Only one entry in the contest this week, but it doesn't matter because it would have beaten any other competitors anyway. Zxcyzyx, previously only available in preview form, is now complete, and it's fantastic. Two bosses, multiple power ups, hidden "Score bags", amazing art direction, and three Legendary Wings inspired ships made specifically for this level make the total package equal to or greater than anything found in the Blast Works main game. BudCat, I think you just found a new employee. 

Please don't let the greatness on Zxcyzyx intimidate the rest of you from entering the contest. You still have a chance to win it all, little guy! I'm still waiting to see a level with a playable SpaceCat ship and a Mr. Destructoid boss fight. 

In an interview with the Financial Times, Sony president Kaz Hirai revealed that he has set a target of 150 million PS3 units sold worldwide. Selling that many units is certainly a lofty goal, but Hirai isn’t referring to shipping that many PS3 in this generation of consoles. He’s going on the assumption that the PS3 will experience the same kind of long-term success that the PS2 is still having.

It’s not fun for me replicating the PS2 numbers. I’ve seen that movie already. I want to try to see if we can exceed the PS2 numbers after nine years, otherwise why are we in this business?

It has taken the PS2 nine years to pull over the 100 million mark, and as we were reminded several times during the Sony press conference at E3 this year, it will only get better whenever Lego Batman hits. Sony is projecting that the PS3 will have a total amount of 22 million consoles sold by the end of the fiscal year, which means that there is definitely room for the console to expand to meet Hirai's target.

At the end of the interview, Hirai also mentioned that he expects 467 billion units of Ridge Racer 7 sold by the end of the week. According the my numbers, the title is only shy a mere 2 billion. If only there was a way to cater to the intergalactic "core" market.

[Thanks, Brian!]

It was a very very very busy week here at Destructoid. A lot of coverage went up including previews, news, original videos a ton more content from E3. And we still want to hear who you thought won E3 between the big three companies. 

On Destructoid, check out our entire E3 2008 coverage. On Japanator, One Piece becomes the most downloaded anime in the world. On Tomopop, check out the custom Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet. And on MiamiNights, check out one of the original techno classic in Auditory Orgasm.

DESTRUCTOID

• Our entire E3 2008 coverage including news, hands-on previews, and more
  
• E3 2008 coverage broken up by dates
• Destructoid original videos from E3 2008
• Who do you think won E3? Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony?
• Contests: Post your E3 impressions and reactions, win tons of our E3 Swag! + The Dew goes Old School / New School - Win an Xbox 360 on Dtoid! + Demean your wretched selves for an Xbox 360 and Soulcalibur IV swag + Win music, a game, and a chair from EA Sports and Interscope Records + Win free stuff: Revolution! A Civilization Revolution contest + Go balls deep to win a Top Spin 3 prize package! + The Destructoid/Blast Works level design contest + Go Alone in the Dark to win an Xbox 360, AitD and plenty o' swag

JAPANATOR

• Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 5: Row Row WTF?!?!?!?
• Featured Fan Art: Ranka Lee's \m/
• E3 08: Anime now on the PlayStation Store, with a little Bones surprise included!
• And the award for the most downloaded series in the world goes to…
• First Impressions: World Destruction

TOMOPOP

• Nendroid Zetsubou-sensei figure is sending my wallet into despair!
• Kotobukiya's cast-off Haruhi: Eroge fans almost get what they have been waiting for.
• KidRobot introducing Simpsons blindbox mini series, celebrate by drinking Duff and eating donuts
• Custom Delights: Chris Furniss' custom Moogle Munny
• You too can own a Little Big Planet custom Sackboy

MIAMINIGHTS

• The State of Nightclubs in Miami
• Wednesday Auditory Orgasm: E-Dancer - Pump The Move (Kenny Larkin Mix)
• Review: Bin no.18

When we last left Portal: Still Alive, we were very unsure as to what the XBLA title would contain. Valve was cool enough to tell us that Achievements were confirmed, but not much else. GameSetWatch was able to corner Valve’s Doug Lombardi and get a few answers.

The game is indeed a standalone version of the Portal sold with the Orange Box set, with several new levels. These newer levels will not feature any sort of story elements associated with the original game, including GLaDOS’ murmurings. Also, Still Alive is set to be an XBLA exclusive, which doesn’t mean much considering the way Final Fantasy XIII showed us how exclusivity can change hands quickly.

There is also mention that all of the new levels are apparently going to come from Portal: The Flash Version MapPack, which is a Portal enhancement from the popular flash game. This is especially interesting considering that the flash version of Portal is simply a fan created game. Regardless of the validity of the new map offerings, I’m sure we’re all excitedly waiting for the next incarnation of Portal on XBLA.

You have to love the smell of irony in the morning. Ubisoft does not condone PC piracy, much like the rest of the games industry. Despite the stance, it was found that Ubisoft utilized a “no-cd” crack to fix a problem users were experiencing with Rainbox Six Vegas 2 on the Direct2Drive service.

According to gamesindustry.biz, the issue began when Ubisoft created a patch for Rainbow Six Vegas 2 that added new multiplayer modes and fixes for the PC version. The problem with the patch is that like most PC games, it forces the disk drive to confirm that the game disk is being used. This obviously creates a large issue for users of the Direct2Drive service who simply download the game from the website. After noticing the glitch Ubisoft did the rational thing. They converted a pirate groups’ “no-cd” crack into the game to alleviate the problem.

Ubisoft recently commented on the situation.

The file was removed from the site over a week ago now and the matter is being thoroughly investigated bysenior tech support managers here at Ubisoft. Needless to say we do not support or condone copy protection circumvention methods like this and this particular incident is in direct conflict with Ubisoft's policies.

At least they’re willing to admit that the use of the patch was a tad bit unethical. What do you guys think? Should more game companies use pirated code to fix their property, or should they just depend on themselves for quick fixes?

[Thanks, Logan!]

The Dark Knight is breaking opening day records. And I'm glad for it. I think they did a fantastic job with the film. It's just about the only thing to talk about in this post-E3 slump, unless you want to hear about Mamma Mia!. Not that I've seen it or anything. Just heard. I swear.

The rest of the Internet has taken a break, but we're going to make sure to keep you updated with all sorts of stories here on the Modern Method Network. So don't just sit around in the community blogs or on the forum, explore Japanator and Tomopop as well!

• The second volume of the Doki Doki Majo Shinpan manga is coming out. Some of the contents? "A loli with huge breasts gets violently molested, girl gets bukkake'd, and "Ero special!" I seem to remember now why SNK USA doesn't want to touch any DDMS stuff. [Senaka Blog]
• Metal Gear Solid 4's weapons advisor is in a bit of trouble: he's been busted for smuggling weapons into Japan. Well, they're "holographic night-vision gunsights," but still. He's expected to plead guilty. [Game Politics]
• Sorry, Europe. No updated PSN store for you this year. I think Japan might be in the same boat as you, so it's not like the world is specifically hating on you again. [Joystiq]
• Rumortoid: Sonic now going medieval, wielding a sword in his next title for the Wii. [Kombo]
• Aoishiro's demo has gotten a translation patch. The visual novel (or ero-ge, if you want to call it that) is a yuri one. I don't have the space on my HDD to try it out, so let us know if it's good. Oh, and obviously this is NSFW. [Visual Novels]