While no playable games were available at the Tokyo Game Show 2005 and the industry continues to debate possible prices for the PS3, Sony revealed strong support for the upcoming PS3 at the conference, by stating that 71 publishers are developing 102 games.

The full list is not currently available and will likely change before release, but we have scoured our sources to bring you a near complete list of Playstation 3 Games (to be available in Japan) {sorted by publisher}:

Telephia’s new Mobile Internet Report states that the 191 million U.S. wireless phone subscribers are increasingly using the mobile internet, with 4.8% (9.2 million) using the mobile internet.

Telephia maintains a panel of 69,000 wireless subscribers in the United States that it samples each month for mobile phone research. For the month of June 2005, more than 1,200 selected panelists responded to questions about their mobile internet usage and demographics. Weather-related sites were accessed by 3.9% of the total wireless audience, 2.9% visited a search site and 2.5% visited a sports related site.

Sony Computer Entertainment is voluntarily recalling 3.6 million power adapters that were shipped worldwide with its slim-version PS2.
Not all of the AC adapters in question may be defective but as we are not able to identify which are defective, we are voluntarily recalling all to make sure all customers are safe,” said Nanako Kato, a […]

Ebay has agreed to buy Skype, the best known of the VOIP phenomenon, for up to $4.1 billion. It will pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock for the company and all associated technology. If certain financial targets are met, Ebay will make an additional payout of up $1.5 billion.

Skype is expecting to receive revenues of $60 million this year and greater than $200 million in 2006, but the company has not yet reached profitability. Some analyst are predicting that Ebay will use its PayPal online payment systems and Skype to allow members to complete transactions via web phone calls. Others predict that Ebay will use Sky as a new marketing and distribution mechanism.

Ebay shares immediately rose 45 cents, or 1.17%, to $39.07.

Microsoft continues to respond to the gaming communities call for backwards compatibility in the Xbox 360, but questions still remain.

Early on in the development of the 360, Microsoft appears to have questioned the need for backwards compatibility. Analysts tell stories of a “senior Xbox execs” privately saying that backwards compatibility was unimportant. This conclusion was reached by research showing that PS2 owners almost never played PS1 games. While this holds true for the first Playstation editions, Microsoft gamers are in a different position: 1) Many Xbox titles see continued play after years on the market thanks to Xbox Live and Gamespy networking 2) The PS2 has been on the market for many more years than the Xbox 1, thus dating PS1 titles more than Xbox 1 titles.

Since the initial news on the 360 and responses of the community, Microsoft has worked diligently to backwards compatibility to the Xbox 360. The fundamental hardware shifts and advances have not made this easy, but Microsoft is committed to this feature. Recent developments include:

Take-Two Interactive, parent of GTA developer Rockstar Games, reported quarterly earnings ending July 31, 2005. Company sales grew from $160.9 million in the third quarter for fiscal year 2004 to $169.9 million this year (up 6%). While total sales grew slightly, overall net revenue showed a loss of $28.8 million for the quarter, compared to $14.4 million for the same quarter in 2004.

[…]

Interesting game news from Take-Two included:

• A planned Q3 2006 of “a sequel of a Rockstar brand”
• The Warriors (PS2, Xbox) will ship before October 31st.
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP) will ship before October 31st.
• The release of Civilization IV has been moved up a few weeks and will also ship pre-Halloween
• The company will have six Xbox 360 games ready “at or near launch” including NBA 2K6, NHL 2K6, College Hoops 2K6, Top Spin 2, Amped 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
• “A title based on a new brand for the Xbox 360 is planned for the second quarter” of its 2006 fiscal year
• The company’s 2006 fiscal year will see “extensions of the Grand Theft Auto franchise” on unidentified platforms, according to the earnings report.

Activision has confirmed that Kathy Vrabeck, president of the Activision Publishing division of Activision, Inc. has resigned from the company and its subsidiaries. Vrabeck, one of the most successful and highest paid women in the game publishing industry, joined Activision over six years ago and has been a key executive for the company. […]

Motorola said Friday that it has acquired a team Melco Mobile Communication researchers in Rennes, France. Melco Mobile is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Eletric Corp.

This team will focus on design and development of future Motorola platforms and should provide Motorola much needed support to target the 3G market, which is currently dominated by Nokia. “The Rennes team offers Motorola unmatched capabilities in i-mode development and integration, as well as strong branded services and testing skills,” said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola Mobile Devices, in a statement.

