Late Night Consoling

There's some very interesting stuff in the IDG report that is tonight's headline story. To offer some clarity, the report is compiled based on "interviews with more than 50 publishers, developers, retailers, market analysts, and investment bankers." One thing I don't quite understand is why they believe "that only a few major hits will rack up big sales this holiday season." For months, everyone's been talking about how this could be the most profitable, successful holiday season of all-time. Check any release calendar; there's a large amount of big-name titles, despite games like Resident Evil 4 and Jade Empire being pushed into 2005. However, I do agree on one point; lack of original IP. The majority of these huge sellers will be sequels (San Andreas, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, KOTOR2, etc.). At least they should shape up to be GOOD sequels.

	Analysts Anticipate Console Price Drops The International Data Group (IDG) Entertainment released their annual industry report and headlining the document is that industry executives are hoping for a price drop for both the PS2 and Xbox. They believe a price reduction would "jump-start" sales of hardware, accessories, and software. Other concerns were executives felt there is a general lack of Intellectual Property and that $49.99 is becoming less of suitable price point, as indicated by the surge of used game sales.
	Silent Hill 5 To Land on Next-Gen Console Responding to rumors, chief designer of the Silent Hill series, Masashi Tsuboyama, revealed in an interview to EuroGamer that Silent Hill 5 is indeed in the works and will land on a next generation console. Tsuboyama commented, "...we are creating the next one. We're not sure which hardware we will put [it out on], but [it will be] on the best one, be it PS3, be it Xbox 2... It won't be on the current consoles."
	NPD Reports Smoking July Sales Year-on-year game sales for the month of July shot up 27 percent, according to the latest NPD Funworld report. The huge growth is attributed to three titles: EA's NCAA Football 2005, Activision's Spider-man 2, and SEGA's ESPN NFL 2K5. The three titles comprised over 30% of total game sales and the month saw an overall of ten titles selling over 100,000 units compared to just four last year. At the other end of the spectrum, despite Xbox console sales up 47 percent, hardware sales declined 7 percent.
	Games Dated and Delayed Capcom, who has lately been categorizing everything with a winter release date, got a little more specific regarding Viewtiful Joe 2. The game will arrive November 23 for the lower-than-normal price of $39.99. Alternatively, BAM! Entertainment has pushed back State of Emergency 2 till 2005. No reason for the delay was given.
	New Releases This Week This week has two big-name releases for the PS2 with Ghosthunter and Hot Shots Golf FORE! in stores tomorrow (maybe even today!). Astro Boy makes two landings this week, one on the PS2, the other on the GBA.
	Misc. Q&As/Features EuroGamer catches up with Rockstar's Hamish Brown to talk, what else, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. GameSpy speaks with EA's Josh Holmes regarding Def Jam: Fight for NY. GameSpot took time with EA's Sam Player and discussed Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 as well as Greg Uhler concerning Need For Speed Underground 2 They wrap it up with Ben Hoyt, producer of Duel Masters: Cobalt.
	Misc. Media/Previews
	EuroGamer describes more of their playtime with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. IGN goes hands-on with the cutesy mechs of SD Gundam Force and has images of Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3.
	TeamXbox sports a new Halo 2 wallpaper that's the same as an ad running in game magazines. IGN posts a huge FAQ, answering user-submitted questions concerning Fable.
	IGN continues their media blowout of WWE Day of Reckoning.
	Game Informer gives us plenty of Atari media tonight with screens of Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (PS2, Xbox), Terminator 3: The Redemption (PS2, Xbox, GCN), and a hands-on of Godzilla: Save the Earth (PS2, Xbox). TeamXbox goes hands-on with Crash Twinsanity (PS2, Xbox) and has video of X-Men Legends (PS2, Xbox, GCN). HomeLAN Fed has some quick impressions of FlatOut (PS2, Xbox). GameSpot hits the green with these hands-on impressions of Outlaw Golf 2 (PS2, Xbox) and Need for Speed Ungerground 2 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). They also have images of ESPN NHL 2K5 (PS2, Xbox). IGN posts plenty of new grabs of Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums (PS2, Xbox, GCN), images of Trigger Man (PS2, Xbox, GCN), a new video of NBA Live 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN), and playtest impressions of Mega Man X: Command Mission (PS2, GCN).