Apple Reportedly Making Cheaper iPhone

Apple is reportedly working on a new line of iPhones that are less-expensive to make. In order to compete with cheaper devices offered by other companies, this new handset from Apple would be about half the size of the iPhone 4 and will exist alongside other versions of the iPhone at retail and not replace them.

The new phone, code-named N97, would be about half the cost of current iPhones, allowing carriers to subsidize the price more, whereas an iPhone is currently sold to carriers for about $625, and contracts let carriers sell them at as little as $199.

Source: Wall Street Journal

BioShock Movie ‘Great For 3D’ Says Gore Verbinski

The BioShock movie appears to be mired in development hell, having seen little substantial progress in the past couple years. While Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) was originally attached to the project but left, he explained why in a recent interview.

“I couldn’t really get past anybody that would spend the money that it would take to do it and keep an R rating,” he explained, “Alternately, I wasn’t really interested in pursuing a PG-13 version. Because the R rating is inherent. Little Sisters and injections and the whole thing.”

“I just wanted to really, really make it a movie where, four days later, you’re still shivering and going, ‘Jesus Christ!’… It’s a movie that has to be really, really scary, but you also have to create a whole underwater world, so the pricetag is high, he added. We just didn’t have any takers on an R-rated movie with that price tag.”

While Verbinski’s recent Rango was not converted to 3D, he thinks that BioShock would be perfect to show stereoscopic. “[BioShock] would be a great movie to do in 3D. I’d like to go into that world wearing a pair of glasses, he said. I think in general, gaming is perfect for 3D. Anything where you’re the protagonist. The kid in ‘The Shining’ on the big wheel, going around corridors. That’s what 3D is perfect for. To make people feel on-edge.”

Source: ComingSoon.net {link no longer active}

Dragon Age Gets Felicia Day Web Series

Felicia Day will be working on a new web series based on the Dragon Age franchise. The creator and star of The Guild will appear as an Elven assassin named Tallis in the six episode production named Dragon Age: Redemption, where she will be tracking an apostate mage.

“Tallis is headstrong, she fights dirty, and she has a really sarcastic sense of humor. I wanted to bring a modern sensibility to a fantasy character in a fantasy world,” says Day. “She can’t accomplish her mission alone, so finding allies is tricky. The success or failure of the mission will have a big impact on her future and her freedom.”

“I am an organic gamer and I love games, and I particularly love this franchise,” she added. “I put every single effort into making this something that gamers will be proud of. Even though we were constrained a lot as a Web series, none of the people who were involved took that as a constraint. They took that as a challenge.”

While Day is known for doing a lot on a shoestring budget, this time there were a dozen days of filming with veterans of Independence Day and Lost contributing to the production “They are going to take this a step above what we have seen on the Web before,” says Day, who also co-produced Redemption.

“We are really, really excited to work with people like her who have a passion and appreciation for the content and a really good history of quality,” says BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk. “That’s who we want to work with.”

Source: USA Today

Xperia Play Coming March, 50 Games At Launch

Sony Ericsson recently revealed the Xperia Play, popularly referred to as the PlayStation Phone. Promising to deliver an immersive gaming experience, the phone will launch in March along with the Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro; no price was given.

The Xperia Play will have 50 titles available at launch, including Guitar Hero, Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield, and Dead Space. The phone will come pre-loaded with several games on its own.

Source: PC Mag

Dragon Ball Reboot Collaboration Shot Down By Writer

IMDB is often correct on predicting early cast and crew attachments to movies and games, but other times it’s just inaccurate conjecture. A new Dragon Ball movie might be more of the latter than the former, according to an online report.

Takashi Yamazaki (Space Battleship Yamato) is listed as director and Kazuaki Kiriya (Goemon,Casshern) is listed as writer, with Jon Foo (Tekken) pegged to be Son Goku for a 2012 release. However, Kiriya has tweeted that the listing is “complete nonsense and is looking to correct the error.”

Dragon Ball in various forms has been a very popular brand for over 25 years, with a manga comic having inspired a long running TV series and an almost countless number of video games.

Source: Kotaku

Civilization Wins First Ever Video Game Grammy

History was made over the weekend at the Grammy Awards (and no, we’re not referring to Lady Gaga emerging from a giant egg). Christopher Tin’s Baba Yetu from Civilization IV took home the award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists, marking the first time a video game ever won a Grammy.

While the composition is incredible, it is an odd choice given that its first appearance was in Civilization IV in 2005 (Civilization V released in 2010). Still, hopefully one day the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will be convinced that one of their over 100 award categories deserves to be video games.

Zynga Value Nearing $9 Billion

Zynga is apparently looking to get $250 million in new funding, which would value the company between $7 billion and $9 billion. In April 2010, Zynga papers filed related to an IPO that valued the company at about $4 billion; this would indicate their value has doubled in less than a year.

The Facebook game maker has racked up a large amount of value by their widespread reach and offering games for free… but with small fees generally allowing players to perform actions more quickly. Taking small amounts of money from 275 million people means that Zynga managed $400 million in profit for 2010.

Source: Wall Street Journal