Console News

Yesterdays Sony Conference was definitely full of news, but the main piece of news that everyone was hoping for has finally been revealed. PS3 will launch in early November, and what’s more, that’s going to be an XBox 360 style global launch for Asia, the US and Europe! So much for the spring release, like we believed that anyway.

Sony obviously don’t want to appear to be beaten by Microsoft, and the statement made by Ken Kutaragi said that 4 million units would be available for shipping by that time, with a further 2 million promised before the year end. With the console set to go into production around June, this would certainly give enough time for a decent stock base to be accumulated, so we can but wait to see if Sony can pull off a global launch better than Microsoft, who all things considered did do an excellent job of a global launch, the first worldwide launch of a console ever seen. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Sony did promise a global launch for PSP, which famously never happened.
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The PSP also got a look-in, with the news that an EyeToy style camera peripheral is to be made available which will come with a version of EyeToy Play, and also will open up a planned video chat and voice over IP capability. The speculated GPS addon was also confirmed, with the news that games would also be able to use the device to influence gameplay, with a new iteration in the popular Everybody’s Golf series set to support the device.

The online side of the PSP is also to be further served with news that old PS1 titles are to be made available for download to memory card to be played on the move, thus mirroring the PS3 service described above. Finally, a further PSP firmware upgrade was also announced, which will provide the PSP Internet Browser with Macromedia Flash compatability.

The Games Industry will be looking to Japan tomorrow as Sony hold a conference where many believe more details regarding the launch of PS3 will finally be made. The meeting is set for 3pm local time (around 6am in the UK) and is the last chance for Sony to make an announcement before GDC next week, where SCEE’s Phil Harrison is set to make a keynote speech.

SCE president Ken Kutaragi, widely dubbed the father of the PlayStation series, is set to address the conference, so if anyone knows whats going on, it’s him. It’s also hoped that more details on some of the games for the system will be revealed as well.

We look forward to tomorrow, and hopefully and end to all the speculation about when PS3 will finally launch!

Nintendo have announced that they have now passed the huge milestone of it’s one millionth individual user to log on to the DS WiFi service. This is pretty amazing, especially given that the service is only used by a small number of DS games at present (the main ones being Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Tony Hawks) and that the service only launched in November 2005!

The accolade of one millionth player goes to an unnamed user in Japan, who was logging on to play Animal Crossing: Wild World.

The next big game to utilise the service will undoubtedly by Metroid Prime: Hunters, which as well as having multiplayer online play is also set to include Voice Over IP functionality where players can chat using the microphone of the DS. Sadly, this feature is only available outside of game play, and there are also rumours going around that this facility won’t be available in Europe for some legal reason, which would be a disappointment.

The remodelled Nintendo DS Lite went on sale in Japan yesterday, and literally flew off the shelves. Shortages of the original DS have meant many Japanese retailers have been resorting to importing units for sale, or even selling pre-owned machines for more money than the cost of a new one!

Whilst production problems meant that the Ice Blue and Enamel Navy (pictured) versions of the console will not be available until next week, the Crystal White version has sold extremely well. Whilst not quite a sell out, it seems that Nintendo will need to send in new stock very soon. Nintendo’s original shipping target of 500,000 units was obviously affected by the lack of availability of the other two colours, but they still hope to ship a million of the new machines throughout March.

Rumours suggest that the west could be seeing the DS Lite sooner than originally expected as well. There is a mooted May release in the US, with a European release possible shortly afterwards.

The hot topic of when we’ll finally get a release date for PS3 took another blow as a Sony spokesperson has now admitted a delay is possible.

The delay is being blamed on the Blu-Ray drive, and the fact that the consortium of companies defining the standard for the format have yet to make a decision on the final specifications of the system. For obvious reasons Sony are not going to want to release PS3 if the drives it contains end up not fully conforming to the Blu-Ray standard.

Sony have yet to start taking orders for the new console from retailers, which would suggest that a launch before May would now be very difficult if not impossible.

Olympic athletes won’t be the only ones clamoring for gold this spring. Xbox 360 owners will get a shot at gold of their own – a free Xbox Live Gold membership, that is.

Microsoft’s latest promotional blitz for the next-generation console involves granting all Xbox 360 owners with 72 hours (3 full days) of free online gaming through an Xbox Live Gold membership. The free online weekend is scheduled to begin on April 1, 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

Following a report by financial analysts Merrill Lynch claiming that the PS3 could be delayed by several months to an autumn launch in Japan, Sony have fired back by issuing a statement saying they are still on track for a spring launch of the new console.

Currently this is the only statement Sony have made regarding the consoles launch, with neither an exact date or price even hinted at yet. It would appear that perhaps Sony are taking a very loose interpretation of “spring”, since one would normally consider spring as being something like March-May. They are obviously taking a similar approach to defining time periods as Microsoft with their infamous “launch window” phrase, which would appear to be anything up to a year after the date that XBox 360 was actually available to buy.
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In the 1980’s, Atari was king of the gaming world. But 20 years later – Atari may be a quickly sinking ship. It has been years since Atari has been included in the list of top gaming companies, but the company still holds a special place in many gamers’ hearts. Who can forget PONG, Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Pac-Man? Though primitive in design when compared to today’s graphic-heavy games, these arcade classics are still favorites for many and offer hours of good, clean fun.

Unfortunately, Atari is fighting just to stay alive in 2006 due to financial troubles. The publisher’s revenues dropped by more than a third during the 3rd quarter of 2005, and recent stock market trends show that Atari shares to plummeted to just $0.86 a share. Desperate for money and trying to bail water out of the sinking company, Atari plans to sell its internal game studios – the very same studios responsible for some of the company’s most beloved games. Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell explains the rational: we’ve decided to “refocus our creativity efforts on external studios, rather than internal development.” As a result, 20% of the Atari workforce will be laid off worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »

Not to be outdone by the PSP, Nintendo have just announced that you’ll soon be able to surf the web via your DS with the release of a version of the Opera web browser for the system. The bad news is that you’ll have to pay for the priviledge because they browser is to be shipped on a cartridge which you’ll have to buy.

The Opera browser is available on many computer OS versions, so chances are you may already be familiar with it. The DS version will make use of both the handhelds screens for displaying web pages, and will be surfable over any wireless web connection, though whether the currently free Nintendo WiFi system will extend to web browsing is unknown at present. Clicking on links is as simple as pointing at them with your stylus, and presumably entry of web addresses will be handled via the typical virtual keyboard arrangement.

For more information check out the Opera web browsers home page.