Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Quit encouraging George, dewy dreams, a redesigned PS2, and more Infinium Labs noise ...


  1. Halo 2 soundtrack going the way of Spider-Man
  2. Tokyo Game Show lineup
  3. Quit Encouraging George
  4. Star Wars Battlefront connectivity grief
  5. A fanboy's dewy dream week
  6. XBox TV?
  7. XBox games updates
  8. Nintendo getting into movies?
  9. A new, sexier PS2
  10. Whither go the console wars?
  11. More Infinium Labs noise
  12. New Releases


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NEWS:
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  1. Halo 2 soundtrack going the way of Spider-Man

    • In a controversial announcement, Microsoft Game Studios and Sumthing Else Music Works said the Halo 2 soundtrack will be released in two volumes, and won't be just game music.
    • Volume 1 will ship the same time as the game, and include any of the game music composer Marty O’Donnell finished in time to be included (which he says is most of the game music). It will also include songs "inspired by Halo", written by erstwhile Halo fans such as Nile Rodgers, Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin.
    • Volume 2 is up in the air, is to be scheduled, will contain all of the game music or just what wasn't included on Volume 1, and may include additional "inspired by" tracks.


  2. Tokyo Game Show lineup

    • Despite having a small market share, Microsoft made a pretty strong showing at this weekend's Tokyo Game Show. Obviously, the lion's share of approximately 333 games was taken up by Sony PS2 offerings (149/45%), but the XBox contingent is the next strongest (44/13%). Interestingly, Microsoft was showing all XBox (no PC) titles. Perhaps even more telling, Nintendo's paltry showing (32/10%) was split among GBA, GC, and DS offerings -- in that order. Not a real strong endorsement of the upcoming DS, and kind of laying down on the current-gen console front.


  3. Quit Encouraging George

    • The release of the original Star Wars trilogy in DVD boxed set, along with the video game release of Star Wars Battlefront, set a single day record of $115,000,000 in single day sales.
    • OK, so it would be cool to own the original trilogy on DVD -- if this frickin' was the original trilogy! Not only is this not the original theatrical release of each film, it's not even the much-maligned "Special Edition" re-release (though it's being sold as such). Mr. Lucas has added additional revisionist history, like adding Hayden Christensen in the closing scene of Return of the Jedi -- which doesn't even make sense -- "Hey, Luke, there's your dad when he was younger and whinier than you are!"
    • The current iteration of the franchise is a disappoinment, but nothing's going to change if encourage LucasArts pocketbook. Buy the video game; forego the trilogy.
    • Mark Hamill rocks. He is the creative and voice acting man, and he seems to be enjoying life. More force power to him.


  4. Star Wars Battlefront connectivity grief

    • Shortly after it shipped, XBox users were complaining about Star Wars Battlefront network issues during Live play, with lag issues and servers with certain names not showing up. Less than a week later, a mandatory update will be available when you sign in with Battlefront via Live. Details of the fix aren't available, but include "connectivity" fixes.
    • As an aside, regardless of platform, it's good to know what your upstream connection speed is, since this determines the number of clients you can comfortably host. Battlefront needs to send at least 40kbps per client over the upstream connection. On my cable broadband connection, I get a 390kbps upstream, so I can comfortably host 8-10 players. A lot of games (UT24K4 on the PC) do a better job of detecting bandwidth, and letting you know how many you can host, or dumbing down game assets (video, audio, etc.) appropriately. Sucks to be a DSL user ...


  5. A fanboy's dewy dream week

    • Despite all of the whining, last week rocked on the fanboy front. With the release of two exceptional treatments of licenses (X-Men Legends for comic book fanboys and Star Wars Battlefront for Force Geeks) in the same week, my head nearly exploded. Legends has 4-way offline co-op play on the XBox, with a choice from 15-plus of my favorite muties (and a bunch of special guests), and Battlefront brings Battlefield 1942-like goodness to the Star Wars universe. I'm buying it once I find someone I know with XBox Live willing to bite the same bullet. Ah, bliss ...
    • In a very under-rated news tidbit, GameFly's weekly rental chart for the week ending September 27th showed an interesting rental demographic shift. At number one was the XBox version of Battlefront, with the PS2 version at #3. The XBox version of Legends was at #6, with the PS2 version not making an appearance. XBox games actually hold 6 of the top 10 positions. "Go Bill! Go Bill! It's your birthday! ... "


  6. XBox TV?

    • A job posting for a Xenon feature called "XBox TV" was posted then yanked from Microsoft's job site -- the listing says it all:

      • "Want to help create a new feature for Xenon not available on any other platform? Microsoft Game Studios is looking for an SDET with server experience to help design and implement the new Xenon Title Server features, including: a spectator mode for many Xenon games, Xbox TV - with tickers at the bottom of the screen featuring recent high scores and game highlights, a tournament system, and tradable trophies.

