The Xbox 360 has topped 70 million units sold, though this past quarter hasn't been very profitable for Microsoft.

Microsoft’s latest quarterly financial report has been issued and it includes drastically contrasting news for the company. On the one hand, the Xbox 360 division has reached an impressive sales milestone, while on the other Xbox 360 sales have seen a significant decline in the recent past.

First, the good news: According to Microsoft, the company has sold over 70 million Xbox 360 consoles since the machine’s debut in November of 2005. That’s enough to put it in the number eight position, just behind the PlayStation Portable, on the all-time list of best-selling video game machines. Not too shabby, though it should be pointed out that the Xbox 360 has enjoyed a longer relevant lifespan than the vast majority of earlier video game consoles. Historically it has been rare for any one machine to survive more than five years without being replaced by a newer version, but here we are almost seven years after the Xbox 360 launch and Microsoft has yet to announce a successor.

And that brings us to the bad news: Those same financial reports also point out that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 division hasn’t been doing so well lately. Over the last financial quarter, the company sold only 1.7 million Xbox 360s. That seems like an impressive number, but it’s actually a 29-percent decline over the same time period last year. Further, the Xbox 360 division posted total revenues of $1.95 billion, which again would be impressive if it wasn’t a one-percent decline from 2011.

The reasons for this revenue dip are myriad, but chiefly the console has been suffering from a lack of blockbuster titles in recent months. Here in October, where we just witnessed the release of both Dishonored and XCOM: Enemy Unknown in a single day, it seems like the console is overflowing with promising, lucrative games, but if you’ll recall this summer you’ll likely remember that it was something of a relatively dead period for the machine. Microsoft can’t really be faulted for this, as it seems the result of developers and publishers holding back their best titles until they might reap those big holiday shopping season dollars, but it does seem to have a solution. The November 6 release of Halo 4 is likely to change these numbers quite a bit, and while we don’t see it directly causing as many Xbox 360 sales as Halo 3 did way back in 2007, we imagine Microsoft is looking forward to the month of November with cartoonish money signs in its eyes.

When BioWare inevitably gets around to creating the next game set in the expansive Mass Effect universe, you shouldn't expect to see Commander Shepard in a starring role.

Picture Mass Effect in your mind. Got it? Okay, so it seems like a safe bet that what you’re currently imagining is either EA’s default iteration of Commander Shepard (seen glaring above) or your own personalized version of the character. One way or another, you’re imagining the protagonist of the Mass Effect series to date, and why shouldn’t you? In a franchise full of weird aliens and space-age technology, Shepard has always been the most relatable, reliable, human element of BioWare’s series.

Unfortunately, it seems that with the release of the Wii U iteration of Mass Effect 3 on November 18, Commander Shepard will have led his last mission to the stars. According to BioWare, the next Mass Effect game will feature an entirely new protagonist.

Fabrice Condominas, a producer at BioWare Montreal, was recently asked by VG247 where the developer goes next with the Mass Effect series. Obviously it’s a very successful money-making franchise, so neither BioWare nor publisher EA would want to see it just drop off the radar completely, right? While the developer may not have solid plans in place for new Mass Effect game, Condominas did offer a glimpse at what the firm is currently thinking.

“There is one thing we are absolutely sure of — there will be no more Shepard, and the trilogy is over,” Condominas said. “This is really our starting point. Now, the Mass Effect universe is vast, and very, very rich. So at this point in time, we don’t even know what kind of time frame we’re going to be in. All we’re doing is more gathering ideas from the teams, gathering feedback to see several things.”

“So first, we don’t want to make ‘Shepard 2′, or Mass Effect 4 with like, ‘Oh there’s no more Shepard but you’re a soldier in the universe’. So this will be a very, very different context for sure, and nothing has been decided on the rest,” he adds.

Alright, so BioWare is in the very early stages of production on this thing — specifically, the studio is still brain-storming ideas — but as of yet has not decided on who might be the lead character for the next Mass Effect title. That’s to be expected, but more crucially it offers fans a window of opportunity to speculate on who/what should be the hero of the next game. 

Obviously there are myriad reasons to make the next Mass Effect lead a human. Familiarity is a useful trait in the exotic Mass Effect universe, and we doubt that many players would be able to feel much emotional attachment to a creepy, insectoid alien. That said, we’re growing increasingly excited about the possibility that the next Mass Effect game might star an extraterrestrial. Sure, the writers would have to do a bit more work to convey emotional resonance, and the game’s lack of a recognizable human star might impact its sales, but think of how cool it would be to explore the complex alien cultures Mass Effect’s creators have built over the past decade as one of the aliens themselves. 

Regardless of which direction BioWare takes with this hypothetical game, it is still very hypothetical. You wont likely see a new Mass Effect game for the next few years, so try not to get too involved in planning this thing out within your own minds. We’ll let you know when/if BioWare opts to release further details on this title.

Microsoft is excited to release its tablet line-up along with Windows 8 next week, but it want to make sure it gets the Surface in as many hands as possible. Reports show a voucher program that may be in place to move units on launch day.

