles North America for Marvellous.)

The all-star team behind the game includes Yasuhiro Wada (Harvest Moon), Yoshiro Kimura (HM & Chulip), Youichi Kawaguchi (Dragon Quest VIII) AND Hideo Minaba, art director for FFXII. Pretty exciting, if you ask me!

It's the story of a shy little boy named Corobo who suddenly becomes a king, and gameplay sounds a little bit life sim, a little bit real-time strategy and adventure, as you might expect from Marvellous.

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EA Sports head Peter Moore is not a man to mince words. That's why we loved him so when he was at Microsoft, he cuts through the BS and gets straight to the point.

In a recent post on his blog over at It's In The Game, Moore talked up his new studio alluding that EA Sports is primed to have one of the best years in its history. In particular Moore sings the praises of NASCAR, NBA LIVE, Madden and NCAA Football. He's so sure that this season is going to be unrivaled, in fact, that he's promising to get a new tattoo if they don't deliver.

Big talk Moore, but lets put a little reality into this pie-in-the-sky promise. Why not say that if you don't have an overall Metacritic increase (yes I hate review scores) on all four of those games you've failed to deliver and it's time to ink up? We've even found this swell logo for your possible future use. Let us know.

Not Resting on our Laurels [Peter Moore's Official Blog]

Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack writes on his IGN blog that Too Human development is finally coming to an end and that the team expects to deliver a gold master of the Xbox 360 game after squashing a pair of bugs. A positive Dyack writes that "this is likely just days away". He calls Too Human's development "a very rough road" but talks of "staggering" depth and an "awesome experience", something we look forward to evaluating for ourselves when the game is finally complete.

In even better news, Denis writes that "there will be plenty of time for press to critique Too Human as they will receive evaluation copies well in advance of the release date". We're expecting to get a new preview build pretty soon and look forward to spending plenty of time with the game.

End Game Approaches [Silicon Knights Blog]

It looks like Alone in the Dark is going to make some pretty interesting use of the Wii remote and nunchuk, I mean besides letting people drive and beat people with them. This sort of adventure game seems like the perfect fit for that... if it actually works.

The NPD Group has released hardware sales figures for the month of May, a month that saw Nintendo continue to dominate the competition with over 675,000 Wiis sold in the United States. That may be a drop from the previous month, but Nintendo DS sales more than made up for it.

While Grand Theft Auto IV continued to sell well, it didn't do anything to help hardware sales, as the Xbox 360 was down month to month and placed behind the PlayStation 3, which saw a small bump. PlayStation 2 data was not provided.

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The adventures of Niko Bellic fought off two strong Wii competitors to hold onto the number one spot on May's best selling software chart, with over 1.3 million copies sold total. The Xbox 360 flavour outsold its PS3 peer by about two-to-one last month, the only game for both platforms to appear in the top ten. Wii Fit, unsurprisingly, had a strong debut, placing third behind GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii and pulling in some $AU 66.2 million in sales for the month of May.

The list is full of familiar hits like Wii Play and Guitar Hero III, with some of May's more hyped new releases, like Boom Blox and Haze, failing to crack the top ten.

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Stan Lee, Ellijah Wood, Carlos Santana... and Crecente Duke it Out With Spore's Creature Creator
It doesn't get more cooler - or creepier - than this.

Examining The Antitrust Issues In EA's Take-Two Bid
That latest on the EA/Take 2 Interactive front. Oh, those silly antitrust laws, messing up the place!

Guitar Hero Branded DS Announced
Yes, because I want my DS to turn me into a walking advertisement. No thanks.

Trailers with actual MMO gameplay? Yawn. Dramatic anime sequences with doe eyed lads and lasses in medieval costumes prancing about to a dramatic sweeping score? Yay! Square Enix gives us the good stuff in this trailer for Concerto Gate, the massively multiplayer online role playing game that's coming to America sometime this year via publisher OnNet. It looks to feature lovely princesses that transform into massive birds, a serious turn off. See how many RPG cliches you can spot!

