Back To News
News Archives
"The Fresh-Maker"
March 10, 2000
X-BOX NEWS
Microsoft has officially announced the X-Box. As previously reported,
the system will be released in late 2001. Microsoft's Bill Gates claims
that "The X-Box provides performance better than twice that of any previous
platform." He also says that Microsoft will market the X-Box even more
than it marketed Windows 95, which had a $300 million marketing budget.
The X-Box's Central Processing Unit will not be supplied by AMD as
previously believed, but by Intel. It will be a souped-up version of
Intel's Pentium 3 chip. The X-Box will have a built-in Ethernet connection,
but no narrowband (56K or below) modem. In addition, Microsoft has
confirmed that the system will have 64MB of total RAM (more than the
PlayStation 2's 38MB of total RAM), four controller ports, and a DVD drive
fully capable of playing DVD movies. Microsoft is giving the X-Box all the
power of the highest-end PC (and then some), with none of the compatibility
or stablility problems.
The X-Box's graphics chip will be supplied by Nvidia. Microsoft had
been negotiating with both Nvidia and GigaPixel, but they ultimately chose
Nvidia due to their market leader status in the PC graphics market. The
graphics chip that Nvidia creates for use in the X-Box will probably be the
next-generation version the company's GeForce technology, which is
currently available for the PC.
The X-Box will also have a built-in 8GB hard drive. This would seem to
give the system a big advantage over the PlayStation 2 until you consider
that a bigger hard drive may already be available for the PlayStation 2 by
the time the X-Box is released. Sony plans to offer a hard drive add-on
for the PlayStation 2 in 2001 that will be "tens of gigabytes" according to
Sony's Phil Harrison. Still, Microsoft will have a big advantage in that
the X-Box's hard drive will be included with every system sold, whereas
Sony's will be an add-on.
Many third-party developers have already been confirmed to be making
games for the system, including Take-Two/Rockstar, Sierra, Infogrames,
Acclaim, Midway, Namco, Koei, Enix, Capcom, Konami, and Activision (who
will be bringing a version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to the system). In
addition, Electronic Arts has already pledged their support for the system.
EA's CEO Larry Probst said that he's "intrigued" by the system, and that
the X-Box's launch will be "an important and positive event for our
industry." On the other hand, it looks like Square will continue to make
games only for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PC.
In an effort to support the X-Box, Microsoft is currently in
negotiations to purchase and/or form partnerships with a variety of
publishers in both the US and Japan. One of the companies that Microsoft
is interested in buying is Sega. If Microsoft and Sega aren't able to work
out a deal for a full-fledged buy-out, Microsoft could still buy parts of
Sega, or at the very least enter into some sort of partnership with Sega.
Sega has always planned to release several versions of the Dreamcast
hardware over time, including one with a DVD drive eventually. It's
possible that Microsoft's X-Box console could end up being the equivalent
of the "Dreamcast 2," and it could be backwards-compatible with all
Dreamcast games. It may sound far-fetched, but the technology to make this
possible does exist, and Microsoft and Sega are in serious negotiations on
the matter.
While negotiations between Microsoft and Sega have been taking place in
recent weeks, the Japanese newspaper Nikkei Shinbun reports that talks have
broken down. According to the newspaper's report, Sega backed out of the
proposed deal because it would have cost too much money to make the X-Box
backwards-compatible with the Dreamcast. Also, Microsoft apparently wanted
more royalties for the use of their Windows CE operating system than Sega
was willing to pay. Negotiations of some sort between the two companies
are still taking place, but at the very least, they have hit a major snag.
PLAYSTATION 2 NEWS
The PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4, and 980,000 copies
of the system were sold in its first three days on the market. About
600,000 of those systems were sold at Japanese retailers, and about 380,000
were sold through Sony's PlayStation 2 web site. Of the 380,000 systems
sold through the web site, only 120,000 have actually been delivered due to
shortages of the system. The rest of the systems are expected to be
delivered within two weeks.
Sony's stock price actually dropped 6% after the system's launch because
they didn't quite sell one million systems. Sony is running about 10 days
behind schedule in terms of production, not because of delays in
manufacturing the system itself, but because of delays in manufacturing
memory cards (one of which is bundled with every system). A prominent
Japanese newspaper disputes Sony's claim of selling 980,000 copies of the
system. They say that "only" 720,000 systems have been sold.
