They still have a ways to go until they can challenge the absolute authority in the field of games publishing, which of course is Electronic Arts, but Ubi are very keen on rising to the second spot within the next five years. This is what Ubisoft Montreal boss Yannis Mallet told the press after a recent tour of the famed studio, at the end of which he also addressed the company's tensed relation with EA.

Earlier this year, there was quite a ruckus caused by EA's aggressive staff hirings for their own studio in the city, after Alain Tascan left Ubi in order to head EA Montreal. But Mallet says that whatever problems there were (or "differences" as he would rather call them), they're behind them now, and their relationships are "as fine as they could be". Well, considering that Electronic Arts is still their top competitor, anyway (not to mention a major pain the back shareholder).

If Ubisoft are to succeed in their strategy to become the number #2 publisher in the world by 2012, they still need to rise above Activision and, according to a ranking published by Game Developer Magazine in September 2005, the first-publishing trio Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. In order to get there, Mallet said that his company will continue to use the same strategy, "which is to put our creativity and innovation at the heart of our creations - making good quality games which surprise the market and consumers".

Games that clearly match this description are some of Ubisoft's Wii launch titles - such as Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel - and of course Assassin's Creed, which so far looks like a sure winner, and a worthy follower to their Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell series.

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Xbox 360 Celebrates Birthday With $2,000,000 Theft

Among all the PS3 / Wii commotion this week, Microsoft quietly celebrated their next-generation console's first birthday, by offering their fans 360 reasons to love the Xbox 360. Well ok, so there are actually 372 reasons currently on that list, and just yesterday there were 371, so it looks like they're still coming up with reasons. But who counts, right?

In turn, Microsoft also received a "gift" from a gang of die-hard fans (of Sony's most likely) from England, who hijacked a couple of transports estimated at £1,000,000 worth of Xbox 360 consoles. That's almost $2,000,000!

The Staffordshire police reports that the latest robbery was carried out on Monday morning, by a group of organised thieves who managed to convince a lorry driver that something was caught under his wheels, and then upon exiting the vehicle beat him and left him on the roadside. After later dumping the lorry, the thieves took off with the £750,000 worth of Xbox 360 consoles, which, by CVG's rocket-science calculations, add up to just over 2,500 units. But fear not, they will surely experience major overheating problems if they try to play them all at once.

This is the second such theft this month, because a trailer containing £260,000 worth of Xbox 360 consoles was also stolen a week ago, from a depot owned by the same company, Hellman Worldwide Logistics, curiously enough.

The Staffordshire police made an appeal to the public, asking them to report if anyone offers them a shiny new console in suspicious circumstances, "such as in a pub, at a car boot sale or off the back of a lorry". Or, might I add, while waiting in line for Sony's PlayStation 3 next Spring.

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I gotta tell you the truth, if I do one more "next-gen madness" piece of editorial with two dozen stories mashed into a single post, I'm gonna go cuckoo. If I haven't already. Like 25 years ago. But anyway, I decided to take one story at a time from here on, and to start off (actually continue) this next-gen madness, how about some... PlayStation 3 emulation? (as it turns out, there are also a couple of dozen stories on this topic, but what the hell!)

After a not-so-smooth launch that drove the waiting crowds into a frenzy, leading people to do some very evil things to those poor geeks (check the last story), Sony's PlayStation 3 was finally launched in North America last week. And with it came the scanned PS3 manual, the PlayStation Network (accessible from anywhere, and not so free for third-party publishers), the PS3 Store (with some PSX games), the PS3 backward compatibilty list, the PS3 SIXAXIS controller that doesn't time out, the PS3 HDD replacement, the banned PS3 European imports on eBay, and of course the smashed PS3 (looks pretty solid, compared to the Wii).

Phew, where was I? Ah yes, emulation. There's actually two things to talk about here: games emulation, and other kind of software emulation. In both cases, the starting point is running an alternative operating system, so let's start with that.

Even before the console's launch, it was already known that the PlayStation 3 would allow you to install alternate operating systems. But only afterwards did the first such "Other OS" - Fedora Core 5 Linux - become available. The installation procedure for Fedora Core 5 (or any other future OS) on the PS3 is not quite simple... at all. So before you do anything (stupid), make sure to read every little thing you find on the "Open Platform for PlayStation 3" website. Yes, it's been updated, so now you can actually see how the "Other OS" installation works, in theory.

