Console News

Next time you take a trip to a major European city don’t forget to pack your PSP. As well as being good for relieving the boredom of air flights and so on, it might also be useful for getting you from A to B once you reach your destination.

Sony have teamed up with Lonely Planet, the popular tour books publisher, to produce a series of titles called Planet PSP, the intial batch featuring guides to Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Paris, Prague and Rome. Each version will contain maps, pictures, video and audio clips for the chosen city, with listings showing places of interest, clubs, restaurants, hotels etc.
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Not content with releasing just the new TV remote style controller for Wii, Nintendo have also shown not one but two new controller configurations at E3 this week.

When the remote was first announced we were also introduced to the “nunchuk” add on controller, which plug into the base of the remote to provide an analogue stick and some more buttons. Many of the games on display at E3 appear to be using this combination, but Nintendo have also shown a more traditional looking pad for the system as well. It looks a lot like an old SNES pad, but with the addition of a couple of analogue sticks, and again plugs into the base of the remote. It’s assumed this pad will be more suitable for playing games using the Wii’s Virtual Console facility, and potentially could be the only way of playing some titles.
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Sony’s pre-E3 conference has revealed a large number of facts about the PS3, including it’s final specification, it’s joypad and most importantly, it’s launch date and price. The console is set to go on sale in Japan on November 11th, and in both the US and Europe on November 17th. In a move similar to Microsofts XBox 360 launch, there will be two versions of the console being released, with the high-end specification being priced at $599 and the lower end version being $499. The price in Euro’s is the same figure, being 599 and 499 Euros respectively.
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So Nintendo’s claims that Revolution was only a temporary name for their new console have turned out to be true, as they have finally announced it’s new name, which is to be Wii.

That’s right, you haven’t misread it. The new name is Wii.

Hmm…

Personally I prefer Revolution, as it would appear most people do judging by the number of excruciating puns and terrible images which have sprung up since the new name was announced.
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Good news if your not already one of the 33 million US owners of a PlayStation2! It’s just received a $20 US price cut to the new price of $129.99 in an effort to keep sales running high whilst most of the games industries attention will be aimed at the next generation of consoles.

As shown by the PS1, a price drop such as this brings the console closer to becoming an “impulse buy”, and is widely regarded by many as being a necessary move at this stage. In fact, it’s surprising it hasn’t happen before now. PS2 sales have been slowing recently, with sales in March down by 45% compared to the previous year. Despite this PS2 has still been the top selling console in the US on a month by month basis.

Obviously Sony’s focus will be moving more and more to PS3, but they claim they still have a few gems up their sleeves, including the sequel to the well received God of War, which isn’t expected to arrive until 2007. Hopefully there will be further evidence to back this up when we see the as yet unannounced titles publishers have in store for us revealed at E3 in May.

There’s been no indication of a similar price cut in Europe, but we can only hope for a sub 100 GBP PS2 to be announced shortly.

Nintendo have announced that they are planning to have 20 titles available for their Revolution console when the machine launches, hopefully later this year. Around one third of these are to be first party titles, with the remainder being developed by development houses external to Nintendo, which certainly bodes well for a future supply of titles as well.

Nintendo of America’s George Harrison said that the company had learned from it’s mistakes, contrasting the relevant drought of titles after the launch of GameCube with the rather more game-laden PS2. He claims that the first year of a console really cements it’s future, so Nintendo are keen this time round to ensure a steady stream of games to keep peoples interest in Revolution high.
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George Fornay, president of Sony Computer Entertainment France, has made comments in an interview broadcast on radio station Europe 1 regarding the potential price of the PS3 come it’s November release.

Fornay believes the cost of the console will be in the range of 500 to 600 Euros, which puts it at a higher price point than the XBox 360 which in it’s highest configuration is currently around the 400 Euro price. He also justifies this price by pointing out that when you buy a PS3 you also get a HDTV ready Blu-Ray movie player.

The suggested price equates to a figure of around 350 GBP, which whilst expensive is not that far off the original launch prices of both PS1 and PS2. It is also worth mentioning that a straight swap to dollars from this price is probably not that accurate, since European prices generally have had sales taxes and the like factored in.

We can expect more firm details to emerge in the week before E3, when all three major console players are set to have press conferences where information such as price is likely to finally be made public.

XBox 360 was always going to have it’s work cut out being a success in Japan. The first XBox was never really very popular in Japan due to a lack of software which appealed to gamers in the region (most people blame the lack of a decent RPG or two) and also it’s size, since the Japanese have a tendancy towards the miniature when it comes to electronic gadgets, and many Japanese just physically couldn’t find the room in their homes for the monstrous XBox.

Microsoft have tried very hard this time round to win over the Japanese market, with several RPG games in the works (crucially being developed by Japanese developers) and the size issue combatted to a certain degree, but the XBox 360 still hasn’t really taken off as well they would have liked in the region. For this reason, at the end of June Microsoft plan to have a second launch for the console in Japan!

No details are yet available on whether there will be special pricing or bundles made available, but it seems likely that Microsoft will have something interesting up their sleeves to tempt the Japanese into parting with their Yen. A good bet would be a console bundled with an RPG (Final Fantasy perhaps) and maybe a free trial period for XBox Live?

Here in Europe we often feel that we miss out by being the last to get gaming releases, but spare a thought for Australia who usually end up being even lower down the pecking order for launches. XBox 360’s global launch late last year did not include Australia, and it was only last week that the machine finally arrived in the clutches of Aussie gamers.

It was worth the wait however, as figures just in suggest that this was the most popular console launch for the region, with 10,000 consoles being sold at midnight openings, and a further 20,000 during the rest of the launch day. The previous holder of this accolade was the PSP, which managed to notch up 27,000 sales.

Most sales were of the full pack (i.e. not the hard-drive less Core pack) and there was also a tie ratio of 2.6 games per console, which isn’t bad going.

So, will PS3 be able to smash this on it’s release? Possibly, but since Sony have pledged that Australia will be included in their global launch, maybe not, simply down to a lack of available units to be sold. Of course, that’s if Sony are able to pull off a global launch in the first place!

You probably didn’t realise that the original PlayStation was still being produced, did you? Well, until recently it was, but the console that many consider brought about the 3D gaming revolution has finally been allowed to put on a pair of comfy slippers and relax in the old age consoles home.

PlayStation first appeared in 1994, and was rebranded PSone after a miniaturisation redesign in 2000. Both forms combined have notched up over 103 million units worldwide.

Whilst you might not be able to buy a new machine any more though, you’ll still be able to play all those old PlayStation games you’ve got collecting dust at the back of a cupboard, since PS2 is already capable of playing them, PS3 is set to be backward compatible with both PS1 and PS2, and even the PSP will soon be able to emulate some PS1 titles which will be available for download to memory card.

So, let’s raise a glass to the PS1, and wish it a very happy retirement.