Grand theft what? This April isn't exactly rocky even if you're not a fan of the upcoming sandbox behemoth, because other major releases can go neck to neck. For the week ending April 20, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will race to North America with an expansion for The Sims 2 and Okami's waggle reincarnation tailing behind. Hit that jump to see the rest of games about to reach retail.

Disney Interactive Studios recently voiced its stance regarding video games, but what about the other movie studios out there? Are they just as enthusiastic about licensing out their movie rights? Or do they actually publish video games themselves?

More on the status quo in the full article, right after the jump.

It seems that these are the days for equal opportunity. Both guys and gals are into electronic gaming, and the people at Disney Interactive Studios know this. That's why the company has seen it fit to go all out with Disney-themed titles for various platforms and various audiences.

For more of the rationale behind the animation giant's marketing move, check out the full article after the jump.

A new music game for the Nintendo Wii and DS from Disney Interactive Studios will be arriving on the 2008 holidays, and you Rock Band (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3) and Guitar Hero fans might want to take a look at this promising title. Disney's Fall Line Studio, in collaboration with Radial Music from London, will be releasing Ultimate Band to make your rock star dreams come true. Check out the details in the full article.

If you are a fan of the TV series Hannah Montana and you happen to live in Europe, then you are in luck because Disney Interactive Studios that it will be bringing the franchise to Nintendo consoles, DS and Wii.

The new titles will be called Music Jam and Spotlight World Tour respectively. Know more about these games after the jump!

 

Some hot titles are hitting the shelves this week, what with much anticipated titles like Heroes of Mana and Luminous Arc finally arriving. EA's explosive Madden NFL '08, which should sell like hotcakes, will also be available on all platforms.

DS owners are getting much love - noteworthy titles include Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon that promises to take the favorite farming game deeper into RPG territory. High School Musical: Makin' the Cut also expands the library by adding a sing-and-dance game for all ages.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics. Yet another shot at making a video game based on phenomenal tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons, D&D: Tactics faithfully implements D&D 3.5 rules as players follow the story of a young child. Taking either good or evil alignment ultimately decides the ending. Co-op allows players to work together, while deathmatch mode pits them against each other.

• PSP - August 14, 2007
• US$ 39.99
• ESRB T (Teen)
• Atari

Heroes of Mana. Square Enix takes the latest installment in the Mana series to an entirely new direction, turning action adventure into real-time strategy that you'd want on your DS.

• Nintendo DS - August 14, 2007
• US$ 39.99
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• Square Enix

Madden NFL '08. One of EA's biggest annual sports titles returns to all platforms. New in this installment are Weapons, providing players with different specialized abilities at their disposal. Graphics department also received a revamp, and other gameplay tweaks make this year's NFL a worthy addition.

• PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, GC, Wii, PC, PSP, DS - August 14, 2007
• US$ 59.95  (PS3, Xbox 360), US$ 39.99 (Xbox, PC), US$ 39.95 (GC, PSP), US$ 49.99 (Wii), US$ 29.95 (DS)
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• Electronic Arts

Check out the rest of the titles coming out On Shelves This Week behind the Full Article link below!

Let's face it - cute, cuddly monsters with freakish powers beats angst, bespectacled wizard trainees any day. Taking the lead in UK's most recent Chart Track all-format poll ending July 28 is Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond for the DS, with Activision's Transformers: The Game taking second place.     

For the PlayStation 3, Resistance: Fall of Man appears to be holding to the number 10 post, while Forza MotorSport 2 for the Xbox 360 tailgates along at 11th.

• Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo)
• Transformers: The Game (Activision)
• Pokemon Pearl (Nintendo)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Electronic Arts)
• Shrek the Third (Activision)
• The Darkness (Take-Two)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Electronic Arts)
• New Super Mario Brothers (Nintendo)
• Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End (Disney Interactive Studios)
• Resistance: Fall of Man (Sony Computer Entertainment)
• Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)
• Rugby 08 (Electronic Arts)
• Mario Striker Charged Football (Nintendo)
• MotorStorm (Sony Computer Entertainment)
• Spider-Man 3 (Activision)
• Tomb raider: Anniversary (Eidos)
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo)
• Tom Clancy's rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft)
• Transformers: The Game - Autobot (Activision)
• Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Nintendo)    

The Europe Chart Track for the week ending July 14 for all formats is now out, with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix coming in at first place once again for its third week in the charts. We guess being published for all consoles - even the Game Boy Advance - really does help.

Some titles found themselves kicked out from the Top 20 since week ending July 7, such as Call of Juarez, Tenchu Z, and Football Manager 2007.

Forza Motorsport 2 is still holding its 6th spot from last week, and The Darkness has fallen from grace from its comfortable spot as a third placer to number five in the charts. Newcomers to the charts, Mario Strikers Charged Football and Mario Party 8, are coming strong with Mario Party 8 landing in as a strong third placer. Mario Charged Strikers, on the other hand, managed to nab 12th place.

Check out the chart in the Full Article!

 

The Chronicles of Narnia was a series of really good books, but for added entertainment value, they made an excellent movie out of it. What happens when you take an excellent book/movie and turn it into a video game? Well, the stuff of adventures for one thing. More importantly, it's exactly what's happening to Prince Caspian and the Pevensie family as they embark upon a new adventure within the lands of Narnia in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian from Traveller's Tales and Disney Interactive Studios.

As the story for the video game version goes, Prince Caspian finds himself face-to-face with the Pevensie children, nearly 1300 years after their original adventures in Narnia. Together, Caspian and the Pevensies have to work together to fight the forces of the evil tyrant Miraz, who has prevented Prince Caspian from rightfully ruling over the lands of Narnia.

For this inaugural post, we've compiled five screenshots of the game, as well as two different videos from GameTrailers. The first one is a trailer showing off some of the game's assets. The second one is a quick developer walkthrough, where we get to preview the many features that'll be making an appearance in the game.

    

The preview videos for Prince Caspian after the jump!

At the E3 Media and Business Summit 2007, Disney Interactive Studios announced their list of upcoming video games and discussed a number of its plans for the future.

Disney's investments naturally include product development and talent. The studio has grown to staff 700 people in 11 countries and it has plans to put in US$ 130 million in product development for this year. Since gamers won't really be interested in the numbers, we'll go ahead and give you the list of upcoming games discussed during E3, including the announcement of a couple of sequels, a new online community, and Turok's release date.

First off, Disney Interactive Studios announced an online community for the DS called DGamer. DGamer will enable gamers to chat with other gamers, create their own avatars, and trade in-game items. Gamers will be able to connect to DGamer via the DS' Wi-Fi connection, so basically players can connect to the community anywhere. Players can also connect to the community via DGamer's channel at Disney.com. The said app is currently being developed by Fall Line Studios and will be the bundled in free with all Disney titles starting May next year.

The rest of the Disney titles come after the jump!