It looks like God of War III‘s launch is shaping up to be massive — Reports have just surfaced that say pre-orders for the game have hit 485,000 this week. This beats out pre-order numbers for games such as Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy XIII and even Uncharted 2.

VGChartz estimates that the game could sell as much as 750,000 in North America in its first week but that remains to be seen. God of War III will be out on March 16th, 2010.

Sony has just announced that they plan to release ModNation Racers on May 25th for both the PSP and PS3. And, just like everyone else, they will be having some pre-order incentives dependent on where you place your order.

If you pre-order from GameStop you’ll be given Kratos from God of War III, Amazon you’ll get either Ratchet or Clank and Best Buy pre-orderers will be given Uncharted‘s Nathan Drake in his iconic jungle jeep.

For me? I think i’ll opt with Kratos. GameStop, here I come!

via kotaku

Just 3 days ago Ubisoft officially let us know that there would be a Splinter Cell: Conviction demo but didn’t tell us when it would be dropping. Now, reports have surfaced that say the wo demo will be made available this Thursday, March 18th.

Ubisoft has been careful while pciking th eocntent with the demo so that they can tease gamers but not give away too much of the plot. This means they will have both Stealth and action-oriented gameplay elements included in the dmeo.

If, however, you’re waiting for the full game, that’s coming out on April 13th for the Xbox 360 and PC.

via thelostgamer

Well, it seems that although some view Playstation Home as an utter failure, Sony begs to differ. In fact, the company recently took center stage at this year’s GDC to tell us that the service has amassed 12 million players. They then went on to say that 85% of those users have returned to Home at least once.

This is great but I’d like to know how many of those users actually use the service on a regular basis. Probably not a lot.

via destructoid

Currently, it’s known that Blizzard plans to use its Battle.net service for their own in-house games like Diablo III and StarCraft 2. However, Blizzard’s Rob Pardo recently went on record as saying they might open it up to third parties.

“It’s something that we’ve definitely always talked about. The problem for us is that it takes a lot of work from our other teams. Every time we have the discussion, we try to figure out what’s going to happen if let’s say a Blizzard game was coming out and a third party game was coming out at the same time. Could we be agnostic in that way? Could we offer the same level of support that we offer our games to third parties? We just never know. It just seems like a big job for us.”

If Blizzard were to do this, Valve’s Steam digital distribution platform would finally be getting a run for its money. I wonder which studios would take sides.

via cvg

Way back in the beginning of January EA officially confirmed that they would be rebooting the NBA Jam franchise. However, up until now we hadn’t heard much about the game. Luckily, EA has just released the game’s first debut trailer giving us a pretty in-depth look at the gameplay.

NBA Jam will be out for the Wii sometime this fall.

Looking to get your wakeboarding fix but the current games on the market haven’t been suiting your needs? Well, you’re in luck because Sony has just announced that Wakeboarding HD will be hitting the Playstation Network.

This game will take a bit of an arcade approach to wakeboarding with things like “wacky, over-the-top tricks” and “crack, high-speed racing and obstacle courses”.  Of course, you could just check all of that out, and more, in the above trailer.

Wakeboarding HD will drop on March 25th for $14.99.

via playstation.blog

Microsoft‘s just confirmed that Crackdown 2 will launch in Europe on July 9. Since I can’t say anything better than what was said in the press release, check it out below:

LONDON – Monday 15 March – Pacific City needs your help, agents. A new enemy has overrun the city and it’s time to restore law and order by any means necessary when “Crackdown 2″ releases this July around the world. Microsoft and Ruffian Games today announced that the exhilarating, open-world action game will hit the streets on 9 July.

Developed by Ruffian Games exclusively for Xbox 360, “Crackdown 2″ is the sequel to the award-winning 2007 title, “Crackdown.” Offering cutting edge gameplay, “Crackdown 2″ will take multiplayer gaming to unprecedented heights, providing you and your friends with complete freedom to explore, destroy, and play your way as you restore justice to Pacific City.

To celebrate the road to launch, Ruffian Games invites fans to step into the world of “Crackdown 2″ in the first video documentary, titled “Fun with Friends,” from a three-part series exploring different facets of the game.

“Fun with Friends” features interviews with Ruffian Games Creative Director Billy Thomson, Lead Producer James Cope, Senior Engineer David Hynd and Senior Mission Designer Dean Smith as they discuss what it takes to design a living, breathing sandbox world with the most gripping multiplayer experiences yet, including 16-player PVP and 4-player co-op. The video documentary also shines a light on some of the extraordinary antics and mayhem that players can look forward to, including Renegade Orbs and the PVP mode called Rocket Tag, when they bring their personal brand of justice to Pacific City.

via cvg

Back in the day, before Skate was released, the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise was one of my favorite game series out there. However, after switching to the ride-on skateboarding peripheral the franchise pretty much bombed.

Luckily, it was just announced that an original Tony Hawk Pro Skater will be dropping for the iPhone at a currently unannounced date. Of course, there isn’t a price either but considering games of similar caliber reach as high as $10, don’t expect this one to be much different.

via destructoid

Last week we let you know that Modern Warfare 2 would be getting its first map pack entitled the Stimulus Package on March 30th. However, at the time it was not announced what the pack will contain or at what price point it will drop at.

Well, Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has just announced that the pack will be an astounding 1200 Microsoft Points or $15 on other platforms. Additionally, he let us know that the following 5 packs will be in the pack:

• Bailout – a multi-level apartment complex
• Storm – an open industrial park littery with heavy machinery
• Salvage – a snowy junkyard fortified with debris and crushed cars
• Crash – Call of Duty 4 remake
• Overgrown – Call of Duty 4 remake

As you’ll see, 3 of these maps are brand new while 2 are remakes of popular Call of Duty 4 maps. But wait, $15 bucks? What the f%#$?

via thatvideogameblog