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- Inside Games & Entertainment Update
- Volume 3, Issue #7
-
-
- NEWS FEATURES
-
- HAVE GUN--WILL TRAVEL
- ABC has decided to take a financial interest with Gun, a one-hour dramatic
- anthology, produced by Kushner-Locke Co. and award-winning producers. Gun
- is an anthology about the travels of a pearl-handled, semi-automatic gun as
- it passes from one situation to another in each of the episodes. There will
- be prominent guest stars and directors featured in each episode. Peter
- Horton (thirtysomething), Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) and James
- Gandolfini (Crimson Tide) star in the pilot.
-
- SNITTY STORY
- You may recall prima donna Nightline host, Ted Koppel, who stomped out of
- the Republican National Convention in a tantrum after saying he found no
- story there, will not be covering the Democratic convention this week.
-
- FOOTBALL FRENZY
- If you were not aware, this weekend opens the National Football League
- season. Software publishers involved in the fine art of creating sports
- sims were not just fully aware of this fact, they managed to do something
- about it! They have brought forth titles, football simulations, that can
- leverage their presence by simply "being there" for gamers as the first
- games of the season are played.
- One company who has managed to meet this deadline is Acclaim Entertainment.
- They have released NFL Quarterback Club '97 for the Sony PlayStation, Sega
- Saturn and DOS CD-ROM. The game features all 30 NFL teams, as well as the
- current rosters for those teams. You can possess the great throwing arm of
- Dan Marino, or the scrambling ability of Steve Young, or even the talents
- of Troy Aikman or John Elway. Using their acclaimed motion-capture
- technology, the movements of actual NFL players has been captured and
- incorporated into the video gameplay. Actions like running, diving,
- catching, throwing and tackling ahve been transferred to the computer
- screen--what you see on the field is what you see in the game. There are
- more than 500 new plays and the title also offers instant replay, player
- trading--even detail down to the players' numbers on their jerseys and the
- logos on their helmets. Plus, there's a supertrack cam that closely follows
- every play.
-
- SPACE COLONY ON THE NET
- The intrigue and delight of multiplayer gaming over the Internet, as well
- as singularly on your own computer, continues to lead the desires of
- consumers when asked what they wish in computer gameplay. Accolade has
- certainly taken note of this desire, as they are now shipping Deadlock, a
- planetary conquest strat that includes play over the Internet. This title
- represents the largest internal development ever undertaken by the company.
- You become the leader of a space colony and compete against others, or
- computer-controlled opponents, for planetary dominance,. You subdue
- opposing colonies through military and economic domination, while building
- and developing your colony's culture, economic and military strengths. You
- may select from seven different species, each with its own, unique
- attributes. Even when gaming with other folk over the net, 3D lip-synch
- technology enables communication via chat mode while playing. For online
- play, you may indulge modem-to-modem, direct-connect serial plug, via LANs,
- and over the Internet through Mplayer and Total Entertainment Network game
- services. Full motion sequences are played back through Smacker Video
- Technology, licensed by Accolade from RAD Software. You'll need a Windows
- 3.1/95/NT machine to play this grand strat.
-
- PERSUASION EVOLVES
- It's been a long time--1994--since Persuasion, originally from Aldus Corp.,
- has offered an upgrade. Now owned by Adobe System Inc., Persuasion version
- 4.0 is scheduled to be released in the fourth quarter. Persuasion has
- caught up to the new technology on the Web and will offer integration with
- Web authoring via Adobe Acrobat, not HTML, and links, interaction with
- other Adobe applications, and an increased focus on cross-platform
- solutions.
-
- Menus, dialog boxes, palettes and keyboard shortcuts will more closely
- resemble those of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Persuasion 4.0 will let
- users drag and drop graphics files in EPS, TIFF, PICT, JPEG, GIF,
- Illustrator or Photoshop format. Photoshop files will retain their layers,
- and Illustrator files will keep their full color and resolution.
-
- Web-focused users will be able to incorporate hyperlinks, movies, sounds
- and graphic elements within presentations, then export them as Portable
- Document Format (PDF) files using the bundled Acrobat Distiller 3.0
- software. PDF presentations can be launched with any browser that supports
- PDF, including Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, and
- played back with anti-aliased text on virtually any platform, including
- DOS; Windows 3.1, 95 or NT; or Mac OS systems. Users will be able to add
- URLs to their presentations by dragging them from
- a Web browser onto a slide and preserve links to URLs when saving
- presentations to PDF. Adobe Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., can be
- reached at (800) 833-6687 or http://www.adobe.com.
