Late Night Consoling

Publisher Rockstar Games today announced that it has signed an agreement with Australian studio Team Bondi to publisher Team Bondi's film noir-inspired crime thriller, the oddly spelled L.A. Noire. No new information about the game was revealed, though Rockstar did release a brief teaser trailer with the promise that a more substantial trailer is coming October 5.

L.A. Noire was first announced last year as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, with Team Bondi signed to produce two additional PS3-exclusive games. However, the developer's website has now been changed to state that the company makes games for the more general "next-generation consoles." Team Bondi itself was founded in 2003 by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe studio Team SOHO's Brendan McNamara, who had worked on The Getaway (PS2) while at Team SOHO.

No specific platforms nor a release date were given for L.A. Noire.

Speaking to the Canadian Press, Nintendo of Canada VP and general manager Ron Bertram revealed that, of the 4 million Wii consoles Nintendo has announced it will be shipping worldwide in 2006, 1 million of them will be made available on launch day in North America. He did not indicate how many more units would follow for North America by the end of the year. "If we get what we're supposed to get, this will be our most plentiful launch in the 15 years I've been at Nintendo," stated Bertram, adding, "All signs are actually extremely positive." Previously, Nintendo had stated that North America would see the largest allocation of the worldwide shipment, but did not pin down specific launch day numbers. Bertram also seemed to indicate that, despite Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime's recent poo-pooing of the "Wii60" Wii/Xbox 360 combo, some within Nintendo are still on board. "We're hoping if you're already an Xbox 360 owner and you want a new experience, that you'll pick up a Wii this Christmas or maybe next year," he said. "And if you've never played before, we think that this may get you hooked on video games."

Wii launches in North America on November 19, 2006 for $249.99 and $279.95 in Canada.

The Wall Street Journal has published an article taking a look at the prospects of the PlayStation 3 (subscription req'd), particularly in light of the company's recently announced price drop for the 20GB PS3 model in Japan. Interestingly, many Japanese analysts have criticized the move, noting that Sony already plans to take a significant loss on the machine and such a move will only prolong the amount of time before the company will recoup the expenses associated with launching the console.

One of the more curious quotes regarding the console's future success comes courtesy of Square Enix senior VP Michihiro Sasaki. "We don't want the PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them," said Sasaki. "But we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much." Since the original PlayStation, Square Enix (and, formerly, Square and Enix) has been a heavy supporter of PlayStation home consoles, with its Dragon Quest series a perennial bestseller in Japan and its Final Fantasy series a perennial bestseller worldwide. However, with the changing landscape of the industry, many have questioned whether the company still holds the same level of influence over PlayStation's success as it has in the past. Some have also speculated that Sasaki's statement lends credence to past rumors that the Dragon Quest series may be migrating from the PlayStation family to Wii, while Final Fantasy stays with PlayStation. The company has already announced projects for both Wii and Xbox 360, though none are of the same potential sales magnitude as its two core RPG franchises.

Sony has clarified that, prior to initial reports, PlayStation 3 is in fact not currently set to have Sega Genesis or TurboGrafx games downloadable from its online service. Apparently, news outlets may have misinterpreted the translation of Ken Kutaragi's address during last week's Tokyo Game Show, resulting in the erroneous claims. Rather than stating that PS3 will feature games from those legacy systems, Kutaragi stated that offering such titles is something Sony would like to do, and is considering possibilities relating to such a service. During this year's Game Developers Conference, Nintendo announced that its upcoming Virtual Console for Wii will offer Genesis and TurboGrafx games.

As part of its "Bringing it Home" program over Xbox Live, Microsoft has released a demo of Day 1 Studios' Xbox 360 version of Monolith's F.E.A.R. via Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo weighs in at 542MB and includes a taste of the game's single-player mode.

Bungie has launched its own podcast. The first episode features news that the Vista version of Halo 2 will be playable at the upcoming X06 event, and hints that some big news may be presented at the show as well.