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Microsoft has insisted Peter Molyneux’s rumoured to be cancelled Kinect title Project Milo “was never a product” and “was never announced as a game”.

In September Eurogamer brought you the news that the controversial Kinect relationship simulator, revealed at E3 2009, had been cancelled.

We were told the Milo team were to use the Milo tech for a Fable-themed Kinect game.

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On the day of Kinect’s US launch, Microsoft has confirmed that games that combine motion control with traditional controller input are in the works.

Games that utilise “hybrid” control methods exist, Microsoft told GamesIndustry.biz.

“We’ll continue to have controller-only games,” said Alex Kipman, the brain behind the development of Kinect.

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GameSpot testing suggests facial recognition features of Microsoft’s motion-sensing camera system might not work properly for some gamers.

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Arthouse film rental library MUBI arrives on PS3 today in Europe and Australia; 500 films on launch.

After becoming frustrated with the lack of online hubs for independent films, MUBI founder Efe Cakarel decided to create his own online library of independent, indie and arthouse films. Since its launch in 2007, MUBI has become an online community for lovers of indie films, who come to watch, read, share, and discuss with other members.

Now, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCEA) is bringing the MUBI service to the PlayStation 3 in Australia and New Zealand, after launching in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Iberia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, and Nordic countries earlier this week. The service, first announced during Gamescom 2010 in August, will be available to download for free from today. Users will be able to access MUBI’s online database of over 500 films, and stream them directly through the PS3. Films will be available to rent for A$1.75 (US$1.75) for short films and A$6.25 (US$6.27) for feature films for a seven-day period; alternatively, users can sign up for an unlimited 30-day subscription for A$19.95. The average size of a feature film will be about 500 to 600MB.

Christopher Nolan’s Inception may not be arthouse, but it’s good enough to make it onto MUBI’s must-see list.

MUBI’s current library includes work from legendary directors such as D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda’s entire body of work, as well as films from the festival circuits. There are also classics such as Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Pedro Almodovar’s All About My Mother, and newer films such as Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Christopher Nolan’s recent blockbuster hit, Inception.

According to Cakarel, Aussie films make up a quarter of MUBI’s library, including classics like Chopper and older films such as Puberty Blues and Mad Dog Morgan.

The service will also include Facebook integration and sharing recommendations, as well as an integrated link to MUBI’s online community where users can discuss films with other members and interact with directors (like Martin Scorsese, for example, who is a MUBI member). MUBI is also partnered with film studios such as Hopscotch Films. The latter has recently signed a deal to bring new releases to MUBI’s PS3 service day-and-date with DVD releases.

While the films are currently offered in SD only, there are plans to begin an HD service next year.

“MUBI is all about making great films accessible,” Cakarel said. “Part of this is bringing the experience in HD, but at the moment this is not possible with Australia’s broadband speeds.”

SCEA managing director Michael Ephraim was positive that this would not be a problem for much longer, saying internet speeds will be a “non-issue in a year or two” in Australia.

“PS3s now have hit a 1 million install base mark in Australia, with 65 percent of user connected to PSN and 75 percent of users over the age of 18. A service like MUBI is unique and innovative, and we hope will inspire our current fans and bring a new community of film enthusiasts to PlayStation.”

To celebrate its launch on the PS3, MUBI will play host to the global premiere of Revolucion, a compilation of 10 shorts celebrating the centenary of the 1910 Mexican uprising, directed by 10 of Mexico’s most visionary directors including Gael Garcia Bernal, Amat Escalante, Gerardo Naranjo, and Carlos Reygadas. The film will premiere globally on November 20, released simultaneously in cinemas and for free on MUBI.

MUBI is also working on bringing a localised team to Australia, who will improve the service even more.

