More price cut news this time from Eurogamer

Sony has no immediate plans to cut the price of PlayStation Portable in Europe or the United States, the company said today.

"We've got no plans to cut the price of PSP at this moment in time," a spokesperson for Sony UK told Eurogamer this afternoon, responding to similar comments made by the company's US arm overnight.

Pointing to the combination of movie, music, photo, internet and games support now offered by the latest updates to PSP system software, the spokesperson said the handheld "still represents great value for money".

Earlier Sony Computer Entertainment America's John Koller told Reuters, "We don't necessarily see the need to cut the price," pointing instead to a need to "introduce new consumers to what the PSP can do."

That's despite ongoing criticism of the platform's software line-up, which many observers feel compares unfavourably to strong offerings on the DS platform. ...

Lost Planet is Keiji Inafune's answer to Halo, the Capcom producer has said.

Speaking to Kotaku recently, Inafune revealed that he originally pitched the game to Capcom bosses as his take on Bungie's seminal first-person shooter.

"I really wanted to do something as cool as Halo," he said. "I'm a big Halo fan, but it's not well known in Japan. It's very interesting, but very American."

Capcom, it turns out, wasn't interested on account of Halo's poor sales in Japan, so Inafune took matters into his own hands and simply set about making it - and taking the initiative paid off. "When we described the idea, we couldn't get approval. But, when we showed them what we were working on, we got approval."

But while the game - in which players take on giant bug-like creatures and space pirates in an icy wilderness - is certainly a reaction to Halo, Inafune added that the team "wanted to do something that had more of a Japanese flavour".

"That's why we added robots," he said. "In America, mech-type robots are not so cool. Just look at the mechs in The Matrix." Indeed.

As you'll know, the game's just now approaching completion - with a global launch set for January - and as well as a combat-heavy single-player campaign, Capcom's including a multiplayer component that received strong write-ups at recent trade shows. A demo of the single-player has been available since May, and a multiplayer demo is due out soon. ...

SCE Worldwide Europe VP Jamie MacDonald reckons that Europe will quickly get over the delay between the US and Japanese launches of PlayStation 3 next month and its European debut next March.

When asked by our sister site GamesIndustry.biz what he'd say to European consumers who feel they're always last in line for new consoles, MacDonald said, "European consumers have shown that historically they don't mind [the delays], because they end up buying as many PlayStations, if not more, than the US and Japan."

"In Europe, it doesn't seem that the release of our platforms after the US and Japan - in the long run - affects how consumers feel."

"If we were sitting here in five years' time, I don't think we'd really think about or notice that PlayStation 3 was four or five months later in Europe. I think in the long run, PlayStation 3 will succeed because of the great product it is and the great software we make for it," he added, when asked how he felt the delay would affect Sony's chances in the next-gen battle.

MacDonald's frank assessment of the situation is likely to raise hackles with, well, you (you're already sharpening your keyboard, aren't you?), but generally speaking he certainly shared Sony UK boss Ray Maguire's perspective on the announcement, around a month ago, that the console's European release would be delayed until March.

At the time, Maguire admitted that Sony UK was "extremely disappointed" by the delay. "We can truly empathise with everyone who was looking forward to PS3's imminent release. We will however be working tirelessly to ensure that the March 2007 launch is the biggest and best in the company's history," he added. ...

It's time again for one of our favorite segments, CE-Oh no he didn't! For this week's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about the PS3. Now, we all know that the new PS3 isn't going bring the rumble to our favorite upcoming Sony gaming console. But what we didn't know was why -- yes, yes there were claims that it had to do with interference of motion sensing, or lawsuits from Immersion, but we hadn't gotten a clear reason straight from the horse's mouth, particularly when surveys suggest fans would be willing to pay for it. However, a recent interview by GameDaily Biz with SCEA prez Kaz Hirai says that it's yet another reason altogether:

"Is it technically feasible? Absolutely. But the balancing act that you need to do, is to be able to present the controller to the consumer at an affordable price."

Affordable? Please. Joystiq points out that a G-Pad Pro for the PS2, which has motion sensing and vibration, costs $30, a whole Lincoln higher than the Dual Shock. C'mon Kaz, can't you at least be straight with us? Now of course, this is from the same folks who said that just a few months ago said that the $500 PS3 was "too cheap," and is well worth the markup compared to the Wii, but backtracked when the company recently dropped the price in Japan. Maybe that means the prices of the controllers are going to come down too? ...

