Sony PS3-based PSX appears on the horizon

ALTHOUGH THE WII is proving so popular that machines are still in short supply, Nintendo is promising a raft of new games for the system, which should ensure its popularity excels even further.

Wii/DS
Nintendo of Japan has revealed its line-up of first party releases for 2007 on the Wii, with the majority of the company's previously announced titles all still scheduled for this year, including Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

The console's library currently stands at about 44 games, and Nintendo worldwide president Satoru Iwata said that an additional 45 Wii games currently in production will be available for consumers during the second quarter of 2007.

In addition, the leaked list reaffirms that the company is underway with Wii Health Pack and Wii Music, two games destined to follow in the footsteps of the ultra-popular Wii Sports.

Similar to the simplicity of Wii Sports, Electronic Arts has lifted the lid on another of its many in-development Wii games, EA Playground; a collection of c-razy mini-games utilising the motion-sensing powers of the Wii Remote.

The Wii version of Playground will sport a roster of frantic remote-waving mini-games such as dodge ball, RC car racing and garden classic swing ball.

There's also a version of Playground pencilled in for DS, with games such as bug hunt and spit balls taking advantage of the DS's stylus and microphone inputs. More here at CVG.

Last week Kaufman Bros. Equity Research analyst Todd Mitchell stated that, "Nintendo's success with the DS and Wii bodes poorly for the publishers", adding, "Nintendo is dominating software sales on its popular hardware platforms, leaving the publishers with a smaller slice of an only somewhat incrementally larger pie.

But Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has dismissed comments by his fellow analyst which suggested that Nintendo's success will have a negative effect on third party publishers.

"We feel that the likely shorter product cycles of Nintendo's platforms puts the publishers in a permanent catch-up mode." Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Pachter described Mitchell's comments as "naive". More here.

Still no news on a first-party Wiimote enabled gun, with Joystiq confirming that the latest sighting is indeed a third party tool. Fingers crossed for a Ninty release.

After the Zelda Wii mod, comes one for the DS. Golden.

'S00pcan' was unimpressed with the recent playing of Mario with feet: he can navigate everyone's favorite plumber through the first two levels of Super Mario Bros. with his eyes closed. Wonders will never cease.

Xbox
DigiTimes reports that the Xbox 360 will be equipped with the belated 65nm Xenos GPU later this year, with production of the new graphics chips scheduled for May.

For those of you undecided about the Elite, a newer, cooler, and cheaper Xbox 360 Elite should be here in the Autumn, and you should probably hold off until the new units are available. Though knowing which CPU/GPU combination is within your box prior to purchasing it may prove more difficult than your decision to buy one.

Until then take comfort in new screen shots of Halo 3. At least it'll play on any version of the 360, without the need for the sleek black Elite.

Xbox-Scene reports that at least some of the new Elite users have the new quieter Benq drive, although some are still stuck with Hitachi-LG units.

The president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division has said he expects the company's console business to finally start making money next year.

Speaking to eWeek, Robbie Bach said: "It's a business that will be profitable next year. We'll make money next year and that will be the first time, which is pretty exciting."

Microsoft announced last week that falling Xbox 360 sales contributed to a 21 per cent drop in revenues for the entertainment and devices division. The first quarter of 2007 saw an operating loss ofUSD 315 million (EUR 232 million) for the division, which also makes the Zune mp3 player. But these losses were reduced from the same period last year.

Having turned a blind eye for some time now, Microsoft is finally moving to clamp down on people who set up foreign Xbox Live accounts in order to download content they can't access locally.

In a statement released last week, Microsoft said that the territory controls would be strengthened by next week's "Spring Update" for the Xbox 360 dashboard, due out 7th May, which also introduces Live Messenger support among other things.

Don't forget, the Gears of War "Hidden Fronts" multiplayer map pack has pitched up on Xbox Live Marketplace. Get it now.

PS3/PSP
The PS3 cell processor is more powerful than an Xbox 360 CPU claims Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home program lead.

An Australian technology website has suggested that a revised Playstation 3 could be less than 18 months away, citing "a Sony insider" as its source.

The Smarthouse report refers to the proposed machine as a "Playstation 4", but goes on to state that it will be based on the same chipset as PS3, differing from the current model only in the "drive bay and attachment area".

According to the source, it will also include a software suite for managing streaming of content to TVs and hi-fis, and feature improved output.

This sounds sneakily similar to the previous home-entertainment version of the PS2 - the PSX. We wouldn't hold up hopes of seeing it anywhere but in Japan - not that it would bother us.

Both the Playstation 3 camera and PSP camera tipped up this week, with SCEE releasing details and images of the new PS3 compatible camera, and doing the same for the PSP device.

Gizmodo has an overview of the improvements in the new PS3 camera, here.

Tired of the Sixaxis? In love with the 360 pad? Try the PS360 gamepad, courtesy of Ben Heck.

Alternatively get your Sixaxis coupled with Linux and control killer robots. µ

See also
Games industry flashes wad, swaggers
Microsoft gaming labelled a "disastrous endeavour"
Xbox handheld and solid PSP2 rumours
Wii mod-chip works