Publisher Electronic Arts sent word today that a playable demo of DICE’s forthcoming first-person shooter Battlefield: Bad Company will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network next month on Thursday, June 5.

Highlighting both the single-player and multi-player aspect of Bad Company, the free demo will allow players to experience the multiplayer Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map. The solo portion of the demo starts gamers at the beginning of their “B” company career.

Battlefield: Bad Company is scheduled to hit retail shelves on June 25 in North America, with a European release following on June 27.

Sony sent out a release today celebrating the fact that its critically-acclaimed Gran Turismo series has shipped 50 million units worldwide. The impressive feat was achieved on April 30, 2008, ten years and four months following the series’ initial 1997 debut on PSOne.

Looking at the worldwide sales numbers, Gran Turismo 3 A-spec shipped 14.89 million copies, making it the best-selling title in the series. Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, which saw a release in both Europe and Japan but not North America, came in dead last with 1.36 million units shipped.

Time to break out the champagne, Sony. more »

2K Games today announced that it has reached an agreement for Universal Studios to develop a feature film based on the hit game BioShock.

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will serve at the helm as producer for the upcoming film, while John Logan of Gladiator fame and Sweeney Todd is in talks to write the screenplay.

A release date for the film has yet to be announced. more »

Actually, mediocre is too weak of a word to describe this game. The terrible and utter failure that is stealth-action title Vampire Rain, is being ported to PlayStation 3, publisher AQ Interactive announced today.

Originally released on Xbox 360, the forthcoming PS3 port is entitled “Vampire Rain: Altered Species,” and will feature over 50 hours of gameplay plus 5.1 channel audio and “revamped” character animations.

Critics across the board gave Vampire Rain absurdly low scores when it was released on the Xbox 360 last year. It’s hard to imagine that this port will fair any better, even with the so-called improvements. more »

In an earnings conference call with investors today, Activision reaffirmed its position on reinventing the long-running Tony Hawk skating series from the ground up, with company CEO Michael Griffith revealing that an exclusive Nintendo DS entry in the series is currently in development.

While the developer for the title went unnamed, Griffith further noted that the new DS title will be the only Tony Hawk title released this year. A separate developer is working on a new console installment planned for release in fiscal 2010, which begins on April 1, 2009.

“For competitive reasons, we’re not going to talk about it today but we are very bullish on the kind of innovation this will bring and this won’t be your father’s Tony Hawk,” said Griffith.

Publisher Activision today released its financial figures for the 2008 fiscal year ending March 31, revealing whopping net revenues of $2.90 billion, up from $1.51 billion the previous year.

Reporting $602.5 million in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2008, Activision attributed the results to “strong market conditions” and the ongoing success of multi-platform software hits Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. For comparison’s sake, the company made $312.5 million in the fourth quarter of last year.

In terms of future outlook, Activision’s first quarter of fiscal 2009, which runs through April 1 to June 30, will see the release of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Kung Fu Panda, Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

This week’s PlayStation Store update is packed to the brim with a staggering amount of add-on content and game demos. First up is the Encore expansion pack to PixelJunk Monsters, which adds 15 levels on an all-new map entitled “Toki Island.” Also available now on the add-on content front are three new Rock Back song tracks and the recently-announced Muse track pack for Activision’s Guitar Hero III.

In terms of freely available content, this week brings the four player co-op enabled Haze demo to the North America PSN, along with playable demos for The Bourne Conspiracy, Race Driver: GRID, and PSP title SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2.

For the full list of this week’s content, look past the break. more »

The rare and memorable first installment in Konami’s long-running Suikoden RPG series may make an appearance on PSN in the near future, according to the ESRB. A search on the ESRB’s always-handy website reveals that the title was recently given an E rating for the PlayStation 3 and PSP.

However, at the snail-paced rate that Sony is adding PSOne classics to the store, it could be awhile before we see it. Regardless, we’ll cross our fingers for an imminent release.

So, why was PlayStation Home delayed? Sure, we know Sony desperately needed more time to improve the service, but that’s a rather vague reason. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss David Reeves has elaborated on why they chose to delay Home, revealing that the decision was made due to a lack of focus towards gamers, and more of a focus towards advertisers and sponsors.

We’ve realized that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that.

In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we’re concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first - instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming.

It’s okay Reeves! Everyone makes mistakes. And at least you are being honest about it. Barring any last minute delays, the Home open beta is set to launch this fall.

Reeves: Home was too ambitious [CVG]

Electronic Arts today confirmed that Lord of the Rings: Conquest is in development at Pandemic Studios, the LA-based studio responsible for crafting the popular Star Wars Battlefront series.

According to an early preview over at IGN, the game will feature massive battlefields that allow up to 150 characters on-screen. Players will be able to assume the role of a number of characters from the series in the main campaign, which features support four player co-op via online and split-screen. Additionally, the online multiplayer component will allow up to 16 players to wage war amongst each other.

Conquest is scheduled for a release this fall on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3. A handheld version on the Nintendo DS is also planned, although specifics were not disclosed.