Square's new Fabula Nova Crystallis project has been getting a fair bit of attention lately. The trailers of FFXIII and Versus from E3 wowed everyone. I found the FF trailer in particular to be pretty mindblowing. It looks like the new set of games is going to take the series in a different direction and I'm excited to see what the final products will look and play like.

Alas, we still haven't managed to acquire the FFXIII trailer that played at the Jump Fiesta in December. Let's keep our fingers crossed. In the mean time, here's some neat scans of all three games in the  Fabula Nova Crystallis series for you to drool over. Am I the only one here with a huge crush on Lightning?

Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese and DMV and his limited Japanese knowledge are too busy getting drunk in Vegas.

Oh wait ... he's underage. Bwahahahaha!

[Via Final Fantasy Republic]

You did it. I did it. Our neighbours did it. Hell, my dad did it (and he doesn't know squat about gaming). Now Microsoft's doing it, too. In an exclusive interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft's Peter Moore and Chris Satchell grabbed an opportunity to take a couple of cheap shots at Sony while they weren't in a position to retaliate.

"It's going to take [Sony] a couple of years to get up to speed on this, and I'm not sure that they necessarily have the talent, or it's built into who they are as a company," Moore said.

"They're struggling with some of their hardware issues, and apparently they're going to deliver another five million in the next 90 days. But this business is about hardware, software and services now. And the consumer expects that."

Can't say I disagree there. After all, don't we always say it's all about the games? But if you think this is good, read on for what Satchell had to say:

"If I wanted to make my online service better, and I wanted to give [Sony] a little piece of advice, it would be to copy Xbox Live a little more closely," he said.

"My honest opinion is that it's pretty much a disaster. They keep saying that they have a free service. Well, if they don't have anything, of course it's free. And you know what: what's free about $600?"

Ooooh, burn. I think he just voiced the sentiments of a million people across the globe there. Normally I'd complain about how corporations have nothing better to do than downplay each other, but this time I'll let it pass. 15-0. Service with Microsoft.

[Update: The full interview with Peter Moore can be read here.]

Here's the latest trailer for Age of Conan: Hyborian Aventures running in its full DX10 glory on Windows Vista. The game is scheduled to release in the second quarter of 2007. The graphics look fairly good for an MMO and I think this trailer is starting to make me a little wet now...

Thanks to NamelessTed for YouTubing it for me! You are awesome.

Wait, what? But everyone said they did! Yes, everyone said they did because apparently Sony told them all they did. But they didn't. Confused? Gather around ladies and gentlemen ... this is a hell of a story. Probably the best publicity Sony's gotten yet.

Seamus Byrne of Hydrapinion decided to do a looking into the matter. The SIXAXIS won an award but the Wiimote didn't? Something seemed fishy. After managing to get in touch with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, this is what he found out:

A follow up message from Christine Chin from NATAS tells us Sony has it all wrong. The award was for the original dual shock controller. Here is her message in full:

I understand you had contacted Cheryl Daly, Director of Communications at NATAS to confirm if Sony won for their PS3 controller. This is incorrect, Sony won for their dual shock analog controller. The award is from the Video Game Technology Group. It was nominated by our internal group and considered along with the Nintendo D-Pad both of which were considered Emmy worthy for the development of the generation of controllers that followed the classic joysticks.

I would like to confirm that Sony did not win for their PS3 controller, they won for their Dual Shock Analog controller.

So there you have it. This makes a lot more sense, and Sony's press release was flat out incorrect. Best case, an error. Worst case...

Chrstine also said she will clarify this with Sony.

This is a riot. Honestly Sony ... I just don't know what to say.

Famitsu recently held another series of polls regarding software/hardware sales in 2007 in Japan. The results are exactly what you would expect them to be. In short, the DS and Wii are ruling, followed by the PS3 and the 360 slowly jogging along in fourth place.

"What piece of hardware or software do you think will be the break away hit of 2007?"

1. Nintendo Wii (412)
2. Dragon Quest IX for NDS (122)
3. Nintendo DS (107)
4. Playstation 3 (56)
5. "I can't predict." (50)

Yep. No surprises there. Next up is "Which system do you think will sell the best in 2007?"

1. Nintendo DS (432)
2. Nintendo Wii (326)
3. Playstation 3 (116)
4. Xbox 360 (26)
5. "I can't predict" (15)

We finally received word from Ziff Davis that they have NOT sold 1UP to Dell. It looks like all is well in the world of game journalism once more. Everyone who said it wasn't true, give yourself a pat on the back. Too bad. Working for 1UP tech support might have been fun...

I kid, I kid. 

Thanks to Jason from Ziff Davis for responding to our e-mail. I'd also like to apologize to Aaron Linde for using a Kevin Spacey reference. I'm sorry, man.

Looks like Microsoft is getting more and more ambitious by the day. According to Bloomberg, they are now looking to enter the handheld gaming market.

Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, will introduce video games for its Zune music player within 18 months to match features available on Apple Computer Inc.'s dominant iPod.

Peter Moore, a vice president in the company's Xbox video- game business, confirmed the plan yesterday, saying the Zune's large screen will offer a better way to play handheld games. He didn't specify what games would be offered.

I didn't think people cared much for the Zune, but if Microsoft manages to introduce some decent apps on the device, Apple might just find themselves facing serious competition. Although, I have to say, it looks like Microsoft is trying to compete with Apple, Nintendo and Sony all at the same time and depending on what they have in mind for the Zune, stretching themselves too thin may not be a very good idea. Live on the Zune would be awesome, though. Also, well-functioning and useful 360 compatibility is a must.

