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Activision reported their best financial results ever, posting a net revenue increase of 34% in Q4 and 53% for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2005, which ends on March 31. This will be Activision's thirteenth consecutive year of revenue growth.
Activision was the only company to have three top ten PC games in calendar year 2004: Doom 3, Call of Duty, and Rome: Total War.
Datel has announced their line of "MAX Memory" cards for the PS2, at the following prices:
16MB: $24.99 32MB: $34.99 64MB: $49.99
You can buy direct at:
GameDAILY has an interesting article on marketing to second tier sites, focusing on the tactics Hype Council used to promote Need For Speed: Underground 2, the hit street racing video game:
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=8910§ion=adwatch&email=
Well, it was bound to happen. Somebody filmed the equivalent of one of those car/motorcycle/home customization shows, but with a customized Mac. The cool part? They put it in an Atari 2600 case:
http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=1928
Engadget claims that Microsoft has decided to call their next video game system the "XBox 360":
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000760030410/
But there are a couple of problems with this. First, MS is unlikely name their new video game system XBox 360 when they haven't even secured the domain xbox360.com, which is already taken. Second, the survey Engadget mentions was apparently conducted on behalf of Sony, not Microsoft.
IGN XBox has a nice state-of-the-industry article on the subject of originality in video games:
http://xbox.ign.com/articles/585/585598p1.html
"Poker Masters" from Liquid Stars will be available in the UK in late March. It's a budget video game for the PS2 featuring a career mode, five different games, and a variety of difficulty levels.
A trailer for horror title "Cold Fear" is now available:
Capcom will be publishing "Without Warning", the first title from video game developer CiRCLE Studio, founded by the creators of the Tomb Raider series.
Gamers will be able to play six different characters in the terrorist-themed video game, which takes place over the course of twelve hours. The game sounds somewhat reminiscent of the TV series "24". Looks like an interesting project.
Nintendo will be touring shopping malls in the UK in February, March, and April to promote the Nintendo DS's UK launch. Dates and locations are available online:
Games to be demonstrated include "Super Mario 64 DS", "Wario Ware: Touched!", "Polarium", "Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt", "Project Rub", "Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 2005", "Asphalt Urban GT", and "Spiderman 2".
Nova Logic has announced that Delta Force - Black Hawk Down is in the works for the PlayStation 2. It's being developed by Rebellion and is due out in the spring. Some of the proceeds from sales of this video game will be donated to charity:
"NovaLogic are also working closely with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the PlayStation 2 version of Delta Force – Black Hawk Down will be donated to the foundation. The SOWF provides college scholarship grants, along with financial aid and educational counseling to the children of Special Operations personnel who were killed in an operational mission or training accident."
The Sony PlayStation Portable handheld video game system will miss the March launch date in Europe, due to ongoing component shortages:
http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=6658
Duck and Cover has an interview with Todd Howard of Bethesda on the subject of Fallout 3:
http://www.duckandcover.cx/content.php?id=66
The interview is good, but the editorial piece at the end is downright bizarre. It almost feels like it was written by someone in an alternate universe.
The Elder Scrolls series (including Morrowind) is known primarily for its non-linear gameplay, yet the editorial talks about being "railed down through the story's narrow, linear plot"... It's almost like he played a different game from the rest of us. Heck, the main plot makes up a small fraction of the total game and is strictly optional. My advice to the folks at Duck and Cover would be to replay the game and skip the Nerevarine storyline.
CoolTechZone has an article up on the state of Linux gaming. It's largely a primer on the video games that are available natively and the emulators that allow you to run the games that aren't:
http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=984&Itemid=0
2K Games will co-publish The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and a new Cthulhu game, both from Bethesda Softworks:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/03/news_6117825.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6117825