Master Gamer News


Master Gamer's Bi-Weekly Newsletter

July 11, 1999
   Square has finally confirmed existence of the game that we've all been 
waiting years to play: Chrono Trigger 2.  Called Chrono Cross, the long-
overdue follow-up to Square's classic 1995 RPG is for the PlayStation, not 
the PlayStation 2.  Chrono Cross is due out this winter in Japan, but no US 
release date has been set.  As a matter of fact, Square has yet to confirm 
that the game will ever be brought to the US, and a very real possibility 
exists that never will be.  Of course, if this actually happens, you may 
one day read the following headline in reference to me: "Enraged Gamer Goes
Ballistic Outside Square's World Headquarters, Accidentally Shoots Self In 
Foot."
    
   Nintendo of America president Howard Lincoln has revealed that Project 
Dolphin will launch at an extremely aggressive, mass-market price point.  
Lincoln would not say exactly how much the upcoming system will cost when 
it is released, but it could be as little as $150 or possibly even $99.  
How can Nintendo sell the system so cheaply without going broke when it's 
supposedly "just as powerful, or more powerful" than the PlayStation 2?  
Well, the system's PowerPC-based architecture will be much, much cheaper to
produce than the PlayStation 2's revolutionary Emotion Engine and Graphics 
Synthesizer.  To make the system even more cheap, Nintendo is also cutting 
out all the extra stuff like the ability to play DVD movies on the system, 
the ability to play music CDs on the system, and maybe even the ability to 
connect to the Internet using the system.  If you want to do anything with 
the system besides play games, you will have to buy a more expensive 
version of the system which will be manufactured and sold by Panasonic and 
perhaps other electronics companies as well.  All versions of Project 
Dolphin  (whether they're manufactured by Nintendo, Panasonic, or other 
companies) will be able to play all Project Dolphin games, the only 
difference is whether or not they will be able to perform additional tasks 
like playing DVD movies and connecting to the Internet.  Project Dolphin is
scheduled for a worldwide release in late 2000, although it could (and 
probably will) be delayed.

   Sega and Hollywood Video have confirmed the Dreamcast rental promotion,
which is about to begin at over 1,000 Hollywood Video locations nationwide.  
Starting on July 15, gamers will be able to rent a Dreamcast system, Sonic 
Adventure, two controllers, and an RF cable all for $20.  However, the 
system will be due back just two days later (as opposed to Hollywood's 
usual five days), and extra days cost an additional $20.  In addition, you 
have to give the store a large sum of money ($350 at most locations) before 
you can rent the system, and you get the money back when you return it 
(this way they know you're not planning to keep it).  Sonic Adventure will 
initially be the only game available in the rental promotion, and Ready 2 
Rumble will be the next game to follow when it becomes available for rent 
sometime in August.  More Dreamcast games could also be made available for
rent before the system's retail release on September 9.  Sega and Hollywood 
Video are also letting the video game retailer Electronics Boutique in on 
the promotion.  Everyone who rents the Dreamcast at Hollywood Video will 
receive a coupon good for $10 off any Dreamcast product at any EB location.
   It was widely expected that the Dreamcast's slumping sales in Japan 
would increase when the hardware price cut of over 30% went into effect, 
but the Dreamcast's recent sales have surpassed all expectations.  The 
latest sales figures available are for the week of June 21 to June 27, and 
in that week the Dreamcast was the #1-selling system in Japan.  Dreamcast 
sales in this week were up over 1,000% (11 times greater) than the previous
week.  Here are the approximate hardware sales figures for the 
aforementioned week:
1. Dreamcast:              45,000 units sold
2. Sony PocketStation:     30,000 units sold
3. Sony PlayStation:       26,000 units sold
4. Game Boy Color:         15,000 units sold
5. Nintendo 64:            9,000 units sold
6. Bandai Wonder Swan:     7,000 units sold
7. Neo Geo Pocket Color:   2,000 units sold
8. Game Boy Pocket:        2,000 units sold
  In the category of Top 30 software sales, the PlayStation still dominated 
with a 68% share of the software market, thanks largely to the sheer number 
of PlayStation games available for purchase in Japan.  The Dreamcast came 
in second place with 21%, followed by the Nintendo 64 with 9% and the Game 
Boy with 2%.  No other systems had any games in the Top 30.
  Sega has acquired the services of Digital River to handle the Dreamcast's 
online store.  The web site will let you pre-order or purchase Dreamcast 
games, hardware, merchandise, and peripherals.  In addition to creating and
maintaining the online store, Digital River will process all orders made 
through the store and will be responsible for customer service.  In other 
Dreamcast news, Sega has begun to ship American Dreamcast systems to 
retailers nationwide for demo purposes.  Many of the demo stations will 
feature playable demos of Sonic Adventure.  

