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Via Gamasutra, commentary from Peter Moore in the Seattle-PI about the furiously swirling Xbox 360 shortage rumours. From the article: "Is Microsoft purposefully holding back on shipments, trying to create an artificial appearance of extraordinary demand? Xbox executive Peter Moore says no -- pointing instead to the unprecedented scope of the launch. Microsoft, seeking to solidify its place in the living room and challenge Sony's dominant PlayStation franchise, is breaking from tradition by releasing its new machine in North America, Europe and Japan in rapid succession, over a span of three weeks."

Gamasutra reports that Vivendi Universal Games posted strong revenues for the third quarter, largely thanks to some MMOG. From the article: "The previously troubled game division, which the company had earlier been attempting to sell off, saw revenues increase by 88 percent to 158 million ($189m), thanks to the global success of Blizzard's massively multiplayer role-playing game World of WarCraft. The game's success has also had a positive effect on operating profits, which rose to 7 million ($8 million), from a loss of 32 million ($37m) at the same time last year." Unrelatedly, but humorously, Joystiq reports that WoW showed up as a Jeopardy! question recently.

Gamasutra reports that details on the initial offerings in the 360's Marketplace are now available. From the article: "Particularly notable are the downloadable playable demos for launch titles including FIFA Soccer 06 Road to the 2006 FIFA World Cup (Electronic Arts), Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios), Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Ubisoft), NBA LIVE 06 (Electronic Arts), Need for Speed Most Wanted (Electronic Arts)."

A topic we've touched on several times in the past here is discussed in the answers to another of Gamasutra's Questions of the week. Underrated games are the order of the day. From the article: "Natural Selection by Unknown Worlds is an outstanding work combining FPS action and RTS strategy elements. NS has gained a great following, but it has been overshadowed by success of Counter-Strike. The game play of NS naturally draws players to work together. I have always found the teamwork in NS better than most other FPS network games. The variety of classes in Aliens and Marines provides a lot of depth of play to experience. The RTS elements in the game were beautifully put together." I've always been partial to Shiny's Sacrifice , a weird little First Person RTS title where you play a mage that summons all of your units. Any titles that you think didn't get the attention they deserved?

Tashimojo writes "Gamasutra's running a feature entitled 'Nintendo Entertainment System - Expired Patents Do Not Mean Expired Protection', an interesting read. From the article: 'This article originated when the Gamasutra editors noticed a number of online sources such as Wikipedia stating that it was now completely legal to make NES 'clone' consoles, because all of Nintendo's patents regarding the NES had expired. How true was this statement? We asked game IP lawyer S. Gregory Boyd the question: Are the NES patents expired? If so, is a company free to build and sell new NES-like systems?'"

Tashimojo writes "Gamasutra's running a feature entitled 'Nintendo Entertainment System - Expired Patents Do Not Mean Expired Protection', an interesting read. From the article: 'This article originated when the Gamasutra editors noticed a number of online sources such as Wikipedia stating that it was now completely legal to make NES 'clone' consoles, because all of Nintendo's patents regarding the NES had expired. How true was this statement? We asked game IP lawyer S. Gregory Boyd the question: Are the NES patents expired? If so, is a company free to build and sell new NES-like systems?'"

Gamasutra's coverage of the Serious Games Summit has more to offer. First Person First-Responder Gaming, Inside the Institute fro Creative Technologies, and Riding the Edge of Distributed Intelligence are all quite interesting. Half-Life 2 is seeing use in serious gaming, too, though, and they have it covered in Healthcare and Forestry in Half-Life 2. From the article: "After his overview, Holt went on to talk about the serious game mod projects he'd been working on, starting with a medical simulation game project, Pulse!!!, which is funded by Congress via the Office of Naval Research. The project is an early stage prototype in advance of a larger development system, to test the issues needed to successfully move nurse training into a full scale 3D game-like environment. For the doctors in the similation, he used an ordinary civilian model from Half-Life 2, but worked to give it better posture - the civilians in Half-Life 2 were pretty downtrodden and had a definite slouch. Otherwise, with a bit of cleaning up of the skin and textures, the engine was extremely functional for its task, including careful use of the AI scripting and other behavioral code."

