This week, Microsoft made headlines when it declared that it had secured a year of next generation exclusivity for major upcoming soccer titles FIFA 07 from Electronic Arts and Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 6 from Konami. "I'm really pleased to be able to announce today that Pro Evolution Soccer 6 will be an Xbox 360 next-generation exclusive for the next twelve month," said Xbox Europe head Chris Lewis during its Games Convention press conference. "I'm also really happy to be able to announce that FIFA 07 will also be a next-gen exclusive on Xbox 360 for the next twelve months. So, whether you prefer FIFA 07 or Pro Evolution Soccer 6, as a football fan you need look no further than Xbox 360 because you won't be able to get them on any other next generation platform. Xbox 360 owns football." Microsoft later issued a press release confirming the news.

However, speaking to 1UP today, Konami's Winning Eleven creator and producer Shingo "Seabass" Takatsuka stated that Konami has no such agreement with Microsoft, and that apparently Microsoft's announcement has "caused some issues" with Konami, which has for many years enjoyed a strong relationship with Sony. "The presentation was misleading," he said, referring to Microsoft's press conference. "We never said exclusive for one year on the next-gen platforms. We said this year. We were agreed that it was this year." Apparently, the reason Konami will not be launching the PS3 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6 alongside its Xbox 360 version is simply that the game is not far enough along. Though it will definitely not ship in calendar year 2006, it may be released next spring.

1UP goes on to claim that, according to unspecified sources, EA's FIFA 07 may also not be next-gen exclusive to Xbox 360 for Microsoft's promised twelve months.

Buried at the end of a hands on preview of Toys for Bob's Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Wii) (which we also previewed), IGN has a rather discouraging rumor regarding third party support for Nintendo's upcoming online service for Wii. "IGN has separately learned from multiple development sources that Nintendo will not release Wii Wi-Fi Connection libraries until early 2007," reads the preview, "which means that no third party launch title will have an online mode." This runs contrary to previous indications that Ubisoft's Red Steel would have an online multiplayer mode, but to date it is true that no third party publisher has explicitly detailed online plans for Wii launch games.

If this rumor is true, it may be that Nintendo's online multiplayer solution for Wii is not yet developed enough for widespread distribution to third parties, which may bode ill for the initial state of the service. Nintendo had not responded to Shacknews' inquiries as of press time.

Back in June, word leaked out of a retail collection of Xbox Live Arcade games for Xbox 360, dubbed Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Volume 1. Today, Microsoft has officially announced that collection. It will consist of six currently available Xbox Live Arcade games:

- Bizarre Creations' Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
- Reflexive Entertainment's Wik: Fable of Souls
- NinjaBee's Outpost Kaloki X
- PopCap's Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
- Silver Creek's Hardwood Backgammon
- TikGame's Texas Hold 'em

It will also come with a free one-month trial to Xbox Live Gold, as well as demos of Carbonated Games' UNO, GarageGames' Marble Blast Ultra, and Sprout Games' Feeding Frenzy. The package will be available worldwide on September 5, 2006, with retail price in the US of $39.99.

Namco Bandai today announced the official subtitle for its upcoming PlayStation 3 game based on the Gundam mecha franchise, which the company revealed earlier this month. Now known as Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, the game is in development by Bandai Entertainment Company. - Screenshots.

BEC's Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire is set to ship for PlayStation 3 later this year.

Vivendi today announced a the official release date for Radical Entertainment's Scarface: The World is Yours. The game will ship for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC on October 8, 2006. PS2 owners will have the choice of standard packaging or a special Collector's Edition of the game, which includes a DVD with a "Making of the Game" documentary, interviews, a map of the game world, concept art, and a walkthrough with commentary, packaged in a metal case. The standard PS2 and Xbox versions of the game will retail for $49.99, PC for $39.99, and Collector's Edition for $59.99. - Interview, screenshots.

LucasArts has announced that the official website for Traveller's Tales LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360, NDS, PSP, GBA, PC) has gone live, featuring character and enemy profiles, wallpapers, screensavers, and other game-related content.

Electronic Arts today announced the official website for developer Criterion Games, the studio behind Black (PS2, Xbox) and the Burnout franchise. The site includes interviews with development personnel as well as a Mailbag feature allowing gamers to ask questions of Criterion staff members.

Leipzig Games Convention coverage continues from sites such as GameSpot, IGN, 1UP, Pro-G, and HEXUS.

I'll have a full writeup of this in tomorrow's LNC, but for you morning LNC readers, here's a quick edit. Nintendo has updated its web page with details on a redesigned Nintendo DS system that is smaller and lighter than the original. It will go on sale March 2 in Japan for a price of 16,800 yen, or $146. The full English announcement is here. There are no details of a North American or European launch date or price.

Konami made a variety of announcements at its annual press event today, and here they are:

A collector's edition DVD called Metal Gear Saga will be given to those who preorder Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2) starting in mid-February. The disc will include a variety of documentary content, including an interview with series creator Hideo Kojima as well as concept art and "making of" information. It also has a chronological summary of the five main Metal Gear games to date. GameSpot has a preview here.

Konami is developing a strategy game for DS and PSP entitled Steel Horizon. The game will feature both realtime and turn-based elements, and in addition to a single-player campaign will also support local wireless multiplayer. There was no word on whether online functionality would be included.

