Master Gamer News

December 15, 2000
   Electronic Arts, the largest video game publisher in the world, has 
officially pledged its support for the Microsoft Xbox.  EA has ordered a 
whopping 500 Xbox development kits from Microsoft and plans to release 
approximately ten games within the first six months after the system's 
release.  EA wants to wait a while longer before officially announcing the 
names of any of these games, but EA's Don Mattrick has already said, "Titles
like Madden Football, SSX Snowboarding, and Knockout Kings are going to look
great on the Xbox."
   In an interview with Daily Radar, Microsoft's J. Allard claimed that 
Microsoft and EA have had a relationship for 15 months leading up to this 
week's official announcement.  Allard said, "The relationship with EA has 
been there since the beginning... we look to these guys to really give us 
guidance on the strategy, vision, and business model of the Xbox.  Many of 
the great guys from the EA studios have given us input on the design of the 
hardware and software... they had some of the very first development kits 
and they came to our very first conferences."
   Now that EA is officially on-board, there is only one major third-party 
publisher in the world that has not yet announced plans to support the Xbox.
That company is Square.  When asked if the public should expect a Square-
Xbox announcement in the future, Allard replied, "Yeah, you should... there 
are still a number of relationships that we've been developing with key 
companies that are not yet public... you can expect that this EA 
announcement won't be the last."
   When asked about online gaming, Allard replied, "EA is just as passionate
about online gaming as we are.  I think that our companies collectively can 
demonstrate some leadership in the industry and really make online console 
gaming a reality."  Allard apparently means "a reality on the Xbox," because
it's already a reality on the Dreamcast.
   Meanwhile, the Canadian division of Electronic Arts has received a 
shipment of GameCube development kits and is currently "testing" the 
performance of the hardware with a prototype version of SSX Snowboarding.  
No official announcements have been made about the company's GameCube plans,
and no announcements are expected anytime soon.

   Working Designs' president Victor Ireland has revealed that Lunar 3 is in
development for the PlayStation 2.  Like Lunar 1 and 2, Lunar 3 will be 
developed in Japan by GameArts and then brought to the US by Working 
Designs.  Ireland says, "I can't really tell you anything about the game 
except that it's being done, and it's for the PlayStation 2.  Oh yeah, I can
say that it will blow people away, being the first completely new Lunar game
designed from scratch since 1995. The way GameArts is making use of the new 
technology will amaze people."

   Sega of Japan has hired a new vice president who plans to make big 
changes throughout the company.  In an article about new VP Hideki Sato, 
Japanese newspaper Nikkei Weekly says, "Sato describes the game market as 
having fully matured, a market in which novelty is scarce and consumers are 
fed up with existing software.  He sees the traditional way of doing 
business by Sega and its competitors as no longer effective or viable."  
Sato went on to tell Nikkei Weekly, "Sega will be developing a new, 
networked game machine... this will probably take time but it may be too 
late unless the attempt is made now."  

   A pair of scapegoat-seeking senators from Arkansas have proposed 
legislation that would make it illegal to sell or give a violent video game 
to anyone under 18.  Proposed by Republications Randy Minton and Marvin 
Parks, the proposal says, "The repeated exposure to graphic violence and 
participation in violent interactive games may contribute to violent 
behavior by our youth and desensitizes them to acts of violence."  
   Minton and Parks define graphic violence as "depictions of decapitation, 
bloodshedding, dismemberment, or grotesque cruelty."  First Amendment expert
Robert O'Neil says, "The proposal makes the central assumption that graphic 
violence can be regulated in the same manner as obscenity or child 
pornography."

   Microsoft has confirmed reports that Digital Anvil founder Chris Roberts 
has left the company.  In addition, Microsoft will purchase 100 percent of 
Digital Anvil.  Roberts says that running Digital Anvil was "a lot of 
process and not a lot of creative stuff."  Digital Anvil's highly-
anticipated PC game Freelancer is still due out in late 2001, and Roberts 
will continue to work on the project as a creative consultant to the 
development team.  So, Roberts will be working on Freelancer on a freelance
basis...
   In addition to being a consultant in the continuing development of 
Freelancer, Roberts will be working in the movie industry and "playing 
around with the next generation of broadband gaming."  Microsoft still 
doesn't want to publish Digital Anvil's Conquest: Frontier Wars or Loose 
Cannon, but rather than canning these games altogether, it will allow 
Digital Anvil to seek other publishers for them.