Gamasutra's coverage of the Serious Games Summit has more to offer. First Person First-Responder Gaming, Inside the Institute fro Creative Technologies, and Riding the Edge of Distributed Intelligence are all quite interesting. Half-Life 2 is seeing use in serious gaming, too, though, and they have it covered in Healthcare and Forestry in Half-Life 2. From the article: "After his overview, Holt went on to talk about the serious game mod projects he'd been working on, starting with a medical simulation game project, Pulse!!!, which is funded by Congress via the Office of Naval Research. The project is an early stage prototype in advance of a larger development system, to test the issues needed to successfully move nurse training into a full scale 3D game-like environment. For the doctors in the similation, he used an ordinary civilian model from Half-Life 2, but worked to give it better posture - the civilians in Half-Life 2 were pretty downtrodden and had a definite slouch. Otherwise, with a bit of cleaning up of the skin and textures, the engine was extremely functional for its task, including careful use of the AI scripting and other behavioral code."

Gamasutra's coverage of the Serious Games Summit has more to offer. First Person First-Responder Gaming, Inside the Institute fro Creative Technologies, and Riding the Edge of Distributed Intelligence are all quite interesting. Half-Life 2 is seeing use in serious gaming, too, though, and they have it covered in Healthcare and Forestry in Half-Life 2. From the article: "After his overview, Holt went on to talk about the serious game mod projects he'd been working on, starting with a medical simulation game project, Pulse!!!, which is funded by Congress via the Office of Naval Research. The project is an early stage prototype in advance of a larger development system, to test the issues needed to successfully move nurse training into a full scale 3D game-like environment. For the doctors in the similation, he used an ordinary civilian model from Half-Life 2, but worked to give it better posture - the civilians in Half-Life 2 were pretty downtrodden and had a definite slouch. Otherwise, with a bit of cleaning up of the skin and textures, the engine was extremely functional for its task, including careful use of the AI scripting and other behavioral code."

Gamasutra's coverage of the Serious Games Summit has more to offer. First Person First-Responder Gaming, Inside the Institute fro Creative Technologies, and Riding the Edge of Distributed Intelligence are all quite interesting. Half-Life 2 is seeing use in serious gaming, too, though, and they have it covered in Healthcare and Forestry in Half-Life 2. From the article: "After his overview, Holt went on to talk about the serious game mod projects he'd been working on, starting with a medical simulation game project, Pulse!!!, which is funded by Congress via the Office of Naval Research. The project is an early stage prototype in advance of a larger development system, to test the issues needed to successfully move nurse training into a full scale 3D game-like environment. For the doctors in the similation, he used an ordinary civilian model from Half-Life 2, but worked to give it better posture - the civilians in Half-Life 2 were pretty downtrodden and had a definite slouch. Otherwise, with a bit of cleaning up of the skin and textures, the engine was extremely functional for its task, including careful use of the AI scripting and other behavioral code."

The annual Serious Games Summit is taking place in Washington D.C. this week, and Gamasutra has several articles exploring the events that have taken place so far. Write-ups include How Games will improve CS education, Wargaming Science, and What's So Serious about Game Design? From the Games for CS article: "So, how do games fit into this? Well, Barnett pointed out to the audience, which included a number of university professors: 'We all know of [computer science] students, particularly young men, who get started gaming.' In fact, the majority of students have experience of being able to change parameters or other attributes in games. Thus, it's believed that game-related learning may be a way to stave off the precipitous decline in entry to computer science departments - overall enrolments are now down near a level last seen in the 1970s, and the amount of women attracted to the discipline is "less than dismal," according to Barnett. Worse than this, there is also a high attrition level, with 10 to 20 percent of students dropping out each year."

The annual Serious Games Summit is taking place in Washington D.C. this week, and Gamasutra has several articles exploring the events that have taken place so far. Write-ups include How Games will improve CS education, Wargaming Science, and What's So Serious about Game Design? From the Games for CS article: "So, how do games fit into this? Well, Barnett pointed out to the audience, which included a number of university professors: 'We all know of [computer science] students, particularly young men, who get started gaming.' In fact, the majority of students have experience of being able to change parameters or other attributes in games. Thus, it's believed that game-related learning may be a way to stave off the precipitous decline in entry to computer science departments - overall enrolments are now down near a level last seen in the 1970s, and the amount of women attracted to the discipline is "less than dismal," according to Barnett. Worse than this, there is also a high attrition level, with 10 to 20 percent of students dropping out each year."

