Late Night Consoling

Attending a demonstration session conducted by Mistwalker designer Hironobu Sakaguchi, Shacknews learned the North American version of the studio's Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon will include both English and Japanese voice tracks when it releases in late August. The Canadian edition, set to release alongside the North American iteration, will additionally feature a French voice track.

However, Europeans hoping for Japanese voice track goodness will be sorely disappointed. Due to the size of the other language tracks required for proper localization, the original Japanese voice track will be excluded from the European version when it arrives in late October.

On a brighter note, Lost Odyssey, Mistwalker's second Xbox 360 release, is currently scheduled to hit all three territories during the 2007 holiday season.

Q Entertainment announced its plans to debut Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4) on Xbox Live Arcade later this year. Building off the previously released Every Extra Extend (PSP), E4 brings the explosive series to the bigger screen with high definition visuals and 5.1 surround sound.

Based around the concept of detonating oneself at the most opportune time to trigger the biggest chain reaction possible, E4 also features multiplayer and leaderboards via Xbox Live, along with custom soundtrack implementation for what the press release calls "a customized E4 experience." The press release also infers that Q Entertainment may publish the game itself on Xbox Live, a possibility since Microsoft revealed third parties could publish XBLA content at CES, but confirmation was unavailable as of press time. In addition to the announcement, Q also released some extremely multi-colored screenshots.

The heavily rumored Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 arcade game will indeed make its way to the Xbox Live Arcade care of developer Digital Eclipse, Ubisoft confirmed today. Originally produced by Konami, Digital Eclipse has added two to four player co-op play over Xbox Live across the game's seven levels. Slated for a March release (just in time for the upcoming feature film), TMNT 1989 will retail for 400 Microsoft Points ($5).

Speaking with MTV News, Electronic Arts music and marketing exec Steve Schnur revealed the studio's intentions to branch into the genre made popular by Konami's Dance Dance Revolution and Harmonix's Guitar Hero. "I've been pushing [music-based games] for a long time to be honest with you," he said. "I think you'll see us breaking into the genre sooner than you think."

It is worth noting EA has already taken steps into the music genre by co-publishing Bizarre Creation's Boom Boom Rocket (X360), but it is likely Schnur's referring to a larger-scale first-party development, perhaps involving the company's acquisition of online karaoke community SingShot Media earlier this year.

Surpassing its own expectations, Microsoft announced that not only have 6 million signed up for the popular Xbox Live service, but that they reached this milestone four months ahead of schedule. Beyond the capacity for online multiplayer, Xbox Live membership also enables access to the Xbox Live Marketplace, which includes downloadable games, television shows and movies.

Atari sent along word that the PlayStation 2 edition of Test Drive Unlimited (PS2, X360, PSP, PC) went gold and will be in stores on March 20. No release announcement has been made regarding the upcoming PSP version, though the PC iteration is now available for purchase and subsequent downloaded from Atari.com.