In practice, a more detailed installation procedure for Fedora Core 5 can be found on QJ.net, along with various requirements and warnings you should again check in advance. If all goes well, it should look something like this.

So now that there's Linux on PS3, what could possibly be the next step? Why, emulating Windows under Linux on PS3, of course! Microsoft, eat your heart out, because Windows XP seems to be running a-ok in those pictures there. My next step would have been to see if any MMOs (well, one in particular) can also be run on PlayStation 3, but then again I live in Europe so for now I can only watch what others are emulating. Which brings me to... the games. The non-PlayStation games, that is.

And once again, what could possibly be the next step? Why, emulating Nintendo games on the PS3, of course! Sony, eat your heart out, because Mario is trampling all over your shiny new system, thanks to Linux' ability to run MAME - and thus plenty of old arcade games.

More traditional Internet browsers can also be used on the PS3, instead of the console's restrictive browser. And soon enough more operating systems will be ready to boot on Sony's console. The next one will be Yellow Dog Linux 5.0, scheduled for release this Sunday on November 26 (check the link for details).

So there you have it, the PlayStation 3 is now officially one big open platform, if not a full-fledged computer!

And I have officially gone cuckoo.

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When it comes to game addicts, the only ones that could surpass even the Japanese - and I believe they do - are the Koreans. I'm sure you all heard plenty of stories about what a huge role games have in the life of Koreans, about professional StarCraft players that moved to Korea so they could train properly and, more often than not, make a living from professional gaming. But still, what's so different in Korea when compared to the rest of the world?

Well... pretty much everything. Starting of course with the mentality, the more widely spread broadband infrastructure, and the specific conditions in which the games development and consumer markets have evolved (or should I say exploded). An interesting topic discussed by Gamasutra is that of "micro-payments" for additional content in games. Which, for most of us, means horse armors in Oblivion, tutorials and cheats shamelessly sold by EA, or other such measly little things that only make up a minute fraction of the Western gaming market.

In (South) Korea, on the other hand, microtransactions make up at least 50% of the online games market, a market estimated at $1 billion in 2006 - according to the "Games Market in Korea" study published by a certain company called Pearl Research. South Koreans usually pay between $0.25 to $15 for each piece of additional content in games, and the main reason behind their willingness to buy so much virtual nothingness is that most of their games are free. 7 out of 10 online games used in Internet cafes are free to play, however gamers must pay little by little in order to advance and have the best weapons, for instance. Just try to imagine what World of Warcraft would be like, if Blizzard would offer a transparent system for buying and (why not) selling in-game objects and characters... Pretty unballanced, I'd say.

And speaking of transparency, many such micro-payments are done through a converted system of in-game currency or "points" (as in Microsoft points on Xbox Live, or Wii points...). And it's often easier to pay 1000 points out of your virtual pocket, instead of 5 real-life, hard-earned dollars. Even though, ultimately, you might have payed $10 for those 1000 points in the first place. So watch what you're spending your money points on.

Last, but not least, it's interesting to note that all these micro-payments are much easier to make in Korea. While credit-cards are still going strong in North-America and Europe, Pearl Research's study shows that 58% of South Korean online gaming payments are done through (mobile) phone bills, with just 27% by credit card. And, aside from these payment methods, they also have about a dozen others, which some of us have probably never even though about.

But maybe we'll get there too, one day, because more and more Western publishers (including Sony Online Entertainment and Vivendi) are beginning to adopt the oriental way of doing business, the same one that's currently turning Korea and China into the world's largest online gaming markets.

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Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 Details Surface

Ubisoft is keeping suspiciously quiet about their upcoming sequel to Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, which was revealed not long ago in one of the company's financial reports. There is of course nothing wrong (or new) about withholding information in the gaming business, but when the game in question - we'll call it GRAW 2 for now - is meant to be released as early as March or April 2007, one would expect more details to be available. And at least some sort of media, be it trailers, screenshots, or just a teasing artwork. But no, nothing!

Well, almost nothing, because the latest issue of US publication Game Informer does revealed a few details about the sequel's visual advancements, as well as some of its gameplay elements. Reported via TVG, GRAW 2 will feature dynamic weather, leading to the formation of puddles after heavy rains and such, and an improved particle physics system, that will see dust clouds move more realistically. Because nothing distracts you more in a tensed tactical shooter, than fluffy clouds floating around.

