After a long and troubled history, the Stargate videogame has finally been canceled by developer Perception. The company itself is in trouble, according to the Gamasutra report. From the article: "According to the same source, the game has now been terminated for all formats and the development team 'let go'. Any decision as to whether to proceed with the game, which had apparently reached the Alpha stage of completion and has built up a sizeable fan community, will now presumably rest at least partially with license holders MGM. No official comment had been received from Perception as of press time."

Next Generation reports that, in a February OPM article, the maker of the Metal Gear series of games says games aren't art. From the article: "'I don't think they're art either, videogames,' he said, referring to Roger Ebert's recent commentary on the same subject. 'The thing is, art is something that radiates the artist, the person who creates that piece of art. If 100 people walk by and a single person is captivated by whatever that piece radiates, it's art. But videogames aren't trying to capture one person. A videogame should make sure that all 100 people that play that game should enjoy the service provided by that videogame. It's something of a service. It's not art.'"

Last Thursday we mentioned the misreporting of a gamer's suicide, the death of a young man who frequented a Metal Gear Solid forum. This week, GamePolitics tries to clear things up by talking with one of the forum admins and giving gamers a place to air their reactions to related events, such as Jack Thompson's callous disregard for the young man's life. The Guardian Gamesblog comments on the unreality of the situation: "According to Gaminghorizon, AFP, the international newswire service that picked up on the Bulgarian story, has corrected its take on the events, although news sites that picked up on AFP's original version, including CNN and Yahoo have apparently yet to make alterations to their reports. Ultimately, the lack of major international media coverage has lent this sequence of events an air of unreality, of illegitimacy. A tragedy quietly perpetrated and pulled apart online."

Last week we discussed Gizmondo's bleak future. Over the weekend, Gamasutra reports, Gizmondo Europe filed for bankruptcy. From the article: "According to an SEC filing in the U.S., the application 'provides Gizmondo Europe with a moratorium in order to affect a financial restructuring of the business.' Gizmondo Europe will have a court hearing on 31 January 2006 to grant the administration order. During the interim period, Gizmondo Europe is immediately subject to protection of the Court and all enforcement actions of creditors are automatically stayed."

Gamasutra has an article looking at what game companies had on show at this year's CES. From the article: "Microsoft's keynote was similarly dry in the games arena, with the only major announcement coming from Microsoft's interactive entertainment vice president Peter Moore revealing that an add-on device capable of playing HD-DVD movies - and only movies, he'd later clarify, not games - will eventually be released for the Xbox 360. HD-DVD is, of course, the only major competitor against Sony's Blu-Ray for the next generation of high-definition media. Moore also revealed new shipping estimates for the Xbox 360, stating that between 4.5 and 5.5 million units will be shipped by the end of June of 2006, aided in no small part by the creation of a third manufacturing plant."

Edge Online has a piece looking at the rise of Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy. From the article: "But just how do you accelerate from unknown newcomer, through cult hero, to toast of the establishment in the time it takes most developers to produce a single game? Back in 2003 Katamari Damacy was unknown, a demo disc given away at the Tokyo Game Show which was dismissed by many as a one-note wonder - a novelty game which no one would play for more than ten minutes. Then, some neat timing: just a fortnight after the game's release in Japan, and the early flurry of word-of-mouth from those whose interest had been piqued at TGS, Takahashi presented the game at GDC's experimental game workshop."

ConfusedFX wrote to mention a great feature at GameDaily that is trying to cut through marketing BS and get to the truth behind the upcoming next-gen systems. From a piece on the Revolution's street-date: "Now Nintendo is saying that a near final version of the Revolution will be on display and working at E3 2006. If the company expects to release in the US before Thanksgiving then it has to have a working model at E3, but exactly what does that mean for attendees of the annual expo? We expect to see Zelda: Twilight Princess running on Revolution with the new features discussed a couple weeks ago, and maybe Smash Brothers and a Mario title with a couple of little mini-games like we saw at the Tokyo Game Show. We may also see a handful of classic Nintendo titles to promote the Revolution download service Nintendo has vaguely discussed in the past. If we can play Smash, Mario and some Nintendo classics on the show floor we'll be happy Nintendo. Don't let us down!"

