Connect is dead. Long live whatever this thing is gonna be called!

The Financial Times (registration required) is reporting that Sony’s set to hop back into the ring with Apple’s 800 lb. gorilla iTunes service for a second round after its Connect service came back in a body bag. Apparently, the new service will ask for some form of subscription fee in exchange for both music and videos, and is set to debut during the IFA technology show in Berlin, which begins later today.

According to the report, the service is scheduled to launch on PS3 and PSP sometime next year, with plans to expand onto other devices from Sony’s magical tech toy factory like Bravia TVs, Ericsson phones, and Vaio computers.

So basically, it’s the good old PlayStation Trojan Horse Gambit  version 3.0. First there was DVD on PS2, then Blu-Ray on PS3, and now a media service. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and there are certainly worse ways to force your way into a tough market.

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As it turns out, quite a few people are fans of this whole “not having to pay a subscription fee” thing. Who’da guessed?

Speaking with Joystiq, an NCSoft rep pegged Guild Wars’ current sales total at over 6.5 million, which, using our impressive knowledge of big numbers, conclusively proves that the game’s sold – prepare for some incredibly scientific jargon – a lot.

According to the rep, NCSoft has Europe to plant a sloppy wet kiss on for about half those sales, with Germany’s fan base being large enough that it’d probably take the smooch without any weird looks or confusing nights of soul-searching.

Guild War’s lost a bit of its shine over the years, however. There’s no doubting that. But hey, that’s what Guild Wars 2 is for! So, when’s it dropping? Well, while the official word from the top is 2011, the rep pulled out an encyclopedia of game development cliches and pointed to the oldest one in the book: “when it’s done.” NCSoft, the rep explained, is well aware that an MMO as unique as Guild Wars 2 can’t show up on shelves undercooked.

So wait, no subscription fee and no day-one deluge of crash-fixing patches? What kind of MMO is this?

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Konami has confirmed its Tokyo Game Show line-up, which runs from September 16-19.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising will be there. Rest easy, darlings.

Here’s the games on-hand in full, although Konami didn’t note which would or wouldn’t be playable:

Konami titles

• Otomedius Excellent
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
• Adrenaline Misfits
• Zack & Ombra: The Phantom Amusement Park
• DanceEvolution
• Magician’s Quest: The Apprentice Home of Sorcery
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Titles from partner companies

• The Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki (Falcom)
• Catherine (Atlus)
• Metal Fight Beyblade (Hudson)
• Metal Fight Beyblade Portable (Hudson)
• Momotaro Dentetsu World (Hudson)
• UFC Undisputed 2010 (Yukes)

Thanks, Siliconera.

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UK-based studio Team 17 has said it’s planning to increase the number of downloadable games it produces, and forgo boxed products in the future.

Speaking with MCV, Team 17 co-founder Martyn Brown said the firm has “no ambitions to return to retail publishing”.

“Digital distribution has allowed easy and direct access to the game for millions of customers at a time when it has become difficult to get attention at retail,” he said.

To focus on the digital aspect of the business, Team 17 restructured its management team with both new recruits and internal promotions.

Debbie Bestwick is now both managing director as well as sales and marketing director, and Martyn Brown will serve as business development director.

Paul Kilburn will work as head of production, John Dennis as head of design, and Mark Baldwin is the new community manager.

Paul Bray and Alan Perrie, two of the newest recruits will serve as finance and operations director and head of global marketing, respectively.

Team 17 will also work witj independent developers in bringing IPs to XBL, PSN, Apple’s App store, and others.

“I think that given the general malaise of the third party publisher ‘work-for-hire’ market, it is no surprise that a lot of developers are heading towards digital publishing as some kind of saviour,” added Brown.

“We are actively involved in working with other independent studios to publish their IP. This is a key aspect of our strategy going forward. We now have the right structure and team in place to accomplish this.”

The latest from Team 17, Worms Reloaded, was released on Steam last week, and a Mac version is being worked on.

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Industry analyst Michael Pachter has weighed in the Xbox Live subscription increase, and predicts Microsoft will offer a $100 Platinum service in the future.

Pachter – who correctly predicted the $10 price increase last year – said the new price point will allow Microsoft to reinvest these earnings back into the service in order to offer more enhancements down the line.

“The extra $10 translates to around $100 – 150 million per year in additional revenue for Microsoft,” he told Industry Gamers. “I think that they will reinvest at least this much in developing other new applications, and will roll out a premium service with $100 – 200 million worth of enhancements.

