News

Revealed in yesterday's E3 conference, Sony's handheld is now undergoing a redesign. The new one is significantly slimmer and lighter, and now has a video output that lets you play PSP games on a television screen. The new PSPs also feature faster loading times and improved battery life.

These new models will be released in 2007. There is also a new package deal and price point - the "piano black" and "ice silver" color schemes will cost $199 US and come bundled with a 1-gig memory stick, the game "Daxter", and a UMD of "The Family Guy Freakin' Sweet Collection," while a "Star Wars Battlefront Special Edition" PSP (vanilla white with a black image of Darth Vader on the back) will come with the memory stick as well as a copy of Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. The original PSP will retain its recently reduced cost of $169 US.

Source: Engadget

Sony officially reduced the MSRP of the 60-gig model of the Playstation 3 from $599 to $499, but you can still pay the full six hundred bucks if you want to, as they also announced plans to release a new 80-gigabyte PS3 that will sell from the $599 price point.

Five hundred bucks is still pretty expensive, but hey, five hundred is less than six hundred, right?

Source: Joystiq

In the USA video game sales charts for the month of April, the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii posted strong sales numbers by selling 471,000 and 360,000 units, respectively. The XBox 360 had a disappointing April with 117,000 units sold, but not as disappointing as the Sony Playstation 3's 82,000. In a hilarious turn of events, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance sold 84,000 units in April; that's right, the GBA is selling better than the PS3.

And unsurprisingly, Pokemon dominated the game sales charts by having its two versions combine for a little over 1.7 million sold. Diamond made up for just over one million of those.

But that's not the point. The point is that Sony's sales situation is getting worse, and it will probably need those hyped Fall 2007 releases to stay in the game.

Source: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16199

And the rest of the world wonders if one man could possibly have been responsible for all of the mistakes Sony's been making in the past year.

Ken Kutaragi, chairman and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. and the man who brought us the original Playstation,will formally announce his retirement in June at the annual shareholder's meeting. He will retain an honorary title of chairman of SCEI as well as an advisory role to some of the other higher-ups.

Source: Gamers Reports via Elessar, GameSpot

Unfortunately, with Sony slowly strangling their video game market share, it's hard to view this as a successful leader leaving in triumph. It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes the new management of SCEI decides to undertake.

On May 19th, 2007, in Seoul, Korea, Blizzard will launch the third iteration of its own special expo, the World Wide Invitational. There, Blizzard Korea officials will officially unveil the long-awaited sequel to Blizzard's legendary RTS. The announcement was made earlier today, and Korean message boards are going crazy.

Here's a translation of the announcement:

“StarCraft 2 will be revealed for the first time to the world at Blizzard's World Wide Invitational (WWI) on May 19th.

On the 25th, according to the game developers, it has been confirmed that Blizzard Entertainment Korea (aka Blizzard Korea) will present VODs and game content at the WWI that is starting on May 19th. Also, StarCraft 2's main developers will also attend to answer some questions.

It has been confirmed that StarCraft 2 is being developed in 3D, a new race has been added and existing units' characteristics will have many changes. Additional details will only be revealed to certain parts of WWI.

Blizzard has invited over 100 international media and has prepared both Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Stadium and Fencing Stadium for this event -- the biggest area ever for a short-term game event.

StarCraft 2's announcement preparation is proceeding with secrecy, and only the core group at Blizzard Korea knows the specific details and situation. As they have done in the past, Blizzard is not planning to reveal or release any details for the "best surprise announcement".

However, trustworthy information is being leaked from previous Blizzard employees, and through an acquaintance of ex-Blizzard North employees, StarCraft 2's development and its announcement at the WWI has been confirmed.

Last February 28th, Blizzard president, Mike Morhaime, has hinted that "At the WWI in May, there will be a surprise announcement" for the announcement of a sequel, Blizzard Korea has confirmed, on the 25th, an unrevealed sequel's announcement.

Blizzard Korea's Park Young-Mok director said "There is not content available for answer for the sequel. The sequel will be released at the WWI on the 19th. Please confirm it at the site on the 19th" and denied the confirmation on if StarCraft 2 is indeed the sequel that is to be announced on the 19th.

MBC Game's Lee Sang-Ho head said "Frankly, it's half anticipation and half worry. If SC2 is released in a form that is compatible with e-sports broadcast, there will be many new gamers and the entire industry will develop. However if it comes out in a form that is not easy to broadcast, like WarCraft 3, StarCraft fans will focus on the sequel while the original league will suffer a decline", expressing a cautious mindset.

OnGameNet's StarCraft commentator Um Jae-Kyung said "Blizzard has probably already grasped the difference between this nation's gamers and foreign gamers' difference in inclination through WarCraft 3. So I'm hoping for a more balanced structure, a structure with e-sports in mind. However, I believe that the e-sports league will continue to focus on StarCraft and a new league focusing on StarCraft 2 will form, the industry growing bigger as a result. As a gamer, I'm really looking forward to it.

Blizzard's WWI is on its third year and will take place from May 19th to 20th at the Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Stadium and Weight Lifting Stadium (translator's note: I thought it was fencing? o.O). Many e-sports games as well as events such as WarCraft 3 ladder season 5 Asia region preliminaries, for the first time, a World of Warcraft Arena Tournament Off-line Regional Finals will take place.”

South Korea regularly holds video game tournaments and broadcasts them as true sporting events, hence all of the e-sports references in the quoted text. As a gamer who definitely had a "StarCraft phase" several years ago, I am surprised and excited by this news. Starcraft 2 is on the horizon, and we'll learn more on May 19th.

The president of SNK Playmore USA recently announced that the North American Wii Virtual Console will start to receive Neo-Geo games very soon, at an average of "around two a month." SNES VC games cost 800 Wii points ($8 US), and Neo-Geo games will cost "a little above the SNES point."

SNK has been a popular video game company for well over a decade, getting their start by developing video games exclusively for arcades and eventually creating a home version of their arcade hardware with the SNK Neo-Geo. They have created several popular series over the years, including King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, and many more. As Neo-Geo systems are outrageously rare and expensive, this is an excellent opportunity for the both enthusiastic and curious fan who wish to enjoy Neo-Geo games through legal means without spending a great deal of money.

Source:
IGN interview with SNK president