Wii Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary bound for Europe

   Nintendo announced the Japanese version of the Super Mario Collection 25th Anniversary last month and today, they've confirmed that the Europeans are also getting the game. That probably means an announcement of a North American release is imminent. The collection includes Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario Bros 3, and Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. A bonus booklet and soundtrack are included to reward buyers.

   There was news last night from Japanese vendors who stated that a shortage of the Japanese version is highly likely so the European news is welcome. The announcement of a USA version of the game would be a bigger welcome.

Ubisoft believes in Kinect

   Using history as my guide, I can predict how the Kinect will fare in the marketplace when it's released next month. All of the game analysts can crunch their numbers, work the potential sales models, and make their projections but all that is for naught. The Kinect is going to be a failure just like Sony's Move is going to be a failure. It's not me saying it though - history is talking and what it says is that accessories don't make a console. Despite the "excitement" and activity centered around the Kinect and Move in the market right now, the adoption of the accessories will never reach a level that'll convince publishers to continue making games for them.

   The news about Ubisoft angling to become a major player in Kinect game software has my brain ticking and making plans. With my conviction that the Kinect is going to be a failure and Ubisoft's conviction in the Kinect, that leaves me with one conclusion: Short Ubisoft shares on the Euronext Paris bourse. There's nothing else to do when I'm shown an opportunity. I won't start shorting until after Christmas however. Sales for anything related to video games go on a rampage during the entire month of December so Ubisoft shares are probably going to get some appreciation. The new year should bring reality crashing down on Kinect however and I'll be waiting.

Panasonic Gets Back into Gaming with the "Jungle"

   Panasonic's first crack at the gaming industry was the 3DO which never gained mass market momentum. The 3DO debuted way too early for its time and if it had been released a few years later, I think it would've fared much better than it did. The 3DO was launched at too high of a price point and it never convinced enough publishers to support the console with software.

   Panasonic's going to be giving gaming another go with a portable gaming device called the "Jungle" which sounds dumb but it might interest a few takers. The Jungle allows gamers to play MMORPGs and other online games... which you can already do with a laptop. I'll make a prediction right here and right now - the Jungle will be a major failure. My advice to Panasonic would be to cancel the Jungle right now. There's no specialization, no added value, and no market demand for the Jungle. Remember the N-Gage? That's the fate of the Jungle. Panasonic can send me $5,000 for my consulting fee which is cheap considering the fact that they're about to pour a few million into this POS.

I'll Tell You What's Wrong With Wall Street

   In a Marketwatch article published today titled Videogame sales compete with online time | Popular titles such as ‘Call of Duty,’ ‘Halo’ may keep gamers at home, a Wedbush Morgan game analyst named Michael Pachter says the following:

"Pachter of Wedbush says game publishers will need to figure out how to start making money from the online playing of their game titles to preserve their value. “Nothing is free forever,” Pachter commented. “You can buy a game now and play it for 500 hours when you used to play it for 50 hours and be done with it. More people are playing console games for more hours and not paying for it.”

   First of all Michael, the best games don't have a shelf life. Your way of thinking is typical of a greedy Wall Street analyst who only thinks in terms of revenue, profit margins, and constant profiteering. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with a gamer who buys a copy of a game for $60 + tax and plays it for 500-1000 hours without incurring any additional fees. If Activision or EA wants additional income from a game, they've already figured out how to do it by way of downloadable content, expansion packs, and in-game purchases.

   Game developers should continue to produce top notch software that can be played beyond the typical Wall Street view of 50-100 hours and "be done with it." If Michael Pachter and his ilk had their way, they'd encourage developers to produce games that can only be played for 50 hours before a fee system kicks in that charges the gamer for every additional hour beyond 50. That folks, is how a game analyst on Wall Street thinks.

Supreme Court docket: Violent video games

    Ain't this a bitch? The list of the Supreme Court's upcoming court cases was released earlier this morning  and one of the cases that'll be heard in November is:

 
Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association

l Nov. 2: California is the latest state attempting to prevent the sale of "violent" video games to minors. An appeals court said, similar to decisions of courts elsewhere, that the law violates First Amendment free-speech rights.

   That's right, the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger (how the FACK did that happen?) and once-Terminator has petitioned the court to halt the sale of violent video games to minors. I watched the T-800 kill a bunch of cops in the first movie when I was a little kid but I'm a normal, jaded, extremely intelligent, and slightly- amused-at-nothing-in-particular grown-ass man. I have never had the urge to commit mass murder, chop someone into three pieces so I could fit him/her into a suitcase, or demand to someone, "Your clothes, give them to me." Never have these things crossed my mind.

   My parents brought me up properly, instilled a fear of the whip in me, and sent me to bed starving when I was out of line. If more parents did that, maybe all the kids would grow up to be as good and upstanding as J-Sonoma. I did shoplift once - it was a paper clip I needed when I was in the 3rd grade. I think I did that the day after I watched Terminator.

Details of the case are listed below:
Granted April 26, 2010, for argument in the 2010 Term.

Docket: 08-1448

Issues: (1) Whether the First Amendment permit any limits on offensive content in violent video games sold to minors; and (2) whether a state regulation for displaying offensive, harmful images to children is invalid if it fails to satisfy the exacting “strict scrutiny” standard of review.
The full suit may be viewed at:
http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/pdfs/09-10/08-1448_Petitioner.pdf

Best Games Here

   I laugh whenever I see someone in the office at the BestGamesHere website. We own that and it contains some of the worst flash games I've ever had the displeasure of trying. Out of the 1000+ games on the site, two were deleted from the mass installation directory that I recall. They are as follows:

1) Meat or Pussy - This game showed a small portion of an image and the player had to determine if it was a woman's vagina or a piece of meat. Yeah, it was offensive and tasteless so we deleted it on those grounds.

2) Kindergarten Killer - Just like the name says. You know how some people have zero social filter and they'll just do or say whatever's on their mind? I think the designer of KK is one of those people. One redeeming quality of the game is that the kindergartners shoot back.

   Most of the other games on BGH are drek but there's some good ones too. The site's about a month old and the traffic's fairly consistent. If you're after higher caliber free online flash games, we also own another gaming site at http://www.vanillangel.com/ - my favorites there are CityCraft, BTG Tower Defence, and Crusade. There's talk of starting another arcade site but these are just small projects for us to test the waters since there's no real specialization in arcade sites.