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SplitFish announces FragFX mouse controller for PS3

by Donald Melanson

Peripheral purveyor SplitFish has already brought some PC-style input to the PlayStation 2, but now, as promised, it's taken its game to the PS3, following up its EdgeFX mouse controller with the strikingly-similar FragFX device. Like the EdgeFX, the FragFX gives you a mouse to improve your aim in FPS games, with the separate left-handed grip controller getting an upgrade this time around to let you take advantage of the PS3's motion sensing abilities. Not one to let a potential selling point go unnoticed, SplitFish is also touting the controller as being "optimized" for use with Sony's recently announced Home virtual world. While you'll have to wait a while to put that particular claim to the test, you will be able to get your hands on a wired version of the FragFX next month for $60, with a Bluetooth version coming "later" for $70.

(c) www.engadget.com

Uni.Console Tags: Sony Playstation, Playstation 3, PS3, SplitFish, FragFX

PS3 1.60 Firmware to Add Background Downloading

by Marcus Yam

PS3's next big update to add new Web surfing options and background downloading

The powerful PlayStation 3 will soon be getting the ability to simultaneously walk and chew gum, so to speak. An upcoming system update to bring the PS3 firmware to version 1.6 will give users the ability to download files from the PlayStation Network in the background.

Currently, PlayStation 3 owners must halt all activity and remain focused on the download progress bar. Any attempt at another operation on the console will cancel the download, which is non-resumable. Users will greatly appreciate this new feature when it comes to downloading large files, such as Gran Turismo HD Concept at 625MB.

Another recently announced feature to be included in the 1.60 update is the introduction of Folding@home functionality, giving owners of a PS3 the opportunity to use their new game system to help find real-life cures to diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and many cancers.

Version 1.60 will also improve the Web browsing ability of the PS3. The update will bring zooming and new resolution settings for easier surfing, plus a full-sized keyboard on-screen for more convenient text entry.

Although the 20GB PS3 may soon be extinct, especially after confirmation from retailer memos, Sony is adding a software feature so that the WiFi-less PS3 variant will be able to connect with the PSP for Remote Play.

Details of the update were first found from a Japanese press release dating the release date of the new firmware to be March 22. The timing of the new firmware closely coincides with the launch of the European launch of PS3.

While not yet applicable to Japanese and North American consoles, the European PS3 features revised hardware that omits the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer, a chip used for hardware backwards compatibility for PS2 games, in favor of costs. An upcoming firmware update is expected to introduce software emulation of over 1,000 PS2 games for the European PS3. It is unclear how the different hardware specification and software requirements will affect future and current Japan and North American PlayStation 3 consoles.

(c) www.dailytech.com

 

Uni.Console Tags: Playstation 3, PS3, Sony, Update

Microsoft to show off IPTV on Xbox 360

by Darrin Olson

 

In a speech by Bill Gates at CES earlier this year, Gates talked about upgrades to the Xbox 360 including live IPTV service. Microsoft is now planning on showing off this service integrated with the Xbox 360 and the Connected Home show in London the week of March 5th.

IPTV in the game console will be demo’d by Ed Graczyk, Worldwide Director of Marketing and Communications for Microsoft TV, during his keynote speech at the event. “Separately the Xbox 360 and Microsoft TV IPTV Edition deliver unique and exciting entertainment experiences, but IPTV on Xbox 360 delivers a real value proposition for consumers, service providers and content and game developers alike. By integrating these industry-leading solutions, we continue to drive innovation and enable new connected entertainment experiences for consumers.”, said Graczyk. This will be the first time consumers will get a chance to actually see what Microsoft has planned for the integration.

This new feature incorporated into the Xbox 360 game console will bring it additional value as more of an integrated fixture in a home entertainment package allowing users to browse, record and watch television shows through the console, along with other features such as chatting over Xbox Live while watching television. “This will be a unique opportunity to witness first hand the possibilities which IPTV offers to service providers and to the online gaming market and we are delighted that Microsoft has chosen the IPTV World Forum event to showcase this demonstration.”, said Ian Johnson, director of the Junction Group who organized the IPTV world forum.

(c) www.slipperybrick.com

Sony's PS3 Launch Titles will be £10 less than Xbox 360's

It has been revealed that Sony's PS3 launch titles will be £10 less than the Xbox 360 title's were. This means Brits can pick up the likes of Resistance for just £39.99.

quote:

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SCEE’s five disc-based first-party releases – Resistance: Fall Of Man, Motorstorm, Formula One Championship Edition, Ridge Racer 7 and Genji, Days Of The Blade – have been given an Official price point of just £39.99 (E59.99). The suggested retail price of Xbox 360 titles is usually £49.99.
In addition to the disc-based games SCEE has also announced that titles downloadable via its PlayStation Network, such as BlastFactor, flOw and Super Rub a Dub and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, will be available for an introductory period at prices from E2.99 to E9.99 (around £2 to £6.70).
Additional content, such as video content and game items, will be priced on sliding scale from E0.99 (around 66p).

