Today seems to be a good day for video game publishers. First, Activision cleared up its stock option problems. Now THQ (THQI), the other video game company that had some 10-Q problems, is also out in the clear.

Much to the relief of investors and THQ, the investigation into THQ's stock option plans was completed; happily for everyone, no fraud was found. The only inconsistency involved in an increase of $11 million in after-tax expenses.

THQ is in the same situation as Activision. Both had stock option problems, both had that monkey pulled from their back and both are expected to have a good 2007. Their insistence on heavy Wii support is the reason. Let's hope we get some more good publisher news to add to these two.

THQ stock option investigation over originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Jan 2007 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Activision (ATVI) hasn't been looking to bright these days from a shareholder point of view. While they're doing fine in terms of sales, their delayed 10-Q form due to stock option issues tends to worry investors. Now, Activision is starting to look up.

In their recent 8-K filling, Activision placed on hold the concerns over the 10-Q. According to Activision, the stock option issue is in regards to the timing of the options, which may have fallen outside of SEC-allowed dates. The dates are mainly an issue with taxes and should be a minor issue at best (compared to other, bigger stock option issues like insider-trading that is).

On top of the previously announced expectation that Activision will win big because of its strong support of the Wii, the easing of the tensions over stock options is a breath of fresh air to investors. Michael Pachter (the face of video game analysts) expects the company to do well in 2007. Seems that Activision is back on track.

Activision looking up originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Wii has been getting a lot of attention lately, mainly because of its different control mechanism. However, movement in gaming isn't a new concept, which hearkens to days such as the NES Power Pad. Now, exergaming is getting a supporter.

The Mayo Clinic has released a report on the results of an exergaming study. Using a sedentary base, games that use a camera (such as EyeToy) and using a treadmill while gaming burned triple the amount of calories as sitting (five times over for more obese children); dance games registered the greatest calorie burn at six times the sitting rate.

With this new study, Nintendo is likely to jump on and further promote the health benefits of playing the Wii. Pulling children away from video games is a difficult task these days. While the Wii will unlikely burn the fat like Dance Dance Revolution would, they can add a bit to the marketing pamphlet to say the Wii requires exercise (if used right) for something their kid would otherwise be vegetating to do. As if we needed any more reasons to buy a Wii.

[Thanks, Ben]

Mayo Clinic prescribes active games originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Motor Trend's 2007 Power List has been released and a surprised face has emerged on it -- the creator of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi. The list chronicles those who make a significant impact on the automotive world. While many of us agree that Gran Turismo is an excellent title that did wonders in the realm of racing simulation, to hit the Power List is an incredible feat. Yamauchi secured a spot at #29, ahead of faces like the CEOs of Honda and Ferrari. The gaming world applauds you, Mr. Yamauchi, you've moved video games another step toward being a fully legitimized source of entertainment.

Gran Turismo creator on Motor Trend's Power List originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Jan 2007 03:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When video game analysts are mentioned, most of us who closely follow game news think of Michael Pachter. Like any analyst, their predictions aren't perfect. In fact, many abide by the 51% rule; if you get at least 51% of your predictions right, you're a good analyst.

Back in November, Pachter predicted GameStop (GME) to ride a wave of consumer spending on video games. GameStop has released some information proving that buy a good one. GameStop has increased its already strong revenue outlook by $50 million and its Q4 earnings per share from $1.53-$1.59 to $1.58-$1.60.

On top of other interesting sales promotions, GameStop certainly enjoyed the console launches and top-selling games like Gears of War immensely. GameStop is still looking like a strong buy with the strong Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii lineups for 2007 along with continuing PS2 support (though not everyone is in consensus on this). Since we're going to make some money off this one, we're going to forgive Pachter for some of his missed predictions.

Pachter gets one right; GameStop stock worth buying originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to the CES website, "It's all fun and games for AMD, Apex Digital, ATI, Dell, Logitech, Nvidia, Alienware, Microsoft, Sony and Gizmondo." This is a fairly odd sentiment given the company is now bankrupt and isn't making games anymore. Maybe the CES doesn't pay much attention to the news (or found it near-impossible to decipher) or Gizmondo pre-paid over a year ago and gets an empty booth.

Gizmondo doesn't seem to be dying a graceful death. Stories like the Bo Stefan Eriksson story keep cropping up. Maybe the empty booth at the 2007 CES will be the dénouement of this pathetic riches-to-rags story; or maybe a huge surprise with the return of Gizmondo.

