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Spinning off of the annual 3D Entertainment Summit, Unicomm announced intentions late last week to launch the "3D Gaming Summit" in April 2010. Headed up by former head of the Hollywood Reporter Bob Dowling and Connecticut-based event management company Unicomm, the two-day event is set for April 21 and 22 at the Hilton Universal City in Los Angeles. According to a press release issued by Unicomm, the summit's aim is to "attract the brightest minds in the gaming industry" and "define the market opportunity for 3D stereoscopic gaming and entertainment."

"Consumers are leading the way to pervasive 3D entertainment," commented Unicomm CEO John Golicz, lest we forget that 40 million of us will have the new technology within the next four years (there might even be something in your house capable of 3D film viewing right this minute!). Though the release didn't specify any major gaming publishers or developers signed on for the event, it noted that "key sponsors" will help to "highlight 3D gaming technology." We might still be skeptical, but after what we saw last year at CES from Sony, and our recent IMAX 3D experience with James Cameron's Avatar, we're (at very least) interested in what 3D tech in gaming has to offer.

Source -- Modern Warfare 2 captures Christmas No1 [Chart Track]
Source -- All formats chart [Chart Track]

Your Avatar can celebrate the next dance around the sun by putting on some hideous 2010 glasses, now available in the Avatar Marketplace for free. Wearing the glasses will have your virtual representation come dangerously close to committing the high crime of fashion: socks and sandals (which is, sadly, also available on the marketplace).

However, if you think your Avatar can rock the look, by all means, have them go for it. If you regret getting these, just remember that hindsight is 2010.

Shortcut: Download "2010 Glasses" to Xbox 360 [via Xbox.com]

The Blu-ray Disc Association this morning confirmed the finalization of "the Blu-ray 3D specification." What we're trying to tell you is this: 3D films are heading to your PlayStation 3 next year and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Sure, you probably don't own a 3D-ready television just yet, but that's okay, because we've been assured that nearly everyone will have one by 2014.

If you're like us and aren't quite ready to make the 3D jump just yet, the BDA thankfully notes that our quaint old "2D" films will still be supported. But don't let that lull you into a false sense of safety -- embedded within today's announcement is the fact that 3D technology "allows every Blu-ray 3D player and movie to deliver Full HD 1080p resolution to each eye [our emphasis]." That's right, folks -- they're targeting each eye individually! Sounds like a great time to invest in the burgeoning eye patch market.

Assassin's Creed 2 couldn't find the next grip location and holds its position in third. Nintendo has Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii at spots two, four and six, respectively. As for premieres, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks rolled in at 12th place and James Cameron's Avatar: The Game entered at number 29. Now let's see how Avatar: The Movie That Inspired The Game does. If it's a hit, that should help sales of the game.

Source -- Modern Warfare 2 Claims 5th Week at No1 [Chart Track]
Source -- All formats chart [Chart Track]

There's a good reason why we never went into late-night comedy: We really didn't want to compete against lanky comic genius Conan O' Brien. We thought writing about (and, more often than not, making fun of) video games would be a career path where we'd never have to compete with the gargantuan Irish host -- unfortunately, in a recent episode of Late Night, Conan managed to encroach on our territory, making a joke at the expense of the recently released (and tepidly received) Avatar: The Game.

Check out the video of Conan's gag after the jump while we consider another career choice -- one that will definitely be devoid of Conan competition. (We're thinking about horse whispering. Seems pretty safe, right?)

[Via Kotaku]

Here's a dreary, uncomfortably true comment about the state of movie-licensed games: When we saw the average that James Cameron's Avatar currently sports on Metacritic, our first thought was, "Wow, a 65, not bad!" Here's how it was sized up by a few outlets:

• VideoGamer (70/100): "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is easily one of the best movie licensed games I've ever played, but at the same time it's not good enough to stand alone as a must-own title. While the presentation is great and the combat generally enjoyable, the missions leave a lot to be desired - and there's little of the sense of wonder that the movie promises."
• IGN (68/100): "There's nothing disastrous here, and the RDA shooter side of things performs well enough to be occasionally enjoyable. The quest design, including both the main and side tasks, is about as generic as they come. Go here, collect this, plant these bombs, or kill this and then return to me."
• Game Informer (65/100): "These shortcomings are a shame considering the game's interesting gameplay twists. Avatar features a solid RPG element that unlocks new armor and upgraded weapons at a steady pace. Players also unlock new skills (i.e. buffs) that help spice up combat a little, but can't overcome the gameplay imbalances."
• GameSpot (55/100): "It's not a bad game, and portions of it are competent, if not quite remarkable. But Avatar wears thin quickly, and the story is too fragile to compensate for the deficiencies.

We often worry that our Avatars get lonely when we're not focusing our attention on our 360s. We can give them all the toys we want, but it's just not the same as the touch of another living, not-living pet. Tomorrow, they'll finally have a proper companion as pets come to the Avatar Marketplace, including Large Dog, Pug Dog, Dog in Bag, Cat, Siamese Cat, Long Haired Cat, Goldfish, Guinea Pig, Monkey, Bird, Snake and Pony each for 240 ($3).

By the way, we're hoping that by "Dog in Bag" we're talking about the purse kind and not the "adolescent sign of future deviant behavior" kind. Only time will tell, we suppose.

