Upcoming Releases: 1/14 - 1/27

 

At long last, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Justice for All [DS] and WarioWare: Smooth Moves [Wii] arrive in North America, only a few scant months after their Japanese release. Normally I'd be a bit worried they'd be overshadowed by Burning Crusade, the first World of Warcraft expansion set, but the pacing of each is just perfect for quick spurts between raids.

On the digitally distributed side of things, Nintendo's got three hitting Virtual Console (Moto Roader, R-Type III: The Third Lightning, Xevious), an enhanced version of PopCap's Heavy Weapon arrives on Xbox Live Arcade, and hey, there's a chance flOw may actually hit the PlayStation Store ...but let's not get our hopes up.

The full list of this week's releases, including a tentative glance at next week, after the jump.

The dates listed below are ship dates. Except in a few notable cases, titles generally arrive in stores the day after they ship. Digitally distributed titles (Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Store, Wii's Virtual Console and Channels, Steam, GameTap) are exempt from this delay and are immediately available for download on the day of their release.

This Week (1/14 - 1/20)
PlayStation 3:
Nothing.

Xbox 360:
Wednesday (1/17)

NCAA March Madness 07, Xbox Live Arcade: Heavy Weapon: Atomic Tank (800 MS Points)

Wii
Monday (1/15)

WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Virtual Console: Moto Roader [TG16] (600 Wii Points), R-Type III: The Third Lightning [SNES] (800 Wii Points), Xevious [NES] (500 Wii Points)

PlayStation 2
Wednesday (1/17)

NCAA March Madness 07

Game Boy Advance
Nothing.

DS
Monday (1/15)

Underground Pool
Tuesday (1/16)

Fossil League: Dino Tournament Championship, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Justice For All
PSP
Keep playing those emulators.
PC
Monday (1/15)

Great Invasions: The Dark Ages "350-1066 AD"

Tuesday (1/16)

Close Quarters Conflict, Hexic Deluxe, The Shield: The Game, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Collector's Edition
Notes
1) World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade will be available in stores on Tuesday, January 16th thanks to Blizzard's traditional use of street dates. In fact, some stores are holding midnight launches, but of course, you already knew that.

2) No one knows what's going on with the PlayStation Store, Wii's Virtual Console or Xbox Live Arcade as specific details and dates are practically impossible to pin down until days, sometimes hours, before release. That said, here's a general idea of what's coming in the near future:
PlayStation Store: flOw, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
Wii's Virtual Console: ?

Xbox Live Arcade: Alien Hominid HD, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Catan, Street Trace: NYC, Worms

Next Week (1/21 - 1/27) [Tentative]
PlayStation 3
Nothing.

Xbox 360
Nada  (that's Spanish for nothing).

Wii
Sigh.

PlayStation 2
Next week's looking pretty barren, huh?

Game Boy Advance
Nothing here either, but the dying platform's final game (Final Fantasy VI Advance) hits 2/5.

DS
Monday (1/22)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Tuesday (1/23)
InuYasha: Secret of the Divine Jewel

PSP
Monday (1/22)
Sid Meier's Pirates!

Tuesday (1/23)
The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean

PC
Tuesday (1/23)
Europa Universalis III, The Poppit Show

Thursday (1/25)
Sam & Max Episode 3: The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball (GameTap)

Source: Upcoming Releases: 1/14 - 1/27
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:50:04 GMT

EA Still Top Publisher in UK

 

Gamasutra reports that in terms of revenue, Electronic Arts' titles dominated the UK sales charts last year.

In fact the publisher's games made up nearly one-fifth of all game sales in the UK. Here's the full chart:

Pos. Publisher Percentage
1 Electronic Arts 19.8%
2 THQ 7.9%
3 Ubisoft 6.9%
4 Nintendo 6.8%
5 Microsoft 6.5%
6 Sony 5.7%
7 Take-Two 5.4%
8 Activision 5.0%
9 Sega 4.1%
10 Eidos 3.7%

Talk about dominance, you would have to add the top three (which includes Nintendo) to better Electronic Arts' percentages. Brian Crecente

EA UK's Top Publisher [Gamasutra]

Source: EA Still Top Publisher in UK
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:00:31 GMT

The root of gaming addiction exposed?

 

Filed under: Culture

Researchers are just now realizing that video games may fulfill psychological needs like autonomy, competence, and relatedness. University of Rochester and Immersyve Inc. investigators have determined that it's not just a shallow sense of fun that enables the so-called gaming addiction. Where have these guys been?
What seems obvious to us is still a mystery to many. As the industry grows, as gamer populations swell, we're bound to come under the microscope more and more. There is a great urge among the uninitiated to justify our passion for video games. If only they'd stop questioning and simply join the "fun" ... Conform!

