Hasta La Gadget!

Ever since 2000, game consoles have effectively (if not very assertively) been banned in China. There’s already been signs of a warming attitude with official plans for the Nintendo 3DS XL coming this December, but Sony may have slipped out hints of a fuller thaw without anyone noticing until now. A Sina Weibo user just discovered that the 160GB and 320GB versions of the previous-generation PlayStation 3, the CECH-3012, passed through China Compulsory Certificate approval in July — an odd move when the console couldn’t actually go on sale in an official capacity in current conditions. Certification is still far from a guarantee that Sony will actually sell the PS3 in the country, most of all when it’s a slightly outdated model of a console line that’s edging ever nearer to a replacement. The government certainly hasn’t commented on what the regulatory clearance means. If it ultimately leads to more gamers in Chengdu or Shanghai, however, we’re all for it.

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

Sony quietly gets PlayStation 3 certification in China, we hope for a few more Dynasty Warriors players originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A lot of people are excited for Grand Theft Auto V, there’s no doubt about that, but it seems that a couple of retailers might be a little too excited. Retailers aren’t supposed to open up Grand Theft Auto V pre-orders until November 5, but today images of pre-order bonuses are popping up all over the Internet. One of these pre-order bonuses, a little photo viewer, actually gives away some of the new locations in the game, so in a roundabout sort of way, we’re actually learning more about the game itself through these leaks.

The photo viewer is small enough to fit on a keychain, and is branded with a “FlyUS” logo – likely one of the businesses found in Grand Theft Auto V. The viewfinder’s five slides show a handful of different locations, including Zancudo River, Del Perro Pier, Grapeseed, Vespucci Canals, and finally, Vinewood Hills. We have to say, this is one of handiest pre-order bonuses we’ve ever come across.

GTAGaming originally posted the first slides and the image of the viewfinder, while over at Joystiq, a poster for Grand Theft Auto V is being shown off. Those who pre-order the game starting on November 5 will get both a poster and the viewfinder, though it’s difficult to tell if the poster over at Joystiq is an actual pre-order bonus or if it’s promotional material. In any case, it’s certainly doing its part in getting us excited for Grand Theft Auto V.

Earlier this week, Rockstar confirmed that Grand Theft Auto V will be arriving in spring 2013. The studio didn’t give a specific release date, and we’re thinking that it will keep the exact launch date a secret until we’re into 2013. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear, and we’ll let you know if any new details leak out!

[via Official PlayStation Magazine]

Grand Theft Auto V pre-order goodies leak is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Well this certainly is interesting: earlier today, Amazon Germany outed a Skyrim Premium Edition. The listing stated that Skyrim Premium Edition will come with a number of bonuses, but strangely, it won’t include any of the DLC that has been released for Xbox 360 and PC. Bethesda then confirmed Skyrim Premium Edition to Eurogamer, revealing that the game will be launching in Europe shortly, with more details set to follow soon.

Bethesda didn’t confirm any other details, but the listing on Amazon Germany shows a number of goodies included alongside the base game. Those who pick up the Premium Edition will be getting a map of Skyrim, a T-shirt featuring the insignia of the Empire, a handful of postcards featuring Skyrim concept art, and an Elder Scrolls novel dubbed Hell City. If you’re buying on PC, you’ll be treated to a bonus disc that features all sorts of content, including trailers, walkthroughs, a copy of the soundtrack, and a 600-page eBook that we’re assuming is a strategy guide.

The listing gives Skyrim Premium Edition a launch date of December 7, and says that the game will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Hearing that, it’s no wonder Bethesda has opted not to include DLC, considering that PS3 players haven’t received any yet. Bethesda’s struggles with bringing Skyrim DLC to PS3 have been well documented, and at the moment it’s unknown if PS3 players will ever get Dawnguard and Hearthfire.

As far as we can tell, this release hasn’t been confirmed for the United States yet. We’ve contacted Bethesda to see if Skyrim Premium Edition will be coming to US shores, and we’ll update this post if we hear back. Keep it here at SlashGear for more details!

