Category: Games

LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC announced it has teamed with Verant Interactive Inc. and Sony On-line Entertainment to create the first massive multi-player STAR WARS on-line role-playing game. Gameplay will jettison players into a unique combination of combat, specialized missions and daring quests. The STAR WARS on-line game will be developed by Verant, distributed and sold at retail stores by LucasArts, and available for play exclusively on-line at The Station@sony.com. This alliance partners together three of the foremost companies in the interactive entertainment industry.

Microsoft announced on Friday, March 10, 2000, that it will create its own video-game unit entitled X-Box. The high-end console will be in direct competition with Sony's PlayStation 2 and Sega's Dreamcast. "We want X-Box to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world," said Microsoft chairman Bill Gate at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose. Intended to be a hybrid of the personal computer and traditional gaming console, the new system is expected to hit stores sometime in 2001.

In its first weekend on the market in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 2 has reached 980,000 units sold. This initial sales milestone blows away the original PlayStation's three-day mark in 1994 by nearly 10 times. A total of 26,400 retailers in Japan, including 18,500 convenience stores, approximately 7,900 retail stores, current PlayStation retailers, as well as PlayStation.com (Japan) Inc., began selling the PlayStation 2 units on March 4.

Want to know about events in Italy? Then visit ASIFA Italia's re-designed

Website at www.asifaitalia.org. The Italian-languaged site is a growing

destination for animation in Italy. The site features ASIFA events and

other information regarding the Italian animation organization.

The Oscar shortlisted INDESCRIBABLE NTH has been picked up for distribution

on the Net at AtomFilms. The deal between NTH's creators Character Builders

and AtomFilms covers domestic and foreign television showings as well as

airline programming and Internet distribution. The film follows the story

of a boy and his understanding of the indescribable feeling called love.

Read Maureen Furniss' review of THE INDESCRIBABLE NTH and the other

shortlisted films at

On February 14, 2000, the GOD THE DEVIL AND BOB Website launched to promote

the new series which debuts on NBC on Thursday, March 9, 2000 at 8:30 pm.

The series is produced by Carsey-Werner, the creators of 3RD ROCK FROM THE

SUN, THAT '70S SHOW and COSBY. GOD THE DEVIL AND BOB, created by Matthew

Carlson, centers around Bob Alman, a Detroit auto plant worker who has been

chosen by God to prove the world is worth saving after God and the Devil

Disney's Go Network has inked a 4-year agreement with eBay making it the

exclusive on-line auction site for Walt Disney's Web properties. Under

terms of the deal, eBay and the Go Network will create two co-branded

auction sites -- one to provide person to person transactions, the other

merchant to consumer sales, featuring goods from Disney's properties and

ESPN, among others. Disney will market the two sites through its Go

Network, a portfolio of Web sites that includes Disney.com, ABC.com and

The 3DO Company has signed an exclusive multi-year agreement with U.S.

Major League Baseball's 1999 Man of the Year, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago

Cubs. Sosa will help in the development and marketing of 3DO's baseball

franchise, SAMMY SOSA HIGH HEAT BASEBALL. In the February 2000 issue of

COMPUTER GAMING WORLD MAGAZINE, SAMMY SOSA HIGH HEAT 2000 was named "Best

Sports Game Of The Year" and PC GAMER MAGAZINE even went as far as to call

it "The Best Baseball Game Ever." "I agree with the gaming magazines that

On February 29, 2000, comic book artist Marc Silvestri, creator of

WITCHBLADE, CYBER FORCE and DARKNESS, will be teaching fans and aspiring

artists how it's done through the first semester of on-line classes offered

at Eruptor.com. Silvestri will present a live, three-part series on

Eruptor's Web-based university, Eruptor College, to help students learn how

to produce layouts, refine characters and develop stories for comic books

of their own. The real-time class will allow Silvestri to answer questions

Tim Burton, creator of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, has inked a deal to

bring a series of animated shorts featuring his Stainboy character to

shockwave.com. Viewers will be able to download the charcoal-drawn

superhero's first five-minute short sometime in Spring 2000. Under the

terms of the deal, Burton will keep full artistic control over the

characters and properties. The William Morris Agency brokered the deal

which allows for the cross over to TV if the shorts become a hit on the

On December 27, 1999, Activision, Inc. shipped VIGILANTE 8: SECOND OFFENSE

for the Sega Dreamcast. In this new adventure, players must stop the Coyote

terrorist gang that has traveled back through time in an attempt to change

the course of events that will allow evil to dominate the world. Developed

by Luxoflux Corp., the game features multiple modes of play -- single

player quest, arcade and survival mode, two-player versus, cooperative and

On January 5, 2000, Acclaim Entertainment started shipping their SOUTH PARK

RALLY for PlayStation with Nintendo 64, PC and Sega Dreamcast to follow

shortly. Developed by Tantalus Interactive, the kart-style racing adventure

features mission-based game modes and 27 characters from the Comedy Central

series. All versions of South Park Rally will include multiplayer modes

that feature races and cooperative game modes, including the multiplayer