The Select and Start News Report 07.18.06
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 07.18.2006
Consumers hate Sony's pricing. Sony hates black people. Everybody hates Take-Two. Europe loves Nintendo DS.
So 411Games is finally up and running (again), and I have been given the honor of writing one of it's first news reports. I don't have much else to say for an intro right now other then that, and there's lots of news to cover from the past few weeks, so let's get straight to it.
Nintendo's Wii and DS
EUROPE LOVES DS LIKE ITALY LOVES WINNING [credit: Gamasutra,GameDaily, GameSpy]
Officials from Nintendo of Europe have announced that the DS Lite has sold more than 200,000 units in ten days, following its European launch on June 23rd, and are claiming the DS now leads the handheld market in Europe, ahead of the PSP. Sales of the DS have now exceeded 5 million units. The most popular DS game in Europe is Nintendogs, selling over 3 million copies.
Further proof that Nintendo shall forever reign as the handheld king. Not surprising really.
WII BITS OF INFORMATION [credit:Gamepro.com, Nintendo Power, Playfuls.com, Revogamers.net]
Six launch titles have been announced for the Wii:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo)
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo)
Red Steel (Ubisoft)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega)
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Square Enix)
There was also this story going around about a drunk Nintendo rep blurting out how Nintendo will launch the Wii in Japan on October 30th and then everywhere else 10 days later, going against reports that Nintendo was going to launch simultaneously everywhere. This story is largely false. Also at a recent convention for the Nintendo Wii, it was revealed that the Wii controller will come with a strap and the console will have a slotfor an SD Card.
With the Wii version of Zelda coming out on launch, that pretty much kills the Gamecube of any triple A titles. That game and Metroid Prime 3 will definitely make the Nintendo fans happy, while Ubisoft offers two unique games with Red Steel and Rayman. With Dragon Quest for RPG fans and Super Monkey Ball for kids, this looks like a solid launch for the Wii. Now we'll have to see if Mario Galaxy and Wii Sports will join the list.
A FREE WII-FILL [credit: Kotaku, GameWorld Network]
Toys'R'Us in Australia are now taking pre-orders for the Wii at $249, and it will be coming with one free game. GameWorld Network predicts that the free game will be Wii Sports, seeing how some of the games in Wii Sports used to be tech demos.
That would almost explain why Wii Sports was not listed as one of the launch titles, and it makes sense to include it, not to mention awesome.
HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE "!!M"? [credit: OnNintendo.com, Gamefront.de]
According to Gamefront.de, Nintendo has registered three new names that pertain to the Wii. The names are: WiiPointer, WiiCulture, and surprisingly, !!M. !!M is supposedly the Wii's built-in instant messenger.
Nintendo then announced another batch of patents for the Wii: WiiCan, WiiClub, WiiCommunication, WiiDiary, WiiHappy, WiiHealth, WiiHome, WiiKids, WiiMap, WiiOnline, WiiSenior, WiiWords, WWWii, WiiActive24, WiiCountry , WiiAlive24
Some of these sound pretty obvious of what they'll be and some mighet be there so no one else takes it. A few sound really suspicious and weird (what the hell is WiiHealth? And is Nintendo trying to declare some kind of war or wrestling promotion with WWWii?), and as for the !!M, I can't wait to hear the eventual ridiculous lawsuit from Yahoo with their Y! Messenger.
MORE WII-VEALING NEWS [credit: IGN]
IGN has dug deep into the developer documentation of the Wii and pulled out lots of new info about the Wii-mote. Some of the info is as follows:
The pointer will accept two AA alkaline batteries. If the precision aim functionality of the pointer is being used in games, the device will run for approximately 30 hours. If only the accelerometer functionality is being utilized, the Wii-mote will operate for 60 hours.
The controller communicates with the Wii console via Bluetooth technology on a 2.4GHz band.
The Wii-mote features 6KB of "non-volatile" memory. No exact purpose was given.