   Electronic Arts has revealed that Chris Jericho will remain in WCW 
Mayhem despite his recent signing of a multi-year contract with the World 
Wrestling Federation.  Considering that The Big Show's signing with the WWF 
was considered too recent for Acclaim to add him into WWF Attitude (despite 
the fact that he debuted with the company in February and agreed to join 
the company months earlier), it is extremely unlikely that Jericho will 
appear in WWF Attitude.  By the way, Chris Jericho could appear on WWF 
television as early as the August 9 Raw.
    
   Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) has signed a national television 
deal with The Nashville Network (TNN).  Starting on August 13, ECW will 
broadcast a nationally televised show every Friday at 8:00 Eastern Time on 
TNN.  The signing of this deal is significant to the video game industry 
because it greatly increases the chances of Acclaim signing ECW to a video 
game deal.  With or without the ECW license, Acclaim will continue to make 
wrestling games after it releases its last WWF wrestling game, WWF Attitude.

   Sony has announced that Final Fantasy 7 has joined the PlayStation's 
Greatest Hits promotion.  The smash hit RPG now comes with a suggested 
retail price of $25, and many retailers are currently selling it for $20 or 
less.  If you haven't already purchased this classic game, here's your 
chance to finally do it.

   Capcom has set a US release date for Dino Crisis, which is from the 
creators of Resident Evil 1 and 2.  The highly anticipated survival horror 
game will be released Stateside on September 9.  Hmm... let me think... 
what else is due for release on September 9?

   In the least surprising story of the week, more Nintendo games have been 
delayed.  The US version of Pokemon Stadium (for the N64) has been delayed 
from its previously scheduled October 25 release date to March of next 
year.  Pokemon Yellow (for the Game Boy, and starring Pikachu) has also 
been delayed and is now set for an October 25 release.  In addition, Mario 
Artist and Mario Camera, which had previously been the only two games 
scheduled to be released for the dead 64DD, are now set to be released on 
regular N64 cartridges.

   Former industry giant GT Interactive is up for sale.  In the most full 
of crap press release quote in recent memory, GT's CEO Thomas Heymann said, 
"While we have successfully initiated management action, the company is 
seeking a re-capitalization, merger, or sale because management believes 
that in this consolidating industry, GT would benefit from greater capital 
resources to achieve our long-term strategic objectives and to maximize 
shareholder value."  In other words, "We ain't got no money!  Somebody give 
us some money!"  Heymann also announced that GT is shutting down One Zero 
Media, which was led by Heymann's predecessor as GT's CEO, Ron Chaimowitz.
    
   It took place many years too late for anyone to really care, but someone 
has finally recorded a perfect score (3,333,360) in Pac-Man.  The person 
who did it is 33-year-old Billy Mitchell of Weirs Beach, New Hampshire.  
Mitchell is also the world record holder in Donkey Kong.

   Microsoft has announced that Windows 2000 will allow parents to easily 
control what kinds of games their kids can and cannot play on their PCs.  
The Windows Game Manager will allow parents to block out games with 
violence, strong language, or anything else they deem inappropriate.  
Fortunately for mature teenagers everywhere, the Game Manager can only 
block out games which include the required source code.  What this means is
that any developer who chooses not to support the Game Manager can make all
their games immune to it.  It is not yet known whether anyone has come up 
with a program to block out buggy, unstable, over-priced operating 
systems...

   USA Weekend, a magazine packaged in with over 500 newspapers nationwide, 
recently polled 1,005 adults on the topic of video game violence.  A 
whopping 89% of respondents said that parents (not the government) should 
be responsible for shielding their children from violence.  However, 67% of
respondents said that the amount of violence allowed in video games should 
be limited.

   Eccentric billionaire Richard Branson is set to set sail on a ship named 
"PlayStation" this October.  Branson, who has failed on five occasions to 
be the first person to circle the world in a balloon, will depart on the 
PlayStation from New York as he attempts to break the world record time for
sailing across the Atlantic Ocean.  The current record is about six and a 
half days.

   Square has struck a deal with Toyota to promote Final Fantasy 8 and 
Toyota cars.  Everyone who pre-orders Final Fantasy 8 between July 30 and 
August 31 will have a chance at winning a 2000 Toyota Echo.  In total, four 
of the vehicles will be given away.  Final Fantasy 8 is scheduled to ship 
to retailers on September 7.