The annual Serious Games Summit is taking place in Washington D.C. this week, and Gamasutra has several articles exploring the events that have taken place so far. Write-ups include How Games will improve CS education, Wargaming Science, and What's So Serious about Game Design? From the Games for CS article: "So, how do games fit into this? Well, Barnett pointed out to the audience, which included a number of university professors: 'We all know of [computer science] students, particularly young men, who get started gaming.' In fact, the majority of students have experience of being able to change parameters or other attributes in games. Thus, it's believed that game-related learning may be a way to stave off the precipitous decline in entry to computer science departments - overall enrolments are now down near a level last seen in the 1970s, and the amount of women attracted to the discipline is "less than dismal," according to Barnett. Worse than this, there is also a high attrition level, with 10 to 20 percent of students dropping out each year."

Thursday events were interesting enough, but now that everyone's had a chance to get home and relax there's news aplenty from this past weekend's MMOG industry event. For general first-hand impressions, we can turn to Greg Costikyan, Raph Koster, Lum, and Mirjam Eladhari, whose site is well worth looking at as it has liveblogging notes from many of the events. Speaking of events, the most popular session at the event seemed to be the MMOG industry Rant, a panel of big brains and angry thinkers. Reflections on the rant are available from Gamasutra, Psychochild, F13, and Next Generation. From the F13 write-up: "Jeff Hickman: Lum gave me ranting lessons. My rant is basically about (fist closed), as game developers - the fact we often make games - core pieces - it's a critical error in the things we do. As a player, it's effecting me in the game I play right now, damnit. As a developer, I've done this and made core changes and probably didn't achieve the goals I wanted to achieve. As I make these games, we attract a certain type of player. It's because of the things we put in - the gameplay - for whatever reason, we see another game that's cool, doing something better, or we want to change the billing process. For whatever reason, we make a change and it alienates people." There were other things to see and hear at the event. Zen of Design has notes on some panels, including Sex in Games, the aforementioned Casino Talk, Platformania, and Bleeding Customers is the Future. Gamasutra had two more postcards from Austin: East Meets West in MMOs, and Why the EFF is helping NCSoft. Finally, game impressions are available over at MMORPG.com, on Conan, Auto Assault, Dark Age of Camelot, and Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Thursday events were interesting enough, but now that everyone's had a chance to get home and relax there's news aplenty from this past weekend's MMOG industry event. For general first-hand impressions, we can turn to Greg Costikyan, Raph Koster, Lum, and Mirjam Eladhari, whose site is well worth looking at as it has liveblogging notes from many of the events. Speaking of events, the most popular session at the event seemed to be the MMOG industry Rant, a panel of big brains and angry thinkers. Reflections on the rant are available from Gamasutra, Psychochild, F13, and Next Generation. From the F13 write-up: "Jeff Hickman: Lum gave me ranting lessons. My rant is basically about (fist closed), as game developers - the fact we often make games - core pieces - it's a critical error in the things we do. As a player, it's effecting me in the game I play right now, damnit. As a developer, I've done this and made core changes and probably didn't achieve the goals I wanted to achieve. As I make these games, we attract a certain type of player. It's because of the things we put in - the gameplay - for whatever reason, we see another game that's cool, doing something better, or we want to change the billing process. For whatever reason, we make a change and it alienates people." There were other things to see and hear at the event. Zen of Design has notes on some panels, including Sex in Games, the aforementioned Casino Talk, Platformania, and Bleeding Customers is the Future. Gamasutra had two more postcards from Austin: East Meets West in MMOs, and Why the EFF is helping NCSoft. Finally, game impressions are available over at MMORPG.com, on Conan, Auto Assault, Dark Age of Camelot, and Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Thursday events were interesting enough, but now that everyone's had a chance to get home and relax there's news aplenty from this past weekend's MMOG industry event. For general first-hand impressions, we can turn to Greg Costikyan, Raph Koster, Lum, and Mirjam Eladhari, whose site is well worth looking at as it has liveblogging notes from many of the events. Speaking of events, the most popular session at the event seemed to be the MMOG industry Rant, a panel of big brains and angry thinkers. Reflections on the rant are available from Gamasutra, Psychochild, F13, and Next Generation. From the F13 write-up: "Jeff Hickman: Lum gave me ranting lessons. My rant is basically about (fist closed), as game developers - the fact we often make games - core pieces - it's a critical error in the things we do. As a player, it's effecting me in the game I play right now, damnit. As a developer, I've done this and made core changes and probably didn't achieve the goals I wanted to achieve. As I make these games, we attract a certain type of player. It's because of the things we put in - the gameplay - for whatever reason, we see another game that's cool, doing something better, or we want to change the billing process. For whatever reason, we make a change and it alienates people." There were other things to see and hear at the event. Zen of Design has notes on some panels, including Sex in Games, the aforementioned Casino Talk, Platformania, and Bleeding Customers is the Future. Gamasutra had two more postcards from Austin: East Meets West in MMOs, and Why the EFF is helping NCSoft. Finally, game impressions are available over at MMORPG.com, on Conan, Auto Assault, Dark Age of Camelot, and Pirates of the Burning Sea.