A few details were revealed regarding the mysterious Metal Gear B.D., the "interactive comic" project heading to PSP. It will be illustrated by Ashley Wood, who worked on the Metal Gear Solid comic as well as covers for Todd McFarlane's Spawn. Metal Gear series head Hideo Kojima and producer Noriaki Okamura will handle writing. The comic will feature animated elements and sound, as well as unspecified interactive elements.

Konami is currently developing a DS RPG entitled Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal. A magician named Tao must save his home from falling under a deadly curse. The game has realtime 3D models and environments on the top screen with the interface and map on the touch screen. The game will be released this March.

In addition to Metal Gear B.D., Konami will also be producing an interactive comic-type project based on the Silent Hill franchise. It will be based on the upcoming film rather than an existing game, and will be illustrated by Steve Perkins and Alex Shibao. The UMD will also include stills from the film and games, as well as interviews with the film's crew and other content.

A collection of the Gradius side-scrolling shooter games will be heading to PSP. It will contain Gradius, Gradius II, Gradius III, Gradius IV, and the new-to-US Gradius Gaiden. It will arrive this spring.

Konami will be bringing a Live-enabled poker game to Xbox. All-In Poker will include five types of poker as well as various tutorial modes and online options. It will ship in March.

Leviathan Games is working on Konami Chess Battle, a chess game for PSP that will feature some kind of story mode as well as local and online wireless play. The game will hit stores this fall.

The Xbox 360 may not be seeing much in the way of new retail releases, but its excellent Live Arcade service shows no sign of slowing down. Originally scheduled for a Februrary release, GarageGames' Marble Blast Ultra has appeared for download early. The game is available for 800 marketplace points, equivalent to $10.

Various sites recently reported on "confirmation" that Microsoft has abandoned its efforts to support Xbox games on Xbox 360 for a few months. IGN, however, has received official word from Microsoft that this is in fact not the case. The backwards compatibility team is apparently still at work, but the statement given to IGN had no estimate as to when further updates would arrive.

Infinium Labs, the company behind perennial vaporware Phanton Gaming Service and what appears to be the more tangible Phantom Lapboard, announced that it has somehow obtained a $5M investment from Golden Gate Investors. In case you are worried that this would mean the end of Phantom jokes, however, fear not; that $5M is going towards launching the Phantom Lapboard portable keyboard/mouse package, not the console itself. Gamasutra points out that the company "has recurring losses from inception of $57,570,723, has a working capital deficiency of $10,085,662, a stockholders deficiency of $9,470,271 and has a negative cash flow from operations of $14,888,265 from inception." That along with all of the practical costs involved with launching a new system suggests we'll be waiting for the Phantom for a while yet to come.

GameSpot has a rumor from a former employee at Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PS2, Xbox, PC) developer High Voltage Games that publisher Vivendi Universal has dropped the Larry franchise and two in-development Larry titles. Apparently, another home console game was in development as well as a PSP spinoff title. After checking with the company's VP of creative content Eric Nofsinger, the site received an official confirmation that two games from the same (unnamed) series were recently cancelled.

Leisure Suit Larry began his life in a graphic adventure called Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (PC), designed by Al Lowe at Sierra On-Line. Lowe designed five more main entries in the series before the set of legal shenanigans that led to Sierra ceasing to exist as an autonomous company. Vivendi, the current owner of Sierra's huge library of intellectual property, released Magna Cum Laude--a mini-game-driven game with more in common with modern teen comedies than the relatively more charming innuendo of the earlier games--in 2004 to middling critical reception. Lowe publically expressed his frustration with the direction taken by Vivendi and High Voltage.

The state of West Virginia is moving forward with a plan to outfit its public schools with Dance Dance Revolution setups. The state has one of the worst obesity rates in a country where obesity is already seen as an increasingly worrying issue. State officials hope that by providing schools with the option to use DDR as an in-school exercise method, students with an aversion to sports or other physical education activities will be more willing to stay in shape.

West Virginia's 157 middle schools will receive copies of the game first, to be followed by the remainder of the state's 753 public schools in the next three years. The overall cost of the project is $500,000, with DDR publisher Konami donating $75,000. Oddly enough, the article says that the cost of each individual package--containing a console (likely a PS2), two or more pads, and the game--is $740. That seems a bit excessive considering the same products could be picked up at retail for well under half that.

Ben Andac, a professed anti-Nintendo sort of guy for most of his life, shares his opinions on why Nintendo has the right idea for the next generation in The Man Who Was Tomorrow. By the way, if you happen to like the revolutionary WaChe design in that article's banner, t-shifts featuring the emblem are available from the Idle Thumbs Company Store.

Keith Schofield, a music video director whose work tends to encourage being sent around the internet, has filmed a video for a band called Wintergreen; it's all about the infamous E.T. licensed Atari game. Informative!

Perhaps you've heard about the stricter regulation on "booth babes" this year at E3. Personally, I'm rather glad about it. E3 is in many ways a big stupid circus, and the more that's done to reverse that, the better. If you need more convincing, here's a good editorial on the subject by Next Generation.

