Apparently Capcom are losing money. And not just pocket change you know, $100 million in fact. Giving Capcoms size and stature, how could they be losing so much money? There has been no big flops for them over the year, the games have been coming steadily and are as good as ever. So what's the problem?

Unfortunately, it seems to be the very thing which we all have celebrated about and rubbed in Sony and Microsofts faces; Resident Evils exclusitivity. I don't know about you, but I was expecting the game to do far better than it did in Japan, where its main appeal is and where Capcom where hoping for it to do best. And its reception in the US and Europe hasn't exactly made up for it either. Taking a series whose fans have been made are from the Sony camp, where arguably it would do best if it was to be exclusive to any console, and sticking it on a new console, a console whose image is all bright colours and "family-friendly" games just didn't seem right. I was estatic yes, but definitely surprised.

Capcom may have claimed that the decision for REs exclusitivity was based on Nintendos philosophy towards gaming and GameCubes impressive hardware but for all we know, that all could've been just PR bullshit. I'm not saying it was, but who knows, Nintendo could've just thrown wads of cash at Capcom in return for an exclusitivity deal. If such a deal was made then yes, we don't need to worry about Capcoms losses. These things happen with the topsy-turvy games industry, a few months from now Capcom could have sky-high profits, this is just a, albeit a big, blip. But if no such deal was formally struck,
if Capcom didn't sign on the dotted line, then they could be well lured away by a company willing to pay more than the conservative Nintendo would.

So these Microsoft rumours aren't all that unexpected. Now normally, I'd dismiss the rumors as nonsense but post-Rare, these kind of rumours have got a whole lot more credible. If, and that's a big if, Microsoft are attmepting to buy Capcom, I emplore Nintendo to do the right thing and intervene. Now I'm not on of those "Microsoft is evil!" Nintendo zealots but it would be a terrible tragidy if a company as revered and rooted in old-age values as Capcom was swallowed by the financial behemoth that is Microsoft. Microsoft are trying to dominate the games industry by throwing as much money around as they can (which as
anyone would testify, is a hell of a lot of money), such a method must be be allowed to work.

The subject has arisen recently about games prices? Started by a group named FairPlay, they want a games boycott in the first week of December. A games boycott. Seriously. But is it justfied? Is what we pay for our games to much? Bollocks.

Have you seen the end credits in games these days? So many people are involved in the making of games, especially the bigger ones, and all these people need paid. Every one of them. So do the people that publish and distribute the games. And so do the people that sell the games. FairPlay argue that movies that cost just as much to make as games only have a price tag of under half the price of games, which may at first seem a valid argument but certainly isn't.

Films make money from box-office earnings. Then they make money from VHS rental. And DVD rental. Then they make money from VHS rental. And DVD rental. And if they do one of those "special edition" DVDs, then they money from that too. But games only make money from one thing. Getting picked up off the store shelves. Games rental? Pah, how much of that do you think actually goes into the pockets of the
people behind the games? With the small presence of games rental, crap all I'd bet.

Such a boycott would do more harm than good to very industry FairPlay hope to improve for the consumer. Games stores (especially independant ones) rely so much on games retail, a week-long boycott would be devastating for them. And they don't deserve it. Either do the people behind the games. I am perfectly happy to pay 40 of my hard-earned pounds for my games. I wouldn't pay
it for Generic Unimaginative Disney-licensed Paltformer No.0567, but I am more than happy to pay it for Mario, or Zelda, or Timesplitters. Games companies work damn hard to give us brilliant games, and they deserve every bit of our money.

Nintendo fans were sent into a frenzy by the revalation of Japanese mag V-Jump that Nintendo had a big announcement planned for the end of the year. Wait, scrap that, big doesn't do it justice. I'll just take V-Jumps words for it, "an announcement that would revolutionise Japanese GameCube sales" . What could possibly have such a huge effect on GC sales in the East? Pokemon? It
doesn't have the draw it used to. Final Fantasy exclusitivity? Not only would it not happen, it wouldn't have quite that big an effect. So Nintendo fans have pretty much agreed on one thing. Dragon Quest 8. On GameCube. Exclusive. Could it happen? I wouldn't bet against it. As N-Sider said "we're confident that come December, we'll be seeing the first media of DQ VIII running exclusively on GameCube. "

I'm going to do a "Top 5" in each Digest from now on, a la Maxs Advance Weekly. This week it's the games I'm most looking forward to getting.

1. Zelda
2. Metroid Prime
3. Timesplitters 2
4. Resident Evil Zero
5. Eternal Darkness

I'll admit, I haven't been all that disiplined when it comes to Digest being on Friday. But I promise you now. Every Friday, you'll see Digest on the front page. If you don't, I'll eat my SMS disc.