[Thanks, Falafelkid]

Gizmondo at CES? originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The primary reason a major movie production house makes a movie is to make a profit. Sure, some of those indie guys do it for the art, but they're not normally rolling in the big bucks. Now, Hollywood has a new way to boost an otherwise losing film into a winner.

Xbox Live's downloadable HD service is doing a stand-up job in delivering the goods. Movies like Poseidon, which failed to make back the $160 million budget in the US (apparently Hollywood doesn't count international ticket sales), are getting some great support from Live. The reasoning behind the support is the HD version.

Where other services like Amazon's Unbox not faring too well, Microsoft hit pay dirt with their HD downloads. When movies start pulling in profits on Xbox Live, Hollywood is certainly going to put more up on the service and possibly as soon as the regular versions hit the store shelves. With the confusion most consumers are having in the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray war, it would appear Xbox Live is going to be the big winner in the HD content war.

Xbox Live makes box office bombs profitable originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When thinking of gaming, the companies that make the storage medium are rarely thought of. Seagate, however, is offering up an interesting view of the future; a future that could effect the way we buy our games.

According to Seagate, they are working on a technology that will drastically increase the amount of data we store on hard drives. Using a technology called heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), the company expects to be able to shove 50 TB of information into a single square inch of drive space, or around 300 TB of information on a standard 3.5" drive. With that kind of space, the entire Library of Congress can be stored ... without any compression.

The technology is expected to become commercially viable in a scant three years, by 2010. This means we may be seeing the Xbox 720 and PS4 being entirely based around digital distribution or fully installed console games, mostly eliminating ugly load times and noisy disk drives. With that kind of space, we may never have to worry about filling it up; 300 TB can hold around 6,144 50 GB Blu-ray disks (or the entire Library of PS through PS3 games that could ever be created with room to spare).

Seagate - the answer to digital distribution? originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Curt Schilling, Boston Red Sox ace pitcher and warrior-nerd (term applied to us nerds who happen to be physically fit), is a well-known MMO fan. In fact, he is such a fan he decided to start his own company -- Green Monster Games -- just to make one of his own. Now, he is giving us a little more details.

In an interview with the Escapist, Schilling explained the inner workings of his company and a little bit of his vision. In an indirect crack at EA, Schilling explained he is building his company with the employee in mind; he is offering 100% insurance and matching 401k, a pair of oddities in many businesses. He states that even with Todd McFarlane and R.A. Salvatore on the team, he won't simply bank on their names and wants to make a game that appeals to everyone.

Schilling is certainly on the right track. A major key to making a great game is making sure your employees are happy. Building a Mordor-style slave camp doesn't help the quality of games, or the bottom line. Hopefully Schilling's employment strategies pay off with a good game; we'd be more than willing to support it.

Schilling talks Green Monster Games originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Jan 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Company of Heroes (PC)
Bringing the most gritty and realistic view of World War 2 yet, Company of Heroes managed to give the glut of WW2 game made over the past decade a new breath of life. Company of Heroes managed to build a RTS that didn't focus on traditional resource gathering but on capturing and holding strategic points. The atmosphere of the game is, bar none, the best produced, ranging from fully destructable environments to excellent sound production.

Continue reading Best of the rest: Justin's picks

Best of the rest: Justin's picks originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 01 Jan 2007 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The NES, billed as the savior of the video game industry after the 1980s crash, has a special place in the hearts of many long-time gamers. Now, an artist is offering up a piece of that with an NES. Not just any original NES, but one lovingly painted. Depicting The Legend of Zelda, one of the NES's landmark titles, the NES is not only a functioning piece of gaming history, but an incredibly well done piece of art. The NES looks like a screen shot were taped to the top of it and is protected by 3 or 4 layers of acrylic coating. The seller also has other custom painted systems featuring Kid Icarus and Mega Man 2. Worth taking a look at if you're under the mindset that games are art, as these systems are quite artistic.

Artistic NES up for sale originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Video games and movies frequently don't mix. Sometimes, movies pump out a Resident Evil, which goes on to produce financially successful sequels. Mostly, though, Uwe Boll ends up with them. Capcom is making sure none of that happens to their titles.

Capcom is currently cozying up with Hollywood to turn more of its licenses into hit movies; and the other way around. Germaine Gioia, Capcom's new Senior VP of Licensing, is working to get Capcom more exposure in Hollywood. This way, Capcom games like Lost Planet could get decent showings on the silver screen and Capcom can work closely with studios to create games on Hollywood IPs ... which could allow them to work nicely together.

