Master Gamer News

"If Making Completely Un-Funny Jokes Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right"
June 2, 2000

   Note: Master Gamer News is switching back to a bi-weekly update schedule 
in order to put the focus of the site back on reviews and features instead 
of news.  The next issue of Master Gamer News will be published on Friday, 
June 16.

   Microsoft's director of third-party relations Kevin Bachus has revealed 
that the Xbox will have a 56K modem available for people who don't have 
cable modem or DSL access.  The modem will be sold separately at retailers 
and will "be priced competitively," according to Bachus.  As previously 
announced by Microsoft, an Ethernet adapter will be built into every Xbox 
sold.  If you have cable modem or DSL access on your PC, you'll be able to 
connect your Xbox to it through the use of the Ethernet adapter.  
   Bachus also responded to questions of why Microsoft would bundle an 
Ethernet adapter with the Xbox and not a 56K modem.  He said, "There's no 
reason for us to put a (56K) modem into the Xbox because we'd have it in 
every single Xbox, whether it ever goes online, whether it's produced in 
2001 or 2006.  By 2006, penetration (of DSL and cable modem access) is 
going to be pretty high, and at that point the 56K modem would be a boat 
anchor.  From our perspective, it made no sense to build in a (56K) modem, 
but it made absolute sense to offer one and to have Ethernet in every 
single console."
   Despite the fact that it will be sold separately, Bachus believes that a 
large number of people will buy the Xbox's 56K modem.  Bachus said, "If 
someone wants to go online and they aren't willing to pay for broadband, 
and we create a really compelling online experience, and we price the modem 
inexpensively, then we don't see any reason why we wouldn't see the same 
adoption rates as a second controller or memory card."
     
   Sega of America and its parent company Sega of Japan have been at odds 
with one another since Sega of Japan fired Bernie Stolar last August.  
According to a report by Gamers' Republic, Sega of Japan is currently 
interested in the possibility of cuttings its losses and becoming a 
software-only company, while Sega of America wants to keep the Dreamcast 
alive and kicking for as long as possible.  Sega of Japan certainly has a 
lot of pressure from above (their parent company CSK) to turn Sega back 
into a profitable company, which it hasn't been for over three years.
   Sega of Japan has reportedly placed "ridiculous" sales expectations on 
Sega of America, and will make drastic changes to the company as a whole if 
those sales projections are not met.  One of the drastic changes that Sega 
of Japan is legitimately considering is licensing out some of its games to 
third-party developers, meaning that some Sega games could indeed end up on 
the PlayStation 2 in addition to the Dreamcast.  This would undoubtedly 
eliminate any remaining chance of the Dreamcast being a success over the 
long run.
   A new video game system is indeed being researched and developed at 
Sega, with its development being headed by former Sega president Shoichiro 
Irimajiri.  However, this console might never see the light of day if Sega 
of Japan finally decides to pull the plug and get out of the hardware 
business.
   There's no denying that the Dreamcast has been a complete failure in 
Japan.  The system's US future would be promising, but still uncertain even 
if it had the total support of Sega of Japan.  With the way things are 
going now between the cranky parent (Sega of Japan) and the over-achieving 
child (Sega of America), the future of the Dreamcast is more uncertain than 
ever.

   Sega of America's Charles Bellfield has flatly denied that any drastic 
changes are on the horizon for Sega.  Bellfield did acknowledge the power 
that Sega of Japan chairman Isao Okawa has over the entire company.  He 
said, "Nothing can be done at Sega without the consent of Okawa."  
Bellfield also said, "I can categorically deny that Sega will exit the 
hardware market."  He continued, "Sega has no plans to support any other 
game console whatsoever, period."  However, regardless of Bellfield's 
denial, Sega of Japan is indeed considering the possibility of licensing 
Sega's games to other publishers.  Bellfield went on to say that Sega isn't 
the slightest bit interested in releasing games for the Xbox or 
PlayStation 2, but that is ultimately the decision of Isao Okawa, not 
Charles Bellfield.
      
