PS3 gets ready to rumble with DVR

TO START THE round-up this week we'll begin by offering you the link to the new Penny Arcade Adventures trailer courtesy of the new look Joystiq. Lets hope it lives up to the glorious art work, and the genius of PA.

Next up, before we concentrate on the console war, is one of the first looks at Direct X 10 performance in Lost Planet, producing interesting results. Oh and another preview of Far Cry 2 via CVG.

PS3/PSP
Prototypes of the new rumble-enabled PS3 SixAxis controller are already in the hands of numerous Sony developers, according to industry insider site Inner Bits - via Next-Gen.biz.

A blog on the site where “game developers speak out” says that “new versions of the Sixaxis controller are quietly replacing the original controllers launched with the console.”

As well as being rumble-enabled, new controllers will allegedly have improved motion sensitivity.

Sony is to launch a digital tuner for the Playstation 3 in early 2008, offering DVR-like functions to users of the console, reports Gameindustry.biz.

Warwick Light, sales and marketing manager for Computer Entertainment New Zealand, revealed the details to local website The Press, promising to "transform the PS3 capabilities so as to meet people's changing entertainment needs."

"We're also hoping next year – about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service – to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder," said Light.Freeview services are expected to launch in New Zealand next March.

Sony’s chief financial officer has revealed that the company’s recently reported games division losses were less than expected – because of the lack of Playstation 3 consoles sold at a loss.

"Sales of the PS3 have risen but we booked losses due to our strategic decision to price it below the (production) cost. Actually, because the number of units sold was not as high as we hoped, the loss was better than our original expectation," Sony’s CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said.

Maybe sales may be improved via other avenues. A Sony developed prototype computer board that utilizes the Playstation 3 Cell chip is set to be unveiled for the first time next week.

According to PC Advisor, The 'Cell Computing Board' combines the power of the Cell’s microprocessor and RSX graphics processor resulting in a high-power computing platform that goes beyond the power of the Cell chip alone.

It's possible of course that Sony won't be able to bring it to market - seeing as Sony is being sued over the design of the Cell processor.

Sony America is being taken to court by California-based Parallel Processing Corporation over the Cell chip in the Playstation 3.

The company alleges that Sony products infringe on a patent approved in 1991 for "synchronised parallel processing with shared memory," according to a report on GameSpot.

The complaint states that the infringement is "causing irreparable harm and monetary damage," to the company.

Better news for PS3 fanboys comes from Rockstar. While Sony may have lost out to Microsoft with regard to exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV content, the company has revealed that Rockstar is set to produce an exclusive new franchise for Sony's next generation console, one that 'can only truly be done' on Playstation 3.

Xbox 360
Whilst PS3 fans got good news from Rockstar, 360 followers got bad news from Take Two - the company confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV has been pushed back from its original October 2007 release date into fiscal 2008, Gamesindustry.biz reports.

Further rumblings from the 360 community concerning the rumoured price-cut have come thick and fast this week.

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Listening to: Karthik, Harish Ragavendra - Koo Koovena
via FoxyTunesJoystiq produced a Circuit City (US) banner showing all three 360 SKUs receiving a price cut.

The banner shows that from the beginning Aug. 12 the Xbox 360 premium will be $350, the Elite will be $450 and the Core will have a $20 break and will come in at $280.

However, Microsoft has told Next-Gen.biz that it has no plans to lower the price of the Xbox 360 in the UK, despite mounting speculation that it intends to drop the price of the console stateside.

Further price-cuts could come from smaller components courtesy of another die shrink.

One of the contractors responsible for manufacturing CPU's for the Xbox 360 has revealed that it is currently working on a 45-nanometer design, due for release late next year or early in 2009.

"We have customers' activity for products in the CPU space that goes into a video game device," said Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing's CEO Chia Song Hwee, reports PC Advisor.

"As 65nm just started production in the last two quarters, you would expect 45nm to come on stream about 18 months from that timeframe," offered Chia, referring to an expected production time-frame.

Hopefully Microsoft can incorporate other design changes by then. Techon has employed a thermal design expert to look more closely at the 360's design, which provides in-depth analysis and interesting reading.

The designers might also wish to incorporate the HD-DVD drive - apparently, planned elements of the PGR4 have had to be removed because they will not physically fit onto a single DVD disc.

Lets finish the 360 news with something a bit lighter - actual pictures of the Halo 3 replica guns we mentioned last week.

Wii/DS
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has forecast that Nintendo may release a high definition Wii in two to three years time in a bid to ensure consumer enthusiasm for the console doesn’t fade.

"Consumers may hope for improved graphics, and my guess is that Nintendo will comply," Pachter told GamePro.

"In two or three years, commodity prices for graphics processors and CPUs may decline to the point that a High Definition Wii could be introduced. If so, Nintendo will likely introduce one," he added.

A number of industry insiders have recently suggested that enthusiasm for Nintendo’s Wii could fade in time due to its technical limitations.

Though this isn't currently hurting consoles sales. Nintendo Wii outsold Sony's Playstation 3 by a ratio of over 4 to 1 in Japan in July, game magazine publisher Enterbrain said last Friday.

Nintendo sold 396,752 units of the Wii in the five weeks ended July 29, compared with 91,987 units of the PS3.

Expect even bigger sales - The Japanese Wii supply is apparently normalizing.

We've seen plenty of Wii peripherals recently, but this is a new one - a Wii aeroplane controller - perfect for a new edition of Pilotwings maybe?

TGDaily got more time with another peripheral - the Wii fit and the Balance Board, which is shaping up to look like a novel product...thought the lazy gits at MTV news found another way to use it - sitting on it.

source

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Listening to: Karthik, Harish Ragavendra - Koo Koovena
via FoxyTunes