Doom 3 Collector's Edition To Appear On Store Shelves

A couple of retailers have listed a special version of Doom for the Xbox. Doom 3: The Collector's Edition will contain the Doom 3 game, but also full versions of Doom II and Ultimate Doom (both containing single-player mode and multi-player deathmatch and co-op two-to-four player split screen modes). Also included in the package is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Doom 3, interviews with the iD Software development team, an art gallery, and more. Activision (the game publisher) has yet to confirm the collector's edition package or an actual release date for Doom 3.

EA Invests Into Ubisoft

Electronic Arts has purchased a 19.9% (just under the threshold from certain disclosure regulations) stake of Ubisoft stock. Ubisoft, best known for their Tom Clancy games, sees this stock purchase as a hostile takeover. EA is a competing game publisher to Ubisoft and the company is not happy with EA's purchase. Ubisoft could be acquired or merged into Electronic Arts in the near future.

In other news, Nintendo has sold over one million Nintendo DS units in North America so far and expects to have shipped two million units worldwide by the end of the year.

Paramount Claim Rights To Splinter Cell

Paramount has purchased the movie rights to Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series. It looks as if the video game creators from Ubisoft will help in the production of the Splinter Cell film. If Paramount actually goes through with producing the movie, it will be their fifth Tom Clancy adaptation. No word yet on any actors or scheduled release date for the film.

GTA: San Andreas on Xbox & PC

Take-Two Interactive has announced that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will appear on the Xbox console and home PCs. GTA: San Andreas, for both systems, will be released simultaneously on June 7, 2005. No word yet if the games will include new or enhanced features from the Playstation 2 version. San Andreas for the PS2 has been the best-selling game for Sony's console this holiday season.

EA Obtains An Exclusive NFL License

Electronic Arts had to lower the price prematurely for Madden NFL 2005 because of the much cheaper ESPN NFL 2K5 game from Sega. EA may not have to worry about the competition for the next several years. EA has purchased exclusive rights for the NFL license for all future portable and console games (excluding wireless and Internet games). Electronic Arts retains the exclusive license for five years. In other words, the only officially licensed pro football game for the next half decade will be Madden Football. Sega will obviously being hurting from the NFL's decision to grant EA an exclusive license rumored to cost EA an outstanding $1 billion!

In other news, Sony has nearly sold out of their initial Japanese shipment (200,000) of PSP units on December 12. For PC news, the MMORPG The Matrix Online has been delayed a second time. The first delay pushed the game's release to January 2005. Now, The Matrix Online has a spring 2005 release date.

Free Games for Underground Demo Disk Users

Sony released a glitched winter Playstation Underground demo disk. When users play the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo, any memory card inserted into the Playstation 2 would have its data erased. To ease the pain, Sony is offering one free game to consumers affected by the glitch. Gamers need to call 1-800-345-7669 (Sony Computer Entertainment America) for details to obtain one of the following free games:

MLB 2004
Parappa the Rappper 2
Athens 2004
Wild Arms 3
Gran Turismo 3 A-spec
Hot Shots Golf Fore!
ATV Offroad Fury 3
Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Sega's Future Pricing Plans For Their Sports Games

Sega and Take-Two have admitted that their ESPN Football, Hockey, and NBA sports games will sell at a premium price for the next-generation consoles. However, a pricing strategy has not yet been determined for next year's sports titles. Sega and Take-Two enjoyed an incredible sales growth due to its budget pricing of $20 to aggressively slice into EA's sports game market share. The ESPN games may be budget priced for 2005 as well.

Halo 2 Sells Five Million

Microsoft has announced that Halo 2 has sold over five million copies worldwide. That figure easily makes Halo 2 the most popular Xbox title ever. Microsoft also stated that during the Thanksgiving week, Xbox console and Xbox Live subscriptions also increased in sales compared to the same week in 2003. The 50% increase of console sales was driven by the hugely anticipated (and mega-hyped) Halo 2.

Nintendo has sold over 500,000 units of the Nintendo DS over the first seven days of release in North America. Nintendo was able to get 90% of the available Nintendo DS stock to customers during the first week, as Nintendo continues to produce DS handhelds as quickly as it can to satisfy the huge demand.

Rise Of The Kasai (the prequel to Sony's Playstation 2 hit The Mark Of Kri) will not feature online play. Sony gave no reason for the axed feature. Rise Of The Kasai was to allow two gamers to each control one of the two heroes of the game and cooperate together online.

Dragon Warrior VIII Sells Over Two Million

The official sell-through numbers are in for Japan's newest Square Enix RPG. Dragon Warrior VIII has sold over 2.1 million units in two days, eclipsing the previous record held by its prequel (Dragon Warrior VII) of 1.8 million units sold in its first two days. When you factor in the steep retail price for the game in Japan (over $80), Dragon Warrior VIII has grossed an outstanding $185 million!

Midway has purchased the independent game developer Paradox Development. Paradox Development has recently worked on the Backyard Wrestling and the 3D X-Men fighting games. However, the developer is perhaps best known for their four-player Playstation Thrill Kill game that was so ultra-violent that it was never released.