The yearly Austin Games Conference, the largest MMOG-focused industry event in the country, is taking place this weekend and a variety of places have coverage of the first day. For specific events, we have Gamasutra on MMOG economics and The Game Writer's Conference, a sister event to the AGC. Both Raph Koster (who has a blog now) and Next Generation have pieces on Damion Schubert's "What Vegas Can Teach the MMO" talk. For general color, Greg Costikyan has a feel for what it is like on the ground, and MMORPG.com has a Thursday wrapup. From the MMORPG.com piece: "The Austin Game Conference (AGC) looks and feels like a high school reunion. Dominated by the MMORPG industry, it allows developers to get together and compare their ideological toys. Unlike E3, this is not a commercial event. For example, EA's booth here is actually a booth, rather than some kind of football stadium. This allows for more of a community feel and serious discussion of issues facing the game industry without the need for marketing individual products to any great degree."

The yearly Austin Games Conference, the largest MMOG-focused industry event in the country, is taking place this weekend and a variety of places have coverage of the first day. For specific events, we have Gamasutra on MMOG economics and The Game Writer's Conference, a sister event to the AGC. Both Raph Koster (who has a blog now) and Next Generation have pieces on Damion Schubert's "What Vegas Can Teach the MMO" talk. For general color, Greg Costikyan has a feel for what it is like on the ground, and MMORPG.com has a Thursday wrapup. From the MMORPG.com piece: "The Austin Game Conference (AGC) looks and feels like a high school reunion. Dominated by the MMORPG industry, it allows developers to get together and compare their ideological toys. Unlike E3, this is not a commercial event. For example, EA's booth here is actually a booth, rather than some kind of football stadium. This allows for more of a community feel and serious discussion of issues facing the game industry without the need for marketing individual products to any great degree."

Gamasutra is reporting that low volume of 360 consoles will result in a somewhat gradual ramp up for the launch. From the article: "'The analysts were expecting more of a launch spike than we were... [we expect a] more gradual ramp toward' meeting revenue targets, presumably due to a lower volume of available Xbox 360 consoles than some analysts were previously estimating, and perhaps indicating there may be more severe Xbox 360 shortages than some have predicted this holiday season."

In a 'we live in an odd world' moment, Gamasutra reports that several executives of the company that is producing and distributing the Gizmondo handheld have stepped down after possible connections to organized crime were publicized. From the article: "...fellow senior Gizmondo Europe executive Stefan Eriksson has resigned from the company, also to pursue 'new entrepreneurial pursuits', following an expose by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, which alleged Eriksson's involvement in the 'Uppsala Mafia', a criminal enterprise which led to his convictions in his native Sweden from charges including counterfeiting in the early 1990s. Fellow Gizmondo employees Peter Uf and Johan Enander have also apparently left the company, and Enander is currently wanted by the Swedish police, according to Aftonbladet." We recently reported on the poor quality of the console.

