Nintendo dominates the world

FPS FIRM id software demoed a new engine, 'Tech 5', at a peculiar venue this week - the Apple WWDC07 conference.

Unveiled as a surprise guest at Apple CEO Steve Jobs's keynote, id co-founder and technical director John Carmack gave the audience the first look at 'Tech 5,' its new engine for Mac, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

You can view a sneak preview courtesy of YouTube.

Wii/DS
As this article's headline suggests, Nintendo is leading the console race, and dominating the games war, world wide.

The latest NPD sales figures show Nintendo is cleaning up in the US hardware market, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The Wii sold 338,000 units throughout May, which was more than both the 155,000 Xbox 360s and 82,000 PS3s sold, put together. In the handheld market, the DS shifted a whopping 423,000 units - just short of doubling the PSP 221,000 total.

It wasn't just Nintendo US hardware that was selling like hot cakes - Pokémon Diamond stole top billing in the games charts with 331,000 copies shifted, followed closely by Mario Party 8 (314,000 2nd), Pokémon Pearl 238,000 (4th), and Wii Play (227,000 5th).

A similar picture was seen in Japan - according to the sales charts for the week ending 10th June, the DS and Wii racked up more than 79 per cent of all activity.

The DS took sales of 117,193, dwarfing the 24,711 figure from it's main competitor, the Sony PSP. To date, Nintendo's dual-screen menace has trounced Sony's console by more than three to one.

The Wii, too, sustained its incredible sales in the console market, selling 64,529 units. The PS3 sulked in with 8,776 and the Xbox 360 bagged just 2,553, Eurogamer reports.

Despite winning the hearts, minds, and wallets of consumers, some executives aren't satisfied with the Wii.

Scott Steinberg, vice president of marketing for SEGA US, has said he is "concerned" about the future of the Wii - suggesting that PS3 is more likely to be the market leader in this console cycle.

"I am a little concerned about the creative depth of the Wii pool," he told Reuters. "I'm not sure if they will top out in 2008 or 2007." Similarly, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter told Gamesindustry.biz that he believed the PS3 would win the war.

He also suggest a HD enabled Wii 2 was a distinct possibility.

"It's easy to envision a Wii 2 in a couple of years that runs at full HD, and has both a Wii-mote and an analog controller, so that all games can be ported to it." he said.

This isn't surprising considering FIFA producer Tim Tschirner's statement, stating that he believes the Nintendo Wii only matches up to the first Xbox in terms of power. The Nintendo Phantom Hourglass site opened this week and contains a plethora of videos and images, check out DSFanboy for more.

EA's Boogie-bundled wii microphone has finally been pictured, but it's hardly awe-inspiring stuff.

Paper Mario has been out in some territories for a while now - but nothing can compete with real paper Marios. Check out nerd-craft.

IGN staffers seem to be adamant the Nintendo DS will be receiving a Halo port of some sort.

"It's a real game, I played it a little while ago," said Casamassina on the IGN Wii-k in review podcast. "A lot of people just don't believe that but we're going to lay down some ownage next week or soon afterward by showing you guys that it is a real game. So, you guys are about to be owned, all you naysayers."

We'll see.

PS3/PSP
Following reports that hackers have cracked Playstation 3's anti-piracy software, SCEA declared that it will "aggressively pursue" anyone caught engaging in such activity with legal action.

"Unfortunately, hackers will try to exploit any hardware system software," SCEA spokesperson Dave Karraker told GamesIndustry.biz. "The best we can do as a company is to make our security that much stronger and aggressively pursue legal action against anyone caught trying to use an exploit in an illegal manner."

Sony has launched a new Playstation blog where you'll be sure to find unbiased news, announcements, and opinions. Honest.

Have a read when you're bored, here.

Taking advantage of the blog, senior corporate communications director Dave Karraker responded to criticism that the PS3 is more difficult to develop for.

"It's not that PS3 is harder to write for, it's just that you can do more with it," he noted.

"Since PS3's Cell processor allows more features - better physics, more complex graphical processing, lighting or sound, etc. - there is inevitably going to be more cost in supporting those extra features."

A new firmware update was released for the PS3 this week. The update, version 1.81, doesn't introduce any new features, but tweaks an HDMI quirk, according to Eric Lempel, director of Playstation Network operations:

"Most notably is the RGB Full setting which a few of you wrote in about. In 1.80 we added an option to the XMB under settings allowing you to choose between RGB Full and Limited. Basically if you are connecting your PS3 to your TV using an HDMI cable, and if your TV supports RGB full range, the picture quality may be improved when this option is set to Full. Some of you pointed out that the Full setting would sometimes revert back to Limited and 1.81 will address this issue. Please keep in mind that this setting is only effective when the PS3 is connected to a TV using an HDMI cable."

Wondering why you should own a PSP? Joystiq has the low-down, read 60 reasons to own a PSP.

Xbox 360
Xbox Live executive Aaron Greenberg has defended Microsoft's decision to charge for multiplayer online gaming - and criticised Sony for failing to offer a "unified service" with PlayStation Network.

Greenberg was speaking in an interview with GameTrailers.com, during which he was asked about the PSN being free while Xbox Live users must pay £39.99 for an annual Gold subscription in order to compete online.

"I don't think price is a big issue," Greenberg said. "Almost everything we offer on Live is available for free, your friends list, messaging, [marketplace content]... When you get a good 80 per cent of the Live experience for free... We feel our multiplayer offering is good value."

Microsoft has declined to comment directly on rumours that it has updated the 360 with a second GPU heatsink - but has said that such upgrades are "commonplace within the industry", says GamesIndustry.biz.

The comments come after some European Xbox 360 owners reported that consoles they sent away for repair were returned with an extraheatsink installed.

There have been suggestions in the past that the 360 suffers from overheating problems, and there is now speculation that the addition of a secondheatsink is an attempt to solve the problem.

Speedball II has been announced as being in development for XBLA. A classic that we can't wait for.

Take-Two has confirmed that the promised episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV on PS3 will not appear and is now an important Xbox 360 exclusive.

If racing is more your thing, VRX makes the ultimate driving setup. It contains:

"Four Xbox 360 Elites, four copies of Forza Motorsport 2 (you need a copy in each in order to enable multi-monitor support), an Xbox 360 HD DVD drive, Xbox 360 camera, Xbox 360 wireless headset, a Zune, the Xbox 360 Steering Wheel, three 37-inch Sharp Aquos 1080p LCDs, a 7-inch rear-view LCD, Bose Acousimass 10-series surround sound, Harmon Kardon surround sound receiver, vibration feedback systems, aluminum mountin bracks and various other racing seat/setup gear to make the system a standalone beast."

Please send a review sample to the usual INQUIRER address please. µ

See also
Slim PSP rumours surface
PSP gaming phone spotted
Further PS3 slatings and PSP 2 whisperings
Sony PS3-based PSX appears on the horizon