   Sega of Japan's principal owner and new president Isao Okawa has 
announced that Sega and Microsoft have ended their relationship.  The 
couple had been an item since 1998 when Microsoft swept Sega off its feet 
with the charming gift of the Windows CE operating system.  Sega and 
Microsoft have had an on-again, off-again relationship ever since, 
including counseling sessions and domestic abuse charges.  The once-happy 
couple finally called it quits this week after months of negotiations to 
try and patch things up.  
   Microsoft issued this statement after the break-up occurred: "I really 
thought I would be with Sega forever, but we slowly grew apart over the 
past two years."  Sega replied by saying, "All of our problems stem from 
Microsoft's idea that we have to have sex to have a meaningful relationship.  
I tried telling Microsoft to back off and stop pressuring me, but he just 
wouldn't listen.  What's a girl to do?"
   All right, enough with the sarcasm. (Note to readers of my Excitebike 64 
Review: That means I was being sarcastic.)  Sega and Microsoft are not 
really bitter lovers, but they really did end their business relationship 
this week.  The negotiations between the two companies fell through for 
many different reasons, one of which is that Sega is much more interested 
in network gaming than Microsoft.  The official reason for the break-up, 
according to Okawa, is "a conflict of interest."  
   Negotiations for all sorts of possible partnerships between the two 
companies have been taking place in recent months, including a possible 
Microsoft buy-out of Sega.  It makes sense that the two companies would 
want to distance themselves from one another since the existence of the 
Xbox makes them competitors.

   An Orlando, Florida resident named Kenneth Dickinson has filed a lawsuit 
against Electronic Arts and Tiburon for patent infringement.  When you 
press the "simulate" button in any sports game, there is a specific 
programming mechanism that determines which team wins the game, which 
players perform well, etc.  Dickinson claims that EA violated his patent in 
the way that they programmed the simulation elements of Madden NFL '99 and 
2000.  
   If this is true, Dickinson's patent must be based on pretty crappy 
technology since the simulation results are so out of whack in Madden '99 
and 2000.  You can simulate a season with a mediocre team and go 11-5, then 
make tons of roster improvements in the off-season and go 8-8 the next year.  
Either that's some pretty bad simulation programming, or it was just the 
Redskins Underachieving Syndrome striking again...  

   Activision's Tony Hawk 2 contest has been spoiled by a major bug in the 
demo.  A playable demo of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is included in the 
PlayStation's Summer 2000 Jam Pack, which is available at retailers for $5.  
Activision's idea was to have gamers play the demo and post their high 
scores on the Internet.  The highest finishers would then be flown to the 
Summer X Games to compete in the finals.  
   Now a bug has been discovered that lets gamers rack up over six million 
points in a regular two-minute gameplay session.  Activision is letting the 
contest continue, but has already gone on record saying that a bug-free 
version of the game will be played at the X Games.  The highest finishers 
before the X Games take place won't necessarily be the best Tony Hawk 2 
players, but the players who have discovered the bug and exploited it.  
Sounds like a fair contest to me!

   The main reason that Looking Glass Studios shut down last week is 
because Electronic Arts cancelled a game Looking Glass was developing, 
called Jane's Attack Squadron.  The game had been in development for almost 
two years and was less than three months away from completion, but EA 
cancelled it anyway because they're getting out of the flight simulator 
market.  
   Constantine Hantzopoulos was the project director of Jane's Attack 
Squadron at Looking Glass, and needless to say, he's not pleased with EA's 
decision.  Hantzopoulos said, "We were the last Jane's game in EA's hopper, 
and now we're dead because EA wants out of the flight sim genre.  Obviously, 
I'm not happy about this.  EA could have cancelled the game a year ago 
instead of stringing us along."
   In addition to flight sims, Looking Glass developed such games as Thief, 
Thief 2, and System Shock 1 over its eight-year history.  Despite being 
critically acclaimed, the original Thief sold less than 70,000 copies.  
Looking Glass' Flight Unlimited series has seen its sales fall drastically 
with each new addition to the series.  The original Flight Unlimited sold 
about 650,000 copies, but the sequel only sold 150,000 and the second 
sequel sold less than 40,000.

