Disney has shut down LucasArts and canceled all current projects, as part of a move toward licensing out the Star Wars brand to other publishers. This would impact Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault.

Official statement from LucasArts: "After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles."

On behalf of all MobyGames contributors I'd like to congratulate my fellow countryman, erav for passing the 10000 contribution points milestone. As of today 69 of our users can boast this achievement.

Ziff Davis has announced to shut down several websites in order to focus on IGN and AskMen. Among them are the gaming sites Gamespy and 1UP. So if anyone has planned to process those sites for MobyRanks, now is the time before they go down the drain.

An internal memo can be found on kotaku.

At its media event tonight, Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4. Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, introduced Mark Cerny as the lead system architect.

Cerny called it a "supercharged" PC, with an X86 CPU and 8GB of GDDR-5 memory, 8 CPU cores, 2 Tflops of processing. He called it "a platform for game creators by game creators," and showed off the new DualShock 4. It boasts improved latency and rumbling, along with a stereo camera and light bar to keep track of the controller.

Cerny then detailed the ease-of-use for the consumer. The PlayStation 4 includes a suspend/resume button like the Vita, letting you shut down and pick up a game quickly. Digital titles will be playable as they're being downloaded, since you can start playing and have the rest download in the background. It also, as rumored, will always be recording video and allows you to share it via a dedicated "Share" button. This also means you'll be able to view and comment on streams of your friends. The friends network will use "real world friends," letting you import friends from existing social networks in addition to your PSN ID friends. Sony is also planning companion apps on tablets and Vita, similar to the Wii U's Miiverse.

The console is aiming to have predictive game downloads based on your preferences and history, so you'll find content pre-loaded on your system. Cerny says the goal is to reduce download time to zero by predicting what you'll want to play.

Gaikai CEO Dave Perry finally shed light on how Sony will use the acquisition. He said that when browsing any game, you can press X to instantly try it out. Perry said he supports the idea: "try it for free, share it if you like it, and pay only if you love it." The Vita will also support Remote Play to "instantly" switch screens via Gaikai technology.

The "longterm goal" is to make all PS4 games playable on Vita, implying that some may not be at first. PlayStation 3 games won't be natively playable on the PS4, as rumored, but Gaikai seems to be Sony's solution. "We could one day put PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS Mobile games on any device, including PS4." Their philosophy is said to be "everything everywhere." The title PlayStation Cloud was only teased, with more details promised later.

Near the end of the presentation, the console was confirmed for a holiday 2013 release.

article from Shacknews, Steve Watts

Our intrepid admin, approver, and long-time contributor Sciere has reached 200000 contribution points. Speculations as to him being a cyborg were vehemently rejected, for he keeps revealing himself as a great guy with versatile interests who - luckily for all of us - just happens to like MobyGames that much.

Meanwhile, Kabushi became only the fourth person on history to reach 100000 MobyGames contribution points. Like Sciere, Kabushi is an active admin and approver and just an overall cool dude whom we are so lucky to have here around.

It is amazing how those two guys accomplish these tremendous feats while functioning as admins and being the fastest approvers out there. Big congrats to you both, and thank you for your valuable work! MobyGames salutes you!

After years of campaigning, the Australian Classification Board opened up the R18+ category to video games at the start of 2013. Now the first game to receive that classification has been passed for release. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge recieved the rating for "High impact bloody violence" after the previous version of the game had to be cut for an MA15+.

2012 was a great year of platform expansion. Following a few years of relative draught, with new platforms only being added sporadically, 2012 was almost like a non-stopping flood. Important platforms (mostly European and Japanese historical computers) are now covered much more extensively.

In terms of contributions, the year was marked by a gigantic race between the Israeli Unicorn Lynx and our long-time top contributor and admin Sciere from Belgium. Both of them (!) broke the record for most points scored in a single year, with about 43000 and 40000, respectively. For Unicorn Lynx it is the second championship title, his last one dating as far back as 2001.

Let us wish a happy and productive New Year 2013 to MobyGames!

Merry Christmas from MobyGames

Happy Holidays!

We've added new platforms Epoch Cassette Vision, Epoch Super Cassette Vision, Epoch Game Pocket Computer, Mattel Aquarius, Philips VG 5000, and Sord M5.

Wii U snuck into the system as well a couple weeks ago.

Some research is being done for Kindle and BlackBerry tablets so those may be coming soon as well.

Future Publishing has decided to pull the plug on the long running magazine which was dedicated to covering all things Nintendo. The final December 2012 issues cover features an homage to the first issues cover which featured Super Mario Bros. 2 on the front.

As a result of a long standing dispute between them and Epic Games, developer Silicon Knights have been ordered to destroy all unsold copies of all games they have developed using Epic's Unreal Engine 3.

It comes as a result of a long dispute between the two developers over the Unreal Engine, which started when Silicon Knights accused Epic of withholding an improved version of the game engine and the resulting problems impacting on the Knights development of Too Human, forcing them to switch to proprietary engine, costing them money and development time. What followed was a court room back and forth between them, with the result in Epics favour.

As a result of Epics win, Silicon Knights have been ordered to destroy, at there own cost, all unsold copies of games using the UE3 with include Too Human, The Box/Ritualyst, The Sandman, X-Men: Destiny and Siren in the Maelstrom.

Epic Games has announced that their Design Director Cliff Bleszinski has left the company has left the company after spending the last 20 years in their employment.

During his time at Epic, he's helped form some of the studios most notable works, from Jazz Jackrabbit, through Unreal Tournament to the Gears of War series that has made Epic the powerhouse that it is.

Speaking on Bleszinski's departure, Epic president said "his passion for creating video games of high quality has been unflinching. We are grateful for all his hard work".

His departure from Epic comes not long after senior producer Rod Fergusson's departure to Irrational Studios, and he has become very popular, gaining respect amongst gamers for his style, humour openness on twitter and in general.