PS3 to overtake Xbox 360

BEFORE WE DELVE into news for the usual suspects, you may wish to check out a new iPhone related gaming emulator - one that allows the use of SNES games on the popular mobile phone.

You can also get your Halo 3 stats on the phone courtesy of iHaloStats.

Alternatively you can get a NES emulator on a solar-powered hand-held, one for Mad Mike we suspect.

Wii/DS
Nintendo has almost doubled its profits in 2007, compared to that of the previous year.

Profit for the nine months leading up to December 31st was $2.45 billion, up 96.3 percent from the same time-span in fiscal 2006. More at Engadget.

If you're bored with the current range of Wiimote accessories, look no further than this 18-piece sports pack.

Alternatively you could download some new Master System games - courtesy of the new support for the games system added to the Wii's Virtual Console.

Xbox 360
An internal Microsoft project, dubbed 'Project Helium' has been revealed this week by a blog posting on SeattlePI.

The author writes, that it was a concept to combine a high-end gaming Windows PC with a Xbox 360 motherboard as a daughterboard. It never was even remotely implemented and moved off the drawing boards but the idea was for a third party manufacturer to license and include a daughter board made by Microsoft that would be housed in a desktop PC to add an Xbox 360 functionality to the PC. Instead they went with Games For Windows LIVE, which has been a relatively low-key and disappointing initiative.

This was originally touched on by Dean Takahashi sometime before this blog post, but reinforces the fact the project existed.

While Nintendo is doubling its profits, Microsoft has only just (finally) made a profit within the Xbox division.

Microsoft's second quarter earnings showed a relatively impressive six-month income of $524 million (compared to a $423m loss during the same period last year) from the the Xbox's Entertainment and Devices Division.

Fancy Wii controls on your Xbox 360? Look no further than Gizmodo.

PS3/PSP
PS3 Fanboy has a supposed leaked internal memo from retail giant Best Buy. The memo, sent in by an anonymous employee, states in no uncertain terms that, "The 80GB version of the PS3 is going closeout and won't be replaced at this time. It will come off the planogram on Jan. 28."

The memo goes on: "The 60GB version should already be gone from stores. Only the 40GB version of PS3 will be sold in Best Buy stores at this time. This means that there currently isn't a version that is PS2 compatible." That's straightforward enough. In one final note, the letter claims "Sony hasn't made any announcements about new products."

Despite the PS3's late start in Europe, SCEE chief David Reeves has told MCV that the system is poised to overtake the Xbox 360 in cumulative European sales by late summer. "In terms of installed base in some of our major markets, such as France, Spain, Germany and Italy ... our current cumulative installed base is now higher than Xbox 360," Reeves said, adding that the PS3 outsold the 360 in all PAL territories 3-to-1 last week. µ