An obese 26-year-old man in northeastern China died after a “marathon” online gaming session over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media said on Wednesday. The 330-pound man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending “almost all” of the seven-day break playing online games.

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Games such as Super Rub a Dub, flOw, Blast Factor and Lemmings will hit the PlayStation Network anywhere between £1.99 (2.99 Euros)and £6.99 (9.99 Euros), although costs for specific titles have yet to be announced.

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The 1.54 firmware for the PS3 is available now. When you boot up, there will actually be a mandatory update message at the top right of the PS3 screen. The system update option in the system menu will get the update started. Remember, you need your USB controller cable to run all PS3 firmware updates. No word yet on what exactly the update does.

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Sony has let slip that background downloading will finally be made available in the 1.60 firmware update. Unfortunately, users will end up being a bit confused, and then frustrated by what background downloading actually entails. Background downloading only functions within the context of the Cross Media Bar (XMB).

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Localisation fixes are the main theme of the update, with further support for European territories added (Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish), whilst implementation of existing languages has been tidied-up for the captain’s table.

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This $390,000 setup involves entire modified movie theaters in Spain, which have been hugely successful when also tested in Germany and Canada. The plan for America is to replace the 20 minute movie previews with interactive games for the audience to play, including Battlefield1942 for teens, and Bingo for elderly.There’s educational goals as well.

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“April or May is when we feel like we’re going to catch up to demand and have product fully in stock across North America and stay there.”

And my local retail stores say there is no shortage of PS3s. Must be the magical fairytale land Sony is in right now where PS3s are sold out everywhere.

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“April or May is when we feel like we’re going to catch up to demand and have product fully in stock across North America and stay there.”

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X06 confirmed that Sensible World of Soccer would be making its way to the Arcade at some point, and now we know when. Coming in the Summer, it will naturally feature “HD visuals”, and of course some Xbox Live play. A full interview revealing all the details is after the jump.

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The game accounted for over 53 percent of all full price PlayStation 2 sales during the week and also became the fifth new number one of the year so far – the highest number since 1999.

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William Blair & Company has issued a statement revealing that the Chicago-based investment firm has initiated coverage of THQ, labeling the publisher’s stock with a “outperform” rating and company profile of ‘aggressive growth.’

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So sayeth Phil Harrison. So it shall be done.

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PD Zero’s elusive 60 points are no match for the xBot.

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Come April 3rd, all you Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence online players will have to buy Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops to get your online fix, because Konami is discontinuing the online component of MGS3.

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Disney is to test the market for digital distribution by offering a range of casual games for PCs. Partnering with Macrovision, The Walt Disney Internet Group will digitally distribute titles based on Pirates of the Caribbean, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Aladdin.

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