Even though the DS dominates the portable scene, there is still room for the PSP, as Sony has announced that over 50 million units of the console have been shipped since its launch in December 2004.

It can be pointed out that the DS has recorded sales of 96.2 million worldwide as of last month. Both platforms were released at about the same time, though the PSP saw a delayed worldwide release.

Lifetime sales of the PSP amount to 14.3 million units, while the DS rounds out to 27.6 million.

Following Microsoft’s closure of Age of Empires developer Ensemble Studios, Tony Goodman – co-founder of the RTS boutique – has formed a new studio called Robot Entertainment.

While a portion of Ensemble’s team remains at Microsoft to finish up and support Halo Wars, many have moved on and joined Goodman at the new studio.

No word was offered on what sort of projects the studio would work on, but more RTS goodness is expected from them.

Square Enix was in the news earlier this week, with word that the Japanese publisher was looking to stage a buyout of D3 Publisher. The company also lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal year by nearly 63%, and now we know the reason why: the delay of Dragon Quest IX for the DS.

However, there’s even worse news for the company and us gamers: the delay might impact the release of the long-awaited Final Fantasy XIII.

“There is a possibility that [the] Dragon Quest IX delay could effect Final Fantasy XIII,” said Square head Yoichi Wada.

The company, having shifted DQIX to July, now has no major release for the rest of its fiscal year, which ends March 31. This delay was the reason why the company lowered profit forecasts in the first place.

Final Fantasy XIII was set to hit Japan this year on the PS3; North America and Europe will get the action-RPG sometime next year on Xbox 360 as well.

Fuming with rage and wielding the hammer of law, Activision Blizzard has threatened to sue EA for publishing Double Fine’s upcoming action game Brutal Legend even though the company picked up publishing rights back in December. Apparently, Activision Blizzard views the agreement as invalid due to a belief that it was still engaged in negotiations regarding the game.

Originally set to be published by Vivendi, which merged with Activision last year, the game was ditched following the formation of the new company, along with 50 Cent, Ghostbusters and The Chronicles of Riddick, all of which have found new homes.

It is being speculated that Activision wants a cash payment for the publishing rights. Meanwhile, an EA representative expressed doubt that Activision would sue, likening the situation to be “like a husband abandoning his family and then suing after his wife meets a better looking guy.”

As another week draws to a close, Harmonix has announced what music goodness will be headed to Rock Band and its sequel next week: White Zombie and Turbonegro!

“Black Sunshine” and “More Human than Human” are the two classic tracks from White Zombie – Rob Zombie’s band before he went solo – that will be made available. We will see “Wasted Again” from Turbonegro from their 2005 album.

As usual, the tracks will sell for 160 Microsoft points ($2) each and will hit Xbox 360 on Tuesday and PS3 on Thursday.

Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon Reviewed
Soul Calibur 4 Sells 2.2M
Viacom Countersues Konami
Sony: Game and Movie on Same Disc Coming This Year
World of Warcraft Director Moves to Next-gen MMO Project
Namco Buying D3
I Have To Do WHAT To King Bhumibol?
Silent Hill Homecoming–Good To Be Back
Midway Filing For Bankruptcy Protection
G.I. Joe Game Announced
StarCraft II in the Coming Months
Star Wars Unleashes Force by Selling 5.7M
Square Enix in Eidos Acquisition Bid
Mario & Sonic Join Together Once More
First God of War 3 Details
Atlus Bringing Another Game Stateside
Fallout 3–Quite Possibly The Best Game Ever.
Death Row–An Unsettlingly Immersive Experience

I’ll confess right off, I really like the Destroy All Humans series.  It’s the one place where you can count on finding era-appropriate pop culture references, frenzies of destruction, and Richard Horvitz all at once.  For those of you who don’t remember Richard Horvitz, just go watch a little Invader Zim and it’ll all come flooding back to you.  Yeah…THAT Richard Horvitz.

Anyway, it’s back for more fun all around the world and beyond in Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon.  You get to play once again as Cryptosporidium, the frantic Furon who blasted up so many large chunks of Earth in two (three if you count the Wii’s Big Willy Unleashed–I personally don’t.) games beforehand.  Now, Crypto is running a casino in the middle of the seventies in Paradise City, living it up as only Crypto can.  He’s joined by his now-holographic handler, Orthopox-13, who serves as his gadget source, quest giver and occasional adviser as Crypto finds himself neck-deep in a conspiracy that swallows the Earth and traces all the way back to Planet Furon itself.