   Former 989 Studios president Kelly Flock is staying in the Sony family 
with his new job as the president and CEO of Sony Online Entertainment.  
Flock is now restructuring the company to focus more on hardcore games like 
EverQuest and less on casual games like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and 
Trivial Pursuit.  As a result, Sony has purchased EverQuest creator Verant 
Interactive, which will now be supervised directly by Flock.  Now that
Verant is owned by Sony, it's more than likely just a matter of time before
we see Star Wars Online and EverQuest on the PlayStation 2.
   Also as a result of the restructuring, over 60 employees have been laid 
off at Sony Online's New York offices, and the Los Angeles office has been 
shut down completely.  Flock gave a ten-minute speech to the LA office's 
employees (over 50 of them) before laying them all off.  Some of those 50 
employees had been hired as recently as last Tuesday.  One of the laid off 
employees told The Industry Standard that Flock's speech was "very cut-and-
dry," and actually concluded, "Everyone's really f---ing pissed."

   Sony is going to spend $1.2 billion to increase its PlayStation 2 
production capacity from the current rate of 500,000 systems per month to 
two million per month by the end of the year.  Sony's increased production 
of the PS2 is not just so that consumers will have more systems available 
to them, but also because Sony is planning on licensing out the PS2 
technology to makers of digital TVs, home servers, set-top boxes, and 
digital appliances starting in March of 2001.

   Id Software's John Carmack has announced that the company's next project 
is a new version of Doom, which will be focused on single-player instead of 
multi-player.  The decision to develop the game came after months of 
internal disagreements and bickering at Id.  Together, Kevin Cloud and
Adrian Carmack own a majority percentage of Id, while John Carmack is the  
company's lead designer.  John Carmack wanted to work on a new version of 
Doom, but Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack didn't.  Finally, John Carmack and
the rest of the design team threatended to leave the company if they
couldn't work on Doom.  Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack agreed, but then
they fired Id artist Paul Steed in retaliation.  Carmack said in his 
.plan file, "I happen to think Paul was damn good at his job, and that we 
was going to be one of the most valuable contributors to Doom."  To read 
the entire .plan file with many more details, click here.  

   Most Japanese video game companies have just reported their earnings for 
the past 12 months, and the news is good for the most part.  The following 
is a list of Japanese companies who reported their earnings this week, in 
order from highest net profit to lowest (rounded and translated from yen 
into dollars).

1. Nintendo: $523 million profit 
2. Konami:   $171 million profit
3. Capcom:   $91 million profit
4. Namco:    $59 million profit
5. Koei:     $28 million profit
6. Square:   $16 million profit
7. Tecmo:    $6 million profit
8. Taito:    $513,000 profit
9. Ascii:    $5 million loss
10.Sega:     $400 million loss
   Nintendo's $523 million profit is down from last year's $800 million 
profit, but that's still not too shabby.

   A rumor on the Internet has suggested that Namco is currently working on 
a Dolphin version of Ridge Racer 5.  Like most rumors on the Internet, this 
one is false.  Namco doesn't have a single Dolphin development (neither 
does any other third-party company), so they couldn't be working on a 
Dolphin version of Ridge Racer 5 right now even if they wanted to be.

   Never the slightest bit hesitant to buy anything, Infogrames is willing 
to pay at least $150,000 for the rights to the domain name "ronaldo.com."  
The domain name is currently owned by a computer programmer whose first 
name is Ronaldo.  Infogrames wants the domain name because they own the 
rights to make games based on the soccer star "Ronaldo."

   Vatical Entertainment has announced that the Dreamcast version of System 
Shock 2 will have online capabilities in addition to its single-player 
modes.  You'll be able to participate in deathmatches and team-based 
Capture the Flag games when System Shock 2 is released for the Dreamcast 
this November.

   Lots of Konami news this week:

-Konami has vaguely announced that you'll be able to connect Metal Gear 
Solid 2 for the PS2 with the Game Boy Color version of Metal Gear Solid.  
What Konami didn't say is how or why you would do this.

