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In an interview between a French-language newspaper and Sony Computer Entertainment France president Georges Fornay, he revealed that FFXIII's exclusivity is still under discussion. Gamespot reports, and attempted to check with Square-Enix about the reality of this situation. If the high-profile RPG's exclusivity is not a lock for the PS3, it could be a crushing blow for Sony's future plans. "The development costs of games have exploded, and it has become more difficult to have exclusives, outside of our own games. But we have for launch day [in France] 30 games, including MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, and Virtua Fighter 5. Moreover, we are expecting 200 games [for the PS3] by the end of 2007...As far as Final Fantasy XIII goes, I can tell you that the exclusivity is in discussion."

In the wake of shareholder interest in replacing the board and CEO, it's little wonder that Take-Two's future is in question. Gamespot is reporting on the possibility of the company being sold to an outside party. Analysts from Wedbush Morgan and Nollenberger Capital offer up opinions on possible interested investors, and the likelihood of the company being sold. "Pachter said a sale was unlikely, noting that a prospective buyer could have picked up the publisher during its stock slump last year for about half what it would have to pay now. In last month's note, Pachter pegged a purchase price of $2 billion (including a premium on the stock price and restructuring costs) on the publisher." Rumours of Microsoft's interest not withstanding, this kind of talk can't be good for the company in general.

In the wake of shareholder interest in replacing the board and CEO, it's little wonder that Take-Two's future is in question. Gamespot is reporting on the possibility of the company being sold to an outside party. Analysts from Wedbush Morgan and Nollenberger Capital offer up opinions on possible interested investors, and the likelihood of the company being sold. "Pachter said a sale was unlikely, noting that a prospective buyer could have picked up the publisher during its stock slump last year for about half what it would have to pay now. In last month's note, Pachter pegged a purchase price of $2 billion (including a premium on the stock price and restructuring costs) on the publisher." Rumours of Microsoft's interest not withstanding, this kind of talk can't be good for the company in general.

Anonymous PC Gamer writes "I'm now in the acceptance phase of reading console war coverage. It's just not going away, and it won't until one stands victorious. Throwing his considerable voice into the din is Final Fantasy creator Hironubu Sakaguchi, currently working on Xbox 360 titles with Mistwalker Studios. In a concise, revealing interview with Gamespot Sakaguchi-san gives a simple, honest outlook on developing for the current console scene that cuts both ways (PS3 'really challenging', XBox 360 has 'poor' documentation). On competing with his former series, Final Fantasy: 'I'm willing to break them into pieces, crush them at my feet. [laughs]'"

TobyToadstool writes "Despite the good news out of GDC last week, it still seems like Sony's new console has some image management to do. CNET says that the PlayStation 3 is 'the most unwanted console in recent memory' and asks 'why is the PS3 so undesirable?' They specifically question the company's wisdom in emphasizing the power of the console. Their impression is that this invites developers to neglect gameplay, in favour of investing in graphics. Likewise, Gamespot is running a piece suggesting ten ways to make the PS3 worth buying. A lower price is just one of the suggestions with exclusives, and the need for online standardization, following close behind. Looks like Sony still has its work cut out."

Gamespot reports on a lecture at GDC on Thursday, with commentary from Nintendo's manager of software development Eiji Aonuma. Aonuma went through the very long process involved in bringing Twilight Princess to the American audience. Realistic graphics were chosen for the US playerbase, but many other decisions came about via unorthodox thinking and the intervention of a higher power. "It was around this stage that Aonuma was talking to Nintendo senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto, who told him something along the lines of, 'It's as though the Revolution (later renamed the Wii) was designed just for Zelda! Why don't you try making a Zelda for the Revolution?' In the end, believes Aonuma, the kind of direct control offered by the Wii Remote was exactly what was needed to breathe life into the game."

Last night, past the red carpet, under the swirling light and through thrumming bass, the Game Developer's Choice Awards and Independent Game Festival awards were handed out in front of an audience of some 3,500 people. The evening went by very quickly, for a nice change of pace, with few speeches lasting longer than 30 seconds or so. There was a marriage proposal (accepted), several humorous skits that were actually funny, and several moments of Shigeru Miyamoto awesomeness. The big winners of the night were Gears of War, which walked away with three GDCAs, and Aquaria, which won the Seamus McNally grand prize from the IGF. Later today Gamespot is going to be airing video of the awards, a first for the event. While there may not be much in the IGF event that captures your interest, definitely check out the GDCAs. The acceptance speeches from Greg Costikyan, The Fatman, Shigeru Miyamoto, and CliffyB should not be missed.

