Konami has just answered all of my prayers: they have confirmed, via press release, that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be releasing on June 12th! We reported on this release date earlier, but it was thought to be nothing more than rumor and speculation — it seems as though lots of internet rumors have turned out to be true lately!

Whether angels have begun singing in a heavenly chorus cannot be verified at this time.

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In some not-so-rosy news, the PS3 has been outsold by the Wii in the land of the rising sun by a ratio of 4 to 1 during a four week period ending on Feb. 24th. Thanks in no small part to the latest entry in the insanely popular Super Smash Bros. series, the Wii moved 331,000 units wheras the PS3 came in a distant second with 89,000 units sold.

On a lighter note, the Wii managed to outsell the 360 by the horrific ratio of 23 to 1. I’m sorry but that’s hilarious (and somewhat pathetic :p).

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Another lackluster week for the PSN I’m afraid to say. When the highlight of the update is a new playable character in PAIN, you know something’s amiss. As usual there are some new Rock Band songs, but this time they are accompanied by a new Guitar Hero 3 track pack..

Here’s the full list:

-PAIN Skurv Dogg Character ($0.99)
-Rock Band “Nine Inch Nails” pack ($5.49)

-March of the Pigs ($1.99)
-The Collector ($1.99)
-The Perfect Drug ($1.99)

-Guitar Hero III “No Doubt Track Pack” ($6.25): Featuring Don’t Speak, Excuse Me Mr. and Sunday Morning
-MLB 08 The Show Music Video (free)
-MLB 08 The Show Blog Video (free)
-NBA 08 Amare Stoudmire Bio (free)
-Condemned 2: Bloodshot Trailer 1 (free)
-Lost Planet Trailer (free)
-Star Trek Teaser Trailer (free)
-PAIN: Skurv Dogg Theme (free)
-Rocketman: Axis of Evil wallpaper (free)

Well do you? If you answered yes, you aren’t alone. There’s a new petition going ’round the interwebs which already contains more than 15,000 signatures, all begging Ubisoft to bring the game to the PSP.

Now is the time to fulfill your duty as a gamer and sign this petition. Even if you don’t necessarily care if the game makes it onto the PSP or not, there are a bunch of other gamers who do and they need your help!

Sign the petition here.

As North America will be receiving a new MGS4 package in June, it seems fitting that Europe will also be getting some new bundles. However, instead of a MGS4 bundle, Europe will be recieving a new GT5: Prologue bundle and a new Blu-ray movie bundle.

The Gran Turismo 5: Prologue PS3 bundle will retail for €399 and come with a 40GB PS3 console, a Sixaxis controller, and a copy of the game. The equally-priced Blu-ray bundle will also come with a 40GB PS3 and one Sixaxis controller, but will feature 3 Blu-ray movies: Casino Royale, Spider-man 3 and 300.

Both of these bundles seem to be good deals, although it should be noted that the 40GB PS3 lacks PS2 backwards compatibility and those Sixaxis controllers will soon be replaced by the rumble-capable DualShock 3.

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Adding to the ever growing list of PS3 SKU’s on the market, a new 80GB PS3 bundle will come-a-rumblin’ this June with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and a DualShock 3 controller (pun intended). The bundle will be priced at $499 and is set to coincide with the release of MGS4. There is no word yet on the state of PS2 backwards compatibility of this model, and no images of the package have been released as of now.

This is a smart move by Sony that can only increase the momentum being gathered by the PS3 this year. Who knows, 2008 might just turn out to be Sony’s comeback year.

UPDATE: Updated the post with the above pic, but I’m not sure if it’s official. Stay tuned…

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Activision’s Bobby Kotick went on record today stating, “I think we’ve had – as we’ve said for a very long time, now – well-stated criteria for what we’re interested in in an acquisition.

We’ve said that we need a history of profitability, good management, the proprietary technology for a franchise, history of multimillion unit sellers. They would have to be non-dilutive and operating margin accretive. And, for us, Take-Two didn’t fulfill those requirements. Maybe it does over the long-term for EA, but it doesn’t for us.”

Oh snap, take that EA!

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I’m not sure what to make of this boxart — it’s cool, yeah, but it seems somewhat bland when compared to the boxart of previous MGS games.

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Kotaku has unearthed some new screens of LittleBigPlanet in action. They all (obviously) look awesome, so why don’t you check out the rest of them here?

The (European) SingStore will be seeing the release of 67 new songs on March 7th, including songs from Alice Cooper and David Bowie. You can see the full list after the break.

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Aha: The Sun Always Shines On TV
Alice Cooper: Poison
Big Brovaz: Nu-Flow
Bill Joel: Uptown Girl
Blu Cantrell: Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)
Blur: End of a Century
Britney Spears: Baby One More Time
Coldplay: Speed Of Sound
Crash Test Dummies: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
David Bowie: Heroes
Dragon: April Sun In Cuba
Elvira Nickolaisen: Egypt Song
End Of Fashion: Oh Yeah
Fairground Attraction: Perfect
Feeder: Buck Rogers
Five: Keep On Movin’
Jamelia:Superstar
Jamelia: Stop
Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart
Lemar: It’s Not That Easy
Lordi: Hard Rock Hallelujah
Maria Mena: My Lullaby
Maxïmo Park: Graffiti
Maxïmo Park: Going Missing
Natalie Imbruglia: Torn
opus X: loving you girl
Paddy Casey: Saints and Sinners
Paddy Casey: Whatever Gets You True
Reamonn: Supergirl
Roachford: Only To Be With You
Rooster: Come Get Some
Roxy Music: Love Is The Drug
Shannon Noll: What About Me
Spice Girls: Wannabe
Spice Girls: Who Do You Think You Are?
Steps: Deeper Shade of Blue
Stereophonics: Dakota
Stereophonics: The Bartender And The Thief
The Darkness: I Believe In A Thing Called Love
The Hoosiers: Goodbye Mr A
The Screaming Jets: Better
The Thrills: One Horse Town
The Thrills: Santa Cruz (You’re Not That Far)
The Undertones: Teenage Kicks
Trio Rio: New York, Rio, Tokyo
Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance With Somebody
Clueso: Kein Bock Zu Geh’n
Die Fantastischen Vier: Geboren
Laith Al-Deen: Leb Den Tag
Laith Al-Deen: Bilder von Dir
MIA.: Tanz Der Moleküle
Pur: Abenteuerland
Revolverheld: Ich werd’ die Welt verändern
Revolverheld: Mit Dir Chilln
Alexia: Egoista
Alexia: Da Grande
Daniele Silvestri: Salirò
Fiorello: Viviere A Color
Litfiba: El Diablo
Loredana Berte: Il Mare D’Inverno
Luca Di Risio: Calma e sanguefreddo
Paola & Chiara: Blu
Jan Eggum: På’an igjen
Kaptein Sabeltann: Vi seiler vår egen sjø
Philip and Sandra: Sommerflørt
Gloria Estefan: Hoy
Pereza: Pienso En Aquella Tarde