PS3: No Gifts From Sony This Year

Playstation 3

As Microsoft and Nintendo are aggressively pricing their gaming consoles for Christmas, one would expect the same for Sony’s Playstation 3… No this year folks.

From I4U News: “Sony’s CEO, Kazuo Hirai, told the Financial Times that the current PS3 pricing is the one that Sony will go into the Holiday shopping season. Sony is arguing that the Sony PS3 is a better value than rivals half its price.”

I4U News

Wii Speak: Conference Calls For Free!

Wii Speak

Nintendo announced that their new product, the Wii Speak, will be available in mid-November in Japan and will make its way to America later on.

Wii Speak is a kit that should sell for around $50. It will include a device that is similar to voice-conferencing phones where it will pick up the voices of all individuals in a room within a 12 feet radius.

From Nintendo: When you enter a code that will be included in the Wii Speak package into the Shopping Channel, the Wii Speak Channel can be incorporated into the Wii console. In other words, the Wii console can connect one living room with others. If your friends do not own Wii Speak, you can send a message with voices to their Wii consoles through the Wii Message Board.

TechRadar UK
GigaOM

Xbox 360 Sales Taking Over PS3 in Japan

Xbox 360

Total game console sales between the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 were 196,166 units.

Nintendo overtook Microsoft and Sony yet again with 109,548 Wii sold between September 1st and 28th, then came Microsoft’s Xbox 360 with 53,547 units, and Sony with 33,071 of it’s Playstation 3 systems.

Japan’s console market shares for September 2008:

• Nintendo Wii – 56%
• Xbox 360 – 27%
• Sony PS3 – 17%

Mainly due to major price cuts by Microsoft, this is the first time where the Xbox 360 beats the PS3 in the Japanese market.

CDRinfo

Nintendo DSi Officially Announced

Nintendo DSi

In Tokyo this morning, Nintendo was announcing the launch of a new portable gaming console (the DSi) that would be available in November in Japan.

The new unit will be 2.6mm thick which is 12% less than the previous version due in part to the absence of a GBA cartridge slot. The DSi will feature two 3.25 inch screens and will be equipped with two 3MPix cameras; one inside and the other one outside of the unit. It will also feature an SD card reader, better WiFi, a web browser, and will come in either black or white.

Expect a price between $179 and $199.

engadget

Nintendo: New DS Coming Soon

Nintendo

It’s almost official: Nintendo will be releasing a new version of their very popular portable video game system, Nintendo DS.

According to the Nikkei Japanese newspaper, the new device will feature a built-in camera, music playback and wireless connectivity (WiFi maybe). If this is the case, the new device would go the other way that the iPhone did; from games to multimedia device.

If we follow the trend, the iPhone went from phone to games. Will the DS go from games to phone? OK that’s far fetched but still…

CDRinfo
Nikkei (translated)