Epic Swag UNLOCKED! God of War Chains of Olympus Demo Arrives

Man, talk about lucky, or maybe it just a perk of being one of the internet's most prolific bloggers. But in any event, I received in the mail a copy of the God of War Chains of Olympus demo for PSP. Included with the demo is a necklace featuring the Greek Omega symbol and a coupon for $15.00 off of the purchase of a PSP. Given that only a few thousand of these were sent out, this will no doubt go on to be one of my more valuable videogame related collectibles.

As for my impressions on the demo, i was greatly impressed. The graphics are just insane for a PSP game. The game looks a little lower res and more jaggy than one of the PS2 versions, but maaaaaan, it's just ridiculous for a portable game to look this good. The gameplay is almost a perfect clone of the console games. It is slightly hampered by the lack of analog sticks and only two trigger buttons, but it played really well.

What impressed me most were some of the new directions that the developers were taking the series. Set before the events of God of War II, Kratos is a servent of Olympus defending Greece against a Persian invasion. Although cashing in on 300's success with this story, you fight uniquely Persian looking soldiers for a nice change of pace, fire ballista's at triremes flying sails adorned with the Zoroastrian eagle, and coolest of all, your spells in this game are derived from mystical beings of Persian origin. I unlocked "Ifrit magic" as my first spell in the game while playing the demo.

My favorite moment of the demo is when a giant cyclops breaks down a door and you are thinking "oh shit" when all of a sudden a much bigger giant basilisk comes out of nowhere and eats the cyclops, making for one of the epic boss encounters that the series is known for.

Although i was excited about this game before, playing the demo has me really pumped.

Great Moments in Videogame Advertising: Pitfall!

This ad stars a young Jack Black hocking Activision's perennial platformer, Pitfall.

27 Ways To Fix the Consoles

Gamepro has a good article up right now addressing ways to fix each of the various consoles' various flaws and quirks.

Monkspider Tackles the Tough Issues: Are Used Games Hurting the Industry?

A recent article discussed huge videogame chain Gamestop opening it's 5000th store recently. Another article on Destructoid had Free Radical developer Jason Rubin saying stores like Gamestop were "essentially defrauding the rest of the industry". All of this seems to be putting the 2nd hand game market back in the spotlight. Have used game sales become a parasite that is sucking revenues out of the industry? Or is it simply a way for price-conscious consumers to maintain their hobby?

Gamestop has uses a highly profitable system where they purchase games from consumers for pennies on the dollar and sells those games for typically 5-10 bucks cheaper than they can be purchased now. The main criticism of this system is that developers and publishers are not getting a dime of any of these used game purchases and all of the profits are going right back in to Gamestop's pocket. In the article linked to above, Jason Rubin says that a typical copy of a game goes through about ten different owners on average.

Critics of this system on sites like Neogaf have derided Gamestop stores as "pawnshops", even going so far as to call used game sales as "piracy" and people who buy used games as "thieves". While most commentators would find this kind of verbiage highly hyperbolic. There is a fair point that used games may be having a seriously negative impact on the bottom line of certain companies. With game development costs skyrocketing, especially on the HD systems, every last sale counts. Videogame analyst and man-deity Michael Pachter once said that videogames are actually too cheap as it is, saying the level of graphics and content that are provided should actually cost more than the standard asking price of 59.95. All of this could provide more motivation for companies to move toward a digital distribution model that closes the "gamestop hole". Of course, this could be either a good thing or bad thing depending on your perspective.

The converse arguement is that used game sales are keeping game publishers in check, and pressuring them to price their software fairly. One could reasonably make the argument that without stores like gamestop offering an alternative to paying full retail price, we could see gameprices skyrocket to levels not seen since the SNES days where it was commonplace to pay $79 or $89 for a single game. Also, for lower income customers, buying a used game for ten dollars cheaper once in a while might be the only way to keep these people active gamers. If these consumers were pushed out of the market, it would have a decidedly negative impact on the long-term sustainability of the industry. Also, to give an example, buying a used copy of Halo 2 might motivate that person to buy Halo 3 new day one when it comes out. So a used game sale might result in a new game sale further down the road that wouldn't have otherwise occurred.

One thing that's clear given gamestop's record profits and expansion, the used game market isn't going anyway anytime soon. Expanding digital distribution offerings could be a way for companies to offset any lost profits that they incur, or requiring a unique key that can be only tied to one gamertag for multiplayer could be a more draconian alternative. This editor personally feels that used games are healthy overall for the industry by helping to keep prices fair. However, i would applaud gamestop somehow being forced to share a percentage of their profits on used game sales with the original publishers and I encourage all readers to buy the games they really love new. I intend to patronize the JRPG scene on the 360 as much as I can and buy those games new so I can support those developers in what is still a rather niche genre on the system.

What are your thoughts on used games? Post them below!

Monkspider Reviews: Metroid Prime 3

Metroid has historically been one of those series that I could never quite get into. I have never been fond of it's style of gameplay that seems to always leave you in places where you have no clue where to go next unless you either consult an FAQ or wander around for hours until you find some little crack on a wall panel that you are supposed to bomb. I never could get into the original Metroid Prime or the Gameboy Advance Metroids. My fondest Metroid memory has always been Metroid II for the Gameboy, where I got to the final boss, Queen Metroid, only to die because i didn't collect enough missiles. So why did I get Metroid Prime 3 when I had the choice of so many other excellent titles on the market? Three reasons, I am interested in seeing graphically how it exploits the limited Wii hardware, I was also curious as to how the wiimote/nunchuck control set up worked for an FPS and I wanted to give it a chance because I have read it addresses some of the issues I have historically had with the Metroid series.

On a purely technical level, Metroid doesn't disappoint. The graphics are better looking than even some 360 games, and the art direction is without peer. Plenty of times I found myself looking around, just admiring the beauty of the environment. The folks at Retro studios truly know how to create some beautiful looking alien worlds. The soundtrack was quite good too. With a few standout tracks I am going to have to try to download somewhere. It wasn't a soundtrack on the level of, say, Symphony of Night, but i have no doubt that it will be one of the better soundtracks I listen to this year and like any great soundtrack it contributed greatly to the overall experience.