-
- AMERICAN GREETINGS GOES INTERACTIVE
- American Greetings is the world's leader in the greeting cards category and
- now they have plans for expansion. American Greetings will enter the realm
- of digital animation, forging a major licensing agreement with new-media
- company Enteraktion Inc., which will create and produce an extensive series
- of interactive storybooks and other products based upon the company's most
- beloved characters such as Strawberry Shortcake, The Popples,The Holly
- Hobbie Blue Girl and The Birthday Bear. Folks can get their hands on the
- interactive products at retail and specialty stores.
-
-
- THIS AMTRAK CAN'T DERAIL
- A redesigned Amtrak station was introduced on the Internet at
- http://www.amtrak.com. Amtrak, the nation's passenger railroad, drew upon
- the talents of DIGEX, Incorporated, a national Internet Service Provider
- based in Beltsville, Md., to provide hosting services for its Web site.
-
- FUN IN A TREEHOUSE
- Broderbund, well known for their edutainment titles, has a new kid on the
- block. The Treehouse® CD-ROM hybrid for folks ages five to eight is
- designed to help develop skills that are introduced in the first and second
- grade level such as language, math, science and music. With some new
- Treehouse friends, Casey and Lloyd the Lightning Bug, kids are encouraged
- to use skill sets that help develop word recognition, vocabulary building,
- coin value, natural science facts, creative expression, music styles and
- instruments.
-
- CHUCK E. CHEESE INVESTS IN ARISTO
-
- Nolan Bushnell, who founded Atari Corp. and created Chuck E. Cheese
- restaurants, will debut high-tech jukeboxes and video games next month that
- are linked to the Internet. These units will be located in bars, hotels and
- other public places with the potential of making billions of dollars.
- Nolan, as director of strategic planning for Aristo International Corp.,
- has helped to contribute more than $10 million to develop these machines.
- TeamNet, MusicNet Plus and TouchNet enable people to play video games with
- opponents in another location, order music as well as hear it, and access
- the Internet with the drop of a coin or the swipe of a credit card.
- The TeamNet machine, which is the size of a small billiard table, allows
- two teams of as many as eight players each, to compete against each other,
- or against teams elsewhere through an Internet connection. Aristo is
- already seeking corporate sponsors for its tournament billiard games.
- Another product, TouchNet, allows people to use a compact, coin-operated
- countertop touch-screen computer to play games and send messages via the
- Net. The MusicNet Plus product plays high-quality digital music and enables
- customers to buy recordings and merchandise from bands as well as tickets
- to events.
-
- CBS PROGRAMS LAUNCH
- CBS will be bringing several old familiar names to their TV line-up this
- fall. On Big Comedy Monday, September 16, CBS begins with the Bill Cosby
- sitcom Cosby and the Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen comedy Ink . CBS,
- which ended last season in third place, is putting its money on Cosby to
- give it a ratings boost and ordered an unprecedented 44 episodes of the
- series.Murphy Brown features a new cast member, Lily Tomlin. Chicago Hope
- will begin its new season and a sneak preview of the Rhea Perlman sitcom
- Pearl will be shown.
- 60 Minutes returns for its 29th season September 15. The CBS Sunday and
- Tuesday movies commence September 15 and 17 with a miniseries, Undue
- Influence. Other shows to return are: The Nanny on September 18; 48 Hours
- returns for its 10th season with a two-hour retrospective September 12,
- Dave's World kicks off on a Friday schedule one week early on September 13
- which will lead a new show Everybody Loves Raymond.
- Promised Land, starring Gerald McRaney will debut September 17 and is a
- spinoff of Touched by an Angel. Meanwhile, Touched by an Angel premieres in
- its new Sunday night time slot September 22. On Thursday, September 19,
- the Dick Van Dyke vehicle Diagnosis Murder returns for a fourth season,
- followed by the premiere of Moloney, a drama starring Peter Strauss.
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Scott Bakula and Nash Bridges hitsthe airwaves
- September 20. Saturday's returning slate of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and
- Walker Texas Ranger bow on September 21, while the night's third drama,
- Early Edition, will debut a week later. There'll be new episodes of Cybill
- beginning September 23. Almost Perfect will be reworked and the premiere
- dates for new shows Public Morals and EZ Streets will be announced after
- the dates of the presidential and vice presidential debates are determined.
