Datel stops Sharking

Datel is launching its Action Replay brand in the US this month, through its own US-based corporation, Datel Design & Development, Inc., located in Clearwater, Florida. The move marks the cheat gurus' decision to promote Action Replay in the US instead of distributing it through InterAct under the "GameShark" moniker, as it has done over the past six years, selling in excess of four million units.

And what better to launch first than the GameCube version of Action Replay! It will unlock codes, boast free code updates and do all the usual cheaty things previous AR devices have done. However, the $39.99 device will not boast the Freeloader functionality us Europeans have been impatiently lusting after.

Datel is also launching a PS2 Action Replay (with much of the same functionality), a 16MB memory card (via compressed date), several code books, X-Port (a device which transfers saves back and forward between PC and PS2), PowerBoard (a fully functional USB keyboard designed to work with the new Action Replay and PS2 in general), Go-Net (a quick-start broadband gaming adapter) and, in January, the GBA version of Action Replay.

Lovely news. Just spiffing. But despite two instances of the word "free" and five instances of "load" in the US-based press release, there's nothing here for the growingly impatient.