The games market in China is expected to surpass $760 million in 2006 with 95% of revenues derived from the booming online games segment. These findings are contained in a report released by San Francisco-based Pearl Research, a leading business intelligence and consulting firm that specializes in the interactive entertainment and games market.

Allison Luong, Managing Director of Pearl Research, commented, "The Chinese online games market is expected to cross the $1 billion mark by 2009, driven by the launch of innovative and compelling content, the addition of new Internet users and a growing casual games market."

Other key findings include:

– China has a large untapped games market with less than 3% of the population (25 million) playing games and 9% (111 million) using the Internet. Growing affluence tied to China's booming economy has resulted in an expanding middle-class with discretionary income to spend on entertainment and online services. By 2010, Pearl Research expects China to be a top-ten worldwide games market.

– The rapid adoption of the Internet is helping to fuel the growth of the online games market in China, with 111 million Internet users in 2005, up from 52 million in 2002. Nearly 56% of Internet access is via broadband.

I know that Nintendo releases products under the name iQue in China but I’m not sure if they have much to do with the growing online business. Surely, speeding up their online plans had something to do with this. With a huge collection of downloadable games and a very low price point, I can’t help but think the Revolution was, in part, designed for the 2 or so billion people over there in China. ...

News from Dreamcast Scene:

In an interview with the Tech Digest(approve sites) website, Sega Europe CEO Mike Hayes was asked about rumors of a comeback of the Dreamcast?. His reply was short and clear : "There are no plans for Dreamcast to make a comeback."

So there you have it. If DC fan's had any new hope after the great sales of Under Defeat, they can let it go now. But at least our beloved console is still alive after all these years!

http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/index...tcombackdenied ...

Eidos today has announced that the upcoming Hitman: Blood Money is coming after a new console. Joining the PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in fearing for their lives is the Xbox 360, making Blood Money the debut of the series on next-gen consoles. The Xbox 360 version is scheduled to ship alongside the current-gen versions sometime this spring.

In Hitman: Blood Money, gamers take on the identity of series antihero Agent 47, a professional assassin with a sketchy past. However, this time around 47 isn't doing his thing for others--his targets are from a rival agency. Players will track and locate other professional killers across a variety of environments in order to save their own skin.

The game is being developed by Io Interactive, the Danish developer that worked on the previous three Hitman games as well as on 2003's Freedom Fighters. ...

A new release of the PS2 Emulator for Windows called PCSX2, heres whats new:

Yes folks PCSX2 0.9 is here, by no means gracefully, but it is here!

You can now enjoy PCSX2 0.9 a faster and more compatible PS2 emulator, it's been a year since 0.8.1 was released so you will see many dramatic changes!

Many games are now going ingame, and some are even playable (check out games like Disgaea, or Silent Hill 4!)

On behalf of all the team I would like to say a big HELLO to linuzappz, and a large thankyou for everything he's done for us prior to him leaving the team!

Given the site troubles over the past 24 hours, I can assure you that myself and several devs right now are totally bald from ripping our hair out!

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

New Commercial DS Release at Success HK



From Software will release Tenchu: Dark Shadow for Nintendo DS. The game will have 3 playable characters: Rikimaru, Ayame and Shizuhime. There will be a number of new ninja skills in the game, such as biting, and laughing kill.

...

New Commercial DS Release at Success HK



From Software will release Tenchu: Dark Shadow for Nintendo DS. The game will have 3 playable characters: Rikimaru, Ayame and Shizuhime. There will be a number of new ninja skills in the game, such as biting, and laughing kill.

...

Source Spong

Our art-loving, culture-jamming friends at Sony have been telling us this morning all about an interesting project by the UK’s forward-thinking Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) which has the honourable, though some might say misplaced, intention of getting young people and gamers more interested in the arts.

ICA: The Show is a joint collaboration between the ICA and PlayStation Portable. The first show is downloadable from today at www.yourpsp.com and features a piece on onedotzero, the annual digital creativity festival which SPOnG unashamedly loves, the recent fantasy movie Mirrormask (from, yep you guessed it, Sony pictures) and the band Battles, who, coincidentally, start their European tour next week, following on from their recently released Warp records EP.

Ekow Eshun, the ICA's artistic director, has continued to stress, since he took on the job last year, that all art institutions have to find new and better ways of connecting with new (and, younger) audiences. In the press release announcing The ICA Show, he said: "We wanted to find new ways to connect with people beyond the boundaries of our building. It seemed obvious to me to try and make use of the ways people communicate already."

Eshun, who is also a former editor of Arena magazine and a regular pundit on BBC2's Late Review, continued: "It's taking our values, the values of the ICA and spreading them. I'm a zealot about all of this, we have licence to take lots of risks and reach out," he said.