   An organization called Children Now has released a report about the 
"unhealthy messages" that video games send to girls.  The organization 
analyzed ten top-selling games for the Dreamcast, PlayStation, and N64, and 
came up with the following results for games that include female characters:
-54 percent of female characters were shown "fighting" or "being violent"
-46 percent of female characters had "unusually small waists"
-38 percent of female characters had "large breasts"
-31 percent of female characters had "exposed thighs"
-31 percent of female characters had "exposed stomachs or midriffs"
-23 percent of female characters had "exposed breasts or cleavage" 
(this figure would have been 99 percent if it focused on games from Eidos)
-15 percent of female characters had "exposed buttocks"
   Children Now's president Lois Salisbury says, "The unhealthy messages 
that both boys and girls absorb from these games impact the way that they 
think girls are supposed to look and act."  This study may or may not be a 
clever excuse for a bunch of closet lesbians to stare at polygonal body 
parts all day long.  When asked why he is more attracted to polygonal women 
than real women, Master Gamer's Jimmy Payne said, "I swear to God, if you 
publish this, I'm gonna pour Sprite all over your PlayStation 2."

   After a year-long search for a buyer, Hasbro Interactive has finally 
announced that it is being purchased by Infogrames for $100 million in cash 
and stock.  In addition to the $100 million up-front payment, Infogrames 
will also pay the central division of Hasbro an annual payment for the 
rights to publish games based on Hasbro-owned properties for the next 15
years.
   Hasbro Interactive itself is almost completely worthless; it's the 
properties that are the real meat of this deal.  Hasbro owns the rights to 
Civilization, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Falcon, Scrabble, Clue, Risk, Monopoly, 
Dungeons & Dragons, casual gaming web site games.com, and everything that 
used to be owned by Atari (Pong, Centipede, Missile Command, and many more).
For $100 million, that's not a bad deal.
   In a related story, Hasbro has decreased its earnings estimates due to a 
worldwide slowdown in trading card sales.  The company's chairman Alan 
Hassenfeld says, "Frankly, while cards for the Pokemon Trading Card Game are
still selling well, we were too aggressive in our initial forecast due to 
the incredible demand in 1999 and earlier in 2000."  Hasbro has designated 
75 million dollars' worth of Pokemon cards as "obsolete inventory" that will
be never be shipped due to the recent release of the Pokemon Gold and Silver
trading card game.

   Giants: Citizen Kabuto was censored at some point before its release last
week.  The first area of censorship was changing the female character Delphi
from a topless character to a clothed one.  According to Planet Moon's0 
creative director Tim Williams, the company was afraid that some retailers 
would refuse to carry the game due to the nudity.  Williams says, "We just 
wanted to be on the safe side... but three years did not going into making 
Delphi topless, it went into make a great game."  A nudity-restoring patch
may or may not be released in the future.
   The second and final area of censorship was changing the color of all the
blood in the game from red to green to make it less human-like.  This change
was made in an attempt to get the game's rating changed from Mature to Teen 
so that it could reach a wider audience.  The Entertainment Software Ratings
Board still rated the game Mature despite the change in blood color, and by
the time Planet Moon found out, it was too late to change the color back to 
red.  A "red blood patch" has already been released.
   In a letter to Planet Moon's fans, the company's co-founder Bob Stevenson
said, "We agree!  Covering Delphi and changing the blood does suck!  And 
indeed these changes were part of a last-minute bid for Giants to get a Teen
rating from the ESRB.  It was only recently that the pressure has been 
mounting for us to cover her up or face the possibility of crippling our 
potential distribution.  That would obviously be completely crap for us, as 
we've labored over this game for three years."

   Scientists have proven that sleeping aids the human brain in playing 
video games.  According to two studies that are featured in the newest issue
of Science News Magazine, "People who practiced a task that demands quick 
visual processing performed it better on ensuing trials if they were first 
allowed to get some sleep."
   On the other end of the spectrum, scientists have concluded that reading 
Master Gamer is an activity that should only be done when you're half-
asleep.  Science News reports, "The low quality of writing found on this web
site is less revolting to the human brain when it is not fully alert.  
Attempting to read Master Gamer when you are awake and alert is a 
potentially harmful activity that is not advisable under any circumstances."

