February 2006 in video gaming

February 28, 2006 (Tuesday)

• The brand Acclaim Entertainment officially returns to the video game industry.^[1]
• Shanda, a Chinese developer of MMORPGs, announces financial results for the fourth quarter of 2005. Net revenue was 360.5 million RMB ($44.8 million), a 16.3% decrease, and net loss was 538.9 million RMB ($67 million) compared to the Q4 2004 profit of 231.4 million RMB ($28.7 million).^[2]

February 27, 2006 (Monday)

• Details of Microsoft's Origami Project are leaked. Halo is among the applications seen running on the portable device.^[3]
• Sony Computer Entertainment Japan unveiles PlayStation Spot, a service that allows PSP owners to download content and game demos at participating locations.^[4]

February 23, 2006 (Thursday)

• Midway announces financial results for the last fiscal quarter of 2005, ending December 31, 2005, as well as the full fiscal year. Net revenues for the quarter were $69.8 million, down 9.6% from 2004. Quarter loss was $37.8 million, compared with profits of $17.6 million in 2004.^[5]

February 22, 2006 (Wednesday)

• Professional gaming league Major League Gaming announces that it has secured an investment of $10 million.^[6]

February 21, 2006 (Tuesday)

• Mark "Chip" VanDeVelde, a vice president of Crave Entertainment and a long time video game industry veteran, dies. Crave Entertainment starts a scholarship fund for VanDeVelde's daughter who is then 11 years old.^[7]

February 20, 2006 (Monday)

• David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment, has quit the company. Atari, which owns Shiny, recently announced that it would be selling off all its internal development studios.^[8]

February 17, 2006 (Friday)

• Atari releases a statement stating that they are restructuring the company "which will result in a worldwide workforce reduction of approximately 20%".^[9]
• CERO, the Japanese video game rating organisation, will implement a new rating system, starting from March 2006.^[10]
• NVIDIA releases financial results for the quarter ending January 31, 2006. Revenue was up 12% to $633.6 million, and profits were up 104% to $98.1 million.^[11]

February 16, 2006 (Thursday)

• A study done by ABI Research indicates that the video game industry should double in size by 2011.^[12]

February 15, 2006 (Wednesday)

• Nintendo unveils an Opera-based web browser and a TV tuner for the Nintendo DS.^[13]
• The Chinese government announces new legislation that will prohibit teenagers from entering Internet cafes or karaoke bars. Also, it will be illegal to display "audio and video products and electronic games" that threaten national security or disparage other nationalities or races. Specifically, the entertainment may not "damage China's unification, sovereignty, or territorial integrity".^[14]
• A bill proposed by Utah Rep. David Hogue that equates violent video games with pornography was passed by a Utah House committee vote.^[15]
• Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure has been refused a classification by the Australian Office of Film & Literature Classification (a body of the Australian Government), effectively banning its release in the country.^[16]

February 14, 2006 (Tuesday)

• NCsoft, the Korean company behind titles such as Guild Wars and City of Heroes, reported financial results for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2005. Revenues were up 17% to 338.8 billion Won ($346.5 million), a record high for the company. Operating income fell to 76.6 billion Won ($78.3 million), due to rising costs and expenses.^[17]

February 13, 2006 (Monday)

• Ralph Baer, the inventor of Pong, receives the National Medal of Technology "for his work in developing and commercializing interactive video games, which spawned related uses and mega-industries in both the entertainment and education fields".^[18]
• JAMDAT Mobile has announced that its shareholders have approved its acquisition by Electronic Arts for $680 million.^[19]

February 11, 2006 (Saturday)

• VGMix is closed temporarily due to hacking attempts.

February 10, 2006 (Friday)

• Valve Software reveals that the planned expansion pack for Half-Life 2, previously known as Aftermath, has been renamed Half-Life 2: Episode One, and will be the first in a series of episodic content released on Steam.^[20]
• Blizzard Entertainment officially apologises to a World of Warcraft player over a warning the player received for recruiting other players to a LGBT-focused guild.^[21]
• Microsoft's Peter Moore states that all Xbox 360 shortages should be over within four to six weeks.^[22]

February 9, 2006 (Thursday)

• Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime announces several new features for the Nintendo DS, including a new DS download service, and a voice chat feature to be included with Metroid Prime Hunters. The company also has a new overall strategy dubbed Blue Ocean.^[23][24]
• Microsoft announces that Halo 2 will be released on the PC exclusively for Windows Vista.^[25]
• Atari publishes results for the third quarter of 2005, with revenue down to $100.8 million, as compared with $156.4 million in the same period in 2004. The company posted a loss of $4.8 million ($19.6 million profit in Q3 2004). Atari CFO Diane Baker resigned, although the company stated this was not directly related to the poor results.^[26]
• God of War wins seven awards, including Game of the Year, at the 2006 Interactive Achievement Awards. Other winners include Guitar Hero (5 awards), Shadow of the Colossus, and Battlefield 2 (both 3 awards).^[27]
• 1UP announces the results of its Game of the Year competition. Among the winners are Resident Evil 4 for "Game of the Year", and Nintendogs for "Most Innovative".^[28]

February 8, 2006 (Wednesday)

• Jack Thompson writes an open letter to U2 singer Bono. Thompson calls for Bono's Elevation Partners, which has been seen as a potential candidate to purchase Take-Two Interactive, to distance itself from any such action.^[29][30]
• Capcom publishes results for the third quarter of 2005, showing a 418% increase in profit over the previous year. The company also announces that Resident Evil 4 has sold over 3 million copies.^[31]

February 7, 2006 (Tuesday)

• Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, will deliver the keynote address at the 2006 Game Developers Conference. The title of the keynote is Disrupting Development.^[32]
• EVE Online, the MMOG by CCP Games, reaches 100,000 subscribers.^[33]
• Multiverse Network, Inc. debuts its Multiverse Platform, a free middleware platform to help independent developers enter the MMOG market. James Cameron, who recently announced his Project 880, is on the Multiverse board of directors.^[34][35][36]
• Sega Sammy announces financial results for the first nine months of its fiscal year, with revenue up 5.4% to 420.8 billion yen ($3.56 billion) and profits of 63.5 billion yen ($537 million), up from 46.2 billion yen ($391 million).^[37]
• Casualty Europe, a conference on casual games, gets underway in Amsterdam.^[38][39]

February 6, 2006 (Monday)

• Wired News unveils its 2005 Vaporware Awards. A number of video game related products are included in the list:

7. Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms

6. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

5. StarCraft: Ghost

2. Phantom Game Service

1. Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever had previously won the awards in 2001, 2002, and was given the Vaporware Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.^[40]

• Activision announces revenue for third fiscal quarter of 2005 was $816.2 million, while profit dropped 30% from $97.3 million to $67.9 million. The company joins rivals THQ and EA in showing poor results. The company also revealed that an extension of its Tony Hawk franchise, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, was released in 2007.^[41][42]

February 3, 2006 (Friday)

• Famitsu releases a survey of readers, game developers, and retailers on the level of interest in both next-generation and current game consoles. The results indicate that the PlayStation 3 is first, closely followed by Wii.^[43][44]
• James Cameron, director of Titanic, The Terminator, and Aliens, announces that his new project, Project 880, will be launched as a MMOG, followed by a motion picture release.^[45]
• THQ announces the opening of Kaos Studios. The new development studio will be staffed by veterans from Trauma Studios, the company behind Desert Combat and Battlefield 2.^[46]
• THQ also announced revenue for the third fiscal quarter of 2005 of $357.8 million and a profit of $47.6 million, exceeding the company's own expectations. Revenue was down over the same period last year, however.^[47]

February 2, 2006 (Thursday)

• Following yesterday's lay-offs, Electronic Arts today announced that net revenue for the third fiscal quarter of 2005 was down 11% compared to the quarter in 2004, to $1.27 billion. Profits were down 31% to $259 million .^[48]
• The winners of the 2006 Imagina Games Awards are announced. The winners:
  • Best Concept: Feel the Magic: XY/XX, by Sonic Team.
  • Best Graphics: F.E.A.R., by Monolith Studios.
  • Best Technology: F.E.A.R., by Monolith Studios.
  • Grand Prix: World of WarCraft, by Blizzard Entertainment.^[49][50]
• In response to recent accusations that Activision's title GUN promotes racism and genocide, the company stated "Activision does not condone or advocate any of the atrocities that occurred in the American West during the 1800s. GUN was designed to reflect the harshness of life on the American frontier at that time." ... "It was not Activision’s intention to offend any race or ethnic group with GUN, and we apologize to any who might have been offended by the game’s depiction of historical events which have been conveyed not only through video games but through films, television programming, books and other media."^[51]

February 1, 2006 (Wednesday)

• Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher announces that it will cut worldwide staff by 5%.^[52]
• Ubisoft announces that they will publish several Capcom titles on the PC. Titles include Resident Evil 4, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, and Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.^[53]
• An SEC filing reveals that Gizmondo parent company Tiger Telematics has managed to obtain a $5 million lending agreement with Laffitte Partners. Last week, Gizmondo Europe had filed for bankruptcy.^[54]

References