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"Tastes More Like Regular Dr. Pepper"
April 14, 2000
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences have announced the
finalists for their annual Game of the Year award. The award will be
presented on May 11, the first day of this year's E3 show. Of the six
finalists, three of them are for the PC and not a single one of them is for
the PlayStation. The finalists are: Age of Empires 2, Unreal Tournament,
The Sims, Soul Calibur, Donkey Kong 64, and Pokemon Yellow (yes, Pokemon
Yellow). Somehow, Donkey Kong 64 and Pokemon Yellow made the list ahead of
Final Fantasy 8.
Games that the Academy says came close to making the final six for Game
of the Year, but didn't quite make it, are Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun,
Homeworld, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Crazy Taxi, Driver, Gran Turismo 2, and
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Again, no mention of FF8. This year's awards show
will be hosted by Martin Short.
As part of Activision's $66 million "strategic re-structuring" due to
financial problems, the company has killed several of its game franchises.
No new games will be made in the following franchises: Interstate (as in
Interstate 76 and 82), Battlezone, Heavy Gear, and Jack Nicklaus Golf.
The newest games in each of these series sold very poorly, with none of
them being among Activision's top 25 selling games between March 1999 and
February 2000.
Fans of these franchises might lobby for Activision to sell their rights
to other game publishers, but there are no indications that Activision will
do this. In another cost-cutting move, Activision has shut down budget-
game developer Expert Software, which Activision bought just last year for
$23 million.
The video game industry as a whole is going through a bit of a slump as
more and more consumers hold off on making purchases in order to wait for
the PlayStation 2, X-Box, Dolphin, and Game Boy Advance. Those people will
be doing a lot of waiting since only one of those systems is coming out
this year. The stock prices of Activision, Midway, 3DO, Eidos, Interplay,
Take-Two, and even industry leader Electronic Arts are all down by at least
10% (and over 30% in the cases of Activision and Midway).
Video game retailer Funco has accepted the $135 million purchase bid
made by Barnes & Noble, the parent company of Babbage's. Funco was going
to be bought by Electronics Boutique before B&N entered the picture. EB
now has until Friday, April 21 to either match B&N's offer or let Funco go.
3DO has a deceptive guarantee offer running for Sammy Sosa's High Heat
Baseball 2001. Promotional materials for the game (and reviews in some
video game magazines) imply that if you're not satisfied with the game, 3DO
will give you a full refund. In fact, 3DO will send you one of four crappy
PlayStation games: Uprising X, Army Men 3D, Vegas Games 2000, and TOCA
Championship Racing. Adding insult to injury, you have to pay $7 shipping
and handling for each of these games.
Sega's Tetsuya Mizuguchi recently made some interesting comments in an
interview. Mizuguchi was the lead designer of Sega Rally, Sega Rally 2,
and Space Channel 5. He said, "While the PlayStation 2's games are
gorgeous, there will be a crisis in this industry if there are great-
looking games with no depth and nothing new in gameplay." Mizuguchi also
said, "Microsoft is a PC company with a reputation of being not fun. I
can't trust them to put out good games." It may or may not be a realistic
goal, but Mizuguchi also said, "I'd like to see Ulala (from Space Channel
5) become an icon here in the US who is bigger than Lara Croft."
A company called Singer is going to release a sewing machine that's
compatible with the Game Boy Color... that's right, a sewing machine that's
compatible with the Game Boy Color. Singer's machine will be able to take
things that you draw on the GBC's screen and sew them on to a piece of
clothing. A Game Boy Color will come packaged with Singer's product when
it is released in the US. No US price has been announced, but it will cost
between $470 and $570 in Japan.
In the newest issue of Spawn, Image Comics' Terry Fitzgerald said that
Capcom's Spawn arcade game won't be brought to the PlayStation 2. It will
still be released for the Dreamcast before the end of this year, but not
the PS2. Instead, Capcom is creating a different Spawn game for the
PlayStation 2, which won't be out until late 2001 or 2002. Fitzgerald said
that creating a new game for the PS2 would take less time than translating
the game from Sega's Naomi arcade board to the PS2.
The IDSA has received national recognition for their "Check the Rating"
advertising campaign. The campaign explains the video game rating system
(which is the most detailed of any rating system for any form of
entertainment), and encourages parents to check the rating before buying
games for their children. The campaign has been running since last fall,
and now the American Association of Political Consultants has named the
campaign America's best "National Public Affairs Campaign." Despite all of
this, it's a sure thing that some headline-hungry politician somewhere will
continue to beat the dead horse of, "Game companies sell violence to
children!"
Nintendo has spent the last week hyping the availability of a commercial
for Perfect Dark at perfectdark.com. Nintendo originally promised that the
commercial would be available for download at midnight on the night of
April 11. Midnight came and went, and the commercial was never posted.
Then Nintendo claimed that the commercial would be posted at midnight on
the night of April 12. Again, midnight came and went, and the commercial
was never posted. Now the commercial has finally been posted, so you can
check it out at perfectdark.com if you're interested.
