Late Night Consoling

For several days now, there have been contradictory reports and pieces of evidence over whether or not Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed is a PS3-exclusive title. Currently, the game has only been officially announced by Ubisoft to be in development for PlayStation 3. However, back at Microsoft's X05 event last October, when the game was still unrevealed and known as the mysterious "Project Assassin's," exec Peter Moore listed the game as coming to Xbox 360. In the game's official reveal, it was listed only as coming to PS3--though the press released noted it had not yet been concept approved by Sony Computer Entertainment America.

To complicate matters further, at E3 last week, several show attendees claimed that in the game's closed doors demos, it was not being shown on PlayStation 3 hardware, unlike other PS3 titles at the show. Rather, it was running from an unidentified concealed machine and played with a PS2 controller rather than a PS3 controller. Some speculated that the game was in fact on Xbox 360 and being controlled by a third party USB controller. There has been little evidence to back this particular assertion up. Ubisoft responded that the box was in fact a PC emulating the PS3 environment.

It's hard to say whether the game is in fact exclusive to PlayStation 3, though it seems a very unlikely scenario. Ubisoft is known as a very multiplatform-oriented developer rarely putting out console-exclusive franchises, and to this day there has been no verbage from Ubi explicitly stating that the game is "exclusive" to PS3. Rather, the official company line is currently that PS3 is the only announced platform for the game. Don't be surprised if this one turns out to be a timed exclusive with the possibility of jumping to Xbox 360 and even PC later on.

After yesterday's news from The Hollywood Reporter that Eidos will be licensing the rights to a Fear Effect movie and developing a new Fear Effect game, the publisher has officially commented on the situation. An Eidos representative stated that while the game is not currently in development, such a project is currently under discussion. The news may be just PR speak, with development already progressing, but it's just as likely The Hollywood Reporter jumped the gun.

Relic Entertainment has release a new map pack for its WWII squad-based game The Outfit (X360). Entitled "Collateral Damage," the pack includes three new maps: Luftwaffe Finale, Bleak Mile, and Eagle's Nest. Collateral Damage is available from Xbox Live for 500 Microsoft Points ($6.25).

What is it about Nintendo hardware and weird little ports and flaps that nobody can ever identify? Remember the "secret port" on the DS that turned out to be nothing more than a microphone headset input? Anyway, that's been happening again with Wii. There's a small rectangular compartment to the left of the system's slot-loading disc drive (visible in this shot), and the internets have been rife with speculation over its function. Speculate no further. It's the system's SD card slot.

Xbox.com has an interview with Rockstar San Diego's Benjamin Johnson regarding Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (X360). (Thanks Carnivac!)

IGN has translated details of a new journal entry by Masahiro Sakurai on his upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii).

E3 previews are still winding down. If you're interested, check that out at Game Informer, GameSpot, Eurogamer, IGN, GameSpy, and surely others. And hey, if you missed ours, here it is.