Now, gameplay wise, this is where things get complicated. When I first started playing the game, I told Jason that I thought that it had the best controls of any FPS ever, besting even the legendary mouse/keyboard gold standard. While I still feel the controls are excellent, I now feel that I may have been somewhat irrationally exuberant. The wiimote/nunchuck does have a great feel that really does make the gunplay much more fun than it normally would be. This is a good thing because the weapons in Metroid Prime 3 are fairly limited, and don't have the same tactile sense of satisfaction that say, a Halo 3 assault rifle or classic Doom chaingun would provide. The only problem with this whole setup is that sometimes the wiimote loses "sync" with the screen, which causes you to wave it around to try to get it oriented again. This can be quite frustrating when you are in the middle of a boss fight. This is really where the wiimote fails, but it should be stressed that I still find the overall setup to at least be the equal of it's mouse/keyboard and dual analog rivals.

While we are on the subject of boss fights, this is an area where Metroid succeeds spectacularly. There are just so many classic battles, your first fight with Ridley, the battle with your female bounty hunter rival Gandrayda, and the climatic battle with Mother Brain, these are some of the most satisfying boss battles in videogame history. I found Prime 3's story for the most part preposterous and indecipherable, but this may only be because I skipped the last two prime games. But the voice acting was quite passable at least and ridiculous stories have been a hallmark of many good games since time immemorial. There is a decent amount of replay value due to a wide range of unlockables, new difficulties, and alternate endings. I managed to get the 2nd best one on my first playthrough.

For all it's positive traits, Prime 3 is not without it's blemishes. The most damning one (or at least the one I personally find most frustrating) is that there are a few points in the game where you don't really have any clue what you are supposed to do next. I think modern game design should preclude these frustrating kinds of dead moments in the gameplay. Also, there are a few points in the game that kind of drag, notably almost the entire third world was particularly bad. The game also devolves into rabid fetch questism toward the end. The game runs a bit long in the tooth at around 25 hours to beat. If about 5-10 hours were shaved off, it only would have been so much stronger.

So in the final analysis, Metroid Prime 3 is a great game that falls just short of being a classic game due to a few glaring flaws. I would go so far as to say that it it is possibly my favorite Wii game thus far (though Mario Strikers Charged provides some tough competition). It is a beautiful and satisfying game that should also serve as a cautionary tale of how certain archaic game design choices can hold a great game back from perfection.

Final Score:
(out of four)

Is Ninja Gaiden's Hironobu Itagaki the Biggest Badass In Gaming?

Signs point to yes.

Check out a great interview with the always outspoken developer here.

Harmonix Developer on PS3 Misconceptions and Spin

Here is an interesting article from a member of Harmonix, the developer of Guitar Hero 1 and 2, and now Rock Band. He argues that the PS3, though potentially very powerful, the power it has doesn't necessarily translate toward making better games. It is a good read. It definitely goes a long way toward explaining why games on the 360 and PS3 both have almost without exception looked better on the 360.


"I read various game forums from time to time, and often see gamers complaining about 'lazy ports' to the ps3. They often mention how the ps3 is the most powerful game console and blame developers working on the console for doing a bad job. Sony has all of these people duped by impressive marketing spin, and I'm often amazed at how potent this type of rhetoric proves to be. For those unaware, I'm going to break it down simply and explain exactly why ports to the ps3 will never be as good as their 360 counter parts, and why most ps3 exclusives will likely continue to suck. First, lets debunk a few common misconceptions:

"The PS3 is more graphically advanced than the 360"

Fill rate is one of the primary ways to measure graphics performance - in essence, it's a number describing how many pixel operations you can perform. The fill rate on the PS3 is significantly slower than on the 360, meaning that games either have to run at lower resolution or use simpler shader effects to achieve the same performance. Additionally, the shader processing on the ps3 is significantly slower than on the 360, which means that a normal map takes more fill rate to draw on the ps3 than it does on the 360. And I'm not talking about small differences here, we're talking roughly half the pixel pushing power.

"Ok, fine, but the cell is like, super powerful"

In theory, sure, but in reality it doesn't work out that way. Game code simply doesn't split well across multiple processors. You can probably find a way to split a few things off fairly easily - put the audio on one processor, animation on another; but generally the breakup is always going to leave several of the SPUs idle or underutilized. On top of that, it's usually not CPU speed that restricts the visuals in games - it's fill rate.

"Uh, Blue Ray!"

Great for watching movies, but not so great for games. Getting data off the blue ray drive takes about twice as long as it does to get the same data off the 360's DVD drive. That translates into longer load times, or god forbid if your streaming from disk, tighter constraints on the amount of data you can stream.

"But it's got a lot more space than DVD"

Ok, you got me there - it does have a lot more space, and there is the potential to use that to do something cool, but thats unlikely to be realized in any useful way. There are tons of compression techniques available for data and I'd personally rather be able to get my data faster than have more of it. Most developers who use the entire Blue Ray drive are doing it to work around other problems with the ps3 such as it's slow loading - for instance, in Resistance: Fall of Man, every art asset is stored on disk once for every level that uses it. So rather than storing one copy of a texture, you're storing it 12 times. If you took that entire game and removed all the duplicate data, it would likely fit on a DVD without any problem. They do this to speed up load times, which, as I pointed out before, are painfully slow on the ps3. So in this case, the extra space is completely wasted.

"Once developers figure out the PS3 they'll maximize the hardware and it will be amazing"

I suspect a small number of PS3 only developers will optimize the hardware to do something cool. However, this will be an exception to the rule, and will likely involved game designs that are specifically designed for the hardware and funded by Sony. If those will prove to be fun or not is another question.

