Digital distribution in games is growing like crazy: Steam has been riding on a wave of success for years, and so have many other online game sellers, like Direct2Drive and EA Store.

Now EA CFO Eric Brown has publically said that the publisher expects that up to 20% of their revenue for the coming fiscal year will come from digital sales, including full game downloads and DLC, a number that is surely set to increase over the next few years.

If you’re into scary sci-fi shooters, you most certainly have Dead Space 2 in your sights. EA has announced that a demo of the game will be released on December 21 on the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Sadly, PC gamers are left with no demo.

Dead Space 2 is set for a January 25 release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

We’ve gotten the first teaser for the upcoming Batman Arkham Asylum sequel, called Batman Arkham City. Note that it’s on MSN Video, which is like YouTube in 2006.

Batman Arkham City is expected to be unveiled at the VGA Awards on December 11, it might just be that this is the teaser we’ll see.

The United States sure does love its video games but Japan is arguably the video game capital of the world. Not only has the country spawned iconic game companies like Sony and Nintendo, but sales numbers continue to impress in terms of both hardware and software. The latest such noteworthy set of sales numbers focuses on an unlikely candidate: the Sony PSP.

While the PSP has all but been forgetten here in the US  thanks to new mobile platforms like Android and iOS, the portable console is doing quite well over in Japan. In fact, just this past week it seems that PSP sales have increased from 75,689 to an amazing 326,639, but why? Well, the main reason for this is the bundle that had the PSP and Monster Hunter Portable the 3rd living together in harmony.

Now lets just see if sales numbers are the same here.

via andriasang

The skateboarding genre has long been the same with yearly installments of Activision’s Tony Hawk Pro Skater  changing only miniscule things. However, when EA finally pushed out Skate, the genre was never the same again. Thanks to a new and innovative control scheme, Skate made gamers feel like they were actually skateboarding with ultra realistic gameplay and a fun and immersive storyline.

On the snowboarding side of things, the same can be said with all releases being quite similar. However, if recent rumors are to be believed, the snowboarding genre may be literally getting the Skate treatment. These rumorts say that a brand new SSX titles is being developed by EA Canada with “much of the Skate team” in attendance.

Of course, this is just a rumor at this point but domains have been registered that point to a new title being dubbed SSX: Deadly Descent and/or SSX: First Descent.

We’ll keep you posted with future developments.

via kotaku

According to BF3Blog, this is the first Battlefield 3 screenshot, or rather, a photo of a screenshot, or something. It is reportedly an alpha version of the game spotted testing at DICE.

As much as we’d like to believe it, something seems wrong in the pic, maybe the proportions of the soldiers. I guess we’ll know when BF3 is properly revealed.

[Update] It’s a fake

Sometimes, in an act to get some publicity, game companies launch fake websites for in-game corporations, like Deus Ex 3′s Sarif Industries, which develops cyborg equipment and implants and what not. If you’re even in need of some artificial legs, or eyes, or anything, check them out here.

Artist Dave Rapoza has created a somewhat disturbing box art for Super Meat Boy, the hero made out of meat, and his woman made out of gaze. And the evil fetus behind him. Disturbing indeed. And yet, quite awesome.

Rock Band was responsible for starting a huge new trend in gaming, where music played the center stage — literally. Since then, a rivalry ensued between Rock Band and Activision’s Guitar Hero, which jumped on the band wagon, so to say. Now MTV Games and Harmonix are back with the third installment of Guitar Hero.

Rock Band 3 follows the same path as the Rock Bands of the past, and it does it in style. Put simply, if you were into Rock Band before, the third installment will satisfy your music needs. However cliched that sounds. In addition to the guitars, drums and mics, Rock Band 3 brings the keyboard as well, for the complete band package with support for up to 7 players. 83 songs are included in Rock Band 3, and all vary quite a bit. The campaign, called “Road Challenges”, gets you and your band on the road to complete a series of ever escalating challenges. Your performance is tracked through out the game and you get awards for completing certain tasks, which offers great replay value, even though a game like Rock Back has plenty of replay value, as long as you got folks to play with.

The new addition is the keyboard, which is sold separately at $80 or $130 with the game. The keyboard is a bit more complex, with 25 keys, and even has Pro challenges, where your keyboard skills are tested, and where you can learn some new tunes as well. There are Pro challenges for other instruments, like drums and guitar as well. However, the instruments are still quite expensive — the drums will run you $40, a guitar for the Pro challenge will run you a steep $150 — although the new guitar is quite a bit more complex, and offers over 100 buttons instead of the strings. But it’s still quite an investment your looking into: to make a complete set for a few friends can easily cost more than you spend on an Xbox 360 or PS3 console.

Overall, Rock Band 3 follows the tradition of previous Rock Band offerings, and adds a few new features, and refines others. It also follows the Rock Band tradition of costing quite a lot to get a few instruments.

The Good:
Follows the Rock Band tradition
Lots of different tracks
Great campaign and many modes
Awesome in multiplayer

The Bad:
Still pricey
Not as good in singleplayer

Overall score: 8/10

Game Streaming service OnLive has announced that they’ll be offering a movie streaming service in 2011, ala Netflix. No details on the new streaming feature have been released, but expect something very similar to Netflix and in the same price range as Netflix as well.

In addtion, OnLive has released an iPhone app, called OnLive Viewer, which lets people manage their OnLive account, watch trailers and so on — but no actual “gaming”.