An anonymous reader writes "CNET is predicting that next-generation consoles will drive the final nails into the already half-closed coffin of mainstream PC gaming. The root of their argument isn't one of power, but of price: 'The bottom line is that console manufacturers often heavily subsidize their new machines, swallowing huge losses up front in hopes that they'll make it all back selling games... Other things being equal, the DIY-heavy PC gaming industry can't hope to compete in that kind of market.' Which is to say that once the 18-34 demographic starts buying $400 PS3s instead of $400 video cards, developers may have no choice but to follow suit." Will there still be a market for PC games, or are the graphics of the next generation of consoles going to make PC games unnecessary?

Gamespot has the news that the hit DS title Nintendogs has allowed the Nintendo DS to pull ahead of the PSP and PS2 consoles for over a month straight. In the week Nintendogs was launched, the DS outsold the PSP and PS2 combined in the nation of Japan. Several weeks after its initial launch, the DS is still outselling the PSP by 5,000-sum units. Those of us in the states still have a little while to wait to see the cuteness firsthand. From the article: "The game is sold in different editions, each housing roughly five types of puppies, from Chihuahuas to Labrador retrievers. As a virtual owner, gamers will pet their pooches using the stylus, order commands through the integrated microphone, and let their canines sniff other gamers' Nintendogs wirelessly. Nintendogs is scheduled to roll over to the US on August 22."

GamesRadar has the details from an interview with Nintendo of America VP George Harrison, in which he passes on the very good news that certain past-gen Nintendo titles will be free for download onto the Revolution. The article seems to imply that primarily the games available for free download will be Nintendo created titles. From the article: "This is a clever move by Nintendo: regardless of the final power of Revolution and the frequency of new titles, Nintendo knows that its loyal fans will cry tears of joy over a free service that lets them download previous Nintendo classics straight out of the box."

Lisandro writes "Nexuiz v1.0, an fast paced deathmatch FPS, has been released under the GPL. It uses a heavily modified version of the Quake 1 engine, with real time lighting/shadowing, improved particle effects and more. It looks really good and it's available for Windows and Linux, with a Mac version said to be coming soon."

The First Person Shooter that had everyone abuzz at this year's E3 was the simply titled 'Black'. Eurogamer has a piece on the upcoming console-based action game, where it's come from, and where it's going. From the article: "But one thing Ward freely admits is that Black distills the team's best memories of their favourite movies. In fact, the last time out we got a sneak peak at the storyboarding process down at Criterion's HQ, each of the game's levels were explicitly designed to play out like your best memories of the best action sequences they could think of. Not a bad basis for an action game, you might reason."

The Guardian Online has a story describing one reporter's goal to see what role games can play in educational situations. Essentially, he found games being used in many places. The major frustration, in fact, with the games was that they couldn't be used to put forward an educator's goals as often as they would have liked. From the article: "As he says, Sim City has its biases. 'It is geared to traffic and subways. But if it was open source, you could build a model more geared to pedestrians and sidewalks, the urban model advanced by Jane Jacobs, and teach her theories with it.'"

GamesIndustry.biz has the story that, for the time being, Sony is planning on releasing their next generation console without a hard drive bundled into the package. From the article: "However the company has never said that a hard disk would be bundled with the unit at launch, and Chatani's comments this month seem to suggest it's erring toward not including one - and perhaps offering the peripheral optionally in the same way it currently sells Memory Card units separately from PlayStation 2."

Gamasutra has up a vociferously pro-IP feature discussing some of the major misconceptions over software patent law as they regard videogames. The article is written from a lawyer's perspective, and includes details on what you can patent, if it's worthwhile to patent, and the costs involved. From the article: "As more and more companies enter the market, and spend more and more resources developing those innovations, protecting those innovations will become even more critical. We hope this article has been helpful in dispelling some of the myths surrounding patents and video games, and we encourage all software game developers to take their intellectual property rights to heart."

AztecL0B0 writes "Nintendo Insider takes a look at the reasons why Nintendo is not leaving the console race anytime soon. From the article: 'To have a successful system, you must not only sell a lot of the system, but make money off it, too. You can sell all the systems you want, but if you don't turn a profit, you'll go down the drain as a company.' This is the second part of a three part series. The first article discusses the background to this round of console fighting."

SCE president Ken Kutaragi has confirmed that PSP production may be outsourced to another company, as demand for the PSP is already outstripping Sony's ability to produce. GamesIndustry.biz has the story, which points out that the handheld console is still not released in Europe, an event anticipated in early September. From the article: "At present, there is only one factory producing PSP consoles - the Kisarazu facility east of Tokyo, which manufactures around one million units per month. Sony has previously announced plans to double this figure by the summer as it continues the fight to compete with Nintendo."

