Electronic Arts has confirmed that a demo of its arcade boxing game Facebreaker will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace next week July 31. A release on PSN will follow suit on August 7.

The demo promises to give players a taste of the game’s solo mode and offline multiplayer, featuring three playable characters and two boxing arenas. Additionally, players will be able to upload custom photos of themselves or others to create their own unique character. Created characters can then be imported into the final game.

Over on the Xbox Live Arcade front, Activision has bumped up the release date of Geometry Wars 2 to next Wednesday, July 30.

Hothead Games today announced that its successful humor-filled XBLA title Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness will hit the PlayStation Network later this fall as a digital download.

“We keep getting emails asking why our Penny Arcade game is not on PSN,” said Hothead’s CEO, Vlad Ceraldi. “We have always said we wanted to have our games on as many platforms as possible to give choice to gamers. All good things take time and we are very excited to be debuting our first PS3 title and look forward to bringing more games to this platform in the future.”

No specific word on pricing, but Hothead says the PS3 port will be “priced in line” with the game on other platforms. Considering the XBLA edition cost 1600 Microsoft Points, expect to shell out around $20. Hit the jump for the full release. more »

Titles based on the fabled 007 license after the release of Rare’s oft-heralded N64 masterpiece Goldeneye have been, for the most part, forgettable. Now with Activision in control of the license, developer Treyarch is determined to break this troubling trend with Quantum of Solace, the new Call of Duty 4 engine-powered Bond game based on the upcoming movie of the same name. Says executive producer Garrett Young:

We’re not trying to fix anything EA did wrong, because that’s just what they did. I’m sure the series pissed off a lot of gamers over the last few years as the games started to go downhill, but we have no control over that.”

The pressure we feel is more about launching this franchise in the right way. We know that you only have one chance to make a really great first impression, and this is it.

Indeed. Let’s hope it turns out well. Gamers across the globe been waiting for a Bond game that lives up to the standards set by Goldeneye.

‘Second-rate James Bond games a thing of the past’ [MCV]

With Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360, is Sony concerned that it lost a major exclusive? Nope. Speaking in a recent interview, SCEA senior vice president Peter Dille shared his thoughts on the announcement, comparing it to Grand Theft Auto IV. He believes that since FFXIII is now a cross-platform title, it will not move consoles in the same way that exclusive titles do, like Metal Gear Solid 4 for instance.

What you have with “Final Fantasy XIII” is a lot like what they’ve paid for with “GTA.” It’s not an exclusive on their platform. It’s now a cross-platform game. And I think if you look at how “GTA” behaved in the marketplace and how it drove — or didn’t drive — either console, that’s what I’m talking about. Consumers responded to “GTA” on the PS3 just as they did on the 360.

He’s probably right. After seeing the effect of GTA IV on both consoles, I’m expecting a very similar situation with the release of FFXIII. Either way, any time a publisher drops exclusivity on another platform is a victory for Microsoft, as it levels the playing field.

Sony: ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ Going To XBox 360 Creates ‘Jump Ball’ [MTV]

Speaking to trade site MCVUK, Famitsu boss Hirokazu Hamamura went on record to say that the PS3’s slow adoption rate in Japan is gradually improving, despite various software development difficulties that plagued the console early on. Hamamura believes that, in order sustain this level of growth and accelerate it further, a price cut is needed before this year’s holiday season.

If the console gets another price cut by the year-end shopping season, I believe its penetration pace will become accelerated.

Nothing to disagree with here. We’d certainly like to see a price cut, too.

‘PS3’s problems are being resolved’ [MCVUK]

Konami has issued a formal apology on its official website in response to the unplanned downtime of its Metal Gear Online servers, following the release of the Gene Expansion pack earlier last week. A statement on the site reads:

We regret to inform that the release of the Expansion Pack “METAL GEAR ONLINE EXPANSION” on 17th July 2008 was marred by major system related problems resulting in great inconveniences for all our customers.

We have been taking numerous correct measures since problems initially started, but unfortunately there are no permanent solutions we can announce at this present moment.

As we reported earlier last week, Konami placed a temporary IP restriction on the MGO Shop — still in effect — in order to combat the high server load. The latest round of status updates reveals that the billing system has been given an overhaul and the purchase records of 490 customers, who were mistakenly overcharged due to server-side errors, have been corrected. Meanwhile, the MGO Reward Shop is still closed and Konami has not provided at set date as to when it will reopen.

METAL GEAR ONLINE OFFICIAL WEB SITE [Konami]

Developer Team Ninja and its parent company Tecmo plan to release an original, big-budget console title in 2009, according to Temco president Yoshimi Yasuda.

Yasuda said the company’s renewed development motto can be summed up in eight words, “new title, new genre, new location, new leader.” Location in particular is of great significance, as this new title will cater towards the Western market. In further clarifying the new genre bit, Yasua said that the title will not follow any of Tecmo’s previous offerings, which crossed the genres of fighting, action, survival horror, and adventure.

With Itagaki now officially gone, Ninja Gaiden Sigma director and Zin Hasegawa of Fatal Frame fame are reportedly heading up the project. Specific details, such as platforms, have yet to be announced.

Team NINJA [Bloomberg]

As many Metal Gear Online players know, the Gene Expansion was officially released yesterday, subsequently causing a meltdown across Konami’s network of servers. In an attempt to cope with the heavy load, Konami has placed temporary restriction that will disallow certain IP ranges from accessing the MGO shop at random intervals. Additionally, survival games for this weekend have been canceled.

We have introduced an IP restriction which will allow a limited number of customers to access the shop. The IP restrictions will be applied to random IP ranges which will change on an hourly basis.

If the maintenance screen is shown when trying to enter the MGO shop, this would indicate that your IP address is blocked for 1 hour. This restriction has been imposed to allow a number of customers to make purchases under controlled access and will not be implemented on a permanent basis.

Please be made aware that the “Survival” games scheduled for the weekend of 18-20/07/2008 have been canceled.

Jeez. Hopefully server upgrades are scheduled to take place soon.

METAL GEAR ONLINE OFFICIAL WEB SITE [Konami]

MTV Games and developer Harmonix have announced that next week’s round of downloadable content will feature tracks from platinum artists Nine Inch Nails and Shinedown. The full listing of content is as follows:

Nine Inch Nails 3-pack
“Burn”
“Capital G”
“Last”

Shinedown
“Devour”
“Junkies For Fame”

Each track will be available for 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99) or 440 Microsoft Points ($5.49) for the three-pack. As usual, the tracks will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace next week on July 22, with a release on PlayStation Network following on July 25.

Sony has launched the official website for its hotly anticipated creation platformer LittleBigPlanet. While the site is fairly light on actual content at the moment, it does feature a gallery of new screenshots depicting the adorable Sackboy, along with desktop wallpapers and trailers pre-formatted for viewing on your PSP and PC. Check it out.

LittleBigPlanet is scheduled for an October release on PlayStation 3. Developer MediaMolecule plans to kick off a limited beta test in September, though specific details have yet to be announced.