Playstation 2 No Longer For Sale?

Sony has been sued by Immersion Corporation and have lost the lawsuit. The case involves Sony using Immersion's force feedback technology in their controllers without paying royalties to Immersion. A federal court has banned all future sales of the Playstation 2 due to the copyright infringement and Sony must pay almost $91 million to Immersion Corp. Sony has appealed the decision which allows the PS2 to still be on retail shelves.

NBA Offers No Exclusive Rights

The NBA will not follow in the footsteps of MLB and the NFL. The NBA has offered non-exclusive rights to Electronic Arts, Atari, Midway, Take-Two Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment America. All of these publishers may release their real-life simulation basketball games yearly. Midway's NBA Ballers franchise may only be released every other year. The same rule goes for EA's arcade-like basketball game NBA Street - the game can only be published once every other year. Atari's Backyard Basketball series has no publishing restrictions, however.

Tomb Raider Publisher Sold

Tomb Raider publisher, Eidos Interactive, has been sold to a US private equity company, Elevation Partners LP. Eidos accepted a $134.5 million cash offer from the equity company which has Bono, from the band U2, as a managing partner. No word if this will change any future plans for the upcoming new Tomb Raider game.

EA, the largest third-party video game developer, has lowered their revenue expectations due to slow sales. Electronic Arts lowered their net revenue forecasts from $3.275 billion to $3.100 billion due to disappointing sales (eg. GoldenEye: Rouge Agent). See EA, maybe spending too much taking over the video game world has led to poor quality games.

New Sonic Adventure Game

Sega will release Sonic Adventure 3 this holiday 2005. However, the game looks to focus exclusively on Shadow the Hedgehog, not Sonic. Shadow can carry a gun and shoot objects. You may even get to choose whether Shadow plays as a hero or as a villain. No platforms have been announced yet for Sonic Adventure 3.

Microsoft has stated that an updated Fable game entitled Fable: The Lost Chapters will hit PCs in Fall 2005 and retail for $49.99. The updates include playing with additional weapons, new quests, better graphics, fighting new monsters, and more.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Is Coming

Metal Gear Solid (MGS) director Hideo Kojima has confirmed that a next-generation MGS solid is in the works, although he will not direct the new game. MGS 4 will feature a new storyline and characters, but no details were given. It is extremely unlikely the game will debut at the May E3 show.

The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) has added a new game rating of "E10+" or "Everyone 10 and older." The new rating is for games that are too risque for children under 10, but not strong enough for those in the higher age group.

Finally, Japan gamers will now have new colors to choose for their Nintendo DS systems. Turquoise blue, graphite black, candy pink, and pure white are the new colors Nintendo will release for the DS handheld. No word yet when Nintendo will bring these color choices to America.