Gaming Industry News

Nintendo of Japan has announced plans to form a new developing subsidiary composed mainly of former Squaresoft programmers. This new team, called Browny Brown, will begin operations on June 30th. “Browny Brown is currently developing a ‘communication RPG for the Game Boy Advance,’ which is tentatively titled Magical Vacation and scheduled for a spring 2001 release in Japan.”

Activision, Capcom, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Havas Interactive, Sierra On-Line, Hasbro Interactive, LucasArts, Interplay, Midway, Nintendo, 3DO, and Sony Computer Entertainment of America have banded together to file a civil lawsuit against six individuals that distribute or sell pirated video-game software through the internet. “We intend to stop these activities and to send a message to operators of similar sites offering illegal copies of entertainment software – sometimes called ‘gamez’ or ‘warez’ sites – that this conduct will not be tolerated,” said said IDSA president Douglas Lowenstein. “A typical game may cost five to ten million dollars just to develop, and millions more to market,” said Lowenstein. “And it represents the collective work over two years or longer of a team of dedicated artists, animators, software engineers, and others.” Lowenstein added that this initial action will only be the first in a new wave of greater investigation and persecution of internet pirates dealing in “back-ups” and bootleg copies of licensed video game software.

Source: ZDNet GameSpot