Last night, past the red carpet, under the swirling light and through thrumming bass, the Game Developer's Choice Awards and Independent Game Festival awards were handed out in front of an audience of some 3,500 people. The evening went by very quickly, for a nice change of pace, with few speeches lasting longer than 30 seconds or so. There was a marriage proposal (accepted), several humorous skits that were actually funny, and several moments of Shigeru Miyamoto awesomeness. The big winners of the night were Gears of War, which walked away with three GDCAs, and Aquaria, which won the Seamus McNally grand prize from the IGF. Later today Gamespot is going to be airing video of the awards, a first for the event. While there may not be much in the IGF event that captures your interest, definitely check out the GDCAs. The acceptance speeches from Greg Costikyan, The Fatman, Shigeru Miyamoto, and CliffyB should not be missed.

An anonymous reader writes "Emotiv Systems today unveiled a brain/computer interface system with a helmet and software applications at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The Project Epoc system can move objects based on a gamer's thoughts, reflect facial expressions, and respond to the excitement or calm the gamer mentally exerts, the company said....While Emotiv is not yet ready to announce any partnerships, [they] did say the product will be coming to market in 2008."

Gamespot is reporting that a Lego Massively Multiplayer Game aimed at kids is in the works. Developer NetDevil, makers of Auto Assault, will be working on the project. No firm details beyond the project's announcement at this point, but the site slates the game for a 2008 launch.

We spoke last week about the EU version of the PS3 having a more limited backwards compatibility offering than its US and Japanese cousins. Now, via Gamespot, Sony's Phil Harrison has clarified what kind of support the machine will be offering. His comments in an interview on the 'semi-official' ThreeSpeech blog state that emulation of the PS2 won't be a huge barrier to backwards compatibility. "Our thinking involves being able to bring the latest hardware specification of the PS3 to Europe, although that does mean an initial slight reduction in the number of PS2 components. But it's important to put that into context: there will still be thousands of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles playable on the PS3 at launch ... The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles." Harrison goes on to say that they'd likely be concentrating on 'big' titles, and that they generally don't consider back-compat very important in the grand scheme of things; in their view people buy the PS3 for new games, not old ones. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, there's an opinion piece over at Next-Gen that completely agrees with Harrison's statement. Colin Campbell penned a missive entitled 'Why Sony is Right', and lays out what backwards compatibility looks great on the side of a box, but just isn't that big a deal.

In April of this year, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board will move to using full-time reviewers to determine ratings for game content. With rumblings of 'play the whole game' legislation in the halls of Congress, the organization is pre-empting the problem by having full-time raters. The ESRB's Patricia Vance commented on the project: 'Having full-time raters will allow for each one to have greater experience actually reviewing content and recommending ratings ... this would provide each rater with a greater sense of historical parity for ratings, not to mention helping them to be more attuned to pertinent content and how it should be considered from a ratings standpoint. The full-time raters would also be responsible for play-testing final versions of the game, time permitting, which would allow for ESRB to play-test a greater number of games than it currently does.'

Will Wright and his team at EA put together a presentation for the DICE Summit, giving folks more details on the much-anticipated Spore . Gamespot reports on the talk, which sounds like it must have been highly entertaining to view. The entire presentation centered around the development process for the game, which has been a platform for smart people to talk about making games since Wright first announced the project. Designers from the team talk about making the space ship creator flexible ("It's pretty satisfying to fly around in your X-Wing and blow up The Enterprise."), and Wright mentioned their habit to run a batch process creating thousands of planets every night. Stephen Totilo at MTV also discusses the talk, and fleshes out a few more details from the event. Looking this over, what do you think? Still excited for Spore, or has it been in development too long?

Gamespot has the word that, in a conference call on Activision's plans for the coming fiscal year, they announced Guitar Hero games for the DS and Wii. The titles could be coming any time between April of this year and March of next, and there are almost no details to relate otherwise. Presumably, Guitar Hero's new development home of NeverSoft will be handling the creation process. How do you think they'll incorporate the motion-sensing properties of the Wiimote into the axe? Any Nintendo classic songs you'd love to see included on the Wii version?

