Developers shifting resources from X-Box 360 and PS3 to Wii

In a move that should come as a surprise to exactly no one:

According to a report from Variety Asia, Japan's top three third-party publishers are ramping up development for Nintendo's Wii and DS systems, at the expense of rivals Sony and Microsoft. Namco Bandai will reportedly increase Nintendo hardware development by 109 percent to 115 titles, Sega will up its titles by 96 percent to 49, and Capcom titles will rise by 5 percent to 20.

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The report also states that another Japanese software giant, Square Enix, does not plan to develop any new titles for the PlayStation 3 until the console's installed base rises enough to make increased next-gen development costs worthwhile.

Huh, so the Wii is selling better than the PS3 and 360 and it's cheaper to develop games for? Why are these backstabbing companies abandoning poor little Sony and Microsoft?!?!

Backstabbers.

(That's to keep anyone from calling me a "gloating Nintendo fanboy")

Nintendo is worth more than Sony

How crazy is that. And yeah, even though it only passed Sony on the Nikkei for like a couple of hours, I don't even care. The fact that Nintendo is even CLOSE is mind-boggling to me.

Bananas. Fully Bananas.

So, like, Internet Explorer really, really, really sucks

My beloved e-machine recently died on me. She had served me well for several years. So well, in fact, that when I trudged down to the used PC store for a new machine, I essentially bought the exact same specs and year of e-machine.

Having *almost* lost a near-finished book to a PC disaster several years ago (the one that caused me to get the e-machine), I do all my work on an external HD (which is occasionally backed up to CD for an added level of redundancy- yes, I really don't ever want to have to write a 100 page book twice), so the transition to the new machine was almost seamless.

But as I went through the various programs I use, reinstalling them, I thought to myself "no hurry to reinstall Firefox, I have IE".

But I quickly realized that, well, IE is garbage. I mean, like, stunningly bad. It would bog down after about 30 minutes. The memory usage of the program would swell from something modest to completely bog down my entire machine. I'd then have to Cntrl-Alt-Dlt out of IE and restart it, and my machine would run fine again for another 30 minutes.

I was almost ready to grab my warranty and head down to the PC shop, thinking it was the computer. But no, it was IE. Once I installed Firefox, everything worked fine.

Amazing. And almost sad in a way. This is the POS Bill risked his company getting broken up Ma Bell style for? Really?

Civil War rocks

So, I bought the Civil War trade recently, and Mark Millar might just be the best comics writer around right now. This book was really like a smack to the face, which is what Millar has done so well in the past, with books like the Ultimates.

For those who just failed their Knowledge (Popular Culture) skill check (DC 20), recently in the Marvel U, a tragedy caused by under-trained super heroes leads Congress to push for registration of all superhumans. They'll be trained by the government, licensed, and the government will know their identities (though average citizens won't). If they break the law, they could face civil and/or criminal penalties.

Basically they'll have the same rights, but also the same restrictions, as, say, an undercover FBI agent.

This move divides the superhuman community down the middle, with Iron Man leading the pro-registration side and Captain America leading the anti-reg side. There's villains on both sides too. Basically, this war overrides normal considerations of good and evil.

When I first heard the idea, I thought "dumb dumb dumb". Of course, I didn't think they'd actually go all the way with it either. For an example of a direction I didn't think they'd take, in the aftermath of Civil War, there are two Avengers teams, one sanctioned by the government, consisting of Yellowjacket, Wasp, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel etc and the other an underground team of anti-reg holdouts, consisting of (among others) Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Iron Fist.

In other words, the Marvel U is different than it used to be. They didn't wrap up the story with a Deus ex Machina in the last issue of the mini-series.

And oh yeah, if you want to see Spider-Man kick Mr. Fantastic in the throat, or Thor kill Goliath with a lightning bolt, then you should also buy this mini-series.

Lots of Updates

Busy busy. Released quite a few books lately.

Here's a brief, mass rundown:

First we have True 20 Blood and Fists and True 20 Darwin's World. Yes, that's where I was last month.

And just recently, we released Police Procedural.

Im freaking jealous of this book. Mike Daumen has basically written Law and Order: Special Games Unit. Your success during the police investigation makes it easier for lawyers to get convictions. Hear that Orbach? You make Sam Waterston's job easier. So get to it!

News

So I recently got a DS, have been sucked into the world of Final Fantasy III and it rules. A worthy installment to the series. 33 unlockable classes, 4 playable characters, an old-school RPG with almost endless tactical strategies for your party.

Ive also rented New Super Mario Brothers, a game that is decidedly old school, for the better. Mario games don't need to be 3-D. You only need to be able to go one direction. Awesome.

Then there's Trauma Center. Best game ever for the first 2 hours. Then the difficulty spikes ridiculously and it just gets stupid. Good thing I rented before I bought.

Also, I recently completed a big BIG BIG(!!!) project. Very rushed, very nice money.

When I can say more, I sure will.

I love my DS

So I had a good month last month, and decided to treat myself to a DS. I bought Final Fantasy III and the GBA port of Shining Force (since the DS plays GBA games). I also re-upped my Gamefly account and rented New Super Mario Brothers and Trauma Center.

And I have to say... I freaking love this console. The graphics are really nice for a handheld, and I am in love with the touch screen.

I mean... without the touch screen, pulling beating glass out of someone's heart in Trauma Center would not be HALF as fun.

28 pages...

In 4 days...

I believe that is my personal productivity record. For a sprint anyway. I think my endurance record would be 80 pages in a month, which was Legends of the Dark Ages.

No word on what this one is though.

It's a secret.

Nintendo DS

So I treated myself and got the Nintendo DS, a handheld gaming console I had been drooling over for some time. Though there were already a ton of games for the system I wanted to try (Final Fantasy III, Trauma Center, New Super Mario Brothers), the announcement of a prequel AND sequel to Final Fantasy XII as well as Dragon Quest IX as DS exclusives made this system a must have for me.

How crazy is it that the #1 RPG franchise in Japan (Dragon Quest) is *only* going to be on a handheld console? For comparison, earlier renditions of the game were on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Famicom, and the PS2 (DQ XIII). In other words, expensive, top of the line (for their day) full size home consoles.

I guess when Square said they would always put the DQ franchise on the #1 console in Japan, they freaking meant it.

In related news, I have re-upped with Gamefly (with New Super Mario Brothers and Trauma Center inbound) and I'm playing through Final Fantasy III, which rocks.