Velocity Vector
Microsoft has started running a top ten list for sales in the XBox Live Arcade:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=14180
A Pacfic Crest Securities analyst has predicted that the PlayStation 3 will appear in Japan in the summer and the U.S. in November with a couple of million units available for the launches:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=14132
Drewsgames.com is proud to present Dumbo & Cool!
Dumbo & Cool is a shareware 3D platforming game for PC. Set in a cartoony world, the game offers two playable characters called Dumbo and Cool. One can swim, the other can skate, and they must be used together if the player is to succeed. As well as the usual 3D platformer elements, Dumbo & Cool has a unique two character dynamic - the player will have to use the abilities of both characters together in order to advance.
Visit the Dumbo & Cool website at: http://www.Drewsgames.com/dac
The full version costs $9.99
There's a new auction site out there that'll be of interest to video game collectors:
http://www.thevideogameswap.com/
Those of you who missed it will be glad to know that the California violent video game law has been blocked by a preliminary injunction from Judge Whyte.
Some details are beginning to appear on the Nintendo Revolution:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=13482
The short version would be "small, simple, and cheap".
Judges have blocked two more violent video game laws:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=13409 http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12883
Clinton and Lieberman have proposed a bill to ban the sale of M-rated games to minors:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=13330
Of course, similar bills have been shot down over and over by the courts due to the First Amendment protections granted to video games, books, and movies, but why let that get in the way of a good publicity stunt? There's a 2008 presidential campaign to think of.
It looks like European publisher SCi is up for sale, just months after buying out Eidos:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12472 http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12511
Could buyer's remorse be to blame, or is it simply that they've received offers too tempting to ignore?
Nintendo will officially unveil Revolution on May 9, at a pre-E3 briefing:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=13277
Sony plans to release a graphical mud using a revolutionary new business model that's exactly the same as that used by numerous text and graphical multiplayer games in the past:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12627
Ken Kutaragi of Sony says that the PlayStation 3 could run games at 120 FPS:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12629
Of course, it's not clear what possible use this could be, other than as a corporate penis-waving exercise. Nor is it clear just how much physics processing and graphical quality could be achieved while running at this speed--but who cares about trade-offs?
The Europeans are on another banning kick:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12597
Mark Rein of Epic pours cold water on Nintendo and that goofy Revolution controller:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12577
Nintendo's Iwata says that the Revolution will be a "complete failure" if it doesn't outsell the Nintendo GameCube:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12530
This, of course, strongly implies that the GameCube was a complete failure--a fact most of us have been aware of for some time now. Then again, some complete failures keep pushing forward--Howard Dean, anyone?