EA has said it expects to have four to five games out for PS3 between the console's launch and the end of the year, confirming at this stage three of the titles: Need for Speed Carbon; Madden NFL 07; and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07.

Discussing its launch games line-up for Sony's next-gen console - during a conference call held with media and analysts yesterday - the company also admitted, while fielding a question on Xbox 360 versus PS3 technical capabilities, that it's extremely unlikely that the initial wave of titles will do PS3's hardware justice.

"This Christmas, it's going to be difficult to harness the full power of the PS3 on first generation software versus what will be second generation 360 games, so they're going to be more alike than different, is our opinion at this time," an EA exec commented.

They continued: "As those machines develop over time [...] there's a lot of horsepower inside the PS3 that we'll be able to unlock over years two, three, and four that we're very excited about."

EA additionally took the opportunity to touch on Wii and DS during the conference call, revealing plans to boost focus on both machines. "We're definitely going after those platforms", the publisher revealed, "...we have ramped up [game] production for the Wii and DS Lite". It added: "In terms of relative investment on the Wii and the DS, we are moving resources against those platforms to increase SKU count."

The publisher went on to say, however, that it only expects to have a couple of titles out for Wii's launch period - Need for Speed Carbon and Madden NFL 07 - and a total of five released by the end of the company's fiscal year - March 2007. It's possible that EA's Wii games will retail at $49.99 in the US (apparently, Nintendo has indicated that first-party Wii games will not retail for more than this amount over the pond), but that remains to be confirmed.

Reportedly, EA didn't have an awful lot to say about Xbox 360 during the conference call, chairman and CEO Larry Probst simply stating, "We're pleased to be the leading publisher on the Xbox 360". ...

If you've not played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on DS yet, consider our verdict a life-sentence on your head for being way too slow on the uptake. For those not in the know, Phoenix Wright - or Gyakuten Saiban as it's known in Japan, where the franchise has been going for yonks - is Capcom's take on the point-and-click genre, mixed in with a dollop of lawyer simming.

Thankfully, the company saw fit to launch its first Phoenix Wright title for the DS (actually a remake of the very first GBA Gyakuten Saiban) in Europe last year, to much acclaim. As a reward for our slobbering praise, Capcom is primed and ready to bring its second DS entry, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, to the West early 2007 and we've got a bunch of new shots from the game for your to examine and slap in your evidence bags.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All follows the path of Capcom's original DS iteration, this time providing a touch-screen makeover for part two of the GBA Gyakuten Saiban series. New editions for the DS sequel include the "Psyche-Lock" feature where you'll have to catch witnesses out with your rapier-like cunning to break down their mental barriers and find the truth. To compliment this, Phoenix Wright now has a health bar-style meter during court scenes, which depletes every time you fail to coerce information from your charges.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All is set to hit the US early next year with, hopefully, a European version to follow. Put it this way, if Nintendo Europe doesn't get its act together, there'll be more than an OBJECTION!!! - it'll be time for a couple of gavel blows to the face.

News and Screens at CVG ...

Midway has announced that it's set to bring the latest instalment in its long-running fighting series, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, to Nintendo's Wii in Q1 2007. With both Xbox and PS2 versions planned for release later this year, the news should be welcomed by Nintendo fans desperate for a slice of bloody brawling action - particularly as the series hasn't appeared on a Nintendo system since 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception.

There's currently no word on how the game will utilise the console's unique Wiimote (if it does at all) but, interestingly, Ed Boon - co-creator of the Mortal Kombat series - told US mag Game Informer earlier this year that he didn't think fighters could be done on Nintendo's new system: "You know, I don't know how you could. One of the things about the Revolution controller is that you don't have immediate access to a whole bunch of buttons. It's like your holding a television remote and you have that directional pad and you have a big A button next to it.

Boon continued, "But there's not five or six buttons to give you all of these functions, so maybe they will compensate but tilting one way for blocking or another way for attack. But that is so dramatically different. So it will either be one of the biggest hits in the world or a big failure. I certainly hope it does well."

Presumably then, he's changed his mind. Either that or we're going to be watching a non-interactive slideshow of spine-ripping and limb-rending come Mortal Kombat: Armageddon's Wii release next year. ...

Ubisoft's got a taste for Wii and it just can't get enough it seems. With the publisher already having announced both shoot-and-slash-'em-up Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids as launch exclusives for Nintendo's upcoming console, it seems that Ubisoft actually has a grand total of seven games in the works for Wii.

Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc revealed the number while speaking at the Ziff Davis Electronic Games Summit in Napa, according to reports on 1UP.com. Furthermore, Detoc couldn't help but gush in the face of the console, stating that he expected the machine to have a "large audience and market." He also revealed that despite his dwindling interest in the current crop of me-too games, Wii offered a fresh new experience: "The first time I picked up that sucker I couldn't stop playing it."

Meanwhile, at the same event, Midway President David Zucker revealed his company has six games in progress for Nintendo's console, with Mortal Kombat: Armageddon due in 2007.

Hopefully, we can expect to see more of both publishers' new games as Leipzig 2007 rolls around later this month when, it's rumoured, a whole bunch of previously unseen Wii titles will get their first airing. ...

Some excellent news and screenshots thanks to Jar Jar and GTA Portable.com

Heres the news:


Download the Scans Via Comments ...

Last week i let you know of a handheld called One Station which lets has TV Out and comes at a rather cheap price of $28 (16Pounds), it has TV Out and also you can get Multi game 8 Bit (think Nes/Spectrum) and also 16bit (Megadrive) Game cartridges.

