GAMES CONSOLE MAKERS Microsoft and Sony have announced that they won't launch their next generation Xbox and Playstation this year.

Various rumours have been bouncing around about the next Xbox, thought to be called the 720 following the 360. We expected this to be shown off at this year's E3 gaming conference, but Microsoft said it will not be unveiling a new console this year.

Cedrick Delmas, marketing manager for Xbox in France told Lepoint, "We are in an industry where it talks a lot, it likes to tell stories. I am not convinced that things are happening this year. The cycle of the Xbox 360 is by no means complete."

He added, "The proof we are not at all parties on the logic of price drop this year. After that, it will happen at E3, it is still premature. What is certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012."

Nintendo is set to launch its follow up to the hugely popular Wii this year in the Wii U. However, Microsoft seems happy to give its Japanese rival the stage.

"We are not here to deal with Nintendo and they are not there to fight against other manufacturers. Nintendo has placed itself in a different cycle, they advance at their own pace, successfully as we have seen with the Wii, and now it is their turn to present their innovation," said Delmas.

Sony might also be disappointing visitors to E3 with a lack of new hardware. Its French CEO told Lepoint that it "will probably be the last to announce something". If this is all true then it's all eyes on Nintendo and the Wii U for 2012. µ

GAMES DEVLOPER Activision has launched the first downloadable content for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (CoD MW3) players.

The MW3 Content Season has started this month with two new maps. The firm has announced it will be releasing content every month for the next nine months.

Activision said it has "lit the fuse on the highly-anticipated Modern Warfare 3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite, with the release of two all-new multiplayer maps, the opening salvo of nine consecutive months of downloadable content."

The content is exclusively available for premium subscribers of Call of Duty Elite on Xbox Live with other platforms like Playstation 3 coming later. General MW3 players will be able to buy the content starting in March.

The new maps are called Elite Drop 1: Liberation and Elite Drop 2: Piazza where Liberation is set in Central Park, New York City and Piazza portrays an Italian seaside village.

Further content over the coming months will include at least one map per month along with more missions and game modes. µ

GAMES CONSOLE MAKER Microsoft will discontinue its Microsoft Points online currency.

The virtual cash that can be used to buy games and other content, primarily on Xbox, will be eradicated by the end of the year, according to Inside Mobile Apps. It will be replaced with straight forward real money transactions like the Android Market and Apple App Store..

We contacted Microsoft about the report but it unhelpfully said that it "does not comment on rumour and speculation".

If it is true then the change will come as a good one from a user perspective. Microsoft's virtual currency, although used on Xbox Live, Zune and Windows Phone, has had its problems.

For starters users must buy set amounts of points in one go to then use on purchases, this makes it harder to work out what the cost of a product is and leaves left over points.

It has also been a focus  of many hacked Xbox Live accounts. Attackers have gained access to accounts and used them to buy and sell large amounts of Microsoft Points.

Microsoft might not want to ditch the Points system because it will increase the number of small credit card transaction fees that it will have to pay. µ

TRADE BODY UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) has announced that it is making preparations for a chart system for Xbox and Playstation digital games.

The charts will rank the popularity of games on the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) and Playstation Network (PSN), according to MVC. The firm will move onto consoles after it completes its PC version over the next few weeks.

Andy Payne, chairman of UKIE said, "We're in conversations about XBLA and PSN, because they are very important as well."

"You could argue that we should have started with that. And I wouldn't disagree. At the time, people were touchy about data. But attitudes have changed amongst content owners and platform holders."

Payne said that the Xbox and Playstation charts will be easier to pull together than the PC version. Digital distribution of games and other content is on the upswing. Users now rely on and enjoy gaming services over the internet without leaving their homes. µ

CLOUD GAMING PROVIDER Onlive has announced that its service will be integrated on all upcoming Google TVs.

Onlive will be pre-loaded onto all Google powered TVs regardless of manufacturer. It will allow users to play console quality games on-demand via the internet without buying a console.

"Onlive integration into Google TV is a huge leap forward for videogames," said Steve Perlman, CEO of Onlive. "Consumers have come to expect instant gratification with music, movies and video. Now, with Onlive, players in the US and soon in the UK can just as easily stream the highest-quality games to their Google TV devices for play instantly on demand, without discs or downloads."

The Onlive Viewer is available immediately for all Google TV owners and full online gameplay is coming soon, according to the firm. The Onlive Wireless Controller will be compatible with all Google TV models.

Onlive said this will make Google TV the first integrated entertainment system to come with console quality gaming straight out-of-the-box.

Google TV has been featured at this year's consumer electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas. Devices have been announced by big name vendors such as LG, Samsung and Vizio.

The Onlive gaming service offers around 200 titles and is available on almost all types of devices including PCs, smartphones, tablets and TVs. µ

JAPANESE SECURITY HONEY POT Sony has publicly apologised to people who bought its Playstation Vita over the weekend.

The firm has reacted to user problems with the handset in Japan and has posted its apologies on a customer service page.

A range of problems have affected users, from lack of connectivity through unresponsive touchscreens. Issues do not seem to be limited to a small pool of users either.

"Currently, special office and information center PlayStation ® Vita, has gotten more inquiries contact usually by the time zone we call remained a difficult tie. Apologize for any inconvenience to customers, Sorry," says the customer-facing apology that we have translated through Google.

