Late Night Consoling

August 8, 2003 8:00 PM

The big news of the last 48 hours has been Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo...yesterday morning the company held a press conference where they made a handful of big announcements. The first is that they have a new game product of some kind coming in 2004. They refused to provide any details on whether this is a successor to either the Game Boy Advance or GameCube, or if it's an extension of an existing product line, or a new deck of cards, but I can safely say that this is not follow-up to the GameCube given the timing (development kits would have to have already shipped for that to be the case). If I were a betting man, I'd say this is the long-awaited GameBoy Advance cell phone hybrid, since they touted this mystery object's ability to open up new markets. But that wasn't the only news by any means...they also announced that they are rolling out the Nintendo Club, which had a test run in Europe last year, in North America and Japan. With the Club, you'll be able to register purchased software online and receive points which can be redeemed for prizes and game demos. Those two announcements were largely to quell the other part of the press conference, where they announced that production on new GameCube hardware has stopped while they clear out their current inventory. That is not good news at all. And while Nintendo is still at #2 for home consoles, most analysts have predicted that Microsoft will pass them by the end of the year. More tidbits, including more of the kind of Internet gaming bashing we all love so much and the news that Nintendo, "is not against utilizing discs in portable games in the future" can be found over at Video Fenky.

	New GameCube Titles Announced Jeez, I was running out of room up there...Nintendo also announced at that same press conference that a new Zelda is in the works for release next year, a GameCube version of WarioWare, Inc. will be out in Japan later this year (hopefully it won't just be a port) and that Namco is currently developing a new Donkey Kong game.
	New Xbox Live Dashboard...Eventually Games Are Fun seems to be the only place to have noticed that Microsoft has changed the date for their rollout of the new Xbox Live Dashboard from August 25th to "Mid-September."
	Sega Makes Profit Bet you didn't see this one coming...Sega has announced that thanks to stronger-than-expected sales of games and arcade machines, they pulled a profit of $15.8 million for this past fiscal quarter. Singled out in particular were sales of Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut for GameCube, which is impressive indeed considering that the game is a port of a Dreamcast launch title.
	GameCube Rumors Article Just like their excellent articles addressing the top PlayStation 2 rumors, IGN has posted a new article looking at the top 10 GameCube rumors. Among the ones addressed are the perspective of Metroid Prime 2 (they say it will have more third person than the first game, but is still primarily a first person game), whether or not we'll ever see a new, realistic Zelda game (maybe, but not yet) and the status of Capcom's Dead Phoenix (which they suggest may wind up as a new Kid Icarus game!).
	Vicarious Visions Porting Doom 3 According to Eurogamer.net, Vicarious Visions, best known as the talented developers of the GBA Tony Hawk titles, is handling the Xbox port of Doom 3.
	DDRMAX2 Songs Revealed Konami has released a partial list of the tracks that will be included in DDRMAX2 when it's released in North America next month. Among the contributing artists are such diverse performers as The Crystal Method, KC & The Sunshine Band and Kylie Minogue.
	TGS Game List A preliminary list of games from several major Japanese publishers (including Konami, Namco and Sega) that will be showcased at the Tokyo Game Show next month can be found at GameSpot tonight. There aren't any new games here yet, but Sega has several "new title" slots for PS2, GameCube and GBA, including five new games for their Sega Ages line of retro remakes. Anyone care to take a guess? Who knows...maybe they'll bring back Alex Kidd.
	Madden 2004 Interview IGN has conducted a new interview with Jeremy Strauser, the producer at EA Sports on their unbelievably popular Madden line. Jeremy talks about several Madden topics, including the kind of interaction EA has with their cover players and who his first pick is when creating a team from scratch.
	Siren: Sony's New Survival Horror Title Computer and Video Games has posted two screenshots from Siren, a previously unannounced survival horror title from Sony Europe. The two shots are definitely in the Silent Hill vein.
	NVIDIA Profits on Xbox Despite only modest sales improvements, NVIDIA announced a big spike in their profits for the last quarter, thanks in part to revenue from Xbox hardware.
	Console Development for the Masses? Slashdot Games linked to the XGameStation the other day, pointing out that this aims to be a low-cost way for anyone to jump in to console software development, thanks to its modular interface which allows for everything from Atari 2600 to Xbox controllers to work with the system.
	KOTOR Updates GameBanshee sent along word that they have completed their massive Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic database, offering complete lists of armor, weapons, utility items and upgrades. On a semi-related note, GameSpot has posted their massive guide to the game (although free registration is required to read it).
	Red Faction Revealed GameSpot has posted the first screenshots from the N-Gage version of Red Faction. You may recall that this game is in development at Monkeystone games, and as a result is a sort of return to the FPS genre for Doom co-creator John Romero. Speaking of the N-Gage, if you're interested, Nokia is looking for people to help promote the system (and get paid for it).
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has new screenshots from Fable (Xbox), OutRun2 (Xbox/Arcade), Rescue Heroes: Billy Blazes (GBA), DragonBall Z: Taiketsu (GBA), Whiplash (PS2, Xbox), Time Crisis 3 (PS2) and Puzzle Bobble VS and Tomb Raider (both N-Gage), along with a new look at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. IGN has a hands-on look at Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GC), screenshots from SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos (NeoGeo/Arcade) and new looks at Spawn (GC, PS2, Xbox), Double Dragon Advance (GBA) and River City Ransom EX (GBA). Elsewhere online, GamePro.com has new shots from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (GC, PS2, Xbox), GameSpy has new previews of Tak the Power of JuJu (GC, PS2) and Dungeons & Dragons Heroes (Xbox), Computer and Video Games has new shots from Rainbow Six 3 (Xbox), Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GC) and Sega has opened their official Japanese language site for Gungrave O.D. (PS2).

Console Game of the Evening: Y's Book I & II for the TurboCD. "Incredible story with a living breathing world, awesome animated cut scenes, hundreds of unique monsters, fun and non-repetitive dungeons, the BEST soundtrack of any game to date, quite simply one of the best RPGs ever." (submitted by poppasp1ce).

jason bergman

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