Well today ive found out more info about this console and possible Homebrew implications for the future, heres a screen detailing the future and present features:



The upcoming features look impressive, GPS, Wireless, Flash, MP3, Educational Games, Ebook, Picture Viewer and the SD Download which could possibly be used for Homebrew means this is a very interesting console.

Those interested can check the console out at SuccessHK, im going to get one for review as soon as possible to unearth more on this new console. ...

Via Insert credit

You might've seen a bit of news about this - Mattel is releasing a game console for "tweens," which merges both game and card scanning phenomena into one package. Certainly on paper that sounds like something born of a marketing orgy, but I went that extra step and requested images and additional info. Very interestingly, the sytem is CD-based, and boasts a 32 bit architecture. They haven't yet released the actual specs and chip manufacturers, but I'm promised that information once they're ready to reveal it. If you look at the system to the left (click for largeness!), it's got some curious design. It folds, but mostly for storage. You put the CD in the left, and cards are scanned over the red light on thr githhand side. Two joypad ports come standard, but a second controller is extra, indicating that these games will actually feature AI, and not just be player vs player. It's a bit complicated how these games work, but rather interesting as well. The game is loaded via the CD, and during play, players can pause and scan upgrades/attribute changes for their character. Once they achieve victory, they can 'save' this upgraded character to a rewritable Intellicard (more on that in just a bit). The system is said to combine their rewritable card technology with "the fast-paced, button-mashing action of video games."

The first crop of games seems to include fighters, mostly. The console ships with X-Men, a controller (designed for tween-sized hands, but I'm sure we could manage), and 6 game cards, for $70. Additional controler is $20, additional game cards are 6 for $10 in randomized booster packs (aka, holy crap there's our money, as each game has 100 corresponding cards!), and there's also an Intellicard holder and console case available. I'm still a bit unclear about which cards are rewritable, all of them, or some of them? Interesting regardless.

Now let's take a look at a game shot (make click for large experience). Here you'll find an image from the X-Men game, which is quite revealing. Backgrounds and sprites are obviously prerendered, and the image sent to me was very high res (I actually shrank the supplied image by 50%). Not sure if the console itself will boast such a mighty resolution, but check out Wolverine's avatar on the left side. Pretty clean! Not sure what's up with the one on the right though. You can see each pixel in the dithering of the shadows. It looks a lot like early prerendered work on the Saturn, which is pretty intriguing. Aside from X-Men, there will be a game based on Cartoon Network's Ben 10, which I'd presume to be a side scroller, a game for Mattel's own Interstellar Wrestling League, and Marvel Heroes will be released in November, 2006. The console itself is scheduled to launch in October.

So they plan to hit the tween market which has graduated from plug and play systems, but isn't ready for dedicated consoles. I'm not entirely certain that such a demographic really exists, as a number of dedicated console games are aimed directly at the tween market, but that's neither here nor there. Here's the really odd thing though - this is Mattel - you might remember that they created the Intellivision, which sold over 3 million units in the early days of gaming (hey, I finally made good use of this!), which was an impressive number in those days, though the VCS did dominate the market. Nowhere in the press releases or literature are they hyping this fact, or their triumphant return to the games market. That's curious enough on its own, but that they decided to name their card technology Intellicard, and then ignore their own roots, well...it's unusual! They had a peripheral called the Intellivoice, after all. I suppose there could be licensing issues with the current Intellivision Lives company, but it's also possible that nobody at Mattel remembers the time when they were on top of the game industry. There's been very little press for this thing, they might've gotten a fair bit more if they'd leveraged that! At any rate, check out the official HyperScan site for more info. It's not got any content as of yet, but it should have some shortly. I can envision some seriously interesting applications of this, though I doubt its potential will be fully explored, as this is primarily to be a license-driven machine. Great possibility there though. Mattel should be sending me one of these things for review come august, so keep an ear open.

Screenshot Via Comments ...

Nintendo has become the first of the three platform holders to confirm involvement in next year's E3, with Microsoft and Sony yet to make a firm commitment to the reborn expo.

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, Nintendo UK PR manager Rob Saunders said, "I can confirm that Nintendo will be involved in the E3 expo next year."

However, details of just how big a presence Nintendo intends to have at the newly-formed event have yet to be revealed.

Microsoft's stance is less clear, with a spokesperson from the company's UK office telling GI.biz, "We're supportive of the move ESA has taken. It's still early days, and we're not in a position to talk about what Microsoft will be doing in regards to next year's E3, but we'll be making an announcement nearer the time."

David Wilson, head of SCEE PR, was unwilling to offer any kind of commitment, stating, "We generally view E3 as a 'US' show. That isn't to devalue or deny its significance to us, it's just that because it's based in the US: SCEA 'own' it."

Wilson added that further comment would only be forthcoming once SCEA had confirmed its position.

The move to reformat E3 as a much smaller event was confirmed by ESA president Doug Lowenstein earlier today.

He confirmed that next year's show – which has held the games industry in its thrall for the past 12 years - will be retitled the E3 Media Festival for 2007, and is slated to take place in July as opposed to the traditional May timing.

However, as the cross-spectrum first reactions from the platform holders show, the impact to the entire industry of losing the event is still unclear. Greater clarity is expected towards the end of the week as the US arms of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft all make their official comments regarding the move. ...

News via Gamesindustry

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