   Two weeks ago, officials in Turkey blamed two separate child injuries on 
Pokemon, saying that the children jumped from balconies with the belief that
they were Pokemon creatures and had super-powers.  At the time, Turkish 
officials said that they wouldn't ban Pokemon outright in the country, but 
would instead encourage TV stations to gradually decrease the prominence of 
Pokemon on TV airwaves.
   It's not known what happened in the last two weeks to change anyone's 
mind, but Turkey's Radio and Television High Council has now decided to ban 
Pokemon altogether in Turkey.  Turkish TV station ATV was levied with a 24-
hour blackout as punishment for airing the Pokemon TV show.  ATV has filed 
a court appeal and claims that it will continue to air the show until its 
appeal is heard in court.

   Sony has released a list of PlayStation 1 games that are "incompatible" 
with the US PlayStation 2.  However, some of the games on the list are 
actually compatible with the PS2 and only have minor technical difficulties.
For example, Final Fantasy Anthology is on the list, while in fact, FF6 runs
flawlessly on the PS2.  FF5 also runs flawlessly except for the fact that 
the appearance of the save screen is sometimes jumbled, a problem that can 
easily be fixed by exiting out of the save screen and then entering it 
again.  Without further ado, here is the list as reported by Sony:
Arcade Party Pak
Arcade Greatest Hits: Atari Collection 2
Fighter Maker
Final Fantasy Anthology
International Track & Field
Judge Dredd
Monkey Hero
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Tomba

   Sony is currently in preliminary negotiations with America Online to use 
AOL's software as part of the PlayStation 2's online network.   According to
The Wall Street Journal, one very important thing could prevent a Sony-AOL 
deal from ever being signed.  Apparently, some Sony executives believe that 
as Sony's online presence grows, it will end up competing with AOL.  This 
belief among Sony executives decreases the chances of a Sony-AOL deal being 
signed.

   Following the departure of several top executives (including its CEO and 
Chief Technical Officer), Sega.com has completed its purchase of 
FamilyWonder.com.  Sega.com is the division of Sega that runs SegaNet.  
Sega.com also took the opportunity to announce that SegaNet now has 157,000
members.  As part of the deal, FamilyWonder's founder and CEO Jonathan 
Kaplan has now become Sega.com's president and CEO.  Before he founded 
FamilyWonder in 1998, Kaplan worked for such magazines as Newsweek, Gourmet,
Vogue, GQ, Glamour, and SELF.

   In the week of November 19 to 25, the PlayStation 1 was actually the 
best-selling video game system on the market.  Of all the video game systems
that were sold during that particular week, 42 percent were PS1s.  
Meanwhile, 27 percent were Dreamcasts, 26 percent were Nintendo 64s, and six
percent were PS2s.

   Famed adventure game designer Tim Schafer has abandoned the PC format at 
his new company, Double Fine.  Earlier this year, the legendary designer of 
Full Throttle and Grim Fandango left LucasArts to form Double Fine.  In a 
recent interview, Schafer said, "Our plans right now include next-generation
console titles only.  The game we're working on is going to be very 
different from things I've done in the past, but you could say that about 
every game I've done."

   Westwood has announced a unique promotion for Command & Conquer: Red 
Alert 2.  Every Wednesday between 7:00 PM and midnight Eastern Standard 
Time, five to ten Westwood employees will be playing Red Alert 2 on 
Westwood's own online gaming service, which is accessible at westwood.com.  
All Westwood employees will have a lightning bolt next to their name, and 
anyone who is able to defeat a Westwood employee will win free Red Alert 2 
merchandise.

   Two weeks after the Better Business Bureau warned consumers about PS2-
related scams on the Internet, Sony has issued a warning of its own.  Sony 
says that you should go to bbb.com and check the reputation of any web 
site before purchasing a PlayStation 2 system from it.  Sony also took the 
opportunity to claim that it is still on pace to have 1.3 million PS2 
systems shipped to US retailers by the end of the year.  This claim is being
made despite reports from four separate research agencies that Sony isn't 
shipping anywhere near as many PS2s as it claims to be (100,000 per week).