- (08/26/96)
-
- TV GUIDE IMPOSTER
- Sounds like a lot of work--NetGuide Live (http://www.netguide.com) from CMP
- Media has a Web search, listings and news site that it hopes will be the
- first place most folks will go on the Internet. NetGuide Live will present,
- in real-time, an hour-by-hour grid listing of events taking place on the
- Web and online services--a kind of TV Guide for Web content. NetGuide Live
- will offer a search engine; reviews of about 50,000 sites; provide the
- capability for parents to lock out objectionable sites; bring news
- headlines from CNN; and deliver reports about new items on the Web.
- NetGuide Live is in beta now, and advertisers will start paying Sept.2. The
- service formally launches with beefed up content Sept. 15th. Later this
- year, NetGuide Live will offer users ways to personalize the service.
- NetGuide Live will charge $3,900 for 100,000 impressions, not including
- discounts for those who sign on before September. (08/25/96)
-
- THE ULTIMATE BUY--HSN
- Barry Diller, chairman of both Silver King Communications and Home Shopping
- Network, announced Silver King's purchase of the Home Shopping Network
- (HSN) for about $1.3 billion in stock. This announcement further fueled
- speculation that Dillerwas getting set to launch another major television
- network. Diller lead the launch of Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's
- News Corp., and already plans to drop HSN programming from Silver King's
- stations and replace it with a traditional mix of locally oriented news,
- sports and other shows.
- Diller is seen by some experts to be positioning his companies to compete
- head on with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, whose launch Diller spearheaded in the
- 1980s. The deal would reunite Silver King, which owns 12 TV stations spun
- off in 1992 by HSN, with its old parent. Diller said speculation that he
- would start a new national network was premature but he said cash generated
- by HSN would help Silver King pay for programming and other costs in
- developing its stations. Diller is also buying Savoy Pictures, a
- money-losing studio that owns other television stations, for about $117
- million in stock.
- SHY DI SAYS 20/20 IS A NO GO
- Word got out that Princess Diana had agreed to an interview in November
- with Barbara Walters on TV's 20/20 in which Diana would take a fee of
- around $1.1 million. Princess Diana promptly denied the rumor, and a
- spokesperson for 20/20 also denied any interview as well as issuing the
- statement that 20/20 doesn't pay anybody for interviews. And by the
- way--Diana's divorce is now final.
-
- HOW CIVILIZED
- Word has it that the famous Sid Meier, the one responsible for several
- major mega-hits from MicroProse, is now actually going to be helping a
- competitor of Spectrum HoloByte's develop more fantastic hits. Sid and
- Firaxis Software, Inc., the company that developed Civilization, have now
- received more than just moral support from Electronic Arts--that game
- company has now acquired a minority interest in Firaxis. You can bet your
- conquered world some similar sims'll be bearing that good ol' Electronic
- Arts distribution label.
-
- THE SEASON STARTS--DIGITALLY
- The hopes and dreams of millions of football fans initiate this coming
- weekend with the start of the regular NFL season. To tie in with football
- season, EA Sports is going to debut their new Madden NFL 97 CD-ROM football
- sim in October. Multiple play sets are included as well as over 100 NFL
- teams, with NFL penalties and player fatigue all playing their role in this
- offering. A new Iso-cam option lets you play the game through the eyes of
- an offensive lineman or another player.
-
- ACTIVITY DOES NOT LESSEN
- Seems as though each week, one of the online game companies has a lot to
- say about themselves. Once again, Engage has another announcement . . .this
- time the company is going to collaborate with Concentric Network Corp. The
- two of them are going to design an advanced, next-generation, dial-up
- network and the appropriate software to enable Internet-based gaming by
- this fall. The game environment programmers from Engage and the engineers
- from Concentric's network systems group will work together to optimize the
- current Concentric Network so that it will support both low and fixed
- latency and high-throughput. This network will support something called
- adaptive call processing. Such allows several different classes of
- applications to share the same network resources, while each still receives
- the specific required resources. You can access the Engage WWW site at
- http://www.gamesonline.com.