The Wii consoles front flap shows a button called SYNCHRO. The SYNCHRO button is used to identify Wii controllers that can be used with the console by giving each controller it's own ID number.
The Wii-mote's LEDs serve two roles. The first is to show which player is communicating with the console at a given moment. The second purpose is to illustrate battery life based on how many LED's light up during boot-up. Four equals 100% to 75%, Three equals 75% to 50%, etc.
The Wii-mote features a built-in rumble motor that can be turned on or off.
Light sources from fluorescent and halogen lamps, plastic, mirrors and more may occasionally interfere with the pointer. To eliminate this interference, the pointer must identify the sensor bar and mark its two coordinates.
The Wii-mote is able to act as something of an eye, measuring coordinates between 0-1023 on the X axis and 0-767 on the Y axis, which means that it is more or less seeing a mega pixel image
Thank you IGN on this interesting news development. Most of it sounds basic, but there were quite a few surprises, such as what exactly is that "non-volatile" memory meant for.
EA IS SUPPORTING THE WII [credit: Dignews.com, GameDaily]
According to EA's Press Release, six of it's franchises are being developed for Nintendo's Wii. The franchises include Madden NFL, Need for Speed, Harry Potter, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, SSX, and The Godfather.
"Once we started to experiment with Madden on Wii, there was an explosion of innovation. Everyone in the studio is energized by the creative opportunity afforded by both the hardware and controller. By reaching into our catalog, we are able to bring a fresh and distinctive experience to some of EA's most popular franchises. Creatively, the game play possibilities are staggering and endless," said John Schappert, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EA.
Nintendo with great third party support? This has GOT to be a dream. Wii continues to move forward in the right direction.
Microsoft's Xbox 360
HD-DVD IN XBOX 360? MS SAYS IT'S BS[credit: GameDaily]
A Toshiba executive hinted at a possible version of Xbox 360 that would include an internal HD-DVD drive. A Microsoft representative, however, has said that the company does not have any plans to release an Xbox 360 that comes with an internal HD-DVD drive.
With the PS3 having a built in Blu-Ray player and pricing it at $600, could you imagine what an HD-DVD Xbox 360 would cost? And then when you realize about the people who already bought an Xbox 360, it's just common sense to stick with releasing the external add-on.
SOMETHING FOR THE HALO FANBOYS[credit: Gamepro.com, Bungie.net]
A post at Bungie.net says that the developers are currently play testing a selection of single player Campaign missions to fine tune to enemies A.I., which the post suggests is highly improved over Halo 2's. The post also hinted at the return of the Covenant Beam Rifle, but with some modifications. A new multiplayer mode is also in the works, but the only hint that Bungie will offer is that the mode will be "super fun, yet utterly terrifying at the same time."
I'm not a Halo fanboy, so I don't really care. Sounds impressive though.
WEDNESDAYS IS XBOX DAY [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily, GameSpy, Dignews.com]
Microsoft officially announced a new program called Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, a new Xbox Live Arcade will go live Wednesdays at 8:00 AM GMT worldwide. The current release list as of now:
July 12 – Frogger (released with some updated features)
July 19 – Cloning Clyde
July 26 – Galaga
August 2 – Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting (about freaking time!)
August 9 – Pac-Man
As long as the same crap that happened with the Prey demo doesn't happen again, sounds good to me.
Sony's PS3 and PSP
PS3 STRIVES FOR 99% [credit: Gamepro.com]
IBM vice president Tom Reeves said in an interview with Electronic News that Sony is determined to make sure that the PS3 has almost complete backward compatibility with PS1 and PS2 games. "Sony is very concerned about quality and backward compatibility. They want to get this right. They tested game after game after game. When there were about 40 Playstation 1 games that didn't work properly, that didn't pass their criteria for quality."
I'm pretty sure PS3 will be just fine with the backwards compatibility. I just hope that one of the few games that doesn't work isn't one I own, which wound up happening with the PS2 (Final Fantasy Anthology).
