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Source: GameSpot

GameSpot reports that Activision is no longer involved in developing the Iron Man movie game:

“We did have the rights to make an Iron Man game, but no longer retain said rights,” a rep told GameSpot. “So I cannot comment on the status of any game project related to the film.” The rep did not say why Activision had let the rights lapse, or which publisher had acquired the rights.

So who is publishing Iron Man? That information remains elusive. THQ reps contacted by GameSpot claimed ignorance of any such project, as did Electronic Arts and Midway spokespersons. Take-Two Interactive declined to “comment on rumors.”

But while the Iron Man publisher is currently a mystery, it won’t be forever. “Expect an announcement this fall,” a Marvel Entertainment rep told GameSpot before declining further comment.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter says that X-Men: The Last Stand will hit DVD on October 3 in two editions:

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is expected to announce Friday that “X-Men: The Last Stand,” which since its May 26 theatrical opening has grossed $233 million at the boxoffice, will arrive on DVD on Oct. 3 in two extras-laden special editions.

The highlight of the third “X-Men” movie’s DVD debut: three alternative endings, each with optional commentary by director Brett Ratner. The single-disc DVD release also includes 10 deleted scenes; audio commentaries from Ratner, the writers and the producers; a preview of the upcoming Ben Stiller movie “A Night at the Museum;” and two hidden “Easter eggs,” one of the Beast reciting Shakespeare and the other of the X-Jet landing in Washington.

Fox also is preparing a collector’s edition that includes an exclusive 100-page commemorative book with an all-new story penned by Marvel Comics master Stan Lee. It is his first original Marvel Comics book in five years.

In addition, Fox is packaging all three “X-Men” movies into a trilogy pack

The HTC Star Trek, which was FCC Approved on Monday, will be available as the Cingular 3125 around August 8th.

He says the retail price will be $299.99, but has a $100 rebate to get to $199.99. This, most likely, after you’ve signed over two years of your soul to Cingular. We’ll see if it’s true in two weeks.

Source: Geek.com

Source: The Register

Nigeria may have ordered 1 million of the OLPC laptops, but India isn’t saying “Thank you, come again” to Nicholas Negroponte and his band of MIT hooligans. The Indian Ministry of Education said the laptop was “paedagogically suspect” and that “We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools.”

He goes on to say: “We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even inside America, there is not much enthusiasm about this.” Harsh words, as Nigeria probably doesn’t like being called a minor country.

Although Nigeria ordered 1 million, they won’t be getting their shipments until other countries jump in and push the total order number up around 5 or 10 million units

NEW YORK – By 2010, the worldwide video game market should grow to $46.5 billion, at an average 11.4% compound annual rate, global consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts.

That compares with the filmed entertainment business, which PwC estimates will grow at a 5.3% compound annual rate, to become a $104 billion market by 2010, or the television networks business expected to grow at a 6.6% rate to $227 billion.

The estimated $8.4 billion U.S. video game market of 2005 likely will grow at a slower clip than other sectors, at 8.9%, to hit $13 billion in 2010, lagging Asia Pacific and the combined region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to PwC’s “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006-2010.”

Asia Pacific should hold its leadership position in terms of overall spending on games. Despite its existing magnitude, the region should grow even faster than the U.S. for the same period, PwC reports, bringing a $9.8 billion market in 2005 to $17.4 billion by 2010, a 12.3% compound annual increase.

Increased broadband access and computer literacy, government spending to promote local game development and consumption will help drive the increases in Asia, PwC said.

EMEA will lead the globe in terms of video game growth at a 13% compound annual rate through 2010 reaching a $13.9 billion market size, up from $7.6 billion last year.

Read the rest here

TOKYO – Nintendo, maker of the “Super Mario” games, said Monday its net profit rose 10.2% in the most recent quarter on healthy sales of its hit Nintendo DS Lite handheld game machine, prompting it to raise its full-year forecast. Gaming has been largely a domain for boys and young men, but the Nintendo DS Lite has won praise for attracting women and the elderly with games that test intellect and avoid violence.

The company that introduced commercial-skipping digital video recorders to the masses has created a new unit to measure the way folks watch — what else? — TV commercials. TiVo said Wednesday that its new division, dubbed TiVo Audience Research and Measurement, creates reports not for the benefit of TV networks but for use by advertisers and their ad agencies. The reports measure viewing patterns of TiVo subscribers on a second-by-second basis, allowing TiVo to determine, for example, exactly which commercials are being skipped and which are not. Or even how much of a commercial is aired before the typical viewer hits the fast-forward button and whether that statistic varies depending on which show is being watched.

(Paul Bond)

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Substance places a distant second to style in the big-screen version of “Miami Vice,” which sees respected filmmaker Michael Mann returning to the scene of the crime series that so effectively defined a decade.

Gone are the pastel threads and the night-soaked neon that played such a big part in the show that was born of NBC Entertainment chief Brandon Tartikoff’s simple yet wildly successful “MTV cops” concept.

In its place is a darker, grittier creature that, while benefiting considerably from Dion Beebe’s HD cinematography, is a frustratingly inert affair — a long and talky excursion that fails to engage the viewer from the outset.

Those in the market for some of that old Crockett-Tubbs camaraderie are bound to be disappointed by the Colin Farrell-Jamie Foxx model, in which the two actors appear to be engaged in a contest to determine who can appear more morose while expending the least amount of energy, especially in terms of their own flat exchanges.

Maybe it had something to do with that Miami heat, but the languid results likely won’t be much of a tonic for the summer’s lackluster boxoffice — pirate pictures excepted.

In updating the series, which ran from 1984-89, writer-director Mann has moved beyond the trendsetting South Beach color scheme and into murkier waters for this story that pits undercover vice cops Sonny Crockett (Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Foxx) against nasty international drug traffickers.

Read the rest here

In a recent interview, nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang addressed concerns about the pricing scheme for the PlayStation 3 and passed along his thoughts regarding the staying power of Sony’s next-gen console.

When asked about the entry-level price tag of US$499 for the PS3, Huang compared it to the intial price tag of the PlayStation 2 of $399 when it was released in Japan in 2000. He added, “If you use inflation, it’s the same price, approximately.”

Regarding the addition of a Blu-Ray drive to the PlayStation 3, Huang sees it as a good choice for Sony. “The important thing is you cannot announce a game console for the next 10 years and not have Blu-Ray. It’s an impossible scenario. I think they got that perspective right.” Huang then added, “The moment we put those consoles together it’s going to be very clear. If I’m going to buy a next-generation game console, I’m going to buy a console with next-generation media. It’s going to last 10 years.”

Some would say nVidia may be a little biased–after all, it designed the RSX graphic processor for the PlayStation 3. But for those folks still in sticker shock over the announced price tag of the PS3, it is food for thought.

Read more here

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Regency Enterprises has acquired Joe Gazzam’s heist spec script Straight and Narrow, says The Hollywood Reporter. Ralph Winter (X-Men: The Last Stand, Fantastic Four) and Circle of Confusion are producing.

The film centers on a parolee who is forced to pull off one last heist for his future father-in-law.

The project marks the second spec script sale in the past year for Gazzam. His other screenplay, Scared Straight, sold to New Line Cinema.