Microsoft should take a page from Capcom's book in dealing with Hollywood (possibly getting together with arch-nemesis Sony to make it). By working closely with Hollywood, Capcom is taking a step toward making gaming a more socially acceptable past time. If the movies about games are frequently decent (not directed by Uwe Boll), we could see a loosening of political intolerance of the medium as Hollywood and politicians frequently are in lock-step. Plus, Capcom gets to make more money, which they aren't about to argue with.

Capcom's makin' movies originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Dec 2006 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Game censorship is a big news item in the past few months. Political types of all walks of life enjoy trying to stifle the medium by passing laws that don't hold up in court in the US and even get through without much of a hitch in Europe. On the other side of the world, one nation is going the opposite direction.

South Korea, which recently proposed an anti-gold farming bill, has pulled censorship on games depicting military action against their northern neighbor. Under the ban, any game that was negative toward North Korea was not permitted for sale in the South, citing they would only inflame the existing tension. However, wiser South Korean lawmakers finally realized video games have little impact on the real world, cut the rule and games like Ghost Recon 2 can now be sold.

Lawmakers from the West take note; South Korea has the right idea. When they're sitting right next to an unstable tin-pot dictator and decide that games aren't going to cause a mass invasion, we should start reassessing this whole "games make people violent" kick. Our only hope is wiser people end up in leadership positions who actually try to solve problems instead of deflecting the responsibility on an unrelated party.

South Korea loosens game censorship originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

THQ's Saint's Row, the GTA clone that hit the Xbox 360 (for those who don't know), was a good move for them. The game sold well and made THQ stockholders very happy. However, the game shipped with some horrendous bugs, many of which completely broke the game. Many gamers never saw them, but others were inundated by them from start to finish. One such gamer decided to make the best of it. A blogger by the name of Cabel decided to film his buggy escapades and put them to a musical. The musical is fairly well done, in a hokey homebrew sort of way, and does have a comical segment where apparently the night sky in Stillwater hangs out somewhere below the surface of the planet during the day (vindicating the Dark Ages Roman Catholic church by proving the world is, indeed, flat). Check the link for the higher quality, not-YouTube version.

Saint's Row the musical originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MMO Portal, a website that chronicles everything MMO related, is selling a nice annual calendar for MMO fans. The bonus? 100% of the proceeds are going to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For anyone that hasn't shown up to a movie theater 10 minutes before the show in the past, uh, 5 years, St. Jude focuses on researching cures for diseases -- like cancer -- that take the lives of many children every year. For $14.95, the 2007 MMO calendar is a great way to get that desperately needed calendar in your house and benefit a good cause.

Buy an MMO calendar, save the children originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Over the past generation, when a new console hits the market, the console manufacturer goes on to shrink the die size of the CPU. The benefits are a cheaper chip -- the smaller the die, the more that fit into a manufacturing run -- and cooler temperatures. The Xbox 360 die shrink is going to have to wait a little bit longer.

Originally slated for Q1 2007, the 65nm processors for the Xbox 360 are being delayed until mid-2007. This means gamers are going to have to wait a little bit longer to get those Xbox 360 units that aren't quite so hot; it also means prospective buyers may be waiting a bit longer to see a price drop.

Reducing the die size on the Xbox 360 CPU is a major step to a price reduction, something Microsoft needs right now. Xbox 360 sales are less than smoking and the PS3 and Wii offering up some competition, Microsoft could have used a price drop as an excellent weapon against them. Maybe Microsoft can get the 65nm chips up and running before the PS3 has a chance to entrench itself in Europe.

Smaller processors on Xbox 360 delayed originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

World of Warcraft has become synonymous with PC gaming. Having hit 7 million subscribers, few who enjoy MMOs haven't played the game. However, one nagging issue has bothered many hardcore gamers; the Tuesday downtime.

Blizzard has offered us a nice Christmas present in this regard. Starting December 26th, Blizzard will no longer be pulling servers down to perform maintenance. The staff believes they are now in a position to be able to perform their maintenance while servers are live and have rolling downtime only when needed. To add to the benefit, the downtime is expected to only last around 10 minutes, not a few hours as was the tradition over the past two years.

