Xbox 360 HD-DVD dies along with format

25 Feb 2008 | 09:52 GMT

By Dean Pullen

NINTENDO SYSTEMS regained their market dominance over the other videogame formats in Japan last week, with the news that the Wii still sits at the top of the hardware sales chart, with the DS replacing the Playstation Portable at number two.

Nintendo's Wii console, which has been outselling other formats, not just in Japan but all over the world, in the past year or so, should pass the total installed base in the US of the Xbox 360 by June.

That's according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, speaking to Bloomberg.

PS3/PSP
Now that the latest PS3 price drop has finally kick-started the system's position in the sales race, Sony seems to have come to the logical conclusion that further price drops probably aren't an immediate necessity.

Talking to Reuters (via Joystiq), SCEA VP of Marketing Scott Steinberg said Sony was surprised to see a rough parity between sales of the $500 and $400 PS3 models since the November price drops.

Lets hope you've not been waiting to get your hands on an 80GB PS3. The SKU has gone missing from the Sony Style site, and we suspect it's now gone forever.

Xbox 360
Microsoft's Gamerscore blog has announced the death of Xbox 360HD-DVD drives, stating: "Xbox will no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360" though they "will continue to provide standard product and warranty support for all Xbox 360 HD DVD Players in the market."

Microsoft's GDC keynote speaker, John Schappert, says that Xbox 360 has now sold more than 18 million units worldwide. Several thousand of those customers now have a large paper weight in the form of a HD-DVD drive.

While we're waiting for WiiWare (see below), Microsoft's community games for the Xbox 360 are now live, as Engadget reports.

This is coupled with the announcement that the Zune will also support XNA developed games.

Wii/DS
Nintendo has released a new batch of screenshots for Mario Kart Wii revealing a handful of interesting details on the arcade racer. You can view the shots and details over at Thewiire.com.

If more traditional home-based development suits your tastes, then you'll be happy to know Nintendo has announced over 100 WiiWare titles in development for the Wii. The WiiWare channel would launch in North America on May 12.

Here's the usual Eurogamer Wii Virtual Console round-up. µ

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