Gameplay wise, the Cross-Com interface will continue to be refined, and they say it will give you the ability to judge the biggest threat out of several enemies. And you'll probably want to take advantage of that ASAP, because the enemy AI will also be improved in GRAW 2. The example given was that of enemies trying to gain a tactical advantage over the player, by looking for higher ground from which to keep you at bay.

Also according to the magazine, the game will play out over a 72 hours period (much like the fisrst Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter), and the action will continue to boil along the US-Mexican border.

With less than half a year left until the supposed release of GRAW 2, we expect Ubi to start sharing really soon. Perhaps after most of this PS3 / Wii madness has cooled down...

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I get the feeling that Microsoft is playing hide and seek with the PC version of Gears of War. Just last week, they were giving us more hope, and now they are taking it away with their usual rumour debunking statements that neither confirm, but utlimately neither do they categorically deny the existence of a PC version for Gears of War - the new king on the Xbox 360.

All they did, was to explain the mystery of the picture that appeared in PC Gamer, which included the Gears of War boxshot in "Games for Windows" format. From the pseudo-communique published on GamerscoreBlog (some Microsoft employees' blog), we learn that, indeed, the picture is as authentic as they get, and that it contains what looks like a Gears of War game for Windows. But it's actually a purely conceptual image, and the Gears of War cover was "accidentally" included among the Games for Windows titles, by some absent-minded artist (if you'll pardon the pleonasm).

Moreover, Microsoft categorically denies that this is "a confirmation, leak, tease, or sly viral attempt to announce, confirm, or admit that Gears of War will be published for Windows". How nice and clarifying that sounds, doesn't it? But if they refuse to admit it, it doesn't mean that the devs from Epic Games aren't cooking something...

In fact, after a lenghty explanation about how that photo ended up in PC Gamer, they end their argument with the following:

"We're incredibly excited about the success of Gears of War on Xbox 360, but we have nothing further to announce about Gears of War, or any other platforms it might come to, at this time.

Now stop rumor-mongering and get out there and start fragging some Locust!"

I added the bolding. Draw your own conclusion!

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Blue Dragon is shaping up to be not only Microsoft's biggest push on the Japanese gaming market to date, but also the biggest game the Xbox 360 has ever seen. Work on the Japanese version is now finished, and Mistwalker's first RPG will be released over there on December 7... on no less than 3 DVDs! And that includes compressing the game as much as possible, or else it would have taken over 30 GB of space, according to the game's creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. In return for such a massive project, players can expect around 40 to 50 hours of gameplay in Blue Dragon, plus whatever additional content they're planning to release through Xbox Live early next year (at least in Japan).

IGN picked up on a Famitsu interview with Sakaguchi, in which the father of the Final Fantasy series also revealed that a Blue Dragon sequel is currently being planned, most likely for Microsoft's console once again - although a final platform was not confirmed at the time. Hopefully the next one will take shorter to develop because, speaking about the first Blue Dragon, Sakaguchi mentioned that it took three years to make it happen, including initial planning and two years of actual development on the Xbox 360.

But Gold as it may be in Japan, Blue Dragon is still missing a definitive release date in the Western world. All the while, Sakaguchi is currently working on something like... seven games at once! He's collaborating with Cavia on their Cry On RPG, he's half done with ASH for the Nintendo DS, then there's Lost Odyssey, and aside from Blue Dragon 2 (tentative title), he's also keeping busy with tree more games. Two are in development already, and the third one will follow soon, according to his statements in the Famitsu interview.

Earlier this month, there was also more news about Mistwalker's first RPG, in that Blue Dragon is being adapted into a manga, called "Blue Dragon ST", and an anime series was recently announced as well.

After all this, if Microsoft's Xbox 360 is still not going to seriously take off in Japan, they might as well pull out from there. For good.

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Square Enix Goes West, Shops For European Developer

European fans of Square Enix' have all the reason in the world to be happy, because their favorite Japanese publisher is finally taking major steps to expand into Europe. Which means that more of their games will be released on the old continent next year, and they are also shopping around for an experienced European developer, which will be creating more "Western" games for the European and American markets.