IT'S A MOVIE THEATER WITHOUT THE $6.00 POPCORN[credit: IGN]
While everyone is saying negative things about the PS3's price, Kojima still likes the system and calls it the future of gaming.
"The PS3 is a movie theater. You pay 1,800 yen and view a movie with great sound and a huge image. These aren't movies that are remade directly from television, but video that's been made for the movies, and everyone comes wanting that. Xbox 360 is watching a DVD at home. It's for people who want to watch a movie, but anything is okay. The Wii is a television program. You turn on the television, and you can watch soccer or watch a variety show -- enjoy a program lightly."
Continuing, "If you think about the future of the industry and game creators, I get the feeling that the winner had better be the movie theater -- or, the PS3. No one will say that the price is cheap. However, the PS3 is 'the future.' The Wii is interesting, but in terms of functions, it's a machine with past concepts."
Kojima has just pretty much put all the consoles in a great perspective, with PS3 as the movie theater, Xbox 360 as the home movie, and the Wii as a television show (especially since Wii uses a remote). But do gamers really care about having their own movie theater?
Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot has stated that Sony must be prepared to drop the price of the Playstation 2 by 2007, concerned that the high price could create problems months after the release.
Square Enix character designer Tetsuya Nomura supports the Playstation 3 but is also concerned about the price. "Right now, as a game machine, it's too expensive."
In an issue of Japanese gaming magazine Ge-Maga, over 90% of game developers in Japan (number of actual responses N/A) think it's too expensive. One developer even said, "It's more expensive than my rent."
GameDaily's Bryan Dawson , on the other hand, think that $600 for a PS3 is a BARGAIN! He explains:
The $600 Playstation 3 SKU is a Blu-Ray multimedia device first and foremost, and a gaming device as a secondary feature. If you take a look at prices for Blu-Ray players, you can pre-order most at $1000 or more. Getting a Blu-Ray player for $400 less than the current going price, with the added functionality of playing all Playstation games from the PS1 to the PS3, and a 60GB hard drive is a phenomenal deal. At $600 the Playstation 3 is basically half-priced for what you're getting.
I agree with GameDaily that, as a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 at $600 is a great price. But the problem is, Blu-Ray didn't win the format war as it's still going on, so I'm still not sure if I'd want to pay for a Blu-Ray player anyway.
WHAT'S WORSE THEN WASTING MONEY ON A BAD GAME? [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra, 1UP]
Analysts have been reporting that Sony could be planning to ban used games being played on the Playstation 3. This comes from the recent discovery of Sony having a patent back in October 2000 that would ban used, rented, and borrowed games from playing on their Playstation. Sony, however, has denied that they will ban used games on the PS3. Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter commented, "I actually think they're toying with this idea." Pachter added that he doesn't see Sony ultimately banning used games, but Sony could use the technology to bolster copy protection on other forms of entertainment downloaded to the PS3.
It's bad enough consumers are frustrated with having to pay up to $600 for the console, and with a chance (albeit slim) of paying $100 for games, putting the used game ban on the Playstation 3 would be DEATH for Sony. So I'm sure Sony is smart enough to realize that.
SONY DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE [credit: 1UP, Joystiq]
A PSP ad in Amsterdam was being interpreted as being racist. The ad in question:
This was just wrong. You'd think someone involved would look at this and ask "Is there any chance that black people will find this offensive?" Eventually Sony took down the ad and issued an apology before Jesse Jackson could get a chance to bad-mouth them.
PSP GOES F'N METAL [credit: Dignews.com, Kotaku, Gamespot]
Lollapalooza and Sony are teaming up to deliver special content for PSP owners. Consumers can now download to their PSP system an event program guide, including Lollapalooza wallpapers, music clips, headlining artist bios and interviews with festival co-founder Perry Farrell and artists from last year's show at the official PSP site. In the weeks leading up to the Aug. 4 concert in Chicago, the site will add the artist schedules for all eight stages and a venue map. You can also bring your PSP to the event to enter in various contests.
