Via 1up, an interview at the site Revolution Report talking with ATI about the power of the Revolution's graphics. From the article: "What I can say is that ATI is focused, as is Nintendo, in making [Revolution] a great, gaming entertainment platform. I know that a lot of journalists are very focused on specs. It's the big thing; as a geek, I look for that too. The key thing to keep in mind is that Nintendo, with ATI's help, is trying to create a game console where you don't have to look at [specs]."

Next Generation reports on an upcoming study to be conducted by PopCap games and the Games for Health Project. The two groups will be collaborating to discover what effect, if any, gaming has on keeping minds sharp. From the article: "The results of the study, which should be available in Spring of this year, are expected to reveal the role that digital games play in keeping minds sharp, especially those of the aging. The study will not focus on the benefits of any specific game, as the overall goal is to summarize past and present research. Expert opinions or public opinion may be gathered as well."

Joystiq has a pair of interesting posts up looking at the future of print gaming publications. Besides positing on the future of the print media, they discuss subscription and reach rates for some of the major U.S. magazines. From that piece: "Game Informer really is several times larger than their nearest competitor. How did they manage that? And why the heck is the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine passed around so much than all the other publications?" I wonder what the differences are between here and abroad? In the UK, for example, there are a large number of publications, all of which seem to have avid readerships. (Though, with magazines like Edge and PC Gamer UK, it's hard not to see why.)

AmpedIGO writes "1up editor-in-chief Sam Kennedy finally decided to comment on the ongoing discussion of games journalism. The interesting twist is that Kennedy's comments don't revolve around 'editorial integrity,' but rather delves deep into one of the issues that game journalists have known about for quite some time: developers and publishers don't help. 'That all said, I find our industry's reluctance to actually help push journalism forward a mighty shame. I can't tell you the number of times I've worked on potentially incredible stories that just fell apart because of the uncooperativeness from a publisher. Perhaps this speaks to Aaron's editorial in some manner, but it seems as though a lot of companies are simply reluctant to give you access to their talent unless it's directly tied to the promotion of a game.'"

Fibonasty_Sequence wrote to mention a piece on Gamespy looking into the Achievement addiction that the 360 can provoke in gamers. Playing games with specific goals in mind can be lots of fun. In related news, these heady post-launch days have seen a lot of rumors that need to be sorted out. One that keeps turning up is the possible support of the Blue-Ray standard by the 360. From that article: "Microsoft clearly - and very understandably - doesn't want to risk lumbering Xbox 360 with an internal drive format consumers don't want, and while it's favouring HD DVD by announcing an external drive that can read that disc format, it wants to ensure it's free to support the BD if it has to."

1up is running a feature from Official Playstation Magazine, an exhaustive list of 100 games for Sony platforms you must play ... before you die! From the article: "We couldn't go it alone. We asked the top PlayStation game designers, producers, and members of the press to submit their picks, and we've included what they had to say. No list is ever perfect. But perfection was never our goal. In the end, we hope this list is one that, if you were to play all the games in it (and you conceivably can since many are still available at retail or on eBay), will make you a supremely well-rounded gamer. Maybe you'll find, as we have, that games have the power to entertain, challenge, inspire, and affect you in ways you never thought possible."

Next Generation reports that Sales and Marketing Director for Nintendo of Europe Jim Merrick has officially moved on from the company. Meanwhile, Greg Koler has been cemented as the CEO for Infinium Labs, the "maker" of the Phantom console. Koler has been serving as interim CEO of the company since Bachus quit last November. From the Koler article: "The Phantom Game Service has an unparalleled legacy of boldness, innovation and great opportunities for the online video games market sector ... Together we look forward to joining our strengths in engineering and technology with a sales and marketing driven presence to deliver the most advanced online video game service and devices for consumers."

An anonymous reader writes "1UP has a story on the announcement of the first ever Sex in Games Conference. According to the group putting it on, the conference is to 'focus on the design, development, and technology of sex in video games from a national as well as international perspective.' It's a two-day event taking place this June in San Francisco. Some of the lectures are: 'Sex in Games: Where are We Now?', 'The Future of Sex and Technology,' and 'The Making of the SeXbox: Applied Hardware'."

Bjimba writes "Apparently, the developer community is having a lot of trouble convincing the makers of the GP2X Linux handheld to comply with the GPL by releasing source at the same time as binary firmware releases. This link leads to a synopsis of the issue, and yes, it's my own blog, but there's no ads."

Chris Morris reports in CNN's Game Over column that analysts have pegged the price point for the PS3 at $500. Despite the high price, you're getting a lot of tech for your buck. From the article: "The strongest argument behind the $499 price point is the PS3's inclusion of a Blu-Ray drive. This bleeding edge technology will give Sony significant bragging rights, but it comes at a cost. Pioneer last week at the Consumer Electronics Show unveiled a standalone Blu-Ray player for $1,800. Obviously, Pioneer's earning some profit there - and Sony will almost certainly subsidize the cost of the drives, but you're still looking at an expensive bit of hardware. The PS3 will also feature other pricey items, such as a hard drive, the Cell processor and a new graphics chip from nVidia."

