The Select and Start News Report: 03.24.08
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 03.24.2008
Ubisoft announces Tom Clancy MMO, Activision announces a DS Guitar Hero and is sued by Gibson, screenshots and video of the latest Sonic game gets leaked, and more
Welcome to the Select and Start News Report. If there's anybody out there who has absolutely no sexual scandel related to them, can you please come to New York and be our new governor? Please?
Big News
UBISOFT ANNOUNCES TOM CLANCY MMO, IMAGINE ROCK STAR [credit: Gamasutra, Evil Avatar, GameSpot, GameDaily]
After announcing that they had all intellectual property rights to the name "Tom Clancy" from the author, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot then announced that they are going to work on a Tom Clancy MMO now that they do not need to constantly pay royalties. Whether it would be based on a specific series (Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon) or it's own original title was not given, and that Ubisoft will be evaluating the MMO market beforehand. The game is estimated to cost about $50 million.
An MMO based on one of the Tom Clancy games? Sounds like an instant winner to me.
And while we're on the subject of Ubisoft announcing stuff, they've announced the latest in their Imagine series, called Imagine Rock Star for the DS. The game is aimmed towards girls 6-14 and allows them to create a rock band with parts including the drums, guitar, bass, piano, and customize the look of their rocker.
And since it's for girls, I've stopped caring.
GUITAR HERO GOES ON TOUR [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]
A long time ago during an Activision conference call, there was talk of a Guitar Hero game making it's way to the Nintendo DS somehow. Well, now we know how Activision will do it, as they've recently announced Guitar Hero: On Tour coming out Summer 2008. The game comes with a "Guitar Grip" that you plug into the GBA slot and has four fret buttons. The game plays in an open book style (as in holding it vertical) and you strum on the guitar with your stylus. The game also involves blowing into the mic for star power and Battle Mode.
Awesome, though the whole blowing/yelling into the mic to have star power is bound to feel awkward. Be prepared to get strange looks when playing in public.
IS SONIC GETTING UNLEASHED? [credit: Destructoid, 1UP]
Over the weekend screenshots were leaked of what appeared to be Sega's latest attempt in making a Sonic game that doesn't suck (that's going to get me at least 10 comments today). "Sonic Unleashed" was supposedly a fake game until it was revealed that these screenshots apparently came from a Sega FTP site. Here's a look at some of the screens below:
And then on top of that, a video of the supposed gameplay has now been leaked:
If this really is the next Sonic game Sega is making, then I think I have hope again for this dying hedgehog (12 comments). As long as Sega doesn't include a crappy story (15 comments) and make the emo hedgehog playable (20 comments), then I'm all for it. Hopefully people will actually care about Sega doing the right thing this time and Sonic won't go the way of the Dreamcast (70 comments).
UPDATE: And apparently, yes, this really is the next Sonic game!
Tidbit News
-Turns out Toshiba lost $1 billion in the fall of HD-DVD. But hey, at least they aren't getting investigated by the government. Gertrude Neumark Rothschild filed a patent infringment complaint for the light-emitting diodes used in Sony's Blu-Ray players (along with other companies Blu-Ray players). Rothschild is requesting that the US trade body issue exclusion and cease and desist orders to all companies named in the investigation. [credit: Evil Avatar, GameDaily, GameSpot]
-Interested in a Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) signed by Shingeru Miyamoto? Check out this auction for your chance to own this one of a kind system. As of now, the highest bid was $1,375. [credit: GameSpot]
-Brad Shoemaker is now the 5th guy to leave GameSpot in the wake of Jeff Gerstmann's firing. Shoemaker didn't mention why he left at all, and odds are he might join Gerstmann and a couple other ex-Gamespot writers on Gerstmann's new website Giantbomb.com. [credit: GameDaily]
-The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), which have been doing pro gaming tournaments since 1997, has offcially folded. The organization blamed "the current fragmentation of the sport, a crowded field of competing leagues, and the current economic climate" on the suspension of its tournaments. [credit: Gamasutra]
-Since Nintendo still has no public policies on how they handle dangerous chemicals, Greenpeace is still giving them lousy scores in their latest Guide to Greener Electronics. Though they still remain in last place, they did go up from a 0.0/10 to a 0.3/10. Ironically, that's the same score on my "Interest in a new Sonic game" scale (100 comments). [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]
-Midway CEO David F. Zucker has left the company, with former senior VP of worldwide studios Matt Booty replacing him. The reason for the departure was Midway believes they needed new leadership in order to, you know, actually make some damn money. [credit: GameSpot, Gamasutra, GameDaily]
-In Sony firmware news, the PSP has been updated to version 3.93 which adds 20 new Internet radio stations, and the PS3 update 2.20 where you can now copy photo and music playlists on PS3 to the PSP and new content for Blu-Ray discs. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]
-"Everyone's favorite lawyer" has now been sanctioned by the Florida bar, meaning he can no longer file anything with the court unless it's done by another lawyer. As for whether or not he'll be barred for good remains up in the air, as that trial is still going on. [credit: GamePolitics]
-In video game law news, Minnesota had lost their appeal for the "Fine the Buyer" law, where gamers who would try to buy games not suitable for their age would be fined $25 and was overturned back in 2006. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts legislature is looking into the "Games as Porn" bill again, which would treat the sales of M-rated and AO-rated games like pornography. [GamePolitics, GameSpot, Gamasutra]
-Just when I thought it was a lame Pokemon clone, Spectrobes has proven to be quite popular, which is why Disney announced there will be a DS sequel entitled Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals. New features for the sequel include a 3D perspective, revamped fossil excavation and battle mechanics, additional creatures, and an online battling mode. The game is due in Fall 2008. [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpot, GameDaily]
-According to a story in Newsweek, kids were having "Pokemones," where minors in Chile were engaging in public oral sex and they named it after Pokemon. As Kotaku brought word of this, a kid from Chile told Kotaku that is FAR from the truth, as it has nothing to do with Pokemon and they do NOT engage in oral sex. Well I'm glad that got cleared up before Fox News started reporting on this. [credit: Kotaku]
[credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra, GameSpot]
You'd think Gibson and Activision would be the bestest of buddies with Guitar Hero being successful and all. But apparently that's not the case as Gibson has sued Activision over patent infringment, specifically one dealing with "technology used to simulate a musical performance." On top of that, Gibson is always involving retailers that sell Guitar Hero merchandise. Activision responded saying that Gibson has no justification for the lawsuit and that the real reason for this because Activision was not interested in renewing its marketing and support agreement with Gibson. Gibson then claimed that they sued retailers relunctantly and that Activision has refused negotiations dealing with this issue.
