A PS3 launch date is a little clearer, and Bioware appears to be jumping on the MMO bandwagon.

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The Week in Review

With Mr. Nash

March 18, 2006

Let's get right to it, shall we?

No PlayStation 3 Until November:

Well, it looks like the other shoe has dropped. This week Sony finally admitted that any hope of getting the PlayStation 3 on store shelves this Spring is just plain silly. At an event in Japan, SCEA head honcho, Ken Kutaragi, laid out much of what the company has planned for the system. For one, the unit will sell for no less than $420US. Not cheap (but we knew that already). The thing will be due out in November, and it’ll be a worldwide release. Apparently, developers don’t yet have final dev kits yet, either, which would explain why we haven’t really heard a whole lot about games in the pipes for the PS3.

Obviously, Sony won’t have much trouble getting the first few shipments of the new console sold. Each console manufacturer has its fair share of fanboys and technophiles with more money than brains that pick up the things sight unseen at launch. The question now, though, is how many regular Joes will be willing to ante up over $400 for the thing, plus several hundred more for games and random accessories required to properly enjoy the console. $250 Revolution / price reduced Xbox 360 say what?

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Bioware going MMO:

Well, it looks like Bioware is jumping on the MMORPG bandwagon. After carving their place as one of the best RPG developers out there, it looks like they want to try their hand in online gaming. I’m still torn on this. Yes, the company has made a ton of games that I absolutely love, but the market is so far beyond saturated with MMOs, with more and more coming out every day. Hopefully Bioware

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can come up with something worthwhile, and given their pedigree it wouldn’t be surprising, but since there are a small army of other popular games in the genre already available (EQ I&II, Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, Guild Wars, etc.) can people afford the extra monthly bill and/or time for just one more game?

Stardock Versus Star Force:

Well, this certainly was fun to watch (that's sarcasm, I'm using here, people). Last week, an administrator on the Star Force forums posted a link to a working link to a working Bit Torrent where anyone who wanted could get a pirated version of Stardock’s Galactic Civilizations II. What’s the big deal you ask? The problem here (besides obvious ethical issues) is that Star Force is a company who licenses out anti-pirating software to quite a few PC game publishers. Their business is preventing piracy, yet someone with authority on their message boards was engaging in it by posting that link.

Higher ups at Star Force have since publicly apologized for what happened and removed the link, but this can’t be helping their public image. There is already a growing movement against Star Force’s anti-piracy software, as some do not like how it is installed on a system without the user’s knowledge, and there are several reports of people having trouble getting their computers to work properly after it is installed. This latest action, even if done by some rogue employee certainly won’t do Star Force much good…


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