While the current rendition of EA’s NHL, NHL 10, has some Canadian teams, the penetration is none too deep. Well, according to various sources including people who are associated with the Canadian leagues say that teams from the WHL , OHL and QMJHL will be featured in NHL 11.

While this may not make any of you American players excited, it’s great news for Canadian hockey fans looking to play as their favorite team in the game.

Of course, it’s just a rumor at this point so don’t get too excited until an official announcement is made.

via kotaku

Here is something that is sure to have competing studios complaining over unfairness — It was just announced that Silicon Knights, the guys that helped Konami with Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, has recieved a $4 million grant from the Canadian government. The studio will apparantly be using this money to hire an additional 65 employees to work on their latest title.

Silicon Knight’s Denis Dyack had the following to say about the new game:

We can only say it’s a next generation title and a high production value game. That’s all we can say.”

via gi.biz

It looks like Microsoft is again looking to expand this time announcing plans to acquire Vancouver, Canada-based game developer BigPark. Apparently, Microsoft has been working with this developer for some time now getting ready to release an Xbox 360 exclusive.

There is no word on how much the deal will go down for or what game Microsoft and BigPark have cookin’ but E3 is right around the corner

For those who weren’t aware, BigPark was started back in 2007 as a collaboration of former EA and Distinctive Software executives.

To help boost their market share, Microsoft Corporation will reportedly lower the price for its famed game console Xbox 360, hoping that the move can place them in better footing with Nintendo Co. Microsoft, locked in a three-way game console battle with Nintendo’s popular Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3, has been struggling to stir up demand for its Xbox 360 in Japan.

Microsoft will lower the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade model by 8,000 yen ($73.92) to 19,800 yen. The Arcade does not come equipped with a hard drive and is the least expensive of the three Xbox 360 models, the Nikkei said.

The new price will make the machine cheaper than Nintendo’s Wii, which sells for about 25,000 yen, and the PlayStation 3, which sells for 39,800 yen.

(Source) Canada.com