Newsbytes Issue 160

Take-Two eschews Batman’s home—Take-Two Interactive is phasing out the Gotham Games label. Rockstar will remain its premium label, Gathering will be the label for mid-range titles, and Global Star will be the label for discount games under $20…. Character—Radioactive Clown plans on making collectible action figures for all the playable races in the massively multiplayer game Horizons: Empires of Istaria…. Enforcing ESRB ratings—The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) announced that it and several major retailers plan to enforce an identification check program to prevent sales to kids of titles rated Mature by the ESRB. The plan should be implemented by the holiday 2004 season. In other ESRB-related news, The National Institute on Media and the Family (the outfit fronted by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, among others) issued its Video Game Report Card. Stores received a “B” for their enforcement of ESRB ratings, while games were accused of contributing to child obesity and of being linked to real violent behaviors. To do so, a new category of games was created, dubbed “killographic” …. Where were the counter-terrorists?—Cyber X Games, a competitive gaming association, was under the gun when a participant’s friend pulled a gun on members of the Cyber X Games staff. Cyber X Games now will require participants in its events to view a thirty-minute presentation on violence and safety…. Mod exchange—NovaLogic has launched NovaXchange (novaworld.com), which allows gamers to share player-created missions and maps for its games…. Night falls on Rubies of Eventide—Cyber Warriors shut down Rubies of Eventide. Not surprisingly, they felt independent MMORPGs could not compete with major publishers…. Black Isle is now Ghost Isle—Despite denials from Interplay, Black Isle Studios appears to be no more. Interplay maintains Black Isle is still a valuable asset to be sold, but the studio has been stripped to a skeleton crew. While Interplay retains the right to continue the development of Fallout 3, it’s unclear whether the project will be re-launched, shelved, or sold…. I am Jack’s mild amusement—Vivendi Universal announced a console fighting game based on the movie Fight Club. In an interview on his website, author Chuck Palahniuk said, “Ask me if I care,” and noted that the existing of the game, “demonstrate[s] nihilism. It demonstrates that everything becomes a commodity, that everything is trivialized and destroyed.” Expect a future Vivendi hunting game based on To Kill a Mockingbird, and a baseball game based on The Catcher in the Rye.… 10 important people—The Computer Museum of America announced that the top five vote gettgers for inclusion into the Hall of Fame Class of 2002 included Sid Meier, “author of groundbreaking computer game software,” and Jay Miner, who developed graphics for the Atari and Amiga lines of personal computers. Some other guys were picked too.… News courtesy of Frictionless Insight (frictionlessinsight.com)

This article originally appeared in Computer Games Magazine #160