“Despite short term uncertainties, as we look forward to 2014, we have a very strong pipeline… We expect to launch new Call of Duty and Skylanders titles and our major, new potential franchise with Bungie’s Destiny. We will also continue to develop Call of Duty Online with our partner TenCent for the growing Chinese market.”

A new Sonic title is in the works for PS4, Xbox One and Wii U according to a sign on display at the Jazwares booth during last week’s Nuremberg Toy Fair.

Spotted by Spindash, and re-posted on Sonic Stadium, this would be the fourth Sonic title SEGA has in the works.
Last year, the firm announced it had three exclusive Sonic titles coming to Nintendo platforms – so either this is indeed a fourth title or the deal changed regarding title number three. We’re going with the former.
Sonic: Lost World was released exclusively on Nintendo platforms in 2013 as was Mario & Sonic at Sochi.
The unannounced Nintendo exclusive is slated for release this year, while the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U title mentioned at the fair has a 2015 release date noted

With the release of the PlayStation 4 (and in many countries the Xbox One as well) and several great games to close off the previous generation, 2013 was a great year for gaming. From the looks of it, 2014 won’t be any less impressive. Here are my eight most anticipated titles of this year.

Number 8

Number 7

Number 4

Number 3

Number 2

THE DIVISION

Number 1

Immersion’s all well and good, but: I’d had Garrett balanced on a beam above a shop. Able to hear voices, I searched carefully for guards – but couldn’t see anything except the beam, which filled Garratt’s entire field of view. Dropping down, I was immediately spotted and chopped to bits. I indicated, politely, that I did not consider this an appropriate consequence to my actions.
Cantin did not agree, saying that Eidos Montreal deliberately leads players to locations where they are not supposed to take action – players are supposed to make mistakes and learn from them.
“The first-person view gave you a lot of possibilities. But yes, at some point – you can’t see behind you. You don’t have a rear-view mirror,” he said. “The goal is to explore, and as you explore you’ll come to know the world more, and then you’ll start to understand the universe and the map. But there’s some challenge there.”
Which segues nicely into Thief’s Challenge Mode; maps which you can choose to run again and again under various conditions, submitting your high scores against those of your friends. It’s a perfect idea for the Let’s Play and Speed Run age, and nicely complemented by the PlayStation 4′s easy sharing capabilities, which Square Enix seemed a little besotted by. Experts who have learned the maps thoroughly, Cantin agreed, will get a lot out of Challenge Mode.
“I think there’s a big replay value to the game. It’s a competitive game. You want to beat yourself at some point,” he said.
“I love that people are playing their finest; ‘Oh, I did that map in two minutes.’ ‘Oh, yeah, I did that map in 20 minutes, but I got all the loot.’ It’s all about your objectives, what you want as a thief or as a player.”
Marvellous, yes, but it does lend an element of rote learning; to progression by trial and error rather than organically problem-solving with the tools at hand, which is what I – perhaps unfairly – expected.
Maybe I expected it because Thief does look so very much like Dishonored at first glance, a game I came to love most tenderly. This visual similarity, which dissolves on closer inspection, is kind of appropriate, because Dishonored sprang, through Harvey Smith, from the same Ion Storm and Looking Glass DNA – think Ken Levine and Warren Spector. Thief has been in the works for a long time, and there’s no suggestion that it took cues from Dishonored, but that’s something people are likely to banter about given their relative release dates. Cantin doesn’t seem bothered by this possibility, saying both games stand on their own merits, like scions of the same family.
“When Dishonored was released, we were really well advanced in the project. Both games had Thief as a reference, but our goal was really to stay true to what was a Thief game. We really encouraged the stealth aspect; it’s really our main core mechanic,” he said.
“If you walk in the city, you’ll see it’s the city from previous [Thief] games. It’s a medieval city on the verge of the industrial revolution. A lot of those aspects, on our side, come from Thief. It was our main reference.
“It’s true that when they released the first trailer we were like, ‘Oh my god, it looks like Thief’. We were really well advanced. The story was written and everything.
“And then we saw – phew, it’s not like Thief. Yeah, it has a lot of similarities, but you don’t play it like the same thing.
“It was really cool to see the success of Dishonored. It told us people want stealth games. We were really happy about the success they had because it confirmed for us that we were going in a good direction.”
Thief is not Dishonored. It’s hard for me to be okay with that, because what I really want, all day every day, is more Dishonored. But I ought to be okay with that, because what Thief is is a thing that should exist – an unforgiving stealth simulator that’s a long way from the accessible new-school romp fans have been afraid would turn up.
I didn’t immediately love Thief the way I expected to – the way I feel about Dishonored, and to a lesser extent BioShock Infinite and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, also distant cousins. I don’t know if I’m going to end up just as besotted with Thief as I was with Arkane’s glorious stab-’em-up, once I get over that initial learning hurdle and come to terms with the fact that I’m playing – gosh! – an entirely different game.