I've got a very cruel test for you Star Wars fans. What we have here is a video dialoguefrom the LucasArts folks that goes over some pretty major, pretty spoilerish, plot points for The Force Unleashed. It also shows off a lot of the game. Yes, painful. So you decide, hit the game fresh and untarnished or stoke your fan engines now. Either way, know it looks pretty bad arse.

I swung by Codemasters' hotel suite when they were in New York City yesterday, and one of the games I had demoed for me was the Greek mythology-inspired Rise of the Argonauts, in development by Liquid Entertaiment for a Fall release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

I guess you'd call it a little bit action, a little bit RPG (but mostly action). The rep who showed me the game told me it's based in good old Gods-and-heroes Greek myth, but takes a little liberty with the canonical facts. For example, the hero is Jason, he of Golden Fleece fame, and in the game, his wife has been killed and he's seeking the fabled Fleece in order to resurrect her. If Kratos has learned us anything, it's that dead wives plus mythology equals a recipe for high drama and pathos.

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Maker of high quality wall decals Blik has partnered with Nintendo to bring adhesive fun into the lives of kids, adult adolescents and good ol' regular adolescents everywhere with a new trio of officially licensed decorative stickers. Want to make your home office have a Donkey Kong inspired backdrop? You can! Blik is also offering premium decal sets based on Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros., transforming your den or bedroom into a magical Mushroom Kingdom wonderland—while pissing off your wife!

At $AU 80.08, they aren't on the cheap side, but as I always say, you can't skimp on quality when it comes to wall stickers based on classic Nintendo characters. If you're looking for something less pricey, perhaps the Blik Space Invaders decals (only $AU 48.05!) will scratch that video game sticker itch.

Nintendo Wall Graphics [blik]

Veteran UK game journalist Jim Rossignol, currently one of the Big Four at the Rock Paper Shotgun blog, has just published a book called 'This Gaming Life,' documenting his experiences in three different cities pursuing and documenting the culture of online games.

He covers the widespread competitive game scene in Korea, looks into Quake's evolving role in the London game scene, and visits Iceland to see the birthplace of EVE Online, to develop what he says is a story of "how games change the lives of gamers".

I thought the idea of a "travelogue" of game culture was interesting, so I asked Jim a few questions about the book, and his experiences.

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I know Spore's Creature Creator has been making the rounds for months now, but yesterday was my first chance to get my hands on the thing and go to town on some critters of my own creation.

The stand-alone creator is a pretty straight-forward game. Launching it up brings you to a screen that lets you either create or load your own critters.

Once you drop into the creation mode you're presented with a floating blob of flesh, elongated at either end with stumpy tail-like or neck-like appendages. When you hover your cursor over the blob it becomes slightly transparent, exposing the vertebrae buried inside. An arrow appears over either stump as well. To shape your creature's body you tug on the arrows to stretch out the skin along an ever-extending backbone. You can also tug at the vertebrae to try and curve the spine and shape of the body.

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It's been almost three months, but a PlayStation 3 game shoots to the top of the weekly Japanese sales charts with Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit which debuted overseas on June 5. It joins Sega's Yakuza 3 KENZAN! as one of the rare PS3 best selling debuts, handily defeating Sega's other new title, Shiren 3 for the Wii.

Unfortunately for Tecmo, it didn't have a strong showing with the Japanese launch of Ninja Gaiden II, which moved only 25,000 copies in the region last week. Itagaki can't be pleased, as the PS3 remake Ninja Gaiden Sigma moved close to twice that in its debut week in Japan.

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Is EA Sports ever satisfied? No. Never. Just ask EA Sports exec Peter Moore. Peter is EA Sports ever satisfied? Over on the cleverly titled Peter Moore Blog, Peter Moore writes:

We're never satisfied. There's always more we can do. It's what we love about our business. I hate to sound like a cheerleader, but the facts are the facts. And I don't expect them to change any time soon. We're hitting this season in terms of quality and innovation stronger than we ever have at EA SPORTS. If I'm wrong, you'll see me sporting a new tattoo - maybe a competitor's logo?