The happiest moment of Charlie Bucket’s life was finding the Golden Ticket that allowed him to tour Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Microsoft fans are finding their dream ticket is more of a light blue color. PC World is reporting a post on the WPCentral forums has revealed a voucher that is redeemable for a Surface RT tablet on its launch day, October 26.

There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding the actual program that the certificate appears to be a part of, but the directions on the card make its purpose pretty clear. The holder of the voucher is guaranteed a Surface with Windows RT as long as he or she shows up before noon on October 26. Obviously, purchase is still necessary, as the voucher isn’t currency. 

The original poster in the WPCentral forums stated his belief that it is likely early in the voucher-for-tablet program as his particular voucher was stamped with a “002″ at the bottom, signifying it is one of the first his particular retailer had given out. Follow up research has yielded information that supports this idea, as it seems most Microsoft Store employees haven’t even heard of these certificates. They are not a part of a pre-order program and appear as though they weren’t meant for mass consumption — they were meant to be handed out by managers, likely as a way to incentivize launch day purchases.

Sales shouldn’t be a major issue for Microsoft, as it appears on its site that the 32GB model of the Surface with Windows RT without the cover already has a 3 week shipping delay due to demand. Pre-orders are still available for launch day for the 32GB model with a Black Touch cover and 64GB with Black Touch Cover.

It's official: Planetside 2 is only about a month away from release.

 After what seems like years of waiting, we finally have a release date for Sony Online Entertainment’s upcoming massively multiplayer online shooter Planetside 2: November 20, 2012.

“Planetside 2 is without a doubt the next great MMOFPS and I believe it heralds the next phase and future of the gaming industry,” said SOE president John Smedley in the official press release. “External beta participants have experienced first-hand the sweeping implications that Planetside 2’s unrelenting action gameplay and large-scale mixed infantry, air, and ground vehicle combat have had on the advancement of the FPS genre. By providing an enormous magnitude of multiplayer action gameplay and features, we are fostering a community of passionate, engaged players and delivering an experience they have never before encountered, but always envisioned, in an online shooter: massive, player-driven combat warfare on unparalleled thousand player battlefields.”

Obviously Smedley would be excited about this game as that’s part of his job. We however are a bit hesitant to get our hopes up. Planetside 2 has long been planned as a free to play massively multiplayer game, however as we outlined in October there are some seriously tempting benefits only available to those who shell out actual cash-money for the game. Among other things, those that drop real-world dollars on Planetside 2 will receive priority access to the game’s login queue, 25 to 50 percent increases in experience points gained during gameplay and a similar boost in the number of resources your character accrues for his or her side of the sprawling planetary conflict. Granted, these bonuses will set you back $15 per month, but it’s still pretty easy to see that players who opt to enjoy the game totally gratis are getting the short end of the stick.

That said, we still have hope that Planetside 2 will be a quality gaming experience. In September we published this preview of the game’s then-current beta iteration and things looked very intriguing. “After spending some time with the beta — where money hasn’t yet entered the equation — it is obvious there are things that work, and things that might work, but remain to be seen,” we wrote at the time, seemingly predicting that the inevitably release of the game’s subscription details would put a damper on the potential entertainment value found in the title.

However you feel about Planetside 2, at least now you have a release date to look forward to, right? Those of you who hold out anxious hope for the game will be happy to know that you’ll be able to get your hands on the final version of the MMOFPS on November 20, while those of you who abhor the game’s transparent money-grubbing can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that after November 20 you’ll never have to read another giddy preview for a game whose economic system you can’t bring yourself to accept.

Social networking addicts beware: The new Xbox 360 dashboard update removes both Twitter and Facebook from the console.

 

Whenever your Xbox 360 updates to the latest edition of the console’s dashboard software (Microsoft started a gradual roll-out of the update last week), you may initially be impressed by the new color scheme, or the dashboard’s clean aesthetic. Sadly, when you attempt to use Twitter to tell your friends all about it from the comfort of your couch, you may be dismayed to find that the world’s most famous micro-blogging site is nowhere to be found. Alarmed, you’ll immediately start digging through features on the new dashboard in a mad rush to warn your Facebook friends of the apparent Twitter-napping, but will be stymied there yet again. Microsoft, it seems, has removed both applications from its flagship console, and would instead prefer that users access their various social networking sites by using the Xbox 360′s Internet Explorer web browser.

“We are retiring the Facebook and Twitter apps,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Neowin after the omission was discovered. “Xbox LIVE subscribers will have the ability to access these sites through Internet Explorer on Xbox, available through the Web Hub located on the new dashboard.”

Before you obsessive Twitter users freak out, there are a few points you should know. First, if you already have the Twitter or Facebook applications stored on your Xbox 360, the new dashboard will continue to display them in your list of software just as the old dashboard did (at least as long as you don’t delete them). Second, as Neowin points out, the added functionality of this new dashboard means that you can take those existing programs and pin them directly to your home page for easy access. Again, this is assuming you never, ever delete them.

