Sony “plug-and-play” XM receiver has been rolled out to stores nationally, coinciding with nationwide commercial availability of XM Satellite Radio service, Sony said Thurs. Sony model, introduced at last Las Vegas CES, is only satellite radio receiver thus far designed to be shuttled between home and car.
THQ started shipping game Tetris Worlds, developed by Blue Planet Software, for PC. Version of title for GBA already started shipping, Calabasas Hills, Cal., game maker said, adding PS2 version will follow this holiday season, followed by GameCube version “in early 2002.”
Loudspeakers generate sound by moving air, but the latest brainstorms from 2 audio companies would have customers sucking wind to build the speaker itself. British company Ellula Sounds (www.ellula.com) licensed NXT’s flat-panel driver technology to make small, inflatable speakers. When filled with air, speakers resemble brightly colored beach balls and are meant for use with portable stereos and PCs with low-powered amplifiers. NXT flat panel produces sound that makes entire inflatable resonate. Blowups cost about $45 per pair.
Acclaim Max Sports division of Acclaim Entertainment expanded its Extreme line with addition of Chris Edwards Aggressive Inline for next-generation hardware platforms. Title is under development with Z-Axis, same team as made Glen Cove, N.Y.-based Acclaim’s Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX. Acclaim said game “will be the first-ever aggressive inline skating game when it launches in the summer of 2002.” Separately, Acclaim said it would have 20 titles available across hardware platforms this holiday season. CEO Gregory Fischbach said his company was “well positioned to capitalize on this rapidly expanding marketplace.” Slate includes 9 games for PS2, 5 for GameCube, 2 each for Game Boy Advance and PlayStation One, one each for Xbox (Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX2) and Game Boy Color (Mary-Kate and Ashley Crush Course). Company said it was backing each of its key holiday releases with integrated marketing campaigns, including Internet, print, PR, TV.
Handspring signed agreement with former Palm acquisition target Extended Systems to jointly sell and market latter’s data and device management software with Handspring’s Treo and Visor handheld PCs. Treo and Visor, using Extended Systems’ XTNDConnect Server, can connect and exchange data directly with groupware servers and databases. Palm abandoned proposed purchase of Extended Systems earlier this year after stock price plunged as it battled rising inventory and sharp drops in price on its handheld PCs. Palm also has agreement to sell Extended’s XTNDConnect server software with its handheld PCs.
Activision will have 24 titles available this holiday season across all platforms, Santa Monica, Cal., game maker said. Slate includes Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 for PS2, GameCube, Game Boy Color, PlayStation.
Best Buy kicked off grand opening of Yonkers, N.Y., store with 10%-off coupon in zip-coded mailing to households in vicinity of N.Y.C. suburb. Offer is good through Thanksgiving weekend but excludes Bose audio products, clearance merchandise, items with extended financing beyond 6 months.
Matsushita chose Tripath’s 2-channel digital power amplifiers for its CD car head unit. Panasonic unit delivers 4x100 w using 2 Tripath TA-2022 amplifiers, which sell at $16 each in 1,000 unit quantities. Tripath also formalized long-term development agreement with Alcatel to jointly market and sell asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) central office reference design. Under agreement, Tripath is designing driver line circuits for Alcatel’s MTK-20850 DSL chipset that’s expected by year-end.
Latest developer THQ is looking to acquire is Rainbow Studios, Phoenix-based animation and game company with 15-year history in videogame industry whose titles have included Motocross Madness PC series. Calabasas Hills, Cal., game maker THQ said it signed letter of intent to acquire Rainbow “subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including the execution of definitive documents.” Rainbow would become wholly owned subsidiary of THQ and latter would issue one million shares of its common stock to Rainbow shareholders. Additional financial terms weren’t disclosed. THQ said “acquisition is expected to close as soon as all necessary approvals and consents are obtained.” Acquisition would further strengthen internal development capabilities of THQ, which already has acquired game developers including Volition and Pacific Coast Power & Light. THQ said acquisition of Rainbow would enhance its ability to create games for next-generation consoles GameCube, PlayStation 2 (PS2), Xbox. In addition to Motocross, Rainbow developed ATV Offroad Fury for PS2, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000 for PC, several TV and game animation projects. Rainbow is developing PS2 games Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX for Activision, Splashdown for Infogrames, Star Wars Racer II: Racer Revenge for LucasArts. Rainbow Studios Games Pres. Mark DeSimone said his company’s “development culture matches very well with the team at THQ.” Rainbow year ago acquired Motional Realms, developer of ReelMotion real-time simulator that uses physics and collision detection to realistically animate vehicles and other objects.
Higher than forecast yields have given Nintendo of America added comfort that company is “in good shape” to meet its previously announced production targets of 2.5 million GameCube consoles for N. America by year-end, Peter Main, subsidiary’s exec. vp-sales & mktg., told Gerard Klauer Mattison conference in N.Y.C. Wed.