Print this article
Company president speaks out
Nintendo will ship its next-generation games console, Revolution, in the US in time for the Thanksgiving November holiday sales period, the company's president has pledged.…
Company fully committed to HD DVD, apparently
Microsoft may not offer an external Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360 after all. The software giant this week said it remains "fully committed" to HD DVD and has "absolutely no plans to support other optical formats".…
Back-up if it can't raise $75m by March
Tiger Telematics, Gizmondo's parent company, has pledged the patent and other intellectual property rights of its Smart Adds subsidiary - plus all the shares - against the company's ability to raise $75m in funding by 31 March.…
Enter second half of 10-year R&D partnership
Cell processor partners IBM, Sony and Toshiba have agreed to take their technology R&D alliance into the 32nm era.…
If you can add one external drive (HD DVD), you can add another (BD)
Microsoft has said it may ship a Blu-ray Disc drive for its Xbox 360 games console should consumers prefer that next-generation optical disc format over HD DVD.…
Xbox 360 rules, dude
CES Letters Call it the battle of banality. Which staid IT giant do you like more – Microsoft or Dell?…
Externally, naturally
CES Microsoft's XBox 360 will support the HD DVD next-generation optical disc format after all, the company's hardware chief, Robbie Bach, revealed at CES last night.…
Blood on the carpet indeed
An online video ad for computer game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks has been slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority as condoning and glorifying violence. It is the first time that a complaint over a viral ad campaign has been upheld by the watchdog.…
We are the mods, we are the mods
Three men have been charged in the US with selling illegally modified Xbox game consoles that allow the devices to play pirated video games, according to reports. Two of the suspects ran a video games shop in Los Angeles. Games consoles such as the Microsoft Xbox or Sony Playstation 2 include copyright protections that prevent them running pirated games or games subject to regional control (where a console bought in one part of the world cannot run games purchased in another).…
Well, for now...
Microsoft has said it has "no plans" to add HD DVD optical disc technology to its Xbox 360 console.…
Hu, yeah, what is it good for?
Somewhere in the world right now, someone is getting killed in a war. Probably in Iraq, I suspect. As the casualty list grows higher every day, the death of many soldiers - and many Iraqi fighters - is reduced to an ever-diminishing footnote by Western administrations and news conduits.…
Console-cracking efforts continue
The Xbox 360's DVD file system has been exposed, a coding group calling itself Pi, has claimed.…
Launch to co-incide with Blu-ray roll-out?
Sony has re-iterated its plan to ship the PlayStation 3 by Spring 2006. The announcement follows Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst's prediction that the console won't debut until next Autumn.…
Dad will just have to buy one
Pity if you will Steve Ballmer's kids - if they want an Xbox for Xmas dad will just have to go out and buy one like the crazed plebs who are as we speak fighting each other with knives just to get within striking distance of MS's new console.…
Seller not a Game store manager
The auction of eight Xbox 360 bundles on eBay by someone claiming to be a store manager for retailer Game has been pulled.…
It's going to be all about the discs
Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, TV Scoop features all that’s cool in British telly and Propellerhead answers your PC queries.…
Retailer investigating
UK computer game retailer Game is looking into claims that one of its store managers is flogging eight Xbox 360 bundles on eBay.…
It's here. It's impressive
Review Unless you've been living in a Buddhist Temple in the mountains of Tibet for the past few months you will be well aware that the Xbox 360 has launched in the UK. Although there has been a massive amount of coverage and speculation in the technology press regarding the 360, the general marketing has been slightly subdued. OK, so you may have seen the odd advert on TV over the past couple of weeks, but there hasn't been what I'd call a major marketing push. Perhaps Microsoft is waiting for Christmas to spend the marketing dollars, or perhaps the it knows that pretty much every 360 is going to sell on launch day whether it advertises it or not.…
I can only have one? But I ordered 20!