Most of the performance centric research into the PS3 has been around making it easier for developers to get the same level of performance you get out of the 360 naturally. For instance, some developers are using those extra SPU's on the cell to prepare data for the rendering pipeline. Basically, they take the data they would normally send to the graphics chip, send it to an SPU which optimizes it in some manner, then send it to the graphics chip. So, once again we see an 'advantage' in hardware being used to make up for a disadvantage in another area - a common theme with the ps3. And this introduces an extra frame of latency into the equation, making controller response slower.

So, the common theme is this; developers must spend significantly more time and resources getting the PS3 to do what the 360 can already do easily and with a lot less code. Lets look at how this translates into practical realities for a moment:

Why the PS3 version often pails in comparison to the 360 version, and why exclusives often suck:

As outlined above, getting equivalent performance out of the PS3 requires a lot of work unique to the platform, and in many cases, even with all these tricks, you still won't see equivalent performance. Thus, many ps3 games have simplified shaders and run at lower native resolutions than the 360 versions. On top of this, there is shrinking incentive to do this work; the PS3 isn't selling.

The code needed to make the PS3 work is most likely only useful to you on the PS3, as the types of tricks you need to do to make the thing perform are very unique to the platform and unlikely to be useful on any other architecture now or in the future. These issues all stem from unbalanced hardware design, and any future hardware that is this unbalanced will likely be unbalanced in a completely unique way.

Finally, there's the problem of resources. Game Development is, at it's heart, a resource management challenge. Given finite resources, do I have these five engineers work on optimizing the PS3 version to look better, or do I use them to make the game play better and fix bugs? Do I change my design to fit with what the PS3 hardware does well, or simply run the game at a slightly lower resolution on the PS3 to make up for it? Developers striving to push the PS3 hardware have often sacrificed their game in the process.

This post might come across as a lot of Sony bashing, but it's just the reality from the trenches. Sony let their hardware be designed by a comity of business interests rather than a well thought out design that would serve the game development community. They are going to loose hard this round because of it, and I hope that in the next round they take lessons from this round and produce a more balanced and usable machine."

Monkspider "Jumps In" to the XBOX 360 Community

Well it's about time folks. As of about 7PM tonight, i had officially placed my order for a luxurious new XBOX 360 Elite which won't actually ship until Friday or Saturday at the earliest due to the nature of my order. I have always been pretty bearish on the Elite since I can't imagine myself truly needing all that extra hard drive space, and I thought the black color was inferior to the standard white. But the Dell website only had the "hideous beyond anything imaginable in the entire universe, even tubgirl" Halo 3 edition XBOX for 399.99 or the Elite, which at least includes the two holiday bundle games for 450.00. It should come as no surprise that I didn't hesitate in my choice between the two.

Once I resigned myself to getting the Elite, I saw that there are a few perks to it. Just having the "Elite" and most expensive SKU of the XBOX makes someone a little bit more badass than your average joe. And it comes with a free HDMI cable and I have read reports that say Microsoft tends to use it's highest quality parts on the Elite. Plus who knows, maybe with the big hard drive I can download a bunch of demos and not worry about ever having to delete them. From an aesthetic perspective, the special color-coordinated black controller and black headset is kinda slick I must admit. And to be completely fair to the Elite, i think the actual box that it comes in is a lot sexier than the normal premium box. It's the kind of box i want to hang on my shelf with pride. So there are definitely some substantial benefits to my going down the Elite route.

In unfortunate news though, my dream of maintaining the symmetry of Brett, Jason and I all buying Gears of War with our 360 may prove to be a dream deferred. I was getting a laptop from the site also for Sara's christmas and everything had to total 1250 or less, and in my original calculations it did, but the bastards charged sales tax which threw everything off! Maybe I can pick up a cheap copy at Game Xchange before the system arrives though. So in any event, I should be joining all of you on Xbox Live soon.

Resident Evil 1.5 FOUND!

Resident Evil 1.5 was the nearly complete sequel to the original Resident Evil that was totally scrapped in favor of the Resident Evil 2 that we eventually got. For many years it has been the holy grail in the prototype collecting commnuity. There have been whispers of someone in Korea having a copy, or a new screenshot or two would somehow turn up, but the game itself remained elusive. Fortunately, that has all changed. Prototype archive site playstationmuseum.com has somehow got their hands on a copy of the final build of the game before it was cancelled. The author states that it was about 80% complete and even posted a ten minute video revealing new insights into the game including a never before seen gorilla boss. I have long dreamed of the day when I would be able to say that Resident Evil 1.5 hasn't been forever lost to history, and now I can definitively say that it is the case. No copy has leaked out for mass consumption yet, but I believe it is only a matter of time. Let's all salute the brave prototype collectors out there who are helping to document the lost chapters of our videogame history.

OMG: Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Shots

Wow, this looks AMAZING. I can't wait for this one to hit XBLA. It definitely looks a lot beter than I thought it would.

Next Stephen King Film to be Directed by None Other than Our Own Rob Kreh?

Mark this one in the history books folks! Rob Kreh is about to ink an exclusive contract to direct an adaptation of one of Stephen King's works called Cain Rose Up. Rob has really been hogging the limelight on this blog as of late, what with the recent news regarding his 360 purchase and now this, perhaps an even bigger accomplishment. One thing is for sure, monk-blog greatly anticipates his final work and wishes him all the luck in pursuing this dream come true.

Insider Whisperings: Another 360 Pricecut Forthcoming?

Leave it to monk-blog to pull all the shadowy cloak and dagger operations it takes to give you inside info that you can't get elsewhere. Here is what an inside source who was right about the last 360 price drop says, and note that this was written *before* the last price drop or before the Arcade SKU was announced.

"I have it coming from a reliable source that CURRENTLY

The Core will drop to 279
The Premium will drop to 349
The Elite will drop to 449

This will clear out the inventory of the Premium which is the most manufactured 360 and the most sold as they know Premium will sell the most until the demand for Elites pick up in 2008. Elites and Cores have relatively the same manufacturing percentage: low at the moment until FALL this year.

