Late Night Consoling

Earlier this year, Blizzard "indefinitely postponed" its third person stealth action title StarCraft: Ghost, originally headed to PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube; the GameCube version got an early cancellation last November. When that version was cancelled, a moderator on the company's official forums stated, "GameCube and Revolution will still be considered for future products."

Now, judging by a current Blizzard job posting, it appears that Blizzard may well be developing a console game for the redubbed Wii as well as Xbox 360 and PS3, though whether it bears any relation to Ghost is unknown. The posting is hoping for applicants with "Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii production experience." Blizzard has one full time console team, made up of staffers from formerly independent studio Swingin' Ape, which was acquired by Blizzard last year.

Speaking to Bloomberg today, Nintendo responded to yesterday's reports about a potential September or October release date for the upcoming Wii console. "There's no change in our plan to release the console in the last quarter of this year," said a company spokesperson, which rules out the third quarter month of September and slightly narrows down the official range of possibilities from October 1 to Thanksgiving on November 23. Admittedly, September was cited merely as a slight possibility by industry sources, with October still seeming to be the speculation of choice.

More than anything else, game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi is known for his integration of music with gameplay, with his name in the credits of such well regarded titles as Rez (PS2, DC), Space Channel 5 (PS2, DC), Lumines (PSP), and Meteos (NDS). Though he took a break from such offerings with his work on Q Entertainment and Phantagram's Ninety-Nine Nights (X360), Famitsu reports that Mizuguchi is back to his musical self.

Mizuguchi will serve as executive producer for two upcoming Q Entertainment portable puzzlers: Oto wo Tsunagou! Gunpey Reverse (Connect the Sounds! Gunpey Reverse) for Nintendo DS, and Gunpey-R (Gunpey Reverse) for PSP. The Gunpey franchise first appeared on the WonderSwan portable and is named after Game Boy and WonderSwan creator (and original Metroid producer) Gunpei Yokoi. Like so many other puzzlers, Gunpey games center around shifting blocks; players arrange boxes attempting create a horizontal line from line fragments inside the tiles.

The games will parallel Q Entertainment's DS and PSP releases Meteos and Lumines in some respects. As with those titles, the PSP Gunpey game will have a particular focus on the audio/visual side of the game, whereas the DS Gunpey game will make strong use of stylus gameplay.

Namco Bandai will be publishing both titles in Japan this fall. No North American release was announced.

Ubisoft today announced that it will be Blue Byte's classic turn based strategy franchise The Settlers to Nintendo DS. Turn based strategy titles have been received well on the system so far, with Advance Wars: Dual Strike and Age of Empires: The Age of Kings enjoying success at retail and various other titles in the works. Few details of The Settlers for DS are available, though the game will include four civilizations, the Romans, the Vikings, the Nubians, and the Asians. As with other strategy titles for the system, the stylus will roughly approximate PC-like mouse controls.

The Settlers is set for a release later this year in European and Asian territories. No North American release has been announced.

In case you've been waiting for a price cut on Yuke's' GameCube wrestling title WWE Day of Reckoning 2, your day has come. The game is now a Player's Choice selection and is available for $19.99 at retail. YES.

GameSpot has a Q&A with Microsoft markter Albert Penello about the progress on Xbox 360's backwards compatibility and why Barbie Horse Adventures made the cut.