Via Slashdot

Gamasutra is reporting on reporting, with financial information from some of the large gaming companies becoming available this week. Nintendo, who had already previously raised projections, saw their profits up 72% over last year. This dramatic increase was credited largely to the DS, with 10.9 million units sold in the first six months of this year alone. Sony, on the other hand, dropped profits by 94% over this time last year. The company attributes this largely to the battery recall and PS3 start-up costs. From the article:
...

Via Slashdot

Gamasutra is reporting on reporting, with financial information from some of the large gaming companies becoming available this week. Nintendo, who had already previously raised projections, saw their profits up 72% over last year. This dramatic increase was credited largely to the DS, with 10.9 million units sold in the first six months of this year alone. Sony, on the other hand, dropped profits by 94% over this time last year. The company attributes this largely to the battery recall and PS3 start-up costs. From the article:
...

Via Gamesindustry

Lik-Sang has continued its war of words with Sony over lawsuits which the Hong Kong retailer cites as responsible for its closure, arguing that a number of the PlayStation company's statements in court and since have been misleading or contradictory.

Marketing manager Pascal Clarysse, who has since left Lik-Sang, said in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz that the retailer "spent over a year to vigorously contest the UK court's jurisdiction", despite Sony's claim earlier this week that the retailer made no representations.

He also disputes Sony's claim that employees who allegedly purchased import PlayStation Portable consoles from Lik-Sang as early as December 2004 were doing so for "investigatory purposes", as Sony argued on Tuesday.

"Oddly enough, all investigatory orders that were revealed by Sony to the High Court in London and to the High Court in Hong Kong started much later than the purchases placed by [Sony employees]," Clarysse says.

"Further to this, Sony Europe's own Legal and Business Affairs Manager signed a witness statement in the High Court of London that says that Sony Europe 'became aware' of parallel imported PSP consoles in the UK and in the rest of Europe only in March 2005, and the same witness statement presents a trainee solicitor from Sony's lawyers as the one placing such investigatory orders during May 2005."

With Lik-Sang now out of business, the situation looks bleak for other importers of foreign hardware, but, says Clarysse, it is the human cost that's being felt most now that the dust is settling on this episode. "Unfortunately for Lik-Sang, the current situation is neither a joke, nor a game: A bunch of people, including two highly pregnant women, have lost their basis for existence because of corporate lawsuits for something that is not only regarded as lawful in Hong Kong, it is considered to be beneficial for consumers (free trade)."

Sony declined to comment on Lik-Sang's statement.

Id love the UK Government to step in and stick up for the public and give us our free rights to buy from anywhere in the world. ...

Sonnet is a little coy about just how much extra playtime the 2,100mAh battery in its Volta add-on for the 5G iPod - and its recent update. It provides a set of "estimates" that don't quite add up. If it adds an extra 50 hours' audio playback time to a 30GB iPod, why does it add 60 hours more to a 60GB or 80GB model?

But what are we complaining for? With even a baseline 50 extra hours of listerning and, more importantly, 7-18 hours more video playback time, all for just £45, who's grumbling?

Volta connects to the iPod via a dock connector, but provides a slot of its own so the player can be charged and stocked with content while it's fitted into the Sonnet device. Sonnet bundles a USB-to-dock cable so you'll always have one handy, and the unit ships with side latches to hold the iPod in place. Four charge-status LEDs keep you informed how much playtime the Volta can provide before it drops out and the iPod's own battery takes over. ...

News from Play Asia:



Play-Asia.com has opened preorders for three upcoming Nintendo licensed First4Figures Collectible Statues, based on the popular The Legend of Zelda and Metroid Prime franchises. All figures are strictly limited, hand cast and hand painted, individually numbered and come with an authenticity card. Don't miss this chance and submit your preorder now. Only available as long as supplies last...

