Newspost for 02-27-07
Industry and multi-console news:
- Former EA president and COO John Riccitiello is returning to EA as CEO, replacing Larry Probst, who held the position for 16 years. Probst will stay on as executive chairman of the board of directors.
- The Game Career Guide presents 10 Maxims Every FPS Should Follow.
- Cineplexes in Spain, Germany and Canada are testing the idea of gaming in movie theaters, with the possibility that it could come to the US to allow audiences to play ad-sponsored games before the movies instead of watching the same Coke ads and trivia about films from five years ago that we have now. The only problem is that LCD screens installed in every seat in an American theater would last approximately five days. The controller would be clogged with grease and rendered inoperable in half that time.
- The Parents Television Council has praised Senator Sam Brownback for reviving the Truth in Video Game Ratings Act.
- GameSniped is a great site for collectors that provides links to rare Ebay game auctions, from demo kiosks to prototype carts to Seaman promotional cans.
- Not directly game related, but this sure sounds familiar: New research sees correlation between violent Bible passages and aggression. This study is likely as big a load of crap as the ones on games, but how will the anti-game folks discredit this one while supporting violent game studies?
- There's a full episode up on YouTube of an old PBS series called Enterprise, focusing on the making of Atlantis for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision.
- Echoing the news from the UK earlier this month, Australian game magazine subscriptions are down pretty much across the board, with Australian GamePro closing up entirely.
- LucasArts is in a trademark dispute with Digg, claiming that The Digg is too close to their trademark of The Dig. They have not filed suit, contrary to earlier reports.
- Siliconera has a graph showing the number of employees at various game publishers. If the EA bar fell over, it would crush all the other bars.
- The mobile version of Project Gotham Racing is now live.
- If you think news stories on video games are bad where you are, watch one from Germany. Unless you actually are German, in which case.. turn on the TV?
- Video: Korean fans act out a King of Fighters match on stage.
- Also remember that the Captain N DVD box set goes on sale today. Amazon has it for $23.99.
PC news:
- World of Warcraft is getting some damage distrobution tweaking that will benefit rogues.
- A demo for Command & Conquer 3 is now available.
- Jesus, that's one detailed World of Warcraft cake.
- Joystiq is offering a free year subscription to Games for Windows.
Nintendo news:
- A Christian group in California is warning parents that the Wii can be a "portal to porno." The Kotaku article mocks them and calls it an "attack", but it's really not. I mean, it is a portal to porn. It's also a portal to Google and Zachary Ty Brian fansites, but that's the point. Many parents simply don't understand that game consoles can be used to browse the Internet, so someone needs to explain it to them in terms they understand.
- New Jersey Institute of Technology students stomp Mario art into the snow.
- I don't know that this was ever in question, but EA has officially announced their Sims game, now called MySims, for the Wii and DS in America.
- Destructoid has a hands-on preview of Kororinpa, a Wii title in the vein of Monkey Ball.
- Today's history lesson: Video of Nintendo's 1977 Duck Hunt game, which came with a lightgun rifle and a projector to display the image of a duck moving around on a wall or other suitable surface.
Sony news:
- Next Generation argues why Sony was right to remove backwards compatibility.
- Sony is planning to release a new standalone Blu-ray player for $599, a significant mark-down from the previous model priced at $999. Still, if you're going to spend the money, I don't know why you wouldn't just get a PS3 anyway.
- Final Fantasy XII has debuted at number one on the UK sales charts, even ahead of Crackdown, making it the fasting selling FF game in the UK so far.
- Monster Hunter 2nd has sold 700,000 units in its first week in Japan, making it a record first week for a PSP game and possibly setting it up to become the best selling PSP game ever in Japan.
- Mortal Kombat 2 will be hitting the Playstation Store next month.
- A few details on Final Fantasy Versus XIII have come out. Nomura plans to wait until Versus is finished to start Kingdom Hearts III, and has no plans to direct future FF titles so he can concentrate on the KH series.
- A spokesperson for Sony says that a PS3 price drop is unlikely for at least two years.
- The BBC has an article on PSP homebrew in which they talk to well known PSP hackers like Dark Alex and Fanjita.
- Resistance will be getting new downloadable content starting in April.
Microsoft news:
- Team 17 says Worms has finally passed certification, and should appear on Live Arcade within the next few weeks.
- Despite just being released today, Dance Dance Revolution Universe already has ten additional songs available for download, for either 100 points each or 800 points for the lot.
- The product manager for UFO Interactive has revealed that an American release of Raiden IV is coming to the 360.
- A rumor reported in OXM claims that Steve Vai's Halo Theme (Mjolnir Mix) could be a downloadable song for the 360 version of Guitar Hero II.
- Amazon has True Crime: New York City on the Xbox marked down to $4.99, and Star Trek: Legacy on the 360 marked down to $29.99.
Comments
I have to say the Next Generation article is kind of ridiculous. It'd be one thing if no one got it, but when the rest of the world supports it and your neutered version of the console still costs more comparatively speaking, you're just getting screwed.
Posted by: Tony | February 27, 2007 9:01 PM
There's an endless stream of Seaman jokes to be made (like that pun right there, for instance). Adding the word "cans" brings even more possibilities, and yet you took the high road. I'm impressed.
Posted by: Jim | February 28, 2007 12:54 AM
I suppose you could say it dried up a long time ago.
Posted by: Ermac | February 28, 2007 3:41 AM
The Game Career Guide presents 10 Maxims Every FPS Should Follow:
"Why are so many first person shooters poor, repetitive, linear, and formulaic?"
So here's some rules that they should all follow!
Even barring the irony, most of those are bollocks anyway. Half-Life 1 is still probably the best FPS I've ever played, and it breaks at least four of their beloved maxims. Not every game has to be the same god dammit.
Posted by: Otis | February 28, 2007 12:19 PM
And yeah, I really don't see how Sony stripping backwards compatability from the PS3 is anything other than yet another slap in the face to a market that made them the clear first place in the last generation of consoles.
The article even says:
"Someone somewhere is working hard to make games that nobody plays any more work on systems where nobody will play them, all to pacify a small number of BC Watchers. It is a waste of human effort."
So why not just leave the damn hardware in? They say it'll save $30 per unit, but have they factored in how much they're paying a team of people to waste their time coding the software version?
They say BC is unimportant, but before I was put off by the price (and got myself a PS2), one of the biggest selling points of the PS3 for me was BC, because I've never owned a Playstation console. And to everyone I know who's bought a Wii I've been stressing the strength of the Gamecube library.
The only reason people consider BC irrelevant is because we're all too hung up on playing the shiniest new games. The idea that older, less good looking games could somehow be just as good as the ones we're playing right now seems to boggle too many out there. No no, much better to just close our minds and convince ourselves that graphics are the only important part of a game.
Posted by: Otis | February 28, 2007 12:43 PM
i love that the next generation article says backwards compatibility is no big deal, but stresses the awesomeness of a bluray drive. what, something that won't make a difference in picture quality for the 80-90% of consumers without a hdtv?
Posted by: webber | March 1, 2007 1:11 AM