Late Night Consoling

Rockstar Vancouver's long delayed schoolyard-based action title Bully, the studio's first game since being renamed from Barking Dog Studios in 2002, indeed still exists. This week, Rockstar released the official trailer for the game, and announced a release period of October 2006. Seeming to confirm various sources' claims that the Xbox version of the game has been cancelled, the official site is emblazoned only with the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation family logos.

Sega today announced a new compilation of classic Sega Genesis games, appropriately entitled SEGA Genesis Collection. The title, heading to PlayStation 2 and PSP, will contain 28 Genesis games, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, Altered Beast, and Shinobi III. The press release also mentions Phantasy Star, though since that game was released on the Sega Master System it is more likely that the game included is Phantasy Star II or Phantasy Star III, both of which were developed for Genesis. SEGA Genesis Collection will support multiplayer on both systems, via local wireless on PSP. It will feature unlockable arcade classics as well as developer interviews from the Genesis era.

Sega's SEGA Genesis Collection is set to ship for PlayStation 2 and PSP in Q4 2006.

According to various online sources, Japanese publication Famitsu reported that developer From Software has cancelled two of its announced roleplaying games for PlayStation 3: Black Blade and Dark RPG (working title), both announced at last year's Tokyo Game Show.

In recent months, likely due to the console's high price and expected high development costs, various smaller developer with published PlayStation 2 titles have announced plans to reduce or withdraw early support for PS3. Still, Famitsu also reported that From will be providing Armored Core 4 as a launch title for the system's Japanese release, indicating that the Chromehounds developer will not be abandoning Sony's upcoming console. The latest in the long running mecha action series was announced at last year's TGS for both PS3 and Xbox 360, though Famitsu listed the release date of the Xbox 360 version of the game as "TBA."

Activision recently reported its quarterly financial results, beating analyst expectations but still ending up with a loss of $18M on net revenue of $188. Like most other major publishers, Activision saw a tough quarter, faced with slowing sales largely pinned on the transition between console generations.

This week, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Activision disclosed the amount it expended to acquire RedOctane, the publisher of the acclaimed Guitar Hero (PS2) developed by Harmonix Music Systems. RedOctane's price weighed in at a hefty $99.9M, $30.9M of which was cash, $30M Activision common stock, and $39.9M additional Activision stock payable over two years. Furthermore, if the income of the new subsidiary "over a certain period of time exceeds certain target levels by certain amounts," Activision will pay out another $51M in stock to key members of RedOctane.

As for why Activision saw fit to pick up RedOctane: "This acquisition will provide Activision with an early leadership position in music-based gaming, which the company expects will be one of the fastest growing genres in the coming years."

Nintendo announced today that its Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (NDS), originally released in Japan as the first in the now hugely popular Brain Training franchise, has achieved worldwide sales of over four million in its first 15 months on the market. Of those, three million are from Japan, 600,000 from North America, and 500,000 from Europe. Interestingly, with the game only having been out in Europe since June 9, sales of the game in that region have been even faster than they were in the game's early weeks in Japan, where the game has remained on the bestseller charts for over a year.

IGN has its latest Red Steel (Wii) developer diary, this time consisting of brief introductions to the game's core staff at Ubisoft Paris.

IGN also has a developer diary on NBA Live 07 (PS2, Xbox, PS3, X360, PSP, PC) from associate producer Nate McDonald.