In a conference call following Activision's incredible fiscal results, Activision Publishing head Mike Griffiths provided internal estimates for hardware growth in North America of the major consoles.

The Kid grows up. First-ever artwork for Factor 5's rumored project, starring adult Pit, revealed.

With Wii Fit encouraging gamers around the world to get up and active and selling like nobody's business in the process, Sony and Microsoft bigwigs, understandably, may be getting a bit hot under the collar.

Without the same kind of product, the latter of the two has found another way, somewhat desperately, to build bridges between gaming and fitness - by sponsoring the BGCA's first-ever National Family Fitness Day and placing Konami's Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 at the centre of it.

DarkZero: Tony Hawk may be taking a bit of a break, but it seems Activision has other plans for the Call of Duty series as they will be making COD5 available for six different platforms (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS and PS2).

Activision publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith comments "For Call of Duty, we're bringing the intensity of the recent Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare title to yet a new military theatre to engage our significantly larger user base which nearly doubled last year"

Evan Wilson of Pacific Crests Securities predicts that the Next-Gen consoles and portable systems are coming in 2010. He says the Nintendo Console will come first, then the Xbox 720. He has no word on the PS4. He also says that new DS and PSP systems will also be coming in 2010. He didn't say whether they're new systems or just redesigns.

Sean Ridgeley writes

Reading the 'Design 101' column over on GameSetWatch got me thinking about The Rules of Gaming.

In the latest edition, Raven game designer Manveer Heir plays Crysis on the PC and lays out what he thinks the game does right, and what it does wrong. The main point he comes away with is this: consistency is key. And this applies to anything: usefulness of abilities, style of level design, whatever. Consistency is definitely key, in all types of games, perhaps most importantly RPGs. Ever play a good RPG for a solid 50+ hours, and then all of a sudden the plot starts to get really...stupid? That can ruin a good game.

For all of the joys of the Wii, DS, Mario and such like, why is Nintendo still so fond of its family-friendly, moral card?

DZ writes "Activision has revealed Tony Hawk will not be coming to consoles later this year, and will instead be taking a break from those platforms until fiscal 2010 (which starts April 2009). There will however be an exclusive Tony Hawk game coming to the DS later on in 2008, which Activision comment will utilize new technology not yet seen on the DS."

DarkZero: Tony Hawk may be taking a bit of a break, but it seems Activision has other plans for the Call of Duty series as they will be making COD5 available for six different platforms (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS and PS2).

Activision publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith comments "For Call of Duty, we're bringing the intensity of the recent Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare title to yet a new military theatre to engage our significantly larger user base which nearly doubled last year"

Evan Wilson of Pacific Crests Securities predicts that the Next-Gen consoles and portable systems are coming in 2010. He says the Nintendo Console will come first, then the Xbox 720. He has no word on the PS4. He also says that new DS and PSP systems will also be coming in 2010. He didn't say whether they're new systems or just redesigns.