The King of Pop hasn’t had a moment of rest since that whole death thing. After a dwindling career, the death of Michael Jackson has brought about a resurgence within the entertainment industry, continuously offering new singles, albums, films and video games. Aside from Ubisoft’s upcoming Michael Jackson: The Experience dancing game, another new Michael Jackson title has been announced.

Introducing Planet Michael, a new PC based MMO title brought to you by SEE Virtual Worlds in collaboration with the Michael Jackson Estate. The game’s planet is to be drenched with all things within Michael’s universe, iconic elements taken from his wardrobe to his music videos to his album art (the first two screenshots shown our gallery are based on his video concepts for “Billie Jean” and “Thriller”). The goal is to bring people together, to connect in a world where Michael Jackson is the greatest recording artist in the history of music, a fact millions of his fans believe to be true.

“Michael was always exploring creative new ways technology could enhance the experiences of his fans, and for that reason we are thrilled to be working with SEE Virtual Worlds to build a global interactive experience that befits an artist as innovative as Michael Jackson” said Die Hard’s John McClain, co-executor of the Estate.

We’ll update you on the development of Planet Michael, as it’s scheduled to release in late 2011.

PlanetMichael

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Playboy Enterprises has had its share of financial problems over the last few years, as sales for the popular gentleman’s mag have been way down, thanks to accessibility of scantily clad women on the Internet. Luckily, the bunny-eared company is looking into other ways of increasing revenue, particularly in the video game business.

Playboy has announced a partnership deal with developers Bigpoint to release several titles on the Playboy website, starting with the 3D crime-laced MMO Poisonville. The games will be infused with Playboy signatures, such as a notable Playmate or two. Poisonville for example is said to put players in a crime world, where you’ll encounter “Playboy-caliber women.” The game will also feature Miss September’s Bernadette Kaspar, voted as Miss Poisonville based on a poll Bigpoint conducted from reader submissions. (You can check her out below the break).

You have to hand it to Playboy. While the days of the actual magazine may be numbered, or at least dwindling, it’s great exposure for both the brand and the Playmates to place them in video games, especially on the company’s own website. The company has recently had promotional ties within titles like Mafia 2 and Dead Rising 2. Nice marketing, Mr. Hefner. You can check out the game at the Playboy link below.

Playboy via
G4TV

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Although not the gameplay footage that fans have been dying to see, Capcom was kind enough to release this new animation trailer for Mega Man Online. The upcoming game is an MMO, set for release in South Korea.

Aside from the truly kickass soundtrack, you’ll notice a lot of familiar faces. At one point, the Blue Bomber is faced with a league of past bosses, including one of my personal favorites Cut Man. Can Mega Man save the day? Find out in the trailer above.

Kotaku

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Set to save the world MMO style, the super cast of cute and cuddly Marvel superheros is set to star in a new adventure later this year. Marvel Super Hero Squad Online features all your favorite Marvel comic stars, in a form more closely resembling a WWF Wrestling Buddy. Taking place in Super Hero City, players will take part in missions, and will retreat to their own customizable headquarters.

The cuteness of these epic heroes is sure to draw in the kid appeal, but maybe there is room in all of our hearts from an adorable mini-Iron Man? Watch the game’s trailer above to find out.

GameInformer

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EA’s Black Box studios has announced a closed beta for their upcoming title Need for Speed World. The game is “the world’s first MMO racer” offering fans of the series the best multiplayer racing experience to date. Over the next few months, gamers can visit the Need for Speed website for a chance to be chosen for one of the coveted spots for the PC beta.

Not only will those chosen get a first look at the game, but their feedback and insight will be welcomed by the development team. Of course, that’s constructive criticism only…silly haters.

“We have expanded Need for Speed’s classic adrenaline fueled racing with an all-new power up system and deep RPG style progression to create a truly massive, socially-connected white-knuckle Need for Speed experience,” said John Doyle, the game’s Senior Producer. Doyle promises that the game will offer “a completely new entertainment experience for speed junkies all over the world.”