Sony originally said that all PlayStation peripherals would be
compatible with the PlayStation 2. Then they said that the memory cards
won't be compatible (as reported in last week's edition of Master Gamer
News). Now Sony is saying that PlayStation memory cards will, in fact,
work on the PlayStation 2. Make up your freakin' mind already, Sony!
In a related, but completely separate topic, many gamers in Japan have
been experiencing problems with the PlayStation 2's memory cards. Saving
your game in Ridge Racer 5 can somehow erase the PlayStation 2's DVD
drivers, but this can be corrected by using the utilities disc that is
bundled with the system. Sony isn't going to recall the defective memory
cards, but they are encouraging Japanese gamers to return any defective
memory cards that they own.
Sony and the Japanese government have both declared that importing the
PlayStation 2 from Japan is illegal. Sony says that using the system
outside of Japan "may lead to serious accidents due to voltage
differences." Of course, Sony itself will be able to sell the system
outside of Japan because they will get permission to do so from Japan's
Trade Ministry (no relation to the WWF's Ministry of Darkness).
DOLPHIN AND GAME BOY ADVANCE NEWS
Nintendo has finally delayed the Dolphin until 2001. The overwhelming
odds are that Nintendo never planned to release the system in the US this
year; they just announced a late 2000 release date in order to discourage
gamers from buying other systems. The confirmation of the delay came from
Nintendo's Hiroshi Imanishi, who is number two in command at the company,
behind only owner Hiroshi Yamauchi (and far ahead of Dan Owsen...).
Imanishi said that the Dolphin may or may not be released in Japan this
year, but it definitely won't be released in the US this year. The
Dolphin's new official release date is "the first half of 2001," but it
will probably be delayed once again until late 2001.
In the same interview, Imanishi didn't come right out and say that the
Game Boy Advance won't be released this year, but he might as well have.
He claims that Nintendo could release the GBA this year if they really
wanted to, but they are probably going to delay it "strictly for strategic
reasons." Imanishi said, "Right now, the Game Boy Color is selling very
well all over the world, so we don't need to bring anything out now."
What's the best way to hurt a video game product? All you have to do is
acknowledge its sequel before the original is released. Nintendo's Hiroshi
Imanishi recently said, "We're developing the Game Boy Advance and also at
the same time developing the next portable system." If that's the case,
wouldn't it make sense to skip the GBA altogether and release the more
powerful system? Imanishi says no, because killing the GBA would be
"detrimental" to Nintendo. In other words, "Why should we try to get you
to buy one new portable gaming system when we might be able to get you to
buy two?"
Nintendo previously led the gaming public to believe that the Game Boy
Advance would be close to the PlayStation (or at least the Sega Saturn)
from a technology standpoint, but it has now been revealed that this is
untrue. In fact, the system won't be able to process polygons at all.
Nintendo's Ken Lobb recently said, "The Game Boy Advance won't be able to
do true 3D polygonal graphics, but it will be able to do spectacular-
looking 2D games with multiple layers of parallax scrolling." Oh, I'm
excited now...
OTHER NEWS
Development of Sega's online RPG Frontier has been put on hold
indefinitely. The game was previously scheduled to be released for the
Dreamcast this fall, but now it might never be released (and if it is, it
won't be this year). The game was being developed by Turbine, the company
that created Asheron's Call for Microsoft.
Apparently, Turbine was upset with Sega for not giving them enough
"resources" (as in money) to use towards the game's development, and Sega
was upset at Turbine because the game wasn't on pace to be released this
year. Sega was also concerned that Frontier didn't look much better than
Asheron's Call, which has horrible character models. Frontier may or may
not ever be released. For now, Turbine has moved on to developing
Asheron's Call 2 for Microsoft. According to Sega, Phantasy Star Online
(the Dreamcast's other online RPG) is still on pace to be released this
year.
Nintendo has signed a settlement in a lawsuit that could end up costing
them up to $80 million. Some mini-games in Mario Party require the gamer
to spin the analog joystick around in a circle. The best way to do this is
with your palm, and some children have somehow cut their hands on the
joystick when doing this. As a result, any owner of the game can now
request that Nintendo send them a pair of fingerless, protective gloves for
free. If you gather a bunch of bleeding friends and family members, you're
allowed to request up to four pairs of gloves per household.
