via gibiz

A recent New York Post story claiming that Apple and Nintendo are headed for a "showdown" in the portable gaming market has been rubbished by a leading analyst.

According to the story, Apple has been secretly plotting its foray into portable video games for months, looking to add games to its iPhone. Rumour has it that the company has already provided a major game developer with iPhone technology, and that Apple is expected to make a gaming announcement in the near future.

However, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter told GamesIndustry.biz that he doesn't think Apple is serious about gaming. "Rather, I think that they're trying to establish the iPhone as an all-encompassing entertainment device," he said.

"The markets are different. The iPhone is an expensive toy for the wealthy and self-indulgent, while the DS is an inexpensive toy for everyone," Pachter replied.

"I think that Apple will succeed in making mobile phone games a bit more accessible and fun, but cannot conceive of their gaining significant share of the handheld market. The iPhone is unlikely to ever compete effectively, as it is unlikely to attract the level of third-party developer support afforded the DS." ...

The target for the new game is USD 155 million, which would smash the box office record of USD 151 million held by Spider-Man 3.

Comments were made by Microsoft marketing boss Chris Di Cesare, who was convinced the film-like approach to marketing would help make the new game an order of magnitude more successful than Halo 2.

"When we opened to USD 125 million [last time], that really caught a lot of people's attention. It showed that videogames were no longer that thing that kids play in their basement," Chris Di Cesare told Variety. "We're confident we can do better."

And although he realises the comparison isn't entirely fair - as games cost considerably more than a ticket to the cinema - the numbers involved are simply too big to be ignored.

"I recognize it's not apples to apples. But it's big business any way you cut it," continued Di Cesare.

Halo 3 recently broke over one million pre-orders in the US, prompting many observers to say they would be unsurprised if one-day sales climbed as high as USD 170 million.

The marketing push to launch has called on help from some of America's biggest brands, with Pontiac, Burger King, Mountain Dew, 7-Eleven and Comcast all offering various forms of cross-branding.

Halo 3 is due for release in Europe on 26th September, a day later than in the US.

via gibiz ...

via gibiz

Peter Edward, director of the Home platform for Sony, has told an audience at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival that users who consistently abuse the upcoming Home service face having their machines banned and disabled from being used online.

In an admittedly radical but possible step, Edward noted that a serious abuser would "have to move house and buy a new PS3 before they could get online again."

Edward was discussing supervising the Home environment, although Sony doesn't intend to become a "virtual police" force. Instead, it will be providing different areas within Home depending on the age of the user, helping to apply appropriate non-game branding for products such as cigarettes and alcohol.

"Ultimately we know a users details, we know machine details and we know where they live," said Edward

"If you really feel like you've been abused or that someone has just shown wholly inappropriate behaviour then you are able to complain about it. If you really, really misbehave you can have your console disconnected at a machine level, so you would actually have to move house and buy a new PS3 before you could get online again.

"Clearly that's not something we would want to be doing very often but as a disincentive to mess round too much it's in our power," he admitted.

Rather, Sony expects players to police themselves and other users, taking advantage of various methods for blocking communication with any users that are disruptive.

"It's a hard line to draw because we don't want to be walking around telling everyone off for saying 'bloody' so we've got to strike a balance there," said Edward.

"We're going to be relying on users assessing what's appropriate to them – if they've been subject to behaviour they don't like they can complain about it rather than we walk around as virtual police."

With a presentation featuring potential branding from Durex, Marlboro and Bacardi, Edward said that it's not Sony's intention to offer a sanitised experience, and that more mature gamers can expect to see the same products advertised online as in the real world.

"It's relatively simple to be confident that somebody is over 18. So it's no problem to have areas that are only open to those aged 18 years' and over. We are able to do that quite comprehensively, we have access to the log-in data that they use for the PlayStation Network," offered Edward.

"Undoubtedly there are going to be some things and some brands that we are not going to want to be involved in the environment at any stage.

"But a large proportion of our demographic is over 18 so we will make a point of catering to that demographic – we certainly don't want to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator," he said. ...

News/release from Weltall:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

Nervegas has released a new version of his Nes Emulator for the iPhone which is based on the same code as the iPhoneNes emulator.

Heres the info and whats new:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

via gigaom


More Info Here --> http://skypeforiphone.com/ ...

via engadget



There's a couple of developments in Xbox land today, one official and one decidedly less so. On the latter front are some rumored new Xbox 360 bundles that French website Gamick.fr claims to have caught sight of on a Microsoft marketing site. As you can see above, the bundle (in this case for the Elite model) supposedly includes Forza 2 and Marvel Ulitmate Alliance for "free." A Premium bundle with the same games was also spotted, but there's no indication of one for the Core model. According to Gamick, the only other information about the bundles is that they were labeled as "Holiday Value Bundles." In more official Xbox news, attendees at Microsoft's Gamefest 2007 got a chance to check out Torpex Games' "Schizoid," which is the first Xbox Live Arcade game to be created with XNA Game Studio (it'll be available later this year). What's more, Microsoft also announced that the top four winners of its XNA-centered Dream-Build-Play contest will be able to have their games published on Xbox Live, although there doesn't appear to be any word on exactly when they'll be available. ...

Wow what a busy week for the Apple Iphone, its great for those of you who have one, most of the rest of the world are still waiting to get their hands on one.

The last week has seen Nes and Mame Emulator releases/WIP News, a Port of Doom and various applications. For a new homebrew scene this is a very encouraging start and we do hope that Apple see that homebrew is good for the iPhone and not a detriment.

Viva le homebrew ...

via xbox scene

FuseX is a Xbox port of FUSE, the Free Unix Spectrum Emulator, and will allow you to play ZX Spectrum software on your Xbox games console.
What's new/fixed:
* NEW: Zip support.
* NEW: Enabled graphics filters.
* NEW: Emulator settings loading/saving.
* NEW: Settings now saved per game (joystick setting and joypad config).
* NEW: Tape fast-fwd loading option.
* NEW: Tape control menu.
* NEW: Subdirectory browsing in file list menu.
* NEW: Re-Mappable buttons for emulator actions.
* NEW: Nice splashscreen and dashboard icon. [Thanks Antiriad!]
* NEW: Savestate slots now have an info panel to tell you what is in each slot.
* NEW: Snaps can be stored anywhere on the HD instead of just within FuseX dir.
* NEW: Wrote some proper documentation.
* NEW: Added more user-tweakable settings for RZX demo mode.
* CHANGED: UI is a bit nicer and more user friendly.
* CHANGED: Virtual keyboard looks nicer and can be moved with the analog stick.
* CHANGED: General optimizations. Should be less sluggish now.
* CHANGED: Joypad mappings menu is more user-friendly.
* FIXED: RZX loading _much_ faster.
* FIXED: RZX memory leak.
* FIXED: Big RZX files should now load.
* FIXED: RZX compatibility improved.
* FIXED: Sound stuttering (note: fix only works on PAL compatible boxes).
* FIXED: Vertical and horizontal line running through centre of the screen.
* FIXED: Lots of bugs.

Official Site: http://fusex.sourceforge.net/ ...