The Week in Review & Rumor Round-up: Classic Franchise Reboots, Gaming Guides Galore, Lawsuits, and More!

The Week in Review news piece summarizes and highlights the most important gaming related news and rumors over the past week. This weekly article will keep you plugged in and in-tune.



A short week here in the U.S. means there’s not a whole lot of news to recount. Nevertheless, a few items did stick out this week. The first is the exciting prospect that Project Gotham Racing franchise is back in development. Microsoft executive

Tom Burt inadvertently confirmed the existence of Project Gotham Racing 5 whilst detailing the ins and outs of recording the engine sounds of his electric Tesla Roadster.



Similarly, we also found out that FarCry 3 is set for another iteration in the series. According to Ubisoft writer Kevin Shortt, FarCry 3 is in development and looking "pretty exciting". When asked by Official PlayStation Magazine if he was going to pen a new FarCry project he stated, “No I'm not. But I know the team are and what I've seen looks pretty exciting.”



Microsoft’s Andre Vrignaud, Director Games Platform Strategy, filed a system for implementing an in-game, community-driven strategy guide for patent protection. Microsoft plans on giving players and developers complex authoring tools to create the guides. According to a Siliconera report that broke the story, “Microsoft’s game guide… allows players to capture screenshots, video clips, and annotate them with a digital pencil.” Moreover, “Authors may even be able to add audio commentary and tag situations, objects, and items. Tags will be used to link tips to specific game situations.” If so desired, developers will also be able to create guides. That means you’ll be to provide or access help to/from others on the fly in a difficult section of a game.



Lastly, Microsoft is being sued by third-party memory card maker Datel for unfair, anti-trust practices in regard to artificially protecting their own first-party memory units in the marketplace via a firmware update that eliminates the opportunity to use third-party solutions. Datel feels they’ve had their business ripped out from under them by a company that’s real impetus for initiating the block is an attempt to monopolize the sale of memory units. As such, Datel has gone ahead and filed a 21 page complaint outlining their position to U.S. District Court in San Francisco. According to the TechFlash report that broke the story, “The suit seeks an injunction to prevent Microsoft from ‘disabling or erecting technological barriers to Datel accessories,’ in current and future game consoles. It also seeks unspecified monetary damages.”



Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week!