When the 65 nm processor falcons are introduced across all SKUs, the holiday season, a month or so after Halo 3 will see the core drop to $249, The Premium will drop to $299 and the Elite will drop to $399

The Core, Premium and Elite Falcons will have a redesigned motherboard which includes HDMI across all SKUs, a quieter DVD Drive and the falcons will STILL have an extra fan heatsink as Microsoft is not prepared to take anymore risks.

The Falcon will reduce the cost to manufacture the Xbox 360 CPU and GPU by ~40-50% but Microsoft will incure additional costs on the new fans and HDMI across all SKUs. Still at the 249,299 and 399 price, Microsoft will expect a profit from the console by early 2008 when the Q4 results are announced.."

An arcade SKU at the exact same price as the Wii *and* a $299 Premium? This shit just keeps getting realer. Microsoft is pulling out absolutely every stop they have to be number one this year.

PS3 To Make It's Comeback as a Digitial Media Center?

Here is an optimistic article from Seattle-Times that says the key to PS3's success may be it's video playback abilities.

"I had written off Sony's PlayStation 3 game console as a flop, but it may be time to reconsider.

One reason is Sony finally brought the price down, with a $400 model announced last week. But what's really interesting, especially here in the hometown of Microsoft, RealNetworks and Amazon.com, is the way Sony is accelerating plans to position the PS3 as a digital media center.

Those companies are all jockeying for position with devices and services as the world moves to high-definition television, digital music and online game and video content."

He makes some interesting points and anything to keep a second viable HD console on the market is for the best for everyone.

Breaking News: Rob Gets a 360!

Great news for our gaming community. Rob has just "jumped in" and joined the 360 collective. As Jay has put it, he is the king of getting cheap systems, finding a 360 with King Kong, Forza 2 and Condemned for a mere $225. Congratulations to Rob. Now post your gamertag so everyone can add you. Here is a protip for you though, Forza 2's value is going to drop precipitously when the holiday bundles starting coming out. If you don't like racing games, this would be your best time to "drop it like it's hot", so to speak.

Sony Take Notes; *THIS* is How You Run PR

I have to give Microsoft kudos for some absolutely brutal PR after the NPD numbers, they are really driving home the "third parties only sell on 360" message quite well yet at the same time they are completely factual and by the numbers. Mad props to the folks in Redmond for a killer month. Click here for the full release, but here are some excerpts.


· NPD reported that in the US, Xbox 360 was the #1 console for the month; outselling PS3 5:1

- PS3 sales posted an average weekly decline of 27 percent.

· Xbox 360 software revenue at retail outsold PS3’s software portfolio 8:1 and Wii’s 4:1, selling 3 times more than both platforms combined.

· Additionally, Xbox 360 is home to the best-selling games with the top-rated next-generation titles. According to the world-wide authority in entertainment reviews, Metacritic, Xbox 360 has 80 titles with a Metacritic review score of 80 or higher compared to just 31 for PS3 and 11 for Wii.

- In spite of the unprecedented success of “Halo 3,” Xbox 360 continued to drive third-party games sales across all platforms. PS3 and Wii had ZERO third party titles in the top ten console title list for the month, while Xbox 360 weighed in with 3. Since November, third party partners have seen their titles hit the top ten 27 times for Xbox 360, compared to 2 for PS3 and 1 for Wii.

September NPDs: Master Chief Wins!

HW Sales
PlayStation 2 215K
PlayStation 3 119.4K
PlayStation Portable 284.5K
Xbox 360 527.8K
Wii 501K
Nintendo DS 495.8K
Game Boy Advance 75K

SW Sales
360 HALO 3* MICROSOFT (CORP) 1 3.3 million
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA 2 282K
NDS LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS NINTENDO OF AMERICA 3 224K
PS2 MADDEN NFL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS 4 205K
360 SKATE ELECTRONIC ARTS 5 175K
360 MADDEN NFL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS 6 173K
WII METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION NINTENDO OF AMERICA 7 167K
360 BIOSHOCK TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) 8 150K
NDS BRAIN AGE 2: MORE TRAINING IN MINUTES A NINTENDO OF AMERICA 9 141K
PS3 HEAVENLY SWORD SONY (CORP) 10 139K

Other software titles of note
[360 Stranglehold] = 104.2K
[PS3 Warhawk] = 45K
[Madden PS3] = 62k
[Madden Wii] = 58k
[Skate PS3] = 30k
[Wii Carnival Games] = 110k

It is everyone's most exciting time of the month, the latest NPD numbers are released! And thanks to Halo's remarkable performance, the 360 finally breaks Nintendo's winning streak. I have to admit, i personally was part of the school of thought who thought everyone who wanted Halo already had a 360, but clearly I was wrong! The software numbers on Halo are absurd, 3.3 million in eleven days? Software sales continue to steamroll right along as well with four out of the top ten games being on the 360. Skate did well and Bioshock continues to push towards one million in North America. This all bodes very well for Microsoft's performance this holiday season with Mass Effect and it's new Arcade pack and Bundle SKUs still on the way.

And with all of the attention on Microsoft this month, let's not overlook Nintendo. Clocking in over 500k in a dead month with no big releases? Microsoft brought it's heavy artillery to the battle this month and Nintendo came armed with only a slingshot yet it still almost won! That is very impressive. EA still can't get a break on the system however with it's MySims title selling below expectations. In fact software sales overall are fairly low and must be proving disappointing to third parties. If Nintendo can only drive hardware sales with it's Wii Sports bundle but not sell additional software, is it building an empire on quicksand?

PS3 on the other hand took a real beating this month with sales falling once again, and edging ever closer to the dreaded 100k barrier. They managed to get a game in the top ten at least with Heavenly Sword, but with decidedly modest sales considering the game's massive budget. For Sony, the 40 gig can't come soon enough. But will it be enough to save the system at this hour? Sony can only hope the continuing success of PS2 and PSP will continue to prop up the misfortunes of the PS3. With the PSP slim hitting in next months sales totals, they have much to look forward to.