If you do delete them however, there seems to be no way to get them back. Though both Twitter and Facebook remain on the Xbox 360′s list of content partners, neither application can be found or downloaded within the new Xbox 360 dashboard. 

While a loss of functionality is always terrible, this particular situation raises more questions than anger within us. Quick survey: How many of you ever used either the Twitter or Facebook applications for any extended period of time? We’ve fired them up to check out their functionality, and occasionally out of boredom, but we don’t think we’ve ever met anyone who conducted a large segment of their social networking via Xbox 360 (or any gaming machine, for that matter). With that in mind, we have to wonder if anyone will actually miss these programs. Please, if we’re wrong let us know, but without even any anecdotal evidence that people have extensively used these things in the past, we’re having trouble seeing this move as a massive loss.

The people responsible for The Witcher have announced a title for their next project that places it firmly in Mike Pondsmith's dystopian Cyberpunk universe.

Polish developer CD Project RED is making something of a name for itself by adapting other people’s fiction to its own meticulously crafted roleplaying video games. The two Witcher games to date are both adaptations of author Andrzej Sapkowski’s short stories, and they’re among the top handful of roleplaying titles released in the last decade. Now the company is setting its sights on something a bit less medieval, and a bit more futurisitic.

According to a press release issued by CD Projekt RED representatives, the company’s next game will feature the title “Cyberpunk 2077.” As you old-school pen and paper roleplaying fans might have surmised, this isn’t just a catchy title, it also indicates that CD Projekt RED’s game is going to be an adaptation of the Cyberpunk roleplaying game created by Mike Pondsmith.

So what is Cyberpunk? It’s a bit hard to describe, but imagine a dystopian, technology-reliant world in which all of our modern science has been taken to crazy extremes and class schisms are even more vast than they are currently. Sort of like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, only with more freedom for players to change the outcome of the story.

While we know very little about this game (the title is the most concrete evidence of its existence that we’ve seen to date), CD Projekt was kind enough to offer vague promises on what fans might see in Cyberpunk 2077. “Players will be thrown into the dark future of the year 2077 and into a world where advanced technologies have become both the salvation and the curse of humanity,” the studio states. “A multi-thread, nonlinear story designed for mature players (a CD Projekt RED trademark) will take place in the sprawling metropolis of Night City and its surroundings. Players will have a chance to visit places well known from ‘Cyberpunk 2020,’ including a combat zone completely taken over by gangs, the legendary Afterlife joint and the nostalgic Forlorn Hope.”

Nostalgic locations! Nonlinear story! That’s all welcome news, particularly for those who already love the Cyberpunk universe, but more intriguing is CD Projekt RED’s assertion that the game will feature “freedom of action and diversity in gameplay” thanks to “the sandbox nature of the game and mechanics inspired by the ‘Cyberpunk 2020′ pen-and-paper system, fine tuned to meet the requirements of a modern RPG.” Though this doesn’t indicate whether “sandbox” in this case is referring to a Grand Theft Auto-style, completely open world that allows players to explore any location at will, or if it is instead referring to the relatively open-world style of the Witcher games, we could see either design working quite nicely for this game.

Unfortunately, this press release is missing a few key details, such as when we might expect to see this game on shelves, what platforms it will be available for and how much it might cost at debut, but given this thing’s nascent production it’s likely going to be a while before any of us are shooting up Night City. We’ll keep you updated as information appears, but in the meantime feel free to visit the game’s newly launched website. There’s not much up there, but at least it gives you some place to start building anticipation.

In an effort to expand the Silent Hill franchise Konami has created a game that veers way off track.

Silent Hill: Book Of Memories is an odd game. Not in the traditional way that a Silent Hill game is supposed to be odd either. I expect men with geometrically-pleasing heads and unrealistically large knives in Silent Hill titles, much as I expect turtles in a Mario Bros. game. What I don’t expect however, is an entirely new gameplay system.

Instead of the traditional third-person creeping punctuated with brief moments of horrific violence that we’ve come to expect from Konami’s flagship horror franchise, Book Of Memories is a dungeon crawl. Imagine a slower version of Diablo with even more nightmarish enemies and a notable undercurrent of psychological horror, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect in Book Of Memories.

Normally that might sound appealing on its own, but in this context it’s a very jarring shift. However, that’s not the biggest problem with Book Of Memories, and even those for whom dungeon crawlers are catnip should think hard about grabbing for this game.

Not Your Daddy’s Survival Horror

Changes to the Silent Hill formula are apparent from the moment you start the game. After you’ve clicked through the suitably eerie title screen and sat through the game’s interminably long load times, you’ll be prompted to create a character. Normally Silent Hill games relish dropping players into the shoes of a psychologically damaged, well-defined protagonist, but in this case you’re free to select from styles like “Rocker,” “Goth” and “Jock” in your efforts to create your perfect Silent Hill avatar. If you’re curious whether this change inhibits the game’s ability to connect players with the strife of a game’s given protagonist, yes. Yes it does. At least when compared to past Silent Hill games.

