Activision said it projected U.S. retail sales of “front- line games” was 44% higher for this year’s Thanksgiving week (Nov. 18-24) than comparable week year ago. Santa Monica, Cal., game maker said data were based on retail sellthrough reports from 80% of its U.S. customers. Activision COO Ron Doornink said company’s “sellthrough results for the first big week of this year’s holiday season bodes very well for both Activision and the videogame industry overall, in that it suggests that this year’s holiday season is off to a very strong start.” Front-line games in projections included action, action-sports, adventure, fighting and strategy for Game Boy Advance (GBA), Game Boy Color (GBC), GameCube, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 (PS2), Xbox.

Taiwan’s printed circuit board (PCB) industry received boost from better-than-expected game market. DigiTimes said Chia Fu Electronics, Vertex Precision Electronics and Ya Hsin Industrial all had received PCB orders for Microsoft and Sony game consoles. Report said Sony awarded orders for PS2’s 6-layer Rambus boards to Ya Hsin and limited shipments already have begun. Ya Hsin hasn’t started shipping them in volume, however, because Sony and contract manufacturers apparently still are finalizing details for PS2 assembly orders. Meanwhile, Chia Fu and Vertex supply PCBs for Flextronics, electronics manufacturing service company that assembles Xbox. Report said Chia Fu and Vertex supplied 40% and 60%, respectively, of Xbox’s PCBs. Current Vertex monthly shipments to Flextronics are 200,000 units and orders will last until June 2002 and Vertex predicts Xbox PCBs will represent 25% of its revenue, report said.

Majesco said its first multiplatform game for next- generation and PC platforms would be BloodRayne. Game is being developed by Terminal Reality and is to ship in 4th quarter next year for GameCube, PC, PS2, Xbox. Title will use Terminal Reality’s new Infernal Engine, Edison, N.J.-based Majesco said.

iBiquity Digital Radio said it would use Las Vegas CES to showcase working preproduction receiver prototypes using newly developed in-band, on-channel (IBOC) DSP chip from Texas Instruments. KLUC-FM (98.5 MHz) will broadcast live digital signal. iBiquity said it also would demonstrate “radio of the future” at its CES booth with advanced wireless data services such as interactive commerce and on-demand traffic and weather updates. iBiquity said event would serve as final CES preview of IBOC technology, as first products are expected commercially at Jan. 2003 CES.

Hasbro is making private offering of $225 million in convertible senior debt due in 2021, Pawtucket, R.I., company said Tues. Debentures will carry annual interest rate of 2.75% and will be issued under Rule 144A and Regulation S, Hasbro said. Company said it planned to use proceeds to refinance existing debt. Debentures will be convertible into shares of Hasbro common at $21.60 per share if closing price of common “exceeds certain levels for a specified period of time or in certain other circumstances,” company said. Hasbro also said “conversion premium represents a 25% premium over Hasbro’s closing price of $17.28” Nov. 26 and “initial purchasers will have the option to purchase an additional $25 million of the debentures for a period of 13 days.”

Motorola said its Semiconductor Products Sector and mobile games publisher In-Fusio developed software to help developers create more compelling games for Java technology-enabled mobile phones and other wireless devices. Companies said they created common application programming interface (API) designed to provide more than 2.5 million Java developers with ability to enhance graphics, sounds and networking capabilities for games being developed for mobile devices. They said API would be incorporated into Motorola’s implementation of Java 2 platform, Micro Edition software (Motorola Embedded Reference Implementation--MERI) and would be called MERI Mobile Games Engine.

TV networks have amended suit against SonicBlue and its ReplayTV personal video recorder (PVR), dropping portion that applied to commercial skip feature of dual-deck VCR. Networks sued SonicBlue earlier this fall alleging that several features of ReplayTV 4000 PVR, including commercial skip and ability of users to share files, made copyright infringement possible. Networks had included dual-deck as part of PVR suit, but since have withdrawn copyright infringement claims against it, Disney spokeswoman confirmed. SonicBlue CEO Kenneth Potashner said amended suit showed that networks had “concluded their legal argument against our dual-deck VCR was not strong enough to move forward.” Disney amended suit to sharpen its focus on ReplayTV’s PVR features, including commercial skip and file sharing, spokeswoman said. Officials of other networks weren’t available for comment. Commercial skip has been standard feature of VCR business for several years, but is relatively new in PVRs.

Best Buy said it would team with Partsearch Technologies to compile master parts catalog for model-specific replacement parts and accessories. Partsearch Pres. Dean Summers said current system for identifying and ordering parts was “extremely inefficient.” He said catalog could help improve service to customers and reduce costs associated with product repairs.

Official Web site for Codemasters game Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing went live, game maker announced. Site -- www.codemasters.com/mthb -- provides game information, images and movies to promote upcoming title.

Electronic Arts (EA) is shipping E- (Everyone) rated game SSX Tricky for GameCube at $49.95. Title, being released under EA Sports Big brand, is sequel to PS2 game SSX. Version of new game already has shipped for PS2 and EA said Xbox version would follow “later this year.”