Tricom Pictures is planning on launching a weekly video game TV show in
May. Called PowerPlay TV, the nationally syndicated show will be more of a
marketing tool for small game publishers than anything else. Games like
Army Men World War, Metal Fatigue, Shadow Watch, and 40 Winks will be hyped
for 4-5 minutes each by a representative from each game's publisher.
Crave's marketing director Holly Newman recently said the following
about the company's upcoming PlayStation game Mort the Chicken: "It's
actually a platform game, and the thing that's endearing is its sense of
humor. Chickens are funny. And way a chicken might react in a situation
where he was saving his world is intrinsically funny." Sure it is, Holly.
Sure it is.
THQ has announced that the WWF's Mick Foley will be appearing at their
E3 booth to promote THQ's WWF games. Foley was also known as Mankind,
Cactus Jack, and Dude Love throughout his 16-year career. He recently had
to retire from full-time competition due to the cumulative injuries
suffered from years of legitimately dangerous stunts.
Square is running a soundtrack CD promotion for the US release of Chrono
Cross, the sequel to Chrono Trigger. Anyone who pre-orders Chrono Cross at
participating retailers will get a free Chrono Cross soundtrack CD when
they return to buy the game. The same goes for the US releases of Legend
of Mana and Threads of Fate. Unfortunately, each soundtrack CD only has
five songs on it. Participating retailers include Electronics Boutique,
Babbage's, Funcoland, and Software Etc.
Sega recently set out another Sony-bashing postcard to members of the
gaming press. The front of the postcard features an illustration of the
PlayStation 2 and a big maze with no exits. The text says, "Help the
PlayStation 2 find its modem." The back of the card repeats Sega's
previous statements about how weird it is that a game console would ship
without a modem these days, followed by the words, "How... puzzling." Now
Sony should send out a postcard that says, "Help the Dreamcast find its
Emotion Engine, Graphics Synthesizer, and 38MB of RAM."
This week's Master Gamer Poll (sent out to everyone on the Master Gamer
Mailing List) asks gamers if they plan on signing up for Sega's ISP,
SegaNet. I recently conducted a telephone poll asking this same question,
and I was surprised to find that most of the responses weren't "yes" or
"no." Many respondents repeatedly yelled, "I go hard!" before finally
hanging up. Another large group of respondents said, "Ivan, is that you?
I told you it's over."
For the first time in recorded history, Master Gamer Editor in Chief
Ivan Trembow has gone an entire issue of Master Gamer News without making
fun of Nintendo in some way. USA Today interviewed Ivan about his lack of
Nintendo jokes, and he tried to save face by saying, "Uh... yeah, they
always delay their games and stuff. And uh... what's the deal with Mario
Party? Laugh, dammit!"
Ivan must now face the harsh reality of having to live a day of his life
without getting at least five e-mails in his mailbox accusing him of being
biased against Nintendo. Nintendo executives were shell-shocked by the
lack of Nintendo jokes, but they quickly reverted to damage control mode by
saying, "Mr. Trembow is clearly focusing on quality over quantity when it
comes to making Nintendo jokes." Former 989 Studios president Kelly Flock
reportedly said, "Nintendo jokes are the things that ran down Sony's leg
when they saw Zelda... or something like that."
NEWS BRIEFS
The Resident Evil movie has been put on hold indefinitely, and it may
never be released. If the movie is eventually created and released, it
probably won't be until 2002 at the earliest.
Konami is working on video game versions of last year's hit movie The
Mummy. The games will be for the Dreamcast and PlayStation. The sequel to
The Mummy is scheduled to begin filming soon, and it will star WWF
wrestler The Rock.
Activision has cancelled the Nintendo 64 version of Tony Hawk's Pro
Skater 2. The game will still be released for the PlayStation and PC late
this summer (with the Dreamcast version to follow this fall). The series
will eventually be brought to the PlayStation 2 and X-Box as well.
Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to make a movie based on
Rainbow Six, the series of novels by Tom Clancy that was adapted into video
game form by Red Storm. Paramount is also the company behind the Tomb
Raider movie, which is due out in the summer of 2001.
SALES CHARTS
The following sales charts are based on unit sales at all retailers in
the week of March 26 to April 1.
Dreamcast
1. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
2. Dead or Alive 2
3. Crazy Taxi (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game)
4. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
5. Time Stalkers
PlayStation
1. WWF Smackdown
2. Syphon Filter 2
3. Triple Play 2001
4. Syphon Filter
5. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
old games still in the top ten: Syphon Filter, Army Men 3D, Spyro the
Dragon, Frogger, and Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Nintendo 64
1. Pokemon Stadium
2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
3. Mario Party 2
4. WWF Wrestlemania 2000
5. Namco Museum 64
old games still in the top ten: Star Fox 64, Super Smash Bros., NBA
Courtside, and Super Mario 64
PC
1. The Sims
2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
3. Soldier of Fortune
4. Star Wars: Force Commander
5. Star Trek: Armada
old games still in the top ten: RollerCoaster Tycoon and Lego Island
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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