-
- FAMILY PLANET, A SAFE PLACE TO VISIT
- Adults are questioning the safety of the Internet when it comes to
- communications that involve minors. Concerned parents are looking for a way
- to protect their youngsters from indecent programming such as pornography
- and violence. Enter Family Planet (http://family.starwave.com), a
- comprehensive resource on the Internet that brings Best of the Web, a new
- editorial feature that offers a directory of educational and entertaining
- Web sites. These Web sites have been screened and approved by Family
- Planet as fun and educational resources for children. Each listing includes
- a review that is rated on a scale of one to ten using criterion such as
- usefulness, content, aesthetics, editorial tone, and safety. (08/29/96)
-
- A CRASH-PROOF ASSIST FOR NEW FOLKS ON THE SUPERHIGHWAY
- Not everyone on the Information Superhighway is experienced. With this
- thought in mind Ruby Yeh created FolksOnline a product of Yinspire Inc.
- FolksOnline is described as a community designed to assist newcomers and
- casual users with their computer and Internet needs. There are also
- recommendations of software that can help people achieve their goals. A
- 10-to-50 percent rebate is offered for all software purchases, and readers
- can receive $100 for their first-hand stories if they are published on
- FolksOnline. FolksOnline also offers a database that can link people to
- house-call computer consultants, web designers, and local ISPs, who offer
- dependable service and support. Another feature of the site, called Helping
- Hands, gives people ideas for activities they can achieve on the Web, such
- as develop a business, service, or engage in some other experience with the
- potential to change the way they live and work.
-
- COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU--A TV SHOW
- Fox is pulling a first in promoting its new series Millennium. Millennium
- is set to fill the very popular slot on Friday night that belonged to
- X-Files, which will now move to Sunday. In order to get the word out about
- this new series, Fox is spending about $2 million in the promotion of the
- premieres. Both shows are created by Chris Carter, who is expected to speak
- as part of a live event beamed from Los Angeles via satellite to audiences
- in 28 theaters in the top 25 markets.
-
- PATTY HEARST COMBINES FACT AND FICTION
- Patty Hearst, who made national headlines in 1974 when she was kidnapped by
- Symbionese Liberation Army members, has written Murder at San Simeon,
- described as faction. Faction, as Hearst describes the title, is a mixture
- of fiction and fact. Murder at San Simeon is a mystery based on a death
- more than 70 years ago aboard William Randolph Hearst's luxury yacht,
- Oneida. Due September 4, Murder at San Simeon is about film producer,
- Thomas Ince, who died aboard Oneida in 1924. The death had been attributed
- to acute indigestion, but rumors have persisted that such is not the case.
- Hearst's writing goal was to create enough jealousy and rivalry in her
- characters without making them unlikable.
-
- ACTION MECH STRAT DEBUTS
- One of the hottest genres in computer games these days is the real-time,
- action title. Interplay Productions fully intends to share, if not lead, in
- this genre. The company has just announced a street date for their
- mech-action title, Shattered Steel. The game will blast its way into retail
- locations on September 27th. The game was developed by Bioware and features
- Voxel routines and real-time polygonal shading methods. Message activity on
- online services, such as America Online, and in usenet newsgroups, all
- proclaim Shattered Steel as a smash-hit, even before the game's release.
-
- There are 50 missions for single play, and 15 multiplayer missions. You
- inflict real-time terrain damage when nukes blast huge holes in the
- landscape. Only pits of burned-out damage are left in their wake, but you
- have to do what you have to do to win! As many as 16 players can engage in
- anarchy death matches. Check out Interplay's WWW site at
- http://www.interplay.com where you'll not only find more info about the
- game, but can also download a five mission demo.
-
- THAT'S NO GORILLA, THAT'S MY SON!
- An announcement from Jim Henson Pictures informs us that their first
- feature film, Buddy, has begun production. This announcement comes from
- Brian Henson, president and chief executive officer of Jim Henson
- Productions, and Stephanie Allain, president of production for Jim Henson
- Pictures, both of whom serve as executive producers of the film, along with
- Francis Ford Coppola. Steve Nicolaides andZoetrope's Fred Fuchs are
- producing this movie. Buddy, starring Rene Russo, is about Gertrude Lintz,
- an eccentric socialite who raises a gorilla as her son. Supporting her in
- the film are Robbie Coltrane as her husband, Dr. William Lintz; Alan
- Cumming as her assistant, Dick Kroener; Irma P. Hall as her housekeeper,
- Emma; and Paul Reubens as Professor Spatz. Filming is to take place in Los
- Angeles with a release date of summer '97 under the direction of Caroline
- Thompson through Columbia Pictures.