Various sources are reporting on a story in the latest issue of Europe's NGC Magazine, which states that Nintendo's upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GCN) will have enhanced features when used with the next-gen Revolution console. Note that the game is still on track for a GameCube release. This merely indicates that, at least for this particular game, Revolution will go beyond its standard GameCube backwards compatibility and allow the game to make use of the unique motion-based controller. Revolution also has four GameCube controller ports and will support a GameCube controller-like "shell" into which the standard Revolution controller can be fitted for more traditional control. Nintendo has not yet offered official word on what kind of extra functionality will be made possible, assuming the report is in fact accurate. Most speculation has been that the "freehand" controller will allow the player to control Link's targeting and sword slashes, while the "nunchaku" attachment will be used for movement.

The NGC article predicts a November release for the Revolution console in Europe. Given Nintendo's recent stated hope to launch the system worldwide within a window of a few months, this would suggest an overall Fall release assuming Europe is among the last to receive new hardware, which is typical in the game industry (sorry, guys!). As far as we know, Twilight Princess itself is still on track for Nintendo's most recent Spring 2006 release estimate.

Since E3, it's been suspected that Epic would be bringing its next main entry in the Unreal Tournament series, Unreal Tournament 2007, to PlayStation 3, and recent comments by Epic's Cliff Bleszinski corroborated that suspicion. According to the January issue of PlayStation Magazine, not only is the game coming to PS3, it will be a launch title. The console is still set for a vague "Spring 2006" release, though that probably refers to the Japanese launch; traditionally, Sony consoles take several months to reach territories such as North America and Europe. This time around, Sony may try and tighten up the schedule since Microsoft pulled off a semi-worldwide simultaneous Xbox 360 release and Nintendo wants to do the same with Revolution, but with the no doubt enormous volume of units Sony is going to want to produce don't expect it to actually be "simultaneous."

With this move, Sony may be trying to court the hardcore shooter segment of the market, which last generation largely sided with Microsoft's Xbox due to its high number of action titles and well-received Live online service. Sony has indicated in the past that gamers will be able to hook up a mouse and keyboard to PS3 for gaming use via USB. UT2007 is of course also set for release on PC, and likely on Xbox 360 as well.

In a recent Famitsu interview, Metal Gear overlord Hideo Kojima has hinted at the eventually possibility of a full Metal Gear Online game, though he did not identify a specific type of gameplay or platform. Apparently, designers at Kojima Productions have been working on online features for quite some time now, and the team eventually decided to just stick some of them into Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2), which comes out next March. Subsistence will feature the first online gameplay of any kind for the series, and Kojima hopes to guage fan reactions to it before proceeding with more complex ideas. As for a complete Metal Gear Online game, Kojima said, "Years from now, we'd like to realize this on the PlayStation 3, on the Xbox 360, or maybe on the PC." Stay tuned.

Clover Studio's upcoming Okami (PS2), the stunningly gorgeous action/adventure tale of a Japanese sun god who takes the form of a wolf, has received a release date. The game will hit Japan on April 20, 2006, and will follow in North America the next month. And you will play it.

Microsoft has launched a somewhat odd promotion for Xbox Live subscribers. If you register your Live account and fill out some demographic information, Microsoft will send you an Xbox Live Diamond Card in 6-8 weeks. It doesn't seem as though an Xbox 360 is required, as Live subscriptions carry over between Xbox and Xbox 360. The card offers deals at retail locations such as Hollywood Video, SamGoody, and Carl's Jr. And there you have it. Play games online, get a discount on a sandwich. Whatever works, I guess.

Longtime peripheral manufacturer Mad Catz announced that it has signed a deal with Microsoft allowing the company to publish software for Microsoft's Xbox. The games in question will make use of Mad Catz' custom gaming accessories, though no details of what this entails were revealed.

Gamasutra's latest Question of the Week asks if HD is important to the future of video games. Plenty of responses were received with a broad range of answers, some saying HD is an important step, and some saying there are far more important advancements to sort out first.

GameSpot speaks about the guns featured in Criterion's Black (PS2, Xbox) with producer Jeremy Chubb.

Japanese publisher and developer conglomerate AQ Interactive recently announced its upcoming next- and current-generation lineup at a Tokyo press conference.

Most of the details were regarding Xbox 360 games. Even with Mistwalker apparently working on three upcoming Xbox 360 games and a DS game, studio head and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is also working on an Xbox 360 action RPG entitled Cry On for developer Cavia. Cavia is the studio behind games such as Drakengard (PS2) and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (PS2, PSP). Cry On is the story of a girl named Sally who is friends with a giant named Boggle, part of a race of underground giants that serve as war machines for humans. Longtime Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu will handle the game's music, and Drakengard's Kimihiko Fujisaka will handle character design.

Cavia is also working on an Xbox 360 action/adventure called Bullet Witch. Set in 2012, the player controls Alicia, a witch out to free humanity from the shackles of a demonic race that has enslaved her people. Alicia is apparently able to manipulate weather phenomena in her quest. The game is set for a Spring 2006 Japanese release.

Artoon, the studio behind the Blinx (Xbox) series and Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (GBA), is developing an action/adventure for PS3 and Xbox 360 entitled Vampire's Rain about a special forces vampire hunter named John Lloyd. The game will feature online versus play and, thankfully, online cooperative play. It has a Japanese release estimate of Winter 2006.

