The GameShadow Blog

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that the PlayStation editions of Ghostbusters will be released in June.

The highly anticipated game will launch in PAL/European territories in co-ordination with the 25th anniversary edition of the blockbuster movie.

Atari, who were due to be publishing all editions of the game, has said that the other editions including XBOX 360 and PC, will launch later in the year.

Hands up anyone who hasn’t seen the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft”?

Good, that means I don’t have to explain the bit where Cartman gets his ‘mum’ to hold a potty so he can ‘go’ without leaving the game.

Well for anyone who has done this, been asked to do this or even considered this; today is a good day. Soon, you won’t have too make-do – hehe - with just the game’s 2” thick manual, but you’ll actually be able to continue your game.

This is because John Smedley (Sony Online Entertainment boss) revealed the PSP could be getting MMOs in the future. Could this lead to mini-wow?

The official Playstation blog is carrying details on the launch of the free Metal Gear Online play test.

If you’ve got yourself a key (sorry Sony, UPVC), you’ll be able to download the client tomorrow (or, for our newsletter chums, yesterday), and begin play on April 21st - May 5th. So possibly today, or tomorrow for newsletter types - christ this gets confusing.

The blog is also carrying some further details on the game itself, so go check it out.

“PlayStation Network is extremely interesting because it’s a more flexible space,” states Riley Cooper, of Tomb Raider Anniversary fame.

In the good old days before I discovered the PC was the answer to my gaming needs, consoles were straight forward. All the controllers were pretty much the same, there was none of this online malarkey… what used to make or break a platform was its software library. In fact, even as recently as the last generation, that still held true. Despite Nintendo’s innovation of the analogue stick, shoulder buttons and four player as standard, it was the PS2 that took over homes throughout the West. Where Nintendo carefully regimented quality, Sony’s more lax approach meant a huge back catalogue, and unheard of 3rd party support.

These days, it may not be so clear cut, hence why Cooper’s backing of PSN over Xbox Live is somewhat interesting. We all know the 360 has the stronger exclusive line-up. By a mile. These days, that may not be the key issue.

Xbox Live is the superior, more established online service, but if development support switches over the Sony, no doubt the stronger exclusives will follow.

Looks like the West’s not yet won.

Fed up with being ripped off by gold farmers? Want a trustworthy way of buying your way to the best equipment in Everquest?

Well it looks like your prayers are answered. Yesterday, Live Gamer announced that it had raised $24 million to build a “legitimate market for virtual trading”. Think of it as an ebay for virtual items, with an auction system and Buy It Now functionality.

The main angle is that Live Gamer will only work with the blessing of the publishers and they’ve signed up with Sony Online (Everquest), Funcom (Anarchy Online, Age of Conan) and a handful of other publishers. The publishers will take 10% of the transaction, and the benefit for gamers is that the transactions are run by a reputable company: an end to gold-farmers who take your money and don’t hand over the goods; a trading platform integrated into the game world and supported by the publishers themselves.

I can imagine that the publishers who are giving away free MMOs and expect to rely on in-game purchases would welcome this move, as a marketplace gets exponentially more successful as its membership grows. But they are not signed up with World of Warcraft, and it seems unlikely that Activision Blizzard are going to join the program. Plus trading platforms like ige.com already exist.

So its an interesting proposition, but with a big hole. It could become a massive new revenue stream for MMO publishers, and a secure way for gamers to trade items in-game. But if it doesn’t reach critical mass, it could be a tumbleweed town of empty store fronts and disappointed traders.

Are you sick to death of playing games on your PC? Of course you not, after all you’re not insane or anything? Are you?

Having said that, maybe like a guilty schoolboy outside an adult bookstore, you’ve been recently tempted by one of the other spanky looking game machines winking suggestively at you from the shelves? Shame on you, Gameshadow can’t possibly condone such outrageous behavior outright. After all the PC is god.

But just in case… why not check out the current “competition” in this all-new Gameshadow feature, looking at the best and the worst of the console crop, just so you know what’s going on obviously. I mean, where’s the harm in that?

Recent announcements from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have shown the differing costs of launching a console:

Microsoft’s shares rose more than 10% yesterday after their quarterly results announcement showed strong results in the Vista and Office divisions, while sales of Halo 3 pushed the consumer division, which includes the Xbox 360, into profit.

Nintendo announced it has trebled its first-half profit driven by the success of the Wii and the DS and is now the third most valuable company in Japan after car-maker Toyota and financial services giant Mitsubishi UFJ. It surpassed Sony in market value earlier this year.

Sony, in contrast, admitted that PlayStation 3 sales targets of 11 million units might not be met, and that it had lost $848 million in the games unit in Q3 07. They expect to break even in the next six months and make a profit next year.

All of which is tough for Sony. Alongside troubles in its television unit, Sony’s games units is holding it back, with all of the issues of an expensive unit lacking must-have software going into the Christmas season. Nintendo, with a low-priced, low-spec machine, is currently trouncing its opposition and Microsoft is, perhaps surprisingly, emerging into a strong second place.

It’s too early to write Sony off, but amongst all of their corporate woes, turning around the games unit must be a really high priority.