Slashdot Mirror

GameIndustry.biz has the word that Viacom and Activision has settled their dispute over the Star Trek license. The settlement was reached last Friday in a confidential agreement that ends a series of suits begun back in 2003. From the article: "If the two are collaborating on new Star Trek projects, however, they remain under wraps. The last Star Trek game announcement came from online game developer Perpetual Entertainment, which announced in September that it was producing a massively multiplayer game based on the sci-fi series."

DeeFresh writes "An article on Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Judge R. Gary Klausner dismissed many of the Marvel's claims against NCSoft. From the article: 'Judge Klausner also agreed with the defendants that some of Marvel's allegations and exhibits should be stricken as 'false and sham' because they were not actually created by users of the game but by Marvel itself.'" Commentary also available on Gamespot.com.

The next Playstation console has been designed with ease of development in mind, according to a story on GamesIndustry.biz. The PS3 an its relationship to the development community was discussed in depth at a GDC session earlier this week. From the article: "The PlayStation Portable's comprehensive set of tools and APIs has largely been well-received by developers, but for PlayStation 3, the company plans to go even further - adopting a number of familiar industry standard systems that will give game creators a running start on the platform."

The Microsoft Keynote address today was a ra-ra session, trying to get people excited about the future of games (the Microsoft way). Which, of course, is not to say that it wasn't interesting. For the word straight from the mount, the sound and video is available on the Xbox site. Many sites have their impressions of the keynote, including Joystiq, GamesIndustry.biz, and Gamemethod. Read on if you'd like my thoughts on Microsoft's vision of the future. The thrust of Allard's talk was the future of gaming as seen through Microsoft's eyes, a vision he referred to as "The HD Living Room". In this future living room, High Def video and audio would combine with immersive connectivity and individualization to produce a new experience for gamers. This experience, he argued, would drawn in new gamers to the fold as the marketplace ages. Someday we would be looking at the first game to sell 20 million units.

Microsoft, of course, is going to usher in this new age. Take what you will from that part of the message, but his overall vision was compelling. Micropayments in the 2.0 version of Xbox live will allow for content sellable to end-users for very small amounts, seamlessly executed from the users end and not even a consideration on the designer's end. Essentially, all the designer would have to do is decide what assets were available for sale and what price as the the Live 2.0 system handles the rest.

Microsoft's role as a developer's aid behind the scenes seemed to be his secondary talking point. XNA Studio was mentioned again, and Allard discussed a future point where design teams are much larger and completely integrated across the globe. The most barbed commentary came when he was discussing the Xbox Next system, and how the system's design was intended to be as easy to develop on as possible while still being powerful and balanced. He referred to a "Science Fair Approach" to console design where these were not the objectives, probably referring to Nintendo's Revolution system.

The crunchy parts of the talk included details about the next Live system, where players will have online "gamer cards", personalized baseball cards showing their stats and accomplishments while playing Live games. The ability to customize the music experience for every Xbox game was mentioned (ala Burnout 3 and some other titles), as was a ubiquitous and standardized user interface for all games that use the Live service. In many ways it sounds as if Live 2.0 will be taking many cues from Bungie's work on Halo 2. The extendable XML and RSS technology used in the game was mentioned during a video presentation in the talk.

The thinly veiled slam against Nintendo was the low point of the talk, which overall kept to an upbeat and high minded ideal. Ignoring the part where Microsoft is the backbone of game development for a moment, their ideas have definite merit. As a MMOG player in particular, the discussion of a need for commonality in UI choices seemed on target. His pithy statement "Bruce Lee, not Brute Force" seems a laudable goal for design choices, and a future where gaming is as ubiquitous and as popular as movies or television is certainly not one I would be sad to see.

While selling us on his vision, Allard managed to do a little bit of pure selling as well. But really, who can blame him? Microsoft Game Studios is in an excellent position right now, the next Xbox console is due out this year, and they have announced an intention as a company to specifically support game development from a developer's perspective. If there's anything that the folks in Redmond are talented at it's combining high minded ideas with marketing, and the Wednesday Keynote was very effective in combined both.

