Features// SPOnG's Review Of 2006: November

The horror!

Posted 1 Jan 2007 09:00 by
Rule of Rose: "banned"
Rule of Rose: "banned"
Amid all the scandal and next-gen hype Sony quietly found itself with something to celebrate: the PS2 became the most popular console in Europe. 40-million of the blighters were in the hands of consumers across the continent. This beat out the PS1 with its laughable 39-million units sold. See, we told you we like to bring good Sony news every now and then.

By far the biggest news of November concerned hardware launches, however. Sony was first, with the PS3 going on release on November 11th in Japan. Amidst near riots, homeless people being paid to queue and queuers jigging to trance we battled to bring you coverage.

Predictably Yahoo Auctions (Japan’s most popular auction site) was quickly awash with the much-coveted hardware. Savvy defenders of gaming everywhere were all over them, however, with guerrilla auction sabotage techniques.

Things weren’t looking too great for Sony a few days before its US launch. Analysts were once more rearing their often un-pretty heads. Or rather, Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital was rearing his (not that he’s a bad looking chap, but it maintains the theme doesn’t it? Yes.), stating: "We expect Sony to deliver 150-200k units to stores in the United States for the launch”. This was looking like bad news for the shanty towns cropping up (and braving drive-by shootings outside strip malls across the length and breadth of the US of A.

When the PS3 finally did hit stores in America gamers and scalpers alike were ready and waiting, with many having spent days camping on sidewalks to be among the first to play (or sell) the system. The hardware was sold out within hours of the launch, although it may have taken a while longer for a huge chunk of it to hit the homes of consumers as they made its way via eBay.

The Wii had a quieter launch Stateside. It quickly sold out but, without the hysteria surrounding PS3 hardware shortages, it failed to make the same impact on the mainstream media. Nintendo might have been better served by progressively dropping the allocation to American stores and prompting punters to behave like hoboes for a few days. The real action surrounded the New York launch where several thousand gamers (and others of more nefarious intention) wrapped themselves around the block and, as if by magic, actually managed to get a Wii (or two!) to take home.

Rule of Rose managed to provide the gaming community with a horror story as the nights drew ever closer. It wasn’t the kind SPOnG would have liked, however. The psychological survival/horror story prompted an outcry from the rightwing press and Italian EU Justice Commissioner, Franco Frattini, relating to alleged child torture scenes. RoR publisher, 505 Games, ultimately caved and pulled the title from release even as it arrived in UK stores. The game was receiving some pretty lukewarm reviews, so it could have been worse, but it’s undeniably a disturbing precedent.

The end of November was marked by the replacement of long-time SCE ‘father of the Playstation’, Ken Kutaragi. He got moved upstairs into the position of Chairman, while his seat in the President’s chair was filled by Kaz Hirai, formerly the President and CEO of SCEA. While this ‘promotion’ obviously isn’t a public hanging for Kutaragi, it does mark the end of his hands-on stewardship of the division responsible for the PlayStation. Make of it what you will…

Amidst all the hardware hype a few games managed to hit shelves. Which is just as well, since hardware without software is pretty useless. Along with the Wii and PS3 launch titles released the US and Japan, there were some rather nifty titles on the shelves over here. Gears of War on the 360 stole the month, but some other great titles hit as well. Call of Duty 3 came out on the 360, Xbox, and PS2 (as well as on the Wii and PS3 elsewhere), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance came out on Xbox, 360, PC, GBA and PS2 Tony Hawk’s Project 8 hit the PSP, PS2, 360 and Xbox, and of course there was Need for Speed: Carbon on any platform you can think of.


Look back at:
SPOnG's review of October
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