This week's release list can be described in a few words: college football. Tuesday marks the release of multiplatform sports game NCAA Football 2009 on every modern console there is to date. During our search, we've found that some games haven't surfaced in the previous weeks - even on online retail. So expect to see a repeat showing this week. Maybe we should consider renaming "On Shelves This Week" to "Should Be Out This Week"... Now there's a thought. Upcoming releases follows at the full story.

(Editor's Note: QuickPeek's a day early? Yup! Better believe it!)

It's another jam-packed episode for QuickPeek - this, even though we're a day short from the usual seven-day cut-off. GTA 4 is still making waves a full month after its release and there seems to be some explosion of sorts among homebrew emulators across different platforms. Grab them green-skinned creatures and follow the exodus to the odd world of gaming!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Forget it. Play a round of Bejeweled instead. According to a new study, casual games are proven to be beneficial for your health. Details in the full article.

The Nintendo Wii, which always seemed to be in a category of its own in the console war, may be ready to jump in the mini-war between the online services of Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network with the release of WiiWare. This was suggested after several indie developers have (anonymously) expressed their thoughts on the matter. Details in the full article.

You're probably heard that Luc Bernard's Eternity's Child is heading for the Nintendo Wii. That's true, except that it won't be a full-fledged Wii disc; instead, the game will be up for grabs on the WiiWare Download Channel.

More on the new direction that Luc Bernard's brainchild is taking after the jump.

Two gaming companies, Merscom (of Big Kahuna Words and Triple Word Play) and Gabitasoft, recently announced a deal to develop and produce a still unannounced WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade title. More details in the full article!

It's a fact: gaming publishers will make more money if they will peddle games as downloadable content through any of the available "console storefronts": Wii's Virtual Console, Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade, and Sony's PlayStation Network. Before publishers choose which type of game to produce and for what console, here are some numbers that they need to chew on first. Click on full article to check them out.

We've got some interesting news today, courtesy of an IGN's "Wii-k in Review" podcast. They've given out some prime bits of information about Nintendo's WiiWare initiative, focusing on the limitations developers will have to contend with if they want to get their products on the service, such as file sizes, budgets, and the number of releases a developer can make each month.

File sizes, budgets, and limitations after the jump!

Publisher Sierra Entertainment sends out word that Kuju Entertainment's Geometry Wars: Galaxies for Nintendo DS and Wii has just hit gold status thereby making it ready for mass production. Sierra is also announcing that the game will be available beginning November 20 for Wii and on November 27 for DS.

The full article awaits after the jump!

With the advent of WiiWare next year, it's understandable if its rivals-to-be (Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network) are feeling threatened once it's released. However, it looks like Xbox Live is keeping a cool head on its shoulders even in the face of WiiWare's imminent launch, according to XBLA's portfolio planner David Edery in an interview with Develop Mag.

PlayStation Network's hefty 5GB download limit may also be used as a card against XBLA as well. But in spite of WiiWare's and PSN's pros, Edery is very confident that they will remain competitive in the downloadable content market.

"We aren’t seeing any reduction whatsoever in developer interest in XBLA, so we’re pretty happy with the current state of things," said Edery, adding that their online gaming service the ideal place to experiment with new types of games. Edery explained that games don't need to be as large as 5GB to be playable, and games with large file sizes would hinder the pick-up-and-play gaming experience.

He also pointed out that XBLA has an advantage over WiiWare since Nintendo is still working on their download gaming service, while Microsoft already had a headstart.

Edery mentioned that neither Sony nor Nintendo have their own counterparts to XBA Game Studio and Creator's Club, thus giving XBLA an edge over the other two downloadable content platforms.


Check out the entire interview in the Read link!