Minister for Culture, and MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, said that the scheme "could represent a pivotal development for culture in the UK… This is a fantastic example of recognised leaders in the field of arts and technology working together to grow new and diverse audiences for the arts."

Carl Christopher, sponsorship manager at Sony Entertainment UK, said: “As a digital broadcaster, PlayStation Portable's agenda is to programme original, bold and wow! factor content, that communicates in the idiom of our adult target audience.”

SPOnG is always mildly distrustful of people who drop words such as 'communicate in the idiom of' into general conversation. However, as Mr Christopher hopefully just typed these words into a press release then we will let him off on this occasion.

Christopher adds that: “The ICA: The Show commission aims to showcase the contemporary tastemakers in creative arts, develop and maintain new national audiences. The winner is the audience, who will be presented with ‘what to see’ 10 minute magazine size insights of contemporary arts main players in a very appealing format.’

The shows will showcase new work in four segments - features, film, music and design. The second show will look at the film V for Vendetta, based on Alan Moore’s cult comic, feature an interview with the Test Icicles (shit name, good band), profile the animator Rex and run a feature on the violent Brazilian documentary, Favela Rising.

The ICA attracts perhaps far more criticism from the mainstream media than it does praise. Certainly from the more conservative members of the tabloid press (read:The Daily Mail). It is seen by many as an outdated haven of elitist attitudes, dressed up as clever post-modernism, and is often panned for being - that philistine’s favorite - just a plain old waste of tax-payers/Art Council/Lottery money.

Whilst these critiques are often valid (and SPOnG has certainly seen many exhibitions, shows and gigs at the ICA over the years which have been worse than the smelliest bull-poo) the ICA still plays a pivotal role in the UK’s cultural life. For many London-dwellers, whatever they have thought of it at particular times, it has often delivered a successful mix of the mainstream and the experimental aspects of contemporary culture.

And perhaps more importantly, the lovely ICA bar always serves up consistently superb cocktails, opens late throughout the week and there are always tons of fit birds there - always better to help you appreciate real culture. Never, however, use the word 'bird' at the ICA, as it is no longer considered either ironic or cool to be an unreconstructed pre-feminist barbarian. Do, however, feel free to rock a daft Hoxton haircut and discuss with the above-mentioned ladies all manner of exciting future art/technology collaborations and ideas you have which you will most likely have forgetten about as your head pounds with a margarita hangover the next morning.

Speaking of ICA: The Show, one rather cynical SPOnG contributor commented earlier: “This is just misjudged isn’t it? It's Barley-ism gone mad! PSP users aren’t interested in contemporary art, they want free downloadable games or porn.”

Others in the SPOnG office were more open-minded to the idea though, with one resident Nathan Barley adding: “I like the idea of having a monthly or regular video-magazine to tell me all about culture and whatnot… providing it is genuinely good and it’s stuff that I ...

iKey lets you skip a step or two if you want to transform analog audio onto wav or MP3 files, a convenient way to turn vinyl into digital. Plug in your left and right channel on one side, and plug in your iPod or USB key into the other, and this little box changes analog into digital without a lot of effort. Save your files in your choice 128, 192 or 256kbps bit rates on MP3, or go with uncompressed .wav files. All those old records better be worth it, though, because this little box costs $230.
http://www.ikey-audio.com/ ...

Following the successful launches of Zoo Keeper & Archer MacLeans Mercury, Ignition has secured the European rights to publish the PSP & DS versions of SEGAs highly addictive, Puyo Pop Fever.

SEGA has revamped its signature brainteaser with wacky new puzzle pieces and a combo-crazy Fever Mode. Playing as Amitie, encounter many weird and wonderful characters as you progress through the games challenging, yet fun Story Mode. Your goal, of course, is to match up Puyos of the same colour. Players will try to obliterate opponents by linking explosive combinations, and bombarding them with massive chain reaction combo attacks with Fever Mode.

Puyo Pop Fever is perfectly suited to the PSP & DS says Peter Rollinson, Product Manager, Ignition Entertainment. The game oozes with addictive gameplay and has a style which will appeal to young and old alike. Puzzle pieces, featuring triple and quadruple sets and a giant Puyo, which adds a new spin to a classic puzzle game. Jump right into the action or learn advanced techniques in the training mode.

Fever Mode gives a new twist to completing combination
Multiplayer Mode allows two players to play against one another in simultaneous action
Stunning 3D graphics enhance the impact when completing massive combinations
Introduces 13 new characters and a whole new story with voice-over
Voice-over navigation to walk you through a Tutorial Mode (PSP Only)
Exclusive DS features, such as Play up to 8 players with a single-Card download play and unique touch screen controls.
For further information please visit our website: www.ignitionent.com/puyo
Puyo Pop Fever will be released for PSP and Nintendo DS in April 2006, with a suggested retail price of 29.99 Pounds. ...