I personally enjoyed Path of the Furon.  Yes, granted–it’s almost the exact same game as the previous two with some new bells and whistles attached, and of course the whole new storyline, but I enjoyed it the first time I played it and I continue to enjoy it.  Why mess with a good thing?

The main reason to enjoy each new Destroy All Humans! installment is not to see what new game mechanic can come into play, but rather what strange new direction they’re going to take the plot in.  And indeed, they’re going to take some SPECTACULAR new directions here.  I’m not going to spoiler for you, but let me put it this way: by the end of the game, there’s going to be a new Emperor of Furon.  And it’s not Crypto.

And while I’m at it, why are we ignoring the SIMPLE things that make this game great?  We’ve been playing exclusively on Earth since the start of the series–I can’t understand why more people aren’t enthusiastic about getting the chance to see Planet Furon.  For that matter, why aren’t people more enthusiastic about getting the opportunity to just run amok and blow up cities with a hovering saucer jam-packed with advanced technology?

It’s got a fun plot, fun cast, fun play…so why are so few people actually having FUN with this?  Indeed, the hate-on for Furon goes pretty deep.  Some reviewers complained about poor graphics, a complaint I’m having a hard time agreeing with, but after the joy that was Fallout 3 I can understand where they’re coming from, at least.  And yes, the multiplayer was pretty shoddy, being local only and it definitely did feel tacked on as almost an afterthought.  But when people start complaining about “racist portrayals” of some of the characters, you know that PC thuggery has reached EPIC levels.  Have we forgotten about the concept of PARODY?  Is that just clean out the window now?  These “racist” characters are accurate representations of their portrayals in the 1970s, when this game is set.

I happen to think the negative reviews on this game have lost sight of the purpose of games.  It’s all about the FUN you’re having–if the game looks great but it’s unplayable, you haven’t gained anything.  Why do you think browser games do so well?  It’s not because they look good, it’s because they FEEL good.  And Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon definitely qualifies as a fun game.

Namco Bandai today announced that Soul Calibur 4 has sold a total of 2.2 million copies since its July 2008 release. The game was reported to have shipped over 2 million copies one week after its July 31 launch on PS3 and Xbox 360.

The fighting sequel has also helped Namco report a profit of $99.7 million profit for its third quarter ending December 31. It was largely aided by this game and Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit which sold 730,000 units.

Soul Calibur 4 is the latest in the longstanding series. It features Star Wars characters Darth Vader and Yoda as playable characters, as well as Vader’s secret apprentice from Star Wars Force Unleashed, which has also sold quite a few million units.

Fighting back with a vengeance, Harmonix owner Viacom is counter-suing Konami over Rock Revolution. Konami has long claimed that it holds the patents to rhythm games, having started the genre with Guitar Freaks and DrumMania games. The publisher sued Harmonix last year, claiming that Rock Band amounted to patent infringement.

Now, Viacom is fighting back in a countersuit, stating that Harmonix’s games are improvements over Konami’s original patent and that Rock Revolution has more in common with Rock Band than Konami’s past rhythm games.

Viacom is seeking damages and a motion to stop Konami from selling Rock Revolution.

Seeing as how Blu-ray holds a vast amount of data most of which isn’t used by most publishers, Sony is now actively pursuing game makers and movie studios to combine movies with tie-in videogames on the same Blu-ray disc this year.

“We are actively pushing, and the way that we see the future is that the movie and the game are placed on the same disc,” said PlayStation 3 director of hardware marketing John Koller. “There are a lot of developers who say, we have this game based on a movie, wouldn’t it be great to marry these concepts? We will definitely see this stuff this year.”

The hybrid disc is still being worked on, and while Koller did not mention any specific titles, he did note that a handful of games/movies will be released this year.

“This is a value message with the PS3,” added Koller. “Consumers can capitalize on the larger amount of space with Blu-ray. There are grander experiences for movies or games.”

I can imagine it right now: the Transformers game packed in with the movie sequel in the same disc (among many others).