Amazon.co.uk is restricting the number of Xbox 360 Consoles its punters can have to ensure that as many people can get hold of one in time for Christmas.…
Full disclosure, apparently
Nintendo will announce its next-generation games console, Revolution, next May, the company has revealed.…
Europeans scrap over just 300,000 boxes
Speculation abounds that only 300,000 Xbox 360s will be making their way to Europe for the launch of the console on 2 December.…
Market transitioning to next-generation consoles
Nintendo saw its profits plunge 51 per cent during the first half of its current fiscal year as sales slid on falling demand for its ageing GameCube console.…
And that's just the price of the parts
It's widely believed that games console makers sell their hardware at a loss in order to get the retail price down to a level they believe consumers will be willing to pay, but any doubters must surely be convinced by market watcher iSuppli's attempt to strip down the Xbox 360 to find out how much its components cost.…
A better BSOD
Microsoft's Xbox 360 is a technical triumph that has been lauded by the hard-to-please, with John C Dvorak saying, "I have not seen a hardware/software system this well thought out for a decade or more." Whereas the original was an underpowered PC, its successor boasts three PowerPC cores running at 3.2GHz, the competition is still in the labs, and it has a ton of games lined up.…
Console missing 'must-have' game
The latest from the UK’s leading games blog - Games Digest. From the makers of Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny.…
Emulator will cope with 212 titles initially
Microsoft has posted a list of 212 Xbox games that are backward-compatible with the Xbox 360 - but only next-generation consoles with a hard drive.…
CFO's proud prediction
Microsoft hopes to sell up to 3m Xbox 360 consoles by the end of February 2006 - three months after the next-generation machine machine debuts in the US in two weeks' time.…
Come PS3, HDTV, we may, says exec
Sony PlayStation 3 games may ship without codes that fix releases to specific geographical territories.…
But not DRM-protected tracks, natch
Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox 360 will not play songs downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store because the Mac maker won't license its DRM technology, at least not for a price the software giant is willing to pay.…
Well, it'll be cheaper...
Tech Digest Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, Bayraider keeps tabs on the best and worst of eBay and Propellerhead answers your PC queries.…
Free online play for DS owners
Nintendo will launch a free, UK-wide wireless gaming service for owners of its DS handheld console on 25 November.…
PSP vs iPod
Sony has launched the PlayStation Portable's answer to Apple's iTunes jukebox software: a PC-based application designed to keep the mobile device stocked with music, video, photography and other content.…
Not for sale or rental to kids
Florida looks set to join California and introduce legislation to limit the sale of violent computer and video games to children.…
Swedish criminal convictions revealed
A number of senior executives at Gizmondo Europe quit the company last week ahead of the US launch of the firm's handheld games console and amid allegations in the Swedish press that some had criminal pasts.…
Three speedy cores
IBM has helped Microsoft do the impossible and deliver a product on time. Big Blue today revealed specifications for the unnamed processor that will slot into Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console due out on Nov. 22, at the Fall Processor Forum here.…
We'll be back
The US games industry is gearing up to challenge a Californian law limiting children’s access to violent video games, after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the new legislation into law on Friday.…
Is that all there is?
Microsoft has announced details of the games that will be available for its Xbox 360 console, but only a few titles are likely to be on sale by the launch date.…
Trojan warez
PSP users are being urged to beware of a Trojan which, once executed, turns their games gizmo into little more than an expensive book weight. The (PlayStation Portable) PSP Brick Trojan poses as a utility that allows gamers to run homebrew apps or pirated games.…
Not a g'day for regional coding
Australia’s High Court has ruled that modifying PlayStations to bypass Sony's regional coding mechanism does not violate the country’s copyright laws.…
Looking for 'larger investor base'
Tiger Telematics (TT), the Florida-based company behind the Gizmondo handheld games console, has posted its annual report for the year to 31 December 2004. It makes fascinating reading - particularly since the company yesterday announced its plan to begin trading its stock on Nasdaq. To date it has been an OTC stock.…
Coders downgrade firmware
Crackers this week claimed to have successfully ripped out the latest Sony PlayStation Portable firmware and replaced it with an earlier version of the code containing fewer anti-piracy features.…
Hopes Nintendogs will pup up the volume
Nintendo UK is to knock a tenner off the price of its DS handheld console, the videogames company announced this morning.…
Tiger touts updated handheld console
Tiger Telematics will release its second-generation, widescreen Gizmondo handheld console in Q2 2006.…
Will consumers see the point and click?
Games console developers devote as much time to the launching of the controllers their machines will be played with as the game-hosting hardware itself. The latest company to do so is Nintendo. Today it told the world what the gamepad that will ship with its Revolution console will look like.…
When the mod-chips are down...
Biren Amin, owner of US games store Pandora's Cube, has been sentenced to five months in prison and given a fine of almost $250,000 for the sale of pirated games and illegally modified Xboxes, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced yesterday.…
Gears up for Japanese offensive
Microsoft will release its next-generation Xbox 360 games console on Tuesday, 22 November, the software giant announced last night.…
ESRB senses threat to ratings scheme
US games software watchdog the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has told games publishers they must reveal any hidden content included in all the software they have released since 1 September 2004.…
Overheating could lead to injury, company admits
Sony has asked certain slimline-model PlayStation 2 owners around the world to return their AC adaptors or risk what it calls "injury hazard".…
No US launch yet and already taking up future models
Gizmondo maker Tiger Telematics will next year offer a widescreen version of the handheld games console, the company's CEO has revealed, the better to compete with the PSP.…