Gamasutra reports on an official release regarding the problems at Wal-Mart stores with the 360 console. From the article: "Wal-Mart's 'network-based inventory management systems can be impacted by products using modern wireless signals,' a claim borne out by some of the Wal-Mart employees noting that other wireless devices, such as wireless phones, would accomplish the same thing. Microsoft has already addressed the problem, and 'a solution to this issue was developed within 24 hours of identifying the issue and we are currently deploying the fix to the affected locations.'" We've reported on this issue previously. A quick call to my local store confirmed that they do have a kiosk installed, but it's still down because of the issue.

nb caffeine writes "Spike TV has announced the nominees for this year's VG awards. Oddly enough, there are several nominations for games that are not even out yet." From the article: "The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Vin Diesel, The Rock, Missy Elliot, Snoop Dogg, Carmen Electra, Xzibit and Ozzy Osbourne are also set to appear at the third annual awards event. Casey Patterson, Executive Producer of the awards, commented: 'Video games have taken over the world as the most creative, cutting edge platform for major names in entertainment to showcase their talent and reach a massive audience. Sam Jackson is one of the coolest guys on the planet; we're thrilled to have him hosting this year's show which promises more stars, more rock and more games than ever before.'" Sounds like it's just as much about the games as it was last year. Interestingly, Games.slashdot.org was tapped, along with Joystiq and Kotaku, to be nominated for Best Blog. Guess they don't hold grudges.

Gamasutra has a piece offering up responses to their query regarding whether the Christmas rush helps or hurts the industry. From the article: " I think it benefits no one. Developers lose out because their hard work is fighting for a slice of the publishers' limited market resource. Publishers lose out because marketing will cost more in order to make an impact, and consumers lose because they'll miss out on some truly good games just because they either can't afford to buy them all at release, so they don't get bought at all, or they just won't have time to play all the games they do buy properly. -Sean Scaplehorn, IdeaWorks 3D Ltd "

Patrick Caldwell writes "Game Developer magazine recently released a list of the top 20 video game publishers. EA, Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are the first five, as could probably have been predicted." From the article: " For the third year in a row, Electronic Arts (EA) has grabbed the top slot on the "Top 20 Publishers" chart. EA reached an annual revenue of more than $3.1 billion, continued high output and received positive average reviews for its titles. However, the company faced some serious competition from fellow publishers like Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, all of whom had very strong showings this year and rounded out the top 5 in that order."

Gamasutra reports that a new iteration of the PS2 hardware experiences issues with certain games, both from this and the last generation. From the article: "The listed games will only be affected on new models of the system, starting with the Satin Silver slimline PS2, so far announced only for Japan. Whether the SCPH-75000 model will eventually be the standard for all production PS2s is unknown, but Sony advises those wanting a thinner system which can play the aforementioned games to get a 70000 or above."

CliffyB talks with the fine folks at Gamasutra about the upcoming 360 title Gears of War. Besides some interesting insights into the game, they talk about the designer's game philosophy and the next generation of games. From the article: "No, we're not making Knights Of The Old Republic or anything here. Who these characters are is largely pre-defined, as far as Marcus being an anti-hero, and Dom being his buddy. Part of it is just my own game design philosophy because, for me, whenever I play those games, I always go evil. And I have a feeling that if they made those games, if you could only choose the dark path, and you only thought you could choose the light path, nobody would notice, because it seems to me that everyone who goes for the Force chokes."

Gamasutra is reporting that Sony's PSP Handheld has hit 10 Million units shipped. From the article: "Broken down into regions, Asia (including Japan) has shipped 3 million units, North America 4.47 million, and Europe and other PAL regions 2.53 million. However, Sony's use of statistics for shipped units can be a little confusing to some, since these figures do vary significantly to the amount of units thus far sold in stores. Nonetheless, citing shipment numbers for consoles is common practice within the game industry, and is carried out by all three major console manufacturers."

Gamasutra is reporting on Yee and Schwarzenegger's response to the lawsuit brought in response to the violent games bill passed recently in California. From the article: "History has proven in cases of child labor and physical assault on children that we can and should pass laws to protect them. I am a strong believer in the First Amendment and in free speech, but when a game allows a player to virtually commit sexual assault and murder, as a society we must do what we can to protect our children, as we do for alcohol, tobacco, and pornography, among other items," We've previously reported on the passing of the bill and the filing of the lawsuit.