AQ also announced several other games, some of which do not yet have a name. For Nintendo Revolution, AQ is developing "A game based on a major comic book" and "Original action game" (exciting!). For PS3 they're working on "Major 3D game" (nice!). DS is getting "Edutainment game" and "Adventure game" (whoa!). PS2 will see "A game based on a comic book for female audiences" (okay!). In the works for PSP are "Original RPG" and "Jitsuroku Oniyome Nikki." Finally, a name! That latter PSP game is based on a popular Japanese blog by a husband who was being abused by his wife. It was a very popular blog. The name translates to "Devil Wife Diary." Don't be surprised if we Westerners don't get our hands on that one.

Square Enix has announced that a beta copy of the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI (PS2, X360, PC) will be included with the next issue of Xbox 360: The Official Xbox Magazine in the USA, UK, France, Italy, and Germany. The beta servers will be completely open for an unspecified limited period. To play the game on Xbox 360, users will need a hard drive and broadband internet access. It is not clear whether Xbox Live is required.

Three owners and employees of the Los Angeles-based ACME Game Store have been charged with copyright infringement for selling modified Xboxes loaded with pirated games. They sold the consoles at prices ranging from $225 to upwards of $500 depending on what kind of modifications and how many games were included. Federal investigators managed to purchase an Xbox with a mod chip and 77 preloaded games for $265. Whoops.

More than two months after the initial complaints that Madden 06 for PSP causes random crashes, loss of save game data, and other problems, EA is offering replacements. In an announcement made via the EA forums, a moderator stated that "while we know the workaround we provided earlier works" (users who actually tried EA's fix said it didn't work at all), the company is offering a new game disk along with a $15 EA Store coupon to those affected by the problem. Just send in your defective disk, wait 10 business days, and hopefully you'll be all set.

Ubisoft sent out notice today that Michel Ancel's game based on Peter Jackson's recently released King Kong remake has an alternate ending. "I wanted the game to be able to take the audience a bit further than what the film could," said Jackson. "And the final climax of the game gave us an opportunity to do something that the film could not do, which was to have an alternate ending--obviously everybody pretty much knows how King Kong ends." So, if you'd like to see Kong back on Skull Island rather than dead at the end, you can. It does seem to somewhat defeat the film's message, but it is after all a video game. To achieve the new ending, beat the whole game, then start over and achieve what is an apparently easily obtainable 250,000 points.

Joystiq also points out that the three current-gen console versions of the game have had their prices dropped from $49.99 to $29.99, making them fully half the price of the $59.99 Xbox 360 version. If you were looking for an excuse to pick it up, there you go. The movie apparently didn't do quite as well at the box office as its studio was hoping, and the game may be suffering a similar fate. Surely that wouldn't be great news for designer Ancel, whose last project, the excellent Beyond Good & Evil (PS2, Xbox, GCN, PC) was met with critical acclaim but lackluster sales. Show him you care.

Official Xbox 360 Magazine UK has posted a rumor that the classic button-mashing button-masher Track and Field might be coming to the Xbox 360 over Xbox Live Arcade. It's an extremely unsubstantiated rumor, but it should come as good news to button-mashers who love to mash buttons.

Edge Magazine has a rather extensive interview with Microsoft's J Allard, the new head of the company's Experiences and Design for Gaming and Entertainment Group. He has a lot to say about Sony, describing the company as "alienating," and somehow manages to avoid saying anything about Nintendo Revolution despite there being two questions mentioning it.

GameSpot has a developer interview on Reflections' Driver: Parallel Lines (PS2, Xbox).

Namco has sent official confirmation that a version of the acclaimed Katamari Damacy (PS2) series will be coming to the PSP. Tentatively titled Me and My Katamari, the game once again casts the player into the role of the diminutive Prince, son of the decidedly not dimunitive King of All Cosmos, in his quest to roll up pretty much everything into a huge ball.

Series creator Keita Takahashi is apparently not involved in the production of the game, by his own volition. Takahashi was forced into designing the PS2 sequel We Love Katamari after employer Namco threatened to go ahead with the project regardless of his lack of involvement. When it was revealed that Namco's plan was to simply release what amounted to the first game with added Christmas textures, Takahashi signed on despite very public dissatisfaction with the situation. He has recently announced his intention to ultimately leave the video game industry due to a frustration with its sequel-based mentality and the creative limitations placed on its developers. However, he gave a wide window for his exit, indicating that he hopes to be designing playgrounds in the next decade, so there's hopefully still time for him to think up a new design or two while he still sticks around. Takahashi was trained as an artist, with a concentration in sculpture.

A previously rumored Nintendo DS version of the game, mentioned in an issue of Nintendo Power, has been unaddressed for quite some time and at this point can probably be assumed cancelled or indefinitely delayed.

Following up on its Xbox 360 backwards compatibility lists for North America (212 games) and Japan (12 games), Microsoft has now released its European list. The list contains 156 titles, all of which are also on the North American list. Sadly, Respondesign's Yourself!Fitness is one of the titles that did not carry over despite its inclusion in the 212-game lineup.

