Ah-choo!

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Age of Conan screenshots

• Pour a 40 out: Toshiba is officially giving up on HD-DVD. They plan to stop producing stand-alone players by April. Not one to be caught unawares, Gamestop has already announced that they are no longer accepting HD-DVD items for trade-in -- that includes the 360 HD-DVD player.
• Gamasutra has the highlights from GDC for Monday, so I don't have to go over them all myself.
• Next Generation has the newest UK sales charts. Elsewhere, they analyze the January NPD stats.
• Street Fighter IV will be in Japanese arcades this summer.
• At GDC, motion capture company Mova is showing off its technology for more accurate and realistic face animation. There are video examples at the link.
• 3D Realms is being sued by two men who claim the company's upcoming game Earth No More was their idea.
• A few more casting announcements for the new Street Fighter movie. Micheal Clarke Duncan is Balrog, Rick Yune is Gen., and Chris Klein is Nash. As I understand it, Nash was renamed Charlie in America, but IGN didn't mention anything about Charlie, so I don't know which name they're going with.
• Pre-ordering the special edition of GTA4 for either the 360 or PS3 at Amazon gets you an exclusive license plate. Boy, they sure know how to sweeten up an offer.
• MSNBC has jumped on Jack Thompson for "transforming ghastly national tragedies into shining moments of self promotion." Thompson says the article libels him and plans to sue. I hope he can fit it into his schedule now that he's challeneged a fake Samuel L. Jackson to a debate. He eventually realized he was responding to a person only pretending to be Jackson, but not before he sent copies of his original reply to GamePolitics and Kotaku.
• Thompson isn't the only brilliant mind seeing the corrupting influence of video games: Lyndon LaRouche has called out games as well, but from what I can tell his theory involves the British Empire trying to destroy America by turning kids into terrorists. At any rate, "International Fascism: Microsoft Will Kill More Youth than Hitler" is a catchy article title.
• Kotaku talks to GameStrata about their plans to chart player game stats.
• The next Alone in the Dark is going to let you skip the hard parts. "We want everybody to be able to finish our game, so one of the other new features we've added is the ability to skip sections using a DVD-style menu."
• Atlus has a countdown on their website that will end on February 26. No one knows what it's for, though some Joystiq readers speculate it could be an announcement of Persona 3 FES.
• The writer of Saw 1 and 3 talks about the upcoming Saw video game. "We have no idea how that is going to apply to a computer game format, considering that most games are generally pretty simple in it's plotting. Maybe its a good thing that Leigh and I are naive to the video game world and that we're writing it like its a movie!" Oh this will turn out well!

PC and mobile news

New patch: SunAge 1.08 patch
New media: Daedelic's Whispering World screenshots

• The Korea Times reports that NCSoft is downsizing their Austin studio after Tabula Rasa proved to be "a financial disaster." NCSoft has called the article sloppy and sensational", but admits that layoffs are possible.
• We see so many features on terrible game boxes, but finally someone has listed some of the worst motherboard box art. Why are those boxes always so awful?
• Id has partnered with IGA for its ad-supported, free Quake Live.

Nintendo news

New media: Mario Kart Wii screenshots, Okami screenshots

• IGN has a new Mario Kart Wii preview.
• Someone has modded the Wii remote and nunchuck to work with one hand. Ostensibly it's for the disabled, but given the frightening number of screenshots that have already poured out of Japan featuring Zelda and Peach upskirts, I'm not so sure.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Platinum Gamecubes for $49.99.

Sony news

New media: Pixeljunk Eden debut trailer

• Playstation executive John Hight talks to MTV about the low number of games on PSN and the lack of demos. “We’re very careful about the stuff we add to our catalog. Early on as a company we decided it’s not going to be about giant numbers ... It’s more about each one of these experiences is something special.”
• Amazon has the Rock Band PS3 bundle for $149.99.

Microsoft news

New content: Rock Band tracks

• One of Microsoft's own demonstration 360s got the red ring of death at GDC.
• Epic has laughed off rumors that they'll be bought by Microsoft. "I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they're going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion."
• Left 4 Dead is coming to the 360 (and not the PS3).
• There's some kind of XNA announcement waiting at GDC, but it is quite literally shrouded in mystery.
• Amazon has the Rock Band bundle for $149.99.