GAME CONSOLE OWNERS STREAMING MEDIA USAGE INCREASES SIGNIFICANTLY

New data from Nielsen suggests that console owners are using their Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii game consoles to stream video content more than ever before. “Streaming now represents a reported 14 percent of Xbox 360 time, 15 percent of PS3 time and 33 percent of Wii time,” Nielsen said Wednesday. The market research firm explained that the growth in time spent streaming was driven by services such as ESPN 3, Netflix, MLB Network and Hulu, but that time spent using consoles also increased overall. Console usage during the first half of 2011 jumped 7% from the same time period last year. Nielsen said gaming is the most popular activity on Xbox 360 (34% of usage), the PS3 is most used for DVD/Blu-ray viewing (22% of usage) and the Wii is used most for offline gaming (55% of usage)

CITY OF HEROES IS NOW FREE

In seven years MMO City of Heroes (CoH) has become wildly popular, mainly due to allowing users to create their own heroes. Now, NCSoft and Cryptic Studios is making CoH free and renaming it City of Heroes Freedom. There will be three levels available Free, Premium and VIP.

The VIP will cost $14.99 per month and allow for 14 archetypes instead of 8, 150+ power sets instead of 100, and a lot more costumes and auras to choose from. Additional content is also freely accessible including City of Heroes Going Rogue, exclusive access to missions known as Signature Story Arcs, and access to the Incarnate System, which includes end-game raids and abilities above the 50 cap everyone else plays to.

Premium account is for existing players who get to keep their existing content and have a bit more freedom in terms of features. While the Free accounts are aimed at new users who want to try the game for the first time. Anyone interested can head over to the City of Heroes Freedom website and check out the full descriptions of each type of account and sign up as well.

GAME DEVELOPER CRYTEK TO MAKE ITS GAME ENGINE FREE

Games developers are being spoiled for choice recently with the engines they can experiment with and use free of charge. Unity is free to use, Unreal Engine has gone free to use, and now today Crytek has announced the rather delicious CryEngine 3 is now free of an up front payment too.

Of course, the free model these engines work on means they only remain that way as long as your project is non-commercial. Want to sell the game you made? Then Crytek, as with the others will want some cash in the form of a standard licensing agreement. But until that point you have free access to the code base and tools, meaning you can learn without spending a dime.

RUMOR: PLAYSTATION 4 COMING IN 2012

Sony’s manufacturing partners will begin building the consumer electronics giant’s next-generation video game console toward the end of this year, with a launch scheduled for 2012, DigiTimes reports. Details surrounding Sony’s PlayStation 4 are very limited for the time being, but the report states that the new console will feature integrated movement-based controls similar to the Microsoft Kinect controller.

Foxconn and Pegatron, the two manufacturing firms charged with assembling Sony’s PlayStation 3, will build the new console according to DigiTimes’ sources. 2012 shipment volume for the PS4 is said to be at least 20 million units.

Sony’s PlayStation 4 was not expected to launch until 2013 or 2014, but with Nintendo’s Wii U launching next year and Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox due to be unveiled in 2012 as well, it is possible that Sony accelerated the new console’s development in order to remain competitive. Sony’s current PlayStation 3 console has sold more than 51 million units globally since its launch in November 2006.

ACTIVISION LAUNCHING SOCIAL NETWORK GAMING EXPERIENCE - CALL OF DUTY ELITE

Activision on Tuesday announced Call of Duty Elite, a new social network-style experience that will allow Call of Duty players to interact with one another in an entirely different way. The social network has three pillars: connect, compete, and improve.

“Connect” will allow users to compete against friends, join groups, find players with similar interests, and enter tournaments. Activision will provide both web and mobile interfaces for managing your Call of Duty information from multiple devices.

“Compete” will allow players to enter events and competitions with other players that have similar abilities, and Activision promises real world and in-game prizes.

“Improve,” will provide users with a strategy guide to help them bump their gaming skills by following their performance and ongoing statistics.

“The average Call of Duty player spends 58 minutes per day playing multiplayer,” Activision Publishing CEO, Eric Hirshberg, said. “That is more than the average Facebook user spends per day on Facebook. And yet, right now, there are very few tools to unite and super charge that social community. Whether it’s allowing you to connect with your friends, or people of a similar skill level, people who live in your city, people who share your favorite passions, join competitive clans or social groups, or upload, view and comment on the incredible mass of player-generated content, or watch and comment on exclusive created content, Call of Duty Elite will give people more ways to connect with fellow players than ever before.”