Once you’ve finished polishing your virtual self, you’re tasked with tapping one of the icons the game presents you with. There’s no content for what these icons do, nor any reason to suspect that you should tap the screen. The game has a habit of expecting players to know ahead of time when they should be using the touchscreen, but once you know this you realize that at any time you find yourself stuck, you may as well try touching stuff on the game’s screen. Book Of Memories gives little in the way of in-play instructions, so blindly tapping at things is how I discovered that my character can pick up items.

Which brings up a good point: While some dead monsters leave behind glowing treasure chests that can be pillaged for items and cash, for the most part you’ll only discover new stuff (especially stuff that’s relevant to the game’s relatively meager plot) by walking right up to it and noticing a small notification bubble appear on screen. Problematically, if you’re walking quickly these bubbles may only appear for half a second, forcing characters to repeatedly walk back and forth over the same area before finally discovering the proper location. Then, without any warning, players must tap the screen to pick up their new-found goodie.

Gameplay-wise Book Of Memories is a standard dungeon crawl with Silent Hill decorations. There’s just no way around it. Instead of cowering from monsters and conserving ammo, talented players are able to straight up punch their demonic foes to death. Silent Hill players wouldn’t expect this to be a sound strategy, but since the game also includes a surprisingly useful block button and features a 3/4 overhead perspective ideal for moving away from foes quickly, combat in Book Of Memories is almost simple action game fare.

While this whole concept still seems odd, I will grant that developer WayForward made a good decision in not giving characters a traditional “level up” system. No matter how far you get into Book Of Memories, your character will remain rather fragile. New weapons and items might make him or her less likely to die in a fight, but your avatar will never become too powerful for any one creature to kill in pretty short order. 

Memories Of The Past

Despite the massive shift in gameplay style, Book Of Memories isn’t entirely lacking in the sorts of things that Silent Hill fans crave (read: lots of gore and unsettling themes). As you’re wandering through the various rooms of this game — which, when taken as a whole bear a passing, thematic similarity to the rooms seen in Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night – you might stumble upon a creepy little girl. This girl will most likely have a task for you (most other dungeon crawls would call this a “quest”) and you’re free to take it on or ignore it. Most often these tasks will be gruesome or expose some new facet of the horror your character is involved in, so while they don’t seem to have any true effect on the game’s plot, they’re still intriguing diversions.

The game’s enemies are all either returning Silent Hill beasts or brand new creations that do an excellent job of mimicking the series’ horrors to date. Likewise, the design of the areas in Book Of Memories faithfully depicts the franchise’s dark horror themes. Lastly, with characters lacking any real way to improve their vitality, Book Of Memories maintains the Silent Hill series’ tradition of forcing players to constantly keep track of how low their health has become.

Still, Book Of Memories is a drastic departure from its predecessors and it just doesn’t really fit with Silent Hill as a whole. When your view of a character is from ten feet above his or her head and taking out the next enemy is as easy as throwing a couple punches, dodging, then swinging a broken board, it’s very difficult to feel any sense of fear or tension. It also doesn’t help that Book Of Memories is the least plot-reliant Silent Hill game in memory, a fact that is highlighted by those who choose to play through Book Of Memories with a group of pals via the game’s multiplayer functionality. Rushing through a Silent Hill game with three friends and guns blazing removes a lot of the horror you might expect to find.

Conclusion

While it may not be what most Silent Hill fans are looking for, Book Of Memories is a relatively solid dungeon crawl. Given my affection for WayForward (the developer behind the awesome Contra 4) I wish I could say that this might attract new players to the series, but Book Of Memories is also plagued with a number of minor gameplay issues, too many to recommend it based purely on gameplay. I understand what WayForward was going for here, but in a world where Diablo, Borderlands and Torchlight all exist, Book Of Memories comes up way short.

Whether you wanted deep psychological horror or a deep dungeon crawl, Book Of Memories is far from your best option. It’s not that it’s necessarily bad, it’s just so bland and average that this game hardly bears mentioning.

Score: 5/10

(This game was reviewed using a PS Vita copy provided by Konami.)

Own a Sony Xperia smartphone and looking forward to Jelly Bean? Bad news, then. It seems that Android 4.1 won’t be making its way to Xperia devices until early 2013, according to Sony.

Even worse news, several handsets won’t be getting the upgrade at all. This includes the Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, and Xperia Neo. We do know for sure that the Xperia T, TX and V will get the update, though.

While it isn’t that out of place for older devices to not make the cut for major upgrades on Android, many of the Sony handsets that won’t see Jelly Bean aren’t even a year old at this point. If Sony wants to continue to enjoy success in the Android world they might want to step up their game a bit.

For those that are lucky enough to get Jelly Bean early next year, there is a lot to look forward to. From the voice-based search functionality in Google Now to the project Butter speed improvements– there is a lot to love with 4.1. Not enough? There are also improvements to the keyboard, notifications and a heck of a lot more.

For many Xperia fans this will be bittersweet news. Some will be glad that their device is covered, others very angry that they are going to be left out in the dark. What do you think?

