I know that we’re a little slow on the outtake of this information, but it’s news none the less. Anyway, during Sony’s GamesCom press conference, Sony announced the 3.0 firmware update for PlayStation 3.

The update will change the way you navigate the system such as adding animated themes, a redesigned friends list, premium avatars, new Trophy features, and a new status indicator at the top-right hand corner of the screen – that will now show how many friends you have online, and how unread many manages you have.

Firmware 3.0 will also include a “What’s New” section, and TV services such as BBC iPlayer. These features will release on September 1.

Speaking exclusively to Gamesindustry.biz, Ubisoft Game Designer Michael de Plater acknowledges that the festive holiday season is a “brutal” duration to release new IPs and that many good games could fall wayside as a result.

“It’s a bit tough to launch a new IP exactly at Christmas when you’re head-to-head with blockbuster sequels. It’s interesting to see a number of big titles, like Heavy Rain, being targeted at 2010 to avoid the Christmas rush,” he explained. “And Ubisoft’s got Ruse coming out in 2010. Even God of War 3’s in 2010, that’s how brutal it is. I mean, you’ve got Assassins Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect 2.”

“To me, it’s been a period of enormous change, and the last four years I would say has been the time when games have actually surpassed movies as the premium blockbuster entertainment,” he continues.

Speaking of, the summer is basically an empty season for video games. I don’t know why developers and publishers can’t just space things out because, like I said, the summer season is basically empty for video games.

Like the brain hungry zombies in the Resident Evil movies, director Paul W.S. Anderson is hungry for more. Resident Evil movies, that is. According to the popular Horror film site ShockTilYouDrop (via GameSpot), Anderson has confirmed that he will write and direct a 3D fourth entry in the Resident Evil movie series.

“I wanted to kick off a brand new trilogy,” Anderson told the site. “I’m really excited we’re doing it [in 3D], and we’re using the same camera system [James] Cameron used for Avatar. There are a lot of exciting things about this one. I don’t regard it as Resident Evil 4; I regard it as a retooling and rebirth of the entire franchise.”

The film will be called Resident Evil: Afterlife and will, once again, feature Milla Jovovich as Alice. ShockTilYouDrop also reports the film is expected to open September 17, 2010, and will feature new characters pulled from the game series.

Ever since Microsoft revealed their “Avatar” program at E3, they fell under criticism for copying Nintendo’s “Mii’s”. Now, however the Head of Xbox, Don Mattrick, has revealed in an interview with OXM UK that he invented the whole avatar concept. He claims that the game “4D boxing”, made by his company, on Amiga, DOS, Atari ST and Macintosh, was the first game to feature avatars program. After doing some research, it turns out that 4D Boxing was the first game ever to use “avatar like” characters.

Source

What are you planing to do this Monday? Well, I hope you didn’t plan anything extreme tomorrow on Xbox Live because Microsoft revealed sometime last week that Xbox Live will be shutting down for some major re-construction. And I’m writing this article to remind you all that Xbox Live would not be working tomorrow. But, for some of us this wouldn’t matter mainly because you don’t have Xbox Live or you were planning to finally beat that single player game that’s is super hard. Here’s Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb had to say:

“As I mentioned earlier in the week, tomorrow (Monday, 9/29/2008) from 12:01 AM PST for up to 24 hours, Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, Xbox LIVE and the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won’t be able to post.) The remainder of Xbox.com will be available with limited interruptions. When the service returns, you will not have any new features and you will not have the new Xbox experience update. That will happen later this Fall. I will update my Twitter when the service returns.”

But, anyway this service maintenance update is for the “New Xbox Experience”, which will adds Mii-like Avatars to a new dashboard. The new Xbox experience is set to hit this November on the Xbox 360.