The annual AIAS DICE summit is underway in Las Vegas, with games industry movers and shakers congregating to exchange ideas, network, and play a little golf. The event kicked off with a keynote from Sony executive Yair Landau, Doug Lowenstein's final address to the games industry, and a Q&A session with Sony's Phil Harrison. In and amongst the speeches there was a small droplet of news: Sony Online Entertainment's next MMOG will be a spy caper. Code named 'Vista' (because they pushed it back a year, har), the title will put players in 'tuxedos instead of tunics' fighting over secretive information in the modern era.

fistfullast33l writes "After taking a beating in Gamespot's side by side Comparison of Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics, Playstation 3 owners may finally have something to hold over the 360 fans. Both Gamespot and IGN have previews posted yesterday that talk up the graphics and performance improvements over the 360 version. Load times and texture quality and draw distance have been improved, as well as 'new shaders dedicated to rendering the foreground cleanly with sharper details, so rocky landscapes now have craggy appearances instead of smooth, non-distinct surfaces,' according to IGN. They end with the ultimate hype, 'screens from the PS3 version should approach those from high end PCs running Oblivion, which is an impressive feat.' How is this possible? Gamespot reports that 'Oblivion will make extensive use of the PS3's hard drive by caching multiple gigabytes of data, which seemed to help with load times from what we saw.' While there are no official reports of this making it into the new 360/PC expansion Shivering Isles, a rumor on the Gamespot preview says that 1up might have the scoop."

fistfullast33l writes "After taking a beating in Gamespot's side by side Comparison of Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics, Playstation 3 owners may finally have something to hold over the 360 fans. Both Gamespot and IGN have previews posted yesterday that talk up the graphics and performance improvements over the 360 version. Load times and texture quality and draw distance have been improved, as well as 'new shaders dedicated to rendering the foreground cleanly with sharper details, so rocky landscapes now have craggy appearances instead of smooth, non-distinct surfaces,' according to IGN. They end with the ultimate hype, 'screens from the PS3 version should approach those from high end PCs running Oblivion, which is an impressive feat.' How is this possible? Gamespot reports that 'Oblivion will make extensive use of the PS3's hard drive by caching multiple gigabytes of data, which seemed to help with load times from what we saw.' While there are no official reports of this making it into the new 360/PC expansion Shivering Isles, a rumor on the Gamespot preview says that 1up might have the scoop."

fistfullast33l writes "After taking a beating in Gamespot's side by side Comparison of Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics, Playstation 3 owners may finally have something to hold over the 360 fans. Both Gamespot and IGN have previews posted yesterday that talk up the graphics and performance improvements over the 360 version. Load times and texture quality and draw distance have been improved, as well as 'new shaders dedicated to rendering the foreground cleanly with sharper details, so rocky landscapes now have craggy appearances instead of smooth, non-distinct surfaces,' according to IGN. They end with the ultimate hype, 'screens from the PS3 version should approach those from high end PCs running Oblivion, which is an impressive feat.' How is this possible? Gamespot reports that 'Oblivion will make extensive use of the PS3's hard drive by caching multiple gigabytes of data, which seemed to help with load times from what we saw.' While there are no official reports of this making it into the new 360/PC expansion Shivering Isles, a rumor on the Gamespot preview says that 1up might have the scoop."

Via GameSpot, the news on the University of Rochester site is that playing videogames can actually improve your vision. Games, especially action shooters, actually change the way your brain looks at the world. According to the findings of researchers Daphne Bavelier and Shawn Green, visual processing is enhanced through consistent play of complex graphical titles. Simple orientation tests were much easier for a group that played UT, compared to a group that only played Tetris.

Online retailer DVD Empire has gotten out of the sale of videogames, and on their way out the door they made a point to call out the industry on a number of sore spots. As reported by Gamespot, the company felt that they actually lost money by offering games to customers. In their eyes big publishers only care about large chain stores, leaving small and medium-sized retailers to pick up enormous overhead costs on the titles they carried. They have an extensive list of frustrations on the former 'games' page, including: "When we sell a game we make on average 8.3% gross margin. That does not take into account any of the cost to store the video game or labor to receive/ship an item. The only way we can make a profit on an item is to sell it over the MSRP, but unfortunately we are not allowed to do this. Take a $400 console; we only make $5 on the sale--that is a .01% gross margin (note the decimal point). The game companies make their profit selling to us. We make no profit selling to you." Besides Gamestop there are two other videogame stores in my town ... but both of them are exclusively used game resellers. Are used games the only way to make videogame sales profitable?

N'Gai Croal, at Newsweek, has a three-part interview up speaking with games journalist Geoff Keighley. Undoubtedly the most respected games reporter on television, Keighley is probably best known at the moment for the SpikeTV show Game Head. He's also written for Entertainment Weekly, Time, Rolling Stone, Gamespot (with the behind the games series), and EGM, as well as hosting the "McLaughlin Group"-ish show Bonus Round for the GameTrailers site. The first part of the interview deals with the creation of 'Bonus Round', and his inspiration for the show. The second piece looks at Keighley's extensive CV, and what it is like writing about games for a mainstream audience. The third piece wraps up with a few words on the industry at large, and perspective on gaming from a business standpoint.

