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February 4, 2000 Square has sent shockwaves through the video game industry as only they can by announcing three new Final Fantasy games. Here is all the information that Square revealed about each of the games. Final Fantasy 9 for the PlayStation: The last Final Fantasy game for the PlayStation. Its style will be much closer to FF3 than FF8 (meaning more cartoony and less futuristic). It's scheduled to be released in Japan this summer, and in the US this October. Final Fantasy 10 for the PlayStation 2: Little is known about this one other than the fact that you might be able to download game updates through Square's online network (see story below). FF10 is scheduled to be released in Japan in early 2001. No US release date has been announced, but late 2001 seems likely. Final Fantasy 11 for the PlayStation: An online-only game that's scheduled for release in Japan in the summer of 2001. It won't be Square only online FF game; they plan on developing at least two more in the future. No US release date has been set for FF1, but late 2001 or early 2002 seems likely. Square is starting its own online gaming network in Japan to run FF11. The disc that you'll need to log on to the network will be bundled with FF10 (this way everything should be up and running smoothly by the time FF11 is released). In addition to its gaming capabilities, Square's network will have web browsing, e-mail, chat, instant messaging, and online shopping capabilities. There is no official word on how much it will cost to use Square's network (if it costs anything). Square has also announced that they plan on releasing a new RPG in the US every month from May to October this year. Here are the games and the months. May: Vagrant Story June: The Legend of Mana (Secret of Mana's sequel) July: Threads of Fate (known as Dew Prism in Japan) August: Chrono Cross September: Parasite Eve 2 October: Final Fantasy 9 Nintendo and Rare have completely eliminated the overly-cutesy image that previously plagued Conker's Bad Fur Day and its main character, a cute-looking squirrel named Conker. A two-minute video of the game revealed that it's going to be very adult-oriented, with tons of blood, violence, gore, bad language, and sexual innuendo. That's right, sexual innuendo in a game published by the usually Disney-like Nintendo! Conker is also cursing up a storm on Rare's web site. Trying to click on the Bad Fur Day logo results in Conker saying things like, "You can click on this f---ing thing all f---ing day and it ain't gonna f---ing work, so f--- off!" The f-word is bleeped out every time Conker says it, but it's done in a way that lets you clearly understand what's being said. The word "dumb-ass" is not censored at all. Check out Conker's foul mouth for yourself at http://www.rareware.com/recent/games/bfd/ Sony has shut down 989 Studios as a semi-independent game development company, and they have integrated what's left of 989 into Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA). 989 Sports failed to ever produce anything really good other than the NFL GameDay series, and even that was screwed up with the release of NFL GameDay '99. It has been over two years since 989 has released a new NBA Shoot Out game. Shoot Out '99 was cancelled, and Shoot Out 2000 was delayed until this spring. 989 president Kelly Flock will leave the company on April 1 to "pursue other interests," and many other employees will be out of a job as well. Flock is infamous for an interview in which he said, "Liquid AI is the crap that ran down EA's leg when saw GameDay." He also said that Madden loyalists are old and out of touch. Perhaps most damaging of all, Flock strongly insisted that 989 is a completely independent company that can develop games for any system on the market. Of course, that's not really the case when you're owned by Sony (just ask Psygnosis). Upcoming 989 games like Syphon Filter 2 will still be released by Sony. An Associated Press writer named Gene Emery recently ripped into Hasbro Interactive for releasing a game called Monopoly Casino. "Most Monopoly players I know are children," Emery said. He sarcastically added, "What a wonderful way to introduce children to the joys of gambling!" Emery also said that the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was wrong to give Monopoly Casino a rating that says it's appropriate for gamers of all ages. When asked about this situation, Hasbro's Laura Tomasetti told me, "We have not marketed this game to families or kids. It's an adult-themed version of Monopoly, and the gameplay is clearly conveyed on the package with screens of casino environments and games." I played Monopoly as a kid, and it didn't turn me into a compulsive gambler... A video game convention that was going to be open to the public has been cancelled. GamesCon was set to be the common man's E3 by letting everyone into the show rather than just those employed in the industry (as is the case with E3). However, the show was cancelled (and the parent company behind it was shut down) when three corporate sponsors pulled out of their agreements, all within a few days of each other. GamesCon president Mark Chandler said, "When I started this venture, we decided to set our goals to make this happen within two years, and to use a large amount of personal financing to make this happen. The two years are now up, and the financing is all gone. Without the financial support of the industry, the dream can no longer survive on its own." Sega has announced that Quake 3: Arena is coming to the Dreamcast, and it will be fully playable over the Dreamcast Network. It is not known who is developing the Dreamcast version of the game, but Sega itself will publish it. No release date has been set, but remember that Sega previously said there won't be any online gaming on the Dreamcast until July at the earliest. I asked Sega about the game's release date and developer, and they told me, "We will make an announcement soon. You'll have to sit tight." Sony didn't tell all of their customer service representatives about the Gran Turismo 2 replacement disc offer, so many people were turned away when they called customer service. Sony says that these problems should be fixed by now, so call 1-800-345-SONY if you need a replacement disc. 3DO has granted Midway the rights to publish a Dreamcast version of Army Men: Sarge's Heroes. 