Nintendo has sent out official word that in two weeks, their latest gaming platform, the Nintendo 3DS will be having its first price drop. Usually price drops happen once a system has been available for an extended period of time and the initial sales spike begins to falter. Unfortunately for Nintendo, their 3DS never had an initial spike.

A few years ago, the Nintendo DS was the chart topping selling system, even overtaking the next-gen XBox 360 and PlayStation 3, many times beating the Nintendo Wii and completely crushing the PlayStation Portable. Since its March release however, the 3DS hasn’t even hit the 1,000,000 seller mark and it has not been for lack of systems available to consumers.

Now in what looks to be a desperation move to entice consumers to purchase the new portable, Nintendo is dropping the MSRP a full $80 from $249.99 to $169.99. Never before has a Nintendo console had such a massive price drop, especially in such a short time since its release. The lack of software available to consumers is most likely the reason for the system’s subpar sales. Even with the price drop, it will be the software that ultimately will drive sales to the system.

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Now that just about every new device, be it a TV, computer, game console, or Blu-Ray player, comes with Instant Netflix programmed into the device itself, the rules have to change to accommodate just about everyone on the planet watching Netflix either through streaming or the original DVD plan. That means the company is making changes in the way you use the service, and exactly how much you spend monthly.

Now, instead of having that fancy DVD and streaming plan together, the company is making you choose or pay for both at double the price. Here’s the breakdown from the horse’s mouth.

First, we are launching new DVD only plans. These plans offer our lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs – only $7.99 a month for our 1 DVD out at-a-time plan and $11.99 a month for our 2 DVDs out at-a-time plan. By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members. New members can sign up for these plans by going to DVD.netflix.com.

Second, we are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into separate plans to better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan or the option to subscribe to both. With this change, we will no longer offer a plan that includes both unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail.

So if you have the current $9.99 unlimited streaming/DVD plan, you’ll have to pick between paying for JUST unlimited DVD’s at $7.99 or unlimited streaming for $7.99. Or both if you’re so ambitious. Unfortunate, but it was bound to happen with this service becoming more and more popular.

Once the initial rush of new players began to slow down, Blizzard in their infinite wisdom allowed new players the chance to experience World of Warcraft for 14 days, free of charge. Though Blizzard hadn’t released the actual number of players who ended up becoming full subscribers, they stuck to this method for a number of years.

Now, with players at the 11,000,000 range, Blizzard has decided to switch things up a bit in a further effort to bring new players in to the World of Warcraft machine. Under this new structure, players will be given an unlimited amount of free play time on their account until their character reaches level 20.

Part of the reason behind this new strategy may lie in the fact that things come up out of no where in people’s lives unexpectedly and such a freak occurrence happening during a limited 14 day time frame may completely shut out the chance for this new player to experience what World of Warcraft has to offer. Instead, players are given the chance to experience Azeroth at their leisure, much like they are allowed to in a full version of the game.

There is no pressure to try and experience as much as you can in a short time span with this new system. There are, as expected, some restrictions to this Free-to-Play system though.

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Darksiders was a game that many people expected to fall by the wayside between lack of promotion and an interesting choice in release dates, January 1st 2010. But as was seen in our review of the game, giving it an 8 out of 10, Darksiders proved it had the potential to be something special and for the most part lived up to it.

Not entirely what gamers were expecting, Darksiders ended up playing out much like a dark, demon filled version of Ocarina of Time where players were challenged to solve puzzles along with a constantly improving repertoire of weapons, skills and magic at their disposal under the guise of the horseman of the apocalypse War.

Now, Darksiders II brings a new horseman to the player’s control, probably the most infamous of them all. Death. And with Death comes a whole new list of possibilities. War’s power were all about destruction. It would only make sense that Death’s powers were all about… well, death. Instead of just ripping enemies apart, Death can bring about the primordial forces to end the lives of any who oppose him, be they angel or demon. At least, that’s what we are hoping to see happen.

Darksiders II is coming in 2012 to XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Make sure to take a peek at the trailer below to see Death in action. Stick to the Flickcast for more information on Darksiders II as it becomes available.

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As expected, Activision made a strong showing at this year’s E3. Of course, they headlined with their premiere franchise Call of Duty with Modern Warfare 3. But they didn’t forget about the rest of their games.

