VGN for June 3rd, 2005

Friday, 03 June 2005

VGN for June 3rd, 2005

Video Game news:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two of the key unions representing actors have asked their members to authorize a strike against the video game industry after talks on a new master agreement between the two sides broke down.

Materials were sent on Tuesday to about 1,900 members of the Screen Actors Guild and 1,000 members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Those unions both require "super-majority" approvals from their members -- 75 percent for SAG and 66.7 percent for AFTRA -- before their national bodies can formally authorize the strike.

The previous contract between game publishers and the unions expired last December, and after repeated extensions talks collapsed earlier this month.

The games industry said the biggest sticking point was residuals, or ongoing payments to actors and actresses for each copy of a game sold to which they contributed, including their voices and likenesses.

More education whilst killing aliens, please.

Let the Games Begin

By Kenneth C. Green

If we step back a bit, what emerges—or should emerge about the video gaming phenomenon—is a conversation about engagement, not entertainment.

Last fall, November 9th marked a much-anticipated technology event for many in the campus community. Are you wondering what you missed? An amazing new computer? Some breakthrough software application? Did you perhaps miss a critical, hack-pr
oof security patch for your Internet browser or operating system? Software that will forever protect your computer from pop-ups, viruses, and spyware?

Alas, if only it were so. On that November day, Microsoft released the much-anticipated Halo 2 video game, which literally flew off the shelves and out of the Amazon.com warehouse, selling 2.4 million units in 24 hours. Those sales should have sent up flares to educators and those who design technology for the purpose of improving educational delivery. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Recent Halo 2 sales should have sent up flares to educators and those who design technology for the purpose of improving educational delivery.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA; www.theesa.com) notes that Halo 2 “took in more revenue on its first day of sales than any movie has ever taken in on opening day.” (The box office champ for 2004 was Spiderman 2, which booked some $40 million on opening day, compared to $125 million for Halo 2). According to the ESA and the CNN news organization (money.cnn.com), Halo 2 went on to sell some 4.2 million units in 2004, and ranked second for the year, only behind the 5.1 million units of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Overall, US video game software sales totaled $7.3 billion in 2004. In contrast, US sales of professional/scholarly books and college textbooks totaled some $7.5 billion in 2004 (this information comes from the Association of American Publishers; www.publishers.org).

PSP procures porn in Japan

Japanese PSP owners will soon be able to purchase eight adult films in UMD format this summer.
Adult movies in the PSP-friendly Universal Media Disc format will be released in Japan this summer. Two publishers will offer a total of eight movies specifically for the PSP. Adult-content publisher Glay'z will release five titles starting on July 8, while fellow publisher H.M.P. will release three additional titles on July 16. The movies will be priced between 1,995 yen ($18) and 3,990 yen ($37).

While software releases for the PSP are subject to approval from Sony Computer Entertainment, the Sony gaming division does not hold sway over movies released for the device.

"Unlike games, we believe that UMD movies are an all-purpose media, like DVD movies. We do not control their content in the way that we do with games," commented an SCE representative in a previous interview with Impress PC Watch. "We are not in a position to know what kinds of UMD videos get released."

New Games?
By Jeb Haught
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
May 30, 2005

The first look at next-generation game consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 created big buzz in the video-game world earlier this month. Microsoft, which expects to beat Sony to market by several months, sustained the anticipation with sneak peeks of several 360 games at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Los Angeles:

Game studios haven't forgotten today's systems

Action title Gears of War showcased the power of the new Xbox. This incredible-looking action game, a Microsoft in-house project, sports an over-the-shoulder view but is controlled just like a first-person shooter. The game is set in a future where the world has been ravaged by war and is then attacked by deadly underground enemies. Featuring a realistic combat system that forces enemies to use authentic duck-and-cover tactics in order to advance, Gears of War looks to be the 360's killer application.

Blog only:
Video game Manifesto

What I've been playing:

Morrowind GOTY--Thanks Cybertron!!

Anime News:

MetroCon this month!

Free tickets? Listen next week...