If it wasn’t bad enough that Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Live Gold to $60/year a few days ago, noted game analyst Michael Pachter thinks that Microsoft will add a new, “Platinum” subscription, which will offer users even more (like free DLC) and content, and will cost $100 a year, which 33% of the price of the console — high by any standards. What’s next, sell us partial games for full price and charge for the rest as DLC? Oh, that really happens.

Rockstar has revealed that GTA Chinatown Wars, which was previously released on the DS and iPhone, will be coming to the iPad as GTA Chinatown Wars HD a week from now, on September 9. It will carry the same $10 price as the iPhone and iPod touch version. In terms of new content, the game won’t be featuring anything new — just scaled and beefed up graphics.

Ubisoft teased a few months ago its “Bloody Good Time” game, but no one really knew what it was. We do now, and we can tell you that it’s a downloadable shooter for the PC and Xbox 360, which will use Valve’s Source engine. The game is a cartoonish looking multiplayer FPS where 8 players fight it out on a movie set to decide who’s gonna get the starring role in a horror film. The game will be released later this Fall.

More good news in for Red Dead Redemption: Rockstar’s Western shooter has now shipped 7 million units — or 6.9 million to be precise. Publisher Take Two has stated that the title would need to sell at least 5 million copies in order to make a profit. That now seems like a very good possibility. By the end of the year, Red Dead Redemption should go on to reach 8 million in sales, especially considering that a “game of the year” edition is expected later this year. Not to mention the DLC that has already been released.

In MAG, players can only have one character slot, meaning what ever character they chose and create, they’re stuck with. Now Sony is offering those who want a bit more, an extra character slot for $1 a month — not a huge sum to pay, but it still seems odd, considering that it should already be possible to have more than just one character, especially in multiplayer-only games. At any rate, it’s just $1.

Epic Games, makers of Gears of War and the popular Unreal Engine, have released a free tech demo for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices which showcases the power of the engine, ahead of the release of their brand new game Project Sword, which will be released exclusively on Apple’s iOS devices. You can find it on iTunes here.

Apple’s competitor to the DS and PSP, iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad, will be receiving a new gaming feature with the upcoming iOS 4.1 update. Called “Game Center”, it will support online leaderboards, friends lists, multiplayer and match-making services across its line of iOS products, which include the iPhone, iPod touch and the recent iPad. Game Center will be arriving next week with the new update.

Via Joystiq.

The PS3 can already play 3D games, movies, no so much. Sony has announced that the upcoming October update will finally add support for 3D Blu-ray movies. The feature was supposed to be released this month, but has been pushed back after it needed some more work. The wait isn’t that bad, as the selection of 3D movies on Blu-ray is very limited at the moment.

Whoever said PC gaming was dead and overrun by pirates better think again: Blizzard has announced that StarCraft 2 has sold an impressive 3 million copies worldwide during its first month on the store shelves. God knows how many copies have been pirated so far.