Nintendo may catch lots of flack for bringing gaming to the casual market, but their methods have certainly not fallen on death ears. While the DS was far from the first touch-screen device, it was one of the first mass-market commercial ones. It has since been followed up by Apple’s iPhone and a slew of other touch phones. Now, Microsoft is getting in on the party.
Microsoft recently previewed some of the tech for their Windows 7 OS (one can hardly wait for Windows X OS) and the big hoopla seemed to be over the addition of multi-touch capability. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s essentially the same tech in the iPhone. Not only that, many of the demos shown (rotating and resizing photos, zooming in on maps) are ripped directly from the iPhone’s interface. So, great, Microsoft rips off Apple again, right? What does it have to do with gaming? Plenty.
GameStop, that bastion of used-game goodness, recently revealed some fairly expected news for gamers. In an investor conference call, GameStop executives revealed that Wii shortages will likely last the next six months, while both the Xbox 360 and PS3 look headed for $50 price drops.
Executives stressed that the price cuts were not official but simply their speculation. They also happened to speculate about a $30 price cut on the PS2. None of this is too surprising, as people have been expecting such a cut on the PS2 for nearly a year now. The Xbox 360 and PS3 price cuts would go a long way toward getting both closer to a mass market price of $200-250. (more…)
Who says the DS and iPhone have to be mortal enemies? Perhaps, the beauty of music can bring these two touch friendly devices together? That’s just what three enterprising individuals have tried with their video “iBand.” Two iPhones and one DS playing Electroplankton team up for a nice little tune together. One has to wonder why the PSP was not invited to this impromptu jam session, and hope it wasn’t such an exclusionary reason as it not being touch sensitive.
In a recent interview with Gamasutra, John Hight gave insight into a planned revamp of the current PlayStation Store. Hight, who runs the digital game publishing of Sony products, had this to say: “We give Sony’s interface team a lot of feedback based on how our customers are reacting to things, and I think you will see a pretty big change in the PlayStation Network in the early part of April, where we roll out some new interface stuff largely based on customer feedback.”
While the PlayStation Network is far from perfect, it’s definitely functional. Adding new features and categories to make it easier to navigate is always welcome. How Sony plans to incorporate this change is the key question. Will they deliver on their statement to make big changes in April? Or will they continue down their path of building anticipation for these “big” updates by releasing smaller, constant updates until the final product is in place? (more…)
Al De Leon, PR Manager of SCEA, posted on the official Playstation blog that a special PS3 bundle would be released to coincide with the release of MGS4 in North America. It will include one 80GB PS3, a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and the Dualshock 3 controller. You can get this bundle for the very reasonable price of $499.99. This could be a big move for Sony to move even more consoles with the release date upcoming, but it’s not clear why they announced it so early. Now, instead of consumers buying PS3’s up to MGS4’s release, they can just opt to wait for the bundle.
De Leon also posted that a new special edition PSP would be released in June. The fire truck red PSP will be released in June. It will feature the face of Kratos on the back of it to signify that it is, indeed, a God of WarPSP. For $199.99, you will receive: The limited edition red PSP, God of War: Chains of Olympus PSP game, a voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops for free from the PS Store, and Superbad on UMD video. Bet you didn’t see that one coming. Now you can get your God of War and McLovin fix all at once.
You just can’t keep a good rumor down. For years now people have speculated that Apple would at some point enter the gaming market. A recently revised trademark to include gaming devices would seem to add legitimacy to such rumors.
The trademark filing calls for “hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games.” That may be a mouthful, but what does it mean for you? (more…)
Twisted Metal is one of those great series from the early days of the PS1 that nearly suffocated under the weight of its own success. It and other illustrious early standouts such as Tomb Raider paved the way for Sony’s dominance of the console war for two generations. In the process, Sony milked the franchise to the point of it almost disappearing forever.
You can’t keep a good clown down, though. Twisted Metal has reappeared on the PS2, PSP, and soon the PS3 as well. A code hidden within the recent Twisted Metal: Head On port to the PS2 revealed the series will soon see its first installment for the PS3. What form that new entry will take is still up in the air, at least to those outside of Sony. However, it seems clear that Sony’s online network would be perfect for multiplayer mayhem.
Google’s Android is their new mobile phone platform. While it isn’t the gPhone many had wished for, it is an interesting shift for the cell phone industry. With most major carriers signed up to produce Android handsets, it was already a potentially interesting avenue for game development. Dell just made it more interesting.
Rumors are circulating that Dell will announce a new mobile device running on the Android platform. While Palm and Microsoft have fought it out between one another for the past few years, the last year alone ahs brought two major new competitors to the handheld market in Apple and now Google. What does this mean to gamers? (more…)
In a recent 
You just can’t keep a good rumor down. For years now people have speculated that 
Google’s Android is their new mobile phone platform. While it isn’t the gPhone many had wished for, it is an interesting shift for the 
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