Joystiq wonders out loud if the shortage rumours going around about the Xbox 360 may not just be a marketing ploy on Microsoft's part. From the article: "The bottom line: in all likelihood, you'll be able to walk into just about any store on November 22nd and obtain an Xbox 360. But all it takes is a little, good, old-fashioned FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to drive sales through the roof and make this rumor a self-fulfilling prophecy." If this is in fact a ploy, it may be backfiring on them. Gamasutra is reporting that an analyst is downgrading his opinion of how the launch will go based on these hardware shortage rumours.

gavriels writes "TransGaming has just released SwiftShader, an ultra-fast software-only 3D renderer that supports Vertex and Pixel Shaders. SwiftShader dynamically compiles the geometry and rasterization pipelines to produce code that exactly matches the graphics features a game or application is using. Demo download and tech details can be found on their website."

Gamasutra is reporting on Microsoft's loud exclamations on the advantage their November launch will afford them, compared to the expected 2006 launch of the PS3. In fact: "UK Xbox boss Neil Thompson has boasted that Microsoft expects to have a even more significant lead on the PlayStation 3 than previously supposed, suggesting that, in his opinion, the PlayStation 3 might launch in Europe as late as spring 2007 ..." More on this FUD from Next Generation.

Gamasutra's usual weekly Q&A has industry responses about the future of mobile gaming. From the article: "The interesting thing about the prospects for cell phone gaming is that we as an industry do not yet exist in the hearts and minds of the consumer. When asked about mobile games, the average person on the street does not yet know they can play games on their phone, and the ones that do confess to playing 'a few card games or something like that'. There have been early successes and anomalous successes in mobile, but hardly anyone has done anything of sustainable consequence to the consumer, or the marketplace. -John Szeder, Mofactor, Inc"

Gamasutra has a piece on the elements of substance and style within videogames, and what should be considered when designing with these elements in mind. From the article: "An easy way to understand the difference between style and substance is by example. Many shooter games have traditionally calculated world collision and bullet impacts by modeling bullets as instantaneous line traces and characters as moving collision cylinders. In this case, the line-projecting cylinder is the fundamental nature of the character - the character's substance. The image of a fighter, the sounds he makes and the way he animates is the character's style."

Edge Online reports that Nintendo's DS WiFi service will be launching in Europe as soon as November 25th. From the article: "As explained a few weeks back, Nintendo plans for the system to be safe, secure and easy to access. Players will be able to access the WiFi Connection service via hotspots in their local shop, their internet service at home (shared with the USB dongle) or via public hotspots. Nintendo Europe is still in the process of signing a deal with a telecomms operator to make the latter work, with an official announcement due shortly." Gamasutra has coverage of the WiFi announcement as well, with details on a Nintendo branded adaptor and new wireless titles.

StocDred writes "GamesIndustry.biz has an interview with Microsoft's Robbie Bach stating that Halo 3 may not be out in time to smackdown the PS3 after all, despite what Bill Gates said to Time Magazine in May." He also had things to say about the Live marketplace and MMO plug-ins and their hopes for Japanese success. From the Gamasutra article: "Finally, Bach gave details on anticipated MMORPGs for the Xbox 360. The already-announced Final Fantasy XI will have a large beta test, such that any Xbox 360 owner with the necessary hard drive will possibly be able to participate. Apart from that, Bach said there would be no new MMORPG in the launch window due to the logistics of setting up a new service, but there would be a new entry in the genre two to three years after launch." Several MMOs are planned, though, such as the MMOFPS Huxley.

Gamasutra reports that the fund raising we mentioned recently was successful; Gamestop has raised more than $900 Million for the merger with Electronic Boutique. Further, the deal is set to go forward at the end of this month. If it doesn't, the funds will be returned. From the article: "The gross proceeds of the offering were placed into escrow and will be released to the issuers, less applicable discounts, in connection with the closing of the business combination. In the event the business combination does not close by October 31, 2005, the notes will be redeemed."

The U.S., Europe, and Japan are getting ahold of Microsoft's next console this year, but China will have to wait until 2006, reports Gamasutra. From the article: "Obviously, it's somewhat unclear that the majority of China's workforce would be able to afford such a console - the average wage of an urban worker in China in 2004 was 9,422 yuan ($1,164), and a rural worker made just 2,936 yuan ($363) on average. Nonetheless, Microsoft is keen to make a symbolic move into the territory, as Sony did in December 2003 when it launched the PlayStation 2 in four major Chinese cities, to as yet unrevealed sales figures. Nintendo is trying a different strategy, with its license to iQue for the release of specially branded, localized Nintendo 64, Game Boy, and even Nintendo DS products in Chinese territories."