Gamespot is reporting that Electronic Arts is cutting the prices of their PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube titles, now that next-gen consoles are beginning to hit the scene. Their 360, DS, and PSP titles are unaffected. From the article: "The prices of several of the company's current-generation games have been reduced in an attempt to get the most out its current crop of titles. Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06, FIFA 06, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire all seem to have benefited from the price drop, as their Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and PC versions are all now available for $29.99. Other games affected by the price slashing include Need for Speed Most Wanted (now $39.99) and Medal of Honor: European Assault (now $19.99)."

Nathan writes "1up recently posted their Dead or Alive 4 strategy guide on their website. It didn't take long for users at the Dead or Alive Central forums to recognize their hard work analyzing the fighting game engine had been blatantly pasted into the strategy guide without any credit given whatsoever. While movelists are largely factual and can be argued to be public knowledge, the most incriminating evidence is the section on the evasion system, which had been pasted into the 1up guide with a few reworded sentences. Discussions are ongoing at Gaming Age Forums (with 1up members defending the writer of the guide) and DoA Central. Perhaps the most interesting bit about this is that just a month or two ago, Dan Hsu from EGM and 1up had famously written an editorial criticizing shady ongoings at other publications." I've reread the different pieces, and while I think the DoA Forums are a large basis of work, people need to read Kate Turabian's on how to cite research because I don't see this as plagiarism in the whole - just poorly cited. Update: 01/23 22:20 GMT by Z : 1up has announced that they've pulled the guide to review the situation.

There have been a number of statistic-related announcements in the gaming industry of late. The beginning of the year sees companies trying to start off on the right foot through upbeat marketing. So, with that in mind comes the news that XFire now has 3 Million subscribers, the 1 Millionth DS handheld has sold in Europe, and Microsoft has listed the top 10 Xbox Live Arcade titles. From the Xbox Live article: "Although no exact figures for sales were revealed, the publishing giant has detailed its most popular games on the Arcade service, with Bizarre Creations' Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved leading the pack. The game is an adapted version of the retro styled arcade game that first appeared on the original Xbox, as part of Project Gotham Racing 2. Since the launch of the service in November, Geometry Wars has achieved some 200,000 trial downloads and 45,000 paid downloads, proving exceptionally popular with the online community."

Via GameSetWatch, an article at the Guardian relaying a message from publishers. They say that, though you may be enjoying those second-hand games, they may be forcing you to choke down the sequels that plague the industry. From the article: "'We recognise the secondhand games market is part of the revenue mix, for retailers at least,' said a spokesman. 'However, if it continues to grow, it could potentially starve us of the funds necessary for research and development, and therefore, developers will be less willing to take a risk on new and genre-diversifying titles. It's this creative diversity that makes the games industry so popular, and without sustained funding from new software sales, this could be at risk.'"

Howard Brown writes "David Rodriguez is a Lead Game Designer at High Voltage Software. His latest article on Buzzscope discusses videogaming's overabundance of cinematics, and how their misuse is taking us further and further away from what videogaming is all about." From the article: "I made it perhaps three virtual feet before managing to trigger another cinematic. Silently biting back a curse I again attempted to button through it, but those rat-bastard developers were bound and determined to have me watch their cinematic magic. Idly tapping the button, as if hoping that somehow the rules would change, I sat and listened as some NPC taught me all about targeting."