Most features will be free, although a premium package will also be available. The service will enter public beta with Call of Duty: Black Ops this summer and will launch on November 8th with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

DUKE NUKEM FOREVER GOES GOLD, RELEASING IN JUNE

Back in January, Gearbox Software released a Duke Nukem Forever trailer, and our inner 13 year-old -- only a lascivious gleam in his father's eye when the game was first announced! -- thrilled to its potty humor, gratuitous violence, and mosaic-obscured lady parts. We were skeptical about the promised May release date, since DNF has long been gaming's answer to Chinese Democracy, and sure enough that got bumped to June 10 (international) and 14 (North America). But now the game has gone gold, meaning real-life physical copies, rather than just one of gaming's longest running vaporware jokes.

DUKE NUKEM FOREVER DEMO COMING JUNE 3RD

If you’ve been following the Duke Nukem Forever saga for the last decade or so, you were more entertained than surprised when Gearbox delayed the launch of the game one last time in March from the original May launch dates to June 14th in the United States and June 10th internationally. If you’re still skeptical the game will ever appear at all, Gearbox has something to help you keep the faith: a demo, slated for June 3rd.

In a brand new video, Gearbox President Andy Pitchford says that the launch dates are for real this time, and the decades-long Duke Nukem Forever saga will soon come to an end. First, Gearbox will unveil a demo of the game on June 3rd that members of the First Access Club will be able to download and play to get a taste of what the full game will look and play like.

If you’re not already a member of the First Access Club, you can still become one by purchasing the Borderlands Game-of-the-Year edition, or by pre-ordering Duke Nukem Forever from select retailers around the globe. At this point, only First Access Club members will be able to play the demo. Gearbox hasn’t said whether or not they’ll make the demo available to anyone else, or make it freely available once the game is officially released.

If you want to get your hands on a demo code, you can visit the game’s official site to see a list of the select retailers you’ll have to pre-order from. In the United States, you can buy from Amazon or GameStop, in Canada you’ll have to buy from EB Canada, and in the UK you can order from GAME, Play.com, TheHut.com, or Zavvi.com. When Duke Nukem Forever is officially launched, it’ll be available for Windows, XBox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Wii 2 CONFIRMED FOR 2012; PREVIEW AT E3

Nintendo has just announced it plans to introduce a successor to its Wii console next year, a "playable model" of which will be shown off at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles coming up on June 7th. No details are available as to how the next Wii will improve on the first one, though we imagine Nintendo will be happy if it simply matches the success of its current-gen home entertainer.

Bloomberghas provided the first official hint about Nintendo's next console with a quote from company President Satoru Iwata. Nintendo will "propose a new approach to home video game consoles," though it won't be a simple move to 3D, as Iwata notes "it's difficult to make 3-D images a key feature, because 3-D televisions haven't obtained wide acceptance yet." Given that motion gaming is no longer new and 3D is off the table until 3DTVs go mainstream, we're now left facing only one potentiality -- Nintendo is planning on bringing genuine innovation to our living rooms. We suppose it also adds fuel to the rumor of a crazy next-gen controller to go with this next-gen console.

ANGRY BIRDS READY FOR PSP

We knew Rovio Mobile was preparing PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 and Wii versions, but boy was that fast. The poultry-slingshot app has been confirmed for the PSP as a downloadable $3.99 game. It's available today, but be warned—so far, there are fewer levels than on its iPhone and Android brethren. [Gizmodo]

EA ANNOUNCES NEED FOR SPEED: SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED

On the same day EA released Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, they announced Need for Speed: Shift 2 UNLEASHED. Shift 2 will be the sequel to the popular Need for Speed: Shift game. “SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED is redefining immersive racing by blending the rush of tearing up the track at unbelievable speeds with the emotional experience of competitive battle,” Marcus Nilsson, the game’s producer, said in a statement. “We are also working closely with real-world performance drivers to ensure that SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED captures their experience and becomes the benchmark in authentic racing action.” SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED will launch some time in the spring next year, and will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

ANGRY BIRDS FOR ANDROID POSTS ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS IN ONE DAY

Angry Birds, the hugely popular video game first introduced on the iPhone, was released on the Android platform yesterday.  In one day the game racked up downloads of over 1 million just for the Android release.  GetJar, the makers of Angry Birds, was unable to keep up with demand and at times Android users were told: “The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later”. The outages should be fixed now as demand lessens slightly. [BGR]