April 10, 1999
Hardware sales figures out of Japan indicate that Dreamcast hardware
sales have dropped off considerably since the system's launch last November,
and Sony still rules the Japanese market. In the two week period between
March 15 and March 28, the following amount of systems were sold in Japan:
1. Sony PlayStation- 99,000
2. Nintendo 64- 41,000
3. Sega Dreamcast- 26,000
In the portable games market, the Sony PocketStation, with 94,000 copies
sold between March 15 and March 28, it actually out-selling the Game Boy
Color (gasp!). Somewhat surprisingly, Bandai's Wonder Swan is also selling
fairly well with 55,000 copies sold in the two-week period described above.
However, SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color is off to a slow start with only 26,000
copies sold in the aforementioned two weeks.
In terms of software sales, here's how the percentages break down:
1. Sony PlayStation- 62% (meaning that 62% of games sold in Japan were
PlayStation games)
2. Nintendo 64- 18%
3. Dreamcast- 10%
4. Game Boy- 5%
5. Wonder Swan- 2%
6. Saturn- 2%
7. Neo Geo Pocket Color- 1%
Capcom has confirmed the existence of Resident Evil X for the
PlayStation, a game based on the Resident Evil 2 engine with its story line
set just 24 hours before the start of RE2. Capcom is now calling the game
Resident Evil Nemesis, but even that is a tentative name which could (and
probably will) be changed in the future.
Due to a series of high-profile game delays, GT Interactive posted a
loss of over $50 million in its latest financial quarter. Games that were
scheduled to ship in the quarter but were delayed include Unreal Tournament,
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Driver, and Duke Nukem: Zero Hour. GT is
also incurring a lot of extra expenses as a result of the company being
restructured and moved from New York to Los Angeles. GT also has a new CEO
in Thomas Heymann, who has stated that GT is "very excited" about the
PlayStation 2 and that several of GT's affiliate developers could be making
games for it (including Oddworld Inhabitants and SingleTrac). GT is also
scaling back their Dreamcast lineup to reduce costs, and Heymann says they
will work on the Dreamcast "on a limited basis."
Electronic Arts, the world's largest third-party game publisher,
recently signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to publish four games
featuring the James Bond license. The first of these four games will be a
first-person shooter developed using the Quake 3: Arena engine, and will be
released for the PlayStation and PC. Versions of the game for other
systems, including the Nintendo 64, may also be released at some point.
Jason Rubin, the president and co-founder of Naughty Dog (the company
behind Crash Bandicoot) recently appeared on Cosmopolitan Magazine's web
site, where he was featured as the Bachelor of the Month. Under the
heading "Bonus Points," Rubin said, "I am notorious for coming up with
really useless, obscure statistics. And I can juggle. Okay, it's not curing
major diseases, but it's good comic relief." Under the heading "When
Unplugged," Rubin said, "I love hiking with my dog, reading Japanese
literature, and watching action movies." If you don't believe this story and
think it's some sort of April Fool's joke, check it out for yourself at
http://www.cosmomag.com/bachelor/index.html
Midway recently went out of its way to clarify that the version of
Mortal Kombat to be released for the Dreamcast this fall will not be Mortal
Kombat 5, but instead just MK4 with a few old characters returning to the
lineup, as well as the obligatory "graphics and gameplay improvements."
Gee, Midway, what a great up to drum up excitement for your fall lineup.
You could have just released the product described above and called it MK5
and we wouldn't have noticed much of a difference from how you usually re-
hash Mortal Kombat...
Midway is the latest company to pledge its support for the Neo Geo
Pocket Color. Midway recently announced that both NFL Blitz and NBA
Hangtime would be brought to SNK's portable gaming system.
If you thought to yourself while playing the ultra-violent and extremely
controversial Grand Theft Auto that it is a game that could never be
released for a Nintendo system, think again. Rockstar Games has announced
that the game will be brought to the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color in time
for Christmas.
In the least surprising announcement of the past two weeks, Nintendo has
delayed more of their games (again). Pokemon Pinball for the Game Boy
(with a built-in Rumble Pak) has been pushed back from May 10 to June 28.
Conker's Pocket Tales is now due out for the Game Boy on June 7, and Conker
64 (originally unveiled at the 1997 E3 show) is still in limbo. It is in
the process of going through a major overhaul and its release date is very
uncertain (it may or may not come out this year). Finally, Rare's N64
shooter Jet Force Gemini has been pushed back to an August 30 release. Has
there ever been a game in the history of Nintendo that had its release date
announced and was then released on that release date without being delayed
at least once? I think not...
Nintendo has announced a promotion it is holding in conjunction with
Oscar Mayer to put Pokemon creatures in over 50 million boxes of Oscar
Mayer's Lunchables. Nintendo claims that over 1,000 lucky people will win
a prize, which could be Pokemon for the Game Boy, a Game Boy Color system,
or a Nintendo 64 system. Three winners will even get to have a "private
party" (sounds pretty sleazy to me) with Pikachu himself (or more
accurately, a sweaty middle-aged bald man in an oversized Pikachu outfit).
