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by
Daniel Huebner and Jennifer Olsen
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 News
Week
of July 17 - July 23, 2000
[Friday,
July 21, 2000]
Garage
Games
Tribes 2 veteran Rick Overman is starting a new company. Along with fellow
Dynamix alumni Jeff Tunnell and Tim Gift, as well as a player to be named
later, Overman is starting up a company called Garage Games to foster
new talent and ideas. Billing itself as the first independent label for
independent games, Garage Games is promising to empower aspiring development
teams with state of the art tools to make and sell games. "GarageGames.com
is being built by professional gamemakers who are not only committed to
publishing truly original and exciting product - we're willing to give
people the state-of-the-art tools to do it," said Garage Games CEO
Jeff Tunnell.
New
Mac Label
Mac games fans are getting a new publishing label. Mac Soft founder and
Bungie producer Peter Tamte is forming a new Macintosh gaming concern
in partnership with Microsoft. The company, currently without a name,
will hold exclusive Mac rights to upcoming Microsoft games and plans to
focus on bringing those titles to Macintosh simultaneously with their
PC releases. Beyond porting games, Tamte hopes to steer the Minneapolis,
Minnesota-based company towards original content development, and on platforms
beyond the Mac.
[Thursday,
July 20, 2000]
THQ
Q2
THQ has informed the world of second quarter loss. The company reported
a net operational loss of $1.8 million on revenues of $32.4 million, a
shade lower than the anticipated loss of $2.7 to $3.1 million announced
by THQ at the end of May. THQ posted net income of $3.8 million on revenues
of $51.6 million in the second quarter last year. "We anticipated a period
of relatively weak business conditions as the market transitions to a
new generation of game platforms," said THQ CEO Brain Farrell, "We continue
to expect the company to be profitable in the third quarter, and we anticipate
further gains in sales and net income in the fourth quarter."
[Wednesday,
July 19, 2000]
Thompson
for Xbox
Thompson Multimedia will supply DVD components for Xbox. A four-year agreement
with Microsoft calls for Thompson to provide both DVD-ROM drives and DVD
compression technology for Microsoft's Xbox. "This agreement further
extends our strategic relationships with Microsoft and will allow us to
maximize our extensive experience in technology development and the manufacture
of leading-edge interactive video products," said Thompson Multimedia
CEO Thierry Breton.
Konami's
Yellow Jersey
Konami has won exclusive game rights to the Tour de France. The company
plans titles for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo consoles, and is considering
creating online games based on the famous bicycle race. Konami hopes to
launch the games worldwide next summer to coincide with the annual Tour
de France race.
Microsoft
Profits
Microsoft saw fourth quarter profit increase by nine percent despite flat
sales. Microsoft earned $2.4 billion on sales of $5.8 billion for the
quarter, beating analyst earnings estimates by close to two cents per
share. Much of Microsoft's earnings, $1.1 billion, came from the company's
$23 billion dollars in investments rather than from sales.
PC
Data Top Tens
PC Data has named the top selling PC and console games
for the week of July 2 to July 8.
PC Games
1. Diablo 2, Havas Interactive
2. The Sims, Electronic Arts
3. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 2nd Edition, Disney
4. Icewind Dale, Interplay
5. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon, Hasbro Interactive
6. Deus Ex, Eidos
7. Starcraft, Havas Interactive
8. Sim City 3000, Unlimited Electronic Arts
9. Microsoft Age Of Empires II: Age of Kings, Microsoft
10. MP Star Trek: Birth Of The Federation, Hasbro Interactive
Console
Games
1. Perfect Dark, Nintendo for Nintendo 64
2. Pokemon Yellow: Pikachu Edition, Nintendo for Game Boy
3. Marvel vs Capcom 2, Capcom for Dreamcast
4. Legend of Dragoon, Sony for Playstation
5. Kirby: The Crystal Shards, Nintendo for Nintendo 64
6. Pokemon Trading Card Game, Nintendo for Game Boy Color
7. Spec Ops, Take 2 Interactive/Rockstar for Playstation
8. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Activision for Nintendo 64
9. Digimon World, Bandai Digital Entertainment for Playstation
10. Pokemon Blue, Nintendo for Game Boy
[Tuesday,
July 18, 2000]
Take-Two
Changes
Take-Two has named a new president. Consultant Paul Eideler will take
on the job, succeeding Barry Rutcofsky. Rutcofsky, for his part, is moving
on to the position of co-chairman and director. The co-chairman role,
in turn, was left vacant by the departure of Anthony Williams, who will
remain a director. Also joining the company is James David as chief financial
officer. David, who had been president of finance at Motown Records, fills
the position left by Larry Muller's move to chief operating officer.
Infogrames
Appointments
Infogrames is making changes in its North American management. Joining
the company are Jason Bell and Alyssa Padia. Bell will join as senior
vice president of publishing for Infogrames North American operations,
where he will be responsible for overseeing the publishing activities
of Infogrames' North American labels. Padia will take on the role of senior
vice president of corporate evaluation, where see will handle strategic
development activities.
[Monday,
July 17, 2000]
Acclaim's
Third Quarter
Acclaim Entertainment is reporting a sharp drop in revenues in the third
quarter. The company pulled in just $4.8 million in the quarter, compared
with $80 million in the same period one year ago. Whereas the company
managed to breakeven in last year's third quarter, this year's third quarter
result was a net loss of $49.7 million. The company attributes the poor
results to slipped titles and price erosion during the console transition.
Acclaim plans to address its financial woes by cutting costs by 25 percent
by cancelling projects and reducing its workforce.
Rated
BC
The Province of British Columbia is developing its own mandatory game
ratings scheme. Following the province's decision to restrict sales of
Soldier of Fortune to adults only, British Columbia's attorney
general announced the creation of a rating system similar to that used
to rate the content of movies. "This is not an attempt at censorship.
This is not an attempt to ruin people's day and take away from them the
video game they want," said British Columbia Attorney General Andrew
Petter. A similar stand against violent games is being taken in Indianapolis,
Indiana, where Mayor Bart Peterson signed a law making coin operated games
in which people are decapitated, dismembered, mutilated or maimed off-limits
to children. "The importance of it is that it's an effort to begin
to attack the culture of violence that I believe surrounds our young people
these days virtually from the day they're born," said the Mayor.
Rainbow
Buys Reel Motion
Game maker Rainbow Studios is buying physics SDK developer Motional Realms.
Motional Realms' Reel Motion physical simulation technology, which had
already been sold and marketed through Rainbow Studios, will now join
Rainbow's growing line-up of digital content creation tools. "Adding
Motional Realms' technology to the Rainbow Studios brand is a strategic
extension of our company," said Rainbow's Tony Stutterheim, "We
are fortunate and delighted that the software's creator and company President
Rick Baltman has joined our team to continue development of the software
and help us focus on meeting the needs of both real-time and high-end
animation."
Past
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