The Last Word: July 3-7

Holiday-shortened week provides assortment of notable news bits on Halo 3, Wii release date, controversial PSP ad, and more.

The Last Word

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While the GameSpot staff celebrated July 4 by blowing stuff up in the grand American tradition, a number of news items blew up upon our Wednesday return to work.

First off, a Sony ad in the Netherlands for the Ceramic White model of the PSP touched off a bit of a firestorm for what many considered racist content. The ad depicts a white woman clutching a black woman by the jaw in a threatening manner, alongside the tagline "PlayStation Portable White is coming."

Earlier in the week, the ad was the issue of debates on gaming news sites and message boards around the Internet. However, the furor quickly moved beyond that scope, as California Assemblyman Leland Yee (author of the state's currently contested violent game restriction law) and a representative of a California branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) stepped up to speak out against the ad.

The Wii release date was the subject of much speculation from a number of outlets this week. The latest issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids stepped out of its normal subject matter when it reported a November 6 launch for the system, while CNN/Money's Chris Morris wrote that industry analysts and insiders had told him to expect an October release for the system, with an outside chance of it arriving in late September. For its part, Nintendo shot down the November 6 report as speculation on the magazine's part, and indicated that it will announce the system's launch date in September.

On Friday, the appropriately named Throwback Entertainment burst onto the scene with the announcement that it had picked up the rights to a number of games from the now-defunct publisher Acclaim. Among the properties included in the announcement were Vexx, Fur Fighters, Legends of Wrestling, and Extreme-G Racing. The company said it was pleased to have the opportunity to take the acquired titles "through the next generation, and onwards," and that Throwback is "well positioned for the expansion of these franchises."

This week's rumor involves Assassin's Creed for the PlayStation 3 and possibly other systems as well. The game was shown last year as a PS3 title at the Tokyo Game Show and was listed as an Xbox 360 offering at Microsoft's X05 event in Amsterdam. But when Ubisoft pitched it at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, it would only say the game was coming to PS3.

While "rumors" have placed the game back on the 360 for months, this week saw a number of European game sites reporting that Ubisoft had confirmed the game's PC and Xbox 360 release at the Interactive Digital Entertainment Festival in Cannes, France. The European sites didn't specify how Ubisoft confirmed the PS3 and PC versions, the publisher denied the reports anyway, and we're right back where we started.

WEDNESDAY
More PSP ads target of critics
CNN/Money: Wii could launch early
Halo 3 campaign in testing
2006 TGS to be "largest ever"
Arab gamer says no to Israeli

THURSDAY
Blizzard interested in Wii as well?
Q&A: 360 Backward Compatibility pro Albert Panello
Empire expands FlatOut to 360
Nintendo responds to Wii release rumors
Arkane confirms Texas studio

FRIDAY
Sony's white PSP ad draws more fire
Throwback picks up Acclaim properties
EA confiscates 15 trillion gold from Ultima Online
Project Sylpheed draws near

RUMORS OF THE WEEK
Wii sports a November 6 release date?
Assassin's Creed is/isn't PS3 exclusive…again?

RELEASES
Shippin' Out: July 3-7

CHARTS
US PC game charts: June 18-24
US console sales charts: June 25-July 1
Japan game charts: June 26-July 2

47 Comments

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edhc44

ssjtrunks6, you know you don't make sense at all, do you?

Posted Jul 14, 2006 5:31 pm PT
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Ponsardin

At least, Tor will still make an excellent job at the news section.

Posted Jul 13, 2006 3:41 am PT
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ssjtrunks6

NIntendo can easily come out with some better ideas, welll they could have made the ds fully backwards compatable, that could have been a good start, yeah sony adds stuff later but it is a free update, no money or accessories required, sony can just about make the psp do anything a computer can, they are already going to make the psp have the capability to make phone calls, and listen to the radio, even other movie options.

Posted Jul 12, 2006 12:16 pm PT
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Even if the Wii is released early that will not change anything..that console has the lowest amount of openening realed games that a console had in a very long time, and all the best games for it will not be coming out for a while. You wont even have to save money to buy the wii, you can just buy it when it comes out, depending on where you guy it from, it will only be at the most $300.

Posted Jul 12, 2006 11:57 am PT
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Something is seriously wrong wit someone when they say Halo sucks, they must not have reached puberty.