Industry pioneer Ralph Baer, creator of original home video game console Magnavox Odyssey, has been honored with a National Medal of Technology award. The prize is the United States' most distinguished commendation for innovators in technology and has been awarded since 1985 to companies, teams, or individuals.

Microsoft has been quite enthusiastic with licensing of its top-shelf game properties, with several novels based on Bungie's Halo (Xbox) and a forthcoming series based on Rare's Perfect Dark universe (N64, X360). Now, publisher Prima Games has announced that it will be publishing a comic series based on Rare's Kameo: Elements of Power (X360), a 360 launch title. Prima is widely known as a publisher of strategy guides and hint books for games. No doubt spurred on by the easy availabilty of walkthroughs and FAQs on the internet, Prima has supplemented its traditional business with the occasional foray into products such as books of game concept art, and now this upcoming comic.

The series will be a monthly series to comprise six issues in total, and will be illustrated in a manga style by Mobile Suit Gundam's Hiroyuki Kitazume. Sunmin Park, the director who recently signed on to helm the Kameo film adaptation, will be handling the writing duties for the strip.

To nobody's great surprise, Dolby has announced that its Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound technology is supported by the Xbox 360, as is Dolby Digital decoding for video playback. Upcoming Xbox 360 games supporting these sound capabilities include Neversoft's Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 2, Rare's Perfect Dark Zero, and Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing.

A Reuters press release announces that Activision and DreamWorks have entered an agreement that will allow Activision the exclusive license to several upcoming DreamWorks films, including Kung Fu Panda, Rex Havoc, any new Shrek films, How to Train Your Dragon, and the imaginatively titled Bee Movie.

GameSpot previews some of the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade titles, and also has a designer diary for Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360).

1UP talks with Tomonobu Itagaki about the use of a female Spartan in Team NINJA's Dead or Alive 4 (X360), as well as Hiromichi Tanaka about the Xbox 360 version of Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI (PS2, X360, PC).

Eurogamer reports that USK, the German software ratings board, is featuring a list of Xbox 360 games on its website that it has been evaluating. One can assume that if such an organization has these games, they are essentially complete and should be able to hit the launch target. Present on the list are such titles as Ridge Racer 6, Kameo: Elements of Power, King Kong, Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, Dead or Alive 4, Gun, and a number of Xbox Live Arcade titles such as Hexic, Marble Blast Ultra, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, and Gauntlet. Conspicuous in its absence is Rare's much-hyped Perfect Dark Zero.

With Sony's recent confirmation that its new silver model PS2 will have compatibility issues with 38 PlayStation games and nine PS2 games, including Tekken 5 and Hitman: Contracts, it now seems that there is some doubt as to whether the PS3 will be fully backwards compatible. Sony spokesperson Reiko Sakamoto said to IDG, "It's hard to say the PlayStation 3 will be 100 percent backwards compatible but as we said earlier this year we aim to make it so as much as possible." She noted that there are a variety of factors causing the issues, which include crashes and save errors, but they are primarily due to the use of a new chipset in the most recent PS2 model. Presumably, assuming Sony uses hardware emulation in its next console, the PS3 will have similar problems.

As the Xbox 360 launch approaches, the games are finally starting to reveal whether they're launch titles or not, and it looks like Full Auto (PS3, X360) is not. Sega has announced that Pseudo Interactive's vehicular combat title, originally planned to launch alongside the new console, has been delayed until February 2006. (It was also missing from the USK list reported by Eurogamer). Sega of America PR director Brent Blount explains, "With any new franchise, you don't have a second chance to build momentum and make an impression. As with most console launches, publishers will be betting on sequels from established franchises; several of which will be racing games."

Blount made sure to add that Monolith's Condemned: Criminal Origins (X360, PC), also published by Sega, will in fact be hitting the console's launch.

Atlus has announced the fifth title in the Growlanser series of PlayStation strategy RPGs. Growlanser V (PS2) is set for release in Japan some time during 2006, and moves the series into full 3D for the first time. The series' usual game mechanics will otherwise likely remain fairly intact. It is not known when the game will make it to North America and/or Europe.

At the end of last year, Working Designs published Career Soft's Growlanser Generations in North America; the compilation included the first three games of the series, the first of which was originally released on the original PlayStation. Atlus has yet to release Growlanser IV here, so V might be sneaking in at the end of the PS2's life cycle.

1UP continues its week-long NES restrospective coverage, Power Play. The features I've been forgetting to link since Monday are NES Turns 20, an EGM feature which looks at some of Nintendo's marketing, accessories, and competitors of the NES; Solid Gold, which compiles a list of 1UP readers' top 15 NES games; Hidden Gems, which showcases some more great titles that 1UP readers missed; The Sublime Seven, looking at the top third-party developers on the NES; and Good Nintentions, which looks at some exceptionall bizarre NES tie-ins and "homages."

1UP is in retrospective mode, it seems; with this week's release of Gunstar Super Heroes (GBA), there's also a feature on venerable independent studio Treasure, undisputed masters of the 2D action arts. Peruse a history and complete gameography with 13 Years of Treasure: A Retrospective, and marvel at how may awesome games these guys have made.

GameSpot has a feature on the less-hyped North American version of Microsoft's X05 event, which was just held in Toronto.

