According to the ELSPA, UK video games sales reached an all time high in 2002 boosted by the launches of GameCube and Xbox.

VIDEO GAMES SALES REACHED AN ALL TIME HIGH IN 2002

Latest Figures for Year 2002 from The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association

Thursday 9th January 2003

ELSPA (The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association) has announced today that UK sales of leisure software and hardware products reached an all time high in 2002 with values reaching £2,074m, an increase of 8% up on the previous year.

Previously announced Sonic Adventure DX and Virtua Fighter Quest are due out in 2003, says the company's Japanese website.

Though both were initially announced quite a while back, Sega's Japanese website now offers the first new information on Sonic Adventure DX and Virtua Fighter Quest. The former is obviously an enhanced port of the original Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast, though there is no word on what improvements... Read more...

Fresh from the mouth of the foremost videogame journalist comes the details about Nintendo's update to the popular handheld ...

Skimming the article, here are the details. We'll have more info when the official announcement comes tomorrow.

Self-contained LCD screen light, Flip-Up Screen

Initially available in 3 metallic colors: Indigo, Black, and Silver

Light is able to be turned off

Built in rechargeable lithium ion battery pack, 10 hours with the light on, 18 with the light off

OMG! IS THIS THAT MEGATON ANNOUNCEMENT!!!111>?

Rumors have been floating around the Internet that Nintendo is holding a press conference in New York this upcoming Tuesday.

While we can confirm that there will be a press conference, we’re not exactly sure what will be revealed at this time. We’ll have up to the moment updates within the next 48 hours.

A year older and a year (hopefully) wiser, Desmond Gaban gets b-day wishes...

A big bad Happy Birthday goes out to our imports guy Desmond Gaban.

He's currently enjoying One Piece right now, and getting his anime love on. So leave him be. He's got work to do. Right Des?

Anyhoo, on behalf of the staff here at PGC, we'd like to wish Desmond a very happy birthday!

Reports say the Japanese will get a GameCube Pokemon game this summer...

According to Nikkei Keizai Shimbun, Nintendo will release a Pokemon game for GameCube by the end of summer. The GC version of Pokemon will require a GBA and a copy of Pokemon Sapphire or Ruby.

The price of the game is expected to be cheaper than Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby (around $40 US in Japan).

Vroom? Vroom? Well on a tiny scale at least. We've got some movies of Takara's Choro-Q!

We picked up an import copy of Choro-Q! from Video Game Depot, and captured

some movies for you.  We've skipped the intro and have ripped direct feed

of a couple tracks and their replay counterparts.

Don't forget to right click and save these files to your computer.

*You will need Windows

Beat up people for treasure, race through bear traps, and even get in some Soccer. A very strange, but fun party game from Bandai.

We've imported a copy of From TV Animation One Piece: Treasure

Battle from our good friends at

Video Game Depot, and ripped a few

direct feed videos for you. It's a fighter/party game set in this Anime's

world. Impressions coming soon, but check it out in action...

The first movie is the opening cinema, and the rest of the files are all

It's sort of like a cartoon version of The Grid, with the obligatory Pokemon elements.

Capcom will be showing a new third-person shooter for GameCube at E3. Gotcha Force is essentially a kid-targeted deathmatch game, similar to Nintendo's own Custom Robo series. Players collect toys and make them fight each other in 3D arenas, apparently in real-time.

As with any game of this... Read more...

Toss some confetti and raise your glasses...we're shuttin' down 2002.

As we countdown the final moments of 2002, we’d like to wish you a safe and happy new year.

It’s been another amazing year for Planet GameCube, and we look forward to another fun and insane year of gaming. It’s a crazy to think that within one year we’ve played games like Eternal Darkness,... Read more...

We're ringing in the new year with dudes that wear tights. At least they're cel-shaded dudes. Check out Aki's new Japanese Wrestling title!

We've imported a copy of Bandai/Aki's Kinniku Man 2nd Generation from our good friends at

Video Game Depot, and captured a

heap of movies for your wrestling pleasure.  It's a very different (but way cool) cel-shaded wrestling game.  See Billy get his butt kicked all over the place!

The

We're kicking off import movie week with brand spankin' new movies of Namco's new drill fest.

We imported a copy of Namco's Mr. Driller Drill Land from our good friends at

Video Game Depot, and captured a

heap of movies for your perusal.  We've got movies of all the different new

game modes Mr. Driller Land offers, plus a taste of the new cinemas.  What

are you waiting for?  Get drilling!

Lots of new info...if you read Japanese. We've picked out a few highlights though.

Discuss it in Talkback!

Skip, the developer behind Nintendo's upcoming Giftpia, has launched a Japanese website for the game. Giftpia is a bizarre cel-shaded RPG originally shown (though somewhat covertly) on video at E3 2002.

The new website is entirely in Japanese, but through a mechanical... Read more...

Subscribers to Nintendo power get an awesome surprise in the January edition. This could be music to your ears...

Discuss it in Talkback!

Nintendo has bundled the Orchestrated Super Smash Bros. Melee Concert that was performed last summer in Japan with the January issue of Nintendo Power.

As we told you months ago, Famitsu packaged this same concert with their magazine, but we didn't know if it would ever make it stateside...until now.

We forgot Rick's Birthday. Kick me.

We'd like to wish a belated Birthday to our resident poopy pants Rick Powers. Too be honest, I think we all got a little too funky on the egg nog at our annual holiday party, and forgot about it. Oops.

Ricky-poo we love you!

Happy Birthday, and happy holidays brother. We're hoping the dual holiday situation you deal with didn't short you from getting the Wonder Woman underoos you wanted.

Ho Ho Ho! Time to unwrap those shiny new games! Some Christmas wishes from your friends at PGC...

Discuss it in Talkback!

Ah yes, the holiday season is there. Lots to eat, drink and play. Some of our staff are taking well deserved vacations, while others are working on last minute domestic and import reviews, or poised waiting for any news to break.

As we sit back after large holiday... Read more...

If you think you've got it bad where you work during the holidays, wait until you see what Nintendo of America needs to deal with.

Discuss it in Talkback!

Did You Know...

During Crunch Week, the week between Christmas and New Year’s, Nintendo's consumer service calls, emails and letters double due to the strong sales of Nintendo products during the holiday season.

On average, Nintendo’s consumer service department... Read more...

The venerable publisher of Mortal Kombat and NFL Blitz may be up for sale.

Discuss it in Talkback!

According to an article in the L.A. Times, American publisher Midway Games may be up for sale to another corporation. The game publisher, which started in the arcade business and gradually phased into the console market, has experienced lackluster performance in 2002, despite some success of its Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance for multiple platforms.

In case you didn’t notice, Nintendo.com has released an interview concerning The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker...

Nintendo of America recently published an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma, Producer and Director of Link’s latest adventure, respectively. While much of the information contained within is old, the two provide more thorough explanations and a few interesting tidbits. Be warned, though: Miyamoto and Aonuma do reveal what some might consider minor spoilers! Below is a brief excerpt from NOA’s Interview.

Stan Winston acts as a consultant on the character designs in Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse. He is a four-time Oscar winner, you know.

3DO TEAMS WITH OSCAR WINNER STAN WINSTON FOR UPCOMING FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE GAME

Stan Winston Productions Options Film Rights, Collaborates on Character Designs

REDWOOD CITY, CA - (December 19, 2002) - The 3DO Company (Nasdaq: THDO) today announced that it is collaborating with... Read more...