Late Night Consoling

Newly formed Toronto-based publisher Throwback Entertainment today announced that it has acquired the rights to a number of titles formerly owned by Acclaim, after the publisher's assets were put up for auction. Throwback's stated plans for the games, most of which hail from the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era but some of which date back to Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast, are to extend their franchises to the next generation of consoles. "We are very pleased to have been afforded the opportunity to take these titles through the next generation, and onwards," said Throwback in a statement. The company's website highlights the following acquired titles:

Z-Axis' Aggressive Inline (PS2, Xbox, GCN, GBA), Probe Entertainment's Extreme-G (N64) and Extreme-G 2 (N64, PC), Acclaim Studios Cheltenham's XGIII Extreme G Racing (PS2, GCN) and XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association (PS2, Xbox, GCN), Bizarre Creations' Fur Fighters (DC, PC) and Fur Fighters: Viggo's Revenge (PS2), Acclaim Studios Manchester's Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance (PS2, Xbox, PC), Iguana Entertainment's Iggy's Reckin' Balls (N64), Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City's Legends of Wrestling (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and Legends of Wrestling II (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and Showdown: Legends of Wrestling (PS2, Xbox), Acclaim Studios Cheltenham's Summer Heat Beach Volleyball (PS2), Climax's SX Superstar (Xbox, GCN), and Acclaim Studios Austin's Vexx (PS2, Xbox, GCN).

Buried deeper in the company's site is a full list of acquired titles, which numbers a staggering 106. It includes such games as Re-Volt (PS1, N64, DC, PC), Alien Trilogy (SAT, PC), Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (PS2), the Sega Saturn version of Myst, the PlayStation version of Riven: The Sequel to Myst, Wizards & Warriors (NES), Wizards & Warriors III (NES), and the SNES version of Populous. In most of these cases, it is likely that Throwback holds the publishing rights only, and would not be able to develop further franchise as is the plan with the aforementioned highlighted games. Re-Volt is one exception, it being an Acclaim-developed game.

In the Too Human (X360) blog maintained by developer Silicon Knights, studio director Denis Dyack indicated that the company still plans to make a sequel to its 2002 GameCube title Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. "Although this may not be obvious to those outside of Silicon Knights, anyone inside the guild understands that there is really no other answer," wrote Dyack, referring to Eternal Darkness sequels. "When creating an original game we start by conceptualizing an entire universe."

Presumably, further games would be developed for a Nintendo system, be it Wii or a successor, as Nintendo owns the rights to the Eternal Darkness property. However, it will likely be some time before that occurs; Silicon Knights is currently working on its long in development Too Human trilogy, the first game of which is slated to ship later this year.

Llamasoft founder Jeff Minter, creator of many games but perhaps most notably Tempest 2000 (JAG, SAT, PC), has some less than flattering things to say about Sony in his latest column from UK publication Edge, calling the company "incredibly arrogant." He wrote, "They seem absolutely certain that even when they say it's going to be considerably more expensive than existing consoles, nevertheless us eager customers will rush out in droves to buy it because it's, hey, a new PlayStation." Minter may be referring in part to recent comments made by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO David Reeves, who stated, "The first five million are going to buy [PlayStation 3], whatever it is, even [if] it didn't have games."

Last week, speaking to financial news outlet Bloomberg, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot also expressed concern about PlayStation 3's price tag. Though Guillemot expects the machine to sell out its initial launch quantities in 2006, he believes it may need a price drop to compete with Microsoft's already entrenched and lower priced Xbox 360. "The true question is 2007," he said. "In the battle with Microsoft, the company will be obliged to lower prices to get their machines installed."

In a rather unusual promotion, at least when it comes to video game peripherals, Plantronics is now pledging one dollar in Hurricane Katrina relief donations for each GameCom Halo 2 Edition Xbox headset sold through the company's web site. Even better, it's now going for $14.95 or $19.95, depending on whether you need the Communicator widget, a far cry from the original $49.95 and $59.95 asking prices--plus, it works with Xbox 360.

Sony this week announced that Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Kaz Hirai and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president and CEO David Reeves have been made executive vice presidents of Sony Computer Entertainment. In addition to their regional duties, the pair will now have more clout within the corporate structure of SCE.

Nintendo today opened a wholly owned Nintendo subsidiary in Seoul. The facility, operating on an initial investment of 25B won ($26M), will aid Nintendo's prescence in South Korea by way of game localization and sales support. While gaming is an enormous phenomenon in South Korea, it is almost exclusively PC-centric. Only recently has interest in consoles began to grow, as console publishers ëstablish themselves more strongly. Sony Computer Entertainment maintains offices in the country, and last month Activision opened a South Korean branch.

Nintendo has launched the official site for its upcoming DS RPG based on The Legend of Zelda's Tingle; the title may approximate to Fresh Tingle's Rose Colored Rupee Land. The site is some kind of Flash-based graphic adventure. Somebody who reads Japanese, please explain what is going on.

IGN has an overview of upcoming RPGs for the Xbox 360, from both Japanese and Western developers.

1UP today wrapped up its week of coverage on Treyarch's Call of Duty 3 (PS3, X360, Wii), made up of interviews, features, and videos.