Gaming News Round-Up: November 19th, 2004

- Following the passing of California Assembly Bill 1793, which requires video game retailers in California to post signs regarding the video game rating system, speaker pro Tempore Leland Yee has announced the launch of a LegiSchool Project Essay Contest entitled, "Video Games and Young People: Access and Rights.” Open to eleventh and twelfth grade students throughout the state, the essay contest is a collaborative effort between the California State University – Sacramento and the California State Legislature, asking students to express their opinions on video games and aggressive behavior, and if the government should be involved in limiting access of certain games to children. It's somewhat unclear whether cogent replies from both sides of the argument will be honored, but the contest runs through January 21st, 2005, and will see ten winning essayists receiving roundtrip travel to Sacramento to take part in a Student Legislative Summit on April 7th, 2005. Further details on the essay contest can be found on Leland Yee's website. - Electronic Arts and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) have signed a publishing agreement that will see Electronic Arts developing and publishing an official soccer game based on the UEFA Champions League for 2004 - 2005. Somewhat aptly titled UEFA Champions League, and set to be published via the EA Sports brand across the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube and PC, UEFA Champions League will have players taking their chosen soccer club through 50 on and off-field missions. The game, based on EA's existing FIFA soccer game engine, will include over 239 official teams, including official English Premiership and Football League, German Bundesliga, French LFP and Spanish LFP, and will ship during February 2005 - it can arguably be seen as another attempt for the company to establish an advantage over Konami's rival Pro Evolution Soccer brand. - i-Deal Games, developers of PC strategy title Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire, has announced that it has terminated its development agreements with publisher Strategy First. In recent months, similar public statements regarding Strategy First have been released by companies such as Black Hammer Games and Techland, and in fact, Strategy First filed for bankruptcy back in September, but Strategy First president Don McFatridge has recently made statements to the press indicating the company has found a new distributor and will continue trading. Nonetheless, i-Deal Games are alleging their royalties from several hundred thousand dollars of sales have not been paid to them, among a host of other problems. The official i-Deal games press release has more information on the apparent issues. - U.S. cable television network G4techTV and Nintendo have jointly announced an unusual promotion based around the American launch of the Nintendo DS, called "DS Day". Airing all day long on G4techTV this Sunday, November 21st, the network will be airing all its shows in dual screens, with the top half being used for its programming, and the bottom half being used for Nintendo DS gameplay footage. It's also promised that Cinematech, the G4techTV show based around game trailers and real-time gameplay, will premiere a special episode this Sunday utilizing both screens to offer what the channel describes as 'the true Nintendo DS experience.'