-
- ACTIVEX SHOCKED
- As ActiveX gains more and more developer attention as to its usefulness,
- Macromedia has decided to certainly parlay their expertise with Shockwave
- into this Microsoft environment. Now shipping is Shockwave for ActiveX
- control and it will be bundled in Microsoft's Windows 95 OEM Kit, their
- Internet Explorer 3.0, and their Internet Starter Kit. Shockwave lets you
- view and interact with multimedia and graphics on the WWW, as well as
- stream voice to CD-quality audio.
-
- DUMMIES IN CYBERSPACE
- From the conception of the original Dummies series of self-help books, IDG
- Books now boasts over 25 million books currently in print, worldwide. Now
- Dummies aficionados can continue their relationship in cyberspace at
- http//www.dummies.com. Here visitors can check out sample chapters from the
- newest books, speak with other Dummies readers in threaded chat rooms or in
- real-time chat, learn about upcoming events in the Calendar section and
- access other exclusive information in the Resources area. (08/25/96)
-
- THIS BEAR'S IN THE DARK
- Some folks are afraid of the dark. To this end, Living Books® has
- released The Berenstain Bears in the Dark CD-ROM. The Berenstain Bears in
- the Dark helps children aged three to seven overcome their fear of the dark
- and get excited about reading. Based on the well-loved book by Stan and Jan
- Berenstain, this interactive storybook not only inspires children to
- develop reading and computer skills, but also guides them in confronting
- their fear of the dark with the encouragement of this famous bear family.
- The Berenstain Bears in the Dark encorporates Living Books' high standards
- for humor, animation and sound effects that have won the company over 60
- awards for technical and educational excellence.
-
- MOVIESTAR
- MovieStar 1.5 from Intelligence at Large is the only multimedia authoring
- tool that creates fast start QuickTime movies as well as Web animations in
- looping GIF89 and compressed JPEG formats. MovieStar enables Macintosh
- users to combine video, 3-D graphics, pictures, sounds and MIDI music into
- fast start QuickTime, animation or multipart MIME (Multipurpose Internet
- Mail Extensions) files that can be streamed from a Web server. Folks that
- find this tool useful are designers, QuickTime authors, media labs and
- multimedia enthusiasts.
-
- Each element of a fast start QuickTime movie or Web animation is
- interpreted by MovieStar 1.5 as an object that appears at time and space
- intervals which are designated by the user. There's a lot of flexibility
- here--objects can simply be dragged or pasted into a project window, giving
- consumers the ability to change their minds by undoing any step. This makes
- it possible for nonprofessionals to produce movies that would normally
- require professional film production skills. Customers can order MovieStar
- 1.5 from Intelligence at Large by calling 800-IAL-SOFT, or by downloading
- and purchasing the product directly from the company's web site at
- www.ialsoft.com. A free trial version of MovieStar 1.5 is also available
- from the Web site.
-
- In addition, MovieStar 1.5 includes a plug-in for Netscape Navigator 3.0
- and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The product comes with an Apple plug-in
- that supports the fast start feature. Web users can watch fast start
- QuickTime files as they are downloading. As an extra benefit, MovieStar 1.5
- works with all QuickTime plug-ins, helper applications, viewers and
- editors.
-
- MovieStar 1.5 requires a Power Macr or any 68040 processor, such as the
- Quadra, Centris, Performa 630r and Powerbook 190 or higher, with 12MB of
- RAM and a CD-ROM drive. You can record video with MovieStar, use any video
- source that can be connected to a Macintosh, including video cameras, VCRs,
- video disk players, live video feeds and the Connectix QuickCam.
-
- NAOMI JUDD TO HOST TALK SHOW
- Country and western signer Naomi Judd will do a one-hour talk show in 1997
- for Rysher Entertainment. Quincy Jones and David Salzman in Los Angeles
- will produce Naomi with no distribution terms available. The show is said
- to be formatted along the line of the Oprah Winfrey Show with a
- single-topic talk of information and issues.
-
- Due to Naomi's life experiences of begin a single mom, raising two
- daughters, and struggling to put herself through nursing school, not to
- mention her battle with chronic hepatitis, she's sure to enjoy a
- sympathetic audience. Naomi's life story of coming from nothing to
- celebrity status will be inspirational to her viewers.
