"Outdated" would be how the director of the famed classic, Tekken, would describe the feature of unlockable characters in fighting games. Said Katsuhiro Harada, online play makes this "no longer useful."

"I would expect there would be two more pieces of downloadable content for GTA IV (Xbox 360, PS3), that's what  has been indicated to me, although formats are unsure," he said. "It's been indicated to me that would be the case." Apart from that, he is also of the belief that a Part 5 will be coming to join the franchise sometime in the 2011 fiscal year, as well as a possible new GTA title for the PS2 as early as next year.

Despite predicting that the PS2 will not have as much influence in the market in 2009 like it used to, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter still believes in the PlayStation power, saying that the brand will account for 31% of all the games sold worldwide in 2009. More after the jump.

According to the latest survey by the NPD, gaming has attracted a larger female audience in 2009 than in 2008, more significantly in consoles. The number of lady gamers out there increased by up to 4% both in "heavy portable" and "extreme games" as compared to last year. More after the jump.

Analyst Michael Pachter expects that by 2015, 7th-gen console sales will end up like this: Wii on top, the PS3 in second, and the Xbox 360 in third place. The Wii's first-place position seems like a foregone conclusion, but what about the other two? More after the jump.

Wedbush Morgan's exhaustive report on the effects of ancillary revenues on the console cycle contains a little nugget that suggests a Wii HD could convince consumers that it's "the last console they will ever need" and that it could seriously derail any chances of a PS3 comeback.

Gearbox president Randy Pitchford has said that although he's a fan of Bungie and Infinity Ward's output for the past few years, he's still anxiously waiting for both studios to announce projects that are not related to their current bread-and-butter franchises. Details after the jump.

Despite fears that the on-going trend of digital distribution may be bad for retailers, analyst Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee believes that retailers and walk-in stores have nothing to worry about. At least not yet. Meeting with four key GameStop execs, the analyst shares his thoughts and predictions regarding digital downloads.

Missed our favorite analyst, Michael Pachter much? Don't worry, he's back, and he's got more than two cents in opinion on the event that he predicted dead last year, E3 Expo. This time around, he zooms in on the highlights of the Expo, the new motion controllers of the big three. His verdict: No Natal nor PS3 MC will topple down the great, big Wii.

"Maxed out". This was how Patrick Suderland, Senior VP of EA Games Europe, described the Xbox 360, in comparison to the PS3. This comment came in tow of Sony's and Microsoft's presentations at the recently-concluded E3 Expo.