1P Start

In the realm of rumors, this is a big one. A German gaming website is reporting that 40 gig PS3 owners will eventually be able to play PS2 games because there is a firmware update that will open up backwards compatibility. The German site had this to say (translation by a News 4 Gamers member):

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Microsoft has seen sales of the Xbox 360 falling badly over the last few months, with 2008 proving so far to be the year of the PS3, and the Wii of course. So what to do? Why, try and steal your competitor’s market of course.

We’ve already seen the Xbox 360 getting dropped in price, and the Arcade pack released in order to cater to the less well off consumers who snapped up the Wii in droves.

Now, according to a company source talking to MTV, Microsoft are also going to muscle in on the motion control elements of the Wii and are busy developing a Wii Remote style controller for the Xbox 360.

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An Ex-Microsoft (fairly)recently was quoted as saying that videogame consoles as we know them will “die out” in the next five to ten years.

Wait! Before you panic and throw your PS3 out the window, let’s think about this for a moment. Sure technology moves fast and more and more it looks like digital distribution will be important, but let’s think about this for a minute. While digital distribution will certainly play a much bigger role in the future of the entertainment business, you’ve got to have something to run it on. One of the greatest strengths of the console is that while you are on the current generation, everyone has essentially the same machine. If you moved away from a standardized form of electronics you run into the mess that is PC gaming. You have a million different combinations of hardware and software.

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April Fools Day is always a torturous day for gamers, with a huge amount of fake or prank stories doing the rounds on the Internet. And this year has been no exception.

Here are some of the best from around the World Wide Web:

This YouTube video supposedly shows a mash-up between Assassins Creed and Metal Gear Solid 4. It’s rubbish of course, but at least we get to see some new gameplay footage from MGS4!

Blizzard announced a new hero class for World of Warcraft. Called the Bard class, this hero wields a plastic guitar and rocks their way through the game. This is in addition to the game coming to consoles, although as its only available for the Atari 2600 to start with, it’s not really that exciting news.

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Over the course of last week, the big rumour to hit the gaming websites was that a Nintendo Wii with a Blu-ray drive was on the way. Apparently it had been spotted in Tokyo, and was getting readied for an official release.

Of course, the whole thing was absolute bullshit. There was no truth in it whatsoever, and some of the game sites who took it seriously, and reported it as fact should be ashamed of themselves.

Of course, there are rumours which can seem feasible, and get reported as possibly having an element of truth about them, hell I’m sure even we here at 1PStart have been guilty in the past. But for various reasons, this was obviously a faked news report, and should never have been passed on.

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Ladies and Gents it pains me to say my farewells to 1PStart. I’ve been here only a short time, though I’ve been at Xbox 360 Rally (another 451 site) for just under a year. I will miss you guys, though you’re probably throwing a party, chanting “he’s leaving! Huzzah! Huzzah!”. If you do miss me, though, you can find me at my new home BingeGamer.net.

It’s been fun, and I hope to see y’all around.

P.S.: Qbix — E-mail me, dude. I’m still gonna get your GTA IV to ya.

Remember how yesterday a website posted a story that apparently confirmed that Metal Gear Solid 4 would be coming to the Xbox 360, even though the letter used as evidence didn’t actually make mention of any release dates, the Xbox 360 or even the game in question? Well apparently nobody told Konami about these plans, as they have shot that rumor dead.

For the record, metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a PlayStation 3 exclusive and there are no plans to develop an Xbox 360 version of the game.

Well you really can’t make that any clearer, can you? Of course, this won’t deter the fanboys who have it set in their minds that this denial is just another cog in the mass conspiracy theory that is keeping news of an Xbox 360 port of MGS4 secret. Then again, most fanboys are simply too dense and stubborn to really get a firm grasp on reality, so whatever.

Konami, Metal Gear Solid 4

It is being reported by several sources that Peter Hines has confirmed that Bethesda Softworks is, in fact, working on an Elder Scrolls MMORPG. The rumor was reported last week after the discovery that Bethesda had founded ZeniMax Online, and reportedly had handed over $300 Million towards a MMO project.

After reading the source of this most recent development, all that can really be said with absolute certainty is that ZeniMax is real, Bethesda has poured $300 Million into it, and they are working on a MMORPG. Nowhere in any article I have found has Peter Hines confirmed that it will be an Elder Scrolls RPG.

Yet.

The quote in question that has been used on many sites regarding the Bethesda MMO says nothing about the game itself, only what Bethesda hopes to accomplish by pouring insane amounts of green into the project.

However, when you consider that Bethesda recently purchased “elderscrollsonline.com”, you can pretty much put two and two together. All the same, though, for now I’m not ready to say with 100% certainty that the Bethesda MMO will be set in the Elder Scrolls universe. But I’ll say it with about 95% certainty.

[QJ.net]

Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Online, Pete Hines, Elder Scrolls, MMORPG

For the record, a “Rumor Buster”… kind of like “Bunker Buster”… we use it to debunk rumors. Moving on…

It is being reported (by HDGameNews) that in the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, Sony has been able to lock up the rights to the next Grand Theft Auto title, which would [allegedly] be the seventh in the franchise. The quote being supplied to support this, from HDGameNews, is the following:

“Rockstar really wanted to make a game that you can truly only do on PS3, harnessing the power of the Cell and Blu-ray disc and this deal lets them do just that” as said by Sony’s Michael Shorrock in a statement to the press. ” We handed Rockstar a signed blank check because we were short sighted enough to let Grand Theft Auto’s exclusivity get away from us. Oops!”

I’m here to tell you that this is wrong. I’ll explain why after the break.