What do you guys think?

[Thanks to Chris Taran for the tip!] 

Holy crap. That is phenomenally impressive. And this is excluding XBLA titles, mind you. The Wii might be coming up really fast and the PS3 might have great potential for the future, but it's pretty clear who is leading the "console war" right now. Of course, the 360 has been out for a long time now, but a 5.3 attach rate is still impressive.

Moore affirmed that Gears of War plowed through the holidays selling over 2.7 million copies since its November release.

He also said that the Xbox Live community “has eclipsed 5 million members, with over half of all consoles connected.” Moore said that Microsoft is still on track to meet its goal of 6 million Live users by June 2007, the end of its 2007 fiscal year.

Got some catching up to do, Sony and Nintendo. Let's get those triple-A titles out and running, eh?

[Via Next Generation]

[Editor's note: Thanks to NamelessTed for tipping me off. You rock, dude. Also, Snaileb says "Hi".] 

OK, so they didn't really say that.

But being ignored by Bill Gates kind of negates all that awesome publicity Sony got at CES. It was only a couple of months ago that Microsoft called the Wii a "kid's toy". Make up your minds guys.

Seeing as how this story is already all over the internet, I wasn't really going to bother putting it up ... until Teddy Gage e-mailed it into tips (thanks, dude). Seeing this pop up in more and more places by the minute frustrates me to no end.

We all knew there would be porn on the Wii. The console is called "Wii" for God's sake. From the second people found out about the "Wiimote" with the built in rumble (read: vibrator), jokes more pain-inducing than David Hasselhoff's hair in Knight Rider have flooded the internet, slowly but surely chipping away at our brains one cell at a time. Women have used it to do their business. There is a downloadable browser for the console. For the past month, websites (especially those of the adult variety) have been changing their layouts to accomodate the Wii browing experience. And do people take note of this? Nooo.

For Laurn Schroeder, protecting her first grade girls is a priority. "[They're] innocent, and we want to try and keep them that way," she said."

"It's very upsetting something this popular—a kid game—can go that direction so quickly," Schroeder said.

No arguments there, Ms. Schroeder.

"That's why it's so important to read into and do research and background checking before you invest in it," Schroeder said. She studied her daughters' Wii to identify the built-in parental controls.

Damn right it is.

Other parents, however, complain that Nintendo's scheme is unsatisfactory, and that the Wii browser lacks a "cyber-nanny" or filtering function.

Here's where it gets retarded. Scheme unsatisfactory? A cyber-nanny? Let me point a couple of things out:

1. Everyone watches porn. Well, at least all men do. If you don't want your kid looking at porn, don't let them go online unsupervised.

2. The browser is still in its beta stage of development. Obviously there's no built in cyber-nanny. This is Nintendo we're talking about. The company that won't allow the release a simple mature game without covering their asses well in advance.

I'll be the first to admit I don't know a damned thing about parenting. But like Ms. Schroeder said; do a little research on a product before you buy it. It's easy. We're not living in the 14th century. If you want to protect your kid, then by all means do it.

So, everyone's been pretty frustrated by Nintendo rolling out their quality Virtual Console titles at a snail's pace lately. Last week's line-up in the U.S. was especially disappointing it seems, as several of you here at Dtoid were crying for the blood of Nintendo to flood through the streets.

Sorry guys, no good news for you today. Europeans on the other hand ... there's some VC love headed your way. For a change, you guys get to be the lucky ones while everyone over in the West clenches their teeth in anger while repeatedly slapping their Wiimotes against a brick. 

Hit the jump for the full press release of upcoming Virtual Console titles in Europe during the first quarter of '07, including the much awaited Ocarina of Time and much love from Sega.

Wow. This has been happening a lot lately, hasn't it? According to Next Generation, Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper have officially departed from the Microsoft owned studio after 20 years of dedication for unknown reasons.

Taking over their duties will be Mark Betteridge, a 19-year Rare employee, who was the creative force behind Viva Piñata and Donkey Kong Country. Mark will also be working on the next iteration in the Banjo Kazooie franchise in addition to overseeing all future projects at Rare.

As of now, nothing is known about the Stampers' future plans. According to Microsoft, the departure of Rare's co-founders “will not impact the development teams at Rare.”

No, I'm not kidding. A few days back we reported Ziff Davis was selling 1UP and EGM. Well, it looks like the site's already been bought and is now within the unforgiving claws of Dell. Notice the new logo in the top left corner of the site.

Apparently, going to http://www.1up.com doesn't display the logo. However, going to http://dell.1up.com does. On the right hand side of the page is a "casual gaming" bar with "Dell gaming console 2.0" listed as the first item. The word "Dell" is all over the page.

[Editor's note: A lot of people seem to be skeptical about this, myself included. While everything so far indicates that 1UP has been bought over, it hasn't been confirmed. An e-mail has been sent by Destructoid to the concerned parties. We are currently awaiting a reply.] 

PS3 Fanboy has a post up on their website about yet another console hack. This time it's far more impressive from the usual stuff you tend to see floating around the net.

Someone else has hacked up their system and got the "almighty" 360 controller working on it. If you've got Linux on your PS3, you can most certainly use the wired version of the 360 controller. Its functionality has been tested with snes9x (an emulation program that kicks bum) and Doom and passes with flying colors.

If you want to install the driver onto your PS3, the install file is here.

Alas, this is pretty pointless as you wouldn't be able to use the rumble from the 360 controller, since games designed for the PS3 don't have it built into them.

[Via Engadget]