The $80 million figure was created largely to generate more news stories
on this lawsuit than it probably deserves. This figure was created by
multiplying 1.15 million (the number of copies the game has sold in the US)
by 19 (the amount, in dollars, it costs Nintendo to produce and ship each
pair of gloves) by four (the maximum allowed request per household). In
reality, Nintendo has only received about 90 requests, costing them less
than $2,000. For more information, you can call Nintendo's "Mario Party
Hotline" at 1-800-521-0900.
A company called Web Corp has been formed to sell games over the
Internet in episodes. Each episode is equivalent to a level in the game.
The first episode in each game will be free, and each additional episode
will cost somewhere between $3 and $7. Web Corp founder Jim Perkins said,
"The key to our model is to have the best developers in the world doing
really great content."
Apparently, Perkins believes that "the best developers in the world" are
Sunstorm Interactive (the developers of Deer Hunter), Paradox (the
developers of Thrill Kill and Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style), and Imaginengine
(the developers of several kids' games for Hasbro). Sunstorm, Paradox, and
Imaginengine are the only three companies that have announced their intent
to make games for Web Corp, but Perkins claims that other companies like
Bungie and 3D Realms have also shown interest. The first Web Corp game
will be launched in May.
Final Fantasy 11 for the PlayStation 2 has been delayed. Its previous
release date was "summer 2001," and its new release date is "fall 2001."
Square has said that they want to release the game in the US and Japan at
the same time. Final Fantasy 9 for the PlayStation 1 is still scheduled to
be released in the US this October, but that release date could change
considering that FF9 isn't due out in Japan until July.
Thanks to a partnership between Activision and General Mills, two
Activision games will be bundled with 1.75 million boxes of General Mills'
Trix and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereals. The two games are Asteroids 3D and
Extreme Mountain Biking. You'll be able to play both games for two hours,
at which point you'll have three choices: Buy two more days of gameplay for
$5, buy both games for $10 each, or throw both games away because they're
old and they suck.
In an interview with Games Business, Sega's vice president of marketing
Peter Moore said that Sega is going to show lots of Dreamcast peripherals
at the E3 show in May, including an MP3 player and a cable modem. Moore
also said that at last year's E3 show, "Sony had too many hot-air balloons
and not enough games." In addition, Moore claims, "Unlike our competitors,
Sega is purely a game company. We don't have an interest in making nuclear
reactors for the living room or making cute trading cards for kids." When
asked what he would say if he got a chance to sit down with Ken Kutaragi
(the creator of the PlayStation 1 and 2), Moore said, "I would ask Ken why
a big consumer electronics company like Sony would leave a modem out of the
PlayStation 2."
Version 2.0 of the Dreamcast's web browser will be released in the US
this May. The updated browser supports Java, Flash, MP3 files, and lots of
other things that the original version doesn't. Version 2.0 of the browser
will be bundled with all new Dreamcast systems starting in May. It also
seems likely that the new browser will be bundled with an upcoming issue of
the Official Dreamcast Magazine for those us who already own a Dreamcast
and want Version 2.0.
Last week, I falsely reported that Acclaim had purchased the North
American publishing rights to Tecmo's Dead or Alive 2. In fact, Acclaim
has only purchased the "international" rights to the game, which covers
every part of the world except for the US, Japan, and south-east Asia.
Also, the game will be released for the US Dreamcast on March 16, not in
May. I apologize for the errors.
The creators of The Matrix have sold the franchise's video game rights
to Dave Perry's Shiny Entertainment, the developers of Earthworm Jim, MDK,
and Wild 9. The owners of The Matrix had been negotiating with Konami and
Hideo Kojima (the lead designer of Metal Gear Solid), but they chose to go
with Perry and Shiny instead. It's hard to get excited about Perry's next
big game considering that his last big game (Messiah) still hasn't been
released several years after its original release date.
Majesco Sales previously said that the Dreamcast version of Rogue Spear
(the sequel to Rainbow Six) would not have any Internet multi-player
capabilities. Now Majesco says that the game will have multi-player modes
both online and off-line. Take this with a grain of salt, though, because
this is the same company that once said, "The Dreamcast version of Rainbow
Six will be released on September 9, 1999." It's still not out, and it
won't be anytime soon.
