Gaming News Round-Up: April 6th, 2005

Today's round-up includes news of a new Nintendo hardware variation in Japan, sponsorship within Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and the return of Sean Connery as James Bond, as well as details on the new Question Of The Week responses. - Nintendo is launching another variety of their dual-screened DS handheld in Japan, this time branded with their Pokémon series. The PokéPark Nintendo DS is colored bluish-purple, and features silhouettes of series mascot Pikachu, as well as the PokePark theme park logo. The new variant coloring follows the success of the recently introduced black and white Nintendo DS models recently released to the Japanese market. No plans for any variant models have yet been confirmed for the U.S. - In a move the company claims was done to add realism, Ubisoft's new Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory features in-game product placement, a somewhat rare step for games outside the sports genre. CPU manufacturer AMD, deodorant brand Axe, and cellular phone company Nokia all appear prominently in the third Splinter Cell game. "One of the major advantages for developers in partnering with consumer brands," said Jay Cohen, VP of publishing for Ubisoft North America, "is that we can achieve this realism while helping advertisers reach their target market." - After signing the major actors from the Godfather movie trilogy in their Godfather game, EA has taken the next step in bringing similar star power to their 007 franchise. The next Bond game, based on the From Russia With Love movie, will feature Sean Connery reprising his role as the most famous Bond in the series' history. Connery, who portrayed the superspy in the original film, will provide original voiceover for the game, and has signed off on the use of his 1963-era likeness for the game's main character. - Also updated on Gamasutra today (free reg. req.): we've compiled the latest Question Of The Week responses, intensely debating whether retail prices for next-generation games need to increase. There are also newly advertised jobs from Activision Value, Activision/Vicarious Visions, Black Ops Entertainment, Blue Fang Games, Concrete Games, Electronic Arts, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Stormfront Studios.