The next logical step in the Pokemon promotion madness is a deal with
McDonald's to put Pokemon creatures Happy Meals sold at McDonald's. The
twist would be that instead of putting the creatures in every, they would
only be put in a few thousand boxes nationwide, and the creatures would be
put inside of the actual sandwiches. The way most winners will find out
that they've won is when they bite down and potentially do permanent damage
to their teeth and gums. Now is that a good promotion, or what?
Sony Online Entertainment has announced that its online gaming service
The Station has now over three million registered members. The last
million members were signed on in a period of only four months. Sony
attributes the recent surge in membership to the release of the company's
online RPG EverQuest, which offers a persistent online environment in the
style of Ultima Online.
Babbages' web site claims that Final Fantasy 8 will be released in the
US on August 31, which is earlier than Square's previous indications of
"September or October." For the record, the claims of Babbage's are
unconfirmed and Square has not officially announced any US release date for
Final Fantasy 8.
In order to account for the massive amounts of money it will take to
make PlayStation 2 games, and to make itself as efficiently run as possible,
Square will be splitting itself up into numerous divisions. Between now
and March of next year, Square could split itself up into as many as eight
different divisions, all associated with different parts of game
development, and all financially independent from one another.
The latest major PC game announced to be on its way to the Macintosh is
Alpha Centauri, the hot-selling strategy game recently released by Sid
Meier, Brian Reynolds, and the rest of the crew at Firaxis Games. The
Gathering of Developers' Railroad Tycoon 2 is also coming to the Mac.
Acclaim has pledged their support for the PlayStation 2, saying that
they want to take "a leadership position" with the new console. Doesn't
Acclaim say that about every new system before it's released? Until the
PlayStation 2's release rolls around in late 2000, look for Acclaim to stay
in bed with Nintendo and release tons of N64 games, with the occasional
PlayStation or PC game thrown in for good measure.
Speaking of Acclaim, their profits for their latest financial quarter
went through the roof. Acclaim made a $15 million profit in this quarter,
up from the $1.2 million loss it suffered in the same quarter last year.
This profit was derived from revenues of $136 million, up from last year's
$69 million (heh... it says 69). As impressive as these numbers are,
Acclaim's stock actually dropped 15% on the day after they announced the
figures. If Wall Street has that kind of mentality, I guess all it would
take is a company announcing a $15 million loss and their stock would rise
15% instantly...
Prepare to have those cute and cuddly Chocobos shoved down your throat
like never before this winter when Square releases not one, but two
Chocobo-related PlayStation games in the US. Chocobo's Dungeon 2 will
still be called Chocobo's Dungeon 2 in the US depsite the fact that the
original was never released over here, and as you might have guessed from
the title, it will be a dungeon-crawling game featuring the Chocobos (plus
other characters from the Final Fantasy universe). The dungeons are
randomly generated (like in Diablo). The other Chocobo game is called
Chocobo Racing. It looks almost exactly like Mario Kart 64, except it
features characters from Final Fantasy instead of characters from the Mario
series. Chocobo Racing is due out in November, and Chocobo's Dungeon 2 is
due out in January.
Namco of Japan's web site is teasing gamers with tidbits about a new
game called Tekken Tag Tournament. Based on the small amount of
information Namco has released so far, it would seem that TTT will be a lot
like Tekken 3, with the addition of characters that were in Tekken 2 but
not Tekken 3, as well as all the usual stuff like improved graphics, new
moves, etc. Tekken Tag Tournament is due out in Japanese arcades this
summer, with versions for the PlayStation (and possibly other systems) to
follow.
Camelot, the company behind Hot Shots Golf for the PlayStation, is
currently working on a golf game for Nintendo called Mario Golf, which is
due for a US release on September 13. Golf games must include many
features to be successful in today's marketplace: pin-point control, good
graphics, balanced gameplay, and of course, unauthorized videos of South
Park hidden on them.
The top ten selling video games for all console systems in February were:
1. Mario Party for Nintendo 64 (no!)
2. WCW/NWO Thunder for PlayStation (God no!)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64
4. Pokemon Blue for Game Boy
5. Frogger for PlayStation (three out of the top five games are complete
crap)
6. Syphon Filter for PlayStation
7. Pokemon Red for Game Boy
8. Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64
9. Castlevania 64 for Nintendo 64
10. Gran Turismo for PlayStation
On a points basis (which has been described numerous times in the past),
the Nintendo 64 won with 23 points, followed by the PlayStation with 21
points, and the Game Boy with 11 points. As always, it is important to
note that the PlayStation still sells many more games overall than the
Nintendo 64 does.
The top five selling PC games in February were:
1. Sim City 3000
2. Alpha Centauri
3. Baldur's Gate
4. Half-Life
5. Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2
Of the PC's top five, only #5 would be considered to be casual-gamer-
oriented, which is a refreshing change for the PC games market. Deer
Hunter 2 slipped to #6 and Frogger slipped to #10, but Myst made its return
to the list at #9. The horror...
Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News,
GI News, Next Generation Online, Adrenaline Vault, VideoGames, Happy Puppy,
Gamesdomain, GameCenter, PlanetQuake, PSM Online, IGN 64, The Sega Zone,
Gaming Age, Weekly Famistu, www.hamsterdance.com
Master Gamer News- March 29, 1999
Master Gamer News- March 17, 1999
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