New PSP, should you buy it?

Sony showed off it’s new and improved PSP. Changes: a nicer screen, and a slightly different case … that’s it. So you gonna buy it? At least the pricing is the same. Is this Sony’s answer to the Nintendo DS (which is totally dominating BTW)? 

“Sony has sold about 41 million PSP machines globally – 10 million in Japan. Nintendo has sold 77.5 million Nintendo DS handheld devices worldwide, nearly 23 million in Japan.” (link)

Sony needs a radical change if it wants to make a dent in Nintendo’s market. Change the experience, not just add features. If you want to compete you either do on a price level or content. Either way Nintendo wins. So you have to compete outside of the box because the regular rules don’t apply here. Get better games and the gamers will come.

Lightsaber stylus for Nintendo DS

These officially licensed Star Wars Nintendo DS Styluses are just what we need to draw insane circles around Pokemon, help Phoenix Wright solve cases and cut open random people in that really hard doctor game. They come in two flavors: a three-pack of standard plastic ones for $7.99 or a two-pack of glowing ones for $16.99. Both are due July 31, which is exactly the day that we’re going to pretending we’re gigantic Jedi holding regular-sized lightsabers. (link)

WiiFit latest rehab therapy

Injured athletes may find themselves playing Nintendo’s Wii Fit as part of their rehabilitation.

This and other fitness-oriented video games have “great potential” for core strengthening and rehabilitation and may boost compliance with rehabilitation exercises, Sue Stanley-Green, a professor of athletic training at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, told Reuters Health.

“We are looking to incorporate Wii Fit into the athletic training room as far as rehabilitation, for example, on post-operative knees and ankles,” she noted in a telephone interview.

Fitness video games that have the user perform lower-body balance and weight-shifting activities could help patients with weight-bearing rehabilitation after an injury or surgery. (link)

Nintendo thumbs nose at EU fine

Nintendo is refusing to pay a 149.1 million euro fine slapped on its for allegedly price fixing.

European Union regulators fined the gaming giant in 2002 following on from allegations that Nintendo, and seven distributors had colluded to raise hardware and software prices between 1991 and 1998.

They were found guilty as charged and one of the biggest ever fines in EU competitions history levied against Nintendo.

But now the games console maker is fighting the fine.

“The penalty was unfair, illegal, even shocking”, Ian Forrester, representing Nintendo, told the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. (link)

Wii outsells Xbox and PS3 combined

The NPD console sales numbers have been released for April, stuffed with fascinating content. How did the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto stack up against each other? Did Mario Kart Wii sell as many copies as expected? Will Nintendo continue its winning streak?
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Before we break things down by company, it’s important to point out that the games industry is still going strong. “The industry continues to set a blistering sales pace, and now shows a year-to-date increase of 31 percent over last year’s record-setting revenues,” NPD Group’s Anita Frazier said. (link)

Is that a Wiimote in your pocket vibrating?

A company called “Immersion” holds a patent that allows them to claim royalties for things that vibrate or provide force-feedback. They’re the reason that Sony’s Playstation 3 controllers had no rumble features at first — it took losing an $82 million lawsuit before Sony capitulated.

But you know what else vibrates? Things you put inside yourself for sexual pleasure. (Including my personal all-natural pleasure generator: a jar of bees. Just be sure to keep the lid on tight or it won’t just be a colony that’s collapsing.)

Immersion didn’t want to enforce its patents on teledildonic gaming devices — the name is also the cleaning instructions! — so they licensed the rights to the blandly named “Internet Services, LLC”, who is in turn suing some other people and then the lawyer left so they sued him and oh I appear to be falling asleep. (link)

Video game sales continue to surge

U.S. video game sales — including hardware and software — jumped 34 percent in February to hit $1.33 billion, even with two top-selling consoles in short supply, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.

Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 have been in such high demand stores are having a hard time keeping them in stock. Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the company moved up shipments during the holidays and hasn’t been able to catch up since.

He added ”we should be in good shape” by the time ”Grand Theft Auto IV,” the highly anticipated latest installment of the Rockstar Games franchise, hits store shelves April 29.

The game, which will be available on the Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3, is expected to boost sales of both consoles. Pre-orders have been better than expected, according to its publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.

Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, expects the game to sell about 9 million units during the company’s fiscal year, which ends in October. Roughly 6 million of this, he added, will be to Xbox 360 owners. (link)