After getting off to a brisk start, Apple's international release of the iPhone 5 has ground to a halt. Though it was hailed as the fastest product rollout yet, the phone on sale in fewer countries after a longer period of time than the iPhone 4S. What's going on?

Many Apple fans around the world are beginning to ask “where the hell is my iPhone 5?” Why? Because after Apple’s brisk iPhone 5 launch a month ago, the company seems to have put is international rollout on hold, as the phone has failed to materialize in any additional countries, other than those mentioned during the launch event.

Apple is keeping very quiet on the subject too, perhaps because it boasted the iPhone 5 would be its fastest product rollout ever. Bold words that were perhaps a little premature, because right now, it’s slower than the iPhone 4S.

Sure, the iPhone 5 has been popular but this is Apple’s sixth iPhone and all of them have had bigger launches than their predecessors, so it’s unlikely to have under-estimated demand. Instead, it over-estimated Foxconn’s ability to glue and screw the things together, which combined with a complex manufacturing process and a desire to “fix” its forthcoming financial report, has put undue strain on the supply. Unsurprisingly, it has fallen over, and the international rollout has stopped.

To illustrate the problem, let’s compare the release schedule of the iPhone 4S with the iPhone 5.

iPhone 4S rollout

Apple announced the iPhone 4S on October 4 2011, and it went on sale in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Germany and Japan on October 14. The next set of 22 countries joined it on October 28, and they were Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Apple announced both these dates and the relevant countries during it’s October 4 event.

On November 1, Apple announced the next set of countries to receive the iPhone 4S. Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania and South Korea would all get the device on November 11.

That’s 29 days between both announcements and release dates to put the iPhone 4S into 43 countries.

iPhone 5 rollout so far

Here’s the same breakdown for the iPhone 5. It was announced on September 12 2012, and the USA, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK all received it on September 21. Then, on September 28, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland all got theirs too.

Since the iPhone 5 was announced, 38 days have passed and the device has gone on sale in 31 countries, and no further release plans have been announced. While that initial run was fast, it has now stopped dead in its tracks.

Apple’s Phil Schiller called the iPhone 5 the company’s fastest rollout ever. Sorry, Phil, but that doesn’t appear to be the case at the moment. Apple still has time to recover though, as it has committed to putting the iPhone 5 into 100 different countries by the end of the year, which means it still has plenty of time to meet its target. The iPhone 4S made it into 70 countries before the end of 2011, something it achieved with three weeks less time available.

Delivery delays

For those of you living in a country with the iPhone 5, head over to your online Apple Store of choice and you’ll find there’s a 3 to 4 week wait for the phone. Apple loves it when demand outstrips supply, but it’s probably less happy about making its customers wait for a month before they get their phones. Situations vary, and some may get their phones earlier than expected, but these delivery dates have been in place since the iPhone 5 went on sale.

Looking back to the iPhone 4S, MacStories noted that when pre-orders started on October 28 2011 for the second batch of countries, delivery was estimated to be between 1 and 2 weeks. On November 11, by which time the iPhone 4S was available in 43 countries, Mashable showed a screenshot for delivery times of an unlocked 4S in the United States. Guess what? It was 1 to 2 weeks.

Production delays affecting Apple’s grand plan, or vice versa?

A report by Fortune says Apple pushed to get the iPhone 5 into 31 countries before the end of September, so sales would count in its Q4 2012 financial report and see the device break previous sales records. There was probably much rubbing of hands at the thought of the headlines, but surely the plan would have been toned down if Apple had any idea supply was going to be so restricted.

The gamble may not have worked out quite as well as it hoped either, as analysts are reducing their forecasts ahead of Apple’s fourth quarter results, due two days after its October 23 event. On average, iPhone 5 sales predictions have dropped from the low-30 million mark to the mid-20s.

While Apple wanted to grab itself an easy headline, production delays certainly weren’t part of the plan. A Foxconn executive told The Wall Street Journal that the iPhone 5 is “the most difficult device [the company] has ever assembled,” citing Apple’s demanding quality checks and complex design as issues slowing down production.

The ease with which the casing is scratched is also causing problems, as Apple’s strict quality control has seen more cases rejected and assemblers take longer over each stage; a good thing overall, but bad for getting devices out the door.

Then there are reports of workers at the factories going on strike over conditions, where as many as 4,000 employees were reported to have stopped making iPhones altogether. Foxconn denies the strikes took place, but China Labor Watch says otherwise.

So when will the international rollout continue?

Apple hasn’t said when the next round of sales will commence. China Unicom said it would be putting the iPhone 5 on sale within three months of its initial release, so we can estimate it to be sometime during December. A report by BGR.in says that the iPhone 5 is set to go on sale in India on October 26, and that it would only be available through Apple.

The upcoming October 23 event is a prime opportunity for Apple to talk about the next wave of iPhone releases, and an October 26 release date puts it the day after the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. It’s going to have to get moving too, as there are still 69 countries to go before it meets its own, self-imposed target for the year.

