According to a contract unsealed earlier this week as part of the ongoing court battle between Activision and former Infinity Ward employees, a new IP code-named ‘Destiny’ is slotted to see light in 2013.

Little is known about Destiny except for that it’s a series of “sci-fantasy, action shooter games” that will initially release exclusively on the successor to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, referred to as the “Xbox 720” within the contract.

If you’d like to see the full story or even review the entire unsealed contract, visit the Los Angeles Times.

Recent rumors have all but confirmed that the next Xbox console will not utilize optical media discs such as DVD or Blu-ray. This news has sparked a controversial (albeit probably unnecessary) discussion about retail stores, internet infrastructure, piracy, data caps, cost, consumer need and just about everything else you can think of.

See the article in MCV for full details.

The way I see it, a switch from disc-based media is nothing but a win for gamers.

DVD and Blu-ray drives are sluggish, big, heavy, hot and power hungry with noisy moving parts that will ultimately fail (here’s looking at you Xbox 360 #3, #5 and PS3 #1!). With much better memory alternatives available today, getting off the couch to load a disc tray seems a bit archaic.

Plus, who actually likes discs? Discs suck. They’ve pretty much always sucked. They scratch, chip, break, get stuck in the drive and don’t even fare well as Frisbee substitutes. In addition, a dual layer Blu-ray disc only has a 50GB capacity—not enough space for the complex, graphic-intensive games of the future. Last year’s L.A. Noire filled 3 discs on Xbox 360 and an entire 25GB Blu-ray disc on PS3.

But don’t feel bad for discs. After all, they have been the industry standard since Nintendo made the switch from cartridges back in 2001 with the GameCube. I’d say discs have had a good run, so they won’t be missed by me. Bring on the solid state memory!

What do you think?

It may be old news by now, but there will be no next generation Xbox or PlayStation unveiled at this year’s E3. I have hesitated to talk about this because by tomorrow we’ll likely hear more news that contradicts what we know today—but for now, that’s the story coming from Microsoft and Sony representatives.

Rumors up until a couple days ago have been pretty clear that both new consoles would make some sort of appearance at E3—not as clear, perhaps, as what was said by Microsoft France’s marketing director, Cedrick Delmax to Le Point.fr.

"We're in an industry that talks a lot, that likes to tell stories. I am not convinced things will happen this year.”

"Xbox 360′s cycle is not at all finished. The proof is that we don't see the logic in cutting the price this year. E3 is still premature. What's certain is that there'll be nothing new in 2012."

That last part is pretty clear.

In an interview on the same site, Playstation France’s CEO, Philippe Cardone also made it clear that Sony wouldn't be rushing its next generation console release.

"Wii is pressed for time because it's in decline. In our case, we have a lot less pressure. We were the last to release PS3, and we will probably be the last to announce something."

According to recent rumors and Inside Mobile Apps, Microsoft has plans to discontinue their virtual currency system, Microsoft Points, by the end of this year.

This is good news, as MS Points have been a source of disgust for many gamers since they were introduced alongside the XBL Marketplace in 2005. Besides the deceptive Points to real-world currency ratio and the perpetual need to buy more Points than necessary for a purchase (damn you leftover points!), the system is dated and out of line with current standards.

Microsoft isn’t talking, of course, but reports suggest a cash-based system in line with PSN, Apple and Android marketplaces will replace the existing system. This change will not only affect Xbox Live, but the Zune Marketplace and Windows Phone Marketplace as well.

Let’s cross our fingers that this rumor turns out to be true.