Electronic Arts (EA) was back atop the U.S. top 10 videogame rental chart in the week ended Nov. 16 as its Medal of Honor: Rising Sun for PS2 hit #1 in its first full week of availability, Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data showed. The PS2 version of the game earned $649,564 in rentals for the week, Rentrak said. After a week in which Activision dominated the chart with its #1 Tony Hawk’s Underground for PS2 and had 2 other SKUs in the top 10 vs. only one EA game (CED Nov 17 p7), EA again dominated the chart this time: EA had 3 other SKUs in the chart this time while only 2 Activision games made the cut. EA’s other SKUs this time were The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on PS2 at #7 (up from #92 a week ago, earning an additional $299,239 in the week for $336,202 total), the Xbox version of Rising Sun at #8 ($276,525 its first week), Madden NFL 2004 on PS2 at #10 (down from #5, earning an additional $218,910 in the week for $3.92 million total). Underground for PS2 slipped to #2 (earning an additional $467,839 in the week for $1.23 million total). Activision’s True Crime: Streets of L.A. moved up 3 steps to #3, earning an additional $412,979 million for total earnings of $662,838. Take-Two Interactive, Sony Computer Entertainment, THQ and Ubisoft each had one game in the top 10: Respectively, the Grand Theft Auto double pack for Xbox at #4 (up 6, earning $395,440 in the week and $572,418 to date), SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs for PS2 at #5 (down 3, $322,308 and $652,472), WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain for PS2 at #6 (down 3, $305,362 and $840,074), Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield for Xbox at #9 (down 5, $236,699 and $610,955).

After a small delay, Acclaim Entertainment filed its 10-Q report with the SEC for its 2nd quarter ended Sept. 28. Acclaim said in an SEC filing late last week that the 10-Q filing would be late because it had “not completed its analysis with respect to certain matters which may have an effect on its financial statements which is not determinable at this time” (CED Nov 17 p4). In the 10-Q filing, received by the SEC after the market closed Tues., Acclaim said that as of Sept. 28, it “had a stockholders’ deficit of $55 million, a working capital deficit of $67.2 million and $7.3 million of cash and cash equivalents.” It said “these factors have continued to raise substantial doubts as to our ability to continue as a going concern.” The company had said earlier it wouldn’t develop new titles for GameCube. In its filing Tues., the company said its “release schedule for the remainder of fiscal 2004 continues to support the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Game Boy Advance platforms as well as PC.” Acclaim also said in the filing that “a preliminary [court] conference” was slated for Dec. 5 in a class action lawsuit that was filed against it by disgruntled investors, charging Acclaim with securities violations. It said it was “defending this action vigorously.” Acclaim said games in its NBA Jam franchise represented 16% of its revenue in the 2nd quarter vs. 14% from the Burnout franchise, 11% from Summer Heat, 9% from ATV, 6% each from Extreme G and Turok, 4% from All Star Baseball, 3% from Speed Kings, 1% each from Vexx, Legends of Wrestling, Aggressive Inline.

Silicon Image shares bounced back Tues., trading up 24? at $6.64, one day after plunging 28% as the company indicated 3rd- quarter results wouldn’t be released on time because auditors were investigating the recognition of license revenue in 2002 and 2003. Silicon Image said wouldn’t file its 3rd-quarter report with the SEC by the Nov. 15 deadline “because an ongoing examination is being conducted by its audit committee.” The company characterized the investigation as preliminary and said it couldn’t predict how long it would take. Upon news of the probe, Wachovia Securities analyst Karl Motey suspended his “market perform” rating on Silicon Image’s stock. The licensing business, which has 85-90% margins, is expected to generate 15% of Silicon Image’s sales this year. Its stock price will “remain under pressure in the near term” until the audit committee investigation is complete, Motey said.

State regulators are seeing the first filings from incumbent telcos identifying the markets where they believe network unbundling isn’t required for effective local competition, as they continue to address unbundling issues from the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO). Meanwhile, more Qwest states said they would participate in a regional TRO- related forum proposed by Qwest to develop a uniform process for handing batch hot cuts in all its states.

The FCC opened an inquiry and adopted a proposal on a controversial “interference temperature” model for quantifying and managing interference among different services, potentially paving the way for new licensed and unlicensed services in existing bands. But several commissioners said that concept requires a cautious approach. Comr. Adelstein said he was worried it was “premature” to move forward with proposed rules “when we haven’t even engaged in a preliminary discussion on the interference temperature approach as a whole.” The proposal called for testing the model on a limited basis at 6 GHz and 12 GHz.

Essential Reality (ER) said Wed. it had “executed a letter of intent” to merge with AllianceCorner Distributors. ER, which manufactures the P5 tracking peripheral for gaming and other applications, described Alliance as a wholesaler distributor of videogames, game hardware and accessories. It said “Alliance is able to supply products in a timely, cost-effective manner from its warehouse in the Bronx, N.Y., and from its showroom/daily shipping facility located in College Point, N.Y.” ER, based in Mineola, N.Y., said its letter of intent “sets forth the preliminary terms and conditions of a proposed merger transaction… As proposed, the shareholders of Alliance would exchange their shares of capital stock in Alliance for shares of common stock of Essential. Upon the closing of the merger, as currently contemplated, the shareholders of Alliance will own… approximately 80%” of Essential.

The PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004 from Electronic Arts (EA) was knocked out of its #1 perch on the U.S. rental top 10 chart, preliminary data for the week ended Nov. 2 showed. VSDA said Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground for PS2 in its first full week of availability jumped to #1, earning $280,000 in rentals. Madden dropped to #3, earning an additional $210,000 for a total of $3.45 million. Once again, every game in the top 10 was for Sony’s PS2. Despite dropping from the top spot, EA still had the most games in the top 10 again. Its other titles were: SSX 3 at #5 (up from #18 a week ago), which earned $150,00 in the week for a total of $220,000 to date; NBA Live 2004 at #7 (down 2 from #5), $130,000 and $320,000; NCAA Football 2004 at #8 (down 5 from #3), $130,000 and $3.35 million. The only other publisher with more than one game in the top 10 was Konami, whose Castlevania: Lament of Innocence soared to #4 from #26 ($160,000 and $220,000) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to #10 from #46 ($120,000 and $160,000). The only other game that entered the top 10 in its first full week of availability was THQ’s WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain at #2 ($210,000). Sony and Atari also had one game each in the top 10 -- Jak II at #6 (down 4 from #2) and Enter the Matrix at #9 (down 5 from #4).

In its first full week of availability, Universal’s The Hulk was the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., VSDA said preliminary data for the week ended Nov. 2 showed. VSDA said the title earned $5.52 million in rentals during the week for a total of $5.61 million to date. It was the only new DVD in the top 10. Last week’s #1- rented DVD -- Columbia TriStar’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle -- slipped 2 notches to #3, earning an additional $3.87 million ($9.99 million to date). VSDA said that starting next week, Rentrak Home Video Essentials would be distributing the weekly report instead of VSDA. It said it had been providing the report “for the past several years from the data we received from Rentrak.” VSDA didn’t say why it no longer would be involved.

Thomson proposed to spin off its video products group into a joint venture with TCL International that would give the Chinese CE maker a strong entry in the U.S. market with the RCA brand while providing the new company with a low-cost manufacturing base. The deal’s expected to close by mid-2004.

The “nickname” Advanced Optical Disc is gone as NEC and Toshiba have co-opted the mantle of the DVD format for the next- gen technology they'll re-pitch to the DVD Forum as “HD-DVD,” executives told reporters at a N.Y.C. news briefing Mon.