Late Night Consoling

Various sources, including GameDailyBiz, are speculating that Sony will be demonstrating its PlayStation 3 console at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. CES 2006 will take place from January 5-8 in Las Vegas, and the show features just about every notable electronics manufacturer around. It's not a specifically gaming-related event, but with Sony about to launch Blu-ray with the PS3 being by far its biggest tool for getting the technology into homes, it wouldn't be much of a surprise to see the console there. Don't expect it to be playable, however.

The article surmises that Microsoft may be there with some of its more anticipated upcoming Xbox 360 games, but there's less evidence of that than there is for PS3 showing up. Nintendo was also expected to show, presumably with Revolution, but the author noted that the company couldn't be found on the official exhibitor list.

Speaking with entertainment trade publication MCV, Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot stated that he'd like to see Ubisoft focus much more on movie license games than the company has in the past. In fact, he'd like the company to focus on them so much that they comprise 25% of the company's turnover. "It's coming along well and we have a few things on the way that can help us to continue to do business in that segment of the market," he said. "We want to recreate the experience we've had with Kong." Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360, DS, PSP, PC) has been widely lauded for its quality and general immersiveness, and sales too have presumably been quite brisk. The game was designed by Ubisoft's Michel Ancel and developed by his team after director Peter Jackson played Ancel's critically praised but commercially unsuccessful Beyond Good & Evil (PS2, Xbox, GCN, PC).

Hopefully Ubisoft realizes that most games based on movies tend to end up really, really bad. King Kong had been getting press for months as a rare example of a good licensed game, and that was followed up with reviews that were actually positive instead of abysmal. The game had a solid team and designer behind it, and that was primarily because the film's director demanded it. If Ubisoft understands this, we might have better licensed games in the future, but if they don't, the company might be in for a surprise.

CNN/Money's Chris Morris is the latest guy to put up impressions of Nintendo's Revolution controller. For the most part, his experience was similar to the ones we've heard about since Tokyo Game Show, as he was exposed to the same demos that were shown there. However, he also talked a bit with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and sales and marketing VP Reggie Fils-Aime about the company's direction with Revolution. Iwata continued to stress how good of a fit the controller is with the first person shooter genre, one which many PC gamers feel is crippled when using a traditional console controller. Fils-Aime, however, brought up a genre that hasn't yet been mentioned in the context of Revolution: MMOs. "I hope [massively multiplayer online games] are really explored on this system," he said. "That's a genre, from the home console standpoint, that really hasn't been explored very well." So far, MMOs are few and far between on consoles; the most notable example is Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI, which debuted on PS2 before hitting PC and is soon coming to Xbox 360. Xbox 360 has a couple MMOs in the works as well.

So, will we be seeing a massively multiplayer game on Nintendo's console in the future? Reggie's statement seemed like much more of an off the cuff comment, so at this point there's not much to say.

If you're wondering what people are buying in the wacky world of Japan, you're in luck because those numbers just came in. The Nintendo DS has broken the halfway market share barrier again, this time up to 59.02% share. PSP followed with 17.04% and PS2 with 9.05%. Xbox 360 debuted not far below the PS2 with 8.67% share. The list rounds out with Game Boy Advance with 3.78%, GameCube with 2.41%, and Xbox with .03%.

The top three games were all new titles and all heavily anticipated. #1 was Level 5's Rogue Galaxy (PS2), #2 was Nintendo's Mario Kart DS (DS), and #3 was Sega's Ryuu ga Gotoku (PS2). PS2 and DS tied for most games in the top 10 with four each. GBA and PSP each snagged one--respectively, Pokemon Fishigi na Dungeon (GBA) and Monster Hunter Portable (PSP).

GameSpot has listed its nominations for Best and Worst of 2005, and I'd just like to casually point out that, if my counting is correct, Double Fine's excellent Psychonauts (PS2, Xbox, PC) seems to have garnered the most nominations with nine. That's a hint to go buy that game if you don't have it.

Ever wanted to turn your Atari 2600 into a full-fledged Xbox 360? Well, for some reason, now you can.