Find a PS3 and receive $1200 from Sony

LET'S START THIS week's games round-up with a link to the 'Ultimate Console Database'.

Viewable here, its popularity recently ensured a front page appearance on Digg. The site attempts to cover all consoles and games ever made. We wish you good luck.

PS3/PSP
Pretty much immediately after Sony releases the 3.10 firmware for the PSP, it was cracked by the infamous 'Dark_Alex', so say Pspfanboy.

His series of 'open edition' firmwares include all the functionality of Sony's official firmware plus a little extra. Recent releases unlocked full-resolution video, and allowed users to overclock their system, remove region coding, and more.

Feel free to use the hack whilst powering your PSP with three standard AAA batteries courtesy of this mod.

The PS3's firmware has also featured in the new this week - though the console has only been around a few months, the firmware has reached 1.51.

The feature list isn't quite as comprehensive as usual - the notes just state "support for PlayStation 3 format software titles". Oh well.

More security problems for Sony come from PS3news forums which report a Sony PS3 ISO loader has been created to allow copied games to function from the built-in hard-drive. A video of the hack is shown, but it still isn't clear whether its simply another faked fanboy movie.

We can't help but feel a little happy at a PS3 speculator who come up short after buying multiple consoles at launch to earn a quick buck, and instead made a considerable loss.

Fantastic news comes from SCEA president Jack Tretton regarding a new Sony money making scheme.

Regardless of the news that PS3s are in plentiful stock within American stores, Tretton has gone on record in a recent interview within the March issue of US-mag EGM (viewable via 1up).

When questioned on why PS3s were sitting upon store shelves instead of consumer homes, Tretton stated "If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than a few minutes, I'll give you 1,200 bucks for it." He continued, "I can get any retail buyer on the phone with you and get them to verify that not a single retail location in America where there's a PlayStation 3 on the shelf for sale. They've all been sold in a matter of minutes."

Penny Arcade have a comic take on the situation here.

Xbox 360
Gamersreports has been tipped by two sources within game retail outlets in Microsoft Australia, that they have been told to get ready to stock a black Xbox 360 with a 120GB hard-drive and HDMI, in April this year.

Catch some mock-ups of the machine here.

Good news for folk thinking of investing in a new Xbox 360 - Microsoft have begun replacing the DVD drives with a much more quiet Benq model, report Xbox-scene.

While on the subject of 360 upgrades, check out the Xbox 360 built-in LCD from Divineo. Whilst it looks lovely, we're not convinced by its practicality.

Whilst Sony battles with scaler issues and arguements over which games are really 1080p, EA have confirmed the first 1080p game for the Xbox 360, Gamasutra reports.

NBA Street Homecourt will ship a month earlier than Sega's Virtua Tennis 3 - the previous title to be announced running natively at 1080p. This stems from the announcement of 1080p compatibility last year, and the subsequent Xbox dashboard update which enabled the resolution.

News of a Battlestar Galactica Xbox Live Arcade game reached CVG this week, it will also appear on the PC. It's about time a game was made from the brilliant hit sci-fi show. Its also being reported that Rare might be developing an XBLA game, which adds further polish to a decent array of downloadable games.

Until then, keep an eye on Jeff Minter's blog about his XBLA game here. Expect Xbox Llamas soon.

Bad news comes from the Microsoft regional EMEA vice president for the home and entertainment division who has stated that there is no need to cut the price of the Xbox 360 in Europe, amid rumors of a drop just prior to the Playstation 3 launch on March 23rd. Lets hope he changes his mind.

Wii/DS
More good news for Nintendo as it was announced that Wii sales beat PS3 sales in January.

The Wii outsold the Sony Playstation 3 by nearly three to one in January, Japan's largest video game magazine publisher, Enterbrain, said on Tuesday. Enterbrain reported that Nintendo sold about 405,000 Wii units last month, compared with around 148,000 units of the PS3 sold.

According to Media Create, more than 80,000 Wii units were sold in the territory between January 22 and 28. During the same period Sony sold 21,000 PS2 and 20,000 PS3s - the PS3 coming in at four times less than Nintendo Wii.

This good news come coupled with the pleasing announcement from NOA that Zelda: Twilight Princess has reached sales of 1 million units in the U.S. alone.

Maybe with the success of the Wii, you wish your PC had a similar interface? Check out this link if you want a new Wii-OS on your PC.

Worse news come from Mark Rein, speaking with Chris Kohler and Game|Life, has stated that Epic's next-gen Unreal engine won't ever make it to the Wii. Touting the virtues of high-definition gaming, the 360, and the PS3, Rein said that their engine is simply not designed for Nintendo's hardware.

Annoyed by your Wii bar always falling off your TV, or that long cord getting everywhere? Nyko have an answer with a wireless Wii sensor bar coming to stores soon.

Forget the Zune phone being rumoured, lets all hope for a Nintendo backed gaming phone - patented way back in 2001. Nicer mock-ups here.

PC
More videos and imagery of the new Command & Conquer game courtesy of Joystiq. We can't wait for the third installment in the very old series.

Unfortunately Half-Life 2: Episode 2 has been delayed until Autumn 2007, EA have announced. Fortunately Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has told Next-Gen that Crysis will work on older systems, so no need to carve a hole in your case for that 12" DAAMIT R600 just yet.

More next week. µ

See also
Not many PS3s heading for Europe
Wii wins round one of console war
Wii hacked to play backups
Playstation 3 launch dates now official