3DO is apparently confident enough in the Dreamcast's future to allow some of their games to be brought to the system, but not quite confident enough to publish the games themselves. 3DO's president Trip Hawkins said as much when he said, "We just don't believe the long- term potential is there... but we think the Dreamcast is a very lucrative business for us from a licensing standpoint." Sega is going to hold the first ever Dreamcast Championships at the Sega GameWorks arcade in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, February 5. The top four finishers from the nationwide Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour will compete for a $15,000 grand prize. The winner will be the one who can collect the most rings in Sonic Adventure within a set period of time. There will also be a Crazy Taxi tournament at the event, with participants including The Man Show's Jimmy Kimmel and Get Real's Eric Christian-Olsen. In addition, the band 311 will perform at the event. Dreamchip.com is currently selling Dreamcast mod chips for $50. Installing the chip into your Dreamcast will void your warranty, but it will allow you to play Japanese games on American Dreamcasts (and vice- versa). Dreamchip's web site claims that it only takes ten minutes to install, and that it's shipped by Airborne Express. Recent statements made by Nintendo would seem to re-enforce the rumors that the Dolphin will launch at $200. Nintendo's George Harrison didn't come right out and say that the system will launch at $200, but he did say that $200 "would have to be Nintendo's target price in order to reach a mass market." Harrison did officially say that the Game Boy Advance will cost $99 when it's released on November 1. Five key developers and the three highest-rankest executives all recently left the Acclaim-owned company recently known as Iguana (now known as Acclaim Studios Austin). Future games in the NFL Quarterback Club and All-Star Baseball series will not be developed by Iguana, but by High Voltage Software. Acclaim is also thinking about taking an ownership stake in High Voltage. Capcom has announced plans to start their own online gaming network for the Dreamcast in Japan. Japanese gamers will be able to play against each other over the Internet in Capcom games like Power Stone 2 (with four- player action), SNK vs. Capcom, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Ping times are supposedly going to be under 70 milliseconds. The catch is that you're billed for every minute of gameplay. Capcom plans to eventually expand the network into the US, but they haven't said whether or not US gamers will be subjected to the same fees as Japanese gamers. Nintendo has won a lawsuit against an epileptic man who claimed that a Nintendo game was responsible for giving him an epileptic seizure. A jury found that Nintendo's products are "not unreasonably dangerous in design." The jury foreman noted that the plaintiff continued to play video games after he was diagnosed with epilepsy, and he continued to play video games after filing the lawsuit against Nintendo. Burger King is now airing 15-second TV commercials advertising the recall of their Pokeball toys. Over 25 million of the balls were handed out last year in a Burger King-Nintendo promotion, but they had to be recalled after several infants choked on them. This is the largest toy recall in US history. The original packaging for the Pokeballs says that they're "safety tested and recommended for all ages." The creators of EverQuest are creating another online RPG, and this one is for the PlayStation 2. Set to be co-published by Sony and Activision, the game will be a persistent online world set in the Star Trek universe. It's not expected to be released until early 2002, but Activision expects it to become the #1-selling online game on the market when it is eventually released. It has been widely known for over seven months, but Sega and LucasArts have finally confirmed that Star Wars Episode I: Racer is coming to the Dreamcast. It will be released for the system this spring, and gamers will be able to post their high scores on the Dreamcast Network. Other than the ability to post high scores and view some pre-rendered cut scenes that were taken out of the Nintendo 64 version, the Dreamcast version will be virtually identical to the N64 version. Trade publication MCV reports that Sega is about to begin a trial with a Canadian cable company that could lead to the company offering cable modem access to North American Dreamcast owners. Sega has officially confirmed that such tests are taking place in Japan, but they haven't officially confirmed anything in North America. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) has filed a lawsuit against Sony. NARM claims that it's somehow illegal to print the URLs of e-commerce web sites on video game packaging, which is a common practice in the industry. NARM claims that this practice is taking sales away from retailers in favor of the e-commerce sites. Sony has not yet commented on the lawsuit, but they will undoubtedly say the same thing that every company says when they get sued: "This lawsuit is without merit, and we plan to defend ourselves vigorously." Capcom has taken the Internet support out of the Dreamcast version of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Capcom previously planned to allow gamers to post their high scores on the Dreamcast Network, as well as download customized characters from a web site. Street Fighter Alpha 3 will be released without Internet support in March. Sony is preparing to turn PlayStation.com into a massive e-commerce web site on February 18. When the PlayStation 2 launches in Japan on March 4, PS2 hardware and software will be sold to Japanese gamers on the web site. Sony also plans to offer downloadable movies and music on the web site sometime next year. PlayStation.com will be a separate business from Sony, but 70-80% of it will be owned by Sony. Minority ownership stakes in the company will be taken by Square, Namco, Konami, 7-Eleven, and Japanese retailer Digicube. Nintendo has announced that Pokemon Stadium for the Nintendo 64 will have a suggested retail price of $70 when it is released on March 6. The reason for the high price is because the game is