You may have heard about the challenge issued by fanatical anti-game activisist Jack Thompson, who dared the games industry to create a game in which a raging vigilante goes on a killing spree, murdering the employees and management of the only slightly fictitious game publisher "Take This." Were a game company to develop, publish, and distribute such a game, Thompson claimed he would donate $10,000 to the favorite charity of the real company Take Two's real CEO Paul Eibeler. Well, when the Penny Arcade guys found out about this, PA's Mike Krahulik (Gabe) felt he should let Thompson know that the comic's Child's Play charity has already donated over $500,000 to benefit hospitalized children around the country. Thompson responded in turn: he called Krahulik on the phone and "screamed at me for a couple minutes."

Well, the situation reached new levels of hilarity today, as Dr. David Walsh of America's National Institute on Media and the Family has told Thompson to leave his organization alone and stop trying to claim false associations. In an open letter to the the games industry and to politicians, Walsh revealed that despite Thompson constantly claiming to be cooperating with the institute, the institute has no relationship with Thompson, and in fact is offended by his publically outrageous and offensive techniques. In addressing Thompson, Walsh's letter states:

"Over the past few months, I and members of my board have a growing concern that your use of our name, without our permission, has had a negative influence as we try to educate the public on this important issue. Your commentary has included extreme hyperbole and your tactics have included personally attacking individuals for whom I have a great deal of respect... Some of the people that you have publicly criticised are not only people of integrity, but are people who have worked to improve the lives of children."

Walsh continues to say that he and his organization do not "condone these tactics," and he demands that Thompson "cease using the institute's or my name in any way that would give the impression that we support your efforts." He even wants his organization's link off of Thompson's site.

Thompson just responded, with an accusatory and conspiratorial link that is tenuous at best and laughable otherwise:

"Dr. Walsh's efforts are funded by Target and by a foundation run by Best Buy lawyer and Best Buy Director Elliot Kaplan. This was revealed in a recent article about Dr. Walsh in the Pioneer Press... I am suing Target and Best Buy over [Rockstar's] Bully game, which both Target and Best Buy are pre-selling. You connect the dots."

Very incisive. Thompson goes on to accuse Walsh's open letter is an attempt to "protect his relationship with portions of the video game industry and its reckless retail network." After years of criticizing an entire industry for supposedly being overly violent, unreasonable, and petty, it's nice to see Thompson taking some of what he so routinely dishes out.

Microsoft announced today plans to more fully integrate Xbox 360 with Windows. The company's update, which will only be available for Windows XP Media Center Edition users, will give the console such features as the ability to stream media files from the PC, including HD content. The Windows software, helpfully titled Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, will allow management of up to 200 movies, have new DVD burning functionality, and add support for external HDTV tuners. Media Center Edition users who wish to download the update may do so for free from Microsoft's Windows Update site.

Microsoft plans to ship Xbox 360 consoles compatible with the technology "later in the year," though it was not specified whether that implies that the first batch of machines will support it out of the box.

It looks like Neversoft's upcoming western GUN (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360) has jumped on board the alternate reality game (ARG) craze, a tactic that is becoming more and more popular lately in the marketing of upcoming games and game industry announcements. Gamasutra reports that the recently-launched Last Call Poker may very well have been created for the purpose of promoting GUN. Last Call Poker, while at first glance appearing to be a fairly straightforward gambling site, is upon closer inspection riddled with hidden clues and puzzles suggesting that it is the launching point of an ARG. Of course, some clues are a little more obvious. The front page contains an inconspicious anonymous plea for players to help save his niece from being murdered. In addition, watching the static (at first) header on the page eventually reveals the flashed text, "If you're reading this, I'm already dead." So, probably not just a poker site then.

Microsoft has already announced that Alexey Pajitnov's puzzle game Hexic will ship on the Xbox 360 hard drive, and that GarageGames' Marble Blast Ultra will be available over the Xbox Live Arcade service for 360, but today they revealed a full list of the first wave of games that will be available the Live Arcade service. The list contains 21 games to be released in the "launch window" of the upcoming console, which is considered to be from the release date until the "holiday season." It lists several card games and puzzle games, including popular titles such as Popcap's Bejeweled 2, as well as classics like Midway's Joust and SmashTV. Each game will have a free downloadable demo available. Microsoft expects about 35 more games to launch by next summer.

Those of you who own an Xbox copy of The Behemoth's gloriously frenetic old-school throwback shooter Alien Hominid (PS2, Xbox, GCN) will have a few downloads available for the game through Xbox Live. The level packs are additions to the PDA-style minigames, rather than the main component proper, but extra content is extra content. The two new games are called "Chicken Pack" and "Ultra Hyper Load", each with 25 levels. Zoo Digital, the game's publisher in Europe, claims more content will be available early next year.

There's just one catch: the Xbox version of the game didn't make it to North America, which got the PS2 and GameCube verions, so this announcement should only affect our European friends.

Microsoft has Designer Diary #1 for Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360).