But production issues won’t be solved overnight, leaving us to wonder whether Foxconn can manage another clutch of countries. Apple’s eternal quest to be “number one” may backfire so badly that the rest of the world will also be 3 to 4 weeks away from getting an iPhone 5 through the new year.

Telefonica-backed startup Six3 wants to bring video messaging to the masses with its new app -- which lies somewhere between Skype and Viddy.

UK-based, 14-month-old startup Six3 wants to shake up the messaging platform by adding video the mix, and with a backer like Telefonica, the largest telecommunications companies in the world, it might just be able to. There isn’t a direct competitor with any existing mobile app out there, so Six3 describes itself as a hybrid between Whatsapp and Viddy and hopes to be a game changer that opens up a market of users communicating strictly through short video messages.

There are undoubtedly countless messaging and video sharing apps out there, and Six3’s CEO and co-founder Tim Grimsditch categorizes them into three buckets. First there are one-to-one video chatting services, but Grimsditch says that the growth for those companies is slow since users “tend to stick to very tight circles using that service.”

In bucket two are the Instagram-for-video apps. The most well known in this market are services like Viddy or Mobli. Those apps, however, are about producing quality content. Six3 is about bite-sized messages and quick communication.

The third bucket is filled by the all-in-one communication services like Whatsapp and Skype. These apps tend to “focus all of their energy behind a piece of their service that they’re famous for,” says Grimsditch. The video part of a messaging service like Whatsapp, he explains, is weak. “We’re a tiny team with small resources, yet our video messages are twice as fast as Whatsapp.”

Internationally, particularly in Asia, there’s been a lot of experimentation with new types of chat apps — a popular one being WeChat. Its users are so accustomed to its unique voice messaging feature that I was told few WeChat users in China even send text messages anymore. Six3 wants to do something similar by targeting an untapped niche. “[We're] a platform to communicate with video messages in a way that’s easy, mobile, lets people decide on private or public messaging, and lets people use it within their existing network,” says Grimsditch.

Using the app is as simple. You can select a colored filter, record your video for a maximum of 63 seconds (which is where Six3’s name comes from), select the video’s recipients (via email, address book contacts, Twitter, Facebook, or other Six3 users), and press “Send.”

To take social a step further, Six3 announced a deeper Facebook integration yesterday at the Dublin Web Summit’s START conference, where the company was recognized as one of the “world’s 100 most promising early stage startups.” The update adds the ability for users to send private Six3 video messages to individual Facebook friends or share them publicly to your Facebook Timeline, while offering a faster and more seamless user experience. “It makes it incredibly easy to create good looking 63 second long video, share it through Six3, Twitter or Facebook, and respond to the video,” explains Grimditch.

The app will remain free for as long as it exists and you can find it in the App Store (the Android version is in the works), but Six3 will be experimenting with a few revenue models. The ones that Grimsditch was comfortable describing include charging users to archive messages for those important clips that you might have an emotional attachment to as well as the possibility of creating sell premium options like color filters or other visual effects as in-app purchases.

To many developers’ benefit, smartphone owners aren’t particularly app-loyal. Grimsditch is well aware of this and hopes to jostle competitors and become not jut a trend, but a staple app in the sea of 700 million smartphones. “The reality is that we’re just getting started and the dust isn’t going to settle in this market for years and years. So I think you’re going to see many years of explosive innovation, and we’re absolutely planning to be at the forefront of that.”

A list of the best iPad games available now in the iTunes App Store, regularly updated with great new titles and releases.

Apple fanboys may go on and on about how the iPad will change the world of computing forever, but we know why you really bought an iPad: games. Racing games, strategy games, MMORPGs, they’re all lining the virtual shelves of the iTunes App Store, waiting to be downloaded. How do you choose from a virtual marketplace brimming with so many choices — some good and some horrible? With a little help from your friends, of course. And by that, we mean us. Below are our constantly evolving picks for best iPad games.

Also check out our picks for The Best iPad Apps, The Best iPhone Games, and The Best iPhone Apps.

Bad Piggies HD ($1)

It’s about time the villains of Angry Birds got a game of their own (that isn’t a cheap clone of the original). This release from Rovio is every bit as polished as its smash hit mobile sensation and it features exactly the same cute, cartoon art style. The challenge is to construct contraptions, in the shape of vehicles or flying machines, which can convey your pigs to an end point in each level. If you’re clever, you’ll work out how to grab the bonus pick-ups along the way and hit that finish flag within the time limit. It’s creative, addictive, and offers lots of fun for the whole family.

Trigger Fist ($3)

This reminds us of the early Counter Strike days. It’s a multiplayer, third-person shooter with a nice streamlined approach that works well for mobile devices. There’s basically no y-axis, so aiming is a simple matter of side-to-side shooting and that makes it much more accessible. You’ve got four multiplayer modes across six maps and that’s the perfect recipe for some old-fashioned fragfest fun. You can unlock a bunch of weapons, skins, and perks as you go. The AI is actually fairly decent, but multiplayer with friends or strangers is where it’s really at.