-
- MORE MINISERIES COMING
- Plans are in the works for New Line Television to provide more made-for-
- television movies and miniseries. In fact an exclusive arrangement with
- Randwell Productions, the new company formed by producer Randy Robinson,
- was signed to develop and produce long-form programming. TV movies and
- miniseries are popular not just in the US but internationally--so much so
- that Randwell Productions will make at least four projects a year and help
- feed the company's overseas output. deals. New Line has developed a method
- in promoting new properties as well as continuing the strategy of
- exploiting New Line's movie franchises such as The Mask and Dumb & Dumber
- for TV. (08/27/96)
-
- SKIDDING AT SLATE
- Well, seems as though coffee is as important to John Williams as the
- beverage is to us at our publication. Recall the hoopla surrounding
- Microsoft's launch and subsequent issues of SLATE, their online magazine?
- Recall the hype surrounding Michael K's installation as the editor of the
- publication? Well, barely two months into his job, the publisher of
- SLATE--John Williams--has left the magazine to take a job with Starbucks.
- We personally believe this to be a good move for Mr. Williams--we certainly
- don't expect Mr. K to hang around much longer, either! Now, for a good dose
- of Java!
-
- PRICE DROP CONFIRMED
- Remember all of the concern over the fact that Nintendo was going to intro
- their new Nintendo 64 at a price point that seemed to forecast consumer
- disregard for the machine? Your concerns are now over--Nintendo now plans
- to intro the N64 at $199, instead of the earlier announced $249. Coming out
- at the end of next month, this price drop is seen as giving the machine a
- fighting chance against the lower-priced Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation
- video console systems. N64 software titles remain priced between $50 and
- $80 per unit. Nintendo continues to forecast nearly one-and-a-half million
- unit sales in the U.S.
-
- HUMAN VISION EMULATED
- The up-and-coming revolution in 3D eyeware is a fact. It's simply a matter
- of time and cost before a majority of game systems have 3D game options
- that include the wearing of special vision accouterment to really envelop
- the gamer in worlds of virtual reality. On September 1st, NuVision
- Technologies is going to be shipping their new PC gaming product, 3-D SPEX.
- These offer the user a stereoscopic 3D experience. The complete package is
- comprised of 3D glasses with liquid crystal shutter eye wear, 3 premium
- games, and all of the necessary accessories. What is amazing about this eye
- wear is the SRP -- less than $100, for the eye wear AND the games.
-
- $$$ MILLIONS TO QUELL RUMORS
- A budget of $10 million in TV and print advertising has been appropriated
- in the promotion of Sega's NiGHTs, the software title Sega hopes will
- jump-start sales of its languishing 32-bit Sega Saturn machine. Then Sega's
- Sonic the Hedgehog will follow, promoting its playabilitly on multiple
- platforms, including (of course) Sega Saturn. Sega of America will try to
- zap itself back into young video-gamers' sights by Christmas with a $60
- million marketing campaign from a new agency Ingalls Moranville of San
- Francisco, but it may be too little, too late.
- Analysts have expressed concern about Sega's future following the
- devastating events of the past year, when Sega fell from No. 1 in the $6
- billion videogame industry to No. 2, where it now trails Sony Computer
- Entertainment's 32-bit Sony PlayStation. One expert expressed concern
- stating that this could be the end of the line for Sega as a hardware manufa
- cturer, due to the fact that Sega squandered their momentum over the last
- year and failed to appreciate some of the competitive moves of rivals. This
- fear is contagious--even Sony Computer Entertainment is scared, according
- to industry observers, based upon the latest news that Nintendo of America
- may drop the entry price of its long-awaited 64-bit videogame machine,
- billed as the fastest videogame player on earth, to $199 when it debuts
- next month.
-
- You may remember that the launch prices of Sega and Sony's 32-bit machines
- were originally $299 last year, whereas now both of these manufacturers
- have since dropped prices to $199. And both companies are losing millions
- on hardware sales just to hook consumers on the lucrative software titles
- that are not interchangeable among systems.
-
- NASTIE STUFF GOING BYE-BYE
- The debate over the impact of sex and violence in computer games is going
- to become rather moot for Sega Enterprises. Starting this October, the game
- maker is going to remove all violence and sex for their digital
- entertainments. Not only will the company's adult-category games be
- discontinued, but stricter restrictions will be applied to all titles.
- Photos and animated images of nude women will not appear in any offering.
- In games for those over 18 years of age, images of women in swimsuits or
- underwear may appear. This change is reportedly not due to consumer
- pressure but due to technological advancements that make such images too
- realistic. Plus, let us not forget Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo
- have already determined that there will no nude women in the games for
-