Video Game News

Nintendo talks about the Revolution video game system

Nintendo has revealed a little bit about its short-term strategy with regard to the Revolution video game console, successor to the GameCube:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/03/news_6117814.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6117814

Activision gets Shrek 3 video game rights

Activision has signed a deal for the video game rights to Shrek 3:

http://news.com.com/Activision+lands+Shrek+3+license/2110-1043_3-5561089.html

EA/Ubisoft share purchase approved

Enormous video game publisher Electronic Arts has now received regulatory approval for its purchase of 20% of Ubisoft:

http://news.com.com/Electronic+Arts-Ubisoft+stock+grab+OKd/2110-1047_3-5562694.html

C|Net on PSP handheld video game launch

C|Net has an article on the U.S. launch of the PlayStation Portable video game system:

http://news.com.com/PlayStation+Portable+coming+next+month/2100-1043_3-5561916.html

Take Two locks up MLB video game rights

Take Two now has a deal in place with Major League Baseball for MLB video game rights starting in 2006. It's similar to the video game rights deal they signed with the MLB Players' Association:

http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=6563

Classic video game commercials

Remember all those commercials for classic video games? You can find some classic video game systems (along with ads for neoclassic and 1990s systems) at bezoar.org:

http://www.bezoar.org/?poop=2

Next generation video game consoles on display at E3

SlashDot claims that all three next generation video game systems may be on display at E3:

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/28/1624215&tid=187&tid=213&tid=212&tid=211

XBox video game system turns a profit in Q4

The XBox made a profit for Microsoft in Q4. I believe this is the first time the video game system has made a quarterly profit for MS:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20987

Game Tunnel's top 10 indie games

Game Tunnel posted this at the end of 2004, but I've only just now gotten around to finding it because, frankly, I didn't know Game Tunnel existed until now:

http://www.gametunnel.com/html/section-viewarticle-74.html

Indie Games have come a long way in production quality from where they were just a few years ago, but I guess that's true of video games in general.

Do video game developers get old and washed up?

Interesting post on whether video game designers eventually must reach a point where they're washed up:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/game_culture/2005/01/do_game_designers_burn_out_like_rock_stars.html

China bans 50 video games

The Chinese government has produced a list of 50 games to be banned:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/26/content_2511068.htm

Are the ESRB's video game ratings meaningful?

Kotaku has an article on the ESRB video game ratings system. My take is that this is based on a single anecdote--and frankly, I don't care about video game ratings.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/editorials/why-game-ratings-need-fixing-030793.php

Here's a response from ESRB president Patricia Vance:

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/editorials/esrb-president-defends-rating-system-031048.php

EA doesn't have PS3 video game development systems

It seems EA doesn't yet even have game development systems for the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Revolution video game consoles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4201391.stm

That's an interesting tidbit, and it leaves you to wonder how many games will be available for the Playstation 3 when/if it launches in Japan in the spring of 2006.

MLBPA signs with Take-Two for Baseball video games

Take-Two Interactive has a deal in place with the MLB Players' Association for future baseball video games. They've also acquired Visual Concepts, whichs developed Sega's sports video games:

http://www.psxextreme.com/scripts/news2/new.asp?newID=3160

Relationship gone wrong has online video game consequences

A Japanese woman has been arrested for logging onto online computer game Lineage as her ex-boyfriend in order to wreck his account. With the popularity of the big graphical muds, I guess something like this had to happen sooner or later:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/20/news_6116790.html