Although I'm not sure exactly what their source is for these charts, the latest sales figures for North America are up at The Magic Box. If this is accurate, then the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II has beaten out the other two, with 179,605 units sold, and some 50,000 more copies than the Xbox version which is at 122,092. Surprisingly, it's the PS2 version that's pulling up the rear with 120,104 units. That's no small figure, but the install base is so much larger for the PS2 that I had at least expected it to place second, not third (and it's behind Silent Hill 3 nonetheless). Of course the big winner here is Madden NFL 2004 for PS2 which sold an incredible 1.44 million units and raked in roughly $71 million in sales. By comparison, the Xbox version of Madden sold 309,890 units and the GameCube trails well behind with 76,136 units sold. Like I said, I'm not 100% sure these are accurate numbers, since it's unclear where they came from, but they're interesting nonetheless. On a somewhat related note, I've completed the Weapon Master mode in Soul Calibur II, by which I mean I've completed every mission, including all the extras and subchapters. It was a lot of fun, and quite challenging at times. But hey, it was worth it to unlock Lizardman.

	Final Fantasy VII-2 for...PSP? Square Haven is claiming to have confirmed that Final Fantasy VII-2, the long-time dream of many a fanboy, is in development for Sony's PSP handheld. I'm not putting a whole lot of stock in this until I see something official, but hey, if it is true, then in theory they could re-use assets from the original game, which was one of the reasons cited for the lack of a PS2 sequel (as they would have to create everything all over again from scratch). Thanks HardEight for the tip.
	New Ninja Gaiden Details My new favorite industry personality Tomonobu Itagaki simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to speak out at Microsoft's recent X03 event, and during his demonstration of Ninja Gaiden he revealed that the original NES Ninja Gaiden game will make an appearance as a mini-game of sorts. Also of note is a hint he dropped regarding the game's Xbox Live support, as he said they'll be supporting "a master ninja tournament" although he wouldn't elaborate on that.
	X03 Transcript In other X03 news, IGN has posted a full transcript from the event, which features a number of industry luminaries, including Itagaki-san, Peter Molyneux, Ubi Soft CEO Yves Guillemot and Microsoft's Ed Fries among many others.
	More X03 Still more news tonight from X03...gamesindustry.biz has posted an interview with Microsoft's Ed Fries, while Computer and Video Games talks with Peter Moore, the former head of Sega of America who recently relocated to Microsoft.
	No EA Sports on Xbox Live Anytime Soon Fans of EA Sports games on Xbox may be a little disappointed to hear that EA CFO Warren Jenson was recently quoted at a Bank of America conference as saying they have "little motivation" to offer support for Xbox Live in their sports titles because of the fact that Microsoft already charges a monthly fee for the service.
	Gee Whiz New Feature in ESPN NBA Basketball Not being even remotely a sports fan I haven't the foggiest idea what this means, but nonetheless Sega announced today a new feature called "IsoMotion". This is said to allow, "a player to control both sides of the court by locking down opponents in one-on-one match-ups." Right on. Look for this in ESPN NBA Basketball, which should be arriving in stores next month.
	XSN Interview A new interview with Kevin Browne of Microsoft's XSN division is up at IGN Sports (which is a very confusing notion to me, since this is a games-related thing...sort of like how peripheral reviews run on IGN Gear instead of their console sites). Among other things, he talks about the upcoming Rallisport Challenge 2 (which isn't even a sport IGN Sports covers, so what is this interview doing here? Oh, my head hurts. I should really find more important things to worry about).
	Halo 2 Interview Getting back to X03, CvG conducted another interview while they were at the event, this time with Pete Parsons of Microsoft's Bungie division. The interview naturally deals with Halo 2, and he talks about their planned Xbox Live support (including whether or not we'll see downloadable content), framerate issues and more.
	Rare Interview IGN Pocket has conducted an interview with producer Jim Veevaert and several unnamed representatives from Rare's GBA development team, which although they are owned by Microsoft is continuing to move ahead with a full production schedule. Among the other things asked are the possibility of seeing a GBA Battletoads revival, two which the response is, "Battletoads is possible, yes. We'll go that far."
	GameCube Price Drop with Zelda Bonus? Continuing their earlier story about an uber-Zelda GameCube disc that's in the works, GameInformer now says that not only will a new GameCube package come out that includes those classic Zelda games, but it will retail for $99, as has been rumored for some time now. Hopefully we'll know the whole story here in the very near future.
	Samurai Shodown V Coming to North America Soon! Heads-up Neo Geo fans...according to SNK-Capcom.com, who are reporting live from the Amusement and Music Operators Association show in Las Vegas, Samurai Shodown Zero will be launched for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system here as Samurai Shodown V on September 29th. Thanks Gamers.com for the tip.
	New Gundam Game Announced with Online Support IGN is reporting that Capcom has announced a PS2 version of their arcade game Mobile Suit Z Gundam: Aeug VS Titan. The game will feature some unspecified online features that build on Capcom's venerable matchup software that goes back to the Dreamcast days (at least in Japan, anyway).
	New PSO Quests If you're a paying subscriber to Sega's Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II for GameCube, then you'll want to check out the new missions that were added by Sega earlier in the week. The new quests are for 2-4 and 4 players respectively.
	Another Bond Girl in Everything or Nothing EA announced today that singer Mya will perform an original theme song for the upcoming 007: Everything or Nothing. She will also appear in the game as a character, who has been aptly named Mya Starling. It was recently announced that this game has been pushed into the first quarter of 2004.
	Nina Revealed Following the announcement earlier in the week by Namco, the company has unveiled their official Nina site, which offers the first glimpse at this game starring Nina Williams from Tekken. The text is all in Japanese, but these screenshots speak for themselves. One interesting tidbit that was translated by The Magic Box is that the game features an "Internal Destruction" system where your attacks can hurt someone internally, which can then be viewed with an x-ray like function. Wacky.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has their full report from X03 online, which has hands-on impressions of the various Xbox games on display, along with new previews of kill.switch (PS2, Xbox), Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox) and Tak and the Power of Juju and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (both PS2) and new media from Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GC), Gekido: Kintaro's Revenge (GBA) and Dead or Alive Online (Xbox). IGN has a new preview of True Crime: Streets of L.A. (GC, PS2, Xbox), a hands-on look at Conflict Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad (GC, PS2, Xbox) and new shots from NFL Street (GC, PS2, Xbox), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GC, PS2, Xbox) and Drift Racer: Kaidou Battle (PS2). Elsewhere online, The Magic Box has some new shots from Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission the upcoming re-release of FFX-2 in Japan for PS2, and new shots from Dynasty Warriors 4 Xtreme Legends (PS2), Planet GameCube previews Beyond Good & Evil (GC, PS2, Xbox), CvG has new shots from Killzone (PS2), HomeLAN has a new preview of Backyard Wrestling (PS2, Xbox) and GameInformer has a hands-on look at 1080 Avalanche (GC). And lastly, we've got the X03 trailer from Kameo: Elements of Power available here at FileShack.

Console Game of the Evening: Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 64. "What a great multiplayer game it was and still is. My friends and I still play 4-player battle mode mayhem." (submitted by c_man_tmt).