Gamasutra has reactions to last week's Question of the Week, discussing the Nintendo Revolution Controller. While there were a lot of mixed feelings, overall the response seemed to be positive. From the article: " I certainly hope [the controller will be beneficial]. More of the same thinking in terms of developing the future of games can only take us so far. As a lifelong gamer and game developer, I urge everybody in our industry to support the innovation and risks taken by Nintendo on sheer principle. We always lament that there is no creativity and innovation in the games industry anymore. Guys, we have to rally around these initiatives. It brings a tear to my eye that somebody out there in this big brutal word of ROI and risk management still dares to go out on a limb like that to push gaming further. And my mouth waters when I think of designing for such hardware. -Marque Sondergaard, Powerhouse"

Gamasutra is reporting on next year's inductees to the Sony Walk of Game at the Metreon in San Francisco. From the article: "Lifetime achievement nominees for the 2006 Walk Of Game are John Carmack, Peter Molyneux, Sid Meier, Toru Iwatani, and Will Wright. Game and character nominations include Castlevania, Civilization, Donkey Kong, Doom, EverQuest, Final Fantasy, Fox McCloud, Frogger, Grand Theft Auto, Half-Life, Lara Croft, Madden NFL, Mortal Kombat, Myst, Pac-Man, Pitfall Harry, Pong, Quake, Resident Evil, Samus Aran, Space Invaders, StarCraft, Street Fighter II, Tetris, and The Sims."

Gamespot is reporting on an article from the WSJ, stating that id software turned down a takeover bid by Activision earlier this year. Former employee Adrian Carmack, who was let go around that time, now states that his termination from the company was the result of a subtle ousting by the other owners. From the article: "... it is Carmack's contention that the other id owners deliberately rejected all of Activision's offers so they could then fire him, thereby acquiring his shares for a fraction of what the publisher would have paid for them. He claims that his fellow co-owners, which control a combined 59 percent of id, began a death-of-a-1,000-cuts-style approach to force him out--closely monitoring his hours, stripping him of privileges, and denying him access to board-related documents. The other board members also ceased redistributing profits as dividends in 2004 (for the five years prior to that, Carmack had received approximately $3.5 million per year)." Coverage also available from Gamasutra.

Gamasutra is running an article about the Massively Multiplayer Game Eve Online. Information from senior producer Nathan Richardsson gives a look into the development of the largest concurrent MMO on the market. From the article: "Power to the players. Nothing compares to a player that is enabled to affect the universe. We create tools for players to create content. For example, a massive alliance of corporations - our versions of guilds - with real, legendary players, leading them, controlling large areas of space and building up infrastructure is truly awesome content. We can never create that, but we can create the environment and tools enabling to happen. We're also very iterative in our work and keep continuous feedback cycles on the features we do, then regularly improve them based on that feedback. The community is an incredible source for how to improve the game and what they do within the game gives us constant inspiration for what we should implement next. Being so open-ended means the players do what they want and we try to keep up and add support and tools to take emerging behavior further. Embrace and evolve are the keywords here."

Gamasutra has a follow-up to a previous Question of the Week about the PSP and the DS. The question this past week was: "Which handheld do you think is winning the most hearts, and which the biggest marketshare in each territory?" From the article: " My personal view of the PSP hasn't changed at all. It's not what I'm looking for in a portable system. Seriously, who actually wants to watch a movie on a tiny screen? The DS genuinely has more options for innovation when it comes to unique software, but because the general masses are easily influenced by what is cool, I can foresee less developers spending time on creating innovative software on the DS in an effort to cash in on the popularity (and mass marketing) of the PSP. Still, the DS has sold quite a number of units, also, where I currently reside, the PSP has only just launched recently, so it's still hard to say. -Anonymous "