As far as the other big bombs of the month, Midway's solid John Woo shooter Stranglehold failed to make the top ten after Midway proclaimed it to be the "top selling title" this year, even above Halo and Mario. That definitely has to make it one of the biggest bombs of the year after three years of development and a 20 million dollar budget.

So what's next? Will PSP steal DS's thunder next month? Can the 360 beat the Wii again? Stay tuned, all these questions and more will be answered on monk-blog.

-edit, updated to include Carnival Games sales.






And for PS3's performance:

Astrophysicist Replaces Supercomputer with Eight PlayStation 3s

In a testament to the PS3's potential power, according to wired, the PS3 is helping scientists solve some of the deep mysteries of physics.

"Suffering from its exorbitant price point and a dearth of titles, Sony's PlayStation 3 isn't exactly the most popular gaming platform on the block. But while the console flounders in the commercial space, the PS3 may be finding a new calling in the realm of science and research.

Right now, a cluster of eight interlinked PS3s is busy solving a celestial mystery involving gravitational waves and what happens when a super-massive black hole, about a million times the mass of our own sun, swallows up a star.

As the architect of this research, Dr. Gaurav Khanna is employing his so-called "gravity grid" of PS3s to help measure these theoretical gravity waves -- ripples in space-time that travel at the speed of light -- that Einstein's Theory of Relativity predicted would emerge when such an event takes place.

It turns out that the PS3 is ideal for doing precisely the kind of heavy computational lifting Khanna requires for his project, and the fact that it's a relatively open platform makes programming scientific applications feasible."

Famitsu Analysts Predict Nippon Software Sales

In the latest issue of Famitsu, two analysts named Sakurai and Murakami attempt to read the tea leaves of Japanese software sales for the holiday season. Their predictions are interesting.

Nintendo DS

Final Fantasy IV
S: 1,200,000
M: 1,000,000

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Fuketsu no Grimoire
S: 600,000
M: 500,000

Mario Party DS
S: 1,000,000
M: 1,200,000

PSP

Minna no Golf Portable 2
S: 500,000 - 600,000
M: 500,000

PS3

Shin Sangoku Musou 5
S: 300,000
M: 300,000

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
S: 800k
M: 1m

PS2

World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008
S: 900,000 - 1,000,000

SD Gundam Generation Spirits
S: 400,000 - 500,000
M: 300,000

Super Robot Wars OG Gaiden
S: 400,000 - 500,000
M: 300,000

Wii

Super Mario Galaxy
S: 1,500,000 - 2,000,000
M: 1,000,000+

Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles
S: 500,000 - 600,000
M: 500,000

Wii Fit
S: 2,000,000 - 2,500,000
M: 1,500,000+

Xbox 360

Lost Odyssey
S: 200,000 - 300,000

Ace Combat 6
S: 100,000 - 150,000

Their Wii predictions are especially intriguing. Could Wii Fit really sell that many this year? Given Nintendo's production difficulties with just the Wii, will they really be able to make that balance boards? Could Mario Galaxy really be that big of a hit on a system that has seen such a huge shift toward non-games?

Also, their Gran Turismo predictions are almost surely too optimistic. Gran Turismo 4 prologue only sold about 750k lifetime on the much more popular PS2.

Sony: You Spin Me Right Round, Baby Right Round

If there is one company in the videogame industry that is known for it's shameless spin, it's Sony. Most of you remember some of their quotes in the past like urging people to work overtime to afford a PS3, but some of their quotes that came out today are right up there with the worst they have done.

Today SCE boss Roy Macguire said that the backward compatibility-less 40 gig was part of a strategy they had planned since launch.

"In the week that SCE UK introduced the new SKU at £299 and revealed that the 60GB console is to be phased out, boss Maguire stressed that Sony’s strategy was the result of industry pressure, falling production costs, and a desire to boost installed base as the industry moves into peak period.

“You’ve seen in the pages of MCV that most people want the price to come down – we have to take a more strategic view on when we do these things,” said Maguire. “We’re always mindful of price and installed base, but we’re also mindful that we have a sustainable business.

“We’ve been considering this since launch – this is all part of a very carefully thought-out plan.”

Maguire also hit out at the level of anti-Sony feeling on internet forums.

“If the product was too expensive, of course they’re going to feel ‘anti’, but now I imagine there will be some changing of attitudes,” he said.

“They don’t have sight of running the company and the financials involved. So they end up with internet information – and that is often based on a complete lack of understanding of the facts.”

Here is some internet information for you Mr. Macguire, a May 2006 quote from Sony's top PR man Phil Harrison stating that backwards compatability will always be an integral part of Sony's systems.

"Backwards compatibility, as you know from PlayStation One and PlayStation 2, is a core value of what we believe we should offer. And access to the library of content people have created, bought for themselves, and accumulated over the years is necessary to create a format. PlayStation is a format meaning that it transcends many devices -- PSOne, PS2, and now PS3."

So why the flip-flop on Sony's part?

Let's take another look at another laughable quote that came out today from Sony USA's Jack Tretton.


"While we were incredibly excited about the technology in PS3 and while it was future-proofed to some degree, it was a bit ahead of its time," Mr. Tretton said in an interview. "The downside of all that technology was the price we had to offer it to consumer at retail. We knew $599 was going to be a challenge for some people based on traditional videogame pricing."

There's a catch to the lower price: The new $399 PlayStation model will not play games designed for the PlayStation 2, Sony's popular older game console. Mr. Tretton conceded that removing that capability, along with a few other features, isn't dramatically reducing Sony's cost of manufacturing the console but will instead encourage buyers of the entry-level PlayStation 3 to purchase more games designed specifically for the new system."

