Today's round-up includes news on console versions of The Sims 2, a new project for the formerly Acclaim-inconvenienced Battleborne Entertainment, and the first Japanese UMD/DVD bundling for movies, as well as new product news and jobs.
- Electronic Arts has announced console versions of their PC hit The Sims 2, developed by Maxis. The console editions will feature all the gameplay of the PC original, including the aspirational system and dynamic camera angles, but will be slightly modified to allow the player to control the Sims directly using the controller, rather than set paths for them to follow by clicking the mouse. The Sims 2 will come to all existing consoles and handhelds including the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PSP, but EA did not announce versions of the game for any of the expected next-generation systems.
- BattleBorne Entertainment, developers of the as yet unreleased Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers, have announced their second project, with the working title of 6GUN. The new game is a third-person military action game, focusing on a fictional team of special operatives called the Gunslingers. No publisher is lined up for the game, which has a projected release date of 2006, but BattleBorne has seemingly found a publisher for their first effort, the release of which was hampered by Acclaim's death. The new publisher has not yet been named, but BattleBorne says that an enhanced version of Combat Elite will see release in 2005.
- Bandai will become the first media publisher to release a combination DVD-UMD package with the Japanese debut of the first volume of Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven, a Japanese cartoon currently being broadcast. Bandai will offer a standard DVD release of the show for 3990 yen ($37 USD), as well as a volume containing both the DVD and a UMD version of the same content, playable on Sony's PSP handheld. The dual-edition volume will be slightly pricier at 5250 yen ($49), and appears to be the only way to obtain the UMD version, since no standalone UMD release was mentioned. Bandai further announced that the same two editions will be available for every future volume in the Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven series.