The Penny Arcade Expo has moved to a new venue and plans to double in size over the 2006 show. The Washington State Convention center is the new home of PAX for the forseeable future, boasting 200,000 square feet of usable space. Organizers of the convention, started by the duo behind the Penny Arcade comic in 2005, are conservatively expecting 30,000 people to attend the three-day long event. Information about this year's show: "In addition to a show floor filled with contests, tournaments, and unreleased games, PAX 2007 will play host to the annual Omegathon three-day gaming competition, as well as a number of musical acts. Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins told GameSpot today that Jonathan Coulton ('Code Monkey,' 'Re: Your Brains') and Freezepop (whose music can be heard in games like Amplitude and Guitar Hero) will be performing at PAX 07."

Computer and Videogames is reporting that 2.4 Million copies of Burning Crusade were sold on the first day of retail sales. Those numbers are just for North American and the EU, too, which totally discounts any sales the box may have had in Asian markets. Even without our eastern brethren, that number pretty much destroys every other launch-day sales number for a PC game. Meanwhile, the same gent that teased us with the next StarCraft game has tossed out this bone as well: Blizzard's next MMOG 'won't be another WoW'. From the article: "'When we announce our next MMORPG it's not going to be another WOW--we're not a company that tends to tread the same ground,' he told British film magazine Empire. 'It'll be something innovative and new that really brings entertainment to another level.' American Blizzard reps declined to expand on Bassat's comments, although the fact that the company began hiring real-time strategy developers last summer might offer a clue." So ... another Blizzard MMOG. Huh.

1up reports that XBLA's 50MB size limit is no more. Microsoft has upped that to a whopping 250 MB, just a week after it was revealed that the upcoming Symphony of the Night would be almost double that in size. While this is great for the possibilities of the service, games, and gamers, it does mean that 'Core Pack' owners are now even more 'out in the cold' when it comes to downloadable content. Unless a HDD is purchased for the system, Core Packers are reduced to using the 64MB memory cards, which are clearly not large enough for even one 'expanded' game title. From the article: "However, how many folks are out there downloading Live Arcade games without an HDD? It probably works out to a small percentage. We asked Microsoft about those users and the memory card issues that the console will face with this new expanded size for Live Arcade titles. Microsoft said 'There is already one possible solution in the works for this category of gamer should we decide to increase the Xbox Live Arcade game file size from its current 50 MB limit. As announced at E3 last May, a larger Memory Unit is being developed which will allow gamers who do not own a hard drive to store and easily transport several Xbox Live Arcade games at a time. We have no further details to announce at this time.'"

Gamespot is reporting that, with the NPD numbers in, we can finally put the debate about last year's winners and losers to rest. Overall, the industry was the winner, with a record-breaking $12.5 Billion in sales last year. December accounted for almost $4 Billion all by itself. In software, the usual suspects prevailed. Madden topped the chart with 2.8 Million in sales for the PS2 version of Madden 07. Right behind was New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, with some 2 Million in sales of its own. On the console side of things ... well, as Kotaku points out 'everyone is a winner' this year. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all put out press releases declaring themselves the winner of the Holiday console wars. The sad reality, though, is there can be only one. According to the NPD numbers, between the launch of the new consoles and the end of the year, some 1.1 Million Nintendo Wiis were sold with 687,300 PS3s following closely behind. Microsoft trails with its numbers from 2005; it sold 607,000 consoles in its launch year. Don't feel too bad for Microsoft, though. They sold 1.1 Million 360s in December. The article points out this means Microsoft met its '10 Million in sales' goal for the end of 2006.

Gamespot is reporting that, with the NPD numbers in, we can finally put the debate about last year's winners and losers to rest. Overall, the industry was the winner, with a record-breaking $12.5 Billion in sales last year. December accounted for almost $4 Billion all by itself. In software, the usual suspects prevailed. Madden topped the chart with 2.8 Million in sales for the PS2 version of Madden 07. Right behind was New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, with some 2 Million in sales of its own. On the console side of things ... well, as Kotaku points out 'everyone is a winner' this year. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all put out press releases declaring themselves the winner of the Holiday console wars. The sad reality, though, is there can be only one. According to the NPD numbers, between the launch of the new consoles and the end of the year, some 1.1 Million Nintendo Wiis were sold with 687,300 PS3s following closely behind. Microsoft trails with its numbers from 2005; it sold 607,000 consoles in its launch year. Don't feel too bad for Microsoft, though. They sold 1.1 Million 360s in December. The article points out this means Microsoft met its '10 Million in sales' goal for the end of 2006.

