Late Night Consoling

During Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show conference yesterday, the company announced new details regarding its upcoming HD-DVD movie player attachment for Xbox 360. It will be available in Japan on November 17, 2006 for 19,800 yen ($168.21). No North American release date nor price was announced, though many expect Microsoft to round up to $199 for the U.S. market, where Xbox 360 has seen the greatest success.

Microsoft also put rest to long running arguments regarding the attachment's ability to output in 1080p resolution. Despite the attachment and the Xbox 360 itself lacking HDMI, the device will indeed be able to play content in 1080p resolution via component cables. More surprising was the company's announcement that, following an upcoming Xbox 360 software update, the Xbox 360 console itself will be able to output video and game content in 1080p. The HD-DVD attachment will not be required to achieve this on the Xbox 360 console itself. Existing games for the system, nearly all of which are rendered in 720p, can be upscaled to 1080p in real time once the update goes live, but for games to output in 1080p natively, developers will have to code games specifically for that resolution. These announcements come after various Microsoft employees downplayed the importance of 1080p gaming, particularly in the context of Sony's PlayStation 3, which also supports the resolution. Last month, "There's been a lot of interest in the PS3 due to its stated 1080p output for both games and movies (via Blu-ray)," wrote Microsoft's Andre "Ozymandias" last month in his blog. "What's interesting is that a lot of folks don't realize how meaningless 1080p actually is in this generation."

Several new Xbox Live Arcade titles were announced: Konami's Gyruss, Konami's Rush'n Attack, Namco's Ms. Pac-Man, and Namco's New Rally-X. Konami's Yie Ar Kung Fu will be heading to Live Arcade as a Japanese exclusive. Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani also took the opportunity to announce that Microsoft will be collaborating with Namco Bandai on what appears to be the first Pac-Man World Championship, to be held next year. The world's top ten Pac-Man players according to Xbox Live Arcade will be invited to New York to compete for the title of Pac-Man world champion.

During its conference, Microsoft put a great deal of emphasis on its dedication to the Japanese market. Over 100 retail and Xbox Live Arcade games are currently in the works for the territory, 70 of which are being developed by Japanese studios and 50 of which will be exclusive to Japan. The company also announced a new advertising campaign for the Japanese market, and showed trailers from high-profile Xbox 360-exclusive games likely to appeal to Japanese audiences, such as Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Tri-Ace's Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream, and Mistwalker's Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Various sites, tracking back to a forum post on Beyond3D, are reporting on news from Japanese publication Famitsu that Polyphony Digital's upcoming Gran Turismo HD will ship as a bare bones game and filled out with vehicles and tracks purchased online. Gran Turismo HD, a PS3 conversion of Gran Turismo 4 (PS2), was first unveiled at E3 2006 and is intended as a stopgap between GT4 and the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 (PS3), expected in 2008. According to these reports, GT HD will be released soon in two varieties, Gran Turismo HD: Classic and Gran Turismo HD: Premium. The Classic edition appears to be essentially an online enabled version of the E3 demo, but does not include any vehicles or tracks. These components must be purchased individually online for between 50 and 100 yen ($.43-$.85) per vehicle and between 200 and 500 yen ($1.71-$4.26) per track, with a total of up to 750 cars and 50 tracks available. Not all vehicles and tracks will be available for purchase at launch. Some may be released on a periodic basis and some may even be limited quantity offers. The Premium edition does not appear to feature online play, but rather includes a "cusual arcade mode." This version comes equipped with 30 cars, some new, and two courses, both new. Up to 30 additional cars and two additional courses would be made available for purchase online.

Update: It appears that both the Classic and Premium editions of the game are included on the same disc. While the Classic game is largely GT4 upscaled to 1080p, the Premium portion takes greater advantage of the PS3 hardware. It is intended as "prologue" for the upcoming Gran Turismo 5. Essentially, the Premium game with its included two tracks and thirty cars is the primary game, while the Classic game is the online mode that must be filled out with content purchased online from the beginning.

No pricing for either base game was given. It is unclear whether either game is set for release outisde of Japan. However, in an Official PlayStation Magazine interview with SCEA's Phil Harrison, the exec specifically singled out Gran Turismo as an example of a game for which users could buy and download new content online. "Imagine Gran Turismo shipping on a disc with one car and one track. And then you can browse, online, a dynamic circuit of vehicles that's growing every day because either the car manufacturers are adding new vehicles or we're adding new vehicles," he explained. "And you can see a specific-type car that's being called up and say, 'I think I'll play with that one. Let me download and play it.' Maybe the business model allows you to play it for a day; maybe the business model allows you to own it forever."

Last week, Telltale Games marketing coordinator Emily Morganti put up a blog post about a number of emails Telltale received from fans about the possibility of the company's upcoming Sam & Max series of episodic adventure games possibly heading to Nintendo's Wii console. The rumors were based on a comment made by Telltale CEO Dan Connors at the recent Penny Arcade expo, and, the internet being what it is, they quickly ballooned into the subject of a fan crusade. It wasn't long before Nintendo got wind of all this, and the company responded by getting in contact with Telltale. Though the first game, entitled Culture Shock, is headed for the PC in just a few weeks, Telltale is enthusiastic about the possibility of Sam & Max coming to Wii or to other consoles such as Xbox 360, via Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade. Shacknews contacted Telltale CEO Dan Connors for some answers regarding the matter. Check out the full interview for more.

Ever since Activision picked up Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane, many have speculated that Harmonix's wildly popular PlayStation 2 title may eventually be headed to other platforms. It appears those hopes have been confirmed. Activision CEO Robert Kotick, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XV Conference, stated that the game will indeed be coming to "every significant new format." In all likelihood, this applies at least to the three next-gen console systems.

Yesterday, rumors emerged from the Gamestation Conference, held by UK retailer Gamestation for its employees, that the upcoming Guitar Hero II (PS2) is headed for Xbox 360 in 2007. Kotick's statement lends credence to those rumors.

Microsoft today announced that it will soon be launching a Platinum Hits program for Xbox 360, shaving $30 off the initial launch price of several top selling games for the system. The first set of games to become Platinum Hits is comprised of Rare's Perfect Dark Zero, Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing 3, Rare's Kameo: Elements of Power, and EA Black Box's Need for Speed Most Wanted. These games will be rebranded to the new line as of October 15, 2006 with an MSRP of $29.99.

Xbox Platinum Hits for Microsoft's debut console, which included games such as Bungie's Halo and FASA Studio's Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, reportedly made up a hefty 16% of all Xbox software sold.

Today there's Tokyo Game Show coverage from GameSpot, IGN, 1UP,