Sounds awesome, and to anybody planning to go to this event with your PSP, for the love of God make sure you don't get it stolen or broken! Protect it at all costs.
UMD: UNFORTUNATE MORONIC DEATH [credit: Gamepro.com, Kotaku]
Target has discontinued selling UMD movies for the PSP. UMD movie sales have been terrible, and the end of UMD movies could be near.
When you start to think about it, the UMD almost seemed doomed to fail. With DVDs, anybody with a DVD player can buy one. But UMD movies were only for people with PSP's, and a majority of PSP owners didn't really care about the movies. Maybe if UMD movies weren't the same price as DVDs or if there was other devices besides PSP's that can play UMD's, it wouldn't have died out so quickly. Will Blu-Ray suffer the same fate?
SONY IS SUED AGAIN OVER PATENTS [credit: Gamasutra, Gamespot]
Pennsylvanian electronics company Agere Systems has filed a lawsuit against Sony for alleged infringement of eight of its semiconductor patents. The PSP, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Sony VAIO computers, Handycams, Walkman players, Memory Stick Duos, and Location Free TV are named as infringing offerings on the patents. The patents in question run from a "wireless local area network apparatus" to "barrier layer treatments for tungsten plug." Agere claims that Sony knew about the patents and willfully infringed on them, so it is asking the courts to boost the damages awarded by three times the amount.
Sony's defense lawyers claim that not only are the patents invalid, but that it already has the rights to use seven of the eight through a prior deal with AT&T and Lucent – the latter of which was the parent company of Agere Systems. As a result of Sony's counterclaims, Agere lawyers have asked for a full jury trial.
I am not a law expert, so I have no idea if Sony is exactly screwed or not, though they did lose the lawsuit with Immersion Corp. last year.
Other Big Gaming News
Over the past month, Take-Two has been going through lots of problems. Here now is a complete recap of everything that's been going on:
TAKE-TWO TAKES TOO MUCH [credit: GameDaily, 1UP, New York Daily News, GameSpy, Gamepro.com, Gamasutra]
Take-Two interactive was subpoenaed by the New York's District Attorney for the Hot Coffee incident last year. The NYDA is looking for information covering a number of issues, including knowledge of company officers and directors regarding the Hot Coffee's development and subsequent failure to remove from the shipped game; the game's submission to the ESRB and any admissions to Hot Coffee; disclosures and presentations of acquisitions, partnering arrangements and earnings results; invoices from, payments to, and termination of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and retention of Ernst &Young LLP; acquisitions in 2005; certain compensation and human resources documents; and documents concerning the board of directors and committees. Because of this, Take-Two's stock fell heavily down, and according to iWedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, these subpoenas may lead to a "potential criminal indictment" for some of Take-Two's employees.
Oh Rockstar, how you've screwed the gaming world with your scalding hot java of pixilated sex. Hope you like making table tennis games, because after getting flamed by everyone for your Hot Coffee mod, I wouldn't be surprised if Take-Two started canceling any games you were making that comes even close to getting an M rating.
AND THEN...that wasn't the only problem Take-Two was having. Roger Hill, who played Cyrus in the movie "The Warriors", is suing the company for $250,000 and a court order to bar Take-Two from using his likeness. Hill's suit claims that the company made at least $37 million and Take-Two offered to pay but then terminated the negotiations after he rejected the first offer. A Take-Two spokesperson has said that the company "has a valid third-party license for the rights to use Roger Hill's likeness and the character of Cyrus in the 'Warriors' video game and related marketing materials."
I'm not sure if this is just another greedy guy wanting a big paycheck or if Take-Two screwed him. But if the company did supposedly make $37 Million from the game, giving $250,000 doesn't sound so bad does it? I don't know, I'm not a law/business expert.
