Video game retailer GameStop is planning some solid, if not spectacular deals for this year's Black Friday shopping extravaganza, deals which appear to have made their way online. While the cuts may not be as deep as the ones that, say, Walmart for example, has planned, a few of them might make it worth getting to your local GameStop before 11 AM. (For our international friends who may be unfamiliar with the Black Friday phenomenon, it's the unofficial day of pre-Christmas, post-Thanksgiving consumption that often brings out the best deals and the worst behavior in U.S. shoppers.)

Some highlights from the sale, via Black Friday Ads and backed up by tipster G., include:

• Xbox 360 Elite w/ Lego Batman, Pure, & Choice of Call of Duty 4 OR Spider-Man: Web of Shadows - $299
• PlayStation 3 120GB w/ LittleBigPlanet GOTY & God of War Collection - $299
• Call of Duty: World at War (360/PS3) - $39.99
• Batman: Arkham Asylum (360/PS3) - $39.99
• Forza Motorsport 3, Left 4 Dead 2, Halo 3 ODST - $39.99 each
• Wii Sports Resort w/ Extra Wii MotionPlus - $49.99
• Metallic Blue Nintendo DSi w/ Mario vs. DK: Mini's March Again, WarioWare Snapped, Dr. Mario Express, Mario Clock, Mario Calculator - $169.99
• White Nintendo DSi w/ Clubhouse Games Express Card Classics, Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Sudoku, Brain Age Express: Math, Photo Clock - $169.99

That's just a small sampling. Comb through the gallery below for more.

Having two teams dedicated to annual output of Activision's Call of Duty franchise may not be enough for the publisher. A report from the LA Times says that a third team is now tasked with Call of Duty development duties. While the news outlet doesn't name the studio responsible for providing gamers with even more of the Call of Duty that they clearly crave, having a third team dedicated to pumping out future iterations could mean any number of things.

One possibility could give current Call of Duty developers Treyarch and Infinity Ward more time to produce entries in the core series, offering them a three year development cycle instead of the two year turnaround time in place now. Another is semi-annual releases, which may be pushing it.

Or, this third team could be focused on a different Call of Duty model. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has publicly expressed this thoughts on a massively-multiplayer online take on the series. Activision CFO Tom Tippl has also teased "additional online monetization models" for the Call of Duty brand.

Activision already has a handful of other developers working on Call of Duty content, including Nintendo DS developer n-Space, responsible for three portable entries, and multiplayer map specialists Certain Affinity, who helped Treyarch out with Call of Duty: World At War. The publisher owns plenty of other studios with first-person shooter experience, like Raven Software (Wolfenstein, Singularity) and High Moon Studios (Darkwatch), should it choose to tap one of its wholly-owned developers.

Or perhaps Activision has its newest studio, the recently announced Sledgehammer Games at work on a Call of Duty title. The ex-Dead Space developers could take the franchise in a more futuristic direction, if they dare.

We've reached out to Activision to see if they'd like to comment on the LA Times report, but have not yet heard back.

Looks like the list of nominees for the VGAs are up, and Game of the Year contenders include Uncharted 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Modern Warfare 2, and Left 4 Dead 2. Studio of the year noms include Infinity Ward, Naughty Dog, Rocksteady, and Valve.

The full thing is through here, so go vote people.

Spike's 2009 Video Game Awards show goes live December 12 at 6:00pm EST.

Valve business boss Jason Holtman has told the Montreal International Game Summit that a direct digital system like Steam means game prices can go up as well as down and people will keep buying. "In a connected market, you can shift prices up and down, and people don't care," he said.

"You can change prices instantaneously. Customers are incredibly sensitive to pricing. You can adjust the price by five dollars, or a dollar, and you can see the demand curve shift."

Holtman said that in a traditional product model, once your price drops it's only ever going one way.

"You launch at $50 or $60, then you sit around for a few months until someone says, 'It's time to go to $30,' and you can never go back," he added.

"Then someone says, 'It's time to go to the Platinum Series at $20,' and then you're praying it stays there, and then eventually it drops off and it's gone."

Holtman voiced the now-familiar Valve mantra of seeing games as services, saying TF2 has been updated 97 times in the past two years.

More on Gama.

