During a back stage interview at Spike TV 2006 Video Game Awards show, the host asked the Epic guys about downloadable content. Epic Games President, Doctor Mike Capps, said:

"We started long before the game ever came out; we started on the next stuff. We always take care of our customers, we always give them stuff for free and we're going to keep doing that forever."

So will we be getting free content? Well everything has to go thought MS first as they are the publisher... we will have to wait and see.

Gears of War: Limited Edition [s]£49.99[/s] £44.99 ...

The DS reclaims it throne, in style by moving 300k+ units. After last weeks launch the Wii drops to 85k. Sony moves PS3 manufacturing up a gear with 50K sold this week.

But big mover this week is the Xbox 360, claiming 4th place (actually beating the ps2) with over 35k units sold, all thanks to Blue Dragon.

The PSP still seems to be in trouble in Japan, despite increasing in sales it drops behind the PS2 (and 360) in total sales.

It seems that the DS has this Christmas in its pocket, but on the console front, it going to be a fight between the Wii and PS3, who can make the most units?

Also how far will the Xbox 360 fall next week? back to normal numbers (1.5k to 7k) or is this the point were the 360 fights back? ...

A few words:

- As many of you know, I'm not terribly impressed with the unofficial builds of gpSP that exist without my consent. I have a nice rant about it in the readme, most of you have probably heard me here already anyway so I won't repeat it. Suffice it to say, I'm pretty serious about what I'm going to be doing at this point.

- This thing was way too much work. >_< I intended to release it at midnight, and I was basically about to, when my beta tester found fresh problems. So here I am, 6 hours later, now ready to release, I guess. I want to give a huge thanks to Veskgar, who stayed up all night with me to beta test.

- Obviously not every game is going to work, still. I'd love to give you an estimate of what the compatability is like, but until I've actually confirmed that many games of ALL GBA games I'll never feel confident in anything I say. But it's higher than 0.8.

- 0.9 still means beta. 1.0 won't be beta. If I ever release 1.0.

I actually worked really hard on this all day to add a bunch of stuff. This is, of course, in spite of all the crap from this scene. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of very appreciative and dedicated people around (my two beta testers, of course). But I have to deal with a lot of things. People swearing at me for refusing to give them the BIOS, for instance. One person even threatened to report me to Nintendo because I refused to send him one. People literally arguing with me about why it's not fair for me to refuse to send them ROMs. People impersonating me on other message boards. Someone recently pretended to be me and said that I was giving up because I can't compete with Takka's releases. Things like that.

But I'll still work on this emulator. I started it for a reason and I'm going to see it through, even if I get nothing but headaches from it. I don't really play it mayself, though; I doubt anyone's going to believe me when I say that I actually do code it for the benefit of other people. No matter what, I still remember what it was like when I was 13 and emulators were very important to me, where a new one could make a dramatic difference in my life. Sad as that sounds. If I can be helpful to anyone I want to be.

But that won't really stop me from being possessive of my emulator. I want it to be developed the way I prefer - fortunately, I happen to sincerely think that I know what's best for it too.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. No, I won't post what's new here, go read the readme. Have fun :P

The source. Don't take it for granted, because it might not be there next time.

Heres whats New for those interested

...

The gaming world in Japan is abuzz with rumors that Square Enix is not the only one to leave the Sony camp and this is just a lead for others to follow

This is another of a gloom story for Sony and Livedoor new portal in Japan has got some good insight with their article on the same here in Japanese
http://news.livedoor.com/webapp/jour...2853198/detail

I have posted a translation on my blog.

Copied below for anyone have access problems to the site:

...

news via kotaku

A tipster sent a link tip that Amazone is on the cusp of selling a huge batch of Wii and Playstation 3 on their site.

No specific date was mentioned, but the tip said in will be in "the coming days."

The tipster didn't mention where this news came from and when I asked never responded.... soooo, I wouldn't really put much faith in this. Since I am still desperately looking for a PS3 to buy for our Playstation 3 winner from last month, I know I'll be keeping an eye on Amazon in the coming days. ...

news via clubskill

Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, has recently stated in an interview on an American television station that he would like to see the popular Grand Theft Auto series appear on Nintendo's latest videogame console, the Wii.

Having sold millions of units across the globe, the Grand Theft Auto series has been an international success story for the PlayStation, PC, and Xbox. The latest in the series is set to arrive on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2007.

Reggie Fils-Aime stated that Nintendo has done all it possibly can to convince Take-Two, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto games, to create a game of the series for the Wii system, but it is now down to the publisher to make a decision.

The publisher has worked in Nintendo's favour, often publishing games for Nintendo systems, including an exclusive Game Boy Advance version of the original Grand Theft Auto game in late 2004.

We'll learn more about their choices in the New Year. ...

news via gwn

Accessory manufacturer Talismoon show off their upcoming black replacement shell for the Nintendo Wii.

Talismoon Evolve for Wii are a series of complete replacement shells for the Nintendo Wii.

"Each case will be of distinct high quality and comes with everything needed for an easy installation.

But that’s not all. Talismoon hope to take customization of Nintendo products further. Wii Evolve cases will have a few special features that will allow convenient installation of future tuning products from Talismoon or even third party companies!"