The elimination of the Tuesday downtime should be cause for celebration for many gamers. We're paying Blizzard to give us WoW time, not to pull it off the net. We're still likely to expect the downtime for major patches, though we can't complain when Blizzard gives us large expansions for free. WoW fans, go ahead and enjoy playing Tuesday morning.

World of Warcraft gets less downtime originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With the new era of Pokemon coming out to savage the time of millions of DS owners worldwide, there is one feature we're not hearing much about. That feature? Online play via the DS WiFi feature.

With the Wii version of Pokemon getting a serious amount of attention about online play, the lack of DS information is puzzling. Many think that Pearl/Diamond will be completely without online compatibility. However, Nintendo quashed that rumor, saying the online play is there; they prefer the fan base to create their own buzz.

Being mum on the next big Pokemon's key feature isn't quite surprising. Nintendo has never had a problem moving handheld Pokemon titles. Nintendo is most likely choosing to focus their efforts on promoting the console version of the franchise, which will have an additional benefit of moving more Wii consoles in the process. Don't worry, Pokemon fans, you'll be throwing down with people around the nation in Pearl/Diamond.

Nintendo oddly silent on Pokemon DS online originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

An important aspect game publishers need to consider is their market. How many people are out there that buy games and of them, what are their buying habits? Jupiter Research, a market research company, has some answers.

Ultra gamers, as Jupiter calls them, make up 22% of the game buying population. The ultra gamers are gamers that spend more than 5 hours per week playing games and more than $50 in the last six months buying them. This means the other 78% is the casual market.

The ultra gamer tag (that would be most of the folks reading this) is certainly odd. We find $50 in six months to be a strangely low number, given the number of games many of us play in the course of a year; even the more economical GameFly subscription would run $132 in that period. Maybe the hardcore segment is a small portion of the ultra gamer segment.

Ultra gamers make up 22% of the market originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analysts are the life-blood of investors. We need some kind of opinion of where a company may be going; if we don't get it, we feel uneasy about a company's future. Michael Pachter is one of those people.

In an interview with N'Gai Croal, Pachter primarily discusses his bullish Xbox 360 predictions and how they've essentially fallen flat. He cites the bigger impact the lack of HD sets in homes had as well as miscalculated the price-insensitivity of the hardcore crowd. He thinks a simple price cut won't solve the matters (at least until his magical $150 mark is hit). Pachter further states he expects the PS3 to sell at the same rate as the 360 did since launch.

Given Pachter's history, we're beginning to wonder if he is on a stretch of bad luck, or shouldn't be listened to at all. He did predict the PS3 would outsell the Wii (then called Revolution) by up-to 60% this year as well as predicted 2006 to be a slow year for gaming (deemed wrong by his future prediction to buy GameStop stock); neither prediction came out close. We guess it is true; analysts are people paid to have an opinion.

The mind of a video game analyst originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tis the season for giving, and gaming companies are starting to get festive about it. THQ has released a Christmas theme pack for Saint's Row ... completely free. How Bethesda is getting into the spirit. Mehrunes' Razor, a 250 point Xbox Live Marketplace add-on, is being offered for absolutely free starting tomorrow through December 31. The quest, which was big jump in quality compared to the infamous horse armor (which we're sure they should have packed in as a freebie as well), is a wonderful way to thank all the loyal customers who purchased Oblivion. We just hope more companies do this next year, since all the new consoles now have some kind of online option available out-of-the-box.

Bethesda's Christmas present to all originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Exclusive content has been slowly moving away from the PS3. Mostly, they've been fairly minor, like Koei titles. However, an arguably bigger title is making the jump to the Xbox 360.

Sega has announced that Virtua Fighter 5 -- a former PS3 exclusive -- has moved over to the Xbox 360. Sega also offered a few more bits of information; The PS3 will still be getting a timed -- albeit short -- exclusive with the PS3 launch in Europe. The Xbox 360 version will be hitting Europe and North America in Summer 2007.

The exodus of PS3 exclusivity should start worrying Sony. Microsoft has been doing a better job of tying down exclusive content and Sony doesn't want to wage the console war utilizing in-house studios exclusively. It could be the already declining interest in the PS3 and questionable production capabilities that are convincing companies to move the the already established Xbox 360 platform.

[Thanks to all who sent this in]

Virtua Fighter 5 smacks PS3, heads to 360 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With the Covenant Elite saying goodbye as the major enemy in the Halo series, Bungie had to replace them with someone. To replace them, Bungie gives us the Brutes. Their documentary talks about the evolution of the Brutes from the stupid, mindless killing machines of Halo 2 to the more sophisticated enemy worthy of replacing the Elites. The video shows some nice, new in-game footage (which I'm sure is what most people care about the most) that should leave Halo fans wanting more. For those with an Xbox 360, you can get the 720p version from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Enjoy!