   Canadian officials have located and arrested the person behind the 
PlayStation 2 scam web sites, ps2storeusa.com and ps2storecanada.com (both 
of which have now been shut down).  A man named Scott Byers was found to be 
responsible for the sites and has been charged with two counts of fraud.

   At a time when executives continue to flee from Eidos Interactive like 
the sinking ship that it is, MCV UK reports that Eidos chairman Ian 
Livingstone will step down from his position as the company's chairman.  
For what it's worth, Eidos' new CEO Mike McGarvey says, "At no time have we 
said that we are looking for a new chairman.  Ian is the executive chairman 
of Eidos and is central to our plans for the future."

   Infogrames acquired all publishing rights to the Duke Nukem franchise 
when it purchased GT Interactive, but apparently Infogrames doesn't want 
Duke.  The company has sold the publishing rights to all currently-released 
Duke Nukem games to Take-Two Interactive.  In addition, the Take-Two-owned 
Gathering of Developers has acquired the publishing rights to Duke Nukem 
Forever for the PC, which is finally scheduled to be released in late 2001.

   Sega has taken all of the story line sequences and cut-scenes from 
Shenmue and turned them into a feature film, which will premiere in Japanese
theaters in January 2001.  The movie that will be shown in Japan is actually
in English (with Japanese subtitles), so it would be a quick and painless 
process to bring the movie to the US if Sega chose to do so.

   Dimension Films has acquired the rights to make a movie based on 
Electronic Arts' recently-released PC game, Alice.  After ten months of 
negotiations, Dimension has given the green light to the film, which will be 
written by John August of Charlie's Angels fame and Wes Craven of Scream 
fame.  The producer of the movie will be American McGee, the lead designer 
of the PC game.

   Hammerhead Studios has been forced to shut down.  Not so coincidentally, 
this closure comes shortly after the release of the company's disappointing 
PlayStation game, Blade.  Previously, the company handled the PC-to-
PlayStation port of Quake 2.  A Hammerhead spokesperson told FGN, "We had a 
financial deal with Activision that was cancelled on short notice.  This 
meant that we didn't have enough time to get another project up and 
running."

   What genius in the International Olympic Committee's licensing division 
decided to give Eidos Interactive the exclusive rights to Olympic video 
games?  After releasing the God-awful Sydney 2000 earlier this year, Eidos 
and developer Attention To Detail are once again teaming up to shock and 
horrify gamers worldwide with "Salt Lake City 2002: Winter Olympic Games."

NEWS BRIEFS
   Nvidia has purchased 100 percent of 3dfx for a total of $112 million.  
What's left of 3dfx will be dissolved into Nvidia, which now owns the rights
to the "3dfx" and "Voodoo" brand names.

   If you're at least 13 years old and you live in the Seattle, Washington 
area, Microsoft wants you to be a play-tester of Xbox games.  Microsoft
promises "brief sessions that fit your schedule" rather than the normally 
long hours of a full-fledged game tester.  Click here to sign up. 

   Acclaim and developer Z-Axis want to know what gamers want to see in the 
upcoming Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2.  Send your suggestions to 
mirrabmx@acclaim.com.

   Sierra has acquired the rights to publish a video game based on the 
Russell Crowe movie, Gladiator.

   Sega Europe's CEO, JF Cecillon, has left the company.  Sega Europe's new 
CEO is Isao Okawa, who is also Sega of Japan's CEO and the principal owner 
of Sega as a whole.

   The Hollywood Reporter claims that Milla Jovovich will be the star of 
Resident Evil: The Movie.  The movie is scheduled to begin filming in 
Berlin, Germany in February 2001.

   Nintendo claims that by the end of March 2002, it will have shipped a 
worldwide total of 24 million Game Boy Advance systems.

   Rare is currently developing Perfect Dark 2 for the GameCube.  In 
addition, IGNCube reports that Rare is hoping for it to be a GameCube launch
game.

   Midway has shown mercy on gamers worldwide by cancelling its horrible-
looking PlayStation game, Deuce.

