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April 27, 2007
 | | Halo 3 will help us sell consoles, says Microsoft |
Chris Liddel - Microsoft's chief financial officer says the software giant expects Halo 3 to boost Xbox 360 sales.
Speaking in a conference call, Liddell said, "Halo 3 is clearly going to have a positive impact in two senses. One, it gives us more confidence in the number of consoles we think we're going to be able to sell next year.
"In terms of the direct impact, obviously it's a first-party product so it's reasonably profitable from our point of view, and it will be several hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue next year."
Halo 3 is due to launch in the autumn.
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 | | Wii Production Increase |
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president has admitted that the company failed to predict demand for Wii, and will increase production of the console.
Iwata's statement after a UK analyst claimed the Wii demand would not be met until 2009. .
Iwata told reporters, "We must do our best to fix this abnormal lack of stock. We have not been able to properly foresee demand."
A Nintendo spokesperson yesterday confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that Wii production is set to increase, stating, "We have put solid production plans in place to ensure a steady flow of product through 2007."
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 | | PlayStation Eye |
Sony has announced , PlayStation Eye , a new USB camera peripheral for the PS3. Set for launch later this year, the PlayStation Eye will be initially bundled with The Eye of Judgment, the card game that's been used to demonstrate the peripherals at gaming events like E3 and the Tokyo Game Show. Set for Japanese release this fall, the bundle will also include a camera stand, a starter deck of cards, and a play mat.
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 | | PlayStation daddy ' Ken Kutaragi Calls it Quits |
Ken Kutaragi has resigned from Sony today. Ken was instrumental in the PlayStation line but with the current lackluster sales and image of the PlayStation 3 his image has taken a beating.
Kutaragi will become honorary chairman of SCEI, and act as future technology adviser to Sony's chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer.
Commenting on his current and future roles at Sony, Ken Kutaragi said: "It has been an exciting experience to change the world of computer entertainment by marrying cutting edge technologies with creative minds from all over the world. I'm looking forward to building on this vision in my next endeavours."
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April 26, 2007
 | | Live gaming to boost Xbox in Japan? |
Software giant, Microsoft Corp. is set to launch a gaming platform that ties together Windows PCs and the Xbox 360 console , in hopes of boosting PC gaming in Japan and in turn mean better business for its console
"I believe the PC gaming market in Japan has been under-developed. We hope to revitalize that market in Japan, and that will in turn create momentum for Xbox 360," said Takashi Sensui, general manager of the Xbox division at Microsoft's Japan unit.
The "Games for Windows - Live" platform will allow PC and Xbox gamers to exchange text chat messages, signing on to each system with a common username and seeing a common friends list. A more advanced version will allow cross-platform gaming so, on software that supports it, PC and Xbox 360 gamers will be able to battle each other. This latter version will be included in Microsoft's Gold membership account, which costs $49.95 per year.
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 | | PS3 Folding Update |
The PlayStation 3 Folding @ Home app is set for an update that increases folding performance and improves the user location display map.
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 | | The Wii keyboard? |
Gaming gossips believe Nintendo will launch a Wii keyboard. Gossips point to the above picture as evidence.
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 | | 80GB PS3 already here? |
Game gossips claim to have spied a 80GB Playstation 3 for sale. A few weeks Sony stopped production of the 20GB Playstation 3 and announced plans to offer bigger drive capacities.
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April 25, 2007
 | | Nintendo Wii Shortage Could Hurt |
Acording to IDC's Billy Pidgeon, 2009 will be the year Nintendo meets the demand for The Nintendo Wii console. The analyst believes that as Nintendo continues to struggle to meet demand for the console, consumers will loose interest.
"I'd like to see Wii hardware shipping in larger quantities or mass market consumers may cool on it. Having said that, I don't believe supply will meet demand for the Wii until 2009," Pidgeon told Home Media Magazine.
The analyst also believes that rival next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft are lacking strong software support, which could lead to a loss of market share during the second quarter of 2007.
"Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 need better system selling games as soon as possible," said Pidgeon.
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 | | Judge PlayStation 3 in two years' time |
In a chat with GamesIndustry.biz, Electronic Arts' boss Gerhard Florin says he is holding off judging the next generation consoles for 2 years. As Florin see it, in the first 2 yrs - all the consoles will do well, and though critics are suggesting the Playstation 3's price is hampering sales, EA's executive VP of international publishing doesn't believe the price tag will hold back sales in the first twelve months.
"Look at the price in two years' time, and then you can say whether it's too high," said Florin.
"Whether it's too high or not the consumer has to decide, but I don't think for the first year the price will be a problem which holds anything back," he added.
It's not just Sony's latest home console that EA is withholding judgement on. Florin believes that both Microsoft's and Nintendo's recent launches also have a niche to find and sales to exploit.
"I wouldn't make any judgments within the next two years," commented Florin.
"The first two years will clearly be an open race, everybody will do very well. I believe all three [consoles] are worth supporting in different ways."
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