Source: The root of gaming addiction exposed?
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:16:00 GMT

This Day in Gaming, January 15th

 

1998: SNK of America sues Atlus over (patent infringement?) of their photo stickers. How could we ever explain such a concept to a thawed caveman? He'd be like, "I survived the ice age for this shit?"

2003: EA releases Sim City 4 for PC in the US. I have a feeling that if The Sims never existed, we'd be on Sim City 25 by now. (Instead we are on The Sims 25: Rabid Pets And Children, Who Are Dating And Making Magic And By Magic We Mean Doing It With The Good Stuff Blurred Out). Mark Wilson

Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you'd like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com

Source: This Day in Gaming, January 15th
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:30:25 GMT

Woman Killed In Wii-Related Competition

 

snuffin writes to tell us that a local radio competition to "hold your wee for a Wii" has ended with a Sacramento woman dead from water poisoning. From the article: "An Associated Press interview with another contestant, named James Ybarra, claimed that contestants were initially given eight ounce bottles of water to drink every fifteen minutes, with larger bottles being used once contestants began to drop out. According to Ybarra, 'They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk.' He described the victim as 'a nice lady' and that 'she was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids.'"

 

 

Source: Woman Killed In Wii-Related Competition
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:45:00 GMT

1up’s top 10 WTF moments of 06

 

1up has put together a list of what they consider to be the craziest moments for gaming in 2006. Three of the ten choices are Nintendo related. I will post one of them below, you’ll have to click over for the other two.

4. Wrist Straps Recalled

We’ve been throwing game controllers since about two seconds after we first got our hands on one, but for some reason slippery idiots flinging Wiimotes through their plasma screens became one of the big stories of the holiday season. To hear mainstream news reports, delivered with the kind of gravity that should be reserved for an Ebola outbreak, Wii controllers are part of an insidious oriental plot to murder your children with toys. One Fox outlet even included some images from our Wiinjuries feature, noting that they were “apparently” a parody. If these guys pass for journalists then I hereby abdicate any claim to the title. “Some asshole who plays videogames and writes about it” carries a lot more respectability at this point.

Read the full list here

Source: 1up’s top 10 WTF moments of 06
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:55:46 GMT

Behold! The Commodore 64 PDA!

 

For reasons that will elude all but the most brilliant of philosophers, some guy over at the Petscii Forums decided to find out what would happen if a Commodore 64 and a PDA had a babeh. The hack, which looks like it would do some serious damage were it to collide with your noggin, combines the screen from a PSOne, the keyboard from a Jornada PDA, and a joystick from an Atari keychain.

Unveling the Picodore 64! [Petscii Forums]

Source: Behold! The Commodore 64 PDA!
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:55:41 GMT

Classic Commercials: Mario’s Got Milk

 

So you’ve seen Mario’s room, now check out his preferred drink. Who remembers watching this on TV? Video after the jump.

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Source: Classic Commercials: Mario’s Got Milk
Originally published on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:00:17 GMT

Seemingly The Wii Is Noisy?

 

Our friends over at engadget have ran some tests to see which of the next gen consoles create the most noise during various actions. Have a look at the graph below and let me know what your views are.

Lastly, how can they say that the Hard Drive measured 50dB when the Wii uses flash memeory which is solid state. I am quite sceptical about these tests as my Xbox 360 is alot louder than the Wii when it’s on and when it’s reading media.

Source

Source: Seemingly The Wii Is Noisy?
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 23:24:07 GMT

VIACOM: Editorial: Why MTV Won't Buy 1Up

 

I'm just a simple country blogger, but despite recent rumors about Viacom buying out all or part of Ziff Davis Game Group, I just don't see it happening.

There are a number of reasons for this, chief among them is the fact that ZD has tied their print magazines to the deal. In other words, if you don't buy EGM and Games for Windows you can't buy 1Up.

This may seem like a negotiable point, but Ziff Davis isn't stupid and they know that they can't sell the magazines alone, especially in today's anti-print environment, so they are tying it to their very valuable 1Up property.

What that means is that any buyer who wants to cut a deal with Ziff Davis is going to have to do one of three things: Run the magazines, count on flipping them (which is very risky), or buy em up and then shut them down and take the loss on the chin.

So why can't Viacom do this?

Well they could, but they probably won't. They don't have any interest in print so why would they saddle themselves with some magazines? And they have this little issue called shareholders, who aren't going to sit quietly by while their money is sunk into something that is going to be torpedoed immediately or be hopefully sold off eventually.

If someone is going to jump at this deal, and I'm sure someone will, it will be someone in the publishing business already. So the next time you walk by a magazine rack, take a careful look, one of those magazines is about to get a couple of siblings. Brian Crecente

 

Source: VIACOM: Editorial: Why MTV Won't Buy 1Up
Originally published on Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:00:33 GMT