Your fortnightly roundup of everything Gamecube.

As ever the summer trundles along, with the sparseness in the new releases reflected in the overall dying down of industry activity. Maybe it's because we've seen the back of the E3 bonanza, or everyone's waiting until near Christmas for better effect, or maybe it's just too darn warm outside to really do anything. Whatever the case, you can be sure I won't be outside enjoying that rare sunshine; the Digest needs doin'.

I suppose we may as well start at the beginning. Not too long after the last Fortnightly Digest was posted, news broke of (finally!) some new titles for the Triforce arcade board, from Sega; Virtua Striker 4 and Key to Avalon 2. In case you've forgotten, the Triforce is a collaberation on arcade gaming between Nintendo, Sega and Namco. The latter two are obviously two of the biggest names in arcade gaming, past and present. The Triforce has been out of the news for a while now, the only real notable use of it for Nintendo fans was for the stellar F-Zero AX. Sega have also been a little preoccupied with the Chihiro (the Xbox equivalent), so it's good to see it hasn't been forgotten.

Virtua Striker 4 is (whodathoughtit?) the fourth game in the Virtua Striker footie series. The series hasn't enjoyed anywhere near as much success as other titles in the genre (ISS, Pro Evo, FIFA etc.), mostly because it's not as good. I have troubling memories of Virtua Striker 3 on the Gamecube, but that's just my opinion. You never know, VS3 could be good. Whether it's good or not, the Triforce board means a Gamecube release for the game is likely. So any VS fans should be optimistic. Some new features, like an improved VS mode and IC Card system. Key of Avalon 2 the sequel to Hit Maker's multiplayer action RPG, which featured board game elements. Don't expect a home release for it.

You may have noticed in your local games store that several new games have been added to the Player's Choice range, meaning a price drop to �19.99 for each. Oddly, all are EA titles: Finding Nemo, Need for Speed Underground, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup, FIFA 2004 and Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. They're not exactly classics, but for the price, there's worse things you could buy.

More woe for Acclaim arrived this past fortnight. The past few years haven't been kind to the company, with the negative press surrounding titles like Turok Evolution and BMX XXX, and their loss of Criterion's superb Burnout franchise to the industry juggernaut, EA. But now the threat of bankruptcy hangs over them with this new financial report. At the end of the last fiscal year their profits were down $67.4 million to $142.7 million. The gross profit, $61.4 million, was also down by $14 million from last year. Worse of all, they've lost their two most recognisable IPs: Turok and Major League Baseball. The former had little effect left in it after the disappointing Turok Evolution, but the loss of the MLB license is a devastating blow to the company. The reason behind Turok being released is reportedly the non-payment of game royalties, and some believe the same applies for MLB, although the company disputes this.

The company's hopes now lie in a handful of titles due to be released in the future; Worms: Under Seige, 100 Bullets, Juiced, Red Star and The Bard's Tale. Of these, the one likely to make the biggest splash in the market would be Juiced, a racer in a similar vein to EA's successful recent Need for Speed series. It sports 50 licensed vehicles and, apparently, 7.2 trillion (!) unique costum car creations. Make of that what you will, but the shiny gloss and online gameplay could garner the same some good numbers. We'll find out when it's released this autumn. If it doesn't, and the other games unachieved, we could be looking at Acclaim going out of business. Pause, and think about that for a second.

What happened? The company enjoyed success on the N64 with their four Turok games (the second especially), Forsaken, Shadowman and a number of other well-received games. But a series of bad decisions, court shenanigans and poor games have brought these situation about. Unfortunately for them, they're best known this generation for their feeble marketing tactics. I can't decide which was more silly � the whole 'change your name to Turok' (embarrassing) episode, the 'bleeding posters' (silly) and the Burnout promotion which offered to pay the speeding tickets of drivers (plain dangerous!). They've also been on the receiving end of a couple of court actions, including one from Dave Mirra on account of the much-ridiculed BMX XXX. The less said about that one the better.

They may have been the authors of their own demise, but I do feel some of the comments made about them recently by angry Nintendo fans ("Die Acclaim Die" being the most blunt) are unnecessary. Industry success is increasingly being centred on a select few publishers, which can't be good.

Elsewhere, the speculation over Nintendo's next home console, dubbed 'the Revolution', continues unabated. In response to Sony's major announcement that the PS3 will be on show and playable at next year's E3, Nintendo have said that their console will be "discussed in great detail" at the show. No mention of anything playable, unfortunately, from NOE's Shelly Pearce:

"In terms of PlayStation 3, 'exhibited at E3' and 'coming to market' are two very different things. What we've always said is that we'll be releasing Revolution in the same timeframe as the others. What that timeframe will be is very up in the air at this point." She continued to state "I'm not really sure what Sony will actually be exhibiting at E3."

"Our plan is to talk about our vision for Revolution at E3 next year, and how we're going to revolutionise console gaming. At next year's E3 there'll obvious be a lot more discussion about next generation, and we'll be talking about ways we're going to take console gaming forward without just focusing on graphics. But it's far too early to talk about specifics now."

With Microsoft's E3 2005 plans practically common knowledge, it looks like LA is going to play host to a next-generation gauntlet in ten months. You do have to wonder how much of a disadvantage Nintendo is going to be at without playable software (no matter what Pearce says, I doubt Sony CEO Ken Kutaragi would take E3 announcements lightly). Let's hope 'the Revolution' is just that.

Sticking with the Revolution, Satoru Iwata has commented to the Japanese press that even when the console is released, Nintendo will continue to support the Gamecube (ala PSone). This is a bit surprising, but at least it means we won't have the scandalous dragging out the N64 faced at the end of its lifespan. He also hinted we could see the next console as early as Q4 next year. Who knows, just might happen.

Juxtaposed against Acclaim's troubles is Kuju Entertainment's growth as of late. Not only has the UK developer been picked by Nintendo to bring Advance Wars into 3D, but they're moving to considerably larger studios in Brighton. The head of the Brighton studios Ed Daly commented "Being able to live and work in Brighton, which is such an exciting and lively place, is fantastic. There's already an existing pool of talent here but we have no doubt that this coastal location will be a great attraction to many people in the industry." As well as this, the studio has been nominated for three different categories in the Develop Industry Excellence Awards; Independent Studio, Business Development and Most Improved Studio categories. They're not doing too shabby then.

Now for a final quick run through the rest of this fortnight's news; Atari are finishing work on Digimon Rumble Arena 2; Blizzard has dropped developer Nihilistic and handed Starcraft Ghost to Metal Arms' Swingin' Ape Studios; the E-Reader has finally, definitely, absolutely been confirmed as not coming to Europe; Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is getting his own TV show and CE has got a new DS video available for download.

That's all for this edition folks, Mark should be back from his hols next time round. Hope you enjoyed it.

Keep on rockin',
Conor Smyth,
[email protected]