So people buying ten dollar copies of Code Veronica X or Vice City from their local pawn shops are suddenly a threat to PS3's software sales? Sony must be on shakier ground than we had all thought.

Count on Monk-blog to provide a "no-spin zone" for shameless PR in the future.

Megaton! Street Fighter IV Announced!

This will no doubt go down as one of the biggest annoucements of the year, Street Fighter IV has been officially announced by Capcom. Details are sparce, but release was confirmed to be over a year away. This is defintely some of the best news i have heard in a long time. Congratulations to Capcom.

Other announcements include an enhanced port of Lost Planet for PS3 and a new game called Dark void.

Great Moments in Videogame Advertising: Sega Saturn Infomercial

Here is an over eight minute promotional video for the Sega Saturn from 1995. It has a very nostalgic vibe to it in how it captures that time period's attempts to be hip and edgy perfectly. Definitely check it out. Just watching this reminds me of the early days of the 32-bit era and going over to Brett's house to play Twisted Metal 1 and Destruction Derby on his PSX, ah, great times.

N'gai Croal: On Microsoft Losing It's Big Three Development Studios

The legendary N'gai Croal has a great article up on his newsweek blog right now about Microsoft losing Bungie, Bioware and Bizarre all within the space of a month. It is a good read and sheds some light on how Microsoft could have let it come to this and explores some of their future strategies. Basically, it is all the fault of the red rings of death.

Neogaf Corner: EA/Microsoft Merger in the Works?

File this one under "rumors and speculation", but it definitely is intriguing. A poster named Shamrock over at Neogaf has come up with a theory that Microsoft is either selling the platform over to EA completely, or there will be some kind of merger between the two companies.

"I've been following all these crazy moves that EA and MS has been making and I keep coming up with only one possible conclusion. MS is selling their console business to EA. MS is ditching partners left and right, has let it's best developer go free (Bungie), closed FASFA, and has let close partnerships with Bioware and Bizzare end with publishers buying them off without a fight. Every single Move EA has made is exactly what you would need to do to be successful in the console business. Securing outstanding games, game developers, and with a sale of the 360 comes the rights to Halo and all other MS 1st party games.

Then we have EA paying a 21 million dollar bonus to to Peter Moore to Run EA sports? Who the hell pays whats basically a PR man 21 million dollars to not run EA, but rather run a division of EA? 21 million dollars on top of his yearly salary!!!! Thats more money than More was making running the entire 360 platform. To run a sports division? Not very likely. Then we have Don Matrix who was a EA executive now running Xbox Live. This completely smacks of a executive exchange so Moore (who I think will be running console platform for EA) can prepare EA executives for the console business and Matrick (Who will start preparing and evaluating MS 360 executives who will be moving to EA with this sale) for a more seamless transition.

Finally its fucking October and MS is not talking about any 2008 games and hasn't really said anything about any 1st party games outside of Fable 2 which was announced in 05...."

Poster "The Sphinx" posted the following in response

"There's more than one way to make money in this industry: EA has been preaching the gospel of multi-platform development for a long time now, and it's worked out all right for them it seems. On the other hand... In each generation the bulk of their sales have come from a single platform plus the PC (PS1 + PC, PS2 + PC, now 360 + PC). Their presence on Nintendo's consoles and handhelds has been trivial, their PSP efforts have made no discernible impact, and I don't know that many people would miss them on the PS3.

Now, is EA's success due to its multi-platform stance or its huge sports and entertainment licenses? They've already worked to kill one platform, successfully, and ever since Dreamcast collapsed the industry has treated EA as a possible king-maker. Further, being first party CAN be hugely profitable: look at Nintendo. You guarantee a captive audience, while simultaneously removing incentives from consumers to purchase other platforms. You have much greater control over future planning, a big BIG problem for EA's bottom line. You aren't at the mercy of somebody else's blunders. For a company the size of EA it must look attractive.

The biggest obstacle has always been trying to enter an already-crowded console market. But if they took over one of the three established brands... It makes a crazy kind of sense. IF EA is actually looking to become first party, and IF MS were actually considering bowing out."

Wow, although i was ready to dismiss this out of hand, the coincidences are quite intriguing. I am sure there are some shareholders at Microsoft that are tired of it's gaming division posting losses for six straight years. Also, EA's games on Wii have bombed, notably Boogie and Madden posted sales totals that were far below expectations. If Wii is destined to be market leader, EA could face some lean years as a third party publisher. If nothing else, this all could point toward an EA/Microsoft XBOX 720. On the other hand, this may just be a crazy conspiracy theory. As always, stay tuned for more details as they emerge.

I'm Back

Well folks, I am back after enjoying a highly productive vacation in super-metropolis, Kansas City. What a town it is. I definitely enjoyed the stay. For only being about three hours away, I noticed some interesting differences up there. The people are a little friendlier, the women are a little bit more beautiful, and the average person has an IQ that is about 10-20 points higher than the average Wichitan. For example, just walking around the mall, I overheard a couple having an interesting discussion on Spanish architecture, a different couple having an deep philosophical debate that I don't remember the exact details of, and just all around people having a more sophisticated vocabulary in their day to day life. At my hotel someone told me that Aeris is "delightful", I mean, who in Wichita says delightful?

On the downside, Kansas City is an intimidating labyrinth of infinite highways. In all honesty, we encountered at least a dozen (though probably more) highways that all led to completely different parts of the city. And one thing our brethren up in KC are much more serious about is road work. They don't pussy-foot around with pesky things like cones, or closed off lanes. They just shut shit down, full stop. Twice key exits to major highways that we needed to take were completely closed, no detours, no little cone pathways, just flat out closed. This left us aimlessly adrift for at least an extra hour when trying to find our hotel for the first time, and was easily the low point of our trip.

