News

Sony has announced that their profits for this quarter will be about 25% lower than initially projected.

There are two main reasons for this. The first is the relative strength of the Yen right now when compared to the currencies of other nations. Since Sony exports so many products, they do not receive as much of a profit as they should because of these nations' weaker currencies (This is just a quick and dirty explanation of it. I'm just a history major so I know almost nothing about global economics). The second reason is Playstation 2 sales are starting to slow. Europe is the only major market were sales are continuing to grow. Last year for this quarter, Sony's game division had sales of 250 billion Yen. For the quarter this year, the division has only had sales of 161 billion Yen. Sony contributes part of this to a dock worker strike on the US West Coast.

Source: Games_Are_Fun

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I wonder if PS3 news will start picking up because of this...

Sony Computer Entertainment America, Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games, and Wal-Mart are facing a $246 million dollar lawsuit from the families of two victims who claim their son and daughter were shot as the result of Grand Theft Auto 3 and its influence.

Aaron Hamel, 45, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, was seriously wounded after their car was fired upon by two step brothers, age 16 and 14. While in custody, the boys said they had taken rifles that were in their house and shot at cars like one can do in GTA3. The teens plead guilty to reckless homicide, endangerment, and assault in juvenile court and are now serving an indefinite term. The families claim that the game inspires and trains one how to shoot at people and vehicles.

In other GTA 3 news, the title has sold 192,000 copies in its first three weeks of availability in Japan, and has stayed in the country's top 5 for these weeks.

Source: Gamespot

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I feel much sympathy for the two families, but I don't know if this suit wants to make me roll my eyes or agree with it. There are a numerous reasons for the eye roll. Firstly, the game does not teach someone how to use a rifle. Secondly, the game is rated "Mature." If the kids were not able to handle it, they should not have been playing it. If anybody should be sued, it should be the parents for not taking greater interest in what their children were up to (and I'm not saying they should be, necessarily). Thirdly, not one of the companies being named in the suit put the gun in the childrens' hands.

On the other hand, if one is able to sue over the slightest little things in the US (the people who wanted to sue the fast food businesses "for making them fat," I'm looking at you), a person who lost a love one should definitely be allowed as well.

What does everyone else think? I'm especially interested in the non-US members' point of view because I'm not aware of many lawsuits in other countries and how the legal systems handle them.

It appears Pilotwings, Nintendo's popular air-stunt franchise, may not see life on the Gamecube after all. Factor 5, the company developing it, has fallen behind in its production schedule and the title is not expected to be ready until 2005 now.

The "Gamecube 2" may be ready by this time and Nintendo may choose to use Pilotwings as one of its launch titles for the system.


Source: ComputerandVideoGames.com

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I have never played the SNES or N64 versions of this game, but I have heard many good things about them. I'm sure this will disappoint many Gamecube owners.

Nokia's "answer" to Nintendo's Gameboy Advance sold poorly during its first week of availability in the UK.

6000 stores that had the device available for sale were polled. These stores combined to sell only 500 units. That means only 8% of retailers sold even one unit. In the time period that these 500 N-Gages were sold, 1,500 Gameboy Advance were purchased by UK consumers.

In other N-Gage news, the best selling game for the unit during its first week was a Tomb Raider remake.

Source: Gameforms

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I'm all for competition to the Gameboy Advance. I really am. But the N-Gage isn't going to be it. Reading some of the product reviews, it seems that you basically have to disassemble the unit just to play a game. Even worse is its price which is $300 US.

Has anymore here actually tried one of the units?

Thanks be to Gamers.com for sharing this with us from MTV and the parent company of Gamers.com, Ziff-Davis.

It looks like MTV and EGM might be planning a reality show based on the habits of hardcore gamers. No telling yet if it will be contest-based, or more like a documentary, but given the fact that MTV shows of either genre tend to be vapid and ridiculous, I'm sure it's bound to be a winner!

You can read MTV's casting call here, and more information will probably crop up on Gamers.com or MTV.com soon.

Fantastic.

To borrow from Saturday Night Live, anthology collections have three sizes: wee, not-so-wee, and FRIGGIN' HUGE. Capcom, a company that has seen better days, redeems themselves significantly now, though, with the release of 10 Mega Man games in one package for the PS2 and NGC..

According to Gamers.com, Capcom will drop the original eight mainstream MM games onto a disc, as well as two MM fighting games that never before have been released in America, for arcades or consoles. Sorry, X fans, but it looks like you'll have to wait for your anthology, if one ever comes about.

Taking a page from DVD releases, you'll also find a fairly sizable section of bonus features, like interviews, animation shorts, and other goodies from the MM universe.

I was always quite bad at MM games, but I did enjoy playing the ones I tried. I would bet that this won't be an expensive game, and therefore it will be well-worth the pickup.