Update: 03/10 17:29 GMT by Z :Added back in the paragraph I managed to delete.

rauper wrote in to alert us to a GameIndustry.biz story. The quote says it all: "Swedish company Meqon, the firm behind the physics for 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, has rekindled interest in the long-delayed game with a stunning demonstration of its latest physics technology."

GamesIndustry.biz has comments from Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games, stating that he considers the recent talk about sky high game and console prices nothing but scare tactics on the part of large publishers. From the article: "'I guess they just don't have productive tools like we have,' he went on to suggest."

GamesIndustry.biz has the word that Sony has one million PSP units queued up for the U.S. launch on March 24th. Their hope is to ship over three million units by the end of their fiscal year, a somewhat daunting task as the EU launch has been pushed beyond the end of Sony's fiscal year-end. From the article: "The company had previously said that it would manufacture a million units for the North American launch, but it hadn't been clear how many of those units would actually be on shelves, and how many would be stuck further back in the chain - in factories, warehouses or transit."

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of enjoying the "Dear Friends" concert of Final Fantasy music in Rosemont, Illinois. Composer Nobuo Uematsu is well known among game players for the intricate melodies that create the backdrop for most of the Final Fantasy titles. Even the older titles, 8-bit compositions though they were, made for evocative soundscapes. When taken into the hands of a skilled orchestra Uematsu's works are incredibly stirring pieces of music. Read on for my impressions from the start of the first U.S. concert series composed entirely of video game music. Update: 02/25 21:08 GMT by Z : Coincidentally, GamesIndustry.biz has an interview with Nobuo Uematsu available for perusal today. The Rosemont Theatre holds over four thousand seats, and every one of them was filled for the "Dear Friends" performance on Saturday night. The concert was set to start at 8pm but the evening didn't really begin until almost 8:20, when the "Square-Enix" logo was replaced on the large video screens at the front of the theater with the image of Nobuo Uematsu walking down an aisle. Four thousand some fans leapt to their feet and applauded the entrance of the man who made the evening possible. When the composer found his seat, the Chicagoland Pops started the night off with a bang.

"Liberi Fatali" is the defining theme from the eighth game in the series, and began the night's musical selections. The choral accompaniment added to the raw energy of the piece, talented individuals who successfully evoked the emotion of the images that appeared on the screens up front. Portions of the full motion video from the game gave a visual contrast to the auditory experience. These images were alternated with camera-work showing the audience close-ups of the musicians at work, allowing individuals with seats too far away from the stage to get a good look at the artists at work.

After the explosive introduction we were introduced by conductor Arnie Roth to Gene Honda, the master of ceremonies for the evening. He commented on the momentousness of the evening, a theme which was touched on several times by speakers during the night. He then introduced the next trio of pieces and prompted more rock concert-like cheers from the audience.

Final Fantasy X's "Zanarkland" began the next trio of musical pieces, with images of Yuna offsetting the tempo of the music. The piece following that got a huge response when it was mentioned by the MC, and caused the entire crowd to grow hushed when it began. "Terra's Theme" is one of the most poignant musical selections in the Final Fantasy repertoire, and in many ways defines Final Fantasy VI as a cornerstone of the series. Similarly, the "Theme of Love" from Final Fantasy IV brought back many memories for the assembled concert-goers, the love between Cecil and Rosa a basis for future relationships in the series.

After another moment of commentary from Mr. Honda (who delighted the audience by proclaiming his gamerdom like a badge of honor), the title song of the evening began to be played. The story of Final Fantasy V's group of comrades reflected in some ways the idea behind the evening's entertainment. Later in the evening, with Mr. Uematsu on the stage, it was stated that the title of the show was meant to get across the appreciation he has for all of the many gamers and music fans alike who have made the music of Final Fantasy so well known. The concert series, he said, was meant to be a heartfelt thanks for the support the music and the series has received over the years.

Following "Dear Friends" was the peppy and dramatic "Vamo' Alla Flamenco". An extremely talented guitarist sat in with the orchestra on the title song and on the latin-accented theme from Final Fantasy IX. The powerful music played to beautiful images of the airship and the extraordinarily popular character of Vivi the Black Mage. The final piece in the pre-intermission set was "Love Grows", from Final Fantasy VIII. The beautiful music was played against the ballroom scenes between Rinoa and Squall, providing a compliment to the story unfolding on screen.

