A month after rumors pointed at its development, Ubisoft has made it official. The French publisher announced today that in May, the same exact month that the Prince of Persia movie will be hitting theaters, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be releasing on both consoles and handhelds.

Also, in the Press Release, the publisher revealed that The Forgotten Sands storyline will return to the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time storyline, which means it follows the original storyline. The Forgotten Sands will also feature “many of the fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations”.

That said, the release date wasn’t chosen at random. Like I stated before, the release time-frame is in directly conjunction with the upcoming movie, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – based on the game with the same name. Can anyone smell a movie tie-in? Be that as it may, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is expected to hit both consoles and handhelds in May 2010.

As rumors of another Prince of Persia game unspool, the official trailer for the movie adaption of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” popped up on the internet. But, that’s not the only good news. The trailer is actually pretty good; it has a great mixture of humor and action, which makes for a great action movie experience.

The trailer, also, indicates that the film’s story will stick to that of the 2003 game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which centers on a magical dagger that can be used to speed up or slow downtime. The Sands of Time is due in theaters May 2010.

When the newly revamped Prince of Persia released, it easily began one of most impressive games this console generation. However, it left many of us wanting more. With that said, recent speculation has pointed to a sequel. And, with the trademarking for “Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands“, speculations has been raising, even more.

At the “The Sands of Time” trailer preview event at Bruckheimer Studios, the movie team left losses that Ubisoft is planning to announce a new Prince of Persia game spring of next year. However, as for details, they haven’t revealed anything about the new game; making it clear that it’s not their place to give out any details.

[Thanks to NeoSeeker]

It’s time to get your hopes up. According to trademark site Superannuation, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner filed trademark for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands for “gaming-related use”.

However, the question still remains. Is this a movie tie-in(god forbid!), or is it another Prince of Persia title? Sadly, UbiSoft wasn’t able to tell us anything, but this does look like it could be the sequel to last year’s Prince of Persia.

The Prince of Persia movie adaptation is, undoubtedly, one of next year’s biggest summer movies, at least in our book. And to keep our anticipations up, Walt Disney’s Pictures has released few new posters showcasing the lovely Jake Gyllenhaal and the gorgeous Gemma Arterton in snapshot form for the upcoming movie (as shown above).

Based on the UbiSoft video game trilogy which was, in turn, an update of Jordan Mechner’s classic original side-scrolling game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is written by Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard and directed by Mike Newell. (This marking Newell’s second big foray into fantasy after the fourth Harry Potter film, in 2005.) Sir Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina co-star.

[Prince of Persia UK Posters: Ads or Art? via Slash Film]

According to GameSpot, in a post-earnings conference call with investors, UbiSoft offered more detail as to how well Shaun White Snowboarding is performing in the market.

Anyway, in the call, CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that the title has achieved sales of 3 million units sold. Later on in the conference, it was revealed by Guillemot, which came as no surprise, that Ubisoft intends to release new installments in the franchise.

“You can expect more Shaun White in the future,” Guillemot plainly told investors. Unfortunately, he didn’t provide a time frame in which the next installment in the Shaun White franchise would release. Currently, the publisher does not have it penciled in for release during its current fiscal year -  runs through March 31, 2010. 

What comes to mind when you think Music based video games? Is it Rock Band or is it Guitar Hero? Or is it Singstar? Well, probably one of the most over looked downfalls in this gaming generation has to be the fixation on the casual gaming market, and sadly this game doesn’t divert from that manner. But, none the less, Lips is a party game that has one of the greatest bonding powers of getting friends and family to play with on another. However, one can only wonder if Lips is going to be just another video game face plant or an instant sensation?

After previous failed attempts by Microsoft at trying to recreate the fun derived from group gaming, with such examples as Scene It! and You’re In the Movies, Lips is another offspring of the guys over at iNiS in Japan, which is known for games like Elite Beat Agents – another party-driven game – and many others. Opinion-wise, I really do not think that it was a great idea to name the game Lips, which brings up the games first downfall. We really don’t think we need to go into detail about that.

However, with the game having a somewhat bad name, it does differ from its predecessors. The game has a start up track of about 40 songs, all of which are master tracks including music videos and select previews. They also have different videos other than the original video made for the song that the gamer can pick from. The game has a multiplayer feature that pits you against another player, or against the computer. As for mics, Lips has two beautifully designed wireless microphones that light up as you sing.

When singing, the upcoming lyrics will be highlighted in gray, and the current lyrics will be highlighted in white. However, in two player mode, where player one is on the top and player two is on the bottom, you sometimes fix your eyes on the gray lyrics if you are player two and end up singing the wrong words, which becomes a problem. Also, when singing in the right pitch and balance, the word bars will be colored in the the color of your mic (ex. player one red, player two blue).

Luckyly, the guys over at iNiS knew that you may not be able to hit all the notes so, unlike other music games, you are unable to fail any songs, which is both its strength and weakness. It’s just like the problem that many people had with Elika from Prince of Persia in his newest adventure. It really takes away from the challenge, I mean would you really want to play a game that does nothing to challenge the gamer? I think not.

If you add all those things together it really does make for a weak single-player experience, but this game is really strong when you play it was a buddy. Which brings me to the co-op and mutliplayer part of the game. When in this mode, you can take on a song with a friend (ex. Umbrella by Rihanna). This song has a better co-op standard then other songs in the game, for example Another One Bits The Dust by Queen. But, lucky the mutliplayer works great for this game.

