Late Night Consoling

A few comments from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata have hit the web, and are causing a bit of a stir in some circles. So what's the rhubarb? Three notable things were mentioned: first, that they are devoting some $6 billion towards development of their GBA and GameCube successors. Secondly, there's the news that they will not be charging for online gaming (when of course, they get around to offering online gaming of any kind, that is), and lastly, and possibly most significant, that they are actively trying to create next-generation franchises to replace Mario and Pokemon. While some people have taken that last statement to mean that Nintendo is looking to phase out their best-known and most infamous-yet-lucrative franchises respectively, I seriously doubt that's going to happen. Instead, I take this as a good sign. It means that Nintendo's not going to keep milking those two franchises until we're all sick of them (although I must confess to being quite sick of Pokemon already). Hopefully we'll see some really big titles come out of this, and not semi-attempts like Pikmin, which while certainly fun enough, is hardly what I would call a major new franchise for Nintendo.

	Xenosaga Episode II Q&A GamePro (which now that they're the exclusive place to get Famitsu content translated online has become one of my favorite stops on the web) has posted a Q&A with Tetsuya Takahashi and Hirohide Sugiura of Monolith Soft, which is translated from (you guessed it) the Japanese magazine Famitsu. It's an interesting read, and the duo confirm among other things, that we may see a non-RPG entry in the Xenosaga universe at some point down the line.
	Hideo Kojima Q&A While at E3, GameSpot had the chance to sit down with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, and they have posted their interview tonight, which covers all his upcoming projects for GameCube, GBA and PS2.
	More GTA Xbox Hints One of those officially-unofficial news items we've had floating around for ages now is that Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City will be coming out for the Xbox in the not-too-distant-future. Well, during their conference call to investors, Take Two dropped some more hints about this, mentioning that their PS2-exclusive contract with Sony runs out at the end of this year.
	Malice, Orchid Canned Talk about a strange coincidence...just the other night someone asked about this...Argonaut Games announced today that due to Vivendi Universal Games' abrupt cancellation of their PS2 and Xbox title Malice, the developer has been forced to cancel the project entirely, along with Orchid, a second Xbox action game. Malice, you may recall, was one of the original Xbox tech demos, and has been in development for some three years.
	Still More PSP Movie Info One last bit of info regarding the PSP's media storage format, care of Sony's press conference from the other day. Apparently thanks to compression technology, movie studios can release a full two-hour movie in DVD quality on a single PSP UMD disk. With lower quality, that number swells to four hours.
	Dynasty Warriors 4 Xbox Bound, Haven Coming to PS2/Xbox Koei announced today that Dynasty Warriors 4 is in development for the Xbox, and the port is due to be released this September. On a somewhat related note, Xicat Interactive announced today that Haven: Call of the King will be released for both GameCube and Xbox, following a successful release for PS2 earlier this year.
	Ys Eternal Story Details Some details on Ys Eternal Story, which is due to be released for PS2 this summer in Japan, can be found at GamePro tonight. Eternal Story is yet another remake of the first two Ys titles, and with any luck this one will be released in North America, allowing those who missed out on the TurboGrafx classic Ys Books I & II the ability to find out what those TG fans have been raving about for years.
	SNES, NES Production Shut Down Chances are that your reaction is going to be the same as mine to this (they were still being made??) but nonetheless, Nintendo has announced that production of the SNES and NES console systems has ceased. Parts and repairs will still be available as long as supplies last.
	Namco's Slate Revealed During their financial statement meeting, Namco dropped some hints about their upcoming titles. Among the in-development games are a new Tekken, a new major RPG, more Tales titles, a MMORPG and a sequel to Dead to Rights. Also announced were plans to release new Soul Calibur and Ridge Racer titles "on a more consistent basis."
	SquareEnix's Financial Address Namco and Take Two aren't the only ones addressing their investors this week...SquareEnix did as well, and they too had some interesting things to say. One thing is that negotiations with Disney are still underway for Kingdom Hearts 2, but also mentioned is that Dragon Quest VIII will be different from every game in the series "up through Dragon Quest VII" and will be heavily marketed overseas for a change. And regarding company crossovers, they're currently exploring their options, but nothing's happening yet.
	Misc. Media/Previews IGN has new screenshots from Psychonauts (Xbox), a new trailer from Men of Valor: Vietnam (Xbox), media from Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GC), new media from SSX 3 and LOTR: Return of the King (GC, PS2, Xbox), as well as hands on looks at Powerslide: Slipstream (PS2) and Mega Man Network Transmission (GC). GameSpot has their own look at Mega Man Network Transmission, as well as Mega Man Battle Network Blue and White (GBA). Also at GameSpot tonight are looks at Virtual On Marz (PS2), Ghost Recon: Island Thunder (Xbox) and Silent Hill 3 (PS2). And finally, Gamers.com has links to a new Dino Crisis 3 trailer (Xbox) and really weird photos of Viewtiful Joe's exploits on the Japanese wrestling circuit.