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"All of the hype and none of the news... wait a minute, I mean all of the news and none of the hype" April 21, 2000 According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, Sony is going to add a hard drive and a 56K modem to the PlayStation 2 for its US release. Bloomberg's report brings more questions to light than it does answers. If Sony is having trouble keeping up with PS2 demand as it is, would the addition of a hard drive and 56K modem to their manufacturing task list force them to delay the US release of the system until 2001? If they did manage to release the system this year, just how many systems would they be able to manufacture? The added hardware would obviously make the system more expensive for Sony to produce, but would Sony pass these extra costs along to consumers, or still sell the system at the expected $300 price point? Unfortunately, the answers to both of these questions are unknown. If Bloomberg's report is true, the E3 show in May would be a good time for Sony to make the official announcement and answer these questions. If Sony does end up adding a hard drive and a 56K modem to the American PlayStation 2, both moves would seem to have been made in reaction to their competition. The Dreamcast's installed base is going to explode this later this year thanks to Sega's 56K online strategy, and the X-Box will come with an 8GB hard drive when it's released in the fall of 2001. Sega has already rubbed this in Sony's face a little bit. Sega's Charles Bellfield said, "Again Sony demonstrates their clear lack of originality and has obviously been spooked by announcements from Sega and Microsoft over the last month. But I don't hear Sony saying 'Free PS2' anywhere." Another Sega official said, "Assuming this report is true, we're very glad that again, what Sega does, Sony follows." As previously reported, Sega recently sent postcards to members of the gaming press with an endless maze saying, "Help the PlayStation 2 find its modem." A Sega official told a prominent trade publication that if Bloomberg's report is true, "We might say, 'Sony has found a modem, now what are they going to do with it?'" Microsoft Games chief Ed Fries said, "The problem is that the PS2 has already shipped in Japan without a hard drive, and that's a nightmare for developers. If you can't count on all the machines being the same, you have to write to the lowest common denominator. Just look at the problems Nintendo had with the 64DD." In the month of March, three percent more Nintendo 64 systems were sold than PlayStation systems. While the month of March almost always accounts for less than 10% of Nintendo and Sony's annual revenues, this is still a newsworthy development. The credit for the increase in N64 hardware sales is being given to Pokemon Stadium, the multi-colored N64 promotion, and widespread shortages of PlayStation hardware. Electronics Boutique's vice president of sales Peter Roithmayr said, "There is a shortage of PlayStation hardware right now. We've been told not to expect much hardware for the next couple of months." The shortages of PlayStation systems represents an opportunity for Sega and Nintendo to continue selling more Dreamcasts and N64s for months to come. Sony hasn't responded to Nintendo's one-month victory because they really don't have to. Over 70 million PlayStations have been sold worldwide, much higher than the N64's total of 29 million. GT Interactive has agreed to stop selling games like Munch Man, Missile Defender, and Tetri-Mania, which are rip-offs of Hasbro-owned properties. GT will also pay Hasbro an undisclosed amount of money. Hasbro filed a lawsuit against GT and several other companies a while back, and GT is the first to settle out of court. These kinds of games represent a small percentage of GT's business, while the other major defendant (eGames) has built its entire business on this concept. The lawsuit between Hasbro and eGames is still pending, and it could be a landmark case in the intellectual property field. It looks like it will be up to a judge to decide whether eGames' products are truly illegal rip-offs of Hasbro's products, or whether they merely copy the abstract ideas behind them. Or maybe if the judge is a hardcore gamer, his official ruling will be that all of eGames' products suck. In the most unlikely crossover product since Pokemon: The Sexual Awakening, a Star Wars vehicular combat game is in development for the PlayStation. Master Gamer News reported on the game months ago, but it has just now been officially announced. The game is called Star Wars Demolition, and it will be developed by Luxoflux, the creators of the Vigilante 8 series. The game will co-published by LucasArts and Activision when it's released this fall. It's interesting that LucasArts and Activision would work together considering that they were recently competing for the services of Verant Interactive (the makers of EverQuest). Verant ultimately chose to develop Star Wars Online for LucasArts instead of developing Star Trek Online for Activision. I guess LucasArts and Activision aren't as concerned with holding grudges as they are with running profitable businesses, which is the way it should be. Following Sony's decision to reduce licensing fees for the PlayStation, Take-Two Interactive is the first publisher to announce $10 PlayStation games. Four of Take-Two's upcoming games will launch at $10 price points, namely Spec Ops: Stealth Patrol, Grudge Warriors, Martian Gothic, and the PC port Darkstone. Spec