At Tokyo’s Xbox 360 Media Briefing 2009, Microsoft confirmed that Konami will be publishing Ninety-Nine Nights II. There’s little information know about the title, however, the sequel will feature the same style of gameplay as the original – which blends a  large groups of enemies with fast-paced combat. Ninety-Nine Nights II was said to be developed by Rez designer Testsuya Mizuguch, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Konami had “no comment” to make about the news.

No this isn’t a April Fools joke, mainly because it’s not April. But, the kind sirs, and madams, over at Microsoft are offering Silver members the chance to upgrade to Gold for one month. Here’s were it gets good, all this for the one time price of $1.

However, being a “limited-time offer”, which it is, when the free months up, you’ll be charged for the rest of the year, but, of course, you can opt out of it.

Holy cow… This maybe a bit too soon, but has Microsoft just debuted a Left 4 Dead 2 trailer during its E3 Press Conference. There wasn’t much details given at the conference about the game, but according to end the trailer the game will be releasing on November 17th of this year. The game is set to release exclusively for Xbox 360 and PC.

In the pages of Game Informer it revealed yet another strongly awaited title that’s sure to keep you wanting more. The new details are from the cover article of the magazine, which is about God of War III, but the only way you can find them out is if you read them below.

Kratos will be battling plenty more foes, with as many as 50 enemies on screen at a time, as opposed to the max of 15 found in previous games; He also has a new ability that allows him to “control” certain monsters; There will be much more differentiation between the weapons, allowing for more variety in combat; Enemies will have improved AI, and will also feature much more visual variety; There will be more boss fights as compared to the first game, but fewer than the second; As per usual, there will be no multiplayer component.

Today, according to AlleyInsider, Robbie Bach, who heads Entertainment and Devices (Xbox, Zune, etc), sent out an email last night announcing a freeze at his group at Micorsoft. Prior to receiving the news AlleyInsider questioned Microsoft for comment about the possibility of a companywide hiring freeze. Statement from spokesman Lou Gellos:

“Microsoft will continue to grow and add thousands of new jobs this year, but given the current economic environment we are taking the prudent step of reviewing our hiring plans and will make some adjustments as appropriate. We are optimistic about our prospects for growth and will continue hiring the talent we need to ensure our ongoing success.”

Doublesix announced it’s development of South Park for Xbox Live Arcade, which was recently announced by Microsoft at E3 last month. James Brooksby, Doublesix’s Studio Head, said, “We are incredibly pleased to be working with Microsoft Game Studios and South Park Digital Studios on this fantastic game. We have a high caliber team working (and laughing) away here and they can’t wait to let loose their creation on an unsuspecting world…”

With this announcement it was also made public that they won Best New UK/European Studio at the Develop Awards last week – reaffirming their status as leaders and innovators in digitally distributed game development.