Daily News Spin — March 15, 2001 (Thursday)

More proof that Koreans are game crazy

The Korean Times is reporting that 65% of online users visit game sites, and that most of them played games online.

Out of the 6,805,540 users who visited game websites, 5,334,000 or approximately 80 percent actually played games on the Internet, either via a game application or directly through the site.

Yowza! That's a bunch! It probably helps that over half the Korean population has some kind of broadband connection, according to the article. This story was spotted at Daily Radar.

Someone set us up the bomb

The LA Times is 'bout it, babe! They're running an article today about the "All your base are belong to us" craze.

...the "all your base" line is well into its 15 minutes of fame, as even stodgy companies such as Hewlett-Packard are picking up on the trend, including some images from the video game in an advertisement. Several Web sites already are marketing "all your base" product lines.

"We bought a huge stack [of shirts] to give to our Japanese counterparts when they come out here later this year," said Perrin Kaplan, head of communications for Nintendo of America Inc.

"It's so funny."

Indeed. But it's about more than just humor. It's about honor. It's about truth. It's...for great justice!

Ha ha ha ha.

Sony buys Connectrix

Sony has solved their legal dispute with Connectrix, makers of PlayStation emulation software, the old fashioned way -- they assimilated them. IGN has a story about the acquisition:

The agreement ends the legal dispute between the two companies over the Connectix Virtual Game Station (CVGS), SCE will acquire from Connectix all assets related to the VGS emulation technology as part of the deal. Connectix will continue to offer the current version of the CVGS for Macintosh and Windows until June 30, 2001 and will provide continuing support to existing users of the software. All further emulation development for PlayStation after this date will proceed under the auspices of the joint agreement.

We don't know what will happen after June 30th, but if Sony really wants to put their seal of approval on PSX emulation software for the PC, we might see a lot of PC game fans try it out. It would be nice to be able to play games like Front Mission 3 and Final Fantasy Tactics on our PCs with a product supported by Sony.

Halo a FPS now

Blue's News is reporting that Halo is a first-person shooter now and not a third-person game. Bungie's happy enough with the Xbox controller to go to this kind of control scheme. This is good news as far as we're concerned, especially for the eventual PC port.

3am

Gamestock's come and gone, and even though we didn't attend this year, it doesn't seem like we missed much. The Xbox was there, but it didn't generate a lot of buzz. Looks like E3 is where Microsoft will have to make a stronger show for it.

Over at Lum the Mad's site there's a long thread going on about the rumor that Take 2 has dumped Shadowbane -- EB has removed the game from their list of upcoming games.

Finally, and this is definitely a rumor, so treat it as such, we're hearing that Neverwinter Nights still has a long way to go. Don't be surprised if this game slips until the end of year, or further.

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