Closing Statements:

I really had alot of fun playing this game. It is really strong in most aspects of it and will surely keep you playing for hours on hand. The interface is remarkably easy to use, the initial track list is solid, and the microphones are outstanding. But, there is one problem, it does not push itself as being a game that a hardcore gamer would want to pick up and play. The game also has the ability for you to transfer music from your iPod, but what really makes me mad is that you can’t upload music from an iPhone or iTouch. That is one reason we couldn’t put that in our review. Also the quality of the videos are mostly in SD, which doesn’t fit this game at all.

Score: B-

While many of us are home for the Holidays celebrating, one of the many people that helped make Splinter Cell what it is today has been hospitalize thanks to a unruly terrorist attack. According to CBA, Canadian actor Michael Rudder “took three bullets” during the horrifying Mumbai attacks – which happened around Wednesday. The actor had been in the restaurant of the Oberoi Hotel when militants stormed in. According to Bobbie Garvey, vice-president of the U.S.-based Synchronicity Foundation.

After being hit by three bullets, Rudder “was taken to the hospital. He did have surgery [that was] very successful. He was in intensive care for a little while, but he is very stable and he is healing at the moment,” she added.

Rudder was one of two Canadians from the Synchronicity delegation wounded in the attacks. Rudder is a voice actor who has played roles in cartoons, commercials and video games, including top sellers Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 and – somewhat ironically – terrorist-slaying black ops game Splinter Cell. He has also performed in the animated PBS series Postcards From Buster.

[Canadian actor recovering in Mumbai after being shot via CBA ]

Truly Assassin’s Creed was one of the best games of 2007 and we have been waiting for an announcement ever since UbiSoft mandated that there would be a sequel announcement when fans demanded it the most. Well, it looks like the fans have demanded it but this should help them until the official announcement. Yeah, we’ll still have to wait.

During Ubi’s first-half fiscal 2008-09 conference call, which was today, there was a question asked about there being a Assassin’s Creed sequel. While an Ubisoft executive would not confirm the game’s release for fiscal ’10, lead exec did concede that “we are working hard on the product” — CONFORMATION!!!

But, it still seem that Ubi is still keeping to claims that an Assassin’s Creed sequel won’t be released until there is “more anticipation for it.” If you ask me there’s alot of demand for it so what are they waiting for? Anyway, it was confirmed that Altair, the main character of Assassin’s Creed, will be playable in there latest upcoming game, Prince of Persia. However, there was no details given about the game, go figure, but there looks like there’s going to be some very interesting rumors on this game.

There’s no doubt that Prince of Persia is one of the most promising titles of the year and it seems Ubisoft is just adding to that promise everytime we hear news about the game. After all Ubi did say that they had “something special planned” for PS3 owners because the 360 owners had the chance to pick there achievements. However, one game that the upcoming Prince of Persia video game was compared to the most was Assassin’s Creed – it’s running on that same engine. And we’re guesting that since those game were compared alot Ubisoft has decided to reveal a Altair playable skin in Prince of Persia.

Anyway, the only way that you can get the code is if you are registered on the official Ubi website. Once you have a copy of Prince of Persia, link your Ubi account to your Xbox 360 Gamertag or PSN screen name to access the Altair skin.

Those who pre-ordered Prince of Persia from GameStop will also get a code to access the Prince of Persia Classic skin. Pre-orders will also get a free upgrade to the Limited Edition game, which includes special packaging, a making-of video and the original soundtrack. Although Ubisoft is mum as to what additional skins will be made available, but has confirmed that there will be additional skins for the Prince and Elika.

[Prince of Persia's New Creed via IGN]

Sometime last month we got the chance to see the latest photos from the set of the upcoming video game movie adaption, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In the photos we saw Jake Gyllenhall, who we saw in movies like Zodiac and Jarhead, making his way to the set to film a part of the movie in his costume with no shirt on. As many of you know the pictures turned the movie/gaming world over getting featured on almost every movie/gaming site on the web. Today, according to photo gain by Korben, which show parts of the set being made or set up, the film is really going to be something amazing.

All six photos are post at the both of this post so feel free to check them out, warning there’s not photos for Jake Gyllenhall acting out any part of the movie.

Today, Ubisoft released as a part of Ubidays a new trailer for there upcoming Prince of Persia game, the trailers provide a glimpse of the game wich would be coming onto the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this holiday season.

In the latest issues of Edge Magazine Ubisoft and Edge a has brought to us new Prince Of Persia screenshots and images.The game will change it’s combat style to a more "Soul Calibur" fighting and will use Cel Shading.It is scheduled to be released on holiday 2008 for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Update:

Images will be unveiled in the next Joypad magazine set to appear on April 29.

Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that a new Prince of Persia is scheduled to release Holiday 2008 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and PC. This new Prince of Persia marks the debut of the critically acclaimed franchise on next-generation consoles. Developed by Ubisoft’s award winning Montreal studio that brought you Assassin’s Creed(TM) and the same all-star team that created the previously acclaimed Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy, Prince of Persia is opening a new chapter in the Prince of Persia universe, featuring a new breed of gameplay. The game is poised to rejuvenate the action-adventure genre in addition to introducing a brand-new illustrative art style.

Ubisoft will also release a Prince of Persia game specifically designed for the Nintendo DS(TM) system, featuring an entirely new storyline and new characters. More details to be unveiled in the future.

Hollywood movie star hunk Orlando Bloom has NOT landed the lead role in Disney’s new adventure trilogy Prince of Persia . The deal is reported to be worth $40 million. 31-year-old Orlando Bloom has star in movie like Pirates of the Caribbean, which did  good in the box office. He has beaten competition like Zac Efron to take the lead role in the movie adaptation of the Prince of Persia . The flim is said to be directed by Jerry Bruckheimer and is due to begin filming in July.

Source

Update:

Disney has told ComingSoon.net that this is not true, Mike Newell is expected to start shooting Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time .