EA are celebrating the first birthday of free-to-play online shooter Battlefield Heroes today with a handful of in-game gifts for players, just to say “thank you for supporting us all this time.”

Gamers and game journalists are always trying to stay on top of the current news and events that surround the games we love, but what about the rest of the world? When we speak of the difference between “hard core” and “casual,” just how big of a gap are we really talking?

Activision studio head, Dave Stohl, has stated in an interview that despite the sacking of Jason West and Vince Zampella earlier in the year, there is still a recruitment drive for the studio and that Activision are “trying to rebuild” the studio.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, has said that Sony are now able to cover the cost of selling PlayStation 3 hardware, after nearly four years of losing money on every sale. Of course, this means that a price cut is unlikely as Sony try to recoup their losses from hardware sales.

Though some would worship Nintendo Senior Managing Director Shigeru Miyamoto as a god, given his role in the creation of the company’s (to say nothing of gaming as a whole) top properties, he would rather have you– and his coworkers– think otherwise. And that may particularly include where his paycheck is concerned.

THQ’s core games VP, Danny Bilson, has mentioned in an interview that a sequel to Metro 2033 will be coming, entitled ‘Metro 2034′.

Well the Steam Summer Sale just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Almost as crazy as the crazy cat lady in The Simpsons, but not quite that crazy. What can you save on today? Read on to find out.

Mobile 1UP developer Aaron Ardiri has managed to port a PalmOS version of the classic game Lemmings over to four different platforms in a space of just 36 hours.

The 2010 edition of the secret handshake club, better known as the Game Critics, has just announced their E3 2010 voting results. Which publications make up this elite group of gaming gurus? The ones I’m about to list below …

Sometimes holding things in your hand can be really difficult- and Japanese accessory manufacturer Hori knows that problem all too well. For that reason, they are releasing a Taiko Drum Master-themed stand for the DSi LL, in conjunction with the release of Taiko Drum Master DS Dororon! Battle With the Ghouls for the DS.

iZotope Technology has been licensed for use in Rock Band 3, Harmonix announced today. iZotope’s “real-time pitch detection and pitch shifting middleware” will supposedly be used to help make the singing experience much closer to that of a real rock star on stage.

CCP, the developer and maintainer of the epic MMO EVE Online has opened a development studio in Newcastle, UK. The studio will be helping with the upcoming shooter Dust 514.

Nickelodeon Fit is a new Wii-exclusive series of games aimed to get kids off of the couch and exercising, but having fun while doing it. The plan to do so is with Balance-Board supported games featuring characters from Nickelodeon cartoons like Dora The Explorer, Kai-Lan, and The Backyardigans. (I guess those are all shows.)

I’m normally all for posting magazine scans of a game, but when the magazine pages themselves are filled with more text than visual content, and said text is in Japanese, I sometimes have to think twice about torturing our non Japanese readers …

Looking forward to the October release of Enslaved? Well now you can get even more excited with the US and Canadian pre-order bonuses. Read on for more.