Gary's Blog

Just a place to find out what's on my mind, or what's occupying my time whilst I avoid actual "work."

 

VGN for February 24th, 2006

Video Game News:

Hilton in video games, without the green light effect?

By Pete Harrison Thu Feb 23, 5:48 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Hilton Group (HG.L) said that after

the sale of its hotel division later on Thursday it would become a

pure gaming company using the Internet to exploit opportunities in

Europe and Asia.

The group was laying out its plans alongside its annual results,

following the sale of its Hilton International division to its

U.S. namesake Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE:HLT - news) for 3.3

billion pounds ($5.8 billion).

"Through e-gaming we reach into 200 countries around the world,

and there's the intention to push that even faster," Deputy Chief

Executive Brian Wallace told Reuters.

Hilton reported a 10 percent rise in year profit and said it would

return up to 4.2 billion pounds ($7.3 billion) to shareholders

early in the second quarter following the hotel sale.

Profit before tax rose 9.9 percent to 413.9 million pounds in 2005

and operating profit from online gaming nearly doubled to 41.4

million.

"When we said four years ago this business could make 50 million,

people laughed," Wallace said of the online gaming division.

"Well, we're a long way toward that."

What's with Sony?

By Alyce Lomax Wed Feb 22, 4:16 PM ET

What's up with Sony (NYSE: SNE - News) lately? For the last couple

days, rumors have been flying that the company may delay launch of

its long-awaited PlayStation 3 game console, and that could

certainly spell trouble for the company. The new console is a hot

product among the company's recent missteps, and a long delay

could certainly give its rivals an edge.

Sony's been a highly watched company lately, considering the fact

that the once-mighty consumer electronics giant has dropped a few

balls lately. There's the much-publicized fact that its Walkman

product lost its rep as the king of music players when Apple

(Nasdaq: AAPL - News) took the crown with the iPod. (Sony's trying

to carve out a new niche in digital books, though.) And of course,

its rootkit controversy is still fresh in many minds.

On the other hand, even a Sony skeptic like me had to note that

the PlayStation line of products has been a major bright spot. The

PlayStation is the number one game console. I was surprised to

hear that Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) was beating Sony to the

punch by releasing the
Xbox 360 right in time for the 2005 holiday season, and that

Sony's PlayStation 3 was going to be a no-show. However, given

recent rumors, it seems PlayStation 3 may arrive even later than

that.

Some news reports point out that Sony downplayed PlayStation 3 at

the Consumer Electronics Convention in January. Meanwhile, some

analysts think PlayStation 3 won't launch here in the U.S. until

the 2006 holiday season -- or maybe even later. There's also talk

of the high cost to manufacture the product, with one analyst

pegging it at $800 per console.

Granted, PlayStation 3 is proposed to have some pretty incredible

features, such as inclusion of a Blu-ray high-definition DVD

drive. It's supposed to be one of the first devices that will

include that next-generation technology, which of course is one of

the reasons why the console is so anxiously awaited. In addition,

it will include a snazzy microprocessor that is reportedly several

times faster than Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC - News) Pentium 4, another

impressive addition.

Sony is standing firm on its past plan to launch the product this

spring, which could be somewhere in the April to June timeframe.

I've long wondered about the bullish price pegged on Sony's shares

when the company has made some major missteps over the course of

recent history. The rumors about PlayStation have helped Sony's

shares lose nearly 5% of their value over the last week. Given the

fact that Microsoft's Xbox 360 is having a problem meeting demand

for the product -- a mixed blessing, of course -- it stands to

reason that the longer Sony waits to release PlayStation 3, the

more market share it stands to lose to Microsoft and other rivals,

casting a shadow on one of its most popular products. It seems to

me that investors have good reason to be wary.

Zelda late?  Link please?

After an introductory segment which showed Keighley and Fils-Aime

being serenaded by a troubadour in Mario drag while racing Mario

Kart-esque go-karts, the pair got down to business. Keighley asked

Fils-Aime directly what is going on with Twilight Princess.

Without missing a beat, the outspoken executive confirmed that the

game was missing its current Q2 2006 window.

"It's coming out in the fall, it's coming out on GameCube," said

Fils-Aime. "There's been a lot of speculation. People have been

saying that we're holding it back or that it's gonna be launched

just on Revolution. Tell your people 'Not true,' it's gonna be out

on GameCube, it's gonna be out in the fall."

Addressing recent rumors, Keighley asked Fils-Aime if Twilight

Princess would have special features that could be accessed only

when it was played on the backward-compatible Revolution. When

Keighley asked if the Revolution's motion-sensing controller could

be used to control link's sword in the game, Fils-Aime demurred.

"It's a great idea," he said. "You should talk to [Zelda creator

Shigeru] Miyamoto about it. But right now the focus is on

GameCube."

What I've been playing:

Fable:  Lost Chapters--XBOX

Burnout Revenge--XBOX

Animal Crossing:  Wild World--NDS

Anime News:

Mega-Con!!!

Convention Corner:

Mega-Con!!

Video game tournaments galore in a larger gaming area than last

year!!

Billy West Interview!!

Ninja Olympics 

Sunday:

Five teams of four Ninja’s test their skills for prizes.

3:00pm - 5:00pm, Room 222B

WTF?

posted by: Gary1059 at 07:02 | link | comments |