Google: 500 million Android devices activated globally

Over 500 million Android devices have now been activated, according to Hugo Barra. The Director of Product Management for Android took to Google+ to make the announcement, also reaffirming the 1.3 million Android devices that are activated daily, a numberrevealed by Eric Schmidt at Motorola’s September 5th press event. In addition, the Jelly Bean statue located on Google’s campus that was damaged in the summer heat has now been repaired. The old statue used a transparent plastic for the head, which melted and popped off in the California sun. True to its word, Google has now fixed the bug, swapping out the dome for the Android mascot’s more familiar head.

Back in February, Andy Rubin revealed that 300 million Android devices had been activated with a daily rate of 850,000. Then, at this year's I/O conference, Google announced that 400 million devices had been activated, with one million new Android devices coming online per day. In comparison, 410 million iOS devices have been sold as of July.

Soul Sacrifice creator working on new zombie game 'Yaiba'

This week's edition of Japan's Famitsu magazine contains the first word on Yaiba, a new zombie-oriented action game conceived by Keiji Inafune, the ex-Capcom creator who went independent two years ago.

Did you want more details than that? That's too bad - the preview has nothing but a couple pieces of concept art and doesn't give any further details, such as the target platform, release date, or what dev studio Comcept (Inafune's outfit) is working with. The art is due to be released online tomorrow on Comcept's homepage, and Inafune toldFamitsu that real details will be divulged either during the Tokyo Game Show (starting September 20) or a little beforehand.

"While I can't discuss details yet, I can say that it's a title packed with all the things I like in a game," Inafune said in the preview. "From zombies to action to ninjas to mechs, it's an ambitious concept that I think ties everything together really well."

Inafune, who joined Capcom in 1987, is generally credited as the creator of Mega Man and also helped create the Onimusha and Dead Rising series. He was appointed global head of production for Capcom in 2010 before leaving the company a short time later following a series of negative public comments about the state of Japanese game development. Comcept, his new outfit, has so far produced three social games in Japan and announced three console titles; Inafune has also been busy publishing three business books and holding lectures and seminars in several Japanese universities.

This news follows yesterday's announcement of a new Inafune-developed free-to-play, side-scrolling game for Android, titled J.J. Rockets.