A rumor originating from Paul Gale Network says that Nintendo is planning a Star Fox/Metroid game for the Wii U.

The Retro Studios-produced game would be set in the Metroid universe, and would allow players to control both Fox McCloud and Samus Aran. The Fox sections would mix space battles and platforming, while Samus' sections would be in first-person.

This crossover is still in the rumor stage, and PGN's predictions have been hit and miss -- they called PlayStation All-Stars, but nothing has come of the supposed Rocksteady Ninja Turtles game they reported -- so take this one with a grain of salt.

[vgn.]

Several news sources (including the Wall Street Journal and Reuters) have reported that the next iPhone will feature a 4-inch display, but what does that mean for the iOS experience?

9to5Mac says the 3.95" display will have a resolution of 1136x640, up from the iPhone 4S's 960x640. Those new pixels will reportedly make room for a fifth row of icons on the home screen, but they could also make trouble for developers who will have optimize their apps for the new phone's aspect ratio.

As far as the device's form factor, it's not expected to change. The dock connector, however, may shrink, making current sync cables obsolete.

The new iPhone is believed to be in testing right now, with Apple employees carrying it in a nondescript shell that hides the new design.

[dvice.]

Rumors are circulating that the next major version of Apple's iOS, iOS 6, will do away with the Google Maps app that has been preloaded on iPhones since 2007.

Over the past year, Apple has acquired companies like 3D mapping specialists C3 and started using Open Street Maps instead of Google Maps in iPhoto, hinting at the eventual launch of a proprietary Google Maps replacement in iOS. Now it appears that app might show up sooner than previously anticipated.

9to5Mac reports:

According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application. Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

Can Apple's new maps app replace a product Google has been evolving for close to a decade?

[dvice.]

Microsoft is reportedly considering offering a deeply discounted Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle to customers who are willing to take on a two-year Xbox Live subscription.

The bundle would cost a paltry $100 up front, with subscription fees of $15/mo, and would include Xbox Live Gold service and "various types of streaming content," The Verge reports.

The contracts would reportedly also have an early termination fee, much like the cell contracts that seemingly inspired this subsidized Xbox package.

The total cost would add up to roughly $460 over that two-year period.

Microsoft hasn't commented on the rumor.

[joystiq.]

Apple may be returning to its summer release schedule for new iPhones, according to a recruiter at the gates of controversial Chinese iPhone manufacturer Foxconn.

When WBS News asked the recruiter about Foxconn "help wanted" posters around the company's Taiyuan location, he said, ""Now, we're recruiting 18,000 people to make the Apple iPhone 5. That's because it seems like it will go on sale around June."

The iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 all launched in June, before Apple broke the pattern with an October launch for the iPhone 4S.

[kotaku]

Microsoft's next-gen Xbox may launch during next year's Christmas season, according to third-party developers who have reportedly been fully briefed on the console.

The good news: it will run on dual AMD GPUs and between four and six processor cores, and will come with a built-in Kinect and a Blu-ray drive.

The bad news: it may require an always-on Internet connection as an anti-piracy measure.

If Microsoft is considering requiring gamers to connect to Xbox Live even for single-player games, they're not alone: Sony's next PlayStation is also rumored to require a constant Internet connection.

These new rumors contradict a previous report from MS Nerd, saying that the Xbox released next year will be a "stripped-down" version of the 360.

Microsoft won't bring the new console to E3, and isn't expected to officially announce anything about it until 2013.

[vg247]

Although Sony has announced that it won't be revealing the next-generation PlayStation console at this year's E3, rumors are still rampant about the PS4's possible specs.

The latest hot rumor, courtesy of Kotaku, says the new console will be called the "Orbis," a Latin name that seems consistent with Sony's decision to name its latest handheld the PlayStation Vita.

The new system is rumored for a Holiday 2013 release, and will reportedly feature an AMD CPU and GPU and support HD resolutions up to a whopping 4096x2160.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the Orbis may not be backward-compatible with PS3 games, and that all games will require a constant connection to the PlayStation Network, even in offline mode.

Rumor has it that Orbis games will be available via Blu-ray and digital download, but they'll be tied to a specific PSN account, which is very bad news for the used game market.

None of this information has been officially confirmed, and even if it's accurate, it could change by the time the new PlayStation hits stores next year.

[kotaku / image: joseph dumary]