The weekly roundup of everything Gamecube.

Welcome once again, to the Weekly Digest, Cube-Europe's weekly newsletter packed with news from the world of Nintendo gaming. Hope you all enjoyed the Easter break. It has been a hugely eventful week, with several nasty suprises that seemed to come out of the blue. On with the news, then�

Silicon Knights, the Canadian development house who developed the extraordinary Eternal Darkness (one of the C-E team's favourite GC titles) and most recently Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes has severed its exclusivity deal with Nintendo.

"Nintendo and Silicon Knights have reached an agreement allowing Silicon Knights to pursue its vision of videogame entertainment with other companies," said a Nintendo of America spokesperson. "Nintendo respects the creative work of Silicon Knights and the parties have left the door open to work on future projects that meet the creative vision of both companies." No reason was given for the move. It has been widely speculated this week that the philosophies of the two companies differed substantially with regard to game development- SK placing equal emphasis on gameplay and storyline, with Nintendo focusing on the mechanics of the gameplay. We don't agree, however. Nintendo, particularly in the last few years broadened out their vision, and have allowed third-parties to pursue their own game design goals. In fact, SK's split from Nintendo is all the more puzzling given the interviews recently by Silicon Knights head, Dennis Dyack. He has repeatedly enthused about Nintendo, and his idolization of Shigeru Miyamoto is quite intense.

The only reason we can come up with is that Eternal Darkness didn't fare very well in sales terms, and that developing for other consoles will allow them to reach a wider audience. Either way, there is no bad blood between the two companies. As if to emphasize this, Denis Dyack said: "No it doesn't. It's possible that we may do another game with Nintendo, actually. It just means that we've decided to break our exclusivity with Nintendo."

We wish SK well.

That was bad enough news, but for it to be followed just hours later by another apparently similar story made things even worse.

Factor 5 has announced that they will no longer be developing for the GameCube. The California-based studio is responsible for the popular Rogue Squadron games. They are a third-party with no exclusivity deal to Nintendo, but rather have a cosy relationship with the big N, leading them to develop only for the Cube. Alas, though, we won't be seeing any more from them for this console generation. Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht said the studio is currently creating software for other, next generation platforms. No software from the company will be previewed at the forthcoming Electronics Entertainment Expo 2004, which kicks off this May in Los Angeles.

Don't despair, though- Eggebrecht has long been a fan of Nintendo, and he has no intention of deserting them now. He went on to say this: "We are extremely excited about both DS and GCNext (the rather rubbish codename for the GC's successor), so any talk of us abandoning Nintendo platforms altogether is just not true. It is simply because we have moved into next-generation development." Feel better now? Thought so. On to something a little lighter now, and Pokémon news flooded C-E this week. The imminent release of Pokémon Colosseum on May 14th has led to Nintendo coming up with an excellent GameCube package.

For the 'meagre' sum of 159 Euro (yes, for all you Brits out there, there is no plural of Euro) you'll get the following:

-Black Nintendo GameCube
-Pokémon Colosseum
-The Pokédex organiser
-Pokémon Box
-Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Link Cable
-Memory Card 251

Impressive, no? A far cry from Nintendo's old packages with no memory card included, eh? Even better, if you buy the game by itself, you'll get a free Memory Card 59. Now that's what we're talking about.

Nintendo are touring the UK yet again to find the UK's best Pokemon player. Using your copies of Ruby or Sapphire, competitors will battle it out on Colosseum on massive cinema screens across the country, culminating in a final on the biggest screen in the country- the bfi London IMAX. For more information on the tournament visit the website www.battlemaster2004.com/

Nintendo of Europe have announced that they will add Pokémon Box to their infamous Stars Catalogue. The game, which allows you to upload and keep over 1,000 Pokémon from Ruby and Sapphire, was previously only available in Japan or when purchased with the Pokémon GameCube bundle. It will be added to the Stars Catalogue on May 14th for a hefty 4,000 stars. Oh, and while we're on the subject, fair play to Nintendo of Europe for finally sending out my own copy of the Zelda Collector's Edition. Sure, it was five months to wait for it but it got there in the end...

The mysterious Legends of Golfer, which we mentioned last week, has been partially unveiled. The first batch of screens showing off the upcoming 'realistic' Golf title have been shown off, and they're on C-E right now. The game is under development by Japanese developer Seta and will be published by Nintendo in Japan this summer. Eagle eyed readers may remember Seta from their golf game for the ill-fated 64DD.

Nintendo, never ones to hold back from milking a franchise for all it's worth has confirmed plans to release a new round of Famicom GBA games in Japan. The original series turned out to be something of a surprise hit in Japan. In a month's time, Japanese gamers can expect to see the likes of Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew, Dr. Mario, Dig Dug, Ghosts 'n Goblins among others lining the shelves of game shops. Plans for a U.S release of the original series are well underway, and surely a European launch is likely for later this year.

That enough news for you? See you all next week.

Regards,

Mark Cullinane
[email protected]