During intermission I received several compliments on my shirt. Old-skool is the best skool, apparently.

After the break they went right for the heartstrings, with the haunting Aeris's Theme from Final Fantasy VII and "Not Alone" from IX. Aeris' climactic moments played out on screen, and the piece ended as the on-screen animation pulled back to reveal the cityscape from the seventh game. It was easy to remember why VII is still one of the most popular games in the series. "Not Alone" was played to images of Yuna dancing on the water, more beautiful imagery from a snappy game. The last piece in the set was the theme from Ronfaure, an area in the online Final Fantasy XI. Despite the repetitious nature of the music it was really excellent to hear such a familiar theme done with orchestral force.

MC Honda came out for a final farewell and to introduce the last three themes for the evening. A medley from Final Fantasy I-III kicked off the set, recalling several of the truly classic elements of the series. The medley opened with the harp from the very beginning of Final Fantasy I, the crunchily 8-bit background that plays while we are introduced to the Crystals for the very first time. The medley also included the toe-tappingly excellent Chocobo theme, which elicited more than a little laughing and cheering when the first notes were played. The last "official" song of the evening was, simply, the Final Fantasy theme. Over a decade ago that theme first found it's way into the consciousness of American kids through the original NES title. In my case, I'm firmly convinced farming ogres in the woods outside of the elvish lands in FFI had something to do with the choices I was to make in my life to follow.

From the reactions of the audience that night, it was obvious that many felt the same way. When the original theme ended with a crash, the applause just went on and on and on. Mr. Uematsu took the stage to speak with the assembled and wildy cheering audience. A congenial translator passed on his questions. Aside from wanting to know if we'd had a good time (an ear threatening "YES!!" from the crowd), he asked us to respond to a few questions. First he wanted to know how far we'd come, and asked how many were locals, how many from Illinois, etc. When he reached the confines of the United States, the response was deafening. Just in the front row there were individuals who had driven from New York, Nevada, and Florida to hear the concert. Surprisingly, when he asked if there was anyone there from outside the U.S. there were a number of cheers from around the auditorium.

He thanked us all for our exuberance, stating that we needed to calm down "so that we could speak tomorrow". The atmosphere at the point in the evening was very much like a rock concert attended by thousands of adoring fans, and he seemed a little overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. His next question was to compound that issue, as he asked "If I brought the Black Mages here to the states, would you all promise to come to a concert?" Apparently there will be at least 4,400 people ready if ever rock-arranged video game music finds its way into a concert venue in the states. His last question, though, brought down the house. "Would you like to hear one more song?"

And what a song it was. They had, of course, saved the best for last. As the choir filed back onto the stage more cheering broke out. The conductor and the orchestra readied themselves and the audience grew quiet again. When the first frantic strains of "One-Winged Angel" burst into the Rosemont Theatre it was like lighting a match in the crowd. The rapt attention the audience gave to the final theme of the evening was only matched by the beauty of the skilled playing of the Pops and the enthusiasm of the choral group. One young man in particular found himself on the stage screens for some time, and the enormous grin he had on his face was a testament to the joy the group got out of the beautiful lyrics and powerful energy of the signature Final Fantasy VII piece. With one final "Sephiroth!", and with the antagonist himself looking down from the screens, the night came to an end with a flourish. When the house lights came up a lot of people looked like they were shaking themselves out of a dream, coming reluctantly back to reality.

The work of Nobuo Uematsu is challenging to listen to as a game player. It forced us to become involved in the story in a way that some of the story elements of the early games didn't. As the series progressed, as we grew older as gamers, the music developed from a supporting character into a force all its own. Game music has a wonderful familiarity to it that ensures instant appeal and enjoyment. Someone who may never set foot into a opera house would gladly hum the Mario theme on queue. The idea touched on throughout the night by the MC, the conductor, and Mr. Uematsu was the hope that this was going to be the first of many concerts to come here in the states. The experience during the evening was exciting, interesting and, I hope, a harbinger of similar events across the country.

