Newsbriefs: Microsoft E-Reads, DEFCON Updates, UK PSN Dates

Author: by Staff

[UPDATED: 1:30pm PST] Today's regularly updated newsbriefs includes Microsoft imagining its new color-barcode system as akin to the Game Boy Advance e-Reader, Introversion's DEFCON waging war cross-platform, and the next three original PlayStation Network games get dated for the UK. - The BBC is reporting that Microsoft has announced a new barcode system set to appear on forthcoming DVDs and Xbox 360 games by the end of the year. Not intended to replace the UPC barcode used on all retail products, and appearing somewhat like a color version of QR codes commonly used in Japanese promotions, the new Microsoft codes can store up to 3500 characters of information. While QR codes are commonly used simply to point users toward a certain URL, Xbox team blogger Andre Vrignaud, at his Ozymandias blog, writes that he likens the invention to the Game Boy Advance e-reader, with the possibility to upload cell phone pictures of the code to Live servers to unlock rare objects or limited edition content, or trade physical objects in real life but "take advantage of them in game scenarios." "Don't mistake the data size as being too small," he writes, "you're not going to be storing huge textures in that, but developers are very familiar with tokenizing their data and you'd be surprised how much you can do in ~3.5 Kb." - Darwinia developers Introversion have announced that with the release of its latest 1.4 patch for online multiplayer thermonuclear war title DEFCON, PC and Mac players can now play against each online for the first time. Follow April's Linux version release, says Introversion, they too will be able to take part in cross-platform war. Introversion also notes that the Mac version of DEFCON is now on sale online through publisher Ambrosia Software, and that the 1.4 release adds the amBX support announced last November. Finally, they add that a special-edition collectors pack of DEFCON will be headed to UK retailers on June 8th, but no word on a similar pack for North America. - Following the announcement of the next three forthcoming original PlayStation Network titles on 'semi official' Sony blog ThreeSpeech, the site has updated with UK release dates for all three titles. David Jaffe's vehicular multiplayer title Calling All Cars will be headed to the UK PSN on May 18th, followed by Kuju's upcoming biomedical dual-stick shooter Nucleus, with a soundtrack by Rephlex artist Bogdan Raczynski, on May 25th. Finally, Housemarque's 3D update to the classic Amiga shooter, Super Stardust HD will hit the PlayStation Network on June 15th. No word yet on the equivalent North American dates.