No, no more tattoos. Please, Peter. Elsewhere in his corporate locker room peptalk, Moore talks about the bright future FIFA and NHL have and hints at a new "groundbreaking feature" for NBA LIVE to be announced at E3.

Not Resting [Peter Moore Blog via videogaming247]

Video games got a little face time on the Colbert report last night when the show's namesake let loose on Japan and their grab-and-peel election coverage technology.

That's the best you can do?
I happen to know that you have robots, slapping machines, human Tetris, Katamari and sex bots, you could have just written the candidates names on meat hats and let a lizard pick the winner.

Colbert got into such a froth he actually used Mario's name in vain. I've moved the vid to the jump because it was hanging up our page for some reason.

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So my coveted Limited Edition of Metal Gear Solid 4 that I preordered from GameStop arrived today, and I must say, it's a rather lovely box set. I took some photos for your viewing pleasure - as all photos I take are blurry and crappy (I don't have a fancy camera), I ask you as always to forgive them, but I thought you'd like to see what's inside!

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Electronic Arts recently asked me to participate in a bit of Sporelebrity.

The publisher handed out 50 or so copies of the Spore Creature Creator to a bunch of celebrities (and me) and asked them to create a single, marvellous creature. This eclectic selection of creatures will then be posted on an Electronic Arts site for people to vote on next week. The winner gets $US 15,000 donated to the charity of his or her choice.

I've been able to cobble together a short list of some of the folks I'm competing against:

Stan Lee
Richard Branson
David Lynch
Ellijah Wood
Kevin Rose
Mark Cuban
Curt Schilling
Kent Nichols
Robert Scoble
Veronica Belmont
Carlos Santana
Bijou Phillips
Flight of the Conchords

Good thing none of these people are rich, powerful or creative... man I'm screwed. Maybe I should take the low road and create a giant penis creature? Neah, it's too much fun making abominations to God.

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Microsoft Game Studio's head Shane Kim is getting bumped up to corporate vice president of Strategy and Business Development, a new position in Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, and Jeff Bell is leaving the company, Microsoft announced today.

Kim, who headed up the studio for four years, will be replaced by Phil Spencer, who formerly headed up the Microsoft Game Studios in Europe.

"We're strategically positioning the leadership team to drive every aspect of the Xbox business to new heights," said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business. "I firmly believe that Microsoft will lead the next great innovations in games and entertainment. Today's organisational announcements align us to accelerate this expansive growth."

Microsoft has not yet found a replacement for Bell who is said to be leaving to "pursue other opportunities outside of Microsoft".

"The time is right for me to pursue my life's passion of consumer brand marketing and the creative and services that drive it." Bell said "Coming from automotive, and now technology and entertainment, I am excited to expand to new industries and categories."

Hit the jump for the full release and more Mattrick-y quotes.

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Atari founder Nolan Bushnell recently talked to GameDaily about his uWink business, a growing chain of restaurants that feature touch terminals on every table - not only do they let users order their food that way, but they can also play games together.

And Bushnell estimated the number of games he'd be able to serve through uWink at 600 trillion games across 100,000 restaurants Ambitious - but hey, it's Nolan Bushnell, right?

When we covered Bushnell's recent talk at Wedbush Morgan's annual management access conference, we heard him say that he misses the idea of gaming as a social activity, since the decline of arcades, and that part of what he hopes to do with uWink is to revive that group spirit and keep multiplayer that's actually in-person alive.

In the GameDaily interview, he cited an example - Pong used to be a hot tool for chicks to pick up guys at bars?

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Warner Bros. has just hooked us up with some screens showing off the newest characters revealed for the upcoming LEGO Batman: Nightwing, Bane and Clayface.

If you're like me and know next-to-no Batman lore, you wouldn't have learned until right this second that Nightwing is who Robin became when he struck out on