The Last Word: September 5-8

This week was a short one due to Labor Day, one of the few American holidays that virtually everyone gets off work. However, the work week wasn't nearly as truncated as the launch batch of PlayStation 3s will be. This week, Sony revealed that it was slashing its projected day-of-launch inventory from 2 million PS3s to just 500,000. Of those, 100,000 will go on sale in Japan on November 11, and 400,000 will hit North American shores on November 17.

What about Europe, you say? Well, as it turns out, the much-ballyhooed 2006 worldwide PS3 launch is no longer worldwide. If you live in the UK, Europe, Russia, Africa, Australasia, or the Middle East, you won't be able to pick up one of Sony's pricey consoles until March 2007. The postponement forced Sony to revise its overall 2006 ship numbers downward from 4 million to 2 to 2.4 million. A Sony rep told GameSpot he expects 1 to 1.2 million PS3s to be sold in the US by the time the champagne corks pop on New Year's Eve.

In other next-gen console news, Nintendo announced that it has already received the first batch of Wii CPUs. The Wii CPU, code-named "Broadway," was developed by American computer giant IBM, which also made the central chip for the Xbox 360 and codeveloped the PS3's Cell processor. While the news means the Wii is closer to production, the cost and launch date of the console are still unknown--at least until next Thursday, when Nintendo is holding a simultaneous event in Japan and New York to reveal something.

As far as consoles already on the market, industry-research group NPD Funworld released its sales figures for August. The month saw non-PC game software sales ring up $397 million, a 17.5 percent rise versus the same period in 2005. What analysts term "current-generation" software--games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance--accounted for $249 million. So-called "next-generation" software--DS, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox 360 games--earned $148 million.

While publishing executives counted their buckets of ducats, developers held a get-together--Texas style! The Austin Game Conference kicked off on Wednesday with a keynote speech from World of Warcraft lead designer Rob Pardo. Using a donut as a (rather questionable) metaphor, he explained how the team at Blizzard Entertaiment refined WOW to appeal to the hardcore gamer and mass consumer alike. However, a subsequent "MMOG Rant" session proved more contentious, with several massively multiplayer online game veterans--including NCsoft designer Scott Jennings and BioWare Austin studio codirector Richard Vogel--alternately diss and praise the genre. Other notable presentations came from ex-Sony Online Entertaiment creative chief Raph Koster and BioWare lead combat designer Damion Schubert.

TUESDAY
New CEO, NASDAQ woes for Atari
Square Enix lays out TGS offerings
PS3: HD cables not included
Phantasy Star Universe temporarily collapsed
First Vice City Stories trailer debuts

WEDNESDAY
PlayStation 3 delayed in Europe
Confirmed: 400,000 PS3s for US launch
Retail Radar: Wii gears up
Capcom taps top THQ exec
The trouble with MMOGs; Austin rant gets heated

THURSDAY
2K takes on PC Jade Empire
Raph Koster to game biz: evolve or die
2K boxing Civilizations I-IV
Ubisoft is Alive
Titanic producer on the collision of games, movies

FRIDAY
NPD: August game-software revenue up 17.5 percent
IBM shipping Wii CPUs
Microsoft unveils core 360 PGR3, 99 Nights bundle...in Japan
Sierra signs next Schafer game
Schilling pitches game company

RUMORS OF THE WEEK
Europe gets Wii for 150 pounds by November 24?
Forza 2 backs into 2007?
DS MP3 player add-on in the works?

RELEASES
Shippin' Out 9/4-9/8: Test Drive Unlimited, NASCAR, Spy Hunter

CHARTS
US console charts: August 28-September 4
US PC game charts: August 20-26
Japan game charts: August 28-September 3
UK game charts: August 27-September 2