Wipe away those tears, sunken-eyed PC loyalists. We know you're upset that Firaxis appears to have turned their back on you in favor of the somewhat fairer console waters, but perhaps the latest edition of Big Versus on Joystiq's youngest sibling, Big Download, will mend your tattered hearts. The console-exclusive Civilization Revolution is measured against the PC-exclusive Civilization IV in this installment -- are PC gamers being robbed of an important chapter in the seminal turn-based strategy franchise, or are they dodging a dumbed-down, oversimplified bullet? You've got to read to find out -- but knowing you brainy PC types, that shouldn't be a problem.

In our interview with Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson, it was explained that there were no plans to bring the long-awaited title to any platform other than PC and Mac. However, in the six days that have passed since said interview, a couple of Blizzard higher-ups weren't quite as dismissive of the possibility of the dungeon crawler making an appearance on our primitive gameboxes -- though the language used to describe this possibility hasn't exactly given us high-apple-pie-in-the-sky hopes.

When asked about a console rendition of the third entry in the Lord of Terror-slaying franchise, Blizzard COO Paul Sams gave an inconclusive "I don't know yet," though Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo suggested a console port was "theoretically possible," as out of all of Blizzard's franchises, Diablo would be the most console-friendly. We guess a theoretical "yes" is better than an actual "no", or a metaphorical "maybe", but we're still not holding our bated breath for a non-compy version of Diablo the Third.

The official Nintendo Korea site states the country will join the chorus of global Wii worship on April 26, 2008 for 220,000 won ($225 USD). The console will launch with eight titles, including Wii Sports (not included in box), Wii Play -- one of the best selling pieces of "software" in the US -- and puzzle adventure game Zack & Wiki.

The launch happens a little over a week before Children's Day, a popular gift-giving holiday in the country. We'll have to wait and see if the Wii can pull Koreans away from their computer screens -- and Starcraft -- long enough to try out some console gaming.

[Via GoNintendo]

It's been nearly a year and a half since the beginning of the current console war, and supporters of the Wii, PS3, and 360 are still set deep in their trenches, fighting the good fight. Gallons of fanboy blood and immeasurable amounts of bandwidth have been spilled in this epic struggle -- and according to Sandy Duncan, former VP for Xbox Europe, it's all for naught. All gaming consoles, he claims, will "die out" within the next five to ten years.

No, a console-corrupting pandemic isn't going to sweep the planet -- Duncan predicts that dedicated gaming devices will give way to digital distribution through cable and satellite set-top boxes and online gaming options (though considering his executive position with the web-based YoYo games, this could just be simple, doe-eyed optimism). This presents an interesting question: with no consoles to crusade for, what brave new enterprises will the fanboys move on to? Advertising? Public Relations? God help us -- politics?

Taiwan's Acer computers is looking to expand past its image as a budget notebook maker with a planned gaming-centric PC, according to a recent interview. Details are scarce, but company VP James T. Wong touted the planned gaming machine's basis in "open standards," compared to closed, proprietary systems of the likes of Microsoft and Nintendo (perhaps Mr. Wong has not heard about the system-opening efforts of XNA and Wii Ware).

Of course, an "open standard" gaming PC could be anything from a simple PC Gaming Alliance-approved system to a full-on Phantom-style set-top box that can run any PC game. We're certainly hoping its the latter -- headline writing hasn't been nearly as fun without the Phantom to kick around.

[Via Engadget]

After our brief hands-on time with the game at CES, we're anxiously awaiting the September release of Gas Powered Games' Space Siege, the interstellar reimagining of Dungeon Siege (the classic RPG series, not the latest box office turd from team Boll/Statham). However, it's a little known fact that four out of every five Joystiq writers don't own computers -- many of our posts are actually published with an intricate system of smoke signals, morse code, and carrier pigeons.

Luckily, we, along with the rest of the WASDaphobic world, might not miss out Space Siege -- According to videogaming247, the game's associate producer recently explained that "a console version is something that's being considered right now." While he mentioned that a port of the game is not officially confirmed, the very thought of getting our PC-fearing hands on the spiritual successor to one of our favorite RPG franchises is enough to inspire visions of zero-G Krug dancing through our heads.

[Via X3F]

Ladies and gentlemen, our long national nightmare is finally over. After nearly six long days living in mortal terror that NPD would no longer be releasing its monthly console sales reports, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. GameDaily is reporting that the big three console manufacturers have all signed on to allow the monthly drip of sweet, fanboy-fueling data that has become a morphine-like addiction for the game media.

The next drop of data is set to drip this Thursday, Nov. 15, easing the pain for just a little longer. For those of you who just can't wait that long for your fix, try to ease the cravings with some predictions from Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. Oh, precious data ... never scare us like that again.

Are we seeing a movement developing? No sooner does EA's Gerhard Florin say he'd like to see an "open, standard platform" then game designer extraordinaire Denis Dyack says he sees such an idea as "inevitable." Writing for the UK's Official Xbox Magazine (as reported by Computer & Video Games), Dyack argues that having multiple competitive consoles is bad for third parties, who have to make tough decisions on how to split resources, and bad for first parties, who have to spend gobs of money on hardware development to attract the third parties. Such an inefficient market can't sustain itself, Dyack argues, turning a one-console future into "a future we can't avoid."

Sorry, we don't buy it. Even with the market split between three strong systems, both first- and third-parties seem to be doing just fine by targeting content to the specific audiences of each console. More importantly, a single standard would remove the competitive drive to innovate, meaning the unified platform could quickly stagnate. The VHS format reigned supreme for nearly twenty years partly because of its near-monopoly on the home video market. Can you imagine if the NES had lasted that long? Thankfully Sega and the Genesis kick-started the competitive cycle that has led to today's varied crop of systems.