(c) www.maxconsole.net

Nintendo Wii Outsells PS3, Xbox 360 During January

by Marcus Yam

The Wii off to a great start for 2007

Nintendo’s Wii continues to sell at a torrid place, outselling the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 during January. Market research firm NPD Group reports that consumers bought 436,000 Wii, while Xbox 360 sold 294,000 units, followed by PlayStation 3 with 244,000.

Nintendo is crediting much of its success to the broad appeal of Wii compared to machines from Microsoft and Sony. “I do think that we're selling to additional and different customers,” said Perrin Kaplan, VP marketing for Nintendo. “We've had an incredibly healthy start and we think there's going to be a pretty long tail on this product.”

Each console experienced a drop in sales when compared with figures from December 2006. The Wii saw the least decline when compared to its previous month at 604,200, while Xbox 360 saw the biggest decline from its 1.1 million units sold. PlayStation 3 also fell from its 490,700 sold during December.

The PlayStation 2 continues to be a strong seller, likely because of its price point, with 299,000 units—but down from the amazing 1.4 million during the holiday month. The Nintendo DS also loosened its grip, selling 239,000 during January—a steep drop from the 1.6 million during the gift-giving season. PSP also fell to 211,000 from 953,200.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Moore, Satchell savage 'talentless' Sony at CES

by Patrick Garratt

Peter Moore - VP of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, entertainment and devices division and Chris Satchell - general manager of Microsoft's game development group - launched an unprecedented attack on Sony's PlayStation 3 business at CES in Las Vegas yesterday.

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, the two senior executives branded the Japanese firm's online service for the newly-launched console a "disaster" and said the company lacks the talent and the "DNA" to ever deliver a suitable online console service for consumers.

"It's going to take [Sony] a couple of years to get up to speed on this, and I'm not sure that they necessarily have the talent, or it's built into who they are as a company," Moore said.

"They're struggling with some of their hardware issues, and apparently they're going to deliver another five million in the next 90 days. But this business is about hardware, software and services now. And the consumer expects that."

Moore's comments came as he explained how much commitment Microsoft has needed to create the currently available Live offering.

"It's taken a company like Microsoft four solid years to get where we are today - the richness of the experience, the consistency of the experience, constantly updating features and making it feel fresh - and we're a software company and this is a software plane," he said.

"It is not in Sony's DNA to be able to get that up and running from zero."

Satchell bore similar sentiments. "If I wanted to make my online service better, and I wanted to give [Sony] a little piece of advice, it would be to copy Xbox Live a little more closely," he said.

"My honest opinion is that it's pretty much a disaster. They keep saying that they have a free service. Well, if they don't have anything, of course it's free. And you know what: what's free about $600?"

Moore and Satchell were speaking after announcements at CES from Bill Gates on Sunday that Xbox Live will be brought to Windows Vista this summer, and an announcement from Sony on Monday that 1 million PS3s have now shipped in the US.

The full interview with Peter Moore is now on GamesIndustry.biz. The interview with Chris Satchell will follow tomorrow.

(c) www.gameindustry.biz

Evolution of the Handheld

The handheld gaming scene has witnessed many attempts by a variety of companies to gain commercial success, but over thirty formats shown below, only a handful have been able to gain support of the mainstream. The main problems for companies trying to enter the handheld gaming scene is how to create an affordable, portable machine that won't eat up the battery.
It wasn't until 1989 when Nintendo released the GameBoy, with it's dot-matrix screen, low battery consumption (though needed 4 AA batteries), relatively small size and one killer game, Tetris , that guaranteed them the success they wanted. No other company could emulate what Nintendo had created, try as they may, there was nothing as successful as the GameBoy.
Almost sixteen years after the GameBoy, in 2005, both Nintendo and Sony released their 'revolutionary' contenders, each aiming at a different market. So far, two years down the line it seems like Nintendo still have the same magic formula they had back in 1989.