Press the Buttons has a link to an interview with Nintendo veterans Miyamoto and Aonuma. In it they reveal the identity of the cloaked woman in the trailer and more information about where in the Zelda timeline the new game falls. Press the Buttons has commentary as well: "From time to time I still see posts on online message boards claiming that Twilight Princess is the Zelda game 'we should have gotten instead of Wind Waker', a train of thought that extends from the fact that some people are still against Wind Waker's highly animated visual style despite having never played the game."

SpikeTV has announced that they will be airing the E3 Critics Choice awards, the first time that the awards will have an officially televised ceremony. The awards are set to be aired on Tuesday the 7th of June. That evening will feature other gaming-related programming, such as E3 highlights and a showing of "The Ultimate Gamer". From the article: "This original special will take viewers for an inside look at the E3, the world's largest video game industry convention and will offer a sneak peek at some of the games that will start hitting stores later this year. THE ULTIMATE GAMER specials present some of videogame's hottest and most anticipated game titles."

The gaming industry may be an ever more lucrative business, but in some ways it seems as if kids are still running the place. Gamespot has up an article in which they discuss the nasty things the Big 3 have said about each other. From the article: "Robbie Bach: The other two companies' presentations [at E3] weren't surprising. Sony's [PS3's] capabilities are the same as ours. Nintendo is aiming for the niche market [with its Revolution]. The current-generation Xbox sold more than the PlayStation 2 in North America last Christmas. We will become the market leader with our next-generation console." The Guardian Gamesblog has commentary on this.

An anonymous reader writes "The PSP is now the ultimate in handheld emulation consoles, already it boasts Full Speed Gameboy Colour Emulation and improving Snes & Master System but added today it also has NeoGeo CD and Sega Genesis emulators added to the impressive list of homebrew releases."

MarcOiL writes "Gamasutra is running an article titled It's Just a Game, Right? Top Mythconceptions on Patent Protection of Video Games where two IP lawyers try to convince the videogame industry of patenting everything in sight: ideas, technical contributions, etc. They show as an example a Microsoft patent on Scoring based upon goals achieved and subjective elements. They also have created a weblog, The Patent Arcade, to promote their business. Will this be the real end of innovation in videogames?"

An anonymous reader writes "Could the Final Fantasy series have finally come to an end? About.com's Adrien-Luc Sanders thinks so in his article The Final Days of Final Fantasy. I'm sure many people here remember Final Fantasy VII and how it helped Sony win the console market away from Nintendo. The article contends that Final Fantasy's glory days are over, that with the release of Final Fantasy X-2, the underwhelming EverQuest clone Final Fantasy XI, and the much-delayed Final Fantasy XII (finally confirmed for a 2006 US release), we've effectively seen the end of Final Fantasy. Is it time for Square-Enix to give up on Final Fantasy?"

Krimszon writes "The top 20 things you always knew were wrong about games, but were afraid to talk about, since you thought that was just the way is was."

Via Terra Nova, the New York Times (reg. required) has a piece discussing the increasing trend of players making serious money off of MMOGs. They cite one gentleman who is able to pay his monthly mortage thanks to his daily ventures into the virtual spaces of Second Life. From the article: "Mr. Ainsworth, 36, was not a fan of online games until his 10-year-old daughter became interested in The Sims Online. He then noticed that a large number of simoleans were for sale on eBay. 'I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets...so I figured, buy low, sell high.'"

The Illinois law banning the sale of violent games to minors has passed another milestone. The Illinois House has given the law an okay, meaning both the House and the Senate have passed the law. It now moves on to be signed by the Governor. From the article: "... supporters insisted the government has a duty to help parents shield children from violence and sexuality. 'Don't let them become the monsters that we see in these violent games,' Democratic Rep. Monique Davis said."

Press the Buttons has up a look at the Nintendo game comics that were published in the early 90s. He includes some scans of the truly excellent writing and storytelling that could be found in those four color masterpieces. From the article: "Five series of comics were published: Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Captain N: The Game Master, Game Boy, and the compilation series Nintendo Comics System that consisted of reprints of stories from the other comics. Sold in limited quantities in comic book shops and an occasional K-Mart, the Nintendo comics never took the world by storm and today are mostly forgotten. When I was in the second grade my father would drive me to the local comic book shop each month so I could buy the latest issues."