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Rumor: Eidos lays off marketing, PR, and sales departments following Warner Bros. investment
Our hearts were warmed to hear of SCi's seeming salvation as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment acquired 171 million shares in the floundering company (for nearly £60 million) -- an investment that would "benefit of all [their] major franchises" and put the once-great publisher Eidos back on the map. However, according to 1UP, a number of insiders have reported that this act of gaming industry cartography could have some far less publicized consequences.Much like the pushy girlfriend who doesn't allow you to bring your autographed Erasure poster into your new apartment, Eidos may have recently kicked their entire marketing, public relations, and sales departments to the curb following their Warner Bros. bailout, according to the 1UP tipsters. Whether this was a stipulation of the WB deal, or a continuation of SCi's systematic operating cost reduction (or if the information is even legit), we're not sure. We just hope they don't fire the one guy who wants to make a Mister Mosquito sequel.
HD DVD group cancels pre-CES press conference
In the wake of the recent announcement of Warner Bros' new allegiance to the Blu-ray format (and, as result, sister company New Line Cinema's similarly adopted format loyalty), the HD DVD group has canceled their pre-Consumer Electronics Show press conference. We're not sure if the announcement will impact the HD DVD Promotion Group's booth at the show, though we imagine it will create an atmosphere for their visitors with a level of awkwardness similar to that of a nursing home.In a mass email to CES attendees, a representative for the group said they are "currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps." If these "next steps" don't include lining the pockets of every remaining film publisher on the market to convince them your format's still viable, HD DVD could go the way of the Betamax with a quickness.(Via PS3F)
WB comes to PSP
SCi and Eidos are about to have their release schedule look like a day at Six Flags since they acquired the rights to 11 Warner Bros franchises. If you like toons than you may be happy to know they have access to Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera proprieties as well as Batman. Those into teen soap operas may want to stop cutting themselves and perk up at the inclusion of The OC license. The rights to all these franchises didn't come cheap though as it's reported to cost upwards of $80 million. It looks like Lara Croft will have to hold off on that boob job she was planning until Eidos recoups some earnings from this deal. The best news though is that all games are scheduled for PSP. So soon you may be throwing a batarang with Batman, racing the road runner, working for Spacely or cheating on whoever that guy is on The OC. Let's just hope that unlike most licensed games, Eidos isn't relying on the license selling the games and will back them up with quality gameplay. [Via Games Radar]
Cheaper UMDs skyrocket sales 1000%
In America, poor sales of UMDs have led to retailers simply getting rid of the format altogether, or putting them in bargain bins, never to give them another look ever again. In Japan, however, Warner Bros. is trying a new strategy of trying to sell more UMDs. For the past few months, Warner Bros. has released movies at an official price of 980 yen (about $9 US). Surprise! For some reason, UMDs sold a lot better at that price. In fact, according to Gpara.com, it sold 10 times as more than normally.Haven't we been telling companies for the longest time that if you want us to care about the format, it has to be dirt cheap? Looks like WB finally understood that. But can we hope that the rest of the market stops beating themselves with stupid sticks?[Via PSP-Vault]
Earthworm Jim swirms back to the PSP
My my, it's been a long long time since we last saw Earthworm Jim. I was still a kid when the Earthworm Jim craze had reached its peak: some excellent games on the Genesis/SNES, a freaky cartoon on the WB, and some pretty weird action figures. The series' unique gross-out humor seems poised for a big comeback, as the PSP is getting an impressively beautiful continuation. IGN grabbed some screens from a recent Atari event and had some pretty positive impressions: The spacesuit-wearing worm has indeed return. More importantly, he's returned in proper form. The game plays very much like its 2D predecessors... What makes it special, though, lies strictly with how developer Shiny Entertainment mixes those elements to form something altogether groovy and unique.You'll be sure to see more of this game on the Fanboy, as it still has a long time left in development.
MyNetworkTV the first all HD broadcast network?
We have been wondering for some time what was to come of the many former WB/UPN affiliates once the CW goes live this fall. We're not sure what rock we have been under for the past few months but most of this news is from May. Better late than never, this will possibly be the first all HD network. Don't get too excited because it doesn't look like the new network is going to have something for everyone. Unless your favorite programing is Novelas, yeah we didn't know what they were either, but thanks to Wikipedia we learned they are spanish style soap operas, the kind they make fun of on SNL's Besos y Lagrimas. The network is owned by Fox Television and CEO Jack Abernethy said, "We will be all telenovelas, all the time." If you still can't wait to watch check out the affiliate list to see if MyNetworkTV is coming to your area.
Warner tees up HD-DVD, Blu-ray titles
The next gen DVD announcements keep on coming, this time we've got the list of titles annonunced by Warner Home Video for Blu-ray and HD-DVD, dates for the HD-DVD releases, none yet for Blu-ray. One title jumps out at me, Unforgiven. Only because I recall seeing For a Few Dollars more on Sony's Blu-ray release list. I love Westerns, but I didn't know they were in such high demand in high definition (or else I wouldn't have already bought so many boxed sets *sob*). Other than how quickly I'll be buying Swordfish in every high definition format available, other questions remaining include what kind of extras we can expect to see on either or both formats and how much it will cost us.Check after the jump for the full list for both.
