Console News

I seriously doubt that the majority of us gamers out there actually have enough gaming street cred to impress the press and the general populace as it is more often than not due to the deficiency of a healthy monetary arsenal more over the lack of gaming passion. Thankfully, there are a precious few gamers in this world who fills both criteria, and what is even more touching is the fact that he is willing to replace his love for video games with a real life wife. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I seriously doubt that you will be able to find another console bundle deal on eBay in the near future than the one being offered by seller markcz5581.

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The rumours flying around about Microsoft developing a handheld have finally been proven, to a certain extent. The device, known as Argo, is actually predominantly a rival to the Apple iPod, but with WiFi functionality it means you won’t need a computer in order to get new tunes onto it, since you’ll be able to download them directly.

It’s intended that the Argo will be branded as part of the XBox product line, and the plans also include some media software, presumably for converting between file formats and allowing your XBox to share the Argo content.

Claims have also been made that the device will also be capable of playing games, although exactly what form and how technically accomplished they’ll be is currently anyone’s guess. Looking at the device the input method doesn’t look ideally suited to playing games anyway.

Argo is due for release this Christmas, and would appear to have its work cut out competing against the now de facto standard of the iPod.

They’ve been around in Japan for some time, but the PlayStation Spot is to finally make it’s way to the UK at the end of this week. PlayStation Spots are basically download stations, normally located in stores where you can take your PSP and download some new content to it using the WiFi connection.

In a similar vein to the current downloads available from Sony’s PSP website, you can expect to be able to download images, music and video files (and also the odd game demo too) to your memory stick for playing later.

The PlayStation Spot website currently only lists 9 places where you can try the service out but hopefully there’ll be more sites added as time goes by. Apart from one in Dixons at Heathrow Airport, most are located in big cities such as London, Manchester and Edinburgh so chances are you might have a bit of a trek to find one!

The DS Lite launched in the UK on Friday, and performed reasonably well given that most of the UK is currently gripped by World Cup Fever, and that Nintendo UK didn’t really give the launch much in the way of advertising.

Sales of 35,000 units over the weekend were good, with people opting for the white and black versions in approximately even proportions. The queues seen in Japan were never going to be repeated over here of course, since the UK hasn’t really been suffering from a shortage of consoles in the first place, which helped the Lite’s release in Japan.

Bizarrely, sales of the original DS were not affected, with a similar number being sold last week as the week before. This can mainly be attributed to sales of the pink DS, bundled with the Dachsund version of Nintendogs, which is still proving popular with young female gamers. DS Software sales were also given a boost, with no less than 8 DS exclusive titles to be found among the All Formats Top 40 chart!

PlayStation 3 may well be expensive, but it seems as if Sony are actually trying to future proof the console as much as possible with the news that the console will support the recently announced 1.3 version of the HDMI connector specification (that is, if you opt for the more expensive version of the console, since the lower end one is HDMI-less!).

This bodes well for the quality of the image that the PS3 Blu-Ray drive may provide for movies, since the HDMI 1.3 specification allows for more than twice the data rate of the current iteration, and adds support for Deep Colour, allowing more range in the colour information that can be sent to a display device such as a Plasma or LCD panel.

With the news that dedicated Blu-Ray movie players are to be delayed until October, it seems likely that Sony see the PS3 as the best way of getting Blu-Ray players into peoples homes and therefore lodge their standard as the de facto one. Sony must be careful though, since if these Blu-Ray delays end up affecting the PS3’s launch date, they may find themselves on the end of a huge consumer backlash which is already beginning to show with many disgruntled posts on forums across the web.

One of the most popular features of XBox Live has been the XBox Live Arcade, which features a good selection of interesting “mini” games which can be downloaded for play on your XBox 360. In fact, it’s been known for some players to devote more game playing time to Arcade than to full price packaged titles!

At the moment the only way to get hold of these games was to connect your 360 to the Internet to download them, but with 50% of XBox 360 owners still not being connected online, Microsoft have decided that it would be a good idea to let these gamers see what they’ve been missing out on. To this end, Microsoft are planning to release some Arcade titles on a shiny disc for you to buy.
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Possibly a little off-topic for this site, but possibly relevant to the PSP owners out there. Recent PSP firmware updates have provided support for Sony’s LocationFree TV system which allows PSP and PC owners to watch television and DVD’s no matter where they are (assuming they have access to an Internet connection of course!)

The system consists of a gadget which you connect to your set top TV box or DVD player/recorder, which takes this feed and pumps it across the Internet for you to stream down to your PSP or computer. A great idea if you’re going on holiday and don’t want to miss the latest episode of your favourite TV show. It’d also be especially useful for all those who want to watch the World Cup at work!!

Rumours about a possible release date for the Nintendo Wii have started thinks to UK print magazine T3’s website, where it is claimed that the new system will be available in the UK around November 6th. This information is said to have come from a source with Nintendo UK.

If true, this puts it in the shops around a week or so before PS3 is due to hit, which would put Sony in the position of last of the new consoles to market.

In other Wii news, it’s claimed that the Wii will be able to store information for each player including an avatar image which can then be accessed by any Wii game for display on screen. Not really an innovation it has to be said, as XBox Live already does something very similar.

A date has finally been given for the release of the XBox 360 camera (to be known by the name “Vision”) and it’s September 19th both in the US and in Europe.

A number of uses for the phone have been mentioned, with probably the most popular one being using it to provide videochat with your other 360 owning friends. An XBox Live update to provide this functionality is expected to introduce support for the camera sometime around the time of it’s release. It’s also said that you’ll be able to display your face whilst playing online, but whether this means a full video feed or just taking a snapshot for display isn’t clear, though I would expect it to be the latter since streaming video and game related data at the same time would be pretty difficult to achieve.

Other possible uses including the ability to map your own face on to an in-game character (Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Vegas should be the first title to include this facility) and even games controlled by the camera in a similar style to Sony’s EyeToy have been suggested.

Nintendo are aiming to have shipped no less than 6 million Wii consoles by March 2007, and have also stated that they expect the machine to go on sale for no more than 25,000 Yen. This equates to around $250 (or just over 130 GBP) which makes it a very appealing proposition as a second console. In fact, it would appear that for the price of a PS3 you could purchase an XBox 360 and a Wii!

Sony are also aiming for the same target with PS3, though they face a tougher challenge due to the price point of their offering. It would be foolish to suggest that PS3 will fail, but Sony do seem to have been making a rod for their own back lately with some of their decisions, especially the lack of the HDMI port on the lower priced iteration.

Going by the amount of good press the Wii has been generating since E3 this price point should allow Nintendo to succeed. It would appear many gamers intend to get a Wii as their second console, after an XBox 360 or PS3, which makes a lot of sense since there are bound to be many Wii exclusive titles which just won’t be possible on the other two consoles due to the remote control input method.