One console to rule them all

LAST WEEK we've had an enormous glut of gaming news - especially high considering it's still (allegedly) summer.

First off has to be a mention of the extraordinary sales figures released.

Japanese sales have surged - with Nintendo leading the boost. Games like Gundam, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Mario and Housekeeping Diary helped the DS continue its retail rampage - totting up 153,834 units shifted for the week.

Wii sales were also up on last week at 73,938, due to best sellers Mario Party 8, Wii Sports and Wii Play.

The US saw record sales in July - a 37 per cent increase over July 2006.

Hardware sales soared by 77.4 per cent to $380.8 million for the month, due to impressive sales of the Wii at 425,000 and DS at 405,000 units.

Microsoft beat Sony by reaching 170,000 shipped to an opposing 159,000 units, even with July marking the first month of the official $100 PS3 price cut. The effect of the lowered Xbox 360 asking price won't be reflected until next month.

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter and fantasy video game prediction market simExchange expressed surprise at 360's outselling of the PS3, with Pachter saying 360 sales should increase with the warranty issue seemingly "of little concern to consumers."

Microsoft and Nintendo made sure they boasted of their performances.

We could see an end to hardware competition according to Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack, who presented his case that with an unsustainable current business model, a 'one console future' was not just possible, but probable as early as the 'next round of hardware' - describing how the shift would be good for both creators and consumers.

Concluding his talk Dyack claimed, "Next generation, you could see people agreeing on one platform. I think this model, if it occurs, will change everything."

We wouldn't bet on it.

Xbox 360
There's plenty of news to keep Xbox fans enthralled this week - including the report that the 360's kernel has been successfully downgraded.

Xbox-scene reports that 'Robinsod' managed to successfully boot his Xbox360 with one flashed eFuse with kernel 1888 using a 'timing attack' the site reported on some weeks ago.

The hack isn't quite ready for public consumption, but we suspect it'll be out and about before you can say 'hax0r3d'.

According to The Mercury News' Dean Takahashi the 65nm Xbox 360 processors will probably start finding their way into new Xbox 360s by the end of the year - but there are a few caveats.

The chips, which are a sizable difference than the current 90nm chips, are being planned for a new motherboard codenamed Falcon. Unfortunately the upgrade will still have 90nm graphics chips from ATI/DAAMIT - that other upgrade will occur further down the line.

The 360 packaging will also not inform you as to whether the console has a 65nm or 90nm CPU inside. You'll have to rip it open to do that.

Earlier in the week there were substantiated rumours speculating that the Core would be renamed the 'Arcade' and would receive 5 free titles, on the 24th of August.

This hasn't happened, but we wouldn't be surprised if it still occurred at a later date.

Another rumour concerns the often mooted Xvid playback support - reported here.

If you're more interested on what you can play on the console, Wired has dropped a 'content bomb' of information regarding the much anticipated title.

PS2/PS3/PSP
Whilst people focus on the sales of the current crop of next-gen consoles, the PS2 is still selling strongly.

Unfortunately an even simpler modchip is on the horizon for the console - usable in memory card form.

The Vast memory card modchip, coming in two weeks, is a plug-and-play only device that lets you bypass the PlayStation 2's security by just sticking it into the memory card slot. The OS boots any PS2, and then launches your copied/homebrew games.

Maybe a EU price cut would help sales - but SCEE has no plans to cut the price of Playstation 3 according to president David Reeves. However the company will introduce new bundles with different games to help drive sales.

"What we're going to allow, and it doesn't need an announcement, is simply that we'll probably put out more hard bundles than the Starter Pack," Reeves told Eurogamer.

"We're not making any pricing announcements at Games Convention at all. There's none. And we don't have any plans in that regard. We're really happy with the way that things are going for the PAL business. We really are. It's on track." Honest.

In the same interview David Reeves says the company hasn't ruled out introducing a hard disk drive for the Playstation Portable despite the upcoming launch of PSP Slim and Lite."I think that it certainly is not ruled out," Reeves said.

Reeves didn't discuss the PSP being used as medical equipment - something put in place via this wireless heartbeat sensor hack.

One guy called Art simply soldered a coiled copper wire across the microphone input, which allows it to pick up the signal from a wireless heartbeat sensor. Useful.

The folks over at N00bz have released "Pandora's battery", a downloadable exploit that creates a memory stick and battery combo that can downgrade any PSP back to the extremely hackable version 1.5 firmware. Even better, the hack will fix PSPs that have been "bricked" by previous failed hacks and "will continue to work for all future firmwares," according to the developers.

And here's video proof.

Sony also made plenty of PSP announcements during its Games Convention 2007 conference, by introducing its new Go! Entertainment brand and announcing a 5th September release date for the Slim and Lite model.

Included in the brand will be three new non-gaming services: video downloads; voice chat, video chat and instant messaging; and a satellite navigation product that uses a new GPS accessory.

The Go! branded video download service is a joint venture with BSkyB due for release in early 2008. It will let those of you with a PSP download a choice of programs from popular Sky channels like sports, entertainment, movies, music and cartoons. More at Eurogamer.

Wii/DS
The Wii has finally been hacked to play DVDs, before Nintendo was allowed to officially support it.

Try not to be too put off by Crunchgear's supporting picture...

Another method of Wii movie playback comes from X-OOM - a UK based company, via the SD card support.

Next-gen.biz has the low down on Nintendo's European release schedule, with the much anticipated DS Zelda coming in October, and the essential Mario Galaxy following up in November.

Joystiq has had a play on the English version of the aforementioned Zelda, and loves it This month's Edge magazine also features a large article on Mario Galaxy, as well as featuring the game on its front cover.

Don't forget the usual Eurogamer Virtual Console round-up. µ

See Also
PS3 powers server farms
PS3 gets ready to rumble with DVR
Console price-cut rumours surface
Xbox 360 is in the mire