Game technology developers Havok and Epic both plan to introduce the newest iterations of their systems at this year's GDC. Havok will be revealing the newest version of their middleware, while Epic Systems will be showing the Unreal Engine version 3 along with their new scripting tools and AI behaviors. From the article: "...seamless world support allows the creation of virtually unending environments through background management of game levels and assets. Even titles not requiring open world support will benefit from these memory management techniques on next-generation console platforms."

GamesIndustry.biz has confirmed that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will be closing a deal with the United Kingdom publisher Eidos in the near future. This move has been seen by some as inevitable, as games become more popular and profitable. From the article: "Rumours that a deal was close to being struck initially stemmed from a number of tell-tale signs at the firm's offices - specifically a hiring freeze across the company, and reports that development studios have been told to prepare presentations on each of their projects for the new owners."

More details are emerging on Microsoft's next console, set to release this fall. GamesIndustry.biz has word that the Xbox 2 will have a removable hard drive as part of its feature set. From the article: "It's been assumed for some time that this means that Xbox 2 will be sold in at least two basic configurations - with and without a mass storage unit - and today's report seems to indicate that it will be possible to upgrade between those models by adding the hard drive."

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that EA has been slapped with another employee-filed lawsuit. He's part of the engineering staff, and feels unfairly targeted by the "creative staff" laws in CA. From the article: "...in the midst of a storm of unwanted publicity about EA's employment practices, and provoked a response from the firm's vice president of human resources, Rusty Reuff, who admitted that 'as much as I don't like what's been said about our company and our industry, I recognize that at the heart of the matter is a core truth.'"

A second version of the bill proposed last year by California Assemblyman Leland Yee is going before that political body. In response, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association is slamming the decision to bring up the bill again. From the article: "IEMA president Hal Halpin accused ... Yee of 'me-too politics in a vain effort for local politicians to garner some perceived moral high ground when clearly there is none to be had.'"

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that the Xbox 2 console, releasing this fall, will use wireless controllers by default. From the article: "Microsoft will be the first console manufacturer to ship wireless pads as standard with its hardware, but not the first to ship an official wireless controller; Nintendo has already enjoyed significant success with the WaveBird, its wireless pad for the GameCube."

GamesIndustry.biz has the word that the sales figures on release day for World of Warcraft here in the states have been exceeded by the game's European launch. Slagged servers crumpled and the account creation site on the Blizzard Europe homepage was taken down for a few hours on release day. From the article: "According to figures released by the developer, the subscription-based MMORPG sold more than 280,000 units on day one - more than it sold on its first day in the States - before sales rose to 380,000 by the end of its first weekend on sale."

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that the Xbox 2 will be launched sometime in late fall of this year. With EA games already working on Xbox 2 titles and rumors of a name for the console in circulation, it looks like the first of the next-gen consoles will be here soon. From the article: "Many have expressed concern that Microsoft is forcing the next generation of console hardware too early, and that the current generation still has much to achieve. The most famous example of this came from then Nintendo of Europe MD David Gosen speaking at an ELSPA summit in London last October, where he lambasted Microsoft for pushing a next generation machine to market in 2005, and even went so far as to question Microsoft's motivation as profit." Additionally, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has Balmer saying that they will "blow by Sony" with their next console.

An article being run by GamesIndustry.biz discusses a pair of recent Nintendo Trademarks. These trademarks would seem to indicate new product lines for the Big N, but exactly what the products would be remains up in the air. From the article: "On 7th December 2004, Nintendo registered 'Nintendo V-Pocket' by itself, while Nintendo and Pokémon series developer Game Freak jointly registered "PCGP" on the same day, according to reports."

It's dragged on for quite a while, but GamesIndustry.biz has the word that the Ion Storm offices in Austin have closed. Originally founded by John Romero, Tom Hall, and Todd Porter, Ion Storm Austin has been responsible for the release of Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Daikatana. From the article: "This is part of [Eidos's] move to consolidate and strengthen its technical and management capabilities into a smaller number of studios which are capable of scaling up in order to meet the competitive challenges that lie ahead, particularly in anticipation of next-generation technologies and platforms"

When the PSP launches in the states, it will be accompanied by five online enabled titles, according to GamesIndustry.biz. Gamers will be able to challenge friends in short range ad-hoc games, but will also be able to compete against other PSP owners via an 'infrastructure' mode. From the article: "What this means, in effect, is that players will be able to connect to wireless hot spots - either at home or in wi-fi enabled public locations - and play games across the net in this manner."