“If they can get 2 million users to switch from the $60 plan to the $100 plan, they’ll make an extra $80 million a year, and can keep investing to try to grow that business.”

Pachter believes these enhanced offers could include extras like IPTV or similar functionality down the line, virtual credits, or even iTunes management through Xbox 360.

“The Xbox 360 can work as a media center, and conceivably could do things like managing a music library,” he said. “Although Apple and Microsoft aren’t the best of friends, I could see Apple letting Xbox Live members manage their iTunes accounts through their 360s, and other such premium services.

“I’m not the guy to speculate as to what they will offer (for example, I didn’t even know ESPN 3 existed before it was announced for the 360), but I’m sure that there are many talented and creative people at Microsoft working on such a plan right now.

“For all I know, the Platinum plan might include virtual goods credits for various Microsoft games. If members could get specialized Halo armor or weapons worth the extra $40, they might be more willing to sign up, and it doesn’t really cost Microsoft anything to offer things like that.

“As far as other media center applications, I think we’ll see baby steps on IPTV before we see a full roll-out of a cable-like service. More channels like ESPN 3, perhaps they will offer HBO Go or something similar. There are a lot of emerging services like Hulu, Epix, perhaps a premium YouTube service.

“I think that the possibilities are limitless, although it’s a bit early to speculate on what precisely they will offer.”

The new Xbox Live pricing goes into effect on November 1, but if you are a current Gold member, you can lock in your current price with an additional discount for $39.99.

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According to a post over on the Blizzard forums, World of Warcraft will no longer support older PowerPC Macs once Cataclysm is released.

Per a notice posted by Jessicalu in the Mac support forums, the patch is due to be released before the expansion:

A little forewarning to those of you that play World of Warcraft on these systems.

Shortly before the release of Cataclysm, a patch will be released in which PowerPC processor based Macs will no longer be supported.

This update indicates the removal of PowerPC support from World of Warcraft.

Attempting to run the game after the update will bring up a message stating the hardware is no longer supported, and the game will not run.

Likely, this will only apply to a few, as most Mac users own Intel-based systems now and days.

The beta test for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is currently underway, and a release date is expected to be announced “in the months ahead” – meaning BlizzCon more likely than not.

Via IncGamers.

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Jeremy Dunham, senior community manager for Zipper Interactive, has announced over on the official MAG blog that extra character slots are now available.

As promised last month, starting today, those who log into MAG see two additional slots below their original default character.

Here’s the rundown:

For $0.99 per added slot, players can select the extra character they want to unlock and create a brand new persona. These supplementary character subscriptions will last for 30 days from the day they’ve been purchased, but don’t fret if you decide not to renew one or both of them immediately. Once your extra characters have been created, they reside safely dormant on the MAG server until activated for subscription once again.

The slots will not be live until the PSN is updated, so if you don’t see the slots right away, check back later.

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Final Fantasy XII executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu has claimed the problem facing the Japanese game market today is a lack of “passion” due to overwhelming development costs and market trends.

Speaking in a interview with Nintendo Power magazine, Kawazu feels it takes more than one person on a team to “keep up with all the skills necessary for game development”, while maintaining the confidence needed to “stick with their vision”.

“Aside from a few well-known titles, games from Japan are receiving less and less attention, regardless of if it’s an RPG or not,” he said. “I feel that it has something to do with the marketing abilities of Japanese publishers, as well as the games themselves.

“The technology is not on par with Western games, and it also seems like developers are losing their passion to stick with their vision because they are being overwhelmed by costs or market trends.

“It’s necessary for each individual developer to constantly be up-to-date with the latest computer and game technologies. It is also important for development teams and groups as a whole to support technological advancement. It is impossible for one person to keep up with all the skills necessary for game development on his own.

“On top of this, developers need to take on a project with the confidence and strength to stick with their vision. Everything I mentioned here applies to me personally, as well, and they are all things I would like to bring to fruition with my next project.”

That’s a shame, really, but at least he didn’t claim the Japanese industry was “finished like Inafune did at TGS last year or “dying” like Itagaki said earlier this month.

However, it sounds like Capcom’s Jun Takeuchi had it right when he said unless the Japanese games industry evolves and keeps up with western games development, it doesn’t have a “hope in hell”.

Hopefully, it will all get sorted soon.

Thanks, GoNintendo, Kotaku.

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