Well, let's see what's new in the world this week.

Gaming news continues to parade in at a brisk clip. My personal fave of the week were the movies of Detonator Gauntlet, which combines strategy/RPG gameplay with giant robots and a Working Designs translation. Should be nifty.

In the "you've got to be kidding me" department, rumors are rampant that Nintendo intends to have only three third-party developers on board for Project Dolphin. I'm assuming that this is erroneous. Nintendo can't be that stupid. I mean, sure, they've got strong first-party development teams, but any system with a list of developers that strong is going the way of the Jaguar and the TG-16 right quick, Mario or no Mario.

In other news, I've got a new Deep Thought up, from Agent-pal Clyde Hudman, regarding methods to get video gaming further into the mainstream. It's only half-done, but I'm posting it up to get the feedback that he's asking for, and it will be updated when he provides additional material.

Personally, I think Clyde's proposal is too farfetched to be practical. While a single-format gaming industry could indeed be profitable, it would represent a radical shift in the electronics industry as we know it. The odds of Sega, Nintendo, and Sony all swallowing their pride and developing for one machine are pretty slim, especially in the case of Sony, who are making their console money through hardware, not software. They'd never survive as a pure software development company, and would also be unable to exercise much of their hardware-development muscle. Of the three, Sega's probably the most likely to back down from the hardware market, but that's due to consistent, recent losses more than anything else.

Then there's the issue of developing a single console format that would satisfy all parties involves, and the difficulty of upgrades. One of the key factors in the ongoing success of the VHS, audio CD, and other mass-media, accepted standard items is that they are relatively static in terms of quality. A CD from 1986 is the same as a CD from 1999. The players are very different, but the medium itself remains the same. A console is a different story. Electronics items are constantly in a state of upgrade, trying to be at the cutting edge, and making sure that all game development companies are okay with the "new system" that would need to be developed and marketed every few years, to go with the latest technological innovations, would be a mess and a half.

I really don't think it's a plausible solution for the systems wars, in short. Still, it's an intriguing idea, and I'd be curious to hear about methods of implementation.

Sega's still making a pretty healthy profit from licensing and production of arcade titles. I don't know for certain, they wouldn't exactly admit it if this were true, but I doubt they're in debt too deeply, at least in Japan. Sega of Europe is likewise still healthy, to my knowledge. They even hired some very nice PR guys not long ago. The total disaster area that is Sega of America is another story. A DC failure in the US wouldn't collapse Sega as a whole, not by a longshot, but it would certainly signal a scaling back of the Sega of America franchise. They're busted too many times for SoJ to keep giving the thumbs-up for a massive presence. The worldwide standing of the DC would decide things from there - a total rout for the Dreamcast means, in all likelihood, a greater emphasis on arcade and software development by Sega. Worldwide success, but trouble in the US would likely lead to the US branch getting more into software development.

Nope. Sony is a ludicrously powerful and expansive corporation, and has cash reserves that could probably buy a small country. Note, however, that they're not going to plunk all their reserves into video gaming. Nintendo, meanwhile, has a pretty respectable pool of profit to draw from, in the six to eight billion dollar range, post-Pokemon, which they're perfectly willing to sink into gaming. Sony has more capital, but Nintendo will, when their back is to the wall, be willing and able to sink more into the video game business.

Nope. The odds of a high-performance chip co-produced by Sony seeing use in a new Nintendo machine are roughly zero.

Do it? Become a major success? Become the company most associated with video games, from the perspective of the average Joe? Basically, Nintendo's success all stretches back to the formula for success they used for the NES, continued with the SNES and Gameboy, and didn't quite pull off with the N64 - affordable games, pitched to a wide target audience, with a huge breadth of software from an army of third party developers, with top-notch marketing and licensing. Above all, they got the best software in the hands of consumers.

Nine hundred dollars? To blow? Heh. That'll be the day. In the event that I actually have a need for five gigs of portable HD space, though, I'll consider it. :)

I remember reading about this article, back in the day. Funny how it re-emerges now. But yes, Square began development for Sony for a number of reasons, and Nintendo didn't exactly trip over themselves to keep them aboard. There was no Big Betrayal. Square just decided the CD medium was what they wanted for their new games. So they went.

JR here is also wondering who did the character designs for Resident Evil: Nemesis. I haven't the foggiest notion, and anyone who can help us both wins a gold star.

As for Japanese games for rent, it seems to me that it's legal. Granted, all my Japanese games have FOR SALE AND USE IN JAPAN ONLY written on the boxes, but hell, I bought most of those from US-based import companies. I bought my copy of Final Fantasy V from a local video store. I hope someone more familiar with US and Japanese trade laws can iron out what those disclaimers are for, but in the meantime, I don't think there's any legal problem with renting a Japanese game in the US. It's a little mean to not explicitly label the game as being in Japanese, but I don't think there's anything legally wrong here.

I think the only thing Square has to gain from ending the Final Fantasy series is one of cutting down expectations. The longer the series last, the greater and more stringent the expectations the wants of the fans become, until it reaches the point that the new ones are written off by many gamers, without having bothered to play them. Some people want it to go back to sprites. Some people expect it to be in a Tolkienesque high fantasy setting. Some expect there to be links with previous games. And so forth.

Realistically, it's a ludicrous proposition to end the FF series - it's waaaay too much of a cash cow to cut down. But if Square took the Treasure route and only released standalone games, the expectations of what each game Is Supposed To Be would be cut down dramatically. Nobody was bitching that Xenogears wasn't supposed to have high technology in it. If the FF series was ended, we'd finally hear an end to high-handed edicts of what the series must be like. That'd be nice.

I swear I did not make this up. There was a photo of her on the cover of my local newspaper earlier this week, in fact. I'll find it this weekend, scan it, and Drew can post it up in my absence, so all of you can gaze at her glory.

I felt it was only fair to give Dragona a chance to respond to criticism and rebuttal of her letter. And as for referring to you as a male, I can only say oops. Sorry.

Still, I find it sort of pointless to debate and discuss the pros and cons of what the PSX2 and Project Dolphin development kits do and don't contain. The amount of reliable information on each is pretty slim. A few weeks or months from now, when we begin to see actual game titles announced, and we hear discussion of their development tracks, we can certainly discuss all this, but 99% of the information about these development kits consists of stuff we heard somewhere. Trust not in hearsay.

Closing comments

More letters came in regarding Metal Marines, so I'll be taking some time out to hunt down this elusive title this weekend. I'll have a report by Monday, with a little luck.

A few people commented that they thought the banners were implemented very nicely, for which we thank them. Nash wrote in and blasted me for them going up, which sort of annoyed me, but hell, I explained why they're up yesterday. I wish we didn't have to put them up, but we really have to. Sorry they piss you off so much, Nash, but them's the breaks.

Eggman (remember him?) wrote in another gem of a letter that I'm forwarding to Drew, to see if he wants a crack at it. It's the same old bullshit rhetoric that he vomited out last time, all gamers are losers, I'm a hypocrite, yadda yadda yadda.

And lastly, everyone remember that Drew's on for the next two days, after a five days of updates week from me! Hooray! Back on track, bay-bee!

- Allan Milligan