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that just one day after announcing the U.S. launch date for the PSP, the European launch of the PSP may not happen until after the first quarter. From the article: "Speaking with the news service, Sony's Kenichi Fukunaga admitted that the firm cannot manufacture enough of the devices to satisfy demand in all three major markets - which has pushed the schedule for the European launch back."

GamesIndustry.biz has a story on Take-Two interactive and their efforts to tighten up agreements with Major League Baseball. From the article: "As with the MLBPA deal, the new arrangement gives Take Two exclusive rights among third party publishers only..but a loophole identified by many analysts has been sealed up, with third party publishers prohibited from developing and releasing titles in partnership with the platform holders."

blueZhift writes "It looks like PC gaming is not dead yet! GamesIndustry.biz reports that retail sales of Valve's Half Life 2 have topped 1.7 million. There aren't any numbers available for online sales via Steam, but these are impressive numbers for any platform, console or PC."

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that the Nintendo DS has been slated for a March 11th launch in Europe. The launch will carry 15 different titles, and the handheld will be bundled with the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo, as it was in the states. Australian gamers have something to be happy about as well. From the article: "The £99 price point is around the expected mark. Interestingly, Australian fans will pay the equivalent of around £90 for theirs, and although exchange rate fluctuations are believed to be behind that slightly more flattering figure, they can hardly be blamed for the unusual sight of Nintendo hardware making it onto store shelves down under before it does so here; Aussie gamers will be able to pick up a DS from 24th February onward."

Gamespot and GamesIndustry.biz has the news from yesterday's conference call where EA CEO Larry Probst reported higher earnings for his company in Q3, despite a small yearly decline. He also held forth on the future cost of next-gen games, which in his opinion will likely stay as high as $50 and could perhaps fetch more on retail shelves. Just before this story was to be published, Tim Butler wrote in with the news from 1Up.com that EA was laying off members of its LA studio. From the article: "According to sources close to the company, Electronic Arts is currently in the process of laying off between 50-70 team members from its minty-fresh new EA LA office. The teams affected worked on the poorly-recieved GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and the forthcoming Medal of Honor: Dogs of War FPS titles." Update: 01/27 06:34 GMT by Z : Update to the layoff article: "The first step is to rebalance the team. This has required us to let go 60 people -- from many different teams. There is no focus on any one team or any one class of individuals. It's a studio-wide thing to reset the business fundamentals and get the studio to the next level."

GamesIndustry.biz has news of EA's Xbox 2 plans for 2005, adding additional weight to the likelyhood of a new console by the end of the year. Oddly, the story states that the games in the works for the new console will also be developed for the current iteration of the Xbox. This may partially confirm the lack of backwards compatibility discussed previously on Slashdot and seems to pit Microsoft's new console against the old one for sales dollars.

GamesIndustry.biz has an interview up with Blizzard creative director Chris Metzen and VP of business operations Paul Sams, where they discuss the status of the Starcraft Ghost title. From the article: "Basically the status of that is that we've kind of gone back and reassessed certain of the elements of the game that we felt needed to be refined. I think E3 was a big influence to us - we looked at other products that were in that genre, and felt as if we were quite competitive in many ways, but maybe there were some other things that we weren't getting to where we needed to go."

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that much anticipated Oriental influenced action title Jade Empire will be delayed another month. From the article: "The Bioware-developed title is one of the most eagerly anticipated games on the Xbox, and marks a departure from the company's normal style of gameplay by veering into action RPG territory with multiple martial arts styles to learn."

After EA's ESPN announcement yesterday, it hardly comes as a surprise that GamesIndustry.biz is reporting a possible deal between Take Two Interactive and Major League Baseball. The deal, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, appears to be for exclusivity rights similar to EA's arrangements. While the move wouldn't hurt EA's baseball franchise, it would squeeze out other competitors who have used the MLB license in the past.

