Xbox 360 is in the mire

FINALLY E3 HAS passed us by, but the news glut doesn't seem to have stopped clogging the interwibble just yet.

PS3/PSP
Plenty of PSP news this week, unsurprisingly considering the PSP slim announcement at E3 last week.

First up is a comparison of the original PSP and PSP slim, which you can see at Gizmodo.

Similar to the DS TV tuner announced, the PSP will also be getting a 1seg tuner - albeit it's slim PSP compatible only. Lets hope something similar for UK Freeview appears.

Sony's David Reeves reportedly stated at a SCEE event at E3 that the slimmer PSP would "come out at €169 ($233) in all the PAL territories at the beginning of September".

According to Reuters via CVG, Sony will launch its trimmed down PSP on September 20th in the Japanese market, and it plans on listing it for ¥19,800 ($162).

Japan will also get three additional PSP colours, making a total of six available in the land of the rising sun.

For more details on the slim - check out this manual extraction.

Let's hope similar mods to this appear for the slim.

Now to the PS3. New data from Japanese magazine publisher and research group Enterbrain shows that the Playstation 3 has finally sold more than 1 million units in Japan, after approximately eight months on sale - more than four times as long as that taken by the Wii.

Sony might ship a lot more units of Little Big Planet cracks up to its promise. Make sure you keep an eye on the game, and start by watching this video.

You might want to check out the Gran Turismo 5 trailer too.

Industry analyst Michael Pachter expects the 80GB PlayStation 3 to drop in price to USD 499 once all stock of the 60GB model has sold out, GamesIndustry.biz reports. Lets hope so, or those sales milestones might not be frequent reading within this games round-up.

Xbox 360
Microsoft's annual European event, called X07 this year, has been cancelled according to Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, so claims a report. Microsoft probably can't afford it.

Xbox 360 warranty charges drove Microsoft's Xbox division to post a $1.89 billion (USD) operating loss for the fiscal year.

Losses for the Entertainment and Devices Division increased by 47 per cent for the year ended June 30, due primarily to a $1.06 billion charge stemming from the extension of the Xbox 360 hardware warranty.

Further bad news comes from Australia, where EB Games Australia issued a recall of Xbox 360 premium consoles, with store managers ordered to return their entire inventories.

Microsoft has also been hit with a new class action lawsuit alleging that the company's Xbox 360 console damages game discs.

The complaint was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for Southern California by two residents of the state: Christine Moskowitz and Dan Wood. The suit is seeking not less than $5 million in damages for Xbox 360 buyers affected by the alleged glitch.

The recall, which affects the premium and not the core Xbox 360 consoles, is assumed to be related to a faulty batch of HDDs rather than to the widely-reported RROD issue.

These kind of reports lead Gamepro.com to state six reasons the 360 is in deep trouble.

At least the 360 messenger pad is here, and a wireless guitar has also been spotted, that should resolve all of Microsoft's problems...

Maybe the company should of stuck with one of the prototypes recently unveiled. Or maybe not.

Wii/DS
For the third time this year the top ten of the Japanese weekly software sales chart is entirely composed of games for Nintendo formats, with six of those published by Nintendo. The chart is topped by Dragon Quest Swords on the Wii, with first week sales of over 305,000 units.

Ahead of the July 23rd release of June sales figures from NPD, Wedbush Morgan and fantasy video game prediction market simExchange have released their predictions, calling for at least a 4 to 1 outselling of the Wii compared with the PS3.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has claimed that the Wii could exceed the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 2 - currently the most successful home console in history, and considering these continuing large sales figures, it's entirely possible.

Despite this, Dave Perry has said that the Wii appeal won't last.

Speaking to Disposable Media, Perry reasoned that gamers are simply attracted to gorgeous visuals, a factor that could limit the Wii's long-term appeal.

Edible cake-like Wiis are sure to help the appeal last though.

But Dave, if you still hate the Wii, sing along to its own musical theme.

Maybe you could listen to it on your Super Mario sub.

Though there's not quite enough room in the Wii storage centre to fit in the sub.

Xyzzy has just posted a tutorial on Instructables on how to build a rumble pak that fits smoothly into your DS lite GBA slot using an old Pokemon Pinball cart.

Eurogamer also has the usual weekly Wii Virtual Console round-up. Don't forget SFII Turbo and NES Metriod are now on the VC. µ

See Also
PSP slim has UMD cache, no Euro PS3 price cut
Nintendo still rules the roost
Xbox 360 hits further production problems
Xbox 360 CPU refuses bypassed