The genre of the fighting game is not a complicated one. The Dead or Alive (DOA) series is a simple creature, known as much for the virtual women in the games as for the combat. In DOA 4, Team Ninja has focused their attention on making the most visually pleasing fighter available on consoles today. They've definitely got a good-looking game on their hands, but in my book you've got to have more than just looks to be a good game. Read on for my thoughts.

eToyChest has an interview up with Bill Roper, formerly of Blizzard Entertainment, discussing progress on the action-RPG Hellgate: London. From the article: "Hellgate: London is playable as a stand-alone single-player game, but it's the multiplayer components that we believe will really make it shine. We're building our own online destination for the game that is comparable in features to any MMORPG. This means a client/server structure to provide safe and secure gaming, character databases, customer service, guild support and so on. We want to provide ongoing content for the game long after it has shipped, and we're building both the game and our infrastructure to lay the ground work for doing just this."

Eurogamer reports on an issue with Dead or Alive 4 game saves. Tecmo has owned up to the problem, which erases fight information, leaderboard positions, and unlocked items. From the article: "'We're aware of the issue... We're working to identify and resolve the potential problem with the technical folks at Microsoft.' A patch is on the way shortly, apparently. There's still no word on precisely when Dead or Alive 4 will be released in Europe, but chances are they'll have fixed the bug by then."

The transition from the previous generation to Next-Gen consoles is hitting game publishers right in the intellectual property. Existing franchises are going to struggle to keep their publishers afloat, because of the immense costs and problems involved in adapting to the new console market. From the article: "The strong possibility of a new Medal of Honor game from EA could also affect Activision's numbers. The analyst estimates Gun sold 980K since launch, and that any sequel will struggle to match this, probably hitting no more than 780K. Another declining franchise is X-Men. The 2004 game X-Men Legends sold 1.2 million with last year's X-Men Legends II probably hitting around 750K. A third game this year is estimated to manage only 550K."

zalas writes "Stanford's computer graphics class holds a video game writing competition each year at the end of the term, and this year's results are finally online. You can download all the finalist entries from the website. The winning entries featured very original game concepts, such as sending a spiked soccer ball through wormhole planets or infesting a growing maze of cheese with mold. Judges at the competition included representatives from Electronic Arts, Microsoft and the creator of Pong, Allan Alcorn. Ironically enough, the winners of the wacky category who received a voucher for an XBOX360 wrote a game that only worked on OSX laptops with the drop-protection motion sensors."

Gamespot is reporting that, despite earlier reports, the much-anticipated Elder Scrolls IV will fit on one disc for the Xbox 360. 1up is running a preview of the game, slated for a March release. From the article: "This game aims to let the player feel not only immersed in the game world, but also tied to it in an integral way. Your actions will determine future events, and have lasting impacts. For example, during the demo, we learned that the character had accidentally set a villager on fire earlier; after that, when he tried to go join a guild that he had joined in every previous demo, the guildmaster told him he was not welcome. There's a way to fix this, of course -- you can pay a fine, or do something to rehabilitate your reputation so that other villagers will think more kindly of you."

Terra Nova has an interesting discussion going, talking about what really matters when we talk about a virtual world's population. Total registered accounts? Accounts logged in since last month? Concurrent users? Interesting stuff. From the article: "In a similar vein we discussed Second Life's 100K+ members, a figure which I and others have questioned here on TN. Cory Ondrejka said that SL's 'concurrency numbers are rapidly approaching 4500, about 17,000 residents were in SL in the last 24 hours, and 50,000 in the last 30 days... If you go back even 90 days you get about 90% of the accounts having logged in.'"

Joystiq reports on the continued success of the DS in Japan, where the two-screened console is not only outselling the 360, but topping the charts as well. They're also showing off mock-ups of what the Revolution virtual console service might work like. As Doc Brown said, "Please excuse the crudity of this model." The virtual console will allow Revolution owners to buy and play classic Nintendo games. Includes a list of possible launch titles.

vinnie2k writes "This is an interesting interview with the founder of 2old2play.com. In it he discusses the future of gaming for older people, why we need communities like 2old2play, and how the gaming industry needs to refocus its efforts on the games it makes. Cool insight and worth the read for any older gamers."

Via GameSetWatch, the year 2005 in Alternate Reality Gaming on ARGN. From the article: "As the world became more familiar with ARG through hit games The Art of the Heist, Perplex City, Jamie Kane and Last Call Poker, the community was also treated to many interesting and in-depth grassroots projects like Omnifam and Seen Steve. Overall, the year was very good for the genre, and the community is thriving and growing very day."