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that GTA: San Andreas was the tops in December sales, but overall 2004 sales were somewhat down because of PS2 and Xbox hardware shortages. From the article: "That leaves the industry on negative growth of one per cent for the calendar year, and even considering software alone, December still saw negative growth of five per cent and brought the calendar year growth figure down to seven per cent."

acxr is wasted writes "Electronic Arts has dealt another blow to rival Sega by signing a 15-year agreement with ESPN, giving the publisher exclusive video game rights to ESPN branded material. EA has recently faced pressure from popular ESPN-branded Sega titles released at discount prices, prompting their recent deal with the NFL, and failed bid for the NBA."

acxr is wasted writes "Electronic Arts has dealt another blow to rival Sega by signing a 15-year agreement with ESPN, giving the publisher exclusive video game rights to ESPN branded material. EA has recently faced pressure from popular ESPN-branded Sega titles released at discount prices, prompting their recent deal with the NFL, and failed bid for the NBA."

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that a ruling against the Japanese software giant has been handed down in the case of Immersion vs. Sony. Immersion sued the company over the force feedback effect experienced in the dual-shock controller, which it has a patent on. From the article: "Now a Californian district court has ordered Sony to pay a 1.37 per cent license fee based on sales of the PlayStation console and of the named videogames, to be paid quarterly effective from July 1st."

GamesIndustry.biz reports that News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch is considering acquiring a game publisher. He's apparently "kicking the tires" on everything up to and including EA. From the article: "He highlighted Activision as one games publisher which is being considered for purchase. The Californian company, which is one of the biggest publishers in the world, has a market capitalisation of under $3 billion, compared to around $19 billion for Electronic Arts." It's sobering to consider that as big as EA is within the gaming industry it is small fry compared to the big fish in other sectors.

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that NCSoft will be releasing City of Heroes in Europe on February 4th. The EU customers get all sorts of fancy doodads to offset the delayed release. From the article: "European customers will receive a special deluxe edition of the game, which includes all of the content updates to date, an 88 page comic, and a number of serial codes which unlock special items in the game."

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that EA has signed an exclusive deal with the Arena Football League to produce games for that organization. From the article: "The move will see the creation of a new AFL title in the EA Sports line-up, joining other football franchises Madden, NFL Street and NCAA, with the first title due to hit the market before the 2006 AFL season starts in a year's time."

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that a version of the popular Grand Theft Auto series (as well as a version of the Midnight Club 3 game) will be released around the date of the US/EU PSP launch. From the article: "Sony's extremely impressive technology has allowed Rockstar Leeds to do more on a handheld machine than we could have ever imagined ... We are very excited for gamers to experience these two genre-defining franchises in a fashion that could have never before been possible on a portable system."

Rumours circulated at CES, according to GamesIndustry.biz, that the successful Bungie franchise Halo will be released on the Gizmondo handheld. From the article: "Industry rumours circulating since before Christmas and enjoying a resurgence at CES suggest that Bungie's massively successful Halo may be on its way to Tiger Telematics' Gizmondo console, joining a number of other Microsoft Game Studios titles already announced for the system."

Arnaud writes "A rumor saying Vivendi Universal Games could help Ubisoft against Electronic arts began to spread on the web yesterday. This information has been denied by Vivendi: "In view of the rumors reported in the press, Vivendi Universal denies that any negotiations are taking place concerning the takeover of Ubisoft." The amazing thing is how widely reported this rumour was, to the point where the real story was drowned out by the rumour.

GamesIndustry.biz iz reporting that in a show of European solidarity publisher Infogrames may assist Ubisoft (with the blessings of the French Government) if EA attempts a hostile takeover of the Prince of Persia developer. From the article: "Speaking to news agency Reuters, Bonnell expressed his hope that Ubisoft will remain independent - and rubbished EA's claim that its recent purchase of almost 20 per cent of the firm's stock was merely an investment." Further details on Greg Costikyan's Blog. All this is follow up to year-end shenanigans from EA.

