Late Night Consoling

Some next-gen tidbits: (Be warned: there may be the words of analysts ahead; if you be offended by the words of analysts, just skip to a less offensive news item.)

- Film industry trade magazine Variety chatted this weekend with Sony CEO Howard Stringer, who has now been holding the reins of the international electronics giant for a year. There was little spoken about the PlayStation 3, but Stringer did it indicate that it should be out by the holiday season. "If PS3 'delivers what everyone thinks it will, the game is up,' Stringer boasts." It's an oddly vague statement from the CEO of the company. The article also positioned the console as "the poor man's Blue-ray," which would probably send Ken Kutaragi into fits of rage if he were aware the PS3 is being described as a poor man's anything.

- Faced with speculation that they may not see PS3 for another year, European retailers aren't too concerned. "PlayStation 3 will break all records whenever it launches," said Gamestation commercial director Martyn Gibbs. HMV head of games Tom Ellis was similarly optimistic, stating, "A later release gives 360 a better head start than Sony would want. But with PS2's massive installed base I doubt a delay would significantly undermine what PS3 will look to create."

- Friedman Billings Ramsey analysts Shawn Milne sent out an investor update predicting, as many others have predicted, that PlayStation 3 will miss its planned spring launch in Japan. He went on to suggest that the console might also miss summer in Japan, and even the 2006 holiday season in North America, leaving Japan as the only territory to see the machine this year. Milne's estimates were based on his firm's semiconductor research.

- GamesIndustry.biz spoke with various UK game industry types about what Nintendo needs to focus on to ensure retail success of Revolution. Peter Lunn of Nintendo distribution partner Koch Media suggests that the company will need to leverage "experiential marketing" to play up the console's unique features since it is not competing on a direct technical level with Sony and Microsoft's offerings. David Brabern of Frontier Developments points out that retailers are never too happy about console manufacturers selling software online, since it doesn't go through retail channels. Nintendo of course plans to offer games for purchase from its consoles' back catalogue. Perhaps the company could sell value cards in retail stores which could be used with the online service, similar to Microsoft's approach. Braben also rather obviously points out that since the console is not on a technological par with its competitors, it should also leverage its price advantage. Andrew Eades of Relentless Software believes that the system will have to be both "niche and mainstream," offering titles such as Zelda for hardcore gamers alongside titles for those who are less interested in "next-gen" and more interested in accessible entertainment. He points to the DS lineup as an example of this mentality

Atlus has announced its intention to publish Contact, the DS RPG from Killer7 designer Goichi Suda. The title is produced by Suda and designed by Akira Ueda, best known for Shining Force and various SNES Square titles. Character design is being handled by Atsuko Fukushima, who most recently worked on PoPoLoCrois (PSP), and the game is being developed by Suda's studio Grasshopper Manufacture. It features two deliberately contrasting graphical styles on the two screens; the bottom screen has lush high-color artwork, while the top screen features old school graphics reminiscent of a stripped down Earthbound. The game features realtime combat and apparently makes good use of the system's two screens. Most curiously, it also goes online by way of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which is certainly a first for a DS RPG. It's anybody's guess what it actually does once it's online.

Contact is expected to ship in North America this summer. - Screenshots. Press release.

The publisher also announced that it will be handling the North American versions of two titles in the Super Robot Taisen series, a franchise that has existed for over 15 years in Japan. The games are strategy RPGs in the time-honored giant robot tradition, with the ability to customize the mech units.

Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation will ship this summer, with the sequel Original Generation 2 hitting in the fall. - Screenshots. Press release.

Publisher THQ has announced its complete acquisition of UK developer Juice Games, the studio behind last year's street racer Juiced (PS2, Xbox, PC). That title was published by THQ, and is the only title the studio has yet released for home consoles. The studio is currently working on bolstering the PSP's racing lineup with a PSP-exclusive entry in the Juiced franchise, Juiced: Eliminator. Juice Games senior VP of business development Dan Kelly indicated that the studio is also interested in moving outside of its eponymous franchise: "We look forward to the studio bringing more ground-breaking games to the Juiced franchise as well as developing new intellectual properties."

Juiced: Eliminator is due this summer. - Press release.

2K Games announced today that it will be publishing upcoming Family Guy licensed games developed by High Voltage Software. In development for "current generation consoles," which presumably means PS2, Xbox, and GameCube, the games are being worked on "closely with Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane." Recently, High Voltage has been best known for Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PS2, Xbox, PC) but has also worked on other licensed tie-ins such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. - Press release.

Pandemic's campy role-reversal sci-fi title Destroy All Humans (PS2, Xbox), released last year, seems to have done pretty well for itself. It has reached the necessary sales figures to get it on each console's value price point line: PS2's Greatest Hits and Xbox's Platinum Hits. Both versions of the game now have an MSRP of $19.99. - Press release.

CDV Software Entertainment and Digital Reality have formed a partnership to develop and publish a range of strategy titles for next-generation home consoles and portables. Digital Reality is a developer of strategy titles exclusively, using its own Walker 3 engine allowing RTS games to be played from a first person perspective as well as the traditional third person. The two companies will operate jointly under the name WHIZ Software Kft. There are no details yet on WHIZ's first title, but it has a planned release period of Q4 2007. - Press release.

The briefly postponed multiplayer demo of Relic's The Outfit (X360) was posted on Xbox Live for download today. THQ heralds it as "the first ever pre-launch Xbox 360(tm) online multiplayer demo." - Press release.

Ubisoft sends over a video development diary on Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (PS2, Xbox, X360, PC).

GameSpot has a designer diary on Reflections' Driver: Parallel Lines (PS2, Xbox).