Thief will be available on PC, PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One from February 25 in the US, Feb 27 in Australia and Feb 28 in Europe.

Microsoft will release a cheaper Xbox One this year, a well-respected source has told VG247, apparently confirming this week’s leaks out of Redmond.
Microsoft has told trusted publishing partners that it will release a new model Xbox One before the end of the year, a senior source has confirmed to VG247.
Although the source was unable to confirm that the system will be disc-less and feature  a bluetooth adaptor, the new console will be priced cheaper than the current $499 model.
Upon release, Microsoft would likely drop the price of the current Xbox One model, placing it in the same price point as Sony’s PlayStation 4.
New hardware isn’t the only leak from Microsoft this week, with reports suggesting Halo 2 Anniversary Edition will be released on November 11, complete with a beta for Halo 5.
Although Microsoft isn’t commenting on the rumours, it isn’t taking these leaks lightly – the firm is reportedly looking to get legal on someone’s ass, adding fuel to the fire.

It follows our report that Halo 2: Anniversary will launch November 11 and Crackdown 3 is slated for release in 2016.
Now, the same source has said Forza Horizon 2 will “probably” launch this September on Xbox One, and will run at 1080p.
It follows recent acknowledgement of Forza Horizon 2‘s existence on Facebook. Hit the link to see what went down.
The source added that Forza Horizon 2 will feature a, “super sexy weather system,” and “shit tons of co-op/social stuff… so you can road trip with your bros.”
Make of this what you will.
Via Videogamer.

A collection of snippets summarised in this NeoGAF post hail from a range of generally reliable sources.
According to the leaks, Halo 2: Anniversary Edition will release on Xbox One on November 11.
The package will also include beta access for Halo 5, the sources say, and a “real time” Halo show like Forward Unto Dawn. This show is not related to Steven Spielberg’s Halo series.
Microsoft is said to have contracted Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity, who assisted 343 Industries with the production of Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary Edition, to work on the re-release.
Less confidently, the sources said the game may feature an alternate ending, but was very cagey as to the legitimacy of this aspect of the rumour.
Moving on from Halo for a minute, the old Crackdown 3 chestnut surfaced again, with new and therefore untested sources saying an announcement is unlikely this year as Microsoft is targeting a 2016 release.
Microsoft is said to have struck a deal with Scottish cloud services provider Cloudgine for the game, which is codenamed Nimbus.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition’s assets, textures, character models and other features are identical across the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, Square Enix insists. It follows video comparisons that suggest there are some discrepancies between both formats.

It follows our Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition review round-up. Hit the link to see what scores it’s been getting.
We also reported that both the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition were developed by two different teams, and not by Crystal Dynamics itself.
Now, following Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition video comparisons from sites like IGN and Gamersyde, Square has passed a statement on to Videogamer to stress that both versions feature the same assets.
“Both Xbox One and PS4 gameplay run at native 1080p,” a company rep wrote. “The assets from one platform to the other are the same as all source assets were shared 1:1 (textures, models, particles, etc.).”
Watch the videos above and judge for yourself. Let us know what you think.

1.Football Manager 2014 (PC Game)
2.FIFA 14 (X360 Game)
3.Call of Duty: Ghosts (X360 Game)
4.The Last of Us (PS3 Game)
5.Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS3 Game)
6.LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (Xbox 360)
7.Battlefield 4 (Xbox 360)
8.Batman: Aarkham Origins (PS3)
9.FIFA 14 (PS3)
10.Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag (Xbox 360)

From 23rd January till 2nd March 2014
Well that's one way to overcome a price gap. For a limited time, the Microsoft Store will give you $100 of store credit when you trade in your PS3 or Xbox 360 E. The offer runs from 23rd January till 2nd March 2014, or while supplies last, and is exclusive to the US (including Puerto Rico) and Canada for the moment.

Just to hammer the point home, Microsoft has also mailed the below to a number of subscribers, via NeoGAF.