Several readers have written in to report on Tuesday's lawsuit regarding 'The Guy Game'. The PC/console offering, which strings a weak trivia game around footage of naked college age girls, has come under fire after the revelation that a woman featured prominently in the game was under the age of 18 at the time the footage was taken. The lawsuit names Sony (PS2), Microsoft (Xbox), Take-Two Interactive (Publisher), and Top Heavy Studios (Developer) as defendants. Commentary available on GamesIndustry.biz.

We reported last week on EA's bid on DICE, the makers of BF1942, and their lack of success at winning the shareholders over. This week GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that EA has revised the proposal in hopes of swaying those finicky stockholders. From the article: "However, EA's latest move conditions the offer upon a lower acceptance level of more than 50 per cent of the total number of shares - representing more than 50 per cent of the capital and votes in DICE after dilution due to an employee option programme launched in 2002." Update: 12/21 19:18 GMT by Z : Fixed broken link.

jujubees writes "What is going on with Electronic Arts these days? This morning it was revealed that EA is trying to acquire 19.9% of the Ubisoft shares owned by Dutch investment company Talpa Beheer B.V. If approved by the US Antitrust department, the buyout would instantly make EA the biggest shareholder, ahead of the Guillemot brothers. Whether this is a hostile takeover attempt is not clear at this point, no financial terms were disclosed." An anonymous reader also wrote in to mention a GamePro Editorial about the company, regarding its past as an honorable games-maker and its current reputation.

KBV writes "Games Industry.biz reports that EA won't be able to buy Digital Illusions, the makers of Battlefield 1942. The reason is that 28% of the shareholders do not want to make DICE a part of EA, saying that they believe that the developer's performance and future prospects are strong enough to make remaining independent a more attractive option. In particular they cite the planned launch of Battlefield 2 on the PC and Battlefield: Modern Combat on current and next-gen consoles next year."

SetupWeasel writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that 400,000 additional DSs will be shipped to the US by year's end. This will bring the US total to 1.4 million by the end of 2004." There's also a story running on Gamesindustry.biz regarding DS sales being in line with the sales of the Gameboy Advance.

SansTinfoilHat writes "Gamesindustry.biz reports that 'Take-Two and partner Sega will seek to return pricing to premium levels for the next-generation console versions of [the ESPN series of sports games].' It couldn't last forever." From the article: "Most notably, [the low pricing] has put immense pressure on Electronic Arts' market-leading sports range, with the giant publisher forced to drop prices on several of its key EA Sports titles in order to compete more effectively in the run up to Christmas."

Anonymous Coward writes "Just a rumour last year, but it looks like Sony and Nvidia will be partnering for the PS3. Sony will be doing the manufacturing in one of their Nagasaki plants." From the article: "The move signals a shifting of allegiances for NVIDIA, who developed the graphics hardware at the heart of the original Microsoft Xbox, only for the Redmond-based platform holder to turn around and partner with fierce rivals ATI for 'future Xbox products' last August."

A witty GameIndustry.biz writer: "Avid gamers clock up 28 million hours shooting each other in the face on Live". They have word that Halo 2 has surpassed 5 million units sold through. The sequel beat the record achieved by the original game, which took 2 years to achieve.

bippy writes "An internal memo leaked from EA to its employees says that the company plans to make more employees elgible for overtime. Rusty Rueff, senior vice president of human resources, bemoans the bad press and begs forgiveness: "As much as I don't like what's been said about our company and our industry, I recognize that at the heart of the matter is a core truth." GamesIndustry.biz has commentary on the story as well.

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that a sequel to Katamari Damacy, the best selling ball rolling game, is going to be coming up sometime next year. From the article: "Namco is working on a sequel to its quirky and innovative PS2 title Katamari Damacy and plans to release it in Japan on the PlayStation 2 during its 2005 financial year, according to a report on US website IGN."

GamesIndustry.biz has the story that Sony is limiting production of their new handheld. From the article: "Comments attributed to SCE spokesperson Kenichi Fukunaga in an Agence France-Presse article stated bluntly that manufacturing resources are being directed to the PlayStation 2 - a new slimline version of which was introduced earlier this month - rather than the PSP." Personally, I think this has just as much to do with a desire to create demand as it does with making sure they're not left with a dud on their hands. If you're going to release a handheld, release a handheld.