Category: Gaming

Chatpad On Xbox 360 Announced

Chatpad On Xbox 360 AnnouncedMicrosoft have confirmed that they will be releasing the Messenger Kit for the XBox 260 in the US this September, after a long period of building up anticipation for it.

As well as a headset for voice chatting – which have been around since the original Xbox – the interesting part is the introduction of a full-sized, if mini, qwerty keyboard, letting you IM your mates until your thumbs bleed.

While Microsoft aren’t disclosing any plans for Europe or the UK, they say it should retail at $29.99 when it goes on sale on 6th September.

PS3 Price Drops, Or Not: Sony Lose The (Gaming) Plot

PS3 Price Drops, Or Not: Sony Lose The (Gaming) PlotI don’t what the people driving the European wing of Sony think that they’re up to, but they appear, of late, to be perfecting the art of making the wrong decision.

We learnt last week that Sony will be dropping the price of Playstation 3 in the the US by $100, but will not be offering a reduction in the UK or Europe.

Do they think that no-one in the UK reads the International press? Do they not realise that UK gamers already feel insulted by their action on the PS3?
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Sony PSP A Hit In Beijing

Sony PSP a hit in BeijingWriting about the announcement of the new PSP brought the following little ditty to mind – one we’ve been meaning to write for a while.

You may be thinking that the Sony PSP hasn’t been the hit that it might have been, because in and around Europe you don’t see many on the street.

It’s easy to lull yourself into a false state of knowledge when you’re in a major capital, leading you to think that the behaviours that you see around the street are representative of the world as a whole.

This was clearly show in our recent visit to Beijing, where PSP usage told a distinctly different story. There were tons of the things knocking around, primarily on the Beijing Underground.

Used mostly by the under 30s, but not limited to males, we often saw people playing games on them during the crushed morning rush hour (and it was a serious crush). The other frequent use was using them to catch up on TV or film programming.

Alongside the genuine PSPs, we also spied quite a few copy PSPs having a similar form factor, but a rougher, less-engineered finish.

New PSP Shown at E3

New PSP Shown at E3Sony made a big song and dance at E3 yesterday in showing the new version of the PSP.

Much press reaction is pretty unimpressed – which seems to be a increasingly reaction to Sony news these days. A shame for a company that five years plus ago could do no wrong.

The changes for the new PSP centre around the reduction in size and weight – and video output.
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Wii Sales 6:1 Against PS3 In Japan

Wii Sales 6:1 Against PS3 In JapanFurther news of the power of the Wii arrives, with Japanese data service Famitsu Marketing Data Service reporting that the Nintendo Wii outsold the PS3 again in Japan.

June saw another factor of one being added to the previous two months of PS3 thrashing with Wii outselling it 6.5 to one. The figure quoted are 270,974 Wiis against 41,628 PS3s.

April saw a ratio 4:1 of Wii to PS3 sales and May a 5:1.

Clearly these latest figures are just one territory, but we’ve been pointing out how much more popular the Wii was with the public since before its UK launch.

The Xbox 360 is relatively no where with a tiny 17,616 being sold, putting the Wii outselling it at 15 to one!

Video Gamers Do Less Reading And Homework

Video Gamers Do Less Reading And HomeworkKids playing video games on school days spend up to a third less time doing homework than those who do play games.

Figures from a study in America revealed thath video gamers spending far less time reading and doing homework, with fragging boys found to spend 30 percent less time reading, with the girls registering a 34 per cent reduction in homework.
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WiiWare: New Original Games Channel Opening

WiiWare: New Original Games Channel OpeningEveryone’s favourite games console manufacturer (except Sony, perhaps), is opening up another channel of content for its Wii.

Nintendo have announced WiiWare, letting people purchase and download original games software.

Nintendo have offered a service to download reworked classic games – Super Mario Bros, etc – to the Wii since last November. Indeed, earlier this month they announced that 4.7m of these classic games had been downloaded already.

WiiWare will attempt to get legions of small software developers to create compelling, less-expansive games, without them having to be concerned with the hassle and cost of creating games on disk.

Nintendo expect the first WiiWare content to arrive early 2008 – so coders, get coding!

Manhunt 2 Is “A Fine Piece Of Art”

Manhunt 2 Is A Fine Piece Of ArtManhunt 2 has been hanging around the news all week long.

It started off with being banned by the BFFC for sale in the UK, now it’s being called a “fine piece of art” by the game’s publisher, Take-Two.

The game, written by Rockstar Games, must be liked by the chairman of Take-Two, as he is now on record say that he “Fully” stands behind the game.

More extensively he release a statement saying

“The Rockstar team has come up with a game that fits squarely within the horror genre and was intended to do so,” he continued, “It brings a unique, formerly unheard of cinematic quality to interactive entertainment, and is also a fine piece of art.”

So there.

Manhunt 2: BFFC Bans UK Release

Manhunt 2: BFFC Bans UK ReleaseThe British Board of Film Classification (BCCF) have ruled that Manhunt 2, the second version of the game from Rockstar Games, has been banned in its current form from sale or rental in the UK.

Originally scheduled for release during July 2007, the BCCF today made it pretty clear that they really didn’t like it – at all. David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said, “Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly. Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the Board’s published Guidelines. In the case of Manhunt 2 this has not been possible. Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.”
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Global Mobile Gaming Revenue To Soar 50% In 2007

Global Mobile Gaming Revenue To Soar 50% In 2007Global mobile gaming end-user revenue is set to skyrocket from $2.9 billion in 2006 to $9.6 billion in 2011, with popularity growing as consumer awareness increases and more games are released.

The figures were released in a new report from research analysts Gartner who calculated that worldwide mobile gaming revenue looks set to hit $4.3 billion in 2007, up nearly 50 percent from 2006.
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