Second-Hand Games To See GameStop Through A Recession
Stick your head outside the US economy's window and you can feel a recession coming on. Which is bad news for retailers involved in frivolous entertainment pursuits like video games, right? Maybe not. Forbes believe that GameStop won't just ride any imminent recession out, they'll keep on increasing profits. They put this down to a combination of factors, the most important being the chain's dominance of the pre-owned games market, which as games get more expensive just keep getting more and more lucrative. So next time you're fucked over for a miserly amount on your next trade-in, know you can at least walk out of the store safe in the knowledge you're keeping GameStop's executives smiling.
GameStop's Second-Hand Recession Edge [Forbes]
Do you like mystery and intrigue? Excellent. Read on. Konami have announced a partnership with developers Mercury Steam (Jericho), whereby the Spaniards will develop a 360 and PS3 game for the Japanese publisher. What's the game about? No idea. It's all a big mystery, you see, but it's refreshing to see a Japanese publisher taking not just the Western, but European market, a little more seriously than is the norm. Press release follows after a couple of San Miguels and short afternoon nap.
Just how much steampunk can you kids handle, huh? Plenty, if two game announcements sharing the premise in the one day is anything to go by. 
This one's for you, stargazers! Japanese magazine 
Last year, Nintendo worked with some Japanese students to come up with a few experimental DS games. Now, in a pleasantly surprising move, they'll be releasing these games, free of charge, over Japan's DS download stations. Four games will be available, with each available for two weeks. The first game will be up on March 13, with the last on April 24. There's an eery, temporal feel about this whole thing: because the games can't be saved, once Nintendo yank them from the service, they're gone. Forever. 
Grab your flack jackets, here are three new Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. The sequel will feature a different squad from the prequel. The game's set off the Strip in the neighboring desert slums. It'll feature new weapons and the ability to sprint. Yay for sprinting!
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers was announced last August. Since then, we have heard much about the Wii Crystal Chronicles game. Too much crystal, perhaps! Here's the lastest update: The game's director Mitsuru Kamiyama points out that development is "proceeding smoothly". Yeah, we know, we know. 
PC game The Witcher is kinda saucy! It's not a sex game, but a monster-slashing game — a monster-slashing game that allows players to have sex with hookers. Hello in-game nudity! According to Michal Kicinski, CEO of The Witcher developer CD Projekt:
A lot of people write off the Wii. Not SEGA boss Simon Jeffery. He is all about the Wii. No wonder, Sonic & Mario at the Olympic Games has done big business! Says Jeffery:
Didn't bother with one of these last week, because the sheer lack of content was just too depressing. This week's little better: sure, there's at least content, but it's still fairly depressing. When the highlights are a graffiti theme and an expansion pack for fl0w, you know things aren't as going as well as they should be.
British sci-fi institution 
Best way to celebrate not getting the Republican Party presidential nomination? Booze! Second best way? Gaming! After former Arkansas Gov. Mike Hukabee bowed out of the Republican presidential race, he and staffers retired to Little Rock where he unwound with Rock Band. His campaign team members gathered in Huckabee's basement, ate lasagna and played Rock Band. As game site GamePolitics points out, this isn't Huckabee's first time shredding virtual, as he was spotted playing 
French company Infogrames are Atari's majority shareholder. Looks like they're soon to be their only shareholder. A letter has arrived at Atari HQ from Infogrames, no doubt signed in a beautiful, flowing script by the company's 
Yeah, we're a little sick of the rumour merry-go-round on this one too, but it's OK. This one's not a rumour. It's a patent application, and those are much more exciting! This application's for a gaming phone, which Sony filed back in 2006. While it looks like a double-sided phone, it's actually packing an iPhone-like full-screen touchscreen, allowing the device to emulate the interface of both a Sony Ericsson phone and a PSP. Course, this has never actually turned up, and in the iPhone's wake probably never will, but sometimes it's nice to just close your eyes and imagine what could have been, you know?
Phil Harrison isn't the only game exec to recently leave his former employee and end up elsewhere! Xbox India boss Mohit Anand oversaw the Xbox 360 launch there and was one the most recognizable faces in India's quickly growing gaming industry. A few days earlier, he made the unexpected announcement that he would be leaving the company. Rumours swirled that he'd be heading up Nintendo's effort to bring the Wii to India. If true, that's pretty much make Anand the go-to-guy for launching stuff on the Indian subcontinent! Says Anand:
March 19? We 
I've been keeping my eye on Spanish development team Tragnarion's Doodle Hex ever since the art style caught my eye 
Remember that super move I kept trying to pull off in the 
We suppose someone out there may have use for a twelve inch Mario statue that's sole purpose is to hold a Nintendo DS in its hands. It just seems superfluous to us, because we have interns working round the clock to keep our handhelds aloft, never once touching the ground. (For the record, if they do touch the ground they are immediately sent to the incinerator. The interns, that is.)
Wow. The PlayStation Portable has become somewhat of a monster in Japan lately. Despite Wii and DS games outselling everything on the PSP this week, the Sony handheld tops the Media Create hardware charts with a comfortable lead. These folks must really love their Musou!
When LucasArts president Jim Ward surprised us by 
St. Patrick's Day in the states is all about dressing in green, getting drunk, and - Activision hopes - playing Guitar Hero III with your friends. To this end they've put together a special song pack in honor of the holiday, featuring three songs from the Celtic band Dropkick Murphys. Available sometime in mid March, the pack will consist of "Famous for Nothing," "(F)lannigan's Ball" and "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya.". The pack will be available via Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for the low, low price of completely free! You'd be hard-pressed to find a better way to celebrate national drinking day, plus the Guitar Hero controller doubles as a bludgeon just in case any actual Irishmen show up and start causing a fuss. Also, don't forget today's not free Modern Metal Pack, featuring the Deftones' "Hole in the Earth," Avenged Sevenfold's "Almost Easy" and Thrice's "The Arsonist". 
Damnation's main character is a hat-wearing, Wild West-styled fellow called Rourke, who'll no doubt be proficient with bi-wheeled vehicles and big-arse weapons, and particularly adept at combining the two.
The developers of Shantae and Contra 4 are going WiiWare. Wayforward Technologies has announced LIT, which it describes as a "3D horror puzzler set in a dark high school overrun by creatures". The player will control Jake, who will move from room to room, lighting pathways in the darkness in an effort to escape the school. You'll have to imagine what it looks like based on the artwork and informative press release that Wayforward has sent out. Certainly looks mopier... err, different from anything else we've seen on WiiWare so far. We'll be keeping an eye on it.
