Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 2.16.07

Virtua Fighter 5 sells well in Japan despite reports to the contrary
Despite my rants about how shitty game journalism is, I am often too lazy to be the change I want to see in the world (paraphrased Gandhi quote FTW!). Last week, a little short on stories, I decided to post something that was both very specific to my tastes and not really news. The second part should’ve been blatantly obvious since the story was on kotaku.com.

So now I would both like to apologize for the lapse in quality journalism and for the story being just plain wrong. I have brought shame to videolamer and to my family. If my parents hadn’t stopped speaking to me years ago because I am a horrible disappointment of a son, I am sure they would be ashamed.

Artsy enough to have his own clothing line, but not so artsy he is beaten to death in a dark alley.

Marc Ecko forms game studio
Vin Diesel is the only celebrity I know of who seems to actually be talented. It’s hard to gauge how much Tigon was involved with the Chronicles of Riddick game, but the game kicked ass. It’s hard to gauge if Marc Ecko had anything to do with Marc Ecko’s Getting Up, but the game was stupid. When street culture is no longer profitable, will you have something worth listening to, Mr. Ecko? It’s a bizarre request, but you should try to be more like Mr Diesel.

Interview with David Edery on Xbox Arcade
Xbox Arcade seems to be using Nintendo’s overall business philosophy. The problem with this is that 360s are marketed primarily to current gamers. Nintendo is marketing directly to the casual and non-gamer, then (for the love of god I hope) also offering experiences for the more hardcore. This works because if your market is 75% of the population, you can then offer more specific games for smaller slices. Microsoft is essentially marketing to 25% of the population with their console but 75% with the Live Arcade service. It can never reach the wider audience because that audience doesn’t know that the service even exists, and if they didn’t it’d be very hard to get them to pay $400 for Geometry Wars, Tapper, and Uno.

Ueda and company looking for team members
Plan of action:
1) Read that book on how to make anyone do anything
2) Groom self
3) Make friend
4) Make friend buy a PS3
5) Play Ueda game
6) Continue claiming to hate everything Sony has ever done

Seeds spurt from Clover’s corpse
With any luck, they will also make a few unique games that don’t do well in a market that rewards licenses and sequels, then close just like Clover.

Games never released in the West coming thanks to Virtual Console?
George Harrison at Nintendo says that if they can get them translated properly, they are open to the idea. This probably means it’ll never happen. They only have five years or so with the console and there are a million important things Nintendo has said they would do so what harm is it saying they would consider doing something?

Panzer Dragoon + Treasure’s craftsmanship = I don’t know, I never played it

But just in case, here is my list:

Fire Emblem: Monshō no Nazo – SNES
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu – SNES
Shin Megami Tensei – SNES
Necromancer — PC Engine
Alien Soldier — Genesis
Sin and Punishment — N64

Games are good for your eyes
Ironic, as my eyes are burning as I sit here typing the news. I rub them every two minutes and they sting quite a bit, so maybe instead of staring at test on a monitor I should be in the living room finishing the Temple of Time. Too bad loud music has damaged my ears to such an extent I can’t even hear Link call for Epona.