Blizzard is cooking something up for next-gen console fans who happen to love MMORPGs.

The company responsible for World of Warcraft and Diablo currently has three positions open that specifically point to a next-gen MMORPG being on the way.

“Blizzard Entertainment is looking for an individual to lead an engine-programming team focused on next-generation massively multiplayer online games,” reads one of the three ads on the Blizzard site.

There’s no indication as to whether this would be a remake of an older Blizzard game, such as WoW or Diablo, or a completely new creation. There’s some speculation that it might be a Diablo remake. Since Blizzard execs have said a WoW versions for next-gen consoles would be incredibly difficult, the Diablo guess does sound like a good one.

Still, a completely different game by these skilled creators wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

There’s no indication based on the job postings which next-gen consoles Blizzard is looking at. Whatever it ends up being promises to be good.

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Labels: blizzard, diablo, mmorpg, next-gen console, wow

As Sony gears up to turn its PlayStation 3 loose on the European market this week, months after its planned debut, the question remains as to how well or how poorly the console will do in regard to sales.

With a price tag that comes in higher than the U.S. version, the delay in initial launch and the issues with backwards compatibility, it’s the easy guess that Sony will run number three in Europe, falling behind the Wii and the Xbox 360, as it has in the North American market. However, preorders for the console have been high, despite the pricing and compatibility issues.

With about 220,000 units ready for the UK for Friday, it sounds like Sony’s banking on taking Europe by storm. Indeed, even store executives are talking up the gaming console’s release.

Woolworths’ Jim Batchelor has been quoted as saying the launch “will be biggest video games console launch of all time. It will be bigger than the launch of the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360 and the previous Playstation.”

That’s a tall order to fill, but the world will get to see for sure on Friday.

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Labels: next-gen console, PlayStation 3, ps3, sony, Wii, xbox 360

Despite its third-place rankings in the next-gen battle, Sony is still banking its PS3 will hit the 6 million shipped target by the end of March.

With an estimated 4 million consoles shipped by February, per chairman Ken Kutaragi, the figure seems more than feasible. With the European launch just days away, it’s more than likely 6 million units will ship by March 31 on the worldwide market.

The real question, however, is whether they will sell?

According to GameSpot, Sony had only managed to sell about 1 million consoles in the U.S. since its launch. Elsewhere, figures on the sales front are about as bleak. Only 6,000 consoles sold in total in all of Canada in February.

With a lack of game titles and problems with backwards compatibility, Sony will likely have a difficult time unloading the PS3 for some time to come. But, with millions of consoles waiting in the wings, maybe they’re just planning for the demand that will eventually come when the title choices improve?

Perhaps it’s a case of if we build it, they will come?

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Labels: next-gen console, PlayStation 3, ps3, sony

The next-gen era has barely begun and Microsoft is already looking at what will follow.

Microsoft boss Peter Moore has let the cat out of the bag that the company is beginning to eye an Xbox 360 replacement. The target date for a release is 2012, according to Palgn.

The news isn’t really a shocker, but what is in fact is the date. If 2012 is the target, Microsoft’s being much kinder to gamers than tech companies generally are with their planned obsolescence of products. Think of the conga line of iPods that have hit the market in short succession, one better than the other. Or, consider Microsoft’s own XP and Vista versions.

It will be interesting to see what they cook up. With five years to go, it wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft could get the next-next-gen 360 to play games and movies while doing dishes, too.

One of the last statements out of Sony on a PS4 had that roughly dated at 2010, but who knows what the next few years could bring.

It's all talk and rumor until the advertisements start rolling out.

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Labels: ipod, microsoft, next-gen console, peter moore, xbox 360

The financial moguls at Merrill Lynch are banking on Nintendo’s Wii as being the console to beat. They’re saying that by 2011, about 30 percent of all American households will own a Wii and about a third of Japanese households will, too.

The predictions come from Lynch analyst Yoshiyuki Kinoshita on the heels of some major performance by the little console that could.

Whether they’ll pan out to be true or not remains to be seen, but the console is certainly outperforming expectations.

The folks at Crunch Gear seem think there’s not a snowball’s change in Hades this will be the case, considering the average U.S. household income, which is under $47,000.

“These people don’t have the money for a Nintendo Wii + some games + a broadband internet connection - they need their money for real expenses like a mortgage payment and cases of Keystone Light,” they write, adding the potential for bias in the prediction.

I beg to differ. The “average” American family I know happens to own at least one gaming console if not more. Wii is fairly economical in the grand scheme of things and some of its games happen to be pretty darn good for family members of all ages.

Considering its price tag of about $350-$400 for the console and a game or so, compared to soccer, cheerleading, baseball and so on, and the Wii doesn’t seem like that bad of a deal.

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Labels: merrill lynch, next-gen console, Nintendo, Wii