Halo 3 Brute video originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With the 20% price hike in PS3 and Xbox 360 games, gamers wonder exactly where it all goes. We hear it is because of the increase in production costs, but we still would like to know the breakdown of where our triplet of $20 bills gets sent. Now, Forbes has given us the skinny on the whole deal, explaining why games like Gears of War are priced at $60.

According to Forbes, $27 of the $60 taking its leave from your wallet goes toward the actual making of the game; $15 goes toward art and graphics while $12 goes toward gameplay mechanics. Other major price aspects are the 25% retail markup ($12 from a wholesale $48 per game) and console owner fee of $7 (Forbes says the PS3 is higher). All in all, the parties involved (retail and publisher) only get $1 for every game sold (publishers can boost it up to $3 per game if they sell advertising in the manual or as a pack-in pamphlet). This is, of course, before all those costs are paid up; after that, they can still make a nice profit at a $20 price point.

The article, accompanied by a nifty slide show presentation, is an interesting look into the world of the new current generation. Still, it doesn't exactly explain why we got the 20% boost other than the "increased production costs". Are programmers getting paid more, working more, need more to finish the game, etc? In either case, the breakdown is an interesting glimpse of the inner workings of a game companies pricing decisions.

[Thanks, Scooby Doo]

Where the $60 for new games goes originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A number of gaming companies have had decent 2006 performances. Ubisoft (EPA:UBI) is beginning to reverse their losing trend as is Infogrames (EPA:IFG); companies like THQ (THQI) are doing well and even GameStop (GME) is enjoying the success the publishing houses are. However, some analysts believe that this is going to be a temporary boost and publishers are going to have a weaker 2007.

DFC Intelligence has stated that 2007 will be a weaker year for game publishers (which contrasts other expectations). This decline is mainly because of the reduction of PS2 desirability as the system will be replaced by the next three consoles as well as a additive effect of third party publishers having had historically poor sales on Nintendo platforms. The hardest to be hit are expected to be Electronic Arts (ERTS) and Take Two (TTWO) as they are too heavily invested in Sony systems (one being in poor supply and the other expected to have declining software sales).

The trend is, however, just part of the console cycle. The year after the new batch of consoles launches has shown to be bad for the game creators. Current gen levels are still low and developers are cutting back on last-gen software development, giving the existing install base little to play. However, with major releases at the end of 2007 like Halo 3 and Final Fantasy XIII (which, ironically, are sequels of the titles that launched in 2001, the end of the second year after the PS2 launched), the slump will likely end there ... that is if poor third party success on a Nintendo console since the N64 doesn't persist.

Publishers expected to have slow 2007 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 17:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Few people hate Sony as a company; it is just the PS3 -- as well as the DRM and exploding batteries -- that pull the brunt of the ire. In fact, many of their other products are beloved by consumers worldwide and aren't decried by the media. The biggest reason is Sony's Electronic Division's strong consumer research practices.

Sony's television and digital camera lines garner much consumer approval. This is helped in part by the creation of focus groups and people who actually listen to customer feedback. For example, when developing the Mylo device (a handheld WiFi device that allows chat-functions, Internet connectivity, music and a full QWERTY keyboard) they sent 850 of the devices out to determine the who, what, where, when, why and how the product would be used and made changes around the feedback gained; as such, the Mylo is poised to be another well-received Sony product.

The PS3 is a device that appears to have been developed in a vacuum; one where only the engineers built what they thought was the ultimate console. This is shown by the general user unfriendly environment the PS3 has built; symptoms of which are seen in major media publications. While most of the problems can easily be fixed with firmware upgrades over time, there are still aspects that cannot be fixed -- such as the lack of a scaler chip to allow for a simple one-and-done resolution setting when using various features -- without angering earlier adopters or alienating customers with confusing redesigns so early in the life-cycle. How different would the PS3 be today if the PlayStation Division took the same consumer research approach the Electronics Division does?

Market research could have improved PS3's image originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner (who owns our parent company, Weblogs Inc.) is moving its way back into the gaming development business. Not since the Atari days in the 1980s has Warner held any serious hold in the game development front. Now it would seem that there are changes afoot.