Many reactions to last week's violent games bill. Primotech writes "I first heard of California's AB1179 late Friday night. Like most others, who simply shrugged the bill off as inconsequential, my first thought was strikingly indifferent. Beyond the perfunctory glance, however, it becomes evident that this bill brings into focus and, more importantly, actually probes some of the more serious issues facing the industry. Above all else, examining and dissecting the proposal reveals some truly frightening facts." Relatedly, Shodan writes "Hal Halpin, the President of IEMA, today issued a statement in response to California Assembly Bill 1179, which is on the floor to address the issue of violent videogames." Other states are taking their lead from Illinois and California. KymBuchanan writes "I'm sad to say my state is on the bandwagon, and the charge is being lead by Democrats. From the article: 'Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm has announced that she will sign legislation later this week that will make the sale or rental of mature or adult-rated video games to children illegal ... The fine for anyone caught selling a "violent title" ( apparently defined by the bill as real or simulated graphic depictions of physical injuries or physical violence against parties who realistically appear to be human beings) to minors will initially be $5,000, and can go as high as $40,000 ...'"

Gamasutra is reporting that the ESRB is now mandating an audit of hidden game content. The audit is retroactive to the 1st of this month. From the article: "Fully disclosing hidden content accessible as Easter eggs and via cheat codes has always been part of ESRB's explicitly stated requirements when submitting games to be rated. In the July 20 public announcement, which focused on the revocation of a specific game's rating assignment, we formally stated that any pertinent content shipped on the game disc that may be relevant to a rating must be disclosed to ESRB, even if it is not intended to ever be accessed during game play."

Gamasutra has another GDCE postmortem, this time for the sequel to the god-in-a-box sim Black and White. From the article: "The design philosophy that Lionhead Studios adopted for the sequel to Black and White was to enhance the player's feeling of being a god in the game world by immersing them as fully as possible in that world. What this meant in practice was to largely reject the standard model of game menus and data-panels for an interface that forms part of the game world itself. This presented the design team with all kinds of challenges which were made even harder by the decision to expand the scope of B&W 2 beyond its god game heritage to include elements such as real-time strategy, simulation, city building and a physics engine. "

Another "Postcard from GDCE" is available over at Gamasutra, this article a postmortem of the title Project Gotham Racing 3. Game Developer postmortems are usually interesting, and always good for at least one insight. From the article: "However, as an ultimate lesson, the Bizarre Creations duo return to an earlier, extremely valid point. When you're making a next-gen game, don't forget that it's not the 'next-gen' which is the most important part but the 'game'. An obvious lesson, perhaps, but it's something that can't be said enough, and something we'll find out the results of this holiday season for PGR3, hopefully."

Jeku writes "Don Mattrick leaves Electronic Arts after 23 years. From the article, a quote from Larry Probst, EA CEO: 'Don would have been on a short list of internal candidates that might move into the CEO role,' Probst said. 'Don came to the conclusion that he was not interested in running a public company. And that he did not want to be doing the same job in five years or ten years.'" More commentary on the exec shakeup over at Gamasutra.

Gamasutra is reporting that the U.S. SEC has approved the merger of Gamestop and EBGames, which was proposed earlier this year. From the article: "If completed, the merger between GameStop and EB would create a single company representing 20 to 30 percent of the overall market for video game products in the United States, and practically the entire market for used games. It's currently unknown whether EB and GameStop stores would keep their current monikers, or unite under one central name for branding purposes."

Seeing What Sticks is an article posted as a 'Postcard from GDCE' over at Gamasutra. In the piece they do a run down on the keynote Katamari creator Keita delivered late in the show. The topic? The approach he took to create a sequel to the quirky and successful original title. From the article: "Speaking through a be-suited translator, Keita alternates between being gleefully provocative and self-effacing. The sense of humor all too apparent in Katamari is equally noticeable here, with even the translator stopping to laugh before telling the audience what Keita actually says. Like, for example, thinking he was offered the keynote by mistake."

Gamasutra has been reporting all week from the Game Developer's Conference Europe, and they've got plenty of interesting wrap-up materials to peruse. Developing for the PS3 covers some of the expectations developers should have when dealing with the cell processor, the PSP 2005 Overview takes a look back at the performance of Sony's handheld, and The Game Design Mashup: What do Grannies Play? takes a lighter look at the development process. From the mashup article: "The theme for the Game Design Mash-up was particularly apt in a development age highly concerned with diversity - devise a game for Granny. Robin laid down the rules of engagement and asked some important first questions: the audience is mainstream, casual, female and gray. How do we reach them? Who is your Grandma? What would she play?"