Today’s news sees Gearbox president Randy Pitchford suggest easy achievements can boost game sales up to 40,000 units, Sony confirm The Getaway and Eight Days are still in their plans, Naughty Dog detail their plans for Uncharted 2 DLC, and a new trademark surfaces for a potential new Prince of Persia game.

Easy Achievements Can Boost Game Sales By Up To 40,000 Units Says Gearbox President

Gearbox president Randy Pitchford recently revealed how he believes simple achievements could boost game sales up to 40,000 units.  “The Achievement hunter, who’s going to make purchase decisions around the Achievements per minute to ratio – he’s probably buying ten to twenty titles a year, or at least playing that many,” said Pitchford.  “He’s playing a lot. So he’s a very frequent customer, and you want to be in that pile. That’s just business.”

The Gearbox president points out a triple-A game selling between 1 and 2.5 million units can affect “tens of thousands” of purchases based on the ease of its achievements.  Pitchford claims people in the industry don’t give it much thought, announcing “You have designers designing Achievements, and they’re the worst.”  Borderlands is hitting on the 23^rd of October, although the list of achievements is already available to no doubt influence your decision to buy the game.  [OXM]

The Getaway and Eight Days Not Abandoned

Many people thought that when The Getaway and Eight Days was put on hold, it would be the last they would ever see of the games.  Well not so, according to Nicolas Doucet, producer and creative director at Sony Computer Entertainment London.  He assures us they have not been cancelled, just “put to one side.”

Estimating the games were roughly halfway through their development cycles, he points out “Much work had been done.  The studio just wanted to focus on its strengths, EyeToy and SingStar. Given the potential of EyePet, priorities have been changed, but the other projects aren’t dead yet.”  No word yet on when development will restart, but likely begin when Sony are completely happy with their current projects.  [GameSpot]

Naughty Dog Reveal Focus of Uncharted 2 DLC

Downloadable content is all the rage with any big release and Uncharted 2 is no exception.  Naughty Dog has revealed they plan to extend the life of Uncharted 2 with DLC focusing on multiplayer.  Justin Richmond, multiplayer designer of the game, announces he’ll be “working on DLC stuff for the next while,” confirming “[t]here will be downloadable content” in the Uncharted 2.”

The game features two types of multiplayer, one being cooperative, the other competitive.  Richmond reveals “What you’ll probably see is more of the competitive type: more maps, more modes, stuff like that. The co-op stuff is hugely time-intensive and the size of it – the physical download size – is huge, so that’s probably not an option.”  Although he did hint it may be possible, just not in the foreseeable future.  [Eurogamer]

New Prince of Persia Trademark Filed

A new trademark filing by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner indicates a new Prince of Persia game is being considered.  The trademark is titled Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, with early speculation suggesting the game will be a tie-in with the film, due for release next summer.  Ubisoft have yet to comment but we’ll let you know as soon as they do.  [Shacknews]