   The commercial PlayStation emulator Bleem has been shipped to over 500 
retail stores across the country, the biggest of which are Electronics 
Boutique and CompUSA.  The device lets you play most PlayStation games on 
your PC, and it is attractively priced at $30.  Sony's efforts to block the
release of the emulator have been unsuccessful thus far, but then again so 
were their attempts to kill Connectix's Virtual Game Station at first.  
Sony finally got a court order for Connectix to stop shipping the 
PlayStation emulators for the Mac to retailers, and they could still end up
winning in court against the makers of Bleem.

   After some concern that its sale would be blocked due to its 
classification as a "super computer," it turns out that the PlayStation 2 
will be sold in China, Russia, India, Israel and other countries with 
potential nuclear-bombing capabilities.  The Clinton administration has 
decided that computer companies are allowed to sell any device to these 
countries without giving any notification to the US government, just as 
long as the devices being sold cannot perform over 6.5 billion floating 
point operations per second (the PlayStation 2 cannot).  Previously, any 
device which could perform over two billion floating point operations per 
second had to be cleared by the US government before it could be sold to 
these countries.

   Delphine Software has filed a lawsuit against Electronic Arts.  Delphine 
is the developer of Moto Racer 1 and 2, both of which were published by EA.  
Delphine claims that EA took knowledge gained during the development of the
Moto Racer series and put it to work in EA's own motocross game, SuperCross 
2000.  Delphine also claims that EA has and is continuing to systematically 
destroy the Moto Racer series by shipping a pathetically low number of 
copies of Moto Racer 2 in Europe, and by dedicating minimal marketing 
resources to the series worldwide.

   On game CDs for Star Ocean: The Second Story, Sony's 1-900 hint line is 
listed as being 1-900-993-SONY, but in fact, the number is 1-900-933-SONY.  
As a result, those who call the number listed on the CD will come across a 
phone-sex line, not Sony's hint line.  Regarding the typo on the CD, a Sony 
spokesperson reportedly stated, "D'oh!"

   The top-selling video games from June 13 to 19 were:

PlayStation
1. Star Ocean: The Second Story
2. WWF War Zone
3. Syphon Filter
4. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
5. Triple Play 2000

Nintendo 64 (same exact rankings the past three weeks)
1. Star Wars Episode I: Racer
2. Super Smash Bros.
3. Superman 64
4. Mario Party
5. Goldeneye 007

PC
1. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
2. MechWarrior 3
3. Star Wars Episode I: Racer
4. Might and Magic 7
5. RollerCoaster Tycoon

  The best-selling games that are over a year of age were (in random order): 
WWF War Zone, Namco Museum Volume 1, Frogger (PlayStation version), 
Goldeneye 007, Super Mario 64, and Mario Kart 64.  The most-rented game was 
Star Wars Episode I: Racer, with Super Smash Bros. coming in second place.

   After the French publisher Titus bought controlling interest in 
Interplay, they chose to sell  Kingpin's publishing rights to Activision.  
Developed by Xatrix (best known for Redneck Rampage), Kingpin is an ultra-
violent game with very graphic language.  A game retailer in my area is 
ruffling some feathers by refusing to sell the game unless you have an ID 
to prove that you're 17 or over.  When asked whether this was the 
retailer's own doing or the publisher's decision, a sales clerk at the 
retailer told me that Activision is instructing all retailers not to sell 
the game to anyone under 17.

   Eidos Interactive is getting a quite a bit of free publicity for its 
biggest franchise, as the Tomb Raider logo is prominently displayed on the 
cover of this month's Playboy magazine.  The issue features a pictorial of 
Nell McAndrew, who until recently was employed by Eidos to appear publicly 
as Lara Croft.

   Electronic Arts is negotiating with sports agent David Falk to land one 
of the most prized sports licenses of all: Michael Jordan.  If the deal is 
signed, EA will be able to feature Jordan's name and likeness in a series 
of games focusing either on basketball or golf, which is currently Jordan's 
favorite hobby.

   At the recent International Advertising Festival in England, the 
advertising agency TWBA won first place in the print and poster award 
category for their creative PlayStation ad.  The ad depicts a teenage boy 
and a teenage girl wearing tight shirts, and they have PlayStation 
controllers where their nipples should be.  This is not a joke.

Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News, 
GI News, Next Generation Online, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box, Happy 
Puppy, PlanetQuake, PSM Online, IGN 64, Nintendorks, The Sega Zone, Sega 
Otaku, Gaming Age, Weekly Famistu, www.hamsterdance.com

 Back To The Main Page
 Master Gamer News- June 26, 1999
 Master Gamer News- May 21, 1999
 Master Gamer News- May 9, 1999
 Master Gamer News- April 27, 1999
 Master Gamer News- April 10, 1999
 Master Gamer News- March 29, 1999
 Master Gamer News- March 17, 1999






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