Need for Speed World will release this summer, with the closed beta taking place soon.

NeedforSpeed

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Jeff Strain, a veteran video game developer who among other things has served as lead programmer for World of Warcraft, has opened up a new game development studio. Undead Labs, as it is known, has only one goal ahead of it – creation of a Massively Multiplayer Online Zombie title for consoles. Why zombies? Strain says that after watching a zombie film, he and his friends debate the best zombie survival tactics, a scenario that many zombie aficionados should find familiar. But mere debate wasn’t good enough for Strain, rather he decided to leave his post at NCSoft and dedicate all of his time to creating the perfect zombie gaming experience. As of right now, little info is available about the planned zombie title, but Undead Labs is maintaining a blog to keep curious zombie-watchers in the loop.

Undead Labs

Game industry veteran Jeff Strain opens video game development studio in Seattle, WA

Monday 23rd November/… When flesh-eating, shambling undead corpses invade Seattle, Undead Labs will probably be the ones responsible. Video game industry veteran Jeff Strain today announced the formation of Undead Labs, a Seattle-based game development studio that’s on a mission to take online gaming in bold new directions. Undead Labs’ sole focus will be to create the definitive massively multiplayer online zombie game (MMOZ) for console gamers. Nothing screams funny quite like wading into a group of rotting zombies with a lawn chair and a box of sharpened HB pencils, and nothing says fun quite like doing it with your friends, whether online or on your sofa. Undead Labs is committed to bringing to life an MMO loaded with action, humour and, of course, a lot of zombies, because the world doesn’t any need more dragons. Strain left NCsoft last summer to build a creative studio around the most talented – and zombie-loving – developers in the industry, and to pioneer a new development model that will create a new breed of MMO built from the ground up for console gamers. “Every time I see a good zombie movie with friends, we spend days debating our strategies for surviving the zombie apocalypse,” said Strain. “The police station or the supermarket? Garden rake or staple gun? Bach or The White Stripes? I’m a game developer, so I’d probably be useless for anything other than ghoul bait, but I’m excited to have the opportunity to build an MMOZ that lets us put those strategies to the test and find out for sure.” Strain’s experience and expertise as a game developer and business leader helped spawn the game industry’s most successful and influential MMOs. In the mid-nineties while Strain was at Blizzard Entertainment, he was a programmer for StarCraft andDiablo and created the StarCraft campaign editor. In 1999 Strain formed the initial team and kicked off development on the wildly successful MMO World of Warcraft while taking on the roles of team lead and lead programmer on the project. In April 2000, Strain founded ArenaNet with fellow Blizzard leads Mike O’Brien and Patrick Wyatt. He served as programmer and executive producer for the popular MMO franchise Guild Wars, which has sold more than six million units. Korean MMO publisher NCsoft acquired ArenaNet in 2002 and in 2008 Strain was promoted to president of product development for the company’s Western operations, where he spent a year wearing button-down shirts and dark socks before returning to his development roots with the formation of Undead Labs. More information about Undead Labs can be found at http://UndeadLabs.com.

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Last year, Activision CEO  Bobby Kotick hinted at a possible Call of Duty massive multiplayer online game, commenting that Blizzard’s solid experience with MMO and heavy weight in the gaming community were assets to the company that were considered heavily before purchasing parent company Vivendi. Now, a recent LA Times article about the Call of Duty phenomenon had an interesting tidbit about that very thing, mentioning that Activision has taken on a third developer (currently, Infinity Ward and Treyarch alternate development of COD titles) and are looking into making Call of Duty an MMO:

One person close to the company said it also was considering adapting Call of Duty as a massively multi-player online world. The genre, in which Activision’s Blizzard Entertainment subsidiary is a leader, requires huge upfront investments but can be very profitable as players pay a monthly subscription fee.

In other words, Activision and Blizzard are currently working on a way to milk you on a monthly basis like the MTN DEW addicted WoW fiends! How nice of them! On the bright side of things, though, it might be nice to see an FPS MMO on the market. Would you play a COD MMO?

LA Times
via IGN

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