Posted Jul 12, 2006 11:53 am PT
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FighterHayabusa

LOL yeah Magnolio was imitating nthe Anthony Anderson scene in Harld and Kumar go to White Castle. HAHAHAH
"Lets burn this MF down pookie!"
Now I have to watch that movie again.

PSp in dutch hires NAzis to do their adwork.

Posted Jul 11, 2006 8:51 am PT
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enoslives7

The gamecube 2 is gonna flop.

Posted Jul 10, 2006 10:22 am PT
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crills

prey sucks i just played it its not all that halo was better so much hype for nothing

Posted Jul 10, 2006 8:34 am PT
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chrisdojo

i like the last word feature. thx GS!

Posted Jul 10, 2006 8:15 am PT
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Raziel_MGS

magnolia was just alluding to one of the greatest movies ever, but you 12 year olds missed it cuz your too young to see it

Posted Jul 10, 2006 5:18 am PT
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gt4freak1985

aww more fanboy post, the worst fanboys in the world are the nintendo ones, they are the only ones talking trash about sony and microsott, hmm but its was a good newweek, i dont care about game exclusives anymore as it just makes more fanboys and more morons in gaming. I like the xbox 360, i love ps3 more but i dont care for wii, i am not a 6 year old with a remote with a anolag nub, and not into playing mario version 1231341532412! I wont buy a xbox console while that idiot for a human being peter moore is at microsoft! i really hate that smug bile excuse for a man!

Posted Jul 9, 2006 11:17 pm PT
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rynmls

lets just wait if assassin's creed are for 360 also, speculation isn't helping...

Posted Jul 9, 2006 10:46 pm PT
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kaito2

Assassins Creed is coming to the 360. Ubi Soft isn't stupid enough to make it an exclusive for the PS3.

Posted Jul 9, 2006 7:11 pm PT
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black_cat19

YAY! Finally I can post comments! It's about time...
Well, not much to say about this, a lot of news, but not that much info IMO...

Posted Jul 9, 2006 5:18 pm PT
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Sandlynx9

Assassin's creed will be on the 360... I hope :O.

Posted Jul 9, 2006 4:06 pm PT
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gskehans97

Really?

Posted Jul 9, 2006 3:25 pm PT
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"AND THE UNDISPUTED HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD REMAINS................................S O N Y !!!! "

Posted Jul 9, 2006 2:21 pm PT
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thefjk

Crazy events happened this week, thats just too much for my brain to handle. Why cant they do stuff like this one at a time... LOL!

Posted Jul 9, 2006 11:47 am PT
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AbstractTerror

o_o lots of news

Posted Jul 9, 2006 11:15 am PT
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nev70

[This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

Posted Jul 9, 2006 11:01 am PT
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[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Posted Jul 9, 2006 10:57 am PT
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magnolio369

i can't wait for the wii !!

just think'n bout it makes me want to burn all the other consoles down

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WE GONA BURN ALL THE MOTHERF**KERS DOWN!!!! WHO'S WITH ME!!

Posted Jul 9, 2006 5:29 am PT
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tr00pa_26

see without gamespot we wouldnt noe all of that stuff

Posted Jul 9, 2006 1:23 am PT
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teknocack

Sony must be in negotions for Assasins Creed which is why nothing was confirmed. Nobody denied it was in production for 360, and if a deal goes through it might look bad if 360 developement had been publicly announced while showing it at E3.

Posted Jul 8, 2006 11:18 pm PT
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CassiusVII

WOW HUGE RACISM!

Posted Jul 8, 2006 10:00 pm PT
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greatmagnus

Wow, lots of info. Thanks GS

Posted Jul 8, 2006 9:12 pm PT
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maddemios

Well that was informative.

Posted Jul 8, 2006 8:15 pm PT
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FoxExecutive

Not to mention, please have some reviews! I no longer am interested in NFL Head Coach, Tomb Raider Legends, and Titan Quest. Yes, I see Prey's review in 68 hrs. But more than one review would be nice.

Posted Jul 8, 2006 7:49 pm PT
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ymcop

I dun really lyk Halo series and so the Xbox, but the PS 3's price is too high, and my computer......hehe, but the more the merrier.

Posted Jul 8, 2006 7:44 pm PT
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sim_maniac666

halo sucks and sony sucks.

Posted Jul 8, 2006 7:02 pm PT
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Corkscrw

WOW

Posted Jul 8, 2006 5:57 pm PT
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MeepMeepoo

Wii launched the day after my bday!!!