Here’s a quick little tidbit from 1UP… Dead Rising 2 is currently in the middle of development, but NOT by Capcom (who created the original, all-too-short zombie slaughter simulator). An “unspecified Western developer” based out of Los Angeles is currently at the helm of this project.

Here’s hoping for a multiplayer mode!

Link: Rumors: Dead Rising 2, God of War PS2

Per gaming blog TheBitBag (and an unnamed Microsoft tipster), a surprise price drop of $49 might be waiting in the wings for the Xbox 360 Premium bundle.

The cause? Grand Theft Auto IV. The tipster says:

Now if you are still a PS2 or Xbox owner sitting on the fence waiting for this game to be released, then it would be a good time to invest in a next gen system.

Of course, remember that this is a rumor, and I generally don’t believe anything from an unsubstantiated source until it happens. Still, for the few of you who don’t have a 360, this could be Good News™.

Link: Rumors: Microsoft Dropping 360 Premium To $299 For GTAIV Launch?!?

8Bit Joystick.com has posted an in-depth interview with someone they claim is a Microsoft insider. In the interview, this anonymous source reveals a lot of interesting “facts” about the Xbox 360 hardware failures and why he thinks these problems exist.

There’s no sure way to tell if this guys is for real, but many of the things he says make sense and don’t seem far fetched at all. But you should still probably take this with a small grain of salt. Not one of those regular sized grains of salt. Hit the link for the interview.

Link: Inside Source Reveal the Truth About Xbox 360 “Red Ring of Death” Failures

We reported a couple days ago on rumors of Rare’s classic FPS GoldenEye coming to Xbox Live Arcade. According to this month’s EGM we probably shouldn’t hold our collective breath, as Quartermann’s rumor page states that the port is now dead. Elaborating on the story is 1UP, claiming to have the reason for the end of the title’s much anticipated journey over to our side.

Believe it or not, it turns out the problem is money! Who would have guessed? Apparently Nintendo is having some trouble paying their bills and was like, “dude, we need royalties.” And Microsoft was all, “no way man, we’re just paying you a flat sum.” It all went downhill from there with all kinds of “oh no you didn’t”’s and “step-off”’s. I guess we can’t all just get along.

Link: Why Did GoldenEye XBLA Stall? [Via Wired]

Get ready for some more A.D.A.M.-fueled action… a Czech gaming site is reporting that a BioShock prequel may be coming out in the Summer of 2009. 2K’s official word is that there is no news of any sort of a BioShock follow-up, but the Summer 2009 release date is consistent with 2K’s own word during an investor’s call in September saying that another BioShock should be ready to hit the shelves in “two or three years”.

I’m taking the news with a grain of salt… but that’s not gonna keep my fingers from being crossed that this happens.

Link: BioShock 2 = Prequel
Link: 2K responds to rumor
[Via Joystiq]

Adding fuel to the rumor fire, the website for Stuff magazine claims to have the scoop on Microsoft’s big announcement, coming on Sunday at CES. According to the site, the Xbox 360 Ultimate will be released in the fall and will feature the following:

1080p HDMI
Built-in Wi-Fi
65nm chip
320GB hard drive
HD DVD drive
IPTV support
DVR functionality

They seem pretty confident about the info, but I’m still not 100% convinced. I think the only feature that is guaranteed to be announced is the 320GB hard drive. I only say that because I just bought the 120GB hard drive, so it only makes sense that the bigger-better hard drive would be coming out shortly.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Link: BIG IN 2008 - Xbox Ultimate [Via Kotaku]