Previously on Colony of Gamers (12/8 - 12/14)

[fitbabits]

Another week, another weekly roundup. Having been out of town for most of last week on a visit to EA Redwood Shores (more on that later in the week), some of the happenings will be news to me, so here we go.

First up, and perhaps most importantly, the first Colony of Gamers Child's Play Drive (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=2326) has been a magnificent success. As I write this, we've surpassed our target goal of $5000 by some 11 percent. An altogether awesome achievement, made all the more remarkable by the fact that Colony of Gamers has been in existence for less than three months. Three months in which the economy has tanked, leaving many of you in a precarious financial position. Three months in which far too many of you have been laid off and are struggling to make ends meet. I'm so very proud of each and every one of you, whether you donated financially or encouraged others to do so in your stead.

This week also saw the launch of the first annual CoG Awards, better knows as The Coggies. You can vote for your own favorite game, genre, etc. by participating in the various threads located in our very own CoG Features forum (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/forumdisplay.php?f=6).

The USA has been called "litigation nation" on many occasions due to the many frivolous lawsuits that are filed in numerous courts on a daily basis. The video game industry is no stranger to such legal shenanigans. Midway, though, had reason to be grateful this week when the lawsuit filed against the publisher by one William L. Crawford III pertaining to 2004's Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy was dismissed (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3269).

Also dismissed with an almighty groan by naysayers the World over was the official open beta release of PlayStation Home (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3380) - Sony's social service, also dubbed a Second Life-lite. After experiencing some initial frustrations with the sign-up process, I was able to tinker around for a bit and I found it to be a whole lot less impressive than what was originally announced at the 2007 Game Developers Conference. Granted it's early days, but the pertinent question remains - just how relevant is PlayStation Home?

Staying with Sony for the moment, Game Informer was first out the gate with an exclusive look at the sequel to the well received Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3428).

News also broke this week of Sony's plans to cut 8,000 jobs from its workforce and close 10% of it's manufacturing operations (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3320). All this talk of the video game industry being recession-proof seems for naught right about now.

Also this week, Capcom stepped up its marketing of Resident Evil 5 (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3304) by launching It came from Kijuju. Strangely, there was no news on whether N'Gai Croal approved of the website's content.

Time for some good old fashioned rumors. Let's start with the surprising rumor that UGO plans to buy 1Up (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3371) from the struggling Ziff Davis... Yeah, that's what I thought when I heard about this. Next up is the rumor that EA may well be retiring its once-venerable Need for Speed series (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3533) due to diminishing sales and subpar Metacritic ratings.

On the subject of Electronic Arts, they only went and rescued Brütal Legend from obscurity (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3480), thus ensuring that at least 10 other people will buy Tim Schafer's next magnum opus.

Finishing off a rather quiet week, let's look at some news items that may have passed you by:

Atari aquired Cryptic (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3321)
KB Toys is closing all retail stores and liquidating all assets (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3453)
LittleBigPlanet is in line for some major updates (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3430)

And that's about that. As I said, a quiet week all round.

[civil]

I've got to say James, I love reading these wrap ups of yours. They really do feel like a friend telling you what was gone while you were out for a bit.

I'm gonna get all emotional now. Fuck.

[Orca]

Sony's job cuts have been upped to 16,000 now (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081209/bs_nm/us_sony) - the second 8,000 coming from part-time/temp staff.

[H.Bogard]

You got a typo (abotu) in there.

I hope EA doesn't can the NFS name. They should hand it to Criterion instead.

[Orca]

Criterion doing both Burnout and Need for Speed would be pointless though.

[H.Bogard]

Brand merger

Burn for Speedout™: Underground

[AtariV8]

So, with Sony Home, was anyone else pissed that you actually had to wait in a virtual line to play bowling/pool/arcade games in a virtual world. WTF. I'll go down to the local bowling alley and play all three with no wait what so ever...

[fitbabits]

So, with Sony Home, was anyone else pissed that you actually had to wait in a virtual line to play bowling/pool/arcade games in a virtual world. WTF. I'll go down to the local bowling alley and play all three with no wait what so ever...
Yeah, I waited in line for about five minutes before finally getting to play pool. Then, just as I was about to win the game, my opponent left the session. I see enough of that kinda shit in real life without having to deal with it in my virtual life.

[National Kato]

Take that, EternalGamer! ;)

[fitbabits]

Take that, EternalGamer! ;)
Did I miss something?

[National Kato]

Did I miss something?

I was just being cheeky regarding EG's opposition to Child's Play way back when we first announced the drive.