[Update 26jul05: summit news links]

Rumours of the Xbox 360’s delays have been highly exaggerated, it seems. Time to get out the old brass hook and yank all those bad mojo thoughts out of your brains, because Microsoft has stated clearly and succinctly that yes, indeed, the Xbox 360 will launch in Europe, Japan, and North America at the end of this year.

Link: Gamespot - Microsoft confirms worldwide Q4 Xbox 360 launch

Stop! Pulled.
Ooo, another stop. Pull that one too.
Stop. Pulled.
Pulled.
Pulled.
And another. Pulled.

Are there any left? Microsoft is making sure to get them all to do well in Japan.

At Summit 2005 Namco announced Ridge Racer 6 for the Xbox 360. Whoa. Wasn’t Ridge Racer 5 a PS2 thing?

All major Japanese publishes are supporting the 360 in one way or another.

Here’s the list of games announced: Read the rest of this entry »

Garbage in. Garbage out.
Interesting data in, wild conjecture out.

Now that the PlayStation Meeting is over, we get to go wild with speculation over little morsels thrown off the Sony table. At said meeting, Mr. Kuturagi announced that the Playstation Conference will be held in February of next year. And that it will be held on the “eve” of the PS3 launch.

So what’s your definition of “eve”? New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve are both the night before, but I have a feeling Mr. Kuturagi isn’t thinking that way. Sony has said that the PS3 will be launch in the spring of 2006, so that would make March 21, 2006 the earliest date within that timeframe.

Would a conference held in February be considered on the “eve” of a launch held late March?

Now that’s what I call wild conjecture!

Link: psinext - A more precise PS3 launch date hinted

After having lost next next Resident Evil game, Nintendites will be happy to hear that someone still loves them: SEGA!

SEGA’s Simon Jeffrey told Nintendo Power magazine:

“I think SEGA and Nintendo have similar software philosophies. A product like Sonic is very family oriented. It’s all about entertainment rather than trying to be controversial or anything like that. It’s pure, good old-fashioned entertainment.”
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“We’re very excited about the prospects of Revolution,” he continued.

“The Nintendo platforms have been great for Sonic and the classic franchises. We think Revolution can absolutely be the same.”

Link: Eurogamer - SEGA up for Revolution

Video Business Online says that retailers are expecting a robust lineup of games when the Xbox 360 launches this fall. As a matter of fact, there could be up to 25, though Microsoft hasn’t confirmed the launch titles yet.

At least eight titles are probable launch titles:

• Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
• Dead or Alive 4 (Tecmo)
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks)
• Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft)
• Madden NFL 2006 (EA Games)
• Need For Speed Most Wanted (EA Games)
• Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft)
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft)

Of course the one I’m most looking forward to is PGR3, and I have no doubt Todd will be snatching it up right away so that he and his 3 friends (me included) can enjoy its yummy goodness right away.

Link: Video Business Online (free subscription) - XBOX 360 LAUNCH SLATE ROBUST

In case you care, what media content Microsoft will be shipping on the Xbox 360 has been revealed. They need to run it by the British Board of Film Classification, so that’s how we know. Follow link below for details.

Link: team XBOX - Xbox 360 Hard Drive Content Revealed

Sony showed off some timelines at the PlayStation Meeting.

Sony Computer Entertainment leader Ken Kutaragi revealed Thursday afternoon his company’s plans to hold a “PlayStation Conference” in Japan in February of 2006. Kutaragi stated that this conference was to be held on the “eve” of the PlayStation 3 launch.

Which suggests, of course, that the PS3 is closing in on a March launch in Japan, just like the PlayStation 2 before it.

And for developers:

Developers are concerned about more than just the time of arrival for the system. The companies that make the Final Fantasys and Dragon Quests want to know when they’ll be getting their development tools so that they can make the games that you’ll be buying at launch and beyond. That’s what the two marks at the bottom of the above chart refer to, indicating the release of the PS3 Evaluation System in Spring of 2005 and the impending release of the PS3 Reference Tool this coming December.

Also in the link below are pictures of PS3 dev kits, past, present, and future.

Link: PS3 IGN - PS Meeting 2005: Sony’s PS3 Schedule

I realize that Shadowrun is an RPG first and a series of books second. But I was never a fan of pencil-and-paper RPGs. I am a great fan of science fiction and fantasy literature. So I’ve read many Shadowrun books. Some of them are good. Many are not. But the ones that are good are quite enjoyable. I especially liked the ones by Robert N. Charette. The others weren’t as strong. But I digress.

Now Shadowrun is coming to the Xbox 360. Supposedly a FASA Studio employee accidentally let it slip. And it’s going to be a first-person shooter! Who’d a thunk it? Doesn’t seem quite right. Now if they used the Shadowrun franchise to do something like X-Men Legends or Champions of Norrath, that would be a cool. Oh the possibilities. But you never know, it might make a good FPS too.

I just hope Shadowrun comes to the PS3.

Link: team XBOX - Shadowrun in Development for the Xbox 360

Strategy Analytics, a global research and consulting company, says that Sony and Microsoft will sell nearly 200 million next-gen consoles by 2012. They predict that the Xbox 360 will have the lead until 2007, at which point the PS3 will pull ahead. If you think about it, that means that the Xbox 360 will only have the upper hand for just over a year. Sony will launch in the spring of 2007 and will catch up to the 360 in six to eight months. These analysts are good if they know that already! They also eventually expect the PS3 to sell 121.8 million consoles by 2012, with the Xbox 360 to sell 58.8 million, and the Revolution nearly 18 million.

These guys must have really good crystal ball. Hogwarts’ best. Not only do they know how many PS3’s will sell by 2012, they even include a decimal place. Not 122 million, or 121 million, or even a nice round 120 million. But 121 point 8 million. And they don’t stop there! The Xbox 360 has also been analyzed so thoroughly that it gave up its future sales numbers including a decimal place. 58 point 8 million. Hmmm, I wonder if there’s any significance to the 8?

Link: Yahoo! Finance - Strategy Analytics: Sony Will Win 61% Market Share In Next Generation Consoles