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February 25, 2000 Sega has quelled any hopes that Shenmue might be released in the US this summer. A source within Sega told me that Shenmue won't be released in the US until "the end of the year." Officially, Sega is saying "probably not" until late this year. In reality, it defintely won't be until late this year. There is simply too much Japanese text to translate for a summer release to be possible. 989 Studios president Kelly Flock told Games Business that Sony's decision to shut down 989 was triggered by his forthcoming departure from the company. Flock says that he told Sony some time ago that he would be leaving 989 to work for another video game company when his contract expired. He says that his decision opened the door for Sony to consider a move as bold as shutting down 989 entirely. Effective on April 1, 989 will be shut down and all of its franchises will be handled by Sony Computer Entertainment America. Either that, or a Sony executive will jump out of a cake and yell "April Fools!" at dozens of confused employees... Acclaim recalled their strategy guide for ECW Hardcore Revolution after it was discovered that many moves in the guide were incorrect. Acclaim had already printed 100,000 copies of the guide by the time the errors were discovered, but fortunately for Acclaim, only about 18,000 of them had been shipped to retailers. Acclaim's edited strategy guide with all the correct moves is now on store shelves. Acclaim is no stranger to "incorrect moves," such as letting the WWF license slip through their hands... Sega owes the Canadian government over $500,000 in unpaid business taxes dating back to the 16-bit days. As a result, if the province of Quebec tries to force Sega to provide French versions of their games in Quebec like they did with Sega and Nintendo, Sega might opt to simply not sell any Dreamcast products in Quebec. THQ is being sued by several disgruntled shareholders. The shareholders claim that THQ revealed some of its upcoming financial information to a select few analysts before publicly announcing the information. If this is true, it would give the select few analysts an unfair advantage over all the other analysts and shareholders. This practice is called selective disclosure, and the United States' Securities and Exchange Commission is "very troubled" by it. THQ made a company-record $33 million profit in 1999. Rogue Spear, the sequel to Rainbow Six, will be released for the PlayStation this fall. The PlayStation version of the hit PC game is being developed by Saffire, the company that developed the Nintendo 64 version of Rainbow Six. Rogue Spear is also scheduled to be released for the Dreamcast this fall, but the Dreamcast version has a high chance of being delayed because it's being developed by the delay-happy Majesco Sales. Sony of Japan recently opened their online store, which sells PlayStation 2 products. The site has been flooded with so many visitors that it either works extremely slowly or it doesn't work at all when you try to access it. Sony has installed several new servers to run the site, increasing the maximum capacity to 20,000 hits per minute, but that's still not enough to accommodate the massive amounts of hits it's getting. Sony's maximum capacity of 20,000 hits per minute is just short of Master Gamer's recent average... Creature Labs, the makers of the highly successful PC game series Creatures, is working on a real-time strategy game for the PC called Beasts. Creatures is more of an Artificial Life simulation than an actual game, but Beasts will combine the company's Artificial Life technology with an actual game. According to Creature Labs, the characters in the game will have "dominance hierarchies, realistic mating habits, and complex social structures." Beasts will be released in mid-2001. NEWS BRIEFS Resident Evil: Code Veronica has been delayed until April 15. Capcom had to take the extra month to finish translating the game's script from Japanese to English. Word is leaking out of Nintendo's third-party developers that both the Dolphin and the Game Boy Advance will indeed be delayed until late 2001. A high-profile developer was recently told this news by its publisher, and the developer leaked the news out to various video game web sites. According to the IDSA, video game piracy is at its worst in China. Piracy in China is estimated to have cost the video game industry a whopping $1.4 billion in 1999. The next biggest offenders were Russia ($240 million), Malaysia ($160 million), and Thailand ($120 million). Electronics Arts has purchased Medal of Honor's developer, Dreamworks Interactive. Hopefully, Dreamwork's future games will be closer to Medal of Honor in quality than Boombots, T'ai Fu, Small Soldiers, or any of the company's Jurassic Park games. Those of you who still don't think that the X-Box exists should consider this: Microsoft recently purchased the domain name xbox.com. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is set to be released this fall for five different systems: the Dreamcast, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PC, and Game Boy Color. In addition to the previously confirmed WWF game for the Dreamcast, THQ is also working on a WWF game for the PlayStation 2. It's scheduld to be released "within a few months" of the PlayStation 2's US launch, which means late this year or early next year. SALES CHARTS The following sales charts are based on unit sales in the week of February 6 to 12 at all retailers. Dreamcast 1. Crazy Taxi (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game) 2. NHL 2K 3. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 4. Zombie Revenge 5. NBA 2K PlayStation 1. Gran Turismo 2 2. The Dukes the Hazzard 3. Gran Turismo 4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Spyro the Dragon Nintendo 64 1. Mario Party 2 2. WWF Wrestlemania 2000 3. Donkey Kong 64 4. Super Smash Bros. 5. Super Mario 64 PC 1. The Sims 2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 3. RollerCoaster Tycoon 4. Age of Empires 2 5. RollerCoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies Unreal Tournament is #8 on the PC list, while Quake 3: Arena isn't on the top ten list at all. It hasn't taken long for word to spread that UT is at the very least in the same league as Q3, and actually much better than Q3 in the eyes of many people. Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News, GI News, Next Generation, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box, Daily Radar, Sega X, PSX 2 Online, Nintendorks, IGN, MCV, The Sega Zone, Sega Otaku, Gaming Age, The NPD Group, www.hamsterdance.com
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