Warner Bros. purchased a 10% interest in SCi Entertainment, better known to the world as Eidos, for £44.5 million (roughly $87 million). The new deal will give SCi access to Warner's long list of IPs; the list includes Looney Tunes and Batman.

Apart from Batman and possible improved leverage with DC Comics (another Time Warner subsidiary), SCi may want to be careful about overusing the licenses (Harry Potter was, oddly, not mentioned). Looney Tunes, while widely recognized, rarely translates into a quality gaming experience. If SCi can come up with some original content, Warner Bros. can use them for movies, not just a one way benefit.

Warner Bros. buys 10% of SCi originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Now that the PS3 has been out on the market for a while, analysts can get a firm grasp of exactly what the shortages are doing to, both hardware and software, the various alternatives. The actual results are surprising to most of us "logical" thinkers.

According to analyst groups, the biggest winner in the PS3 shortages is actually Sony. The displaced PS3 money is going to purchase PS2 software. Few are opting for an Xbox 360 as an alternative to not getting a PS3, though analysts believe the push will be enough to help Microsoft hit the 10 million goal. The biggest loser is EA, which focused too much effort on the PS3 and overextended themselves. Activision and THQ are in good positions as they focused more on the Xbox 360 and PS2.

There seems to be some method behind the PS3 madness at Sony. While they are losing potential PS3 customers, either to the Xbox 360 -- the Wii is not even considered an alternative and stands by itself -- or just won't buy it at all, the money is getting filtered into the PS2 business. However, these short term gains are going to kill third party relationships as it is expected that few, if any, PS3 games will reach profitability before 2007 is over and done with. If developers chose to focus on the established Xbox 360 while waiting for PS3 shipments to rise, they may be waiting forever; the PS3 won't continue to sell without the games to go along with it.

Some interesting PS3 shortage effects originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The biggest key business model Sony and Microsoft uses when selling their gaming consoles is to sell them for a loss and make up the profits later with royalty income. Sony, however, has decided to buck this trend when selling the PS3 in Mexico. The price will leave all but the most fortunate Mexican citizens without the means to obtain the game console.

Sony has decided to graciously sell the 20GB PS3 model in Mexico for an astounding 10,495 pesos, or $974 at current exchange rates. The PS3 is a touch higher than the UK's £425/$835 (the UK is getting the 60GB model only), but UK citizens also make 7 times as much per year as the typical Mexican citizen, making the price far more unreasonable. Hey, at least they aren't charging a full year's income, like the Xbox 360 in India.

Selling your console offering for more in clearly poorer nations -- why not just sell them at the same price as everyone else -- is a strange trend. At these prices, we think Sony should just give up on the Mexican marketplace entirely. A few measly units isn't going to do the business good, especially when they'll be snapped up by US or Japanese consumers who will likely spend far more on software.

[Thanks, Liraco]

PS3 launching at $974 in Mexico originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 06:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Folks who don't like the concept of video games are frequently willing to go to lengths to get the medium silenced. They're willing to knowingly pass unconstitutional laws -- to the expense of taxpayers -- and frequently call upon studies that employed questionable methods. Now, we may be seeing a new tactic.

Recently, hackers have attacked three online gaming sites that are geared toward casual gamers. The site pages were replaced with the FBI's Anti-Piracy Warning label, making people think that the sites had violated some law. The FBI stated their surprise about how authentic the whole setup looked.

The specific targeting of gaming sites does raise a questionable eyebrow. People vehemently opposed to an idea/medium/etc. frequently go to great lengths to destroy it (think the anti-Rock and Roll movement). The Internet Crime Complaint Center thinks this trend will move to other sites, but we shouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be a group of angry anti-gaming activists willing to take the law into their own hands.

A new anti-gamer tactic? originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 02:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sony's world hasn't been getting rained on by sunshine as of late. It would appear that everything they've done over the past year has ended in one form of disaster or another. However, it would seem that Sony is going to get a bit of good news.

According to patent #0060282873, Sony has apparently one-upped the now familiar Wii remote. Combining LED lights and what appears to be the EyeToy, Sony has created a control mechanism that appears to allow not just for full-range controller motion, but also allows the player's body movements to add to the input. Not only that, it would appear that the entire mechanism is different enough to avoid a serious legal challenge by Nintendo -- LED travels the other direction -- and Interlink Electronics -- their contraption doesn't use a camera.

