Late Night Consoling

...for the Gizmondo. Sorry. Tiger Telematics today revealed the full list of titles to be available for its portable Gizmondo console when the system launches in just a few days. The launch games include: SSX3, FIFA Soccer 2005, Trailblazer, Point of Destruction, and Sticky Balls. Yes, Sticky Balls. I've actually heard it's one of the better Gizmondo titles, but just think: if I were ever to cover that game in LNC, it would be referred to as "Sticky Balls (GIZ)." I think we should all just reflect on that for a moment. Right. Moving on.

Chris Morris, content director for CNN/Money and a Shacker, slammed the Gizmondo's launch in an uncharacteristically harsh editorial today, noting that "the product lacks focus, suffers from numerous flaws and carries an insultingly high price tag." What kind of price tag? Well, $229, and that's with a built-in advertising service that sends the user video ads a few times a day to subsidize the system's cost. They must be watched before the system will turn off. Morris also lists a $399 model sans ads, but GameSpot is reporting that while Tiger does plan to offer a $399 edition of the device, plans to remove its advertising service have been cancelled. Instead, it comes with Gizmondo Navigator 2006, which uses the system's built-in GPS capability to give street directions. Navigator costs $169 if purchased separately, so the $399 bundle doesn't actually save any money; in fact, it costs a dollar more.

Morris finishes off his analysis by concluding, "Somewhere at Nokia, someone's feeling pretty good about the N-Gage's launch all of a sudden." Me? I have a few things to say about the N-Gage.

If you hate analyst reports, just stop reading now, because I'm going to mention some. Fair warning, ok? If you keep reading this and are angered by the presence of analyst reports, it's your own fault. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Various analysts seem to have come to a concensus that Microsoft will be shipping about 1.5 million units of the Xbox 360 worldwide when the system launches over a two week period starting November 22. Banc of America is maintaining an estimate of 1.4M to 1.6M units, while UBS Securities recently lowered its expectations from 2.5M to 1.5M. This news comes on the heels of various rumors of shortages (and falsified shortages) as well as comments by Microsoft representatives such as Peter Moore and J Allard that suggest Microsoft is experiencing more problems than anticipated with the worldwide almost-simultaneous launch. This is the first time a major home console will have been released to all territories in such a narrow time frame.

The reports seem to agree that North America will receive about 800,000 of the available units, Europe 400,000-600,000, and Japan 100,000-200,000. A guy named Olly Dean claims to have spoken to a variety of retail proprietors, indicating that many UK shops will only be receiving four units upon launch, two premium and two core consoles. He and gaming news site Joystiq seem to think the UK will only be getting 100,000 of Europe's allotment.

Following up on yesterday's announcement by Nintendo of America that McDonald's would be providing free wi-fi access points for DS users, Nintendo of Canada has announced similar partnerships. Nintendo will be partnering with internet provider FatPort to bring Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection access points to locations in Canada where FatPort already has internet connections set up (users connecting with a DS will not have to pay for access). These locations include various branches of Boston Pizza, Bread Garden Bakery and Cafe, Seattle's Best Coffee, Joey Tomato's, White Spot, and a variety of hotels and inns. A full list is available here.

It's been known for some time that next month's Metroid Prime Pinball (DS) would feature a Rumble Pak housed in a Game Boy Advance cartridge, but until now no other games have been announced that will support the peripheral. Well, it seems that it may be used in Metroid Prime: Hunters (DS), the upcoming FPS which was recently delayed to add online support. The news comes by way of someone claiming to be one of the game's developers.

If this rumor is true, it will be interesting to see if any third party developers add rumble functionality to their DS games.

Sega Sammy, the company formed by the recent merger of two of Japan's top publishers, has acquired a controlling stake in TMS Entertainment, Ltd., a Japanese animation studio, effectively making TMS a subsidiary. The studio will most likely be used to produce animations based on Sega properties.

Sega has been taking an interest in animation lately. The publisher recently announced that it is establishing a CG studio that will handle both in-house games and third party projects. That studio is set to open next March.

Do you want a copy of EA's Madden NFL 2006? This guy is selling his copy on eBay. The auction begins: "Hello stupid! Yes, I'm talking to you, the guy interested in buying this piece of garbage game from Electronic Arts for the 800th time so you can have updated rosters." He's including NFL 2K5 and two months of Xbox Live, "to ensure that the winner actually walks away 'winning' something."