Late Night Consoling

After constantly giving the vague release date of "2006" for its upcoming Revolution console, Nintendo has finally given a slightly more defined release target: "by Thanksgiving" in the US. "We have no plans to miss out on the year-end sales battle," said company president Satoru Iwata, speaking to Japanese publication Sankei Shinbun. "As for North America, we need to release it by Thanksgiving, or otherwise we won't receive support from the retail industry. So the Revolution will be released prior to that period." Iwata also noted that it would be impossible to sell the Revolution for a price of upwards of 50,000 yen (~$433). In case that upper limit sounds a bit worrying, Nintendo marketing man Reggie Fils-Aime once again confirmed today that the system will sell for less than $300.

In their respective interviews, both Iwata and Fils-Aime confirmed that Revolution would be present in playable form at E3. Fils-Aime said that the company will be showing "a lot of titles" at the expo, including the games from the system's launch lineup.

For many Xbox 360 owners, the best thing about their expensive next-gen console, whether they admit it or not, is Xbox Live Arcade. It sure is for me. And I don't mean that as a veiled slam to the rest of the console, it's just that Live Arcade does exactly what it needs to do: present a bunch of really fun games for only a few dollars each. After spending those hundreds of dollars, your wallet thanks you when only having to shell out $5 or $10 for untold hours of gameplay.

It seems that there are many, many gamers who agree. Live Arcade group manager Greg Canessa said to MTV News that Bizarre Creations' "'Geometry Wars' has been our 'Halo.'" While that's perhaps a bit exaggerated, the game has done incredibly well, racking up 200,000 downloads and 45,000 purchases Not bad considering that at its roots, the game stems from decades-old gameplay principles.

IGN has the top 10 selling Live Arcade games, and of course Geometry Wars tops the list. It's followed by Gauntlet, Smash TV, Bejeweled II, Zuma, Bankshot Billiards, Outpost Kaloki, Mutant Storm Reloaded, Joust, and Wik: Fable of Souls, demonstrating a healthy blend of arcade classics and current casual and independent games.

Many sites today reported on what was apparently an official Sony announcement of first party launch titles for PS3, including The Eye of Judgment, Genji 2, Angel Rings, Monster Carnival, a Hot Shots Golf game, and, most notably, a new Gran Turismo game. However, more competent translations of the page later determined that these are by no means launch titles; each has a shipping date of "undecided," and furthermore these games have already all been announced, meaning that there really isn't any new information of any kind on the page at all. It'll be some time before we get a solid lineup, given the console has still yet to be fully unveiled.

The official Game Developers Conference website has been updated to include two sessions held by Nintendo speakers. The first, a lecture given by Animal Crossing series director Katsuya Eguchi, will focus on transforming a console franchise to fit a portable platform, while touching on the DS' particular input methods and the online component of Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS).

Much more relevant to gamers in general, however, will be Takao Ohara's talk on Nitnendo's Wi-Fi Connection online service for the DS. He will discuss the successes and failures of the project, and most importantly he will discuss what can be done with the company's implementation of the service on Revolution, and how the lessons learned from the DS implementation will affect it.

There is not yet any indication that any Nintendo executives will present a keynote address at this year's event. At GDC 2005, company president Satoru Iwata delivered a keynote entitled "Heart of a Gamer," in which he discusses his and Nintendo's philosophies with respect to gaming, and also shed some light on the company's then-even-more-mysterious Revolution.

Geez, we don't hear anything about Revolution for ages, then occasionally we get these news days when there's nothing but Nintendo news and speculation. Minoru Nakai, producer on the upcoming Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS), spoke about the possibility of the Resident Evil franchise on Revolution. Capcom has still given no indication that Resident Evil 5 (PS3, X360) will ship for Nintendo's upcoming machine, and Nakai indicates that the Revolution's unique controller demands a type of gameplay more tuned to it. Certainly, the deliberately and successfully restrictive controls of Resident Evil 4 (PS2, GCN) would seem a bit at odds with the deliberately freeform nature of the Revolution controller. Nakai wants to first make a non-Resident Evil game for Revolution before bringing that franchise to the console.

Following up on yesterday's news that EA's The Godfather (PS2, Xbox, X360, PSP, PC) would be hitting stores in March on PS2, Xbox, and PC, IGN has confirmed that the little-mentioned Xbox 360 and PSP versions are still in fact in development. They will hopefully be launching some time in the late summer, according to an EA representative, but a more specific date was not given.

Gamasutra's audience speculates on what company might be able to bring a third successful handheld gaming console to market.

GameSpot has a designer diary for SCEA's Pursuit Force (PSP).

1UP lets you know what you can do with your 360 power brick. Don't feel like you need to click on that or anything, I'm just sayin'.