Gaming News Round-Up: October 22nd, 2004

Author: by Simon Carless, Andrew Wilson

Today's round-up has news of a prehistoric disaster from Lionhead, a pre-release triumph from Nintendo, a previously unheard of online add-on for the iQue, and a preposterous idea from Electronic Arts Holland. - It's been confirmed that development has been suspended on Lionhead Studios' Xbox-exclusive action title BC. The prehistoric-set game, which was in development at Intrepid Computer Entertainment, was revealed as being halted through the Lionhead Studios community website, Lionhead Times. Commenting on the suspension, Peter Molyneux, Managing Director of Lionhead, commented: "The decision to suspend work on any games project is always a very difficult one, particularly when it is a title with the potential of BC. We hope to revive the project at a later date and will endeavour to assign as many of the team as possible to other Lionhead projects." The game was originally due to be published by Microsoft, who has seen its share of major Xbox-exclusive game cancellations in recent months, most notably with Level 5's True Fantasy Live Online. - Japanese entity Nikkei BP Consulting reported earlier today that the Nintendo DS has ranked as the third top-selling system for in Japan for the week ending October 17th, 2004, despite not yet being released. The Nintendo DS' ranking, although accomplished through pre-orders alone, followed both the Game Boy Advance SP and PlayStation 2 in the charts, and arrived ahead of pre-orders for the smaller PlayStation 2, and regular orders for the GameCube, in 4th and 5th places respectively. The Nintendo DS will ship in Japan on December 2nd, retailing for 15,000 yen ($136 USD). and will have a total of twelve software titles available for it, of which five will be Nintendo-published and seven will be third-party. - Hong Kong-based online retailer Lik-Sang has provided new details regarding online connectivity for the Chinese-centric Nintendo iQue console. Previously, the Nintendo 64-based all-in-one joystick allowed downloading of new games from stores with the iQue Depot connectivity and 'game vouchers'. However, a new USB cable upgrade, which requires the user to have a PC for networking reasons, will allow downloading of new games, as well as the ability to update the iQue using a direct connection to the iQue Depot online site. Also mentioned in Lik-Sang's update is the alleged ability for online play of iQue-ported N64 games, but it's unclear which of the existing or even forthcoming titles might have this functionality. iQue Inc. has been expanding its specially translated N64 line-up of late, and has recently made cult Treasure-developed action title Sin and Punishment available for download, making a total of ten iQue-compatible N64 games. - As part of a promotion for the Dutch release of The Sims 2, the Sturkenboom family of Utrecht are living in a Sims-style cube-like trailer with glass walls for four days, and having their every move streamed over the Internet. According to an Associated Press report, the family must accomplish certain tasks over their time in the cube, including having a goldfish delivered from each of the 12 provinces in the Netherlands. The Sturkenbooms can be viewed until Sunday at the official 'Het Glazen Sims Huis' site, organized by The Sims 2 publishers Electronic Arts Holland. The family will receive around $3,900 to spend on electronics if they successfully complete their four days in the Sims-like environment.