Sony is certainly jumping all over the whole motion control craze, having filed two different methods previously. By cornering the motion sensing market, it would appear Sony is performing a preemptive strike for the PS4 generation; this would put pressure on Microsoft to come up with a new way of handling motion sensitivity and almost forcing Nintendo to keep the Wiimote as-is.

[Via Engadget]

Sony's newest motion sensing patent originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 14 Dec 2006 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

UbiSoft Entertainment hasn't been putting out great news in the financial statements. They've taken a nice loss in the first half of their fiscal year, but it was bolstered by improving expectations. Now UbiSoft gets a little more praise with a buy rating.

Analysts with Wedbush Morgan Securities expect UbiSoft stock to hit €34 within the next 12 months on an expected 30% earnings growth. The price is currently hovering around €19. This means UbiSoft could expect good things in their future (possibly profitability).

As usual, UbiSoft is expected to make this happen on the backs of key franchises, like the Tom Clancy series and Prince of Persia. The trick is for Ubi to not destroy their franchises; nothing will destroy your business better than turning your popular games into junk.

Despite poor performance, UbiSoft gets buy rating originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Any of you remember watching the freakishly awful movie Grandma's Boy? We don't either (thank you selective memory), but those of you who do remember -- we feel sorry for you -- a little game called Demonik was featured as a main plot point. Guess what, the game is real.

Demonik is an Xbox 360 game being developed by Terminal Reality and being published by Majesco. The 360 billing doesn't come as much of a surprise given what we saw in the movie was just a touch too good looking to be an Xbox game.

Given Majesco's poor marketing -- Psychonauts comes to mind -- seeing Demonik featured in an bad movie isn't too much of a surprise. We didn't rush out to see if Demonik was the real deal after all. Maybe Majesco should start reassessing how they promote their games, putting them in insulting game movies won't help the image.

[Thanks, Vlad]

Demonik from Grandma's Boy, the worst marketing ever originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The public loves its scares. Since the advent of gaming, our beloved hobby has been under attack. The scares normally revolve around violence and how gaming is the root cause. The newest scare that might get tagged to gaming: WiFi.

Currently, the scientific world is fighting over the health effects of WiFi. Some claim that WiFi destroys organ tissue -- didn't they try this with cell phones -- and another camp that says the first group is full of bunk. Since each major console, handheld and not-so-handheld, has some WiFi component, it is just a matter of time before gaming gets blamed.

Gamers, gear up for another possible scare: games cause cancer. It is not a matter of if, but when some "intelligent" person figures out that a large chunk of those evil WiFi waves are being pumped out by various DS, PSP, or Xbox 360 units. That's fine by us, we're already fully aware the public-at-large latches onto the worst possible (and frequently wrong) aspect of anything different, we're used to being under fire.

Gaming may get embroiled in new scare originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Now that the Wii has hit the UK, the numbers are rolling in. As it stands, Nintendo had an outstanding launch. However, those numbers may not mean anything.

Nintendo has reported sales of 105,000 Wiis over the weekend, smashing the record of 70,000 set by the Xbox 360. Nintendo is off to a great start, but one question remains ... can they keep up the momentum?

If the DS is any indicator, the Wii should enjoy its life (the DS sold 110,000 the week the Wii launched). However, trumpeting a record launch is meaningless. Simply put, marking a record launch is almost entirely dependent on how many units you launch with. Sony can do well to beat that with the PS3 if they delay until 200,000 PS3s are available to sell in the UK. What matters is if Nintendo can keep the Wiis flying off the shelf and the record launch will only offer short-term publicity ... Nintendo needs to make sure they offer a reason to keep the units flowing.

Wii sells 105,000 in UK, breaks record originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blue Dragon is Microsoft's attempt to truly break into the Japanese console market. The Blue Dragon launch can be billed the REAL Xbox 360 launch day in Japan; at least, Microsoft hopes it is.

According to a confusing machine translation from GameSpot China, the Xbox 360 sold either 27,000 or 70,000 units to accommodate the release of Blue Dragon. If 70,000 is the correct number, an additional 43,000 units of Blue Dragon sold (which is the bulk of the Japanese owners who previously purchased an Xbox 360). In either case, this is certainly a nice boost for Microsoft.

If the 70,000 is the correct version of the translation, it would certainly be odd to see the Xbox 360 sitting at a solid #3 on Japan's weekly sales chart. Microsoft hopes to sell 200,000 copies of Blue Dragon in Japan, which means Microsoft hopes to have around 200,000 Xbox 360 units in Japanese households. While not impressive from the standpoint of, say, the DS -- Nintendo sells that many in two weeks -- Microsoft should enjoy the sales boost and the publicity that goes along with it.

