PS3 to be region free.
Woohoo. Now I can buy RPGs I can’t play without getting the system modded. I expect this will increase the number of gamers who import titles from Japan, but also eat into sales of Western releases by a little, which is part of the reason console manufacturers always used region encoding.
GameStop makes huge profits.
Buying your competitors and selling used games as new really works.
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This pic of Representative Keeley is really a stronger argument against her position than anything I could write.
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Jack Thompson and Delaware Representative try to brand violent games as obscene, thereby getting around that pesky First Amendment.
According to them games are not speech so they shouldn’t be protected. Since when did artistic expression need to be in the form of spoken words? Since stupid religious conservatives saw an issue that would make them rich and famous.
PS3 will come with a hard drive.
Last weeks jokes are taken back by 75%. Sony still deserves a little ridicule for not initially knowing their system would come with a HD.
Revolution to play not only classic Nintendo titles, but Genesis and Turbografx games.
Nintendo’s strategy with the Revolution is either brilliant or self defeating. They hope to appeal to a wide audience by simplifying the input device of their console, but also plan on offering Turbografx (one of the first xtreme products) games. I predict the hardcore will be turned off by Nintendo’s attempts at gaining a mainstream audience by simplifying games and the mainstream will be turned off by Nintendo’s attempts at capturing the hardcore crowd by offering decade old games for a system that failed in America. The good news is now I don’t need to buy a Turbografx to play Lords of Thunder.
Xbox portable coming?
What market will it be aimed at? The PSP seems to have “cool with very few good games” cornered and the DS owns the “good games but the touch screen is useless” market. Maybe the XPortable™ will go for “low battery life and running on Windows CE.”
Katamari team officially dissolved.
The PSP Katamari was made without the guy who created KD. Namco really knows how to tell their employees, “Your opinions matter until they get in the way of profit. Now go design play grounds.”
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Will work for flamboyant attire.
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Miyamoto speaks.
"Customers are more interested in variety and quality then straight quantity. Too many game creators listen to requests from existing gamers who simply want beefed-up versions of existing games." You go girl. Miyamoto also mentions that PS3 announcements affect Nintendo but then stresses that the Revolution won’t be directly competing with the PS3. He gets points for acknowledging the PS3s importance, then loses them for refusing to accept all major consoles, no matter how different, are in direct competition.
Acclaim, realizing making mediocre games doesn’t fulfill their pact with Satan, makes agreement for in game advertising.
Ads to have Massive Incorporated’s slogan on them: “Immersion destroyed by Massive Incorporated.”
360 developer kits for under $360?
Actually, the word is they’ll cost $100. An interesting revelation because Nintendo has announced plans to reach out to the indie community as well. The difference between pro and amateur games on the 360 will be more apparent than the gap for Revolution games, but then Microsoft has the Live Arcade thingy set up and doing well already. But then about 8 new Xbox’s have been sold in Japan, so I expect an indie Western community making games for MS and an indie Eastern community making games for Nintendo.
Xbox Live more popular than my mom.
It seems I may be completely wrong about my prediction that internet gaming isn’t going to be as big as people expect. Looks like I need to get my ass online.
Sega and Obsidian to team up on new RPG.
Two of my favorite companies are working together to make a game in my favorite genre. Sega hasn’t been doing too hot lately and Obsidian has shown with KOTOR 2 that its reputation doesn’t mean they get to call the shots (the game wasn’t really finished). This is probably more of a PR move than anything for Sega, since they are trying to make their brand more palatable to western gamers. What are the odds Obsidian is working on Skies of Arcadia 2?
This is news I care about. A few brief comments:
Region free ps3 gets the thumbs up. I’m sure im naive and misguided, but I dont see a downside. No more elaborate crap to go through to play obscure games.
Backwards compatibility (and whatever solution Nintendo has for letting me play old games) is a terrific idea for the same reasons as region free compatibility. More games and more choices.
Dissolving of the Katamari team is a good thing, probably. Chaining that guy down will only restrict his creativity, and will not result in anything playable. Hopefully he eventually gives me some other unpronouceable game to play.
The one thing I want to know from E3 (and I’m going to make sure and ask) is whether or not ALL of the games for the PS3 will be region free. That is, will the PS1 and PS2 games be region free also?? If that’s true that would be great. I have a few dozen Japanese PS1 games I want to be able to play again, but my modded PS1 just doesn’t work like it should anymore. Sigh.
i like to think im fairly hardcore simply because ive played imported games on modded systems. is this true? what percentage of gamers can claim that? im thinking those that find their way to this site tend to be a little more serious than the rest, but even at that how many people have printed out a translation of dialogue for a game that was only released in japan?