January 2006 in video gaming

January 31, 2006

• Sony is reportedly building a Xbox Live-killer for the PlayStation 3.^[1]
• StarForce, a DRM maker for computer games, threatens to sue popular weblog Boing Boing for criticising its products.^[2][3]
• CNET reports that Cisco Systems might be interested in buying Nintendo.^[4][5]
• Blizzard Entertainment responds to the LGBT debate happening in World of Warcraft. The company stated: "To promote a positive game environment for everyone and help prevent such harassment from taking place as best we can, we prohibit mention of topics related to sensitive real-world subjects in open chat within the game, and we do our best to take action whenever we see such topics being broadcast."^[6]
• Sony announces that ten servers will be merged with ten others on Everquest 2. Players are cautiously optimistic.^[7][8]

January 30, 2006

• Shares of Take-Two Interactive, the controversial creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, rose Monday after news that the company was in takeover talks with an unnamed buyer.^[9][10][11]
• A mandatory update for Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 was released. Microsoft claimed the update was for bugfixes and improvements. Members of the modding community claim that "the true purpose of this update was to halt the progress of the modding community".^[12]
• Nintendo released a statement regarding the Red Tulip phenomenon on Animal Crossing: Wild World, stating "We have isolated the problem and determined that there was a temporary error with the upload tool when this letter was posted". Earlier, there had been speculation that the tulips were a result of black hat hackers.^[13]

January 27, 2006

• Players of the Horde clan from World of Warcraft start the "Gamers Against No Kash" charity, to pay the subscription fees for valuable players strapped for cash.^[14]
• The Nintendo DS returns to the top of the weekly Japanese charts, with 64,515 units sold compared to 38,271 for the PlayStation Portable. The PlayStation 2 is third with 26,135 units sold, while the Xbox 360 continues to sell poorly (just 3,616, less than the GameCube). The five best-selling games were Brain Training for Adults 2, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Super Mario Strikers, Brain Training for Adults and Mario Kart DS, all published by Nintendo.^[15]
• Microsoft lowers its estimate of Xbox 360 sales in its first 90 days from 2.75–3.0 million units to 2.5 million due to supply shortage. The yearly estimate (4.5 to 5.5 million) is unchanged since Microsoft plans to increase its console production with the help of a new manufacturer, Celestica.^[16] Meanwhile, Microsoft postpones the Australian 360 launch from March 2 to March 23, 2006 due to a "short term manufacturing challenge" .^[17]
• Microsoft of Japan made a statement to Japanese game magazine Famitsu regarding the Xbox 360 launch. "It was a lot more difficult than we had imagined. We couldn't prepare the launch titles that we had promised, and it made an impact," said Microsoft of Japan Xbox chief of operations Yoshihiro Maruyama. At the launch of the first Xbox in Japan, more units were sold in three days than have been sold of the Xbox 360 in one month.^[18]
• The PlayStation Portable 2.01–2.50 firmware versions, previously considered unhackable, are hacked by Fanjita.^[19]
• The Los Angeles attorney’s office sues Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive over the Hot Coffee mod.^[20]

January 26, 2006

• Sony reports that strong sales of the PlayStation Portable helped the company make a profit of ¥70 billion, the first time in 11 years that the company has managed to avoid an annual loss.^[21][22]
• Microsoft announces $293 million losses in its Home and Entertainment division, record revenues overall.^[23]
• Nintendo reports declining GameCube and Game Boy Advance sales but increased profits: ¥92.2 billion.^[24]
• Nintendo announces its newly redesigned handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite. The new model will be lighter, smaller, have configurable brightness and feature an improved user interface.^[25][26]
• Konami Corp. announces the list of titles it expects to ship in 2006, ranging from Beatmania to Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, and covering multiple platforms.^[27]
• Public schools in West Virginia will add Dance Dance Revolution by Konami to their curriculum, in an effort to combat obesity.^[28][29]

January 9, 2006

• Take-Two Interactive acquires Irrational Games.^[30]

January 5, 2006

• Vivendi Universal Games acquires High Moon Studios (formerly Sammy Studios, Inc), which gained independence from Sammy in 2005.^[31]

References