Gamespot is reporting that, with the NPD numbers in, we can finally put the debate about last year's winners and losers to rest. Overall, the industry was the winner, with a record-breaking $12.5 Billion in sales last year. December accounted for almost $4 Billion all by itself. In software, the usual suspects prevailed. Madden topped the chart with 2.8 Million in sales for the PS2 version of Madden 07. Right behind was New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, with some 2 Million in sales of its own. On the console side of things ... well, as Kotaku points out 'everyone is a winner' this year. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all put out press releases declaring themselves the winner of the Holiday console wars. The sad reality, though, is there can be only one. According to the NPD numbers, between the launch of the new consoles and the end of the year, some 1.1 Million Nintendo Wiis were sold with 687,300 PS3s following closely behind. Microsoft trails with its numbers from 2005; it sold 607,000 consoles in its launch year. Don't feel too bad for Microsoft, though. They sold 1.1 Million 360s in December. The article points out this means Microsoft met its '10 Million in sales' goal for the end of 2006.

The long-in-development HellGate: London, which finally has a release date, has been announced as a for-pay MMOG-style game. From the article: "Drawing similarities to ArenaNet's Guild Wars, Hellgate's online is heavily instanced. Group and solo PvE is the game's main focus; PvP will exist in a small scale form, but is not a major element of the initial launch. It will also feature a Hardcore mode similar to that found in Blizzard's Diablo II, a game on which many members of the Hellgate team worked. Hellgate's multiplayer will contain all of the missions and story from the single-player aspect of the game, as well as exclusive gameplay modes and content. Like the single-player game, it will be comprised of dynamically generated areas and items. Further content will be continually added over time by a dedicated Flagship team."

360 gamers have Lost Planet to look forward to this week, but PS3 and Wii owners have things to smile about as well. Today's virtual console game releases feature the Hudson classic title Dungeon Explorer, as well as the shmup Gradius and the sidescrolling shooter Soldier Blade. PS3 owners will get six great downloadable titles sometime 'in early 2007', courtesy of Midway and Sony Online Entertainment. "The six games announced in the deal are Mortal Kombat II, Gauntlet II, Joust, Rampage World Tour, Rampart, and Championship Sprint. Sony Online said those titles were chosen specifically for their multiplayer components, as the company is adding online play for all six." Update: 01/08 22:32 GMT by Z : Oops. Missed Ms. Pac-Man on XBLA this week.

The news from CES, from Bill Gates' keynote, is that the 360 will have IPTV rolled out in an update later this year. They've also now crossed the 10 Million units sold mark, spurred on by Gears of War in the U.S. and Blue Dragon in Japan. The implications of IPTV for the 360 (DVR on a 20 gig HD, essentially) are interesting, but are hardly the only news to come out of the event. Robbie Bach gave Gamespot an overview of Vista and 360-related announcements for the near future, and there's some great stuff in there. Likewise, Mr. Gates sat down for an interview with several journalists, including Dean Takahashi from the Mercury News and Brian Crecente from Kotaku. He gives some additional insight into the company's announcements at the CES event.

Gamespot's regular 'Rumor Control' column tackles some confusion around who had the most holiday sales among the three new consoles. A CNBC broadcast prompted GamesIndustry.biz to proclaim the 360 the winner, with some 2 Million in sales. The Wii followed closely behind with 1.8 Million, and the PS3 followed that number with 750,000. The catch here is that, while it's possible a viewer could have assumed this was official NPD data, it wasn't. From the article: "The segment is an interview with Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with IT market intelligence firm IDC. In it, a graphic appears on screen showing estimated console sales in North America for November through December 25, 2006. The numbers match up with the figures being attributed to the NPD, but CNBC attributes IDC as its source on them. The confusion likely comes from a blurb of text that appears at the bottom of the screen shortly after the graphic is taken down. It notes that the 'NDP Group' (sic) pegged the Wii as selling more than twice the number of PS3s for the month of November, which is true, but also something that was announced last month." The numbers may prove to be true, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer to see who actually came out ahead last month.