Gamasutra has a video lecture from Game Developers Conference, entitled "Recreating the LAN Party Online: The Networking and Social Infrastructure of Halo 2." Bungie's Chris Butcher shares his experience. (free reg. required)

Microsoft has been very vocal about its plan to supply plenty of Xbox 360 units when the machine is released in November, ensuring a lack of widespread shortages. However, the always-informative Chris Morris over at CNN/Money is reporting that the company may be running into problems generating enough supply. Multiple analyst firms have lowered their estimates of how many units the manufacturer will ship. The hope has been that Microsoft will get over two million consoles out worldwide in 2005, but American Technology Research's P. J. McNealy believes Microsoft will hit between 1.8 million and 2 million, while Banc of America's Gary Cooper expects only 1.4 million to 1.6 million. With Microsoft planning on a global launch, a shortage of supply would be even more detrimental, since the initial batch of consoles must be divided among the various territories. Many retailers are already taking advantage of the situation by requiring customers to purchase the 360 as part of a larger bundle.

When questioned about manufacturing numbers in an X05 roundtable interview, Microsoft Chief XNA Architect J Allard responded, "We have a term for this. It's a very technical term. It's called a very hard problem. It's just hard. I can't comment on numbers at all. You can try all you want. I'm not going to give you any numbers partly because we're only in the beginnings of manufacturing and the rate that we're aiming for is very, very steep."

Microsoft's ever-outspoken Chief XNA Architect J Allard has spoken his mind regarding Nintendo's Revolution controller, indicating that he himself thought of a similar concept four years ago, and determined that "there wasn't that much enthusiasm around it" from gamers and developers. He does not seem concerned with whether the actual execution of the idea has anything to do with its reception. Though he does think Nintendo will find uses for the controller in its first party games, he notes, "I don't think most Electronic Arts games are going to be played with that thing." Allard went on to incisively question "How am I going to watch a movie on Revolution [using its controller]?" Engineers at Nintendo were heard to exclaim, "Shit! That's the type of thing we didn't take into consideration!"

He then claimed that customers want choice, which is why the dual pricing scheme for Xbox is a sound decision, though he asks, "Are there developers who are disappointed?" and answers, "Yeah, sure." He contrasts Microsoft's approach with Apple's non-upgradable iPod strategy. Allard explained that iPod Shuffle owners are "screwed" if they want an iPod Photo. The architect also reassured customers that "There isn't a game on 360 that you can't play without a hard drive," apparently forgetting about Final Fantasy XI and, presumably, any other upcoming MMOs. However, it seems he is technically correct in that the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI does not actually exist yet.

In another interview, Allard admitted that "What we learned with Halo [2] is you don't ship a game before it's ready." He then hastily added, "Not that we shipped a game before it's ready, but because we were very wise to wait until November. I put in the capabilities that we wanted." Good save there, Allard, putting in those capabilities. I've always said he's a wise guy. Also, thanks to Bungie for actually making the game.

Though there's not much news about it yet, Microsoft's Peter Moore revealed that gamers can expect a list of Xbox 360-compatible Xbox games in about two weeks. As previously stated, a certain number of "bestselling" Xbox games will have 360 compatibility code preloaded onto the 360's hard drive. Moore also reiterated that Microsoft will continue to release backwards compatibility patches for other games, "Until consumers show lack of interest--then we will move on."

Moore stated that the backwards compatibility team is progressing well.

Today, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill which will legally prohibit sales of particularly violent games to minors. The governor had not previously indicated whether he was in support of or against the bill. Today, he explained, "I am a big believer in those video games. I mean they're terrific, a lot of them are manufactured in California and they're doing a great job. We just want to make sure it doesn't go into the wrong hands or children under the age of 10 start playing those things because it does have an impact on our children." He did not address the issue of children between the ages of 11 and 17, though his signing of the bill would indicate he is against certain games going into their hands as well.

According to the bill, "exposing minors to depictions of violence in video games, including sexual and heinous violence, makes those minors more likely to experience feelings of aggression, to experience a reduction of activity in the frontal lobes of the brain, and to exhibit violent antisocial or aggressive behavior." The law will take effect January 1, 2006. The Entertainment Software Association plans to launch a lawsuit in opposition to the new law.

Pointing to falling GameCube performance in North America, Nintendo announced a 6.9% sales drop in the first quarter over last year's results. The company also cited high research and development costs on its upcoming Revolution console as a contributor to slimmer profit margins. However, strong DS performance and the weak Yen have led Nintendo to keep its revenue forecast unchanged and raise its profit estimates substantially.

The two biggest gaming retail chains, GameStop and Electronics Boutique, have completed their long in the works merger after shareholders, as expected, approved the transaction. The deal will become set in stone this weekend, and the resulting company will keep the name GameStop Corp. The company is far and away the biggest presence in the used game market, but Best Buy, which is controlling a growing part of the overall gaming retail market, was recently determined to be moving into used game sales.

Marek Bronstring of Idle Thumbs delivers his X05 game impressions, covering Ubisoft's Peter Jackson's Michel Ancel's King Kong (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360, PC), Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (X360, PC), Epic's Gears of War (X360), and Bioware's Mass Effect (X360).

IGN has a developer interview on Creative Assembly's Spartan: Total Warrior (PS2, Xbox, GCN).

