General Industry news is taking a back seat for this week, but that doesn't mean the gaming world was any less exciting. We've got a lot of hardware issues this week, actually, from missing PSP Go nubs to limited disc space, to the alarming drop in the numbers of said hardwares, we've got a busy hardware week in our hands.

Koji "IGA" Igarashi has been involved with Konami's Castlevania franchise since for a dozen years now. I was personally surprised that the man considered to be a Castlevania icon wasn't anywhere near the E3 stage when Konami announced Lords of Shadow (PS3, Xbox 360), but it appears that we may be hearing more from him in a few months' time.

Hideo Kojima, Koji Igarashi, and a handful of playable demos and new game announcements have all been announced as part of the Konami experience at Leipzig. More in the full article.

Here's something that may get all Castlevania fans excited: A new Castlevania title has been spotted as a newly-filed trademark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Titled as Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, there's still no word if the game is the new Nintendo DS Castlevania that Koji Igarashi has been hinting about, or if it will be released for other platforms. More details in the full article.

Taking a surprising head start for the Leipzig Convention, Konami recently released an official press release stating the company has listed Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, PSP, DS, PS2) as one of its featured games at the upcoming Leipzig Convention, more formally known as the Games Convention Developers Conference (GCDC).

They have announced that the game will be rendered playable during the exhibition leg of the event on the multiple platforms that the game will be released on by Fall 2007. The demonstration may already tout Konami's Teamvision, a gameplay feature new to the soccer title series Also to be featured at the event is Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, led by Konami's Koji "IGA" Igarashi.

William Oertel, overseeing the development of Silent Hill Origins, will also be at the event to reveal the series' future. But this news comes at the forefront of the company's full announcement, after noting that the few games mentioned here were only part of the dozens of big games they've lined up for the Leipzig games event. Other highly anticipated titles may be announced in the near future. Sales and marketing director for event organizers GmbH, Martin Schneider, emphasized that notion, stating:

We can promise visitors and gamers in Leipzig that Konami will play a major role in this year´s gaming year – delivering new games and additions to popular franchises, while producing exciting games for new systems and established formats.

So fans of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots may expect a second showing at GCDC 2007. Konami will be at booth B11, Hall 4 of the Leipzig Business Center from August 23-26th.

Transmetropolitan creator Warren Ellis has recently let out a few interesting details on the upcoming direct-to-DVD Castlevania animated movie through the official Castlevania: Dracula's Curse production blog. Ellis has signed on as the animated film's screenwriter.

First of all, Ellis says that it's going to be a trilogy, as in there will be three Castlevania animated films. The film will be set in Wallachia in 1476, and long-time fans will be pleased to note that the movie team has "worked with Koji Igarashi to get the film solidly inside the Castlevania timeline." Also, it won't be your generic kids' movie, so we can probably expect some mature themes here and there.

According to Ellis, Igarashi has "approved everything I came up with, including some new embroidering to the timeline. To make it work as a film, I had to introduce new backstory, and I went through five drafts of the premise and three of the full outline to get the material where IGA wanted it."

As for character appearances, Sypha Belnades is in, Grant DaNasty is out. The reason? Ellis gives out three, but let's just take two. Reason one: "Grant DaNasty is a stupid name that I cannot take seriously. (When he does turn up, I’ll probably use the alternate spelling of Grant DiNesti.)" Reason two: "Seriously, what use is a pirate on dry land? 'Avast, ye swabs, and push me fecking cart! Arrr!' No. Just no."

Dennis Lee, Product Marketing Manager for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, was asked by Cubed3 in an interview as to what were his own opinions on the final release version of the title that came out in last year. He was proud of the game that their team and Koji Igarashi's team worked on for a full year and was fond of the dual character system that Portrait of Ruin introduced. He especially said:

I'm very pleased with the outcome of Portrait of Ruin. The gameplay really feels like an extension of the classic formula with the dual characters but still feels and plays like an authentic Castlevania title. Out of all of the features and gameplay components, I think that if we had more time in development, we would have liked to expand on the multi-player and with the concept of the Shop Mode.

Adding additional courses or side-quests for the multi-player modes and maybe even working out a way to add a [second] player into the main game would have been great to add.

But perhaps the biggest news from Konami Entertainment is that while the next Castlevania title is almost nearing completion for the PSP, they're looking forward to discovering new ways to introduce the franchise into different consoles and handhelds. There have been no official announcements on the next title or story to be worked on, but they have confirmed that they are already eyeing target consoles. Answering a question about Castlevania on the Wii, Lee said:

We're planning to continue to keep bringing fans more Castlevania titles in the future and we're not ruling out any platforms at the moment. We're looking at each and every console and are determining the strengths of each platform and how to utilize the new hardware and features to bring new adventures to the fans.

So gamers on the Wii, take pride and hope dearly that Konami finally ships a Castlevania title your way, and not just through the Wii's Virtual Console. For now, gamers on the Nintendo DS can rest assured that Konami is still considering their platform for another successor in the series.

GDC 2007 Organizers have added three more notable lectures to the March conference, with three big names giving talks on piracy, 2D gaming, and a postmortem analysis of the PSP hit LocoRoco. This is the third batch of major additions to the GDC 2007 lineup.

Let's start things off with the LocoRoco postmortem. Presented by Tsutomu Kouno, "A LocoRoco Postmortem: Making Happiness into Gameplay" explains how Kounu tried to make a game out of... well, happiness. It will take audiences "through the path of the game's development, from brainstorming the creative concept, selling it to Sony, and building it level by level".

Next up is Konami's Koji "Iga" Igarashi with "Light and Darkness of 2D Gaming". As can be gathered from the title, this lecture - which incidentally is Iga's first-ever public lecture - tackles the advantages and disadvantages of creating 2D games in a market dominated by 3D games. Iga will "use his experience developing the recent and highly-acclaimed Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin video game for Nintendo DS as a case study".

Lastly, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has a lecture posted named "The Videogame Piracy Problem: Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest". Hollenshead will use the lecture to "discuss the state of the piracy problem the game industry faces, paying particular attention to the impact Internet piracy has on the PC game industry". Hollenshead will also discuss "what to do, as well as what not to do in best protecting you company and game assets from those that fly the Jolly Roger".