Video Game News

2K Games to publish three SCi titles

2K Games has announced that it will publish Conflict: Global Terror, Carmageddon, and Reservoir Dogs in North America. All three titles are from SCi Games. The first two titles will be released this fall, with Reservoir Dogs (based on the Quentin Tarantino movie) to follow in 2006.

eCondoms announces 'Sex Championships'

The Brits at eCondoms have launched a multiplayer online gaming site:

http://www.econdoms.co.uk/

This quote pretty much says it all:

"Entrants start off as a 'Virgin' and must work their way through 12 ranks, featuring status's such as 'The El Despardo's', 'Horny Little Devil' , 'Doctor of Luuurve!' and 'Sexual Superhero' in order to finally claim the ultimate accolade.. That of THE SEX CHAMPION 2005!"

XBox 2/XBox Next fall release confirmed

XBox 2 (likely to be named "XBox Next") will be released this fall, as has long been expected. The European release will follow a few weeks later, in October or November:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=6766

PlayStation Portable to feature online play at launch

Five PSP games will feature wireless online play at launch in the US:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=6717

Atari announces restructuring

Atari, Inc. is restructuring. A few notable quotes from the press release:

"Mr. Caparro stated, 'Leading Atari's structural changes and driving its new strategic mandate will be a complete transformation of the senior management team...'"

"'Operationally, we've initiated a complete redirection of our product portfolio, giving our focus and resources to those intellectual properties that - based on market trends, consumer base growth, and emerging technologies - have the greatest potential to deliver a significant return on investment,' continued Mr. Caparro. 'As part of this redirection, we're assessing the continued value that certain non-core assets bring to the Company, and anticipate divestitures that will further focus our product mix and strengthen our balance sheet.'

I'm not sure what this last quote means in terms of Atari's classic video game catalog.

The press release also indicates that they're closing the Santa Monica, CA and Beverly, MA studios.

Revenues for the quarter ended December 31 were down substantially. Their top sellers included the Atari Anthology and the Atari Flashback console, so it looks like there's some money to be made in classic games.

More PS3 technical details

The Inquirer has a quick rundown on various Rambus technologies used in the Playstation 3 video game system:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21146

Tecmo files silly lawsuit

Tecmo, makers of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, is suing the owner of an abandoned web site for distributing nude game hacks. Apparently, they're trying to invoke the DMCA, which would require them to argue that the clothes are a form of copy protection. With such lousy grounds for a lawsuit, I guess they're hoping to settle out of court:

http://news.com.com/Game+maker+sues+over+nude+volleyball/2100-1043_3-5571234.html

Atari Flashback vs. Commodore 30-in-1

I just stumbled across this Armchair Arcade review and comparison of the Atari Flashback and Commodore 64 30-in-1:

http://www.armchairarcade.com/aamain/content.php?article.75

Video game commentators

BBC News on the makings of a good pro video gaming commentator:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4242871.stm

Ars Technica on Cell

Ars Technica analyzes the architecture of the Cell processor, expected to be the heart and soul of the PlayStation 3:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/cell-1.ars

New Games Journalism

The article to which I'm about to link is almost a year old, but anything people are still talking about a year later is worth noticing:

http://www.statelovesyou.com/wiki/?ViewStateItem&item=a95

New Archon sequel on the way

Good news for fans of the classic game Archon and its sequels Archon II: Adept and Archon Ultra. A new Archon video game, Archon: Evolution, is on the way, developed by Curve Software in conjunction with original designer Jon Freeman:

http://www.archonevolution.com/

Doom 3 for XBox and Doom 3 expansion for PC announced

Doom 3 for the XBox video game system and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil for the PC will be released the week of April 4:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050209/law068_1.html

Electronic Arts endows faculty chair

Video game publisher Electronic Arts has endowed a faculty chair at USC for the study of interactive entertainment, an overblown way of saying "video games":

http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/08/technology/ea_chair/index.htm

Running With Scissors sponsors UFC fighter

Video game developer Running With Scissors is sponsoring Drew Fickett. This is the first instance of a video game company sponsoring an MMA fighter, AFAIK.