First and foremost, VGN will be out for the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean at the Orlando Fashion Square Mall. Win by listening to VGN yesterday?!

Dish, girlfriend!

Execs in Japan dish on upcoming console wars

Square's Wada, Bandai's Unozawa speak candidly on future of online gaming, upcoming shootout between Nintendo Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3.

By Walt Wyman, GameSpot

Posted Jul 6, 2006 1:07 pm PT

The Computer Entertainment Suppliers' Association (CESA), the group that owns and produces the Tokyo Game Show, held a press conference today regarding online gaming and the industry's future. Famitsu.com covered the meeting, which was presided over by top officials from a number of companies, including Square Enix president Youichi Wada and Bandai Namco VP Shin Unozawa.

Wada began the discussion by frankly acknowledging "in individual interviews, we tend to give opinions in line with our companies' interests, making it difficult to give objective observations." He hoped that the roundtable interview would allow the participants to be more open and provide a fresh perspective to the talks.

Wada then shared his insights into online-gaming payment structures. He proposed a scenario for "volume-controlled charges," in which online games would be divided into chapters. The first chapter could be offered free for evaluation, with subsequent chapters requiring payments to continue playing. He also thinks that with the growth in "always-on" Internet connections, the "huge cost of debugging" to developers will decrease, as regular software updates will become possible. Wada also pointed out that the software updates would make it "easy to insert advertisements into games".

Unozawa then weighed in with his take on the impending battle between Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. His opinion is that this purported clash of titans will actually be anti-climatic. "There will be no power struggle," he said.

Although praising the Wii's family-friendliness and synergy with the Nintendo DS, he added, "I'm unsure about its appeal to the main users, namely middle- and high-school students."

On the other hand, he was bullish on the PSP and PS3, which in his view fill "the demand for game hardware that can be enjoyed by individuals." Despite concerns that the PS3's price would make it prohibitively expensive, Unozawa has no fears. He asserted "the PlayStation 3 will sell, without question."

Like Wada, he too sees potential in shifting the billing structure of online games. For example, the game itself could be offered free, and users would be charged for items purchased.

Gary's Notes: Basically, we can't say since we're in both pockets.

Wii, sooner than later?

Nintendo responds to Wii release rumors

Flurry of prognostications doesn't deter Wii-maker from its course; company says big announcement now coming in September.

By Tim Surette, GameSpot

Posted Jul 6, 2006 11:47 am PT

An avalanche of Wii news hit the Web yesterday, sending Nintendophiles into a frenzy. The topic was one of the most highly guarded secrets in the industry--the release date of the Wii.

Early in the morning, an article in (no joke) Sports Illustrated for Kids showed the release date of the console as November 6. Nintendo claimed the date was purely speculation by the magazine.

A few hours later, CNN/Money's Chris Morris revealed some info that he received while talking to analysts and industry insiders. Among the insights were that the Wii may already be in production, and that the console could launch as early as late September.

Nintendo's PR people were hard at work again today, and gave few clues as to whether any of the rumors are true. A spokesperson for the news service Bloomberg said, "There's no change in our plan to release the console in the last quarter of this year. We are planning an announcement in September and it may be causing some confusion."

Nintendo's reassurance that the console would launch in the fourth quarter does dispel the thought that the Wii could launch in late September, as the fourth quarter begins in October.

The choice of the words "in September" vary slightly from a previous statement from Nintendo, which said that the release date and price would be available by September. Nintendo fans, it sounds like the newswires may be a little quiet until then.

You got some 'splainin to do, Sony.

Sony Disputes Unpaid Tax Claims

PlayStation's parent company registers a complaint over claims of an unpaid ¥27.9bn tax bill...

Posted: 16:53 on 03 Jul 2006

By: Jon Wilcox

Sony Corporation has registered a complaint over the Japanese tax authority's claims that the electronics giant has an outstanding tax bill of ¥27.9 billion (£132 million) dating back to 1999. The claims are directly linked to the game console section of the company's North American subsidiary.

SCEI has countered the claims, stating that the tax had already been paid in the US under the US-Japan bilateral tax treaties, so for now it seems like it's a stalemate situation.

LOTR RTS What?

When America wrote out its birthday wish list, it apparently had things other than games on its mind. While the country celebrated its 230th birthday, gamers browsed bare shelves as this week's game release list wasn't nearly as meaty as the millions of BBQ grills lit up on Tuesday.

Leading the pack is the Xbox 360's first real-time strategy game, Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II. Based on both the films and books of Tolkien's fantasy world, the game lets players command armies of elves, dwarves, orcs, and other beasties. LOTR: Middle-earth II was previously released on the PC and was published by Electronic Arts.

Assassin's Creed...really exclusive or just sort of?

The IDEF is held in Europe. One of the sites covering it said this:

Toujours à l'occasion de l'IDEF 2006, Ubisoft a confirmé qu'Assassin’s Creed était actuellement en développement sur Xbox 360 et PC, en plus d’une version PlayStation 3 déjà annoncée depuis de nombreux mois. Les possesseurs de la console de Microsoft pourront donc eux aussi donner vie à un certain Altair, en pleine troisième Croisade. Plus d'informations prochainement, surtout concernant une éventuelle exclusivité temporaire pour la future machine de Sony.

Um, yeah.

Then we have this:

Gamer.no, who contacted Ubisoft yesterday about the recent rumors reports that Assassin's Creed is still a PS3 exlusive. Talking to the Norwegian game site Product Manager of Ubisoft Nordic Harald Horsberg says that the game is announced exclusively for the PS3 after he had been in contact with the French HQ.

PR Manager Fredrik Moberg adds "there are no indications that this game is headed for other formats besides the PS3"

Another report is also coming from the official Ubisoft forums. A Community Manager from Ubisoft under the name of 'UbiRazz posted this statement.

"Ubisoft have confirmed no such thing. Assassin's Creed will come on PlayStation 3 and at this time, no other platform has been confirmed." said UbiRazz.

Gary says:

Ubisoft is sticking to their story, but they fail to say exclusive and given that this game was already seen on 360 hardware, well, timed exclusive at best is what I'm thinking.

Sony being Racist?

What I've been playing:

Uno!

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Top Spin 2

Prey

Convention Corner:

AFO.

Panels!! I'll be running the RPG East Vs. West panel...look for it!