Late Night Consoling

Though Nintendo has officially only stated that its upcoming Wii console will release in the United States before Thanksgiving, many analysts and gamers have also expressed expecation that it will preempt Sony's PS3, which launches November 17. Recently, Nintendo has been sending out invitations to "Wii Private Launch Parties," giving gamers selected by Nintendo, as well as friends of those gamers, the chance to try out Wii and its launch lineup before it hits stores. So far, reports have surfaced revealing parties in cities such as Chicago, Austin, and Miami, all of which occur in September and October. However, today, Melissa, a co-host of online gaming video show GameLife, posted in the Gaming-Age Forums what she claims is an invitation to a Wii Private Launch Party in Los Angeles on November 17, 2006--the same day as the PS3's launch. Assuming the image is legitimate, this would suggest that Nintendo's next console will launch either the same day as Sony's machine or some time before November 23, in order to meet the Thanksgiving deadline.

Nintendo could not be reached for comment by press time.

Battlefield: Bad Company, the next iteration of Digital Illusions CE's Battlefield series for PS3 and Xbox 360, was unofficially revealed last week, but today Electronic Arts put out the full announcement. The press release claims the game world is "90% destructible," greatly increasing the number of gameplay possibilities and tactics. "The heart of DICEÂ’s multiplayer games is the frenetic, unpredictable nature of the sandbox experience, where anything could happen at any moment, and thatÂ’s what weÂ’re bringing to the core of Battlefield: Bad CompanyÂ’s single-player campaign," said DICE senior producer Karl Magnus Troedsson. Other than the promise of open ended gameplay, the press release still lacks a huge amount of tangible gameplay descriptions, but the company did release a single shot showing an extremely high detail closeup of three soldiers' faces.

Digital Illusions CE's Battlefield: Bad Company is set to ship for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2007.

Various sites tracking back to the Cheap Ass Gamer forums have reports of a gamer who claims to have obtained an Xbox Live Vision video camera for Xbox 360 this weekend, several weeks before the peripheral's expected September release. It seems to be a true account, with photographs of the hardware itself as well as the other contents of the box and the receipt from the store at which he purchased it. For those curious about the device, the gamer in question also posted a lengthy review about the camera's functionality, which was added to Xbox 360 in its hefty spring update.

The Xbox Live Vision camera was purchased from a Toys 'R Us store in Kennesaw, Georgia for $39.99 before tax.

With all the retro collections being announced for PSP lately, one gets the feeling that publishers may have been paying attention to all the gamers who enjoy emulating older titles on the portable system. Activision is the latest to collect its own classic properties for PSP with Activision Hits Remixed. The title promises over 40 of Activision's Atari 2600 games, including Pitfall, Kaboom!, Chopper Command, Stampede, Keystone Kapers. The games will be updated with "modernized front-end graphics" but will presumably keep their gameplay mechanics intact. Multiplayer games will be playable via local wireless, either with two copies of the game or with one copy by using the Game Share feature; players can also take turns, trading off a single system in between lives. Activision also promises various "retro unlockable," though these were not described.

Activision Hits Remixed is set to ship this fall for PSP.

IGN has translated details of a Nintendo Dream interview with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, in which the designer speaks on the possibility of remaking GameCube titles for the upcoming Wii and releasing them at budget prices. "We'll be upgrading the development tools, but GameCube code can be used for the most part as is," he said, in terms of the effort required for such a procedure. "In that sense, I believe that it would be good to remake GameCube games for Wii, and that some titles would become better with the change to the Wii remote controller." In terms of pricing, he said, "[GameCube titles] are sold at used shops, so we don't feel we could sell them for full price. However, development costs have been taken care of, so we could probably sell them at a more accessible price." He went on to suggest that third party publishers consider doing so as well.

As long as such projects don't detract from original development--and it seems unlikely they would--it could be a positive thing not just for Nintendo systems but for all consoles. For my full thoughts, see my intro above.

GameSpot has a lengthy analyst roundtable about Sony's prospects with PS3. Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, Pacific Crest's Evan Wilson, and Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian give their thoughts on the price of the system, the appeal of Blu-ray, what Sony's long term strategies may be, and how publishers are reacting to the machine.

IGN has translated details of an interview with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, speaking on what happened to design ideas from cancelled or postponed Nintendo games such as Mario 128 and Marionette.