AND THEN... It seems Take-Two not only closed two studios (Rockstar Vienna and Indie Built), but a number of employees have left Rockstar either from quitting or getting fired, including Jamie King, a Rockstar co-founder. One source has said that Rockstar fired employees because of certain reviews for Table Tennis (even though it has an 83% average from GameRankings.com).
Cost-cutting measures by Take-Two? Or jumping before the ship sinks? Looks like the damage caused by Hot Coffee is a lot more then anyone thought it would be.
AND THEN...Officials from Take-Two Interactive have announced that the company has received a notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it is conducting an informal non-public investigation into certain stock option grants made by the company from January 1997 to the present. The company has promised, in an official press statement, that it intends to respond to the SEC's information request and to fully co-operate in the informal investigation.
There is no other indication as to the exact nature of the investigation, but an Associated Press story regarding the statement explains: "Take-Two is one of a growing number of companies under internal or Securities and Exchange Commission investigations for possible mishandling of stock option grants. Many companies are alleged to have backdated stock option grants to time them at share price lows, thus boosting gains on the sale of the stock."
Former Take-Two Audit Committee chair Barbara A. Kaczynski claims "an increasingly unhealthy relationship between senior management and the board of directors", especially regarding the late filing of the firm's accounts, cannot have helped take regulatory eyes away from Take-Two's accounts.
This is not the first time the SEC has investigated Take-Two either. Last year the company paid $7.5 million to settle with the SEC after a four-year investigation into Take-Two's accounting practices had been concluded.
Their stocks already fell off a cliff with the subpoenas and lawsuits. Now it's just sinking in the ocean with cement shoes.
IN OTHER NEWS...Take-Two has canceled their PC title Snow, an RTS game where the player rises through the ranks of a drug smuggling empire.
Overall: Welcome to "Screwed", population Take-Two.
NEXT GEN FORECAST CALLS FOR BLIZZARD [credit: Gamespot, Blizzard.com]
A new job listing on Blizzard Entertainment's website reveals that the World of Warcraft developer may be seriously considering creating games for all three next-generation consoles. The job post mentions that Blizzard is looking for an experienced Senior Producer "with a proven track record of producing high quality console games." In addition, under "pluses" Blizzard mentions that it would be better for the candidate to have "Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii production experience."
Blizzard games for the consoles? Being a console gamer and barely a PC gamer, this sounds awesome to me. However, don't expect World of Warcraft to come to the consoles anytime soon.
SEQUELS WAITING ETERNALLY IN THE DARK [credit: 1UP, GameDaily, IGN]
Denis Dyack's posted on his IGN blog and confirmed Silicon Knights will be making sequels for Eternal Darkness after finishing their Too Human trilogy. "I am most often asked if we have sequels in mind for Eternal Darkness. The answer is absolutely yes. When creating an original game we start by conceptualizing an entire universe. Once the universe is conceptualized we then tell a story within that world. Although this [Eternal Darkness 1] is just one story we had in mind for the Eternal Darkness universe, there are even more manipulations, great ancients, and numerous other stories to tell..."
Sounds great for the Eternal Darkness fans, even though it's going to be a very long time before the first sequel actually comes out. If only more games that have a cult popularity would actually come out with sequels like this one. I'm looking at you NiGHTS!
DIRECTV STARTS VIDEO GAME CHAMPIONSHIPS [credit: Kotaku, hdtvbuyer.com]
DirectTV and IGN have teamed up with Microsoft and other companies to put together a new pro-gaming series, called The Championship Gaming Series, that launches next year and will air competitions exclusively on DirectTV.
On July 21-22, DirecTV will be holding The Championship Gaming Invitational in San Francisco and is one of three gaming specials DirectTV plans to air this year. The show will be executive-produced by A. Smith & Co.'s Arthur Smith and Kent Weed, who have credits such as Fox's Hell's Kitchen, and Emmy award-winning sports producer Mike Burks. The event will air in August.