Ops and Grudge Warriors will be released before the end of this month, with Martian Gothic to follow in May and Darkstone in July. Response to this development has been mostly negative throughout the industry. Here are notable quotes about this topic. Activision's vice president of sales Ron Scott: "If you've planned your slate properly, then you're not going to have to discount your products significantly to move them through." Electronic Arts' vice president of European operations David Gardner: "It seems to me that everyone else is cutting their wrists and jumping off the bridge. The rivers will run red as a result of all this. Only the strongest companies will survive." Namco's director of marketing Mike Fischer: "We've decided to manage our business this year rather than throw it to the sharks. I think it's bad business. When you're coming out with a game for the hardcore user at a $10 price point, you're sending a message to people that isn't good for the long-term strength of your brand. If you try to release the sequel to that title, they're going to expect it to be $9.99. I don't think it's a wise decision for those companies." In a recent interview with Games Business, Infogrames' worldwide CEO Bruno Bonnell came across as a suit who has very little real knowledge about games (wait a minute...). Bonnell answered all of Games Business' questions in "press release language" rather than English. Even when he was asked, "Is there an overall Infogrames message that you want to convey?" Bonnell's only answer was, "That Infogrames' global multi-title, multi-format strategy is positioning it as a clear leader in mass-market digital interactive entertainment." Hey Bruno, you're supposed to talk like a real person in interviews. When's the last time you heard a real person say, "Let's go play some mass- market digital interactive entertainment!" Bonnell's statement that Infogrames is going to be a market leader because of its "global multi- title, multi-format strategy" is also full of crap. Think about it. Lots of video game companies are global (they operate in more than one country). Lots of video game companies are multi-title (they make more than one game). Lots video game companies are multi-format (they make games for more than one system). Bonnell went through an entire interview without really saying anything. Recent rumors have suggested that Microsoft offered between $1 billion and $2 billion to buy Square, only to have their offer turned down. These rumors appear to be completely untrue. Sources from within Microsoft are indicating that the company never offered to buy Square. The only official comment on the matter comes from Microsoft's marketing manager Stephen McGill, who said, "We're talking to many people about acquisitions, particularly the Japanese. But as for the Square rumors, yes, I've heard them, but they are just rumors." Fox Interactive has decided to get out of the sports game business, effective immediately. Fox Interactive's president Steven Bersch said that the move was made because of how "extremely time-intensive and labor- intensive sports games are... the resources it took to produce and market one sports title could probably be utilized on two or more non-sports titles." Fox itself will not develop or publish any more Fox Sports games, but Bersch says, "We will be licensing the Fox Sports brand out to a different publisher." Radical Entertainment was the developer of Fox's hockey and basketball games, and they're now stuck without a publisher again (Disney/ESPN backed out of their contract with Radical in 1998). A TV channel in Italy called the Italian Bishops' Conference has spoken out in favor of Pokemon. This comes just weeks after the head of the Roman Catholic church in Mexico said without any further elaboration, "Pokemon encourages violence and sexual perversion among children." The Bishops say that Pokemon "doesn't have any harmful moral side effects," "pushes kids in the direction of imagination and inventiveness," and "is based on ties of intense friendship." Over 50 million Pokemon trading card packs have been sold in Italy in the last couple of months alone. Believe it or not, many in Italy are concerned that the Italian Mafia will want in on the action and start producing counterfeit Pokemon products. There has been some confusion on video game web sites about the Dreamcast version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. An employee at Treyarch (the company that is porting the original game to the Dreamcast) mistakenly said in an interview that the sequel isn't coming to the Dreamcast. Activision has cleared this matter up by saying that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is indeed being developed for the Dreamcast and will be released for the system this fall. Online game creator VR-1 has renamed itself Circadence. The company's president and CEO Mike Moniz says that the company is moving "from being an application-centric company to net-centric technology," whatever the hell that means. Moniz says that the company is going to start making non-game- related products as well because "the revenue models have not been sufficient enough to validate being games-only." Quick! Off the top of your head, name one game that Circadence/VR-1 has ever developed. Don't feel bad, I can't either. Activision has acquired the US publishing rights to the newest game in Sega of Japan's mecha fighting series, Virtual On. The arcade and Japanese Dreamcast versions of the game use a unique dual-joystick control set-up, but