*Update: According to Kotaku, this whole fiasco with Mega Man 9 coming to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade is not true. Mega Man 9 is a WiiWare exclusive. Sorry Microsoft and Sony fans, you’ll have to fight Splash Woman on the Wii.

It’s apparently Theme Day for my posts. First I got two Rock Band related items, now it’s two items correcting incorrect info I got last week about downloadable games.

Contradicting a Nintendo Power report that Mega Man 9 would be a WiiWare exclusive, Ars Technica reports it will be the very first game to come out for WiiWare, Live Arcade and PlayStation Network at the same time. Mega Man for everybody!

We should learn more about the game at E3 (I plan on hunting down everything I can get.) but for now all we know for sure is that everyone will have access to it, it’s using retro gameplay and even retro sprites and it’s Mega Man. And in the end what more do you need to know?

The rumors are running quick and rampant about the next PlayStation 3 update, otherwise known as the XMB upgrade. If you haven’t kept up, this is the firmware that adds an in-game Xross Media Bar and 2D trophies to the system.

CVG says they have the full list of features in version 2.40 (that’s what the technical kids call it). It includes trophies, a gamer level system similar to Call of Duty 4 and in-game music? Nice … if it’s true.

The big difference between everyone is when this update will hit the Net. CVG’s sources say it’ll launch in three weeks, which puts it conveniently near E3. hmmm.

Meanwhile, Destructoid says rumors point to an announcement on Monday along with demos and such.

Frankly, I just want it now. But just to add to the rumor pool, I’ll say that I’ve heard that the new PS3 update cures cancer. There you go. Another rumor.

Over the weekend, some unconfirmed pre-E3 bombs dropped on the Internet via a huge leak by Intellisponse, a marketing firm. This info was apparently going to be announced near or on E3, but now, it’s now everywhere.

Kotaku has a good round-up, and better yet, it has a response to the whole fiasco, which is best summed up with this: We know you know what we know but we won’t say anything about it.

Some of the highlights of these unconfirmed reports:
That Lips thing you hear rumors about is a Microsoft’s answer to SingStar.
Forza 3 may require 2 discs because of it’s awesome hugeness.
The next Call of Duty is called COD: World at War
Microsoft’s answer to Miis is going to be this thing called Avatars (very James Cameron-esque)

For some reason, no matter how much Micrsoft tamps down those Xbox 360 Blu-ray rumors, they just seem to flare right back up. Now, according to Kotaku, CrunchGear is reporting that there’ll be announcement at 9 a.m. PDT on Monday about the supposed Xbox 360 Blu-ray SKU, which may or may not exist.

Meanwhile, over at 1up.com, James Mielke is on a plane heading to Japan, where Last Remnant and Infinite Discovery are going to be unveiled along with “some surprises up their sleeve.”

If I were a beating man (and I’m not otherwise I would have bet on Da’Tara yesterday), these two things could be connected. Could that surprise be an Xbox 360 Blu-ray? Could you get all that RPG goodness all on one disc? Eh, I’m just stoking the flames like anyone, but it’s still fun to throw your hat in this little parlor game.

Following in Aerosmith’s footprints, Metallica is due to get their own version of Guitar Hero. SEC filings outed the game as being out in this financial year, meaning before next April.

I’m wiling to admit that I love Metallica. Even Load. So this disappoints me a little, since trying to emulate Lars on the drums is a unique challenge that I’ll miss. (The man may have killed Napster but he can play.) Unless it turns out to be Guitar Hero World Tour: Metallica instead…

(From Gamespot)

EGM/1Up has started spreading a rumor that Rare is developing Killer Instinct 3D: Death, Destruction and Doom.

I really, really hope this is true. There are few things I would enjoy more than to control Fulgore once again. And to get a rematch against my grandma who repeatedly and severely beat me at the SNES version. I was pretty good too, she was just a whole lot better.

A presumably bored member of the GTAForums was dragging things around Niko’s desk in the Rockstar Social Club and discovered a plane ticket. From Liberty City to San Andreas.

Either it’s just a random set piece we shouldn’t read into, some Rockstar artist’s attempt to mess with us, or an easter egg hinting at the next adventure for our eastern European hero. Either way it’s pretty cool.

Engadget is reporting that an Xbox 360 unit that comes with a Blu-ray drive is coming in the third quarter. Microsoft has usually denied similar reports to this, but this time, Engadget is citing Economic Daily News , a Chinese newspaper, which said that Pegatron, an OEM subsidiary of ASUS, is building the new SKU.

Hmm, if they do make it, I wonder what color it would be. The most obvious one would be blue and black is already taken by the Elite model. Either way, I just hope they fix that whole Red Ring of Death issue.

There was a minitremor on the Interwebs today when Diablo3.com was picked up by Blizzard, according to Gamespot. The fansite that originally held the URL was contacted by Blizzard, and they talked about transferring it over.

Hmm, something fishy is going on. Well, actually, I think it would smell more like fire and brimstone maybe a little sulfur. If you can add two and two together, you can probably see where this is going. Why would Blizzard want a Diablo3.com domain name?

OK Sherlock, Blizzard says it knows what you think you know and it says what you think you know “shouldn’t be considered an announcement.” But we all know that what Blizzard thinks we shouldn’t know is probably true. In short, Diablo 3 could be closer than we think. Maybe. Possibly.

OK, it’s good that the Big N quickly shot down those pesky Internet rumors about a new Nintendo DS. But I didn’t know that Nintendo would go all Keyser Soze on it and nip the rumor at its source.

Now the guy who started the rumor is saying that it was all a misquote/misinterpretation. Hirokazu Hamamura of Famitsu, the renowned Japanese video game magazine, denies making the prediction at all, according to IGN. Haha, like a lot of politicians here, he says he was misunderstood and that “he actually believes it unlikely that Nintendo would release a new form factor or a successor model.”

Oh well, guess, that’s an end to that.