    • Beware, Comtica ... beware ... or partner ... yes ... partner ...


  7. XBox games updates

    • Ubisoft's Rocky Legends and The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee shipped nationwide Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
    • Budget third-person shooter Trigger Man is available for buy this week.
    • VU Games shipped the next iteration of adult ADD mascot Crash bandicoot, Crash Twinsanity.
    • Activision released Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball this past weekend, and International Halo champ Matthew “Zyos” Leto and other video game professionals routed the professional paintball players Rocky Cagnoni, Alex Fraige, Greg Hastings, Chris LaSoya and Keely Watson.
    • Once-canceled Microsoft-exclusive platformer Tork has been resurrected by Ubisoft as Tork: Prehistoric Punk, and will be shipped as a buget XBox-exclusive, and is slated for a January 2005 release.
    • Ubisoft's 2005 Splinter Cell Chaos Theory will both "co-op" and "versus" multiplayer modes. Spy-on-spy action is coming. Wait ...
    • Microsoft's Fable is setting records left and right. The sleeper hit (I'm gonna get letters) sold 375K units (and grossed about $18.7 million). It was EB Games' biggest first-week sales (any Xbox title); Game Rush's first-day sales record (any game); No. 1-selling overall title on any platform at GameStop the fastest-selling Xbox game at EB Games (uh, Canada) for first week sales; it even grossed more than No. 1 film box office movie of the same week (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow).
    • "There can be only one ..." -- SCi Entertainment and Davis Panzer Productions are bringing a new Highlander game to consoles, in time for the 20th anniversary of the franchise. Twenty years? Yeesh ... not feeling so immortal ...
    • Midway Games Inc. announced a new title, Fear & Respect, an action/adventure videogame based in the gritty world of South Central LA, where you try to get outa da gangsta life. The game is being done in collaboration with writer/director John Singleton. Paramount Pictures has already aquired the worldwide film rights.


  8. Nintendo getting into movies?

    • Majority shareholder/former Nintendo prez Hiroshi Yamauchi will be encouraging Nintendo executives to fund and create an animated film project. Yamauchi is the president of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Project Foundation - a foundation supporting the 100 short poems by various Japanese poets that make up the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. The poems were written between the 7th and 13th centuries, and Yamauchi says the project will also appeal to Western audiences. Like the Final Fantasy film did. Wait ...



  9. A new, sexier PS2

    • Probably in a bid to steal thunder from the November 9 Halo 2 release, Sony will be releasing a slimmer, sexier PS2 on November 1. Even though it retails at the same $149, the thing looks awesome, and only has the arguably minor downsides of being top-loading and lacking a hard drive bay. Shocking the industry is not 25% smaller than the current PS2 -- it's 25% of the size.
    • http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/21/screens_6107997.html?page=5


  10. Whither go the console wars?

    • Interesting stuff on the console war front, not least of which are the following:

      • XBox -- Noise is seeping out about the mock-up controllers leaked last month. The controllers, with two extra triggers and no white or black buttons, may be legit.
      • XBox -- Technology may come to the rescue for XBox Next/XBox Now. Strong tech demos are coming out on the software emulation front (especialy the "Virtual PC" arena), which could allow current gen XBox games to run on next gen hardware, despite the difference in graphics cards, etc.
      • XBox -- The industry is getting more bullish on the idea of Microsoft being first to market in the next-gen race. Industry firm DFC Intelligence is predicting the industry to be at a combined interactive entertainment (traditional PC game, video game, portable game hardware and software, and online gaming) revenue equalling $41.4 million by 2009. Online gaming by itself is going from $2.4 Billion 2004 to $9.8 billion by 2009. The new report is largely staked on a scenario where Microsoft launches their system a year before Sony and Nintendo.
      • PS2 -- The redesigned PS2 is sweet, and is a great way to get an additional high-revenue year out of the platform for Sony. However, it may be counter-productive if the PS market gets saturated, and there's less interest in the PS3.
      • PS3 -- Sony's announced that the PS3 will likely have a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc reader for the PlayStation 3. Shortly after they announced this, Sony announced they're prototyping 8-layer BD-ROM technology, capable of storing 200G per disc.



  11. More Infinium Labs noise

    • Infinium Labs, and its aptly named Phantom console, have been bumped from the purported November 18 launch date to sometime in 2005. Though earlier in the week Infinium announced strong list of publishing partners, they have not yet announced any retail partners -- a link considered critical to the success of any new or established console.


  12. New Releases



    • September 26

      • Crash Twinsanity (Action)
      • The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee (Driving)
      • ESPN NBA 2K5 (Sports)
      • Rocky: Legends (Sports)
      • Shark Tale (Action)
      • Trigger Man (Action)
      • Xbox Live Arcade (Multiple)


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