Tekken and Street Fighter could arguably be considered two of the most successful fighting game franchises of all time so it would make sense for the two developing companies to hate eachother, right? Wrong, Tekken‘s series director Katsuhiro Harada recently told VideoGamer the exact opposite:

“I’ve been a fan of Street Fighter in general, and I was kind of sad to see it die out in the arcades. So I was very happy to see it make a comeback – especially with that new look it returned with while staying true to the original formula. I believe a lot of fans were very happy with that.”

Not only is he the director of the highly anticipated Tekken 6, but he’s also a fan of Street Fighter? It’s nice to see two competing developers live in harmony.

Namco Bandai’s Tekken 6 is due out for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 27th of this year.

Considering some of Valve’s flagship titles such as Left 4 Dead never made their way onto the Playstation 3 would lead one to think that Valve had no intentions of ever bringing titles to the platform. However, this is not the case.

In a recent interview with Valve’s Doug Lombardi, done by Joystiq, he said that despite the titles not coming to the PS3, the company still wants to develop for the platform. What’s blocking the way? Well, a group of “decent PS3 coders”, of course.

So, once Valve secures a team of what they are calling “talented PS3 guys” they will again develop for the PS3 but until then, not a chance.

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that not too long ago an online group formed who swore to boycott Left 4 Dead 2 if Valve didn’t continue to support the original title. Well, shortly after that group was formed, Valve swore to continue to support the original title, which means the boycott worked, right?

According to Valve’s Dougle Lombardi, no, Valve had planned on continuing to support Left 4 Dead even before they were threatened with a boycott:

“I think there was just some confusion. When you go to E3 and make a big splash on a new product you’re trying to get the retailer’s attention and the press attention.It’s not really the venue for announcing DLC and whatnot. I think folks took our announcement as a sign that we were dropping Left 4 Dead 1 and that’s just not the case.

OK, Mr. Lombardi, we’ll believe you if you hurry up and announce that DLC pack for L4D already.

Read (Destructoid)

Square Enix has taken time away from sueing French retailers to announce that an upcoming mini-expansion for their MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI, will be made available for pre-purchase on July 5th.

The upcoming expansion is entitled A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses, and reportedly focuses on the Moogles in the game and problems that encompass them.  RandomNPC reports that a job level of at least 10 is required to start this new story line.

Final Fantasy XI‘s upcoming expansion, A Moogle d’Etat will be available for $9.99 when it drops.

Sure, the Playstation Motion Control that made its debut at E3 ’09 was cool, but what if you didn’t have to use that funny looking controller? What if you could pick up any object and have it mapped directly into the game?

Sony is looking to do just that if a recent patent filing is anything to go by. According to said patent, players will be able to pick up objects like “coffee mugs, drinking glasses, books, bottles, etc.” and have them mapped directly into the game for use as a motion controller.

To map the objects, players will hold it up to a camera and rotate it so it can be fully mapped and saved for later use. But wait, I thought that’s what Project Natal did? Oh well, here’s to hoping this technology gets implemented sooner rather than later.

Just in time for its Double XP weekend Gears of War 2 has been discounted from it’s normal $59.99 retail price to a much more palatable $39.99. Best of all, if you order on Amazon, that price (further discounted to $36.99) includes shipping.

There’s no telling if retailers will decide to hike the price back up so if you’re planning on purchasing Gears of War 2 at this discounted price, do it fast.

Read (EBGames)
Read (Amazon)

Square Enix has always been known to holds its own in court, especially on the grounds of software piracy. Unfortunately for a french retailer by the name of la société SAKURA, has come into their targets.

According to Kotaku, the French retailer has a retail store in Paris along with an online presence that sells all sorts of Japanese gaming material. Well, something fishy must have been going on as Square Enix says they “denounces SAKURA for the commercialization of products counterfeiting Square Enix’s FINAL FANTASY and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST trademarks and copyrights to the FINAL FANTASY series”.

Common la société SAKURA, how long did you think it would take Square Enix to catch you?

Just in case you wanted to celebrate the 4th of July in ways other than Double XP, Eidos has you covered. They have recently announced that they are dropping two new DLC packs for their naval warfare title Battlestations: Pacific.

First up is the Mustang Pack which is available now for 160 Microsoft Points. This pack will add 6 new units, including the US P-51 Mustang, along with 18 new designs to paint the front of your ship with.

Second off, the Carriers Battle Map Pack, available on July 23rd for 800 Microsoft Points, will feature 4 new multiplayer maps including Midway, the Leyte Gulf, the Aleutian Islands and the Phillipine Islands.

Make note that both of these packs are/will be available for both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Battlestations: Pacific.

Read (ThatVideoGameBlog)

It seems that Bungie has followed Treyarch and Epic’s examples with Double XP weekends for Gears of War 2 and CoD: WaW, respectively, and announced the same for Halo 3.

This event begins today and runs until 2AM Monday and will require the Heroic, Legendary and Mythic map packs to participate.

Common developers, now’s your chance, anymore Double XP weekends we need to hear about?

Read (Bungie)

EA is really making a killing this year in the field of sports games with Fight Night Round 4, NHL 10, NBA Live 10 and of course, FIFA 10.

What you see above is said game’s debut trailer showcasing its beautiful visuals along with intuitive gameplay. Will this game be one of the coolest soccer games to grace the market? Most likely.

Expect FIFA 10 to hit store shelves for all major platforms later this year.