-In addition to Suikoden 3 for the PlayStation 2, Konami is also working on 
an adventure game set in the Suikoden universe, with many of the characters 
from Suikoden 2.

-In addition to having no Dreamcast games planned for 2001, Konami also 
appears to be abandoning the Nintendo 64. 

-Konami has announced the latest game in its ESPN sports line: a football 
game called ESPN NFL Prime Time.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go 
have some painful flashbacks of Konami's NFL Full Contact...

Master Gamer News Archive- From June 26, 1999
   This has nothing to do with video games, but it's thoroughly disturbing 
and well worth sharing nonetheless.  I was flipping channels the other day 
when I came to PBS and witnessed an entire show which consisted of lesbians 
sitting around, talking, eating dinner, and dancing.  Here's the problem: 
Almost of them were butt-ugly, 60-year-old women with short gray hair.  The 
show was actually called "Old Lesbians Getting Together."  The mental 
images that popped into my brain when I thought about what these people 
might do when the show went off the air will leave me with emotional and 
mental scars that will never fully go away.  What the heck was this event 
doing on television?  And when the heck was it doing on the Public 
Broadcasting System, of all channels?  If you've ever made a donation to 
public TV, how does it make you feel to know that your money was spent on a 
bunch of old lesbians?  What is the world coming to?

NEWS BRIEFS
   Namco expects its operating expenses to increase drastically over the 
next year.  As a result, the company has predicted that its net profit in 
the next year will fall from $59 million to $3 million.

   Koei is going to make Kessen a continuing franchise for the PS2.  
Kessen's sequel is due for release in Japan in March of 2001, with Kessen 3 
to follow sometime in 2002.  The original Kessen will be published in the 
US by Electronic Arts this fall.

   The best-selling Dreamcast game so far this year is Crazy Taxi, followed
by Resident Evil: Code Veronica.

   Grandia 2's US release date is still tentative because the game isn't 
due out in Japan until August.  It all depends on how quickly Ubi Soft gets 
the game translated from Japanese to English.

   IGN 64 reports that Capcom is bringing Resident Evil Zero to the Dolphin
and cancelling the Nintendo 64 version.  If this is true, expect an 
official announcement from Capcom soon.

   The PlayStation version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire will carry a 
suggested retail price of $40 when it's released on June 27, despite the 
fact that the PC versions of the same game cost under $20.

   Midway has cancelled the PlayStation version of Paperboy, but not before 
buying advertisements for the game in several video game magazines.  Way to 
use that marketing budget effectively, Midway!

   The quote of the week goes to Titus boss Eric Caen, who said, "The N64 
has been a big disappointment for us."  When you put out games like 
Superman, Roadsters, and Virtual Chess 64, you don't have the right to say 
that anything has been "a big disappointment" to you...

   Former Sega of America president Bernie Stolar has publicly confirmed 
for the first time that he was fired from Sega last August.  When Stolar 
was asked in a recent interview if he had any special insights about Sega's 
direction, he laughed and said, "I did until I was fired."

SALES CHARTS
   The following sales charts are based on unit sales for the week of May 
14 to 20.

Dreamcast
1. Rainbow Six
2. Resident Evil: Code Veronica (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's 
review of the game)
3. Street Fighter Alpha 3
4. Crazy Taxi
5. Dead or Alive 2
launch games still in the top ten: Sonic Adventure and NFL 2K

PlayStation
1. Vagrant Story
2. Spec Ops: Stealth Patrol (selling for $10)
3. WWF Smackdown
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
5. Syphon Filter 2
old game still in the top ten: Syphon Filter

Nintendo 64
1. Excitebike 64
2. Pokemon Stadium
3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
4. WCW Mayhem (now selling at an average price of $11)
5. Mario Party 2
old games still in the top ten: Super Smash Bros., Super Mario 64, and 
Mario Kart 64

PC
1. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Second Edition
2. The Sims
3. RollerCoaster Tycoon
4. EverQuest: Ruins of Kunark
5. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
old games still in the top ten: RollerCoaster Tycoon, Pokemon Studio Blue, 
and Family Three-Pack

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

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