Really Late Night Consoling

A few months ago, Blizzard's StarCraft: Ghost (PS2, Xbox) was quietly cancelled for GameCube. Now, it appears the game may be cancelled for PS2 and Xbox as well. Blizzard today issued a very brief press release announcing that the repeatedly delayed console title has been "indefinitely postponed." The reason for the move is that the company is currently "evaluating opportunities for utilizing the additional power of the new and upcoming console systems." This would suggest that Ghost is being reworked for the next-gen consoles, but the announcement stops short of confirming that implication. Instead, it merely states that, over the coming months, "Blizzard will further evaluate the next-gen console technology and determine the best plan of action for offering a StarCraft console-gaming experience that meets the company's expectations and those of its players." - Press release.

StarCraft: Ghost has seen a long and troubled development. Originally being produced by Nihilistic, Blizzard switched the title over to Metal Arms developer Swingin' Ape, then later purchased Swingin' Ape and transformed it into a new internal Blizzard console development team. The game was last seen at BlizzCon in 2005, and at the time was expected for release in the first half of 2006.

Microsoft has announced that it will be holding a press conference on April 6 to reveal the company's updated strategy for Xbox in the Japanese market. It will be headed up by Takashi Sensui, who was recently instated as the manager of Microsoft Japan Xbox Division. Sensui replaced Yoshihiro Marayama, who oversaw the group through the console's slow launch in Japan. Microsoft will be displaying various games for the system as well.

A report from TG Daily today relayed an interesting bit of information from this week's Game Developers Conference. A TG Daily writer describes his experience at Sony's GDC booth, where PS3 prototypes were showing various demos. The units were running video through the traditional Sony "AV MULTI OUT" port, which supports component and S-video. TG Daily asked Sony staff why the PS3's HDMI capability was not being showcased, and was told that HDMI-equipped televisions are difficult to find. However, the PS3 units in question were hooked up to Sony HDMI-ready sets. They were then told that HDMI cables are difficult to find, at which point TG Daily offered to let Sony use an HDMI cable a colleague happened to have at the show. Sony declined the offer.

TG Daily speculated that the reason Sony was reluctant to use the console's HDMI functionality is that PS3 uses HDMI 1.3, rather than the HDMI 1.1 standard used in currently available televisions, and using 1.3 on a 1.1 device generates some audio problems.

In a talk given today at Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection design lead Takao Ohara spoke on the genesis of the project, its road to completion, and the reasons for various decisions Nintendo took along the way. He reiterated the already announced figure of one million unique users reached in four months, and also stated that there are currently 40 titles in development supporting the DS online service to be released by "the beginning of 2007." Currently, only seven games utilize Nintendo WFC, one of which (Taito's RPG LostMagic) has been released in Japan but will not see a North American release for another three weeks, and another of which (Treasure's Bleach DS) has not been announced for the North American market. Ohara revealed that due to various technical issues, the WFC spec had to be almost completely rewritten soon before release. He apologized to any publishers or developers in the audience who may have had problems as a result, and stated that he hopes more Western developers will take advantage of the service in their games now that it has seen success worldwide.

While Microsoft was enthusiastic about its worldwide Xbox 360 launch last November, gamers in Australia and New Zealand were a little less excited. It's taken them about four months to get their hands on the machine themselves, but this week the first next-gen console finally hit the land down under. The machine is now (theoretically) available, with price points set at AUS$499.95 for the hard drive-less Core system and AUS$649.95 for the standard bundle. The system launched with 21 titles, a step up from the 18 games shipping alongside the system in other English-speaking territories.

Gamerscore Blog, a site run by Microsoft marketing employees, has responded to a recent video allegedly depicting a burned backup copy of Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360) running on an Xbox 360. The statement reads:

The core security system has not been broken. However, it is reported that the authentication protocol between the optical disc drive and the console may be attacked, which if accurate could allow people to play illegally copied games. Our security team is aware of this and we are investigating potential solutions to this issue. The Xbox 360 platform was designed to be updated, and we are prepared to respond appropriately should any unauthorized activity be identified.

One alleged hacker behind the video, "Robinsod," gave an interview with Xboxic this week in which he stated that the hack was done for his own enjoyment and would not be released to the public. He also indicated that the hack would not be particularly useful to the general public in its current form, and it does not run unsigned code. He warned gamers to watch out for companies or individuals claiming to be selling mod chips or hacks for the console, as they may have malicious intent.