But just the scale of things was impressive, skyscrapers that nearly reach to heaven and huge shopping centers that would be key financial hubs in Wichita are just tiny run of the mill corner markets down there. There is so much culture all around you, just driving down random streets will cause you to find some place that is like the birthplace of Jazz or something. There are Gamestops on every corner, and even the Gamestops are more expertly run. I went there and the selection of games was better, the games were better organized, the shelfs were more intelligently placed, and despite having actually smaller space, and more games, it didn't feel as claustrophobic as some Gamestops down here. Truly a feat of engineering.

Overall, it was a lot of fun even if we didn't get to go to the Ren Faire as I had hoped because of monsoon rains that broke out on our second day. If anyone here in Wichita is hoping to have a bit of exploration into a larger world, Kansas City is highly recommended as a true Super-Metropolis. Hopefully this trip has me ready for a future Tokyo trip.

Oh, and hello to our new reader Mishieru who I saw post a couple times. Be sure to make monk-blog your number one spot for gaming news.

Network+ UNLOCKED!

I am happy to report that the Network+ exam was owned for free, with a score of 885 out of a possible 900. I will now be spending the weekend in Kansas City, feasting on fine culinary delights and trying to find some rare videogames so no blog updates for a few days.

Great Moments in Videogame Advertising: Burgertime (Intellivision)

I think i might have sent this one to some of you before, but I think it is *possibly* the greatest ad ever. Lines like "We are closed now!" at the end pretty much seal the deal.

Super Analyst World Presents: Jason Snowbot R.

I am honored to once again present the thoughts of industry "super analyst" Jason "Snowbot" R who has been so kind as to share his thoughts on the holiday console war.



"It is clear that lines are drawn in the sand as three companies prepare for a mexican standoff the likes of which haven't been seen since The Good The Bad and The Ugly. This can only mean great things for us consumers no matter which camp you fall into. I agree with Monkspiders analysis that Microsoft will own the US territory. The Halo 3 juggernaut has already sold 2.6 million in its first week and that will translate into console sales. Combine that with Mass Effect next month and the multi platform titles that will work in MS' favor thanks to its bigger user base, and I dont think there is any threat to its throne in the US.

Whether or not their guns are big enough to topple the Nintendo giant on the world stage is anyones guess. I do predict a close match however. Japan's console bias will ensure an easy victory for Nintendo, even without considering their Smash Bros/Mario Galaxy one-two punch.

I will be surprised if Sony wins even the European territory. While its true they arent losing as bad there, the price break will only give them a temporary boost from consumers already on the fence. There are two flaws in Sony's holiday strategy as I see it. First of all is that while Uncharted and Ratchet are going to be great games, the fact is one is an unproven IP and the other a 6th series installment. In other words, not system sellers. The second flaw is in Sony stripping feature after feature from its consoles in order to cut costs. This might seem like a reasonable trade off, if it werent for Microsoft cutting prices while at the same time adding features (HDMI) accessories (memory card) and games to their console packages.

It will be interesting to see how the holidays unfold. There certainly will be no swift death for the PS3. Brand loyalty, PS2/PSP profits, and the promise of blockbuster exclusives will keep them alive for better or worse. Despite the 360's success, Microsoft still has a lot to prove to some factions before it has a chance to dominate mindshare as Sony has for the last 2 generations. Nintendo has found a fast track to success this generation but cant rest on its 1st party titles forever if it wants to capitalize on its explosive growth. The stakes are high and the tension is palpable. For any company hoping to win the console wars, now is the time to go for broke."

Well said Snowbot! Thanks for sharing your fascinating insights. For what it's worth, a junior-level analyst at CNET chimed in today sharing very similar thoughts regarding the PS3. "The Xbox 360 currently has the best software library and that console has been selling for $399 since its release. The Nintendo Wii is riding a wave like nothing we have seen in this industry and that console costs just $250. Simply put, if I want to play video games, why would I choose the Playstation 3?". He makes a good argument, let's hope that Sony is able to right the ship before this point next year.

The Shit Just Got Real: Sony Announces 40 Gig, Microsoft Announces Bundle, Nintendo to Launch New SKU?

Well folks, it appears that the various parties in this console war are digging in, resupplying, calling in artillery barrages, encircling exposed enemy flanks and attempting to position themselves for all out war this holiday season. Today was a day that all three players layed their cards on the table for the battle ahead with three big bombshells dropping in the same day. The stakes are high, with a holiday that will no doubt set the tone for the rest of the generation. Who will win? Let's take a look at the various belligerents.


Beleaguered Sony has just announced a $400 40 gig PS3 that should make the PS3 very competitive on price this holiday season. There has been some bad press as a result of the total removal of PS2 backwards compatibility, but time will tell if this will make any difference for the mass-market consumer. After becoming nearly a non-entity, will this SKU let Sony get right back into the fight this holiday?


For their part, Microsoft is poised to bury Sony once and for all, and try to regain some ground on 1st place Nintendo with their exciting new bundle package which they just announced today as well.Though not yet officially announced, a new value-priced SKU is coming that will cost only 279.99 and include a memory card, and several free games aimed at the casual gamer like Pac-man and Uno. Microsoft has the strongest software lineup this holiday according to most critics, winning North America should be within reach. But what about the rest of the world? Will the promise of two bundled games combined with Halo fever create enough momentum for Microsoft to finally elevate the system's sales from merely "good" to "great"?


The market leader Nintendo is apparently not set to rest on their laurels. Apparently reports are coming in that hackers have uncovered a new UPC for a "Wii Play N' Learn" sku. No one knows exactly what this entails but most believe this is some kind of a Big Brain Academy Wii edition bundle. BBA Wii bombed pretty hard, so this could be a great way for them to move some units while at the same time offer an alternative to the normal Wii Sports bundle.

So who will come out ahead? Microsoft won last year in North America, primarily due to supply constraints for it's competitors. Will they be able to beat Sony and Nintendo a second time? Will Nintendo confirm it's status as market leader this generation? Or will Sony become the once and future king? Monk-blog lives for making dangerous predictions, need I not remind everyone of my outrageous $400 PS3 prediction?