Many colours will be available from early January, however until that time comes enjoy a preview of their ‘Black Katana’ concept above.
Dec 14, 2006

screen via comment ...

news via m-net

Nintendo's Wii game console has broken Australian records, selling 32,901 units in its first week, toppling the previous Aussie sales record held by Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Figures for New Zealand are less exact, but local Nintendo distributor Softprint Interactive says that since going on sale December 7, the $500 console has achieved 75 per cent of the 7000 Xbox 360s sold here in March.

It's the same the world over; demand exceeded supply in the Americas with 600,000 Wiis sold within eight days, while UK gamers bought one Wii a second following its midnight launch, eventually snapping up 50,000 in its first 12 hours. In Europe, 325,000 consoles sold in its first two days.

So game is most definitely on, with the Xbox 360, PS3 and now the Wii all available and battling for market supremacy.

While we won't see it in New Zealand until March 7, the PS3 finally hit stores in the US and Japan mid-November. Manufacturing issues had plagued the console's release with the main culprit being production of the system's blue laser diode, eventually causing shortages of the console and delaying its release in Europe until March 2007.

But don't underestimate the Sony; since entering the market in 1994, the company has been the leading console vendor. The PSone shipped over 100 million units, a record broken only by the PS2. Sony envisions similar results from the PlayStation 3, except this time the console is more than a game - it's a multimedia hub for the home.

According to Ovum technology analyst Carl Gressum, "Sony has made two brave bets with its latest console, namely the Blu-ray disc drive, and the Cell processor, both of which are new and untested technologies. Over time these technology choices might be what brings Sony back into the game. However, for now, one has to question whether Sony might have been better off using more mature and established technologies."

Despite this, Sony is sticking to its projections of 2 million PS3s shipped by the end of 2006, and 6 million worldwide by March 2007 when the console is launched in Europe (and New Zealand).

Microsoft on the other hand has had a year's head start on the competition. By the end of Q3, the Xbox 360 had sold 6 million units, compared to the projected 4 million Wii shipments in December 2006 alone.

Microsoft has also added video download services to the 360, but Gressum feels this is unlikely to significantly impact on demand during the holidays; saying that the 20GB hard disk is hardly sufficient for video downloads. He adds that there is scepticism about the new HD DVD drive add-on; the Xbox 360 simply generates too much heat and noise to be a viable movie player platform.

However, he says Christmas should see be the best Xbox 360 quarter ever, with shipments reaching or exceeding 4 million units worldwide.

So with the big guns settling in for a heavy-weight stoush, light-weight Nintendo has surprised everyone by entering the next-generation console race with the oddly named Wii. And it's different. The Wii uses revolutionary movement sensors in its slim hand-held controller that relay movements directly to the game, allowing gamers to interact directly and instantly with the graphics. Swing the controller and hit a tennis ball, punch out and floor your attacker. No more sitting idle for hours, furiously tapping buttons, this game is meant to be active and involving.

It's a brave move and the latest figures say it's paying off. Nintendo Australia's Vispi Bhopti says the console is tailored to get non-gamers into gaming. He says the Wii Channels, due to launch in the New Year, will keep non-gaming sectors hooked on console. He explained that by logging on to the Wii Channels with the Wii controller, console owners will be able to watch Nintendo news, weather and internet programmes on their TV.

Games writer and editor of Netguide magazine Jorin Seivers says Nintendo is definitely aiming at a more mainstream audience, especially women. "The controller is very intuitive with fewer buttons and the imagery is very ‘cutesy'.

"The physical aspect of the game will also appeal more widely. You can actually build up a sweat with this thing," he says.

Gaming is a huge and often cut throat business, but we at m-net are picking that for the holidays, expect Nintendo to steal the show. ...

Hi all ive posted this as an announcement but ill repeat what i have to post here

On all the Console Forums now we will have on the main Index a News forum for that console and a Discussion Forums Link which will take you to the area with all the forums for that console or family of consoles

so for example instead of 10 forums in the main index for the Dreamcast/Sega forums you will see just a

Dreamcast News forum
Sega Saturn News forum
Sega Consoles Discussion Forums

Ive now rearranged the PSP, PS3 and PS2 forums as well

Clicking on the DIscussion forums will take you to the area with all the forums for that console, alternatively each forum section has an easy link with all forums for that section, what it does is make the main index a bit shorter but also gives each console more scope to expand forums should the need arise.

News forums and Posting

Time and time again i have people messaging me asking about why they cant start a topic in the News forums, well reason is each news forum is the News feed for that particular site, you can reply to any thread but for normal discussion please use the discussion forums for each console.

Xbox360 Site

DS69 has now took over the Xbox360 site which gives me some more time to work on the other sites and maybe get some sleep now and again

Reviews Site

The reviews site is to get a make over like the PSP/Wii Sites and will focus on reviews for all consoles and software with its own section maybe under the name DCEmu Reviews all to come soon.

PC Gaming Site

The RTS and RPG Sites will merge into a PC/Windows Gaming site and feature news on all styles of PC Gaming and maybe even the best of PC Homebrew if we get time.

Ok thats all for now ...