One of the games right now being most closely followed by us is Spider-Man: Edge of Time.  The followup from Beenox from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Edge of Time tells a story about time being ravaged by the untimely death of the modern day Peter Parker and the ripples it sends in to the future.

In the latest trailer and screen shots below, one of the game’s first major villains is revealed with Anti-Venom. Anyone reading the current Amazing Spider-Man arc will be familiar with Anti-Venom who fancies himself as a cure on society’s cancers. Much like Eddie Brock’s former lethal protector mentality as Venom, Eddie’s personal delusions get in the way of his motives and inevitably put Spider-Man in the sites as one of his targets.

How this will play out in the game remains to be seen but it is refreshing to see Beenox putting newer characters in to their game instead of just rehashing the most famous of Spider-Man’s rouges over and over again.

Take a peek below at Spider-Man: Edge of Time featuring Anti-Venom, Spider-Man 2099 and of course everyone’s favorite modern day Spidey. Stick to The Flickcast for more on Spider-Man: Edge of Time as it becomes available.

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Hold on now, before you go into a fury about the original Thundercats series from 1985 being out on DVD for nearly 7 years, take these facts into account. Back in 2005, Warner Home Video released the original Thundercats series on DVD in several chunks containing over 30 episodes each, spread over six discs per release. Those releases have since been discontinued, have ranged anywhere from $65 to $100 in price each. A bit steep to relive some classic 80′s animated action.

That’s where Warner Home Video has decided to correct themselves. Starting on July 12th, they will be re-releasing the original series in much smaller packages, calling them “parts”, ie. the first release, ThunderCats: The Original Series Season 1 Part 1. Here’s the official press release from WB. You can also check out the full episode list for this release and the full sized box art after the jump.

This summer, the Code of Thundera will live on when Warner Home Video releases ThunderCats: The Original Series Season 1 Part 1 July 12, 2011 on DVD – just ahead of the all-new series premiere of ThunderCats on Cartoon Network. The 2-disc collection set, priced to own at $19.97, includes the first 12 action-packed episodes, as well as a special featurette entitled “Feel the Magic, Hear the Roar,” where fans speak out about their incredible passion for the classic animated series.

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In a move that was somewhat unexpected Apple confirmed today that CEO Steve Jobs will appear in person at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference next week to unveil Apple’s newest shiny goodness. According to the company, Jobs and other Apple executives will finally unveil iOS 5, the highly anticipated software update iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Among the enhancements expected to be come with iOS 5 are widgets (thank goodness) and a completely revamped notification system. During the event, Apple will also give details on its new iCloud, which is expected to be a suite of cloud-based services including a music streaming service backed by major record labels.

Apple also said it will provide new details surrounding Lion, the eighth major release of the Mac OS X operating system. However, the company made no mention of the highly anticipated iPhone 5 (or other hardware) or if Jobs will talk about it at the event. Perhaps they thought the WWDC Stevenote was already packed enough?

Click through for the full press release from Apple. The WWDC Keynote takes place at 10 AM Pacific on June 6th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco..

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As skeptical as we may be about the upcoming Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie from Michael Bay, we have seen what Activision can do when it gets its hands on the Transformers. While the last piece of Transformers that Activision published was based off G1 continuity and not off the movie franchise, it was a tremendous improvement from the previous Transformers movie game.

In anticipation of Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Game, we have a whole new set of screen shots and a new trailer to show it off in addition to the list of pre-order bonuses.

Check out the full list below of all the preorder exclusives as well.

Channel wide – Original BUMBLEBEE toys with the Wii and NDS AUTOBOTS game and original LOCKDOWN toy with the NDS DECEPTICONS game

Best Buy – FREE movie ticket upgrade to 3D

Toys R’ Us – Exclusive Inverted BUMBLEBEE in-game character skin for 3DS game

Target – Exclusive BUMBLEBEE Deco in-game character for NDS AUTOBOTS game and Wii game and Exclusive LOCKDOWN Deco in-game character for NDS DECEPTICONS

K-Mart/Sears – Original, limited edition Transformers: Dark of the Moon comic book from IDW Publishing

Stick to the Flickcast for more on Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Game and check out the trailer and screens after the jump.