N'Gai at Newsweek has up a quick article highlighting the start of a series that could be considered gaming's answer to 'Crossfire'. Hosted by the GameTrailers site, "Bonus Round" is set to be a frequently-produced show highlighting and discussing issues in gaming from multiple viewpoints. Geoff Keighley (writer of Behind the Game and host of Spike's Game Head, among many other things) will play frontman for the show, and the first episode has a few notable names sitting down to talk about the Wii. From the article: "The staff at GameTrailers were kind enough to provide Level Up with an exclusive preview of the next 'Bonus Round' segment--shown above--where an analyst (Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter), a composer (Tommy Tallarico) and the producer of the hit videogame Scarface (Vivendi's Peter Wanat) discuss Nintendo's Wii. In 2007, Keighley and the folks at GameTrailers plan to produce new episodes on a monthly schedule, with a wider variety of guests and a broader set of topics, including micropayments (such as the purchase of a 99-cent song from iTunes) and emerging trends in game design."

It's almost the end of the year, and various organizations are handing out awards for what has been a very busy year in gaming. The Associated Press handed the top honor to Oblivion, while Gamasutra's Quantum Leap awards gave Wii Sports the nod for bringing the whole family together. Gamespy and Gamespot are still in the midst of handing out the prizes, but you can already check out genre winners at Gamespy, and Gamespot's list of dubious honors for games that only deserve the faintest of praise.

1up has the news that Doug Lowenstein has stepped down from his position as President of the Entertainment Software Association. In the same year as the 'retooling' of that organization's Electronics Entertainment Expo, the 12-year veteran and founder of the organization has announced his intention to leave the organization thiscoming February. Gamespot reports he's heading for a position with a trade organization for investment firms. GamePolitics, meanwhile, reconfirms that Lowenstein is not headed for the Entertainment Consumers Association, nor will ECA founder Hal Halpin be taking Lowenstein's place. From the 1up article: "Back in 1994, (Bungie was still making games for Macs, that's how long ago we're talkin'), Lowenstein founded the Interactive Digital Software Association, which one would day become our own beloved ESA. The organization's purpose wasn't to create a money-draining spectacle that would become the bane of gaming journalists' existence, but rather to serve as an advocate for antipiracy legislation. Once it became the ESA, the group's mission grew to include the support of the ESRB."

Gamespot reports that there's going to be an Aliens title for the new round of consoles. Sega has been tapped (again) to bring the Fox license to market, with an expectation that the game will be showing up in 2009. From the article: "This is not the first time either company has adapted the sci-fi series for gaming. In 1993, Sega released the arcade game Alien 3: The Gun, while the Fox Interactive brand scored a hit with the PC first-person shooting series Alien Versus Predator. Other publishers to tackle the franchise in interactive form include Electronic Arts (Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction for PlayStation 2), Konami (Aliens for the arcade), Capcom (Alien Vs. Predator for the arcade), and the former incarnation of Acclaim (Alien Trilogy and Alien 3 for multiple platforms)."

All three 'next generation' consoles are out, and we can finally stop using that term. The NPD numbers for last month have been released, and there's plenty of information there to discuss. Analysts have already made some observations, with brandintel specifically pointing out the Xbox 360's 'surprising' role in last month's fight. For some more well-reasoned thought, Dean Takahashi's take is the place to turn: "At this rate, Microsoft isn't going to hit its goal of 10 million units by year end ... Sony's number is consistent with its warnings, but 197,000 is worse than what many expected ... the fair fight is really going to be what happens in the year 2007, when all three console makers should be able to ship as many consoles as consumers want. To me, this looks like consumers are hit with a case of sticker shock. The mass market is paying for cheap PS2s, DS Lites, and GBAs." Despite the Wii's success last month, it should be noted that Nintendo is no longer bragging of 1 Million units in the U.S. by the end of the year. So, essentially, it looks like all three companies will fail to hit their console goals for the year.

Last night was the taping for the 2006 Spike TV Videogame awards, and Bethesda Softworks' Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion took best game. Gamespot reports on the rest of the pack, which saw the Critic's Choice going to Twilight Princess, and Epic's Gears of War pulling down several top honors. For a blow-by-blow, Joystiq's event liveblogging post might interest you. It sounds ... pretty awful. From that article: "9:25: 50 Cent intros the 'Best Human Female in a Video Game' in a sort of slurred 'here's my drink' English. We'll have what he's having. It's unsure if he even knows what he's talking about."

kaizokunami writes "A company named Interlink Electronics, Inc., creator of interface devices has filed a suit in US District court against Nintendo of America, claiming the Nintendo the trigger on the bottom of the Wii controller infringes on their patent. The article includes images submitted with the patent application." From the article: "The complaint alleges that the trigger on the bottom of the Wii controller infringes on Interlink Patent No. 6,850,221 (Trigger Operated Electronic Device), which the company secured on February 1, 2005. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata first presented the Wii controller to the public not too long after that date, during the 2005 Tokyo Game Show."

