He didn’t really want to get dragged into it, but Quantic Dream’s founder and co-CEO David Cage has revealed his belief that the PlayStation 3-exclusive Heavy Rain wouldn’t be possible on any other system.

Speaking during his Developer Session at today’s Eurogamer Expo in London, Cage was responding to a question from one of the attendees following a demonstration of the game. After a bit of a pause and an audible sigh, Cage said, “Whatever I answer, my answer will be suspicious… Honestly, I don’t think so. I think it had to be on PlayStation 3 for two main reasons: the hardware, the architecture of the PS3 is extremely powerful in the way it is structured. If you make a real PS3 engine, then you can have really fantastic performances. If you try to port from another platform, then it becomes difficult.”

Cage continued, “This is a console we all love at the studio. I play PSOne, PS2, it’s really a part of my culture. The controller is part of my home… and it’s a really, really powerful console. I’m not so much into graphics, to be honest with you, I don’t believe you need ultra realistic graphics to get emotion, you can get that with very low graphics. But we wanted to create emotion from believable characters, that was the idea. With this approach PS3 was by far the best platform.”

Those who have modded their Xbox 360s have just received a rude awakening, courtesy of Microsoft. The company has once again taken action on users playing pirated , suspending their accounts from Xbox Live.

“We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE,” a Microsoft rep told IGN, adding that everyone should know piracy is illegal and that modifying one’s console goes against Xbox Live’s terms of use.

“The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them.”

Both the standard and special editions of Dragon Age: Origins have been sitting at comfortable positions on the Steam top sellers list since its arrival on the digital platform. Those who have purchased BioWare’s upcoming RPG should be happy to know that BioWare producer Derek French has confirmed that there will be a pre-load, which is due to start “world-wide sometime on November 1st.” As for its release, the region specific release dates are still the same, which is November 3 in North America and November 6 in Europe. And PS3 owners don’t have to wait anymore either, well in North America at least.

As creative director Alex Hutchinson from EA Montreal takes us through a demo of Army of Two: The 40th Day at the Eurogamer Expo 2009, he explains that the original title sold an impressive 2.6 million copies worldwide, but the vast majority of these sales (70% to be exact) are from America. What does the ex-Maxis dev and the rest of EA blame this on? The tone of the game, apparently.

While an American audience felt at home with the foul-mouthed, wise-cracking banter of the original game, it was apparently too much for European gamers. So when coming up with the sequel, the devs wanted to be sure they struck the right balance for both audiences this time round. How to measure this balance? Why, fist bumping of course.

A lot of the attitude and dialogue that Salem and Rios produced in the first game was reflected in the moments where the player would have them clash fists, or annoy each other for a laugh. This kind of interaction was completely optional however, and the folks at Montreal have embraced that for the sequel. This means that if you continue doing these things in The 40th Day, then the pair will keep up their banter as usual. If however you’re not bothering to slap hands every time you land a headshot, then the game recognises that you’re more of a serious player, and cuts the chat out in favour of a more serious tone.

So now not only do we have gameplay options that cater to your style in nearly every shooter, there’s dialogue for your tastes too. Another pleasant announcement was the presence of not only 2-player split-screen, but being able to take 2 players on the same couch online.

Army of Two: The 40th Day hits January 12th next year, with more fist bumping action than you can shake a stick at.

Sky Digital launched their Xbox 360 service in a rather haphazard manner earlier this week, but despite an apparent exclusivity deal, the UK provider might not be limiting their console activity to just Microsoft’s box. Sky recently released a 277-page public document as a response to a consultation conducted by regulatory body OFCOM, and apparently they may have inadvertently left in a direct reference to the PS3.

The document reads, “The deal to provide Sky’s channels on the PS3 platform has not yet been made public and is confidential to Sky.”

Whoopsie, not any more it isn’t. Insomniacs can read the full document (*.pdf link) online, but Sky have already realised their mistake and removed the offending line. Watch out for a red-faced announcement from officials in the near future about a shock deal with Sony – yet more proof that so-called ‘exclusive’ deals are apparently about as long-lasting these days as a Vegas marriage.

In celebration of the original mod’s seventh anniversary, developer Unknown Worlds has whipped out the first two screenshots from Natural Selection 2, the stand-alone follow-up to the highly praised FPS/RTS Half-Life mod. If you missed the teaser trailer back in May, do yourself a favor and catch up. Considering the game’s being developed by a five-man team who even cooked up their own game engine, it’s pretty impressive stuff.

The game’s expected to see release via Steam some time next year with, unless plans have changed, Xbox 360 and Mac versions following later on.

Heavy Rain creator David Cage has expressed his frustration at the reputation of video perpetrated by a few titles which have been “over the top in a very and vulgar way” – titles which have since made it hard for developers to deal with adult content in , even when its in context.

While Cage didn’t mention specific titles, he did stress that he didn’t believe sex and violence in for its own sake was a good thing.

“As a game creator I have one very simple rule: Everything is allowed, no limits, as long as it makes sense in the story and is not gratuitous,” he explained during a developer session at this year’s Eurogamer Expo.

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Golden Axe (Arcade)
The coin-op edition joins the Genesis port in the VC lineup.

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Nintendo has confirmed that the new DSi will launch in Europe in the first quarter of 2010.

The system was announced today in Japan, where it will be known as the DSi LL, and will feature 4.2 inch screens when released in November.

“Nintendo today confirms that a new Nintendo DSi XL console is launching in Europe in the first quarter of 2010,” said the company in a statement.

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THQ has announced that the World Wrestling Federation has extended the deadline for renewing its videogame licence until the end of this year, as the row between the publisher and joint venture partner Jakks Pacific goes on.

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter the most likely outcome is that THQ will pay off Jakks in order to be able to renegotiate the license on its own – something it’s not currently able to do under the terms of its JV deal.

Pachter explains: “The WWE license is between WWE and a joint venture between Jakks Pacific and THQ. The JV is a legal entity, and neither Jakks nor THQ can enter into a new contract with WWE on their own. Jakks and THQ have sued one another, alleging several breaches.

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