It said, "Some of the inquiries are questions about PlayStation Vita, by you doing your handy and easy, some cases improved. So we offer a Q & A below, before submitting an inquiry, try you for your check, thank you."

There is a range of home fixes, including turning the device off and on again, and checking to see that it is actually plugged in. µ

IT'S TIME to pull out the bread roll earmuffs as finally the Star Wars: The Old Republic online multiplayer has gone live.

The game is pretty exciting if you like role playing and Star Wars and must be a special joy if you like both. In it you are tasked with deciding your own destiny, which means that you must choose between a Jedi or a Sith lifestyle, or a career as a smuggler or bounty hunter.

The game comes from Electronic Arts (EA), Bioware and Lucasarts, and its servers went live this morning.

"Today represents an amazing milestone for BioWare, EA and Star Wars fans everywhere and we are confident it has been worth the wait," said Dr Ray Muzyka, co-founder of Bioware and general manager of EA's Bioware label as the game went live.

"The innovations we're bringing to the category are just the start of a journey and ongoing investment in our players that will grow, evolve and transform based on player feedback over the weeks, months and years ahead."

The game is set thousands of years before the films we all know so you won't be bumping into Han Solo or Boba Fett, but on the plus side this should mean that Jar Jar Binks isn't it either.

Each copy of the game comes with 30 day access to the online world, and after this ends players can subscribe for monthly or three and six monthly packages. Pricing in the UK is £8.99 per month, £25.17 for three months or £46.14 for six months. µ

THE CLASSIC that is Grand Theft Auto III (GTA) is now out for IOS and Android mobile devices. We've taken some time to have a play and here are our thoughts.

We've downloaded and installed the £3.23 app on the HTC Flyer but you can also download the game for Apple's Igadgets for £2.99. The app is an 18MB download but when you open it for the first time you're presented with a further 431MB worth of files to download.

It's slightly hard to believe that the game was initially released 10 years ago for the Sony Playstation 2. It was the first in the series to leave behind the birds eye view and move to a 3D environment.

When the game starts the memories come flooding back and the game looks and feels like it did all those years ago. If the visuals don't jog your memory then the old radio stations surely will. We were impressed with how well it ran on our tablet. providing a smooth frame rate and decent resolution.

The story is just like it was and you can bound around Liberty City taking on missions or just drive around taking in the scenery whilst running down the odd pedestrian and giving the police a reason to chase you.

We we're highly sceptical about playing GTA III on a touchscreen interface prior to launch, after being so used to either a mouse and keyboard or console controller. However, Rockstar Games has done a great job of optimising the game for the touchscreen.

When on foot you can touch the screen anywhere on the far left to start using the joystick and the remaining buttons are on the right, such as jump and attack. This means you don't end up with your finger in the wrong position, which can be frustrating when the virtual joystick is fixed. Touching the middle of the screen allows you to adjust the camera view.

When driving a vehicle, the left and right steering buttons appear in the bottom left of the screen and the accelerator and brake are on the right. We found it a little hard to get used to driving because the steering is on the sensitive side but we got more used to it as time went on, and you end up needing the sensitivity with the kind of stunts you need to pull in GTA.

You can select to use your devices accelerometer if it has one. Unfortunately this would only work properly in portrait mode on our HTC Flyer, which is hardly ideal when the game is displayed in portrait. Rockstar Games has also added device support for selected USB controllers, although we haven't been able to try any out.

Whilst GTA V is still on the way, this is a great way to fill the time until it arrives and enjoy some nihilistic joyrides, random mayhem and thoughtless rampages in Rockstar Games' virtual world. µ

CLASSIC PULL PEOPLE OUT OF CARS GAME Grand Theft Auto III has just baseball batted its way onto Iphones, Ipads and Android devices, ten years after it was first released.

The genre setting classic is much loved amongst gamers and took the top down view title into a much more realistic world and to a much more appreciative audience.

Now you can relive that feeling you first got when you were awarded a rocket launcher, or ran around desperately trying to shake off the cops while rival gangs took pot shots at you, playing it again on a smartphone.

The game is available on Android devices and Apple's Ipad and Iphone. It looks just as it did ten years ago, and although we have not tried it yet, it presumably makes good use of touch controls. Purists might like the idea of investing in a joystick. We'll be trying it out at some time soon, and will do a hands-on review.

In the meantime if you can part with a few quid - £3.23 for Android and £2.99 for Apple - this close to Christmas, and fancy whiling away your train journeys by punching, kicking and shooting people without getting into trouble, then this is the app release of the year for you. µ

CLOUD GAMING SERVICE Onlive has announced that it has an app available for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Up to now the service has only been available for Windows and OS X PCs but this expansion brings 'console-class' games to mobile devices. The app is live on the Android Market but not Apple's App Store.

Onlive CEO Steve Perlman said, "Today marks a major milestone: OnLive is now delivering the latest, console-class, top-tier games-literally to your fingertips-on tablets and phones for instant, on-demand play anywhere, anytime,"

A total of 25 games including L.A. Noire and Lego Harry Potter have been adapted to work with a touchscreen. The rest of the library totalling nearly 200 titles will be playable using the Bluetooth Onlive Wireless Controller, which will go on sale tomorrow for £39.

The app is free to download and users will get Lego Batman: The Videogame for free too. However, other games have to be purchased individually but can be played on multiple devices.

Onlive allows users to play high quality games no matter what the hardware of the device, relying instead on a good internet connection. If the connection drops then the game resolution is reduced to avoid lag. µ