In its first weekend on the market in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 2 has reached 980,000 units sold. This initial sales milestone blows away the original PlayStation's three-day mark in 1994 by nearly 10 times. A total of 26,400 retailers in Japan, including 18,500 convenience stores, approximately 7,900 retail stores, current PlayStation retailers, as well as PlayStation.com (Japan) Inc., began selling the PlayStation 2 units on March 4.

Want to know about events in Italy? Then visit ASIFA Italia's re-designed

Website at www.asifaitalia.org. The Italian-languaged site is a growing

destination for animation in Italy. The site features ASIFA events and

other information regarding the Italian animation organization.

The Oscar shortlisted INDESCRIBABLE NTH has been picked up for distribution

on the Net at AtomFilms. The deal between NTH's creators Character Builders

and AtomFilms covers domestic and foreign television showings as well as

airline programming and Internet distribution. The film follows the story

of a boy and his understanding of the indescribable feeling called love.





Read Maureen Furniss' review of THE INDESCRIBABLE NTH and the other

shortlisted films at

On Tuesday, February 29, 2000, Shockwave and sponsor CYBERWORLD launched a

Stan Lee premiere, live on shockwave.com. The star-studded event was hosted

by Dick Clark. The celebrities on the attendee list were Tom Hanks, Keanu

Reeves, Michael Jackson, Richard Dreyfus, John Travolta, Quentin Tarantino

and Leonardo Dicaprio. Excerpts from the event will also be televised

internationally on ET and other entertainment news broadcasts. On

Wednesday, March 1, Stan Lee/CYBERWORLD content will launch on their site

On February 14, 2000, the GOD THE DEVIL AND BOB Website launched to promote

the new series which debuts on NBC on Thursday, March 9, 2000 at 8:30 pm.

The series is produced by Carsey-Werner, the creators of 3RD ROCK FROM THE

SUN, THAT '70S SHOW and COSBY. GOD THE DEVIL AND BOB, created by Matthew

Carlson, centers around Bob Alman, a Detroit auto plant worker who has been

chosen by God to prove the world is worth saving after God and the Devil

Entertaindom.com, Time Warner's on-line entertainment destination, has

picked up 17 additional episodes of its smash hit, THE GOD & DEVIL SHOW

from Mondo Media, a leading creator and distributor of serial-based

animated content. THE GOD & DEVIL SHOW, an animated weekly "talk show"

launched on Entertaindom in November. Each week the show features hosts God

and the Devil interviewing then deciding the eternal fates of various

"celebrity" guests (including impersonations of Keith Richards, Bill Gates,

After UPN put DILBERT on an indefinite hiatus which starts March 14, the

producers of the cartoon series announced it would broadcast an episode of

the show along with rare outtakes on the Net. The 22-minute previously

aired episode entitled "The Merger" will air commercial-free on the Web

from February 17 - 29, 2000. Columbia/TriStar, who produces the show, will

become only the second major studio to enter into the Netcasting arena. In

November of 1999, Warner Bros. simulcast parts of an episode of "The Drew

Disney's Go Network has inked a 4-year agreement with eBay making it the

exclusive on-line auction site for Walt Disney's Web properties. Under

terms of the deal, eBay and the Go Network will create two co-branded

auction sites -- one to provide person to person transactions, the other

merchant to consumer sales, featuring goods from Disney's properties and

ESPN, among others. Disney will market the two sites through its Go

Network, a portfolio of Web sites that includes Disney.com, ABC.com and

Sega of America announced that LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC has

become a new third party publisher for the Sega Dreamcast. Scheduled to

ship Spring 2000, STAR WARS: EPISODE I RACER will be the first LucasArts

title to hit Dreamcast. LucasArts is committed to providing additional

titles in the future, adding to Sega's long list of third party publishers

and developers for Sega Dreamcast. Taking advantage of Dreamcast's Internet

capabilities, STAR WARS: EPISODE I RACER will allow gamers to post high

The 3DO Company has signed an exclusive multi-year agreement with U.S.

Major League Baseball's 1999 Man of the Year, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago

Cubs. Sosa will help in the development and marketing of 3DO's baseball

franchise, SAMMY SOSA HIGH HEAT BASEBALL. In the February 2000 issue of

COMPUTER GAMING WORLD MAGAZINE, SAMMY SOSA HIGH HEAT 2000 was named "Best

Sports Game Of The Year" and PC GAMER MAGAZINE even went as far as to call

it "The Best Baseball Game Ever." "I agree with the gaming magazines that