Connectix has released the PC version its PlayStation emulator, the
Virtual Game Station. Sony recently lost a court case in which they tried
to block the sale of the emulator, which is now being sold at retailers
nationwide for the price of $30. The minimum requirements to run the
Virtual Game Station are a Celeron or Pentium 2 processor running at 266MHz
(although 400Mhz or higher is recommended).
Activision is actually working on two online Star Trek games. The first
one is called Star Trek: ConQuest Online, which is somewhat of a card game
with graphics that will be released for the PC this spring. The second
game is the one from the makers of EverQuest that's scheduled to be
released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002.
PopTop, the company that developed Railroad Tycoon 2, has announced an
interesting new game called Tropico. In the game, you play as the dictator
of a newly-colonized island in the Caribbean. You have to take care of
everything that goes into building up the island's economies. Tropico will
be published by the Gathering of Developers this fall for the Dreamcast,
PC, and Macintosh.
NEWS BRIEFS
A GameArts employee said in a recent interview that the company has no
plans at this time to make any more Lunar games. However, he did say that
GameArts is interested in continuing the Grandia series after they finish
Grandia 2 for the Dreamcast.
Prowrestlingtorch.com reports that Acclaim is finally going to abandon
old gameplay engine found in WWF War Zone, WWF Attitude, and ECW Hardcore
Revolution. According to the Torch, Acclaim is creating a new gameplay
engine for their second ECW game.
The cult hit PC game Deer Avenger is headed to the Dreamcast this fall.
Rather than playing as a hunter and trying to kill deer, you play as a deer
and try to kill hunters.
Sources within Sony are indicating that an October or November US
release for the PlayStation 2 is more likely than a September release.
Sega has delayed the US release of Seaman until this summer. Also due
out for the Dreamcast this summer are such games as Ecco the Dolphin, D2,
Sega GT, Metropolis, and Virtua Tennis.
TV commercials are not included in Capcom's marketing plan for Resident
Evil: Code Veronica. Apparently, Capcom believes that the Resident Evil
brand name is so strong that it doesn't need TV ads to boost sales.
Just six months after expanding into the US market, Codemasters has shut
down all of its US operations except for the development of an online-only
game called The Realm, and another online game that is currently un-titled.
Climax Entertainment's Dreamcast RPG Time Stalkers (formerly known as
Climax Landers) is almost completely finished. It's scheduled to be
released in the US on April 12.
Square has established a web site for Final Fantasy: The Movie at
finalfantasy.com. The movie is scheduled to be released sometime next
year.
Nintendo has re-named their next Zelda game yet again. First it was
called Zelda Gaiden, then Zelda: Mask of Mujala, and now it's called Zelda:
Majora's Mask. Whatever it's called, it's currently scheduled to be
released for the Nintendo 64 this fall.
Take-Two Interactive is going to release a PlayStation version of
Darkstone this summer. Darkstone is an action/RPG that was originally
released for the PC last year.
Natsume is preparing to release a PlayStation version of its farming
simulator, Harvest Moon. It's called Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, and
it's scheduled to be released this summer.
SALES CHARTS
The following sales charts are based on unit sales at all retailers in
the week of February 20 to 26.
Dreamcast
1. Crazy Taxi (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game)
2. NHL 2K
3. NBA 2K
4. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
5. NFL 2K
(same exact top five list as last week)
PlayStation
1. Gran Turismo 2
2. Sled Storm
3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
4. Fear Effect
5. ECW Hardcore Revolution
old games still in the top ten: Sled Storm, The Need For Speed: High Stakes,
Spyro the Dragon, and Gran Turismo
Nintendo 64
1. Mario Party 2
2. WWF Wrestlemania 2000
3. Donkey Kong 64
4. Super Smash Bros.
5. Super Mario 64
old games still in the top ten: Super Mario 64, Zelda 64, Goldeyene 007,
and Mario Kart 64
PC
1. The Sims
2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
3. Nox
4. RollerCoaster Tycoon
5. Half-Life
old game still in the top ten: Half-Life, StarCraft, and 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,
Sega X, PSX 2 Online, Nintendorks, IGN, MCV, The Sega Zone, Sega Otaku,
Gaming Age, The NPD Group, www.hamsterdance.com
Back To News
News Archives
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com