The Room ($5)

Explore the mysterious and atmospheric world of The Room on your iPad. This puzzle game challenges you to unlock the secrets of a series of boxes by manipulating your view to find keyholes or sliding panels. It’s beautifully crafted, with an ambient soundtrack and totally absorbing gameplay. The creepy sense of exploration sucks you in and won’t let go, gnawing away, until you have solved the final puzzle. It is short and there’s nothing really innovative about it, but it is polished and feels like more than the sum of its parts.

The World Ends With You: Solo Remix for iPad ($20)

You won’t find many games this expensive on the iPad, but The World Ends with You is a deep, involved mystery that combines various genres of gameplay to create an immersive experience that will keep you amused for hours and hours. This was a cult classic on the Nintendo DS and legendary Japanese developer, Square Enix, is behind it. It is a seriously stylish anime adventure with an amazing 60-song soundtrack. It is set in Shibuya in Japan and you’re tasked with defeating the Reapers through a series of missions and planned, touch and swipe combat that can get seriously chaotic. It’s typically tough to explain, but if you’re a JRPG fan then you’ll love it.

Tiny Wings HD ($3)

Tiny Wings got its start on the small screen of the iPhone, but it is all grown up now. The premise of the game is simple: you are a bird who’s wings are too small to get you off the ground so you have to use the terrain to help you get off the ground. The game play is easy to learn but hard to master, and the whimsical art is hard to not love. With the iPad version, you get three different play styles, including a head to head mode where you and a friend compete in some rocking split screen action.

Asphalt 7: Heat ($1) 

As you can tell from the name, this isn’t the first game in this series, but Gameloft seems to have gotten it right. This racing game is one part arcade racer, one part racing sim, and 100% beautiful. The graphics on this game are impressive, even more so on a retina display, but it’s the game play that will keep you coming back for more. There are several different types of challenges for you to concur, and a seemingly endless list of dream cars for you to buy. If you don’t feel like using the iPad as one giant steering wheel there is an option to have onscreen controls, but where’s the fun in that?

Castle Master 3D (Free)

Don’t let the cartoonish graphics fool you this game is in depth. The goal of the game is to expand your empire, and take over nearby castles. To do this you have to build up your kingdom by taking care of your population, building infrastructure, recruit an army, all while worrying about your popularity. Leading your army into battle is always thrilling, and defeating the larger defending force never gets old. Being a free game there is of course places for you to purchase upgrades or ways to speed up your game, but they are tastefully done, and don’t get in the way of the gameplay.

Draw Something Free (Free)

Playing Draw Something on the iPad is almost identical to playing it on your phone. It’s just a bit… easier to get the details right. The resolution has been bumped up to work on the third iPad’s Retina display as well, though you’ll still find the menus ridiculously large. For those who haven’t played, this is a game best connected to Facebook. You draw a picture and your friend tries to guess what it is, and then vice versa. It sounds silly, but the simple ideas are sometimes the best.

Angry Birds Space HD ($3)

Like its predecessor, Angry Birds Space will probably make its way to every casual games list we have, but one of the best places to play it will always be the iPad. Space takes the Angry Birds formula and changes gravity, allowing you to whip birds around planets and knock pig satellites out of orbit. It’s a bit geekier than the original, but we like it. Be warned, the difficulty of Space seems a bit uneven and the game is shorter than its predecessors. Check out our full Angry Birds Space review.

Temple Run (Free)

Temple Run has finally come to Android, but it’s been on iOS since 2011. The gist of the game is pretty simple. You have clearly trespassed on ancient ruins where you don’t belong and are now fleeing from a bunch of evil monkey creatures. To survive, you must swipe up, down, left, or right, and tilt the iPad to dodge obstacles and collect coins. The key to this game is its simplicity and tight controls. When you swipe down to slide, you instinctively know just how far you’ll go. The precision controls have made it a hit and definitely worth checking out.

Gears (Free)

Gears is a pretty, 3D adaptation of a very old type of game. You must guide a ball through a maze of gears and obstacles, collect coins, and make it to the end of each level. Games like these typically don’t have a story, but Gears is surprisingly epic. The sphere you are guiding by moving your finger around is a high tech healing device that has to make its way through the engine of an ancient city to keep its residents alive. If you fail, all of mankind will perish. Pretty heavy stuff, right? Presentation is where Gears shines. 

Fruit Ninja HD ($4)

This game is one of the simplest, most addictive, and most popular games in the iPad game market. Users use finger swipes to slice and dice a variety of fruits as they fly across the screen in a veritable fruit salad. Slice multiple fruits with just one swipe and you’ll get extra bonus points. The game runs on a three-strikes-you’re-out rule, only allowing users to miss three different fruits before they’re out of the game. The more fruits you slice, the better your score, unless you accidentally slice a flying bomb, in which case your game ends then and there. Several different playing modes keep things interesting, and users can play alone of in a multiplayer version.