Blue Dragon moves some Xbox 360 hardware originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl fell into a nice little category along the likes of Duke Nukem Forever in being an oft-delayed (yes, that does say 2004) game that many assumed would never see the light of day (as well as rumors of a full-on cancellation). Announced first in 2001 and sporting an original release date of 2003, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. suffered numerous delays, all without an end in sight. However, it takes a video found on YouTube to give us some hope that the game is actually going to be released; the release date is ever so soon.

In the above video, we see a collage of Chernobyl video with a few hints of in-game play. At the end of the video, we see what appears to be "We opened the gates to hell" written in German followed by a tantalizing March 2007. Not only are we getting a release date, it is coming very soon. This is certainly a great Christmas present for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans ... assuming it isn't some cruel hoax.

[Via ThatGameBlog, Thanks jake]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. actually getting released? originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Poor Nintendo, just when it looks like they have a sure-fire hit on their hands, someone has to go and sue them. It would appear that someone claims they came up with the technology in the Wiimote and is now taking Nintendo to court; no, it isn't Sony.

Interlink Electronics, a California company most of us never heard of, thought that the good ol' Wiimote has infringed on one of their patents. From what the suit entails, they're not suing over the full-range motion, but over a trigger. Our best translation of the patent abstract is the trigger is pressure sensitive and transmits using infrared.

From what we can discern, this would appear to be a shot in the dark lawsuit. Pressure sensitive triggers have been around for a long while now and patent law does state that the patent needs to be novel; since the N64 [update: bad author memory, N64 simulated pressure sensitivity, not actual] PS2 featured pressure sensitivity -- the technology also most likely existed prior to that -- and the complete lack of infrared transmission (the remote senses the IR from the sensor bar to acclimate itself) from the Wiimote (it uses Bluetooth to transmit) makes this suit suspect. There seems to be too many key differences -- and irregularities -- to make this a winnable case for Interlink.

[Thanks, dark54555]

Nintendo gets sued over Wiimote [update 1] originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 08 Dec 2006 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In yet another side-by-side comparison fight -- this time broadcast on television -- the Xbox 360 was once again crowned the winner over the PS3. The comparison loss adds yet another black mark on the PS3's, and Sony's, faltering image. A comparison like this is not something the PS3 needs right now.

H3 Enterprises, a major player in the hip-hop culture world (a large market segment Sony likes to target), displayed the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Fight Night on 1080p screens at the famed Apollo theater. Played by what H3 billed as Harlem's top rappers, the Xbox 360 was claimed to be superior in every way. CNBC and BET both had cameras trained on the in-action comparison and the reaction of those there.

It is one thing when gaming sites like Gamespot run side-by-side comparisons since they're only seen by fairly avid gamers; however, when television broadcasts, especially those that hit major market segments, run comparisons, they can speak volumes. A second round involving Madden 2007, NBA Live 2007 and NBA 2K7 will be broadcast on tomorrow night's next week's [update 1] SpikeTV Video Game Awards; despite the awards being a joke to gamers like us, the show does get good ratings so the PS3 cannot afford to take a hit, lest lose more momentum to the 360.

360 "beats down" PS3 on TV [update 1] originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Dec 2006 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It is common knowledge that the PS3 is being used as a means to boost the Blu-ray install-base, even if Sony won't come out and say it. However, it would appear that Blu-ray is being harmed by its inclusion in the PS3.

According to a survey by Cymfony, a analyst group that focuses on market influence, HD-DVD has 46% more positive discussions on various websites than Blu-ray. Half as many people are also impressed with Blu-ray visuals than are with HD-DVD visuals. The key reasons for low Blu-ray acceptance is the forced (there's that word again) inclusion in the PS3 and Sony's format reputation.

Consumers are clearly not warming up to Blu-ray. The reasons range from fear of another Sony flop -- they've never been good at initializing a format change -- to the using the PS3 to boost the install base. It would appear that Microsoft's HD-DVD add-on was the right choice after all; if you want it, great, if you don't, you've saved yourself $200. If Cymfony's claims that they reliably predict market trends are right, this data could convince manufacturers that Blu-ray is a bad move and swing near-full support toward HD-DVD ... and damage a major PS3 selling point.

[Via Engadget]

PS3 harming Blu-ray acceptance originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.