Gamespot is reporting that a rumour that's been floating around has, for once, turned out to be true. Microsoft has been sued for breach of contract and negligence in connection to the Xbox Live Fall Update. From the article: " Stating that the affected consumers number in 'at least the thousands,' the suit contends that Microsoft is refusing to repair or replace the broken systems unless the users pay 'up to $140' to ship it back to the company. The plaintiff is demanding that Microsoft pay at least $5 million in damages for breach of contract to those affected by the Fall Update problems, and an additional amount of at least $5 million in damages for an unfair or deceptive act under the CPA. Should Microsoft argue that it had no agreement to breach with the affected users, then the plaintiff contends Microsoft was negligent, and should be made to pay at least $5 million in damages." It should be noted that Microsoft has responded by saying it has offered to completely cover the cost of systems affected by the update, including shipping.

Gamespot is reporting on the Wii's launch in Britain. As with the U.S. launch, things seem to have gone quite smoothly. Celebrities and very long lines of gamers marked the occasion, with one store giving out pizza, merchandise, and champaign to their customers. From the article: "At Nintendo's official event in HMV on Oxford Street, celebrities Ian Wright, Nell McAndrew, Pat Cash, and Ricky Hatton turned up to play Wii Sports. Cash and McAndrew played Wii Tennis, with Cash winning two games to zero. Wright and Hatton sparred at Wii Boxing, with the ex-footballer winning the virtual game against the boxer. Heba Elgamal, who had been camping outside the store in an alley for two days, was first in line for a console at the HMV store, and it was presented to him by Ian Wright. Elgamal bought The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with his purchase, and Wright asked him if Zelda was a fighting game--which didn't go down well with the crowd. " Errr ... who is Ian Wright? And how has he never heard of Zelda?

Ars Technica has the news of some comments made by Reggie Fils-Aime on the SpikeTV show GameHead about Wii's online multiplayer future. Essentially, there aren't any games in the near future to look forward to, online. The Japanese launch saw the inclusion of Pokemon Battle Revolution, a with a solid online mode. The first batch of online games is slated for sometime around March or April. From the article: "Many games still in development for the Wii are designed around playing with people who are physically present: a recent preview of a new anime-themed golf game for the Wii on Electric Playground revealed that the developers had not included online multiplayer modes. Fils-Aime also indicated that new multiplayer channels were on their way for the Wii's online service, but declined to give any details about what new features might be enabled on them." In somewhat related news, it seems that the Bob Ross game may not end up happening after all. The loss of happy little clouds will be felt by every Wii owner.

Nintendo President Iwata, GameSpot reports, has stated that the Wii and the DS are not 'eating' each other. That is to say, the Wii's brisk sales reports have not harmed the high demand for Nintendo's portable system. From the article: "'Some analysts say the largest rival of the Wii is the DS,' he told the Reuters news service. 'But if you take a look at DS sales in the United States in the Thanksgiving week or DS sales in Japan in the week of the Wii launch, there has been little impact.' By the end of its fiscal year on March 31, 2007, Nintendo now believes it will have sold 6 million Wiis and 20 million combined units of the DS and DS Lite. It currently predicts its annual profit will total 145 billion yen (around $1.26 billion), an increase of more than 60 percent, with annual sales rising 45 percent to 740 billion yen (approximately $6.44 billion). "

Gamespot reports on the airing of the Halo 3 Teaser trailer on Monday Night Football, and the beginning of signups for the Halo 3 beta at Halo3.com. From the article: "[Yesterday] registration for the beta program began at the Halo 3 Web site. The beta will initially be open to North American gamers, and not everyone who applies is guaranteed a spot. To participate, gamers must have: a) An Xbox 360 with a hard-drive; b) A valid Xbox Live Gold subscription; c) A valid Microsoft. NET Passport account with a Xbox Live GamerTag linked to it." The teaser featured a mix of live-action and very impressive CG. It just didn't grab me in the same way that the trailer from E3 did, though. If you're interested in some more substantive information on the game, the folks at Ziff have been offering up information via the 1up Show.