Gaming Calendar
March 25th - FFVII: Crisis Core to be released
April 4th - Myst Online to be discontinued
April 9th - Games from "The Orange Box" to be available separately
April 15th - Okami gets ported to the Wii
April 20th - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games to be released
April 22nd - The World Ends With You to be released
April 27th - Mario Kart Wii to be released
April 29th - Grand Theft Auto IV to be released
May 12th - WiiWare Service to be launched
May 19th - Wii Fit to be released
May 2008
-Mass Effect gets ported to the PC
-R-Type Command to be released
-Haze to be released
June 3rd - Ninja Gaiden II to be released
June 12th - Metal Gear Solid 4 to be released
June 28-29 - Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational convention to be held
June 2008 - Guitar Hero: Aerosmith to be released
Spring 2008:
-Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms to be released
-Death Jr.: Root of Evil to be released
September 7th - Spore to be released
September 2008 - LittleBigPlanet to be released
October 3-5 - E for All 2008 to be held
October 9-13 - The Tokyo Game Show 2008 to be held
November 2008 - Gears of War 2 to be released
Fall 2008 - Resistance: Fall of Man 2 to be released
The Video of the Day
Quite possibly the moment where Sonic the Hedgehog had officially jumped the shark (50 billion comments):
I got your delicious Subway sandwich Jerry!
Click here to see what was the most awesome moment on RAW last week. It's linked because it's over 1MB in size.
Does nobody care about Atari?
I've been getting lots of negative feedback about how I've called Sega a failing company in my latest Hall of Shame, which mainly focused on Atari. I only mention Sega in the intro and in the end talk about how they've had "plenty of failures", and holy shit did that set off a storm of hate. Meanwhile, barely anybody cared about what the column was really about: Atari.
Do none of you people care about Atari anymore?! How about how great they were with the Atari 2600 and basically INVENTING the video game industry? Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft wouldn't even be around if not for Atari! So really, I shouldn't have wrote anything bad Atari! So for the Atari fanboys who were good enough to not leave me stupid comments in my column, I sincerely apologize.
And now for the serious part
At first I intended to work on my Hall of Shame article on Sega's bad systems, but all this talk about how Sega did so much good for the industry got me to thinking of a column idea I once came up with. So instead of the typical Hall of Shame, this week be prepared to read an entirely different column instead.
Mind you, this isn't because I'm giving in to the Sega fanboys. The first commenter, "Sega", is someone who I would love to make fun of for his comment, but instead I'm going to make the best of this situation and see if my latest column idea could be better then my current one.
The moment Sonic jumped the shark? I think that happened back when Shadow the Hedgehog came out.
Also, man, that new Sonic looks awesome but I'm going to remain skeptical. Sonic 2006 looked AWESOME in the initial trailers - as did Sonic Heroes - and they both failed pretty badly. God I hope it's good though.
We'll see. I hope Sega has learned that the fans of the franchise REALLY only want to play as Sonic. Not any of his stupid friends.
Posted By: Derek Robbins (Registered) on March 24, 2008 at 01:06 AM
"But apparently that's not the case as Gibson has sued Activision over patent infringment, specifically one dealing with "technology used to simulate a musical performance.""
I have to wonder why they're filing a lawsuit against their partner, when Guitar Freaks came out years before Guitar Hero.
Posted By: Rod Oracheski (Registered) on March 24, 2008 at 01:12 AM
Damn you I thought I was going to be the one to unveil the new sonic game and be the one getting all the sonic hate. Oh well I guess I get sloppy seconds tomorrow. Oh god does Sonic Team bring my blood to a boil sometimes.
Posted By: Mark Salmela (Registered) on March 24, 2008 at 01:17 AM
videos are no longer available...for shame
I really wanted to see the next Sonic game that I wasn't going to play
Posted By: that guy (Guest) on March 24, 2008 at 02:56 PM