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Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada addressed the state of Final Fantasy XIV during a recent investor briefing. Wada admitted that there were problems with the title and promised improvements as the company works towards regaining fans’ trust… …

Above: ZeniMax is rumored to have acquired Machinegames, a development studio comprised of a lot of the folks who worked on The Darkness

After buying up Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami’s studio, Tango Game Works, earlier this week, it appears that id and Bethesda owner ZeniMax may have bought yet another studio, Machinegames… …

Sequel to 2006 film based on third installment of Konami’s horror series in preproduction at Lionsgate, Michael J. Bassett to write, direct.

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As promised last month, Bungie has lifted the level cap for Halo: Reach.

The developer said it would raise the bar above Lt Colonel Grade Three once 117 million daily and weekly million challenges had been completed. That target has duly been smashed.

A post on Bungie’s website read, “49 days and more than a few million Challenges later, you’ve totally decapitated the Rank cap in Halo: Reach. That means there are now more kick ass Rank and Armor options available in the Armory than ever before.

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Good news for Darksiders fans: publisher THQ has confirmed a sequel is in development. Bad news for Darksiders fans: it wont be out until 2012 at the earliest.

Speaking at an investor call, CEO Brain Farrell announced, “For fiscal 2013 we plan to release a sequel to our critically acclaimed Darksiders game and will be unveiling more details about Darksiders 2 in the future.”

For those unfamiliar with the concept of a fiscal year, that means you’ll be playing it at some point between 1st April 2012 and 31st March 2013.

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Resident Evil creator talks buyout of Tango Gameworks by Bethesda Softworks parent, saying first project will be the last AAA title he directs.

Last week, Bethesda Softworks parent ZeniMax Media made the surprise announcement that it had acquired Tango Gameworks, a game development house helmed by Resident Evil creator and Vanquish director Shinji Mikami. Though terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Mikami’s studio focuses on AAA multiplatform game development.

Shinji Mikami

In an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu (relayed by 1up), Mikami filled in more of the how and why he became evolved with ZeniMax, which is based in Maryland. According to Mikami, he had begun shopping his studio around at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

“I had been looking for a new business partner before all this, so I contacted 10 or so companies during E3, both Japanese and elsewhere,” he said. “Bethesda was the best match among them because they gave us the most independent development environment to work with as we pursue our goal of producing Japanese games that work worldwide–that, and their track record when it comes to overseas sales.”

The reason for he was searching for a business partner, Mikami said, was so that his studio wouldn’t have to deal with financial pressure.

“We didn’t want to have to live hand to mouth as a studio,” he said. “If we did that, we’d have to take on work we weren’t interested in just to pay the bills. That would then force us to expand our staff, and before you know it, we’d be thinking ‘This isn’t how we meant it to go.’ I gathered the people around me now in order to create the best worldwide market-driven development studio possible–the independence of that studio is secondary to that goal. I decided that we’d all be happier if we could take this shortcut to creating the great games we want to create.”

As for ZeniMax’s end of the deal, Bethesda Asia GM Tetsu Takahashi said that Mikami’s availability was a windfall. “We’ve been publishing titles from overseas studios in Japan for a while,” he said. “But one of our other goals was to publish Japanese games overseas if we found the right content match. However, it’s pretty hard to find creators whose work can really be appreciated around the world.”

While neither Takahashi nor Mikami were willing to discuss the studio’s first project under the Bethesda label, they did indicate that it will be a big-budget endeavor.

“That’s the only sort of title we’re interested in,” Takahashi said. “Any such project is going to involve tens of millions of dollars either way, so instead of cutting dev time and features and hoping for a million copies sold, it’s better to take your time, make something great, and aim for 5 million instead. We believe that there’s actually less risk when you do it that way.”

Lastly, Mikami noted that this project could be the last big-budget project he’ll direct. “That’s something I was planning for from the start,” he said. “I can only last for so long handling both director and company president duties, and besides, I want to give our younger developers a chance. Knowing that, of course, makes me want to put all of my experience, my energy, and everything else I’ve got into this game. I’m pretty lucky that [Bethesda] was willing to accept that, too. Too many publishers are only interested in the very near future, after all.”

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