Sony to Support PS3 Until at Least 2015

Sony's VP of hardware marketing John Koller has revealed the company will continue to support the PS3 until at least 2015 with a range of first-party content. "A lot of great content is coming," Koller suggested, continuing, "And over the next 2-3 years, the PS3 has got an incredible lineup."

In an interview with Gamespot, Koller also said "We're going to continue supporting the PS3 for the next few years. Absolutely. And we're going to continue supporting it not only that long, but as long as there is a development spigot that's running hot. And I can tell you right now, the development spigot for PS3 is very hot. A lot of great games coming."

Quite what these games may be remains a mystery, especially extending so far into the future, but it's interesting to ponder what this means in relation to when the PS4 will be released. It seems pretty likely that there's going to be some overlap between the PS3 and PS4 in terms of support, the question is for just how long?

Let the speculation begin!

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

SEGA Announces Football Manager 2013

SEGA has revealed the latest game in its Football Manager series, Football Manager 2013, developed by Sports Interactive.

A range of improvements to the game's existing elements have been announced, including an improved 3D match engine, new staff roles such as specialist coaches, enhanced training and worldwide leaderboards.  Additionally, the game will make full use of the Steam system’s network functionality, increasing the ease with which games can be set up against other managers.

“

In recent years it’s become clear that there’s a large group of people who would like to play Football Manager, but simply can’t devote the time required to get the most out of the game.

Alongside all this is the introduction of the all-new 'Classic' or FMC mode, which promises to offer a streamlined managerial experience for those players who wouldn't otherwise have time for a full season. By only focusing on the nuts and bolts of taking a team to the top, players should be able to play out a full season in just eight to 10 hours.

Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson explained, "In recent years it’s become clear that there’s a large group of people who would like to play Football Manager, but simply can’t devote the time required to get the most out of the game.

"We decided, therefore, to try to find a way to accommodate players with limited free time, without significantly diluting the experience. We believe that FMC achieves this beautifully.

“I would, however, like to stress to our many, many fans around the world that the introduction of FMC will not impact in any way on the game that they’ve come to know and love. For those who still want the full, ‘hands-on’ experience, FM13 offers exactly what they’re looking for – a bigger, better and even more immersive version of the world's greatest football management simulation.”

FMC mode can either be played as an open-ended career, or through the new Challenge mode that was first introduced in the handheld version of Football Manager 2012. Challenge mode tasks players with overcoming a particular scenario which is designed to test his or her management skills over a set period of time. These range from achieving success with a squad of kids to getting your team from the bottom of the table to the top within half a season.

FM13 will ship with five challenges with more made available over time. FMC mode will also offer ‘unlockable’ features which can be used to make the game a bit easier, such as removing the need for work permits.

Football Manager 2013 will be released on PC and Mac before Christmas 2012.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and regularly struggles to manage, as well as cope. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

IPTL Amateur -- Will Scarlett help push Acer over the top?

Acer as a company has been around in eSports for many years long before their decision to create and manage a team. They have been supporting and donating money to wide range of tournaments in all kinds of games, whether it was League of Legends or Starcraft 2. However, it was their decision to create their own team that brought them huge attention from all kinds of eSports-related websites and communities.

Still, Starcraft 2 was not their game of choice; they first acquired FIFA back in February 2011 when they’ve launched Team Acer’s website. Yet, their current super-star players are all in the Starcraft 2 roster.

At the very beginning of Acer’s existence in the world of Zerg, Terran, and Protoss they brought in four players to the team, including the most famous German SC:BW player – Mondragon, but as the time was passing by none of them excluding Nerchio, who we are going to talk about in a minute, have not shown any promising results.

Currently, the once called “all-zerg” team has 5 active players in their line-up. Four zergs:  Bly, Nerchio, ParanOid, and Scarlett who joined Acer late June 2012, and one terran – DarkHydra. Single SCV user on the team is also the youngest – he was born in 1997. He participates in online cups on a regular basis, but has won only 1 so far back in 2011. Earlier this year Christian was invited as a stan-in for DeMulim to attend HomeStory Cup IV; he lost 0-3 in his group.

ParanOid aka GOsia used to be one of the top SC:BW players in Poland winning 2009 Polish WCG qualifiers. He played alongside Mondragon in clan called Templars of Twilight. Lately he qualified to IPL Season 5 through the European Satellite Qualifiers, but just like DarkHydra, he also has no huge victories in his Starcraft 2 portfolio.

Bly, despite not being the most recognized player from his country, is one of the top players representing Ukraine on the international scene at the moment. Active participant in many online cups he proves every single time why people cannot underestimate him. He took first place during WCS Ukraine Nationals beating faer, White-Ra, Strelok, and White-Ra once again in the finals. He also qualified for the IPL Season 5 just like DarkHydra and Nerchio through the European Satellite Qualifiers.

Until recently Team Acer was known because of Nerchio who grew immensely as a player since he joined the team in July 2011, but now he’s not the only star  on the team. Scarlett has been performing good since she started playing in the official tournaments like IGN ProLeague Season 4 where she took out DeMusliM, Terius and DdoRo or IPL TAC 3, but the epiphany of her skill took place during WCS Canada qualifiers and WCS NA Championship where she destroyed the competition winning both events with less than 10 games lost in total.

She is more than ready to take part in a huge international events, and go against the best our scene has to offer, but IPTL Season 1 is also going to be a test of her true abilities. For the first time in her career, Scarlett will have to play against the best of what Europe and Korea has to offer; this is not a North American only tournament anymore. Is she going to step up? We might potentially find that out on the 13th of September when Team Acer face aTn.Type in their IPTL Season 1 opening match.

The last but definitely not least on the team is Artur “Nerchio” Bloch. This Polish zerg is not only perceived as a top player in his country, but as one of the best players outside Korea. What is more, in public’s opinion he is also the most skilled Zerg on the western scene, but he exchanges this title with Stephano constantly based on their results in the most recent events. Second place at IEM Cologone 2012, First place in HomeStory Cup V, First place in WCS Poland Nationals and many many more – this is a short list of his latest achievements, and he’s still coming for more.

Although, we what we are seeing now is Nerchio at his best, last year during European Battle.net Invitational he was still an inexperienced newcomer, constantly described as a maphacker and a stream cheater due to his amazing runs in online cups, and poor performance during offline tournaments. Back then people didn’t believe him, when he said that he gets stressed during big events like EBI 2011 for example, but now he got it all sorted out, and can perform at the highest competitive level in Starcraft.

In a team league like IPTL both Nerchio and Scarlett might be used for two things; opening a match to get an early advantage and closing a match to secure a victory. Scarlett has proven many times in the past that she has no problem with being under pressure, hence she might be used by her team mainly as a closer, whereas Nerchio can open a match or be used in the middle of it to secure a draw or catch-up with a score.

Nonetheless, Team Acer, being one of the best team in their group, have a huge chance of advancing into the Up and Down Matches. With two strong star players as a core of their success they might even advance to Premier Division next season.

Written by Albert Palka

Source : ign[dot]com