Older readers out there might think that the 3D gaming revolution began with the advent of consoles like the PlayStation, N64 and the Sega Saturn, but the real 3D gaming revolution is just beginning, according to Ubisoft. 3D gaming doesn't refer to three dimensional graphics anymore; nowadays it means that the game jumps out of the screen and into your eye holes. Beginning with the game adaptation of James Cameron's Avatar, Ubisoft Montreal's Yannis Mallat tells the Financial Post that he sees the company becoming a "360-degree entertainment content provider."

As the wording suggests, Ubisoft's future won't necessarily be restricted to games. Mallat hopes that future game consoles will be able to render photorealistic graphics, enabling Ubisoft to create games and films using the same assets -- similar to what the company did with the Assassin's Creed: Lineage short films.

Of course, enjoying this "360-degree entertainment" will require a special television set. Still, Mallat is firmly behind the technology, saying that it does for images what Dolby did for sound. "No one wants to go back to mono," says Mallat. That's all well and good, but a huge number of gamers have yet to even upgrade to an HDTV at all, let alone one that can take advantage of 3D technology.

[Via VideoGamer]

It could happen this week, it could happen next week, but sometime in the month of December, Ubisoft will decide to liberate Avatar from the shackles of game development. And when that happens, we're prepared to go directly online and start popping 10-foot blue things with our big human weapons. This is about survival, ya dig?

It appears that in addition to simply plugging bullets into the creatures, Ubisoft will also be allowing for some form of capture the flag (wait, isn't this about survival?). Other than that one crucial detail, the only info we gleaned from the multiplayer trailer above is that there'll be a ton of explosions, even more mid-air flip-kicks, and explosion/flip-kick-laden jungle combat when the game does finally come out. For now, unfortunately, you'll have to sate yourselves with something totally boring like Modern Warfare 2. Humans against humans? Pssshhht, that's so mid-November.

Okay, okay – we'll admit that the transparent dry erase board thing is a bit on the "too much" side of things, but Avatar's third dev diary contains enough interesting information about the game in it otherwise that we feel okay forgiving the clip's director. The emphasis here is on the game's many choices, and, more specifically, the one major choice which mirrors the movie's plot. Will you choose the path of the human and murder a tall blue alien ... thing, or stand up for all that is righteous and good in the world? The choice is yours (you monster!).

We finally understand why James Cameron spoke for nine-and-a-half hours about his upcoming film/game, Avatar, during Ubisoft's E3 press conference earlier this year. Without the context provided during his lengthy diatribe, we'd have absolutely no idea what was going on in the above gameplay trailer for his long overdue film's video game adaptation. However, now we understand perfectly: A blue alien guy is murdering humans with primitive weapons.

Now wait just a second. Let's forget the fact that when one brings a knife (or in this case, a long, spiked club) to a gun fight, one rarely claims victory. Instead, let's focus on the fact that Mr. Cameron wants us to root against humanity. "Oh, but they're polluting their planet," you might cry. No, they're doing their job. That's a thing humans have to do from time to time. They don't have the freedom to skip around lush jungles all day, riding around on pterodactyls. They have responsibilities, and we're not really comfortable with playing as the turquoise-toned authors of their eradication for that reason alone.

We might normally scoff at the array of Xbox Live Avatar clothing being made available for Band Hero – a near ubiquitous occurrence with game releases for the Xbox 360 these days. Not today though, friends. Nope, today we have the opportunity to get our Avatar a totally rad, Say Anything style boombox. We know, we know – finally. For the low, low price of 240 ($3), you too can be as cool as Lloyd Dobler (though there's no promise of landing a lady as fine as Diane Court with said item).

We suppose you could pick up the other stuff too, available for 80 ($1) to 240 ($3), if you're into that kinda thing. You could get a microphone or a shirt or a ... just get the boombox, alright? You don't wanna end up being given a pen and getting told how "valuable the friendship" is, do you? Hmm?

We try to do our best to keep you updated as to all the interesting new content on Xbox Live Marketplace. But if you have a creepy level of interest in draping your Avatar in the very latest Marc Ecko gear before all your friends, you'll want to bookmark this new Microsoft blog that automagically posts whenever new content is added to the store.

Just think, if you had been following it already, you could have beaten us to this Cool Papa G coat. But instead, you have to live with being "that guy who stole Joystiq's taste in coats." It's kind of sad, now that we think about it. Here, you take the Cool Papa G coat. No, we insist.

Ubisoft has reported financial results for the first half of its fiscal year, ending September 30, 2009. Coming in at €166 million ($246 million), this year's sales represent a drop of 52% when compared to the first two fiscal quarters of the previous year. Second-quarter sales totaled €83 million ($123 million) -- a drop of 53.1%, though one that Ubisoft states falls within previously issued guidance.

Standout titles released during the period include the Western-themed first-person shooter, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (which has shipped 'close to 900,000 units'), reptilian brawler Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up and, "in certain countries," the Pelé-powered Academy of Champions.

Ubisoft points to its fiscal third quarter -- that's October to December on your official Secretive Hunks of Third Echelon Calendar -- as "the most important quarter in Ubisoft's history." Sales are expected to reach €540 million ($801 million) during the period, thanks to Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, Rabbids Go Home and Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage. Ubisoft's also counting on several new casual and self-improvement games for the Wii and DS, which we imagine will help the financialz quite a bit.