Contrary to expectations, Microsoft did not provide a launch game lineup for Xbox 360, slated to ship at the end of November. However, the publisher did give a partial list of eight games confirmed for launch, which was mainly comprised of EA games. Today Take-Two and Activision chimed in with their contributions, though Microsoft has not commented on either of the two announcements. The publishers and their titles are as follows:

- Microsoft: Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing 3, Rare's Kameo: Elements of Power and Perfect Dark Zero
- EA: Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, FIFA 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted
- Take-Two: Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, NBA 2K6, NHL 2K6, Top Spin 2, Amped 3
- Activision: Neversoft's Tony Hawk's American Wasteland and GUN, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 2, Raven's Quake IV

This makes for 17 games that have been announced by publishers as launch titles, which falls within the 15-20 range that Microsoft has been constantly reiterating. There are several other games, however, which many hoped to see at launch, including Monolith's Condemned: Criminal Origins, Team NINJA's Dead or Alive 4, Volition's Saint's Row, and Pseudo's Full Auto. For those, we'll just have to wait and see.

Monolith's upcoming Condemned: Criminal Origins (X360, PC) has been tapped for a film adaptation. The film, which will be entitled Species X, is being written by "The Shield" co-executive producer Kurt Sutter.

"I'm a big gamer, one who feels that, in the last five years, some of the smartest and most innovative ideas have come out of the gaming world," Sutter said.

In the course of a murder investigation, the protagonist cop has reason to question who he is as a man, until he realizes he's not a man. A tug-of-war emerges among a faction of good and evil aliens.

The property is owned by WB Interactive Entertainment, a game publisher owned by major motion picture studio Warner Bros. Sega will handle the actual publishing of Condemned. WB Interactive, apparently already fairly convinced of the game's success, hopes to create a multi-medium franchise rather than simply having either the movie or the film be an adaptation of the other. Designer American McGee has expressed similar desires for properties of his such as Bad Day L.A. and American McGee's Oz.

The film is set to come out concurrently with the game's sequel, which is reportedly already in development.

A couple details were revealed today regarding extra non-retail content to be available on Xbox 360. First off, Microsoft and GarageGames announced that Marble Blast Ultra (X360) will be made available soon after launch through Xbox Live Arcade. The all-ages game is part of GarageGames' Marble Blast franchise, and will be exclusive to Xbox Live. Players control a marble through various environments, collecting powerups and avoiding hazards. Presumably, the game will only be downloadable to hard drive-equipped consoles, though a GarageGames representative indicated that it should be small enough to fit on a memory card--if the console supports downloading games to memory cards.

Microsoft's outspoken Chief XNA Architect J Allard also revealed what will be pre-installed on the 360's hard drive: a documentary called "The Making of Xbox 360" as well as a couple other unidentified videos, an unidentified custom soundtrack, and the puzzle game Hexic. Hexic was designed by legendary Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, and can also be played at MSN Games. The content will be included both on individually sold hard drives as well as the units included in the premium Xbox 360 package.

So apparently the PSP version of EA Sports' Madden 06 is just completely broken, causing random crashes and loss of save data. I guess if you have the game, you probably know this already, and if you don't have the game, it doesn't mean much to you, but it seems to have upset The Internet, so I am newsing it. Penny Arcade has a rant and comic up about it, and some kind of protest site has been created. Plus, you know, forum posts.

The response from EA seems to be fairly minimal, offering a workaround that most claim does not actually fix anything.

Despite yesterday's megaton DS updates in LNC, there are a few tiny details remaining. It was also confirmed that Lost Magic (DS), Taito's upcoming RPG featuring Studio Ghibli artwork, will contain some kind of online mode using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Contact (DS), the RPG from Marvelous and Killer 7 studio Grasshopper, will also feature online support in some way. Finally, Treasure's Bleach (DS) fighting game will be playable online, though that game shouldn't necessarily be expected to make it out of Japan.

The Australian High Court ruled that PlayStation mod chips are legal, and do not commit copyright infringement. Unauthorized reproduction of a PlayStation game is still considered copyright infringement, but the mod chip itself does not enable illegal copying. Mod chips also allow the use of imported games; the High Court as well as other Australian officials consider the blocking of imported games to be a barrier on trade and competition.

The ruling marks the end of the four-year-long trial of Eddy Stevens, against whom Sony took legal action for modifying PlayStations. It is expected that the arguments presented in the case will be considered by legal teams tackling similar situations in other countries.

Despite the upcoming Xbox 360 launch, FBR analyst Shawn Milne expects holiday season video game sales to be down five percent in the fourth quarter and 10-15% in September, compared to those same periods in 2004. This is a prediction that has been echoed by various analysts over the last few months. Milne sees the drop being mainly due to the lack of must-have titles in comparison to the huge blockbusters of last year. Certainly, last holiday season was pretty unstoppable, with Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, and more. However, he predicts that publishers EA and Activision, both of which have extremely long lineups through year-end, will still show solid numbers.

Game Informer sits down with good old CliffyB regarding Epic's Gears of War (X360).

Eurogamer has the second half of its interview with Clive Gratton about Creative Assembly's Spartan: Total Warrior (PS2, Xbox, GCN).

Since IGNCube apparently never gets tired of making rendered concepts for possible Revolution peripherals, they've gone ahead and made a completely utterly hypothetical charge station for the controller.