Late Night Consoling

Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu revealed a new title today, Namco x Capcom, which will be a joint project between, yup, you guessed it, Namco and Capcom. However, it is being developed by Monolith Soft, developers of Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos. Wait, an RPG developer working on a dream fighter? Well, hate to break it to ya, but no Heihachi vs. Akuma here. This will be a strategy RPG that features characters from a wide range of series. The game world is in 3D, but the battles are 2D with anime-style sequences. The story revolves around a time/space continuum tear or something crazy like that where characters from different universes are popping up.

THQ announced that Climax is hard at work on MotoGP: Ultimate Racing Technology 3 for the Xbox and PC. According to the press release, the most significant addition to MotoGP 3 is a brand new Extreme mode that extends the playing experience even further for gamers. TT-style street racing will take place in 16 various real-life locations. There will be an online mode which blends the multiplayer aspect with the singleplayer campaign.

Adventure fans yearning for some "action" on a console are in luck as Ubisoft announced it will port Myst IV: Revelation to Microsoft's console. It's set for release in March and will sell for the low, low price of $19.99.

Reuters is reporting that Nintendo's third quarter 2004 profits fell 43% compared to last year. Although it had great Nintendo DS sales, the lack of interest in the GameCube is what caused the slump. However, that doesn't mean Nintendo wasn't profitable, it just wasn't as profitable. The Big-N still made just under $607 million. In related news, Hiroshi Yamauchi gave as a gift 5,000 shares of Nintendo stock to Seattle Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki. The stock is worth a little over half a million dollars. Nintendo owns over 50% of the ball club.

At the Sundance Film Festival, movie celebrities engaged in a friendly bidding war over three exclusive Nintendo DS systems. Actor Jay Mohr paid the biggest price, $10,000 for a NDS with a swirling blue metallic pattern. Poppy Montgomery and Alan Cumming won the other two, spending $2,500 and $1,500 respectively. Nintendo added some cash to the bids and all the proceeds went to charity, a total donation of $31,000.

According to IGN, many media outlets in Europe are reporting that Sega plans to release a PSP version of Virtua Tennis in Europe. Sega has announced it was working on a PSP sports game, but didn't say any more than that. If true, it is very likely it would make it across the pond. It's set for release sometime in May.

What may be announced tomorrow at Konami's game event, REN-GOKU: Tower of Purgatory appears set for a U.S. release. EBgames added a listing for the game today with a release date set at March 28 and listing it as published by Konami. The game is a sci-fi action-RPG which has gamers playing an android locked in a tower with other androids that are programmed to kill each other.

Nintendo of Europe will announce soon a special Resident Evil 4 GameCube Bundle. Not only will the console come packaged with the game, but both the controller and GameCube faceplate will be emblazoned with the Resident Evil 4 logo. It'll also have a "Making Of" disc and sell for about 160 euros.