The Last Word: July 3-7

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