Dyack sees a "consortium of game makers" deciding on the single standard, but such a consortium would inevitably devolve into petty squabbles over hardware issues like type of disc drive, controller design and motion sensitivity, hard drive size, media center features, RAM and a million others. The result would either be a kitchen-sink system that tries to do everything and costs a bazillion dollars (3DO, anyone?) or a splintering of different hardware configurations that would probably look a lot like our current marketplace.

Sorry Denis, but it seems to us like a single-console future is far from inevitable.

Just a few hours after the good news hit, Take 2 has released a trailer for the upcoming Civilization Revolution game our handheld and console systems are already salivating for. Ok, so no actual gameplay is shown, just a bunch of orchestral music, pre-rendered cut scenes, and marketing speak reminding us why Civilization is one of the coolest franchises we've ever played. But come on ... this is Civilization. On your DS. On your Xbox 360. How great is that?

Bloomberg news just flowed with the good quotes today. Speaking with various Xbox executives, they got one to talk about a sales sweet spot, another to say where they really want the Xbox numbers to be, and finally, a message to the hardcore. First up was Xbox's director of product management, David Hufford, who said, "We are well aware that the sweet spot of the market is really 199 bucks.'' Knowing and doing are clearly two different things. We've been expecting an Xbox price drop to come along later this year, but there hasn't really been a clear movement in that direction just yet. And even if there is a drop, we really don't think anybody should be expecting the premium or "real" Xbox 360 to be $199 anytime soon.

Another beautiful quote comes from Peter Moore, who discusses expanding the demographics of the Xbox 360, which currently resides with the 20-something male. Moore says, "If we don't make that move, make it early and expand our demographic, we will wind up in the same place as with Xbox 1, a solid business with 25 million people ... What I need is a solid business with 90 million people.'' Is that a lofty goal? You better believe it. But if that's where Moore wants to be, expect some serious changes with the console coming soon -- there's that concept of a price drop again.

Some of the changes expected are more family games, making children's titles easier to find and cutting the price. We have one more quote, which really nails home how the Wii is changing the industry with its disturbing sales march. Albert Penello, director of Xbox global marketing knocks it out of the park with, "If you don't start building that content and reputation it never comes ... I don't want to be pigeonholed as a hard-core machine.''

[Via GI.biz]

Electronic Arts today announced the formation of a new development branch to nestle beneath it's massive corporate umbrella: EA Casual Entertainment. The group will focus on creating "highly accessible games" that jump right to the fun, leaving all those pesky tutorials, backstories, and other distractions in the dust. Casual Entertainment will develop and publish games for consoles, handheld devices, mobile phones, and the PC. The group is working on new franchises to be unveiled in the future.

EA has already found success in casual games from its 2001 acquisition of Pogo.com. The portal is now one of the dominant forces in casual entertainment, making EA's new studio a virtual money printing machine.

Sure, we've covered the Wii60 meme before, but this is too good to pass up; our video pick shows a quirky Wii60 commercial where the consoles -- and their games -- are acted out in a musical montage. Anthony Barrera, Brian Camacho, and Rudolph Rosado, we salute your YouTube prowess.

See the video after the break.

[Thanks, Ant]

Although we fully expect Nintendo to announce new Wii colors in the next year, why not take matters into your own hands and get your Wii custom colored. You can also get your Xbox 360 and/or PS3 done at the same time. ColorWare will let you choose the custom color you want for your console and ship it back to you in 8-10 business days, the cost starts around $100, but to do it right with the controllers and other tweaks it's more like $200. You can purchase your console directly from ColorWare as well and cut out the shipping time (of course the Wii are out of stock).

For those who just need their console match the drapes and scream personality, this looks like a relatively inexpensive and painless solution. Although the colors above look like '80s jacket, '50s refrigerator and hospital green, there's actually a great assortment of colors to choose from. You can always attempt to do a custom paint-job yourself, but for those who would go ahead a purchase another console just for a color, spending the $100 - $200 here might be just a little more economical.

Nielsen Media Research, best know for its TV ratings, has released an outline the American video game landscape in the form of "The State of the Console" report. Among the more interesting findings:

• 45.7 million U.S. households have at least one game system, out of 111.4 million that have TVs (41.1%). This number has risen from 38.6 million (35.2%) in late 2004.
• 148.4 million Americans have access to a console in their home, out of 283.5 million that have access to TVs (52.4%). Of those, 93.8 million Americans (33.3% of the TV population) actually used a console in the 4th quarter of 2006.
• The top 20% of gamers are responsible for 75% of the console time, averaging 5 hours and 45 minutes of use per day.

Those last two factoids are pretty interesting, as they show console games are still appealing primarily to a very small niche of the potential market, and that a small slice of that niche is responsible for most of the actual playing time. If game makers can somehow attract these uninterested console owners, they'll have tapped into a much larger market than they might be used to.

Read - Summary
Read - Full report (7 page PDF)

The fine cranks over at Curmudgeon Gamer have pointed out a somewhat disturbing trend of server shutdowns for some high profile online-enabled games from the last generation. Apparently, the online user base for these games is no longer sufficient to justify the expense for the companies running their servers.

It's a little bit troubling to consider that there's an effective time limit for the online features of any console game you buy, and that this limit is totally at the discretion of the publisher. Then again, it's hard to ask a company to continue to devote resources for servers that few people are using and fewer still will likely use in the future.

The solution seems obvious to us -- let players host their own servers, either through a PC or through the console itself. The online experience might suffer a bit, but at least interested players will still be able to play online without being a burden on the publisher. Failing that, follow the Curmudgeon's suggestion bring back the direct connection, player-to-player multiplayer that was available on the Dreamcast. Either way, don't take away our online play.

Previously: Amplitude servers going offline, 'farewell party' Sunday