Wii DVD playback enabled by chip

MORE PRICE DROPS were observed this week, and as usual, various new hacking utilities were released into the ether.

Xbox 360
Shortly after the INQ detailed Makro's Premium Xbox 360 price-drop to £199 (ex VAT), Gamesindustry.biz picked up the story and asked Microsoft if the new pricing was official. It wasn't, and other distribution partners weren't too happy.

Despite this, other retail outlets appear to be making similar cuts to Makro. Play.com was seen to drop the Core SKU to under £150 - but now appears to be back at the standard £199 price. Amazon is still selling the pack at a reduced £189.99. Various bargain deals have also been spotted through-out the US.

A few new accessories emerged relating to the 360 this week.

First up is the wireless steering wheel with force feedback, coupled with realistic peddles. Eurogamer has the low-down.

Secondly Joystiq mention that the wireless receiver for Xbox 360 joypads on your PC has finally hit shelves.

Unfortunately you won't be able to get hold of one of these black HD-DVD drives, pictured on a Microsoft development blog and spotted by Xbox-scene. These limited-edition drives were made especially for people who worked on the HD-DVD project, and come along with a black remote control. Maybe we'll see it made available when the 120GB HDMI-equipped black SKU makes an appearance...

Speaking of the new SKU, 1up seems to think that the release of this new unit is the reason Microsoft has downgraded expected shipment figures.

This hasn't stopped Xbox 360 sales figures rising 18% in January though.

If you don't have the newly released super-quiet Benq drive in your 360, good news comes from Kotaku. The site claims that a new firmware update to the console allows quieter performing drives and devs already have their updates. We're not sure how a software update could possibly change the noise emitted by the various drives used, but fingers crossed - lets hope they've managed it.

PS3/PSP
Plenty of news from Sony this week concerning the European launch of the Playstation 3. We've already covered the fall out from the news that Sony's new console will lack the degree of backwards compatibility of the US and Japanese models.

Despite these Euro worries, similarly to Microsoft Sony had a good January. NPD sales data for January puts the total of PlayStation 3 consoles at 243,554 in North America, helping the PlayStation business record revenues US $550 million (EUR 419m) during the five weeks of the month.

Revenues from the PS3 could be extended further by downloadable HDTV and movies.

In an interview with 1up, Sony's Phil Harrison has revealed that the company is planning to make movies available on the Playstation Network. In response to the question of whether people could expect to see downloadable TV and movies on the PlayStation Network, Harrison words were "we have a hard drive, we have a commerce engine, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we will have that on the network very shortly."

Other PS3 related news concerns the release of a tool, BRDGen, which claims to be able to make, edit and export for recording, Playstation 3 compliant BD-ROM disk images. No news whether (or when) these disks can be easily played back on a PS3 yet.

Wii/DS
Further to the previous stories on Wii mod chips, a new arrival dubbed WiiXT has been announced. This even claims DVD playback on a console that natively doesn't support DVD movies.

The creators of the WiiXT have dubbed it the 'Ultimate Wii Modchip', and in addition to Wii and GameCube homebrew and backups, the WiiXT also promises region-free DVD playback, virtual console support, stealth operation, recovery mode, and uses 128MB ROM flash memory, 512MB flash storage, and an external USB dongle for enabling and disabling the chip, upgrading, and reflashing.

The WiiXT site is here and the news quickly claims that despite reports otherwise, the chip is real and soon to be released.

The Wii really seems to be hitting home exactly where Nintendo wished it too - any consumer demographic untouched by gaming, until now.

Engadget have a report from the Chicago Tribune picturing elderly punters bowling on their new Wii. The response in the home has been so positive that the locale is actually cranking up a 20-person tournament for an undisclosed reward.

Maybe they're simply gunning for the environment and us youngsters, knowing that the Wii consumes significantly less power than other next gen consoles.

Or maybe they're fitness fanatics. The Wii also definitely sheds the flab. This hack certainly hasn't seen the benefit yet.

Presumably the older generation pictured in the article aren't using 480p output. Engadget report problems with some cables and TV sets stirring on the Nintendo forums. Several forum members have mentioned that the screen goes blank during specific sections of Zelda, the Wii Channel, and in the Opera browser. We haven't have similar problems on our 480p component based Wiis here at the INQ.

Nintendo has updated its Japanese plans for the Wii's Virtual Console, revealing that both Neo Geo and MSX games will debut for the download service this year, says Gamasutra.

Something to look forward to, along with further details of the new Zorro game on the Wii - something that should make use of the Wiimote to a good degree.

Lets hope it's good, or we'll have another 1000 Mii Wii march on our hands.

Similar to the Wii, the SNES seems to be killing off competition from the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3...

Before we go, more Wii cake goodness courtesy of user Balakov on flickr. µ

See also
Signs of an Xbox 360 price-drop spotted
Find a PS3 and receive $1200 from Sony
Not many PS3s heading for Europe
Wii wins round one of console war