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I am not sure about rest of the world but the music industry here in the US is a joke. A few companies which own all of the radio stations take bribes/payola from large labels and play the same rotations 24-7. MTV (which owns RB) is part of this same system. Actvision (which owns guitar hero) is trying to get into this industry.

Guitar Hero and RB could of made their mark as vehicles to launch independent artists. Harmonix, the company behind both GH and RB used to do that well, but MTV just had to ruin it all for the mighty dollar.

The supporters of the raid are missing one important point here: Homeland security does not have infinite resources. So while ICE spent months to prepare for these sort of operations and bust some modders who probably make a few hundred bucks a month modding, it could go after much larger criminals such as half of the construction industry which employ illegal immigrants.
The only reason why these raids happened is because game companies spent a great amount of $$$ lobbying the government into wasting a lot more of tax payers money.

One thing for sure, the Japanese developers (or perhaps the entire Asian culture) are more humble.

There is no doubt that on the PC Western game developers dominate. On consoles the debate can go on forever. Western developers tend to focus on communications/multiplayer, graphics wows and FPS, which go HTH. Japanese developers tend to make games with better story lines, gameplay, and music. At the end, I hope there are more cases like Metroid Prime where Japanese and Western developers work together to create a truely remarkable game.

Bah, only game elitists are against gold farmers. Most people can't play games 8 hours a day to get the elite gears. Time is more important to certain people than others. Why shouldn't those who have meaningful jobs (or not) in real life be able to buy online assets simply to compete with those who play games all day? Isn't this what Capitalism is really about?

This looks cool but unfortunately not too practical. I have been bringing a ps2 slim and 8' portable dvd player for a while now on business trips. The screen is simply too small. You can't really play many games because the text becomes blurry. A better solution would be to mount the console on a projector.

As for "western" culture and it's affinity to muscle ripping masculinity, a quick sample of the Gucci, Hermes, or D&G ads on high fasion mags (for males) such as GQ or Esquire show that people in the fashion industry have been pushing instead for the male Glam look for years. The transformation of Castlevania art work therefore can be explained as artists merely following current fashion trends a lot closer than your typical gamer/game reviwer would. The return to simple anime style for the DS games on ther other hand, is probably just due to the targeted audience (DS has been aimed to younger audience).

Glam was and still is popular in Japan. Simply google Gackt and Hyde for proof. Japan's metrosexual transformation in the mid 90s is reflected in the game arts. There is some evidence of that in the US cities as well, with more males plugging their eyebrows and buying LV purses.

Speaking of game prices, why is it that no one talks about the used market? Sure the new PSP games are $40+ but you can easily find most titles for less than $25 used (albeit a slight waiting period is required).

I would definitely be interested in getting a PSP if the price drops down to $150. PSP has a handful of good games, nicely filling in the RPG and Fighting niche which the DS lacks.

Of course, it would be foolish for the Sony Reps to to admit that a price cut is in the works now. That would only encourage potential customers to hold off buying the units until the actual sale. So IMO the price cut WILL happen, probably right before or after Xmas though (pending sales).

What's up with the spelling lames? Sheesh. Some people are bad at spelling because they have been relying on spell checkers all their lives. Sadly, unlike poor spelling, poor reading comprehension and general ignorance cannot be fixed so easily.

Derbeste has made some good points. Sony had just entered the handheld market. As with any large investment no one expects this project to turn into profit anytime soon. The average VC investment turnaround time is around 5 years, and Sony has a lot more patience than your average venture capitalist. The game has just started for Sony and they are learning from their mistakes. Lets hope that PSP2 will turn out to be a better competitor.

The whole point of this conference was to pitch a message to gamers and investors on new Nintendo projects, although most of this target group were not at conference. Instead it was up to mostly industry professionals and marketing/media firms to propagate this message. IMO Nintendo did a great job because their message was easily caught by Joystiq and successfully relayed back to those who read this blog or watched the conference. Playing is Believing is a good, inviting slogan which reaches out for the masses. You can tell that Nintendo marketing and exec team did some serious work for this presentation.

As for the future of Wii, if the sales for DS is of any indication Wii should be just as successful. The DS is in many ways like the Wii, they are both more innovative and cheaper than the competition, although they are weaker in the hardware department. Looking at the game sales of PSP vs DS only reinforces the belief that gamers care more about price and playability, than fancy graphics and cool (but non-gaming related) features. This is exactly the same message which Nintendo is trying to tell the industry professionals, and ultimately the gamers.