Skyrim Premium Edition confirmed by Bethesda is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you follow Assassin’s Creed news, you probably know that it might not be long before we say goodbye to Desmond, one of the main characters in the story, for good. In a new interview with OXM, lead designer Steve Masters seems to suggest that Assassin’s Creed III may be the last game to feature Desmond. At the very least, it sounds like Assassin’s Creed III will be the beginning of the end for our lovable modern-day assassin.

“What we’re trying to do is bring some finality to Desmond’s story,” Masters said. “To actually wrap up what you’ve opened and experienced with him. So we’re trying to make it a little bit more direct with the storyline, but at the same time there are still going to be plenty of little mysterious bits for you to dig into, especially in the side stuff.” It sounds like Masters is trying to say that even though Desmond’s story will begin to wrap-up in Assassin’s Creed III, he’s hesitant to make the claim that the game will be the final chapter in the long-running narrative.

Masters and the rest of Ubisoft are aware, however, that some fans find the cliff hangers in the Assassin’s Creed series annoying, and in Assassin’s Creed III, the studio is looking to change that. Even if this game doesn’t conclude Desmond’s story, it will make some serious strides as far as actually telling the story goes. According to Masters, Assassin’s Creed III will offer a story that players can “sink their teeth in to,” rather than telling a story that leaves players guessing.

Whatever ends up happening in Assassin’s Creed III, it sounds like we can at least expect some major progress in wrapping up Desmond’s story. Ubisoft may need another game to fully close the story of Desmond, but one thing is sure: Desmond won’t be a mainstay in the Assassin’s Creed series for much longer. What do you think?

Assassin’s Creed III to “bring some finality to Desmond’s story” is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to Thursday evening, everyone. This afternoon we had a bunch of quarterly reports hit, and some were better than others. Google posted its quarterly report a little prematurely, a blunder that had a hand in driving down the price of the company’s stock. Later on in the day, we heard from Microsoft, which managed to do pretty good in its first quarter. Sadly, AMD posted its results for quarter 3 just a little while ago, and things aren’t looking too good for the company – in fact, it says that it will have to layoff around 15% of its workforce in an attempt to save some money.

Moving away from that rather depressing news, we heard some more whispers about the different iPad Mini variants today, and Google announced a brand new Samsung-made Chromebook (that’s super cheap, too!). The controversial Copyright Alert System is said to be going live in the next few weeks, and today AT&T released a statement in which it objects to SoftBank’s planned buyout of Sprint. Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has started a new file sharing site, and we learned that Apple may just be looking to buy the talent behind the soon-to-be-shutdown Color app, rather than the whole thing.

comScore says that the Amazon Kindle Fire has the highest readership rates for digital content, and today was the day the Motorola RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD launched at Verizon. Twitter is ruffling some feathers with the way it censors content, and TweetBot landed on the Mac App Store with a pretty high price tag. Chevrolet announced today that it will be unveiling the 2014 Corvette on January 13, while Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that his company is ready to compete if Microsoft launches a Surface-branded smartphone. Researchers are considering launching a probe to a recently-discovered exoplanet, and Caldexa said that it has plans to begin using 64-bit ARM chips in 2014.

New rumors are pegging AMD with an itch to drop prices on APU Llano chips, and beloved digital distribution site GOG added support for Mac today with the addition of 50 games. Battlefield 3: Aftermath will be available for PS3 Premium subscribers on November 27, so get ready to battle on a handful of new maps that have been decimated by an earthquake. Finally tonight, we have a number of original articles for you to take a look at, as Chris Burns compares the RAZR MAXX HD and RAZR HD side-by-side in a new hands-on article. Chris also gave us his review of the MAINGEAR Potenza, and we ask if picking up the new $249 Chromebook is a good idea for students. One last thing to note before we go – we’ve released version 2.0 of our iOS app, making it compatible with the iPhone 5′s larger screen. You can get it right this minute from the iTunes Store by clicking this [download link]! Enjoy the rest of your night folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 18, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.