More on the ‘Manhunt Murder’

Remember the story from a day or three ago about the kid who murdered his friend with a hammer? The media claimed it was because he was obsessed with the videogame Manhunt.

Well here’s a fun twist. MCV is claiming that it was the victim who owned the game, not the killer. Oopsie! Maybe the kid begged his friend to bludgeon him with a hammer because he wanted to be just like a Manhunt victim. Or not…

New twist in Manhunt controversy

But it gets jucier (thanks to Slashdot for spreading this link around):
Florida Attorney on Manhunt for Rockstar

This Jack Thompson comes across as a nut-job in this interview:

GD: You are going to target Rockstar North?

Thompson: Not just Rockstar, another target will be Sony. The tie-in between Rockstar and Sony is rather firmly established.

GD: What is the ultimate goal here?

Thompson: To destroy Rockstar.

GD: What does that mean in terms of…

Thompson: (cutting in) So they don’t exist anymore.

and

GD: You don’t see any other way, such as the ESRB jacking up their ratings?

Thompson: They are a joke. They are a deceptive joke. Doug Lowenstein makes Saddam Hussein look like a post-reformed Pinocchio. [emphasis mine -dc] He will say anything to protect the industry and his annual salary. It doesn’t matter what they say or do anymore. So, you destroy people and their institutions who have such a track record of not caring about human life and who will lie through their teeth to protect their P&L statement.

GD: Thanks for your time Mr. Thompson and good luck in your struggle.

Thompson: Thanks. We don’t need luck. The vectors are locked in, these people are dead meat.

Sounds like Mr. Anderson has been staying up late playing Doom 3 to me…

‘Blu-Ray’ Players to Launch in 2005

From the Dow Jones Newswire:

An industry group including Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Tuesday it expects DVD player/recorders compatible with the “Blu-ray” read-only disc format to hit the market in the second half of 2005, signaling the possibility of a more intense battle next year over the high-definition successor to the current generation of DVDs. So far, the group Blu-ray Disc Founders, made up of 13 global technology firms, has only established a recordable disc format for Blu-ray technology — one of two rival next-generation DVD formats. Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. are also promoting HD (high-definition) DVDs — a new optical disc format that they jointly developed. A Toshiba executive said last month the company plans to launch two home-use HD DVD devices next year — a DVD player and a DVD player/recorder equipped with a hard-disc drive.

Let’s hope this is a short battle with a clear winner. I want a HD DVD player SOON and I don’t want to end up with an orphaned format!