As someone with DirecTV (and a built-in TiVo as well), I'll be watching the action and give any updates as soon as I find out when exactly they plan to air it.
THROWBACK GETS ACCLAIM'S FINAL ASSETS [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]
Toronto, Ontario-based publisher Throwback Entertainment has acquired the rights to many of games from Acclaim, who declared bankruptcy back in 2004. Titles picked up by Throwback include Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance, Vexx, Extreme-G Racing, Legends of Wrestling, Re-Volt, and Summer Heat Volleyball. "Acquiring the Acclaim titles provides a significant addition to our company, and will allow us to target different markets and opportunities," said Thomas Maduri, CEO of Throwback Entertainment, Inc.
You may THINK it's a significant addition, but I decided to check out GameRankings.com to see if those titles were any good. The result:
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance - 66% on Xbox
Vexx - 74% on Xbox
XGRA: Extreme-G Racing - 73% on Gamecube
Legends of Wrestling - 66% on Xbox (both I and II), 56% on PS2 (Showdown)
Re-Volt - 79% on Dreamcast
Summer Heat Volleyball - 68% on PS2
So out of all these games, Re-Volt is the only one that looks like a good property, while the rest are mediocre at best. I can only suspect that Throwback bought these rights because they were dirt cheap.
Atari has sold the Driver franchise and it's most of the assets of developer Reflections to Ubisoft for $24 million. This sale comes about from Atari losing too much money after the failures of games such as Matrix: Path of Neo and Marc Ecko's Getting Up.
After the crap that happened with Driv3R, the series hasn't been good. I'm sure Ubisoft can save it from being completely buried under GTA.
ANOTHER CONSOLE STEPS UP [credit: 1UP, Kotaku, Gamasutra]
A company called Envizions Computer Entertainment out of Anniston, Alabama will be releasing it's own console called Evo: Phase One, which claims to turn a computer, media center and PC gaming into a single machine. Details from the Press Release:
The system will also boast amazing graphics supported by the Sapphire RADEON HDMI X1600 Pro graphic card. The Sapphire RADEON X1600 Pro has 12 pixel pipelines that provides the highest graphics performance in its class even for shader intensive gaming. Equipped with 128MB of DDR3 memory and this model features clock speeds of 500MHz (core) and 800MHz (memory). Other key features include customized liquid cooling system, built-in biometric fingerprint reader and digital video recording features.
The Evo: Phase One will go on sale in North America October 20, 2006 for $679.99.
Lots of people are already thinking about how this one will fail, just like the Gizmondo and Evo's closely related counterpart, Phantom. But I'm not about to give up on this one just yet. If marketed as a computer rather then a gaming console, it could succeed. But 128MB of RAM? C'mon!
PAC-MAN CREATOR LEAVES TO TEACH GAME DEVELOPMENT [credit: Gamespot]
Toru Iwatani, best known as the creator of Namco mascot Pac-Man, is set to leave Namco after working with them for nearly 30 years next March in order to teach his craft to aspiring developers. In 2004 he participated in a series of lectures on game planning held by Namco in conjunction with the Tokyo Polytechnic University. After this, he started lecturing regularly at several universities.
In an interview with Famitsu Weekly, he says, "I experienced firsthand the passion today's young people have for games. I also realized how important teaching is. So, when TPU told me they were beginning a new course on games, and asked me to become a full-time lecturer, I decided to do it."
Although he wanted to keep making games, he felt he was needed elsewhere. "I thought it was more important to pass on the know-how that I've accumulated over the last 30 years to the next generation. Right now, the state of career training in the Japanese games industry is on the verge of crisis."
The main thing Iwatani hopes to teach his students is the crucial role of communication in the workplace. "Game development is a group activity, so communication is crucial. On the other hand, it's a creative process, so assertiveness is necessary. I hope to foster in my students a balance between assertiveness and cooperation."
Who better to be teaching about game development then a guy who created one of gaming's biggest icons and has worked on video games for 30 years? Good luck to Iwatani on his new future.