bundled with the Transfer Pak, a device that lets you transfer your characters to and from the Pokemon games for the Game Boy. Nintendo has also announced that a package containing a Nintendo 64 console, a Pokemon Stadium cartridge, and a Transfer Pak will be made available on March 27 for the price of $150. Rare has taken the Game Boy Camera functions out of Perfect Dark, the unofficial sequel to Goldeneye 007. The plan was for gamers to be able to take pictures of themselves using the Game Boy Camera, and then import them into the game using the Transfer Pak. These plans have been cancelled because Rare couldn't get everything to work correctly. Perfect Dark is still scheduled to be released in April. NEWS BRIEFS Infogrames/GT previously announced plans to release the PlayStation version of Unreal this November in Europe. Now Infogrames says that the game will also be released in the US this November. Capcom has revealed that there will be three playable characters at different points in Resident Evil: Code Veronica- Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield, and Steve Burnside. What about Barry Burton? A video game version of Bandai's Pokemon rival, Digimon, is going to be released for the US PlayStation on March 27. A Nintendo representative was recently quoted as saying, "You will be playing another Metroid game in the future." That statement doesn't tell us when the next Metroid will be released (or even what system it's for), but at least we have confirmation that it's coming eventually. LucasArts and Activision are working together to create a vehicular combat game set in the Star Wars universe. The game will be based on the Vigilante 8 engine, and it's going to be released for the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast sometime in 2001 or early 2002. Mattel's CEO Jill Barad has been fired, and the company is now being run by a committee of executives that includes former Sony and Sega executive Bernie Stolar (the recently-appointed president of Mattel's games division). 3DO generated $41 million in their latest financial period, up drastically from the $10 million generated in the same quarter last year. The company also reported a net profit of $1 million in the quarter, up from the $6 million loss suffered in the same quarter last year. The best-selling PC game of 1999 in North America was Sim City 3000. On a worldwide level, Age of Empires 2 was the best seller. Sim City 3000 out-sold Age of Empires 2 in the US, but Age of Empires 2 out-sold Sim City 3000 in Europe, Japan, Korea, and Australia. Electronic Arts has announced that their James Bond game, The World Is Not Enough, will use the Quake 3 engine. The game is scheduled to be released this fall. Neversoft is hoping to release Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the PlayStation in September, complete with a create-a-skatepark mode. The Dreamcast version of Rainbow Six has been delayed yet again, this time until mid-March. Rumor has it that Bungie's graphically impressive PC game Halo is on its way to the PlayStation 2. This rumor has not been confirmed by Bungie. Washington Redskins cornerback Champ Bailey recently won a celebrity NFL GameDay 2000 tournament sponsored by 989 Sports. Bailey out-scored other NFL players by a combined score of 33-10 in the three games he played. Tecmo is planning on bringing Tecmo Super Bowl to the PlayStation 2 sometime in 2001. Tecmo Super Bowl was a classic football game series for the NES and SNES (and a not-so-classic series for the PlayStation). The sequel to Ready 2 Rumble Boxing will be released this fall for four different video game systems: PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, and Nintendo 64. Arc the Lad is a popular strategy/RPG series in Japan that has never been brought to the US. Until now, that is. Working Designs is going to bring all three Arc the Lad games to the US in one massive six-CD collection. The PlayStation version of WWF Smackdown is done; now it just has to be manufactured. It's still scheduled to be released in March. Enix has delayed Dragon Quest 7 for the 642nd time. The new Japanese release date is late May, although that release date is no more credible than the previous one. With every month that goes by, it's becoming less and less likely that Dragon Quest 7 will ever be brought to the US. Sony is going to release Wild Arms 2 in the US on May 2. The original Wild Arms was a great RPG that didn't sell nearly as well as it should have, largely because it was released right before Final Fantasy 7. SALES CHARTS In the week of January 23-29, the top best-selling games at Babbage's and Gamestop.com were: 1. Zombie Revenge for Dreamcast 2. Mario Party 2 for Nintendo 64 3. Final Fantasy 8 for PC 4. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver for Dreamcast 5. Gran Turismo 2 for PlayStation (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game) 6. The Dukes of Hazzard for PlayStation 7. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for PC 8. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for PlayStation 9. RollerCoaster Tycoon for PC 10.Pokemon Yellow for Game Boy Color On a points basis (with the first-place game earning its system ten points, the second-place game earning its system nine points, and so on), the Dreamcast won with 17 points, followed by the PlayStation and PC with 14 points, the Nintendo 64 with nine points, and the Game Boy Color with one point. The top three selling games for each individual system were: Dreamcast: Zombie Revenge, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and NBA 2K PlayStation: Gran Turismo 2, Dukes of Hazzard, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater PC: Final Fantasy 8, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and RollerCoaster Tycoon Nintendo 64: Mario Party 2, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, and Donkey Kong 64 The games with the most pre-orders were Diablo 2, The Sims, and the Dreamcast version of Rainbow Six. Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News, GI News, Next Generation, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box, Daily Radar, Happy Puppy, PSX 2 Online, IGNPSX, Nintendorks, IGN 64, MCV, The Sega Zone, Sega Otaku, Gaming Age, The NPD Group, www.hamsterdance.com
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com