California lawmakers have approved a bill that would ban the sale of violent games to minors, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not said if he will approve the bill.

Lawmakers across the country have continued to target video games for violence and adult content, but there are better uses of their time. Even if any of these bans on games pass, major law enforcement organizations across the country have said that they are unlikely to enforce any such ban.

[…]

While the average age of a gamer is now 29, most parents still do not play games or do not play the same games as their children, but that does not excuse them from understanding what their children are playing. Any parent that reads the box of a Grand Theft Auto title (or any game) has a fairly good idea of games content – not to mention the ESRB rating on the majority of games. Parents also have access to websites with reviews and in-store personnel.

If parents/guardians are the predominate purchasers of Mature and Adult Only games played by minors and parents do not take the time to understand the content, these proposed bans will have no real effect in market. Law enforcement, gamers, major retail chains and the video game industry all understand this. Politicians may understand this too, but the topic keeps them on the news.

It is time for a major political figure to take a real unbiased look at video games and stand up to these scare tactics by a select few of “media hounds”. Politicians continually claim they are looking for topic to connect with youth and bring them out to vote. They may have found it.

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Other interesting stories on gaming:

• Understanding and Innovation Needed for Location Based Games
• Games Creating the World Versus New “Advancements”?
• Is mobile 3D finally on the move for gaming?
• Blister Entertainment and Boost Mobile Offer the First Location Based Games in the U.S.
• Eat Your Fruits And Vegetables - And Play Video Games

News Corp, owned by media giant Rupert Murdoch, acquired IGN Entertainment for approximately $650 million in cash. This will bring the three of the larger gaming sites and IGN’s 320 employees under the News Corp umbrella. Three of the larger game related sites included in the acquisition include:

• IGN.com: PC games, console games, mobile console games and wireless games, with subsites focused focused on film, music and sports
• Gamespy: PC content and provider of matchmaking and networking middleware for games
• FilePlanet: Game demos, mods and pathches

[…]

The acquisition by News Corp offers new possibilities to revamping IGN. News Corp bring deep pockets to the table along with large a media empire which includes DirectTv, Fox television, significant film companies and a large number of other online entities. Let’s not forget about News Corp’s recent $580 million purchase of Intermix Media (MySpace.com) and an earlier purchase of Scout Media. These outlets offer tremendous cross promotional opportunities, access to new audiences and an ability to consolidate overhead.

It is also quite possible that G4TV will see a new competitor on the airwaves within the next 6 to 24 months.

Gray Research, based in Huntsville, Alabama, has signed a contract worth approximately $72 million for work with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command at Redstone Arsenal.

Under this contract, Gray Research will support the operation and management of the Missile Defense Data Center (MDDC) in Huntsville for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to develop and field an integrated Ballistic Missile Defense System.

Ericsson has announced it will invest $1 billion in developments in China over the next three years to meet the growing demand for 3G and 4G telecom services there.

At Ericsson’s Strategy & Technology Summit in Shanghai, Ericsson president and chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said, “Users demand more mobile content, operators are looking for new revenue sources and media companies need new distribution channels. This is in line with our vision of an all-communicating world and we are confident that the mobile content industry has wonderful potential.”. Svanberg also said that Ericsson had signed a research agreement with Shanghai Research Centre for Wireless Communications (SHRCWC) to collaborate on technologies such as Super 3G and 4G.

Access, based in Japan, surprised the technology and financial industries on Friday with an acquisition of PalmSource for $324.3 million. Access is best known to most for its NetFront browser available on many mobile devices.
PalmSource has been struggling since the split with the hardware division Palm in 2003. With a sale of […]

Second Life, one of the more widely known metaverses, has eliminated the initial subscription fee for entering their virtual world, in an effort to broaden the appeal of the community and spur membership.

For those not familiar with Second Life or other metaverses, it is an open-ended virtual world where members can create nearly anything they can imagine and create using 3D modeling. Second Life allows members to meet, interact, message, talk and even play games with each other. Think about meeting a relative in the virtual world to talk and play poker at one of your virtual houses.

Electronic Arts has confirmed that it will move its European headquarters from Chertsey, England to Geneva, Switzerland, as will 10% of the Chertsey office’s jobs.

The strength and continued success of Chertsey has caused many to view EA as being too UK-centric. This move will place EA somewhat outside of the general European gaming hubs but will put the company close to the geographic heart of Europe. The new headquarters in continental Europe is likely part of the industry’s overall European centralization trends and will give EA ready access to the lower development costs in parts of central and Eastern Europe.