• Major games released this week were: WiiWare games for the Wii, Deca Sports for the Wii, Myst for the DS, Rocketmen: It Came from Your Uranus for the XBLA and PSN, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian for the 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, and DS.

• Blizzard has been in the news a lot lately, after the almost $19 billion merger, and the announcement of Blizzard Worldwide Invitational ‘08 in Paris. Now, they’ve announced their next major convention: BlizzCon 08, which will take place in Blizzard’s home state of California in October. Tickets are set to run at $100, and some of the games that are said to be featured are Starcraft II and World of Warcraft’s newest expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. Rumor also wonders that, after Blizzard acquired diablo3.com, if anything new from the Diablo franchise will be announced at this event.

• EA has also been in the news a lot lately, after making an offer to buy Take-Two Interactive, then leading into a hostile takeover. With another deadline approaching fast, it was confirmed that EA has gained the ability to secure a $1 billion loan to aid in the purchase of Take-Two. Take-Two still has yet to have answered to any of EA’s newest offers and claims.

• Konami’s revolutionary dancing video game Dance Dance Revolution is setting up for it’s 10th anniversary this year by announcing three brand new games for many different systems. DanceDanceRevolution X will be coming out on the PlayStation 2, DanceDanceRevolution Universe 3 will be coming out for the Xbox 360, and DanceDanceRevolution Hottest Party 2 will be coming out for the Wii; all this holiday season.

• Konami also announced during Konami’s Gamers’ Day this week that they would be releasing a Rock Band-esk take-off called Rock Revolution in the U.S. While Guitar Hero and Rock Band have been huge hits int he U.s., Konami originally came out with Guitar Freaks and DrumMania in Japan, which got the hype for music games started. Rock Revolution is set to come out on the PS3, 360, Wii, and DS, all containing different unique play-styles.

• Guitar Hero 4, recently announced for every system by Activision, was also announced that they would be copying Rock Band’s instruments and adding in drums and vocals, the drums which are to have three pads and two cymbals, making a total of five pads to hit instead of Rock Band’s four. In addition, Activision announced that players would be able to create their own songs and beats, and upload a limited amount of them so that their friends can play them as well.

• LucasArts joined the growing number of game companies who have decided to leave the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). Unlike Activision Blizzard though, LucasArts said that they would still be attending this year’s E3 convention in July. Other publishers including NCsoft and Foundation 9 also said that they also would not be attending this year’s E3.

• After former Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison stepped down earlier this year, it was confirmed this week that Shuhei Yoshida, former vice president, would be taking over the SCE WWS reigns. Yoshida has been with SCE since 1993, and is well versed in the PlayStation business.

• Konami announced this week that they would be releasing a “Highly Limited Edition” gunmetal gray 40GB PS3, with DualShock 3 controller and the Collector’s Edition of Metal Gear Solid 4 for $599.99. This system goes on sale EXCLUSIVELY on the Konami online store on Monday, May 19th, and is highly limited. In addition, Metal Gear Solid 4 was set golden this week, confirming it’s release date of June 12, 2008. Coming with this announcement was the opening of their new official website, as well as many other events that are to take place in celebration of Solid Snake’s final battle. More details will be announced closer to it’s release date.