   For the third time in its history, Activision has been named one of the 
top 500 fastest-growing technology companies in the US and Canada.
Activision was #346 on the list for 2000.  Activision has also been named 
the ninth fastest-growing technology company in the Los Angeles area.

   Sega is offering limited-edition Dreamcast bundles from now until 
Christmas.  For more information, go to sega.com or call Sega's new 
Dreamcast bundle phone line at 1-888-SEGA-SALES.

   A movie based on Nightmare Creatures is in development at APG and Le 
Studio Canal.  The movie will be directed by Ralph Zondag, who also directed
Disney's Dinosaur.  The screenplay is being written by Matt Cirulnick, who 
recently finished writing Total Recall 2 for Dimension Films.

   Electronic Arts Canada is working on a PlayStation 2 sequel to the 
recently-released PlayStation game, 007 Racing.  It will be released in the 
summer of 2001.

   Konami has announced that a playable demo of Metal Gear Solid 2 will be 
packaged with the US release of another Konami game, Zone of Enders.  ZOE's 
American release is scheduled for March 2001, and the Metal Gear Solid 2 
demo is expected to last for about one hour.

   Collision Entertainment is working on a television series based on the PC
game series, Nocturne.  The series will be set in the 1930s, and according 
to The Adrenaline Vault, filming of the pilot episode could begin as early 
as February 2001.

   According to an unconfirmed report on CVG, Acclaim has acquired the 
rights to publish three Sega games on the PlayStation 2.  Supposedly, 
Acclaim will release Crazy Taxi, 18-Wheeler, and Zombie Revenge for the PS2 
sometime in 2001.

   Majesco, the company that is to blame for the Dreamcast versions of 
Rainbow Six, has acquired the rights to publish Soldier of Fortune for the 
PlayStation 2.  The PS2 version of the ultra-gory game is scheduled to be 
released in late 2001.

   A web site dedicated to finding PlayStation 2 systems has been launched 
at ps2bargains.com.  The site does not buy or sell PS2 systems, it simply 
tracks the availability of systems at various online retailers and lets 
consumers know when and where they might be able to find a system.

   Ubi Soft has reserved the domain name grandia3.com, which is somewhat of 
an unofficial confirmation that the game is in development at Japanese 
developer GameArts.

   The latest patch for Ion Storm's Deus Ex includes multi-player support. 
Coming in the form of a free, 36MB download, this patch adds basic 
deathmatch and team deathmatch options to the previously single-player-only 
PC game.    

   Sega has launched a massive NFL 2K1 competition on its online gaming 
service, SegaNet.  For more information, click here.   

   The next installment in the Shenmue series won't be released in Japan 
until late 2001, which means that it probably won't be released in the US 
until 2002.

SALES CHARTS
   The following sales charts are based on unit sales for the week of 
November 26 to December 2.

Top Ten Best-Selling Games For All Systems
1. Pokemon Gold for Game Boy Color
2. Pokemon Silver for Game Boy Color
3. WWF Smackdown 2 for PlayStation
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for PlayStation (click on the blue text for 
Master Gamer's review of the game)
5. Final Fantasy 9 for PlayStation
6. Driver 2 for PlayStation
7. Donkey Kong Country for Game Boy Color
8. Zelda: Majora's Mask for Nintendo 64
9. WWF No Mercy for Nintendo 64
10.Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Game Boy Color

Top Three Best-Selling Games For Each Individual System

PlayStation 2
-Madden NFL 2001, SSX Snowboarding, FIFA 2001

Dreamcast
-Shenmue, NBA 2K1, NFL 2K1

PlayStation
-WWF Smackdown 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Final Fantasy 9

Nintendo 64
-Zelda: Majora's Mask, WWF No Mercy, Banjo-Tooie

PC
-The Sims, RollerCoaster Tycoon, The Sims: Livin' Large

   The following is a list of old games that are currently among the top ten
best-sellers for their respective systems:
-Crazy Taxi for Dreamcast
-Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast
-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for Dreamcast
-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for PlayStation
-The Sims for PC
-RollerCoaster Tycoon for PC
-Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for PC

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, The Sega Zone, Gaming Age, The NPD 
Group, PC Data, www.cowdance.com

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