Late Night Consoling

February 3, 2003 8:30 PM

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It's been quite a day for Xbox news...Microsoft announced today that their Home and Entertainment unit, which includes the Xbox along with the now-dead UltimateTV, posted a loss of $348 million for this past quarter, double the loss from this time last year. Before everyone jumps on this as a sign that the company's not going to be able to keep this up forever, keep in mind that this was offset by the increased profit gained from their Information Worker unit, which oversees their Office lineup. What I found most interesting about this story wasn't the size of the loss (we all knew that was coming), but rather that bit down at the bottom that says it made a yen-denominated bank loan as high as $559 million in another company. If it's anyone other than Sega, I'd be shocked, given the number of high-profile Xbox exclusives we've seen lately, not to mention the two-game pack-in. More gloom and doom from the financial sector came from NVIDIA, which said it was unsure of how large Microsoft's order will be for this next quarter given the size of their current Xbox inventory. And in still more Xbox financial news, Frictionless Insight claims that Vivendi has rejected an all-stock buyout offer from EA, leaving Microsoft as the only likely suitor left for their enormous gaming unit, and dashing my hopes that a slightly less evil company would pick up Vivendi Universal Games.

	Shrunken Xbox at E3? Slashdot pointed me towards this story at SPonG.com, which claims we'll see a smaller Xbox at E3. That wouldn't surprise me at all, although they claim the system will include Media2Go, a multimedia content delivery system for PCs and Xbox Live, which I'm not so sure of. I don't doubt Microsoft's moving in this direction, but I'm convinced they'll offer this functionality as an optional upgrade or as an alternate system, not as their sole Xbox product.
	NEC Returns to Game Development The TurboGrafx-16 is long dead and buried in this country, so this has been a long time coming...NEC announced today their triumphant return to game development, with a new studio here in America known as NEC Interchannel. The company will develop games for every major console system, and the first one revealed is Tube Slider, an impressive looking racer for GameCube.
	THQ Gamer's Day Madness THQ showed off all their upcoming titles at their Gamer's Day press event, and so there's a flood of stuff tonight...GameSpot has hands-on looks at Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5 and Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride for GBA, as well as WWE Crush Hour, Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior and Alter Echo for PS2, and details from Moto GP 2. IGN has a hands-on look at Red Faction II for GameCube, as well as hands-on looks at Tak and the Power of Juju, Warhammer 40,000 and WWE Crush Hour for PS2. Over at Xbox.IGN they have impressions of Moto GP 2 and Red Faction II, and Pocket.IGN has a look at Jet Grind Radio for GBA.
	Splinter Cell Extras GameSpot has new information up tonight regarding the PS2 port of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. According to their news update, the port will feature an all-new binocular vision headset, four new levels, 30 minutes of new cinematics, and a new four-minute intro with an orchestral score. They also mention Dolby Pro Logic II support, although that may have been a miscommunication, as that sounds more likely like a feature of the GameCube port.
	Army Men: Sarge's War Preview Also at GameSpot tonight is a preview of Army Men: Sarge's War for GameCube, which may prove to be the second game in the series not to totally suck (apparently Army Men RTS was pretty good).
	Freeloader Shipping At long last, Datel has announced that they are shipping FreeLoader, their boot disc for GameCube that lets you play import games without the need for a modchip.
	GBA Player in Black Only According to IGN, when the GameCube Game Boy Player is released here in May, it will only be available in black. This differs from Japan, which will have it available in every color to match every available GameCube.
	Crazy Final Fantasy X-2 Tie-ins IGN has posted some pictures of the Final Fantasy X-2 merchandise that will be available in Japan, including a special PS2 stand and custom memory cards. But the real kicker here is this custom dual-pistol gamepad, which can't possibly work very well, but it looks really cool.
	Misc. Media Sega has launched their official Japanese Virtual-on MARZ site, which naturally has some new shots from this upcoming PS2 title. IGN has some shots from Sonic Pinball Party for GBA, as well as the first GameCube shots from The Sims. Over at GameSpot they have shots from three Xbox titles: Yager, Star Wars: KOTOR and Dino Crisis 3.

Console Game of the Evening: Bonk's Revenge for the TurboGrafx-16. More of the same, but still fun (and a decent step up from the original).