In an interview with MCV from a few days ago, Square Enix president and CEO John Yamamoto said that his company is betting on Europe becoming a bigger market than Japan, at least as long as they would provide more support (i.e. games) over on this part of the world. And that's exactly what they plan on doing.

"We have many more titles that we have never released in Europe, and every producer in Square Enix is keen to release all of these titles into the European market", he told MCV. "We have been making titles exclusively for one format for a long time but now we have titles for all formats."

Aside from the sure-winner Final Fantasy XII, set to debut in Europe in early 2007, Yamamoto promised that Square Enix will release over a dozen titles next year, many of which have so far far been exclusive to Japan. QJ.net also compiled a list of Japan-only titles, which includes games such as Final Fantasy II, III, IV, V and Final Fantasy VII International, the Romancing SaGa and Front Mission series, Seiken Densetsu 3, Bahamut Lagoon, plus many more. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on PSP and (hopefully) Dragon Quest Swords on Wii are also expected to be released in 2007.

The news follows shortly after Square Enix raised its fiscal forecasts one week ago, due in part to higher than expected licensing income for the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children CG movie in Western territories. If it's good news for Square, it'll be good news for us next year!

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Banned Linux World of Warcraft Players Get 20 Days Free

As a follow-up to our previous story "To be or not to be banned...", we have nothing but good news for the "very small percentage" of World of Warcraft players running the game on Cedega under Linux! It only took Blizzard one week to figure out that they basically screwed up, and to reinstate the wrongfully banned WoW accounts. After working with the developers of Cedega, they acknowledged that the bans were in fact made in error by their Game Master department, due to Blizzard's anti-cheating software (Warden) incorrectly flagging these accounts as using third-party cheating software. When, in fact, it was just an (unsupported) Windows emulator for Linux.

Once again, WorldOfWar.net has the full story, along with the brilliant news that players affected by this temporary banning will receive a total of 20 days credit of free play time!

"our staff worked directly in conjunction with the Cedega development team in a rigorous and thorough review of the situation. We have since determined that your account was one of those accidentally flagged, and as such we are immediately reinstating your account to fully playable status.

Blizzard Entertainment deeply regrets the error, as we understand that this brief account closure presented you with an inconvenient and highly frustrating experience. We remain firmly committed to enforcing our regulations and suspensions for those exploiting our game, in the interest of ensuring that our legitimate customers have the best possible play experience. In this case, however, we regretfully caught a handful of innocent customers in the process, and for that we offer you our genuine apology.

In consideration of our error, we are applying a credit of two weeks play time
onto your account, in addition to crediting back the time that your account was locked. This comes to a total of twenty (20) days credit, which should be visible on your account within the end of the week."

At a time like this, don't you wish you were playing World of Warcraft on Cedega and get a couple of free weeks?

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So you don't have a PlayStation Portable, so what? You can still play this Lumines II demo on your PC, either online or offline, thanks to the "demo tool" we received today. It may not be quite like the real thing, but it should give you a pretty good idea about what Tetsuya Mizuguchi's addictive arcade sequel is all about. The Lumines II "demo" is only 5 MB in size, and it includes a few playing fields and five music tracks, embedded in a PSP-like interface (you use the arrow keys and Space bar to play).

You can play it offline in any old browser of yours (just make sure to let it display Flash objects, if you're using Internet Explorer), or you can also play it online on the Lumines II website. If you're having trouble finding it, the link is in the Game Info section, in the lower-right corner - "Lumines II Taster Version". Or better yet, here's the direct link.

Lumines II was released earlier this month on the PSP by Buena Vista Games, after being developed by the same team from Q Entertainment, headed by producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi. In it, gamers control squares made of four smaller block pieces that are dropped into the playing field one at a time to form same-color squares (yes, think Tetris, but with a twist and plenty of musical infusions). The vertical "timeline" sweeps across the playing field from left to right and wipes the same-color squares from the playing field. Unmatched blocks pile up, and the game ends when the pile gets to the top of the playing screen. Advance through many action-packed levels, each with its own musical theme and sound effects.

If you missed it last week, we also have a video interview with Tetsuya Mizuguchi you can stream or download locally. Actually better stream it, cause the original is nearly 300 MB in size!

Now then, where was I? Ah yes, beating my lousy 19,000 high score in the demo...

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