this set-up will not be brought to the US. Activision will release the game with a modified control set-up in late June. An interesting note about the development of Zelda: Majora's Mask for the N64 is that Nintendo is aiming to make the game much harder than Zelda 64. You will be able to save your progress much less often, overland maps will have to be earned over time rather than given to you from the start, and there will be much harder tasks that you have to complete in order to learn new magical abilities. Zelda: Majora's Mask is still due out this fall. The bidding war for video game retailer Funcoland continues. First Electronics Boutique offered to buy Funco for $120 million, then Babbage's offered $135 million, and now Electronics Boutique has matched the $135 million offer. This tug-of-war isn't over yet, because any interested company (including Babbage's) still has the option of offering more than $135 million to buy Funco. Speaking of Babbage's, I'd like to apologize to John from Babbage's if I offended him with my statements in Master Gamer News a couple of weeks ago. The jokes in Master Gamer News are not meant to be taken personally. They're meant to be seen for what they are: Jokes that no one actually finds funny except for their creator. Sierra has signed rock band Motley Crue to provide music for the upcoming PC game Tribes 2. Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx said, "Providing music for a game like Tribes 2 is a natural progression for our band," thus keeping alive the streak of every partnership since the dawn of mankind being called "a natural" in press releases. Sixx continued, "Games are a growing form of entertainment, and this is an opportunity for us to take another step into an environment of new technology and forward thinking." I'm pretty sure that he didn't add, "Plus, they're going to pay us!" but he might as well have. As we approach "E3 time," more and more games are being officially announced or otherwise revealed to be in development. Here is this week's list, in alphabetical order. Dino Crisis 2 for PlayStation 1 Release Date: Fall Drakan 2 for PlayStation 2 Release Date: Unknown (sequel to the PC game from Psygnosis and Surreal Software) ECW Anarchy Rulz for Dreamcast, PlayStation, and possibly N64 Release Date: August Kengo: Master of Bushido for PlayStation Release Date: Fall (the third game in Lightweight Entertainment's Bushido Blade series; this one will be published by Crave, not Square) Metal Gear Solid 2 for PlayStation 2 Release Date: Unknown (probably not this year because it won't be playable at E3) Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for PlayStation Release Date: Unknown (thankfully being ported by the creators of the game at Red Storm, not the delay-happy Majesco Sales) Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast Release Date: Fall Sonic Shuffle for Dreamcast Release Date: Fall (this game appears to be Sega's version of Mario Party) Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for PlayStation Release Date: Summer Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for PlayStation 2 Release Date: shortly after the system's US launch Wipeout Fusion for PlayStation 2 Release Date: Unknown NEWS BRIEFS LucasArts has officially confirmed that it will be making games for Nintendo's Dolphin. The online rental web site Webgamezone.com is now offering import game rentals for the PlayStation and Dreamcast at the price of $5 for ten days. Non-import rentals cost $4 or less for ten days. The Japanese magazine Famistu reports that Microsoft's PC game Age of Empires is being ported to the PlayStation 2. This is strange considering that Sony and Microsoft are now competitors. Psygnosis has announced plans to close its US office after the release of Metal Fatigue for the PC and several unannounced PlayStation games. These games will be published by Activision, and all future games from the Sony-owned company will be published in the US by Sony. Just a couple of weeks after it was negotiated that Nvidia would create the X-Box's graphics chip, Microsoft has already given Nvidia $200 million in advanced payment for their services. Sega is teaming up with buygames.com to offer multi-colored Dreamcast controllers and VMUs. For the same prices as their plainly-colored counterparts, you are now able to buy these products in transparent forms of blue, green, red, yellow and charcoal while supplies last. SALES CHARTS In the week of April 2 to 8, the best-selling games for each system were: Dreamcast 1. Resident Evil: Code Veronica 2. Crazy Taxi (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game) 3. Dead or Alive 2 4. WWF Attitude (now selling at an average price of $25) 5. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation PlayStation 1. WWF Smackdown 2. Syphon Filter 2 3. Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles 4. Triple Play 2001 5. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater old games still in the top ten: Syphon Filter, Army Men 3D, and Spyro the Dragon Nintendo 64 1. Pokemon Stadium (also the most-rented game on the market) 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: Super Smash Bros., Super Mario 64, and Mario Kart 64 PC 1. The Sims 2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 3. Lego Island 4. Soldier of Fortune 5. Rogue Spear: Urban Operations old games still in the top ten: Lego Island and RollerCoaster Tycoon 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.cowdance.com
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com