The Other Crap
When preparing for the debut of this news report, I started writing down lots of news going on that would wind up being old by the time this was up. So being the kind of guy to not waste things (and still thinking what weekly crap I'm going to add here), I decided to just put in all the stuff that I left out in a quick recap.
-The upcoming UK movie Stormbreaker, based on the Alex Rider series of young adult novels, will have a Nintendo DS featured as the stars main spy device. Using a DS as a smoke bomb? I'm so watching that movie if it doesn't suck
-Australia's censor is banning Eidos' upcoming Resevoir Dogs game because they don't have an R18+ rating for video games. Then New Zealand wound up banning the game too. On the positive side, the game just might really suck anyway.
-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has criticized the current pricing model used by the video games industry, saying how bad it is when games go from $50 to $20 in about six months after release. I say we start pricing games based on their overall ratings at Gamerankings.
-Kaz Hirai was very critical about Microsoft in an issue of PSM, thinking their strategies was copying Sonys and not having HD-DVD in their system to being with. He also talked about the rise in price of PS3 games, with $100 being a possible chance.
-Xbox 360's price isn't going to drop by the holiday season.
-Any GTA4 images you see are fake. Just a heads up.
-Opera DS will launch in Japan July 24th for around $33 USD. The Org Tech Times talked about how good it was in a full review that you can check out here.
-Business 2.0 Magazine had a feature of the "10 People Who Don't Matter", and two people on that list are Ken Kutaragi from Sony and Steve Ballmer from Microsoft. Any Nintendo fanboy would've already told you that, but these guys had logic behind their reasoning.
-According to a survey done by the Trymedia Network, casual gamers are spending close to 20 hours per week playing games, with 37% playing 9 or more sessions each week. Not so casual now are they?
-The PSP is getting 7,000 PS1 games for it's emulation service by the end of 2007. As long as none of that 7,000 includes Fox Hunt, sounds all good to me.
-Games Workshop's popular table top fantasy football game Blood Bowl is going to be a video game thanks to UK developer Cyanide. Unique football games rising because of EA's monopolistic actions? Perhaps EA buying the NFL license wasn't so bad after all.
-Final Fantasy XII is getting released October 31, 2006. I declare this one a Trick.
-Thesesis was said to be canceled for PS3. But it turns out track7games were never making a PS3 version in the first place. I didn't even know what Thesesis was anyway.
-The official Bob Ross website is holding a contest for painters to have their paintings in the upcoming Bob Ross video game for the Wii. Some may say that video games aren't art, but art is now definitely a video game.
-Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian thinks Gamestop will have it's own digital distribution service. If you beat 'em, join 'em.
-The 2006 Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts will have William Shatner hosting the awards. This is the first annual show and they're making this one a big deal instead of like the Spike TV/G-Phoria crap. If you want to check out the awards they'll be giving out, go here.
-The DFC Intelligence published a report on why Sony could go from first to worst with the PS3. If you'd like to read the entire report (which also talks about why the PS2 succeeded and the possible problems with the PSP), check out their site
Damian Sarcuni investigates MMO dating in Angry Gaming.
Others columns coming soon:
Brad Garoon talks about the Legacy of Kain games in "The Greatest Stories Ever Told".
Jordan Williams brings you up to speed with the Playstation 3 in "Working Title".
Plus we'll have our own Fact or Fiction and Ask411.
Reviews of Prey, New Super Mario Bros. (and cheats), Kingdom Hearts II, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Super Princess Peach, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja, Hitman: Blood Money
Previews of Call of Duty 3, Tekken: Dark Resurrection
And for the wrestling crowd, we got reviews and cheats for Smackdown vs. RAW 2006 and WWE Day of Reckoning 2, plus a preview of Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 coming soon.
And that marks the end of my first news report column for 411Games. Be sure to check out the other news reports and columns around here and I'll be seeing you next week.