Official product descriptions:

Very little is understood about the demigod know as the Fierce Deity. With his history shrouded in mystery, the dark and mighty warrior was trapped into a mask, a mask which allows the wearer to inhabit the Fierce Deity's powerful body. Powerful and evil, could this mask's dark powers be as bad as Majora? When young Link dons the Fierce Deity Mask, he manages to harness its power without being corrupted and is transformed into Fierce Deity Link for ultimate showdown with Majora…

First 4 Figures is proud to present Fierce Deity Link, the first collectible statue in the First 4 Figures highly anticipated Legend of Zelda collectible statue series. With inspiration taken from the official Majora’s Mask Fierce Deity Link artwork, the statue has faithfully recreated Fierce Deity’s powerful and mysterious character and pose. Raising his double helix sword high above his head, he is ready to take on any his enemies. Towering at over 14.5 inches to the tip of his sword hilt, Fierce Deity Link will be in scale with the others in the series.

Cast in high quality poly-stone, the statue is hand finished and hand painted. Comes packed in a foam interior full colored box with a card of authenticity. Highly limited at only 2,500 pieces available worldwide.

The Legend of Zelda - Fierce Deity Link Statue is on preorder to ship November 2006 at a price of US$ 99.90 only.



Edition size: 2,500 worldwide
Artist: Ryan Lim
Base Concept Artist: James West
Height: 14.5 inches
Hand cast and hand painted
Individually numbered and comes with an Authenticity Card

More Details Here --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...

Online auction house eBay has made a policy clarification regarding the PS3 and Wii pre-orders, so as not to have the same problems that occurred with the Xbox 360 launch (it almost did). Only experienced eBay sellers (with at least 50 feedback and 98% positive rating) can place a PS3 or Wii console for auction before launch, only one console per account, the picture must be of your pre-order receipt, and you can not set a "Buy it Now" option.

Reasons why we love this:

It discourages fake listings and encourages fulfilled orders.
Desperate gamers who are willing to spend thousands of dollars for an early PS3 can still do so.
Kudos to eBay for setting up guidelines to handle the impending console launch fiasco. ...

We were skeptical about AiLive's motion-making development tool when it was announced earlier this month, but after seeing a tech demo of LiveMotion in action, we're convinced it can produce novel work. The problem is the price. At $2,500, LiveMotion is only attractive to a select crowd and excludes smaller parties who will likely turn to Microsoft's XNA project for a more affordable creative outlet.

Nintendo should consider setting up a program, like XNA, that would invite indie game makers and hobbyists to explore Wii's ingenuity. The DS's success has shown that there's an interest, a market, for small quirky games -- it's what Jaffe was getting at; an era of churn'em-out hits. With Wii, Nintendo could p0wn this niche.

More Info ...

Sony unveiled the PlayStation Store at last week's Gamer's Day. This PS3 service will let gamers buy and download titles at the November 17 console launch. In the initial demonstration, Sony explained store payment options and how gamer parents can control kids' purchases.

Sony will let users make purchases with a regular credit card. If without one, gamers will be able to buy a PlayStation Store card in retail to use like a gift certificate.

We like the idea of using real money in the online store; this choice simplifies the process for gamers instead of making us translate points back and forth into dollars. We also think it's easier to spend recklessly in a fantasy currency, so we applaud Sony for keeping costs up-front.

Parents will be able to use a credit card to allocate their kids (or spouse) an allowance. Downloaded -- and retail-bought -- games will also be branded with an ESRB rating; parents will be able to use this evaluation to block kids from buying or playing certain content.

We're not sure how many parents will use the account controls. (Does anyone use the V-Chip?) But we're glad that parents have the choice, and we hope that Sony is able to educate them about the option. ...

Sexy, huh? Here's the PLAYSTATION TV. That's upper case for a PS3 demo kiosk, which will begin flooding Japan. Unlike the previous monolith, which only showed clips, this new version has demos, game videos, a photo slideshow and music. Players can select what they desire by toggling through the PS3's Cross Media Bar. Trial games include Devil May Cry 4, Power Smash 3, Gran Turismo HD and Ridge Racer 7. Sony plans to put 1,000 of these kiosks around Japan by the year's end—if anything, just to taught those unable to buy one.

Screen Via Comments ...