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A character with the first name of Nikolai who has a weapon with Tesla in its name. No not the most creative character concept ever but still effective none the less. In this latest trailer for Anarchy Reigns, SEGA gives a peak at Nikolai, a cyborg fighter with a back mounted reactor allowing him to channel electrical currents through his fists. The result is an angry Russian who is ready to let the sparks fly.

This is also the first trailer for Anarchy Reigns that gives a look at what may be the game’s “fatality” system, for lack of a formal title yet. While it has been shown that the game will use the environment to kill off competitors, this is the first time a trailer has shown anyone get finished off, as seen by two of Nikolai’s moves below.

So what do fatalities mean for Anarchy Reigns? Depending on how they are implemented, fatalities could become epic tide turners in matches if they can be pulled off at any time and not just when someone’s health bar has been depleted. Especially in multiplayer modes, this could completely shift the course of match-ups. On the other side, it is possible that these fatal moves could quickly become repetitive and lose their luster after seeing them in every match a player competes in.

Again, much of this is just speculation but take a peek after the jump at Nikolai’s screen shot gallery as well as his debut trailer. Stick to the Flickcast for more on Anarchy Reigns, coming soon to the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 from SEGA and Platinum Games.

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This past weekend at WonderCon, Activision and Beenox gave the world its first look at their latest Spider-Man title, Spider-Man: Edge of Time. As we discussed last week, Spider-Man: Edge of Time is a concurrent storyline between two versions of Spider-Man, Amazing in the present and 2099 in the future.

Visually, there are a lot of similarities that can be seen in the trailer between Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. It looks like even gameplay will be similar as well, as can be seen from the return of Spider-Man 2099′s freefall combat section shown in the trailer.

It has been revealed that two of the voice actors from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions will be returning to Edge of Time as well, but strangely neither will be reprising their previous role. Sadly, Neil Patrick Harris will not be returning to the role of Amazing Spider-Man as it will be voiced by Josh Keaton who played Peter Parker in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon and the Ultimate Spider-Man in Shattered Dimensions.

Spider-Man 2099 will be voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes who voiced Spider-Man in the 1990′s animated series and Spider-Man Noir in last year’s game.

Take a look at the screens and trailer after the jump and be sure to check back right here for more on Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

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Writer Peter David must have found something very special within himself when he created Spider-Man 2099 nearly twenty years ago. Of all of the characters that came to be from the 2099 universe, Spider-Man 2099 is the one who keeps coming back.

Whether it was in Marvel’s “Time Stream” crossover or having a place on the Exiles or his most recent appearance in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Miguel O’Hara has earned his place as a true Spider-Man (unlike the much despised Ben Reily or Kaine).

Now, Spider-Man 2099 will be a part of Activision and Beenox’s latest adaptation of Spider-Man with the newly announced Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Taking a cue from games like Singularity, Spider-Man: Edge of Time plays on the concept of actions in the past affecting the future as both the current day Spider-Man and the Spider-Man of 2099 both take actions to prevent a premature death of this generation’s Peter Parker which leads to a future that should never come to pass.

Here’s all the info you need to know from the official press release:

“The first Spider-Man entry by Beenox, Spider-Man™: Shattered Dimensions was touted as one of the wall-crawler’s best Spider-Man games to date from both critics and fans,” said Vicharin Vadakan, Director, Global Brand Management. “Beenox is once again taking a fresh and different approach to bring a fast-paced and high-octane adventure and unexpected story to life in Spider-Man: Edge of Time.”

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In our last Anarchy Reigns post, we saw hints of a few new characters in screen shots that would be joining the cast. Today, we reveal two of these new brawlers with Blacker Baron and Mathilda.

Blacker Baron

The personality and trappings of Huggy Bear. The body and wrestling ability of Bobby Lashley. Ryu’s dragon punch attack. And the dance moves of the late King of Pop. But them together and you get Anarchy Reign’s highly focus tested stereotype of Black Baron. A cyborg with Super Sexy Fists of Fire as his weapon, Blacker Baron is without a doubt the most outrageous and over the top of any of Anarchy Reign’s current cast.

If anything, Blacker Baron proves that Anarchy Reigns will bring a level of diversity through its character roster, no matter how offensive it may be to some. Take a look at the trailer for this blinged out badass below.

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