Late Night Consoling

With just over a week left to go until the North American launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360, the manufacturer has finally released a confirmed list of games that will be available in stores on or before November 22. The list sports 18 titles, six of which will not be available on another current-gen system or PC as of the 360's launch date. It features six sports games (eight if you count extreme sports) and three each of racers and first person shooters. Fighting game and RPG fans will have to wait a bit, as the offerings for those genres--Team NINJA's Dead or Alive 4 and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion--did not make the launch list as previously expected. EA proves the biggest contributor to the 360's initial offerings, publishing five of the titles; next up is Activision with four, then Take-Two and Microsoft Game Studios with three each.

The full list is as follows:

- Amped 3 (Indie Built)
- Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward)
- Condemned: Criminal Origins (Monolith)
- FIFA 06: Road to the World Cup (EA Canada)
- Gun (Neversoft)
- Kameo: Elements of Power (Rare)
- Madden NFL 06 (EA Tiburon)
- NBA 2K6 (Visual Concepts)
- NBA Live 06 (EA Canada)
- Need for Speed Most Wanted (EA Canada)
- NHL 2K6 (2K Sports)
- Perfect Dark Zero (Rare)
- Peter Jackson's King Kong (Ubisoft)
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations)
- Quake 4 (id Software)
- Ridge Racer 6 (Namco)
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (EA Sports)
- Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Neversoft)

Previously expected pricing details were confirmed: $49.99 for first-party offerings (Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3), and $59.99 for third-party titles (everything else). Microsoft issued a list of 13 accessories to be on sale at launch as well.

Various news outlets, such as Next Generation, are reporting on a Spanish-language announcement at gaming site Meristation that Ubisoft's Montreal studio is currently developing a first person shooter for Nintendo's upcoming Revolution console. Ubisoft has already pledged its support for the next-gen system, but this particular report is still unconfirmed. Inquiries from Shacknews to Ubisoft on the matter were so far unanswered as of this writing.

An amusing automated translation of the news is available here. For the record, "their Canadian studios already are hands to the work."

Gamers who plan to wait in line for an Xbox 360 might want to check out this Circuit City preorder offer. Starting this Friday, online preorders can be placed for any of four different bundles ranging from $489.95 (a Core System with a memory card, extra controller, and two games) to $739.92 (a Premium System with a memory card, extra controller, and four games). The orders will be shipped out on Monday by way of overnight delivery.

The NPD has released its October sales data for video games, showing a 24% drop from last year, coming off of a September loss of the same percentage from last year. The top seller in this latest report was Zipper's SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS2), followed by EA's NBA Live 06. The portable market continued to help drive sales, with Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP) clocking in at #3. Interestingly, the report notes that Liberty City Stories sales did not actually seem to promote sales of the PSP hardware itself, whose sales declined from the previous month. The overall hardware order puts PS2 in the lead as usual, followed by Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Xbox, and GameCube respectively. Specific PSP numbers were not cited.

Authors of the report suggest that despite the slump, sales should pick up considerably due to the holiday season as well as the launch of new hardware with the Xbox 360, edging this year's total sales over last year's.

MTV has announced an upcoming week-long televised feature on gaming, for some reason entitled "GameORZ Week." It will be comprised of a variety of game-related segments with such titles as "Gaming Cost Me My Girlfriend," "True Life: I'm A Professional Gamer," "Racism & Online Gaming," and "15 Minutes With... Fatal1ty." The series will run Sunday, November 20 through the following Saturday, and will be spread across MTV's various channels, most of which I wasn't aware existed. They include MTV, MTV2, mtvU, mtvU Uber (!?), MTV.com, and MTV Overdrive. The press release refers to it as an "unprecedented multiplatform assault," so take from that what you will. Also, in case you for some reason forgot, it is called "GameORZ Week." GameORZ.

Tor Books has announced that it will be publishing a three-part series of books based on Rare's Perfect Dark property, first seen in the studio's Perfect Dark (N64) and soon Perfect Dark Zero (X360). The first novel, Perfect Dark: Initial Vector, will be written by highly sought comic book writer Greg Rucka. For a chance to win an autographed copy, register at the book's official site.

Nintendo coverage site N-Sider has announced that it will be hosting an official Nintendo-sponsored Mario Kart DS tournament. Head over to the site and sign up with your Mario Kart DS friend code to win the chance to be one of 32 participants. Winners will receive prizes such as a Game Boy Micro, a copy of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GCN), Mario Kart DS styluses, and more.