Gamespot reports on the airing of the Halo 3 Teaser trailer on Monday Night Football, and the beginning of signups for the Halo 3 beta at Halo3.com. From the article: "[Yesterday] registration for the beta program began at the Halo 3 Web site. The beta will initially be open to North American gamers, and not everyone who applies is guaranteed a spot. To participate, gamers must have: a) An Xbox 360 with a hard-drive; b) A valid Xbox Live Gold subscription; c) A valid Microsoft. NET Passport account with a Xbox Live GamerTag linked to it." The teaser featured a mix of live-action and very impressive CG. It just didn't grab me in the same way that the trailer from E3 did, though. If you're interested in some more substantive information on the game, the folks at Ziff have been offering up information via the 1up Show.

Gamespot reports that publisher Take-Two Interactive has signed a deal with the Double Fusion company for in-game ads. The company has been signed on for somewhere around nine of titles in 2007 and 2008. From the article: "'With respect to dynamic ads, we can only serve dynamic ads as platforms authorize that,' Double Fusion CEO and president Jonathan Epstein told GameSpot. 'And right now, Sony and Nintendo, who have been very busy launching platforms, are still formulating their policies in that regard. So our arrangement is contingent on those platforms authorizing in-game advertising in the first place, and then authorizing Double Fusion as a vendor. We're hopeful that during the time of the deal... we'll see such authorizations and approvals.'"

Gamespot reports on Napster founder Shawn Fanning's newest project: an online community for MMOG players called Rupture. He's initially, sensibly, targeting World of Warcraft players with what's being described as 'MySpace for Azeroth'. From the article: "The [service] will pull data directly from WOW and publish stats and information on a personalized page. Gamers will also be able to instant message while playing, as well as track the progress of their guilds and organize playing time with their online buddies. Rupture will rely on ads for revenue and also focus on exchanging info on gamers' real lives, should they have one. WOW is the first game on the plate for Rupture, but no other titles have yet been mentioned. "

Gamespot reports that convention companies IDG and Gen Con LLC are talking about an event merge. IDG has already gotten the nod from the ESA for their 'GamePro Expo', and expects to attract no less than 25,000 gamers in October of next year. If Gen Con joins the fray, that will add table-top roleplaying, board games, and the like into the mix for some sort of nerdapalooza. From the article: "If the two events co-locate at the LACC, the current plan is to see Gen Con base its exhibits in the convention center's West Hall, with the IDG game event placing its exhibitors in both South Hall and the lower-level Kentia Hall. One impediment to the two groups linking up could be due to the current success IDG is having selling its upcoming game event into the industry. If it can sell out the LACC's nearly 550,000 square feet of expo space on its own, there may be no need nor reason to bring Gen Con into the mix." If this goes through, there would be no need for the Gen Con Indy event, which would only be held a few months before. I knew E3's demise was no good.

Gamespot reports that Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson has gone on record saying that EA is wrecking its good name, with questionable business decisions and dropping game quality. From the article: "'Reviews of all of EA's annualized titles, its primary source of profit, have declined over the past two years,' Wilson noted. 'Although market share has not declined dramatically to date, in years such as 2007, which promises to have tremendous competition, it seems likely if quality does not improve. EA's aggregate review has also declined significantly in the past two years.'" 1up has the word that, in support of this, EA is still very proud of their 'paying for cheat codes' policy with Need for Speed.

Nomura Securities' Yuta Sakurai has been quoted as saying that 'he cannot imagine a PlayStation 4' because of Kaz Hirai's promotion. He sees it as a move (eventually) towards Sega-like software focus. Sony has, of course, immediately denied this because ... they (understandably) like money. From the article: "Following the launch of the PlayStation 3 just a few weeks ago, and witnessing the huge consumer demand for the product, I think it would be rather short-sighted for anyone to predict there might not be a next generation of PlayStation product."

Mercury News has the complete, unedited release of this year's MediaWise videogame report card. The bottom line of the release is that "Parents Can No Longer Ignore Their Children's Video Game Habits". Citing evidence that games are responsible for increased aggression and poor health, the report urges parents to take a more active role in their children's lives, and moderate their game usage. In many other areas of the report (which is typically quite negative) high marks were handed out. Gamespot has a synopsis of the findings. From that article: "Specialty game retailers were given an 'F' for allowing anyone to purchase titles rated M for Mature, despite whatever store policy might have been in place. Also, in a category that wasn't present in last year's report, the NIMF gave an 'incomplete' grade to Parental Involvement for the year. 'As the world of video games continues to evolve, parents are falling behind,' the group said in a statement. 'As we found last year, this year's parental survey uncovered an alarming gap between what kids say about the role of video games in their lives and what parents are willing to admit.'"