Late Night Consoling

GameSpot is reporting that certain Xbox 360 games are already shipping to stores, or will be shipping soon. It was widely assumed that the games would be released before the system, but they were expected to begin shipping next week, not this week. Rare's Kameo: Elements of Power (X360) is now listed by various online retailers as in stock and available. Brick and mortar EB Games locations claim they will have Kameo in stock starting today, as well as possibly Rare's Perfect Dark Zero (X360), and Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing (X360). Those three games are the launch titles being published by Microsoft Game Studios; other launch games should also start becoming available in the weeks leading up to the hardware launch on November 22.

For more information on Kameo, check out Shack's interview on the game.

This information must be treated as a rumor, as it is unconfirmed and was made on an internet forum. A forum poster claims to have received a stockholder pamphlet from Microsoft (which he also claims was sent to anybody holding Microsoft stock) containing the company's Keynote of Intent for 2006 in respect to Xbox and Xbox 360. The following points are stated:

- Microsoft will ship 1,098,200 Xbox 360 units to the U.S. for the November 22 launch, 20% of which are the hard drive-less Core systems.
- Best Buy and Wal-Mart are the console's official retail sponsors, and will be receiving a majority of the shipment.
- Microsoft aims to ship four million of the new console within five months.
- 29 Xbox 360 games will be available in 2005.
- Microsoft hopes to expand its Xbox Live population to 14 million. While the poster seems quite surprised by this aim, he does not specify whether it includes Xbox Live Silver accounts, which are included free with the console.

Again, treat this as a rumor. None of the information seems too out of line with what Microsoft has been saying, however, and given that the in-store demo units popped up in Best Buy and Wal-Mart before other retailers, it wouldn't be too surprising to see that there's a deal worked out with those retailers. So, if you're in the market for a 360 and you haven't preordered your system (or if your retailer is saying your preorder won't make the first shipment, which seems to be happening quite a bit), your best bet is probably Best Buy.

Well, I certainly didn't see this one coming. Microsoft announced via a press release today that Rare's Kameo: Elements of Power (X360) will be adapted to a CGI animated film by production company Maxmedia. The film will be written and directed by Sunmin Park, who produced Alejandro Amenabar's 2001 film The Others, starring Nicole Kidman. Park also wrote and directed the English-language version of the 2003 animated film Wonderful Days (called Sky Blue in the US).

Kameo tells the story of the fittingly-named young elf Kameo, who must defeat the Troll king Thorn with the use of her ability to take on the forms of various animal warriors. The movie will most likely follow a similar plotline. Production will begin some time in 2006.

So, no more speculation, please. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be a GameCube game, not a Revolution game. Many gamers figured that part of the reason for the game's delay might be to turn the title into a guaranteed system-selling launch title for the Revolution, and when Nintendo recently announced its first quarter 2006 lineup, sans Zelda, some considered those rumors all the more valid. However, Nintendo announced that the game would be delayed until its 2006 first fiscal quarter, not calendar quarter, which begins in April.

Certain members of Club Nintendo, a program that rewards Japanese gamers for purchasing Nintendo products, will be getting a fairly interesting prize this year. Nintendo will be sending each of its Platinum status members an actual television remote control in the shape of the remote control-like Revolution controller. The remote is apparently built from the same mold as the real controller, so visually it should be identical. A picture is available at the Club Nintendo website.

So, just remember this news when you start seeing all of those photographs of people who claim to already own a Revolution, with a controller as their proof. Because, this being the internet, we know we'll see more than a few.

Last week, Earthbound/Mother creator Shigesato Itoi revealed that the long awaited sequel to the beloved SNES RPG Mother 2 (known in North America as Earthbound) will be heading to GBA. Many accounts of this news were met with skepticism, given how long fans have been fruitlessly waiting for a new installment in the series. Well, to add some weight to the announcement, the game now has an official page at Nintendo's Japanese website. There isn't much there with the exception of the game's logo, but it's confirmation that Nintendo will be publishing the title, and gamers will finally get to play it.

Wired's Chris Kohler, who got some well-publicized hand-on time with the Revolution controller at TGS, has quite good interview with Nintendo producer Hideko Konno, most recently responsible for Mario Kart DS. Konno touches on his latest game, as well as Revolution. He notes that having finished Nintendogs (DS) and Mario Kart DS, his team is "pretty much just working on Revolution stuff right now. We have to continue working on DS stuff, but mostly we have to create something big for Revolution." And you know that crazy cooking game hinted at in the Revolution teaser video? Apparently, that exists, not as a retail product, but as an internal creativity experiment.

IGN has video of a Nintendo press presentation on the company's online gaming service, as well as the service's first television ad.