Milton Bradley Microvision - 1978

Nintendo Game & Watch (60 in the series) - 1980 - 1991

Epoch Game Pocket Computer - 1984

Nintendo Gameboy - 1989

Atari Lynx - 1989

NEC TurboExpress - 1990

Sega GameGear - 1991

Watara Supervision - 1992

Sega MegaJet - 1992

Nintendo VirtualBoy - 1994

Sega Nomad - 1995

NeoGeo Pocket - 1996

Nintendo GameBoy Pocket - 1996

Nintendo GameBoy Pocket Light - 1997

Tiger Game.com - 1997

Nintendo GameBoy Color - 1998

Cybiko - 1998

Dreamcast VMU - 1998

Sony PocketStation - 1998

NeoGeo Pocket Color - 1999

Bandai WonderSwan - 1999

Bandai WonderSwan Color - 2000

GamePark GP32 - 2001

Nintendo GameBoy Advance - 2001

Nintendo Pokemon Mini - 2004

Bandai Swan Crystal - 2002

Nokia N-Gage - 2003

Nintendo GameBoy Advance SP - 2003

Timetop Gameking - 2003

Tapwave Zodiac - 2004

Nokia N-Gage QD - 2004

Nintendo DS - 2004

Sony PSP - 2004

Tiger Gizmondo - 2005

Nintendo GameBoy Micro - 2005

GamePark XGP - 2005

V-Smile Pocket - 2005

Ez Mini - 2005

Nintendo DS Lite - 2006

 (c) hahuk.blogspot.com

XBox 360 Version 2 To Come With HDMI and Bigger Hard Drive

by Jason McMaster

Being an early-adopter is a double-edged sword. On the one side you get to be the cool guy with the latest gaming hardware, but on the other side you end up missing out on the hardware revisions and special offers. One such revision that is causing me much pain is the leaked information on the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) XBox 360 Version 2, codenamed “Zephyr.”

Engadget spoke with an industry insider who has confirmed the release of the new 360. This latest revision contains the 65nm processor, a 120 GB HDD and a HDMI port. This would be quite the update for XBox fans, since the 20 GB HDD that is currently available has been constantly maligned due to lack of space, the HDMI port will be capable of producing true 1080p, and, last but not least, the new processor is smaller and cooler, so less heat related issues.

The XBox insider who released this information couldn’t give a release date for the new hardware, but said that it would be available “soon.” Let’s hope there’s a trade-in plan, because there’s no better way to enrage a bunch of fans than releasing a better version of a product they just bought. There isn’t any information on what the new 360 might cost, but since it is coming with the smaller, cheaper to manufacture processor, one would imagine that it will remain the same price.

(c) www.gigagamez.com

Just how fast is this Wii of yours really?

Apparently quite a bit, as long as it's not compared to the unfairly brawny Playstation 3 or the Microsoft priced Xbox 360. Better compare the Wii to the Gamecube, a console much more powerful than Sony's PS2 and quite capable of producing the rather impressive graphics of Resident Evil 4:

Beside the obvious differences of the Wiimote, the WiFi networking, the Channels and the Virtual console, the inclusion of a full-sized DVDx6 (that's its speed really), 16:9 support, the new design and the SD cards thingy, the Wii improves on the core Gamecube hardware as well.
According to Felix Domke's speech at the 23c3 Chaos Communication Congress in the free and always radical city of Berlin (see the speech here), this is what the difference between the two consoles actually looks like, when compiled into a chart by a gnome:
MaxConsole, on the other hand, estimates that the Wii is actually 1.5 times faster than the Gamecube, and then goes on to provide an extensive list of specs. Read it here. Just don't buy this outrageous Wii bundle...

(c) gnomeslair.blogspot.com

Tabloid reports on child 'Killed by Game Boy'

Daily Mirror front page leads with holiday accident

UK tabloid The Daily Mirror today leads with a story of a tragic holiday accident and a half-page headline stating: "Killed by Xmas Game Boy."

The story, also on the red top's website, tells of 7 year-old Connor O'Keefe, who was electrocuted while unplugging a charger in his hotel room in Thailand.

"There should be some kind of warning about different electrical currents you get abroad because this would not have happened in England," said the mother of the child, Kathleen Curry.

She also said that Connor was aware of the dangers of electricity, while police at the Sunset Beach Hotel in Phuket described the incident as a tragic accident.

All Game Boy handhelds come with numerous safety warnings in the manual and on printed leaflets, detailing consumer information and precautions. Instruction booklets also warn that devices 'must be used with the recommended power supply', and that they conform to the EEC's Low Voltage Directive.

Nintendo was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

(c) www.gamesindustry.biz

Nintendo Wii Sports Pack Wiimote Attachments

The Nintendo Wii's pack-in game Wii Sports is a pretty decent proof of concept, but waving around the Wiimote isn't exactly a realistic experience. However, by attaching these plastic, erm, attachments, you can authentically recreate the experience of swinging a baseball bat, golf club or tennis racket. Take a look for yourself at all of them on the other side.

So, in essence, you're paying $22 for pieces of plastic shaped like sports apparatuses. I can think of bigger wastes of money. – Nicholas Deleon

(c) www.gizmodo.com