This week's Famitsu's confirmed Grasshopper's No More Heroes for both 360 and PS3. Check out scans on Siliconera.

According to that report, the game will have new modes, Japanese voice acting – No More Heroes only had English voice acting in Japan – and will cost 5,040 yen on February 25.

No idea if it's coming west. Hit the link.

Sixty per cent of Xbox 360s have kicked the red-ringed bucket, compared to 16 per cent of PS3s and just 6 per cent of Wiis, according to our survey on the reliability of games consoles in the UK.

CNET UK commissioned the survey last month -- and the results don't reflect well on the Microsoft console. Some 1,128 UK-based console owners responded, of whom 562 owned Xbox 360s, 473 owned PS3s and 591 had Wiis (some owned more than one).

Of those Xbox owners who have bought their Xbox since January 2008, 34 per cent report that their Xboxes have broken -- still double the lifetime failure rate of the PS3. Microsoft introduced new components in late 2007 and early 2008, when Bill Gates boasted of the Xbox's newfound "incredible reliability". Our survey shows that while the console has improved, it's still far from reaching Gates' goal of being the "most reliable video game box out there".

Only 25 per cent of disappointed 360 owners had owned the console for more than 18 months before it broke, with 47 per cent reporting a failure inside a year. Seventy two per cent returned their Xbox to Microsoft, who extended the 360's warranty to three years after the console's problems became widely known. Fifteen per cent sought their own solution, such as repairing it themselves or giving up and throwing it under a bed. One miserable gamer reported, "I can't afford to get (the Xbox 360) fixed as it is out of warranty, so it sits in the spare room all lonely."

Many 360 owners report the console breaking more than once. Of those whose console has broken at least once, 32 per cent say it has broken twice, and 19 per cent say it has broken three times or more. One person said their 360 "was repaired six times before (being) refunded by Microsoft".

Of those who have bought a 360 in the last two years, only for it to break, 29 per cent say it has broken more than once.

This was a self-selecting survey, so it doesn't represent a random sample of console owners. It's likely that people whose consoles have had problems are more motivated to fill out the survey, but the results are still interesting when you compare the Xbox 360 to its competitors.

The console makers are not in the habit of releasing such information, so this kind of survey is the best guess we have. We think the sample size and spread of console ownership do give it some credence, however, and it tallies with the anecdotal experience of many gamers we've heard from.

The survey did not distinguish between the Xbox 360 Arcade and Elite versions, which are very similar, or the PS3 and PS3 Slim, which has only just been introduced.

A spokesman for Microsoft said, "The vast majority of Xbox 360 owners are having an outstanding experience with their Xbox 360, and they invest in our platform more than any other.

"On July 5, 2007 Microsoft acknowledged an unacceptable number of repairs and took unprecedented steps to take care of all of our customers, providing a three year extended warranty on consoles experiencing the three flashing red lights error. We have continued to make improvements to the console and make customer service a top priority should someone require repair."


Has your console broken? How did you get it fixed -- or is it pining away on top of a wardrobe? Did you receive good customer service? Tell us your experiences in the comments.

EA Talks Command & Conquer's "New Digital Model," Medal of Honor "Re-invention"




In a memo to employees today, Nick Earl, EA Games Label senior VP, confirmed the closure of Pandemic Studios LA. He also touched on a new direction for two of its key franchises, Command & Conquer and Medal of Honor.

Last week, we reported that the core Command & Conquer team would be let go following the release of Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. While Earl didn't touch on those rumored changes, he confirms that Jon Van Caneghem, formerly of Trion World Network "has recently joined EA to transform Command and Conquer with a new digital model that is going to re-ignite the fan base for this franchise."

Earl also calls EA's planned revitalization of the Medal of Honor franchise "simply stunning," writing that "[EALA studio head] Sean Decker and Greg Goodrich have been leading a re-invention" of the first-person shooter series,

"We couldn't be happier with the focus and progress these teams have shown," Earl writes.

In the internal communication obtained by Kotaku, Earl assured employees that the "new team at EALA has turned this studio into a showcase for the 'fewer things better' initiative." If that sounds familiar, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau said something similar in an investor call, saying that EA plans to focus on more of its "core IP" and proven "blockbusters."