So here goes, I present my official holiday projections. I believe that Microsoft is firing on all cylinders right now and Nintendo can't (or isn't willing) to produce enough systems to keep shelves stocked. The 360's unbelievable software lineup combined with the new SKU and the free game bundle will allow them to narrowly squeek past Nintendo in North America. Go ahead and mark that one down for the record folks.

North America Projected Winner:

As far as worldwide goes, Wii is the only system that can sell consistently well in every territory, so I think they are the inevitable winner of worldwide sales this holiday.

Worldwide Projected Winner:

As a final note of interest, I will say there is something of a longshot chance of Sony winning Europe this holiday. Last gen Europe was the most pure Sony userbase there was, and so far Sony has been less far behind in Europe than the other two territories. There has been a lot of excitement about the 40 gig SKU over there, so it's not completely unthinkable that we could see an unprecedented three-way stalemate with each territory having a different winner.

Regardless of what happens, stay tuned to monk-blog which is guaranteed to have up to the minute sales figures faster than any other blog on the web.

Impressive Collection of Pixel Blocks Sprites

I love these, check out the whole collection here.

Great Moments in Videogame Advertising: Ms. Pacman

If you enjoyed my Mario Brothers commercial, I now present you this gem for your delight.

Retro Game Friday: Super Mario Brothers 2 (J)

Well, technically it's Saturday (and late Saturday at that) but my whole family was paralyzed by a crippling stomach bug that I narrowly managed to survive. And to be even lazier, I am not even writing the column this week. Destructoid recently had a beautifully written segment on Super Mario Brothers 2 (J). Yes, notice the J on the end. This is not the loveable turnip throwing, birdo-slaying Mario 2 that we are used to in America. This is the *REAL* Mario 2, actually designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, that we foolish Westerners have trivialized as the so-called "Lost Levels". I have never beat Mario 2-J, but this column from Destructoid's Tristero has inspired me to make it my first Virtual Console purchase. Check it out here.

The Next 25 Years of Gaming

Cracked.com has a pretty hilarious article looking at the upsides and downsides to the next 25 years of videogaming, I suggest checking it out.

More Info on the PS3 40 gig and XBOX 360 Arcade

Well, it is double-plus super confirmed now, according to Destructoid, the 40 gig PS3 has been seen on the Best Buy website for 399.99. This means that for the first time ever, Sony will have a PS3 that is less expensive than the 360 Elite, and is within striking distance of the $350 360 Premium. An interesting note however is that an increasing number of sources say that this model of PS3 will not have any backwards compatibility with PS2 games whatsoever.

On the Microsoft front, more info is leaking out about the upcoming replacement for the Core, the "Arcade", which will come with a memory card of some sort and some free XBLA games like Pac-Man and Uno. The system will also come in a slick grey color. For the first time, Toys R Us has started listing the system on their page.

40 Gig PS3? Count on It.

Chalk this up as one rumor that appears to be impossible to deny at this point. Over the last few week we have seen a covergence of evidence that seems to point to a 40 gig PS3 being inevitable. Here is a recap.

-Ars Technica claims to have a mole within Sony who has reported that the 40 gig model is coming soon.

-N'Gai Croal on Newsweek's Level Up blog claims to have a source who told him that Sony has placed an order for a sizable number of 40 gig hard drives.

-FCC fanboys found an obscure filing from Sony referring to a new model of PS3.

-Finally, in perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence to date, a coupon for getting free Blu Ray movies when you buy a Blu Ray player refers to the model numbers for the two PS3s on the market (60 and 80 gig)... as well as a third that is not. And yes, it is the same model number from the FCC filing.

When I first predicted waaaaaaay back in April that we would see a $400 PS3 before Christmas, I received criticism, hate mail, email bombs, denial of service attacks, blood-scrawled notes saying that "we break fingers", dead horse heads on my bed, etc. But it now appears that my prediction is close to coming true. It looks like Sony is going to try to make this holiday season a fight and I say bravo to them.

Rumor and Speculation Dept: Bungie Leaving Microsoft? Could it be so?

Well, it happens every generation. First when Square left Nintendo during the 32 bit days and then when Rare left Nintendo last gen. Now is Bungie, the famous developer of Halo, about to leave Microsoft? There are some rumors floating around that point to yes. If true this would no doubt go down as one of the most historically important events of this generation. Let's take a look at the source of this rumor. First, the following was posted on a Seattle newspaper blog.

"So heres my big secret. You should google Bungie + Microsoft + separation this week.
You know that big ol BILLION dollar franchise Bungie has created for Microsoft, to show their appreciate Microsoft is letting Bungie leave. Of course Microsoft gets to keep all rights to the Halo franchise, but as today Bungie no longer part of Microsoft. Ask anyone who works there to search the global address book, they're no longer in there. Microsoft was supposed to release the press release today but if they wait till the 10/6 the impact wont effect the quarterly results. However today is the actual official date and the day the NDAs expire, however you still didn't hear this from me."

"Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn't like how MS is constantly trying to "handle" everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They'll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)"

"What a way to say thank you."

I was all ready to dismiss this as rubbish (after all, why would Microsoft get rid of their most important developer who just delivered "the greatest entertainment event in human history"). But then when commenting on this story Microsoft gave about the least convincing non-denial denial i have ever read. ""There's been no such announcement. We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3."". So basically it's not that it's untrue or anything, it just hasn't been announced. Greaaaaaat.

Now different sources are giving conflicting information ranging from "a breakaway faction" leaving Bungie to start a new studio to just one specific individual leaving all the way to the whole kit and kaboodle.

So will this go down as a day destined for the stars? Stay tuned, if this is true I am sure we will hear something in the next few days. Losing Bizarre (the studio behind Project Gotham Racing) and Bungie in short order is some seriously pessimistic news for the 360. Would Microsoft really be willing to let Bungie go? Surely this can't be real, right? My hunch is that some variation of the "breakaway faction" theory is closest to the truth but stay tuned.