Next Generation has a piece on the short history of cell-phone based gaming. From the article: "The first-ever mobile phone game was the black-and-white Snake embedded in the Nokia 6110 model in 1997. The gameplay was simple, as you led led the 'snake' (really just a thick line) around the screen to collect dots. Mobile gamers would remain color blind until 2001, when Nokia introduced the first color screens; a major step in the presentation of mobile games."

heartless_ wrote to mention a GamesFirst article exploring whether or not Xbox 360 Discs are large enough for their expected content. From the article: "The first Prince of Persia occupied 2.44 gigs, the second 2.88, an increase of only 18%. Knights of the Old Republic went from 3.65 gigs in the first installment to 3.99 gigs in the second, a 9% increase. The Splinter Cell series went from 3.71 gigs in the first to 3.05 gigs in Pandora's Tomorrow, a reduction of 18% (though it should be noted that Chaos Theory, after switching development houses, ballooned into one of the largest games on the Xbox at 5.62 gigabytes). So the assumption that games, by their nature, grow in size as they evolve is not absolutely true. They do become more complex, but not necessarily at the expense of filesize."

This weekend will see two very different portrayals of gamers by major media outlets. Gamepolitics reports on tonight's episode of Dateline NBC, which will detail a murder plot crafted by an RPG gamer. From the article: "'This is a tough case,' said Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy. 'There were no forensics. (the police) knew that Brian Trimble was the link, the video-game player locked forever at 16 years old. Blaine Norris had the nerves to do the killing. And they had to get one guy to flip on the other.'. Meanwhile, Sunday's 60 Minutes will feature a piece on professional gamer Fatal1ty. From that article: "Some believe the time is near for video game competitions to become large spectator events. If and when that happens, Wendel will have played an enormous role."

foo fighter writes "Wizards of the Coast is suing the owner of MTG Salvation, a site that posts rumors and spoilers about upcoming releases of Magic: the Gathering. This suit has come as a disappointing and disturbing shock to Magic's large and diverse community and raises several questions too familiar to Slashdot readers: Do leaks of upcoming products really hurt sales of those products? Do these kind of lawsuits damage the companies initiating them more than they help?"

Via GameSetWatch, an editorial on the site Firing Squad suggesting that Nintendo is poised for a gaming industry coup. Their unique controller and appeal to casual gamers, the author posits, will turn the status quo on its head. From the article: "The cheapness of the console will help it sell and it's unlikely that Nintendo will face production shortages since it won't use exotic and difficult-to-make components. With a large installed owner base, more developers will be inclined to take a shot at it, publishers will feel pressured to release key titles (like Madden) for the Revolution regardless of their past GameCube experience. The controller is standard enough to work for most titles - so Xbox and PlayStation games will most likely work on the Revolution without major trouble, yet that same controller offers unique features that will be difficult to replicate for Microsoft's and Sony's consoles."

Next Generation is running down the reasons why the Nintendo DS is so popular in Japan, by analyzing an article on the subject from Famitsu. From the article: "In any department store in Japan, there are DS demo stations. Usually the screens are scratched to high hell (I can't imagine what people are DOING with the stylus), and lately, there are a lot of games to choose from. On the launch day of Xbox 360, I recall seeing a line eight persons deep to play Super Mario Kart DS, and not one person even looking at the 360. This was in Shibuya Tsutaya, statistically the most foot-trafficked game retailer in all of Japan."

Via Kotaku, a piece on Spong that sees games being put to good use in a social context. Edinburgh, Scotland police officers are using weekly PlayStation 2 tournaments with troubled youths as a way to bridge the gap between law enforcement and folks that (under less auspicious circumstances) they might have confrontations with. From the article: "The tournaments so far have been between members of the local Police Youth Action Team and a group of around 30 youths who are known regular offenders. Since the initiative started it seems to have had the effect of cutting crime in the locality quite dramatically. Officers dealt with 92 complaints in the month before the competition but only 53 while it was running. Ninety-three calls were received during the same period last year."

Next Generation reports that Majesco, publisher of titles such as Psychonauts and Advent Rising, has quit making AAA titles in favour of value games. From the article: "Company president Jesse Sutton said, 'This has been a difficult year. We entered the premium console market with high expectation for success, but as a result of a variety of factors we were not able to meet our expectations. Recently, we evaluated our product portfolio and have sold or cancelled most of our premium console titles that were scheduled for release in 2006 and beyond.'" Another case of a company making a good game (that no one bought) and then going under. Shame to see them go.