Plants vs. Zombies HD ($7)

The iPad proves to be yet another winning platform for this casual gaming legend from the maestros at Popcap. As the name would suggest, you’ll need to plant a yard full of anthropomorphic mushrooms, peas, sunflowers and other vegetation to battle it out with wave after wave of invading zombies. A classic tower defense game, sure, but Popcap’s wit, achievements and colorful animation elevate it to a title you won’t be able to put down.

Angry Birds HD ($5)

If you haven’t heard of Angry Birds by now, you’ve probably been living under a technological rock for some time. The simple action game is one of the most popular games across virtually all mobile platforms, but it first gained traction with the iPhone and iPad. The story goes that some angry green pigs stole eggs from their bird neighbors, making the birds, you guessed it, very angry. Users slingshot squawking birds towards the pigs’ fortresses in an attempt to destroy them and move on to the next level.

Harbor Master (Free)

A retake on the classic Flight Control substitutes boats for planes but loses none of the fun factor in the process – and this one’s free. Players must use their fingers to direct a never-ending barrage of boats to docks for unloading and then safely out of the harbor. Lines will help you visualize where your freighters are headed, but be prepared for frantic redirection, near misses and eventually a game-ending collision when the boats start to flood in.

Real Racing HD ($5)

Need to justify your $800 iPad purchase to a group of skeptical friends who claim it’s just an oversized iPod Touch? Download Real Racing HD. Awkward turn-to-steer controls aside, it’s one of the best-looking games available on the system, and discards the flashy arcade-style action of Need for Speed: Shift in favor of realistic, simulator-style driving.

Labyrinth 2 HD ($8)

No, it’s not a sequel to the 1986 David Bowie movie shot in HD. Instead, Labyrinth 2 HD emulates the ball-in-a-maze toys you probably had as a kid, with the same object: Get the ball from point A to point B. But those wooden toys never had the same barriers you’ll find here, which include not just holes but cannons, magnets, carousels and lasers. The game responds realistically to the iPad’s internal accelerometers, and even subtly shifts the viewpoint to create the illusion you’re really looking into a 3D box. Try the “Lite” version for a taste of the game before springing for the real thing.

Scrabble ($10)

The most classic of word games has made its way to the iPad with fun features for Apple lovers. First of all, the board game looks even better than before on the comfortably-large iPad screen, making gameplay more realistic. Users can play up to 25 different matches, connect with friends on Facebook, pay the Pass N’ Play mode, or find a game via Local Networks. Second, the most innovative feature comes into play for Apple fans who want to play together in person. Now users can use iPhones or iPod Touches as personal tile racks and virtually flick tiles from a device onto the iPad game board.

Mondo Solitaire ($6)

The same game that helped you survive mind-numbing shifts at your first cubicle job and hours stuck in school computer labs can now keep you sane on the train to work, plane to New York, or just occupied during commercials on the couch. Mondo Solitaire turns your iPad into a portable card table with the familiar Solitaire layout you know and love from Windows 3.0 and up, but with updated graphics and slick animated card flipping. The app offers “100 games and over 200 different combinations of gameplay” and is sure to contain the classics like FreeCell and Klondike along with many new games that you’ve likely never seen before.

GodFinger All-Stars (Free)

Take Black & White, cuten it up for the iPad, add simplified multitouch controls and you have GodFinger: a classic god game for people who have never heard of god games. You’ll play the role of a higher power overseeing your own planet and villagers. The barren chunk of rock and sole worshipper you start with can slow grow to a lush utopian village with the right measure of rain, sun, and other divine intervention on your behalf. Although its free to play, GodFinger offers the option of purchasing “Awe Points” for your planet to help jumpstart your civilization with farms, fountains, and other frivolities.

Osmos ($5)

This simple and fun kinetic action game starts out with balls made of cells, hence the science-y name. Using momentum, users must move around the screen to incorporate smaller cell balls to become the biggest and most powerful object in the game’s micro-universe. You can only incorporate objects smaller than yourself, and the more your object moves, the more mass it will lose. The game is surprisingly addicting for its simplicity, and there are plenty of levels to keep you going for hours.

Checkers HD ($2)

It’s checkers, plain and simple. We wouldn’t venture that this reincarnation of a 12th-century board game brings anything terribly original to the iPad, but it’s a clean, well animated, and free. The computer opponents can be challenging, and if you would prefer to match wits with a human, the two player mode lets you easily play at opposite ends of the screen.

Fieldrunners for iPad ($8)

Another tower defense game along the lines of Plants vs. Zombies challenges you to build a virtual gauntlet for wave after wave of enemies to run through. Let them reach the other side, and you’re done for. The first waves will prove to be a breeze, but by the time you’re trying to stop a monsoon of planes, trucks and speedy goons on motorcycles, even the sturdiest creations start to crack apart at the seams.

Command & Conquer Red Alert ($5)

You just can’t play a real-time-strategy game on a tiny display. Despite the developer’s best attempt to make Command & Conquer playable on the iPhone, we much prefer the high-resolution iPad version, which lets you build, command and conquer with ease on all 9.7 inches of screen. Just beware that widespread user reports of crashing may make this one to wait on until it gets just a little more polish from EA.