Via Engadget

If the bevy of PMP / gaming hybrid devices hasn't exactly met your expectations (or came to fruition at all), KNC is throwing down an impressive do-it-all handheld that puts similar alternatives to shame. The HR-2800 may resemble a jazzed-up Sega Nomad at first glance, but beneath the 3.6-inch LCD is some serious potential. Housing a 400MHz CPU and a homebrew GUI to boot, the handheld plays back AVI, MPEG4, DivX, and XviD, while supporting MP3 and FLAC (audiophiles rejoice) on the musical side. Boasting a built-in file manager, portable version of "Winamp," a full-fledged picture / text viewer, and 1.3 megapixel camera, this jack-of-all-trades can even export full-motion video to your television via its video output. In case you're looking to get your retro game on, the unit apparently sports an NES / GBA emulator, and just in case the (admittedly skimpy) 1GB of internal storage isn't roomy enough, you can add the space you need via its SD slot. While the amount of goodies crammed into the HR-2800 may garner praise, the real applause goes to the price -- at just CNY999 ($127), we've got to wonder if these KNC folks aren't just skimming the market.

Screenshots Via Comments

Could this be a future contender for a homebrew scene ? ...

Via Engadget

Alright Sony, this is just getting ridiculous. It's not like you guys haven't been a featured guest in this series before, but we had no idea it was such an honor. The third "CE-Oh no" moment for Sony this week came out of the mouth of SCE World Europe VP, Jamie MacDonald, who was asked: "What would you say to consumers who like Sony and want to buy your products, but perhaps feel that because they're in Europe they're always last in line?" Apparently Jamie feels little love for his whiny constituency, since his clueless response was thus: "European consumers have shown that historically they don't mind that, because they end up buying as many PlayStations, if not more, than the US and Japan. In Europe, it doesn't seem that the release of our platforms after the US and Japan - in the long run - affects how consumers feel." We're not even sure how to respond to that, so we'll continue with more "CE-Oh no" sound bite gold from our pal Jamie. In response to a query about Sony's UMD failure, he stated: "I think you'll find in general the market for movies on discs of any type is not particularly great at the moment." Again, we really have nothing to add, so we'll just hit up one more sound bite for good time's sake. When asked about the Wii60 concept, where prospective next-gen buyers compare the price of purchasing an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii to the cost of the PS3 alone, Jamie further demonstrated his ignorance: "To be honest, I haven't heard that." Not a banner day for Sony PR by a long shot, but at least they're not trying to hide their seeming disdain for consumers and plain logic. ...

The Wario Ware series has always been nuts, with its nonsensical three-second mini-games coming at you one after the other. But with full-body motion of the Wii version, Smooth Moves is totally berserk.

Making full use of the Wii's motion-detecting Remote (no Nunchuk needed), Wario Ware: Smooth Moves has you performing all sorts of wacky movements to complete its rapid mini-games.

The cool thing is the Wii Remote is held differently with each game, and just before the mini-games appear, you're briefly shown a picture of how the controller should be held. Then you have a couple of seconds to get it ready.

It's mental. One second you'll be holding the Remote like a cup, and tipping it towards you to make the on-screen man drink a glass of water (do it to fast and the water spills everywhere). Then you have to quickly change to holding it horizontally with both hands like a pole, and tilt it left and right to help a clown keep his balance on a giant ball. Then you're holding it like a dumbbell, and pumping your bicep to make the on-screen weightlifter do the same.

Our favourite mini-games are the ones based on previous Nintendo games. An Animal Crossing game saw us yank the remote back to whip a fish out of a river. A Super Mario Bros. game lets you flick the remote upwards to make Mario jump to hit a coin block. And you'll be reaching towards your TV to grab a dog's paw in a Nintendogs mini-game.

But Smooth Moves doesn't settle at you just moving your hands and arms. Sometimes it'll ask you to hold the Remote against a particular part of your body. So you'll be holding it at your waist, and twirling your hip to spin a hoola-hoop around the waist of your virtual counterpart.

Or, you'll be asked to place the controller on your head and do squats to make a crazy body-builder pump his legs. Of course, since the Wii can only detect the position of the controller and not the rest of your body, you can cheat by imitating these motions with more effortless arm movements, but you're girlfriend and your granny won't know that. Let them live the dream.

If you play by the rules, Wario Ware is as bonkers as it is tiring, but that's what makes it as fun as the Dancing Stage games that have dominating arcades for years.

Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is a confirmed launch title in Japan, but is not yet on the list for day one in the UK.

We're hoping it'll appear in time for Christmas. Forget singing carols and popping crackers. We're all about Wario Ware after a fat lunch. ...

Midway has told CVG that it hopes to have The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, a battle adventure game based on the Cartoon Network series, ready for Wii on day one in the UK. A Midway spokesperson said: "We're aiming for a launch release in the PAL territories and it is being developed by Midway internally."

The development team is "currently testing the usage of all of the Wii functionality", but the company wouldn't disclose further specifics.

The single player adventure will boast 40 missions of cartoony fightsn, and a Battle mode will let four players go head-to-head in a selection of deathmatch arenas.

Screenshots Here ...

Dyack has explained why his long, long in the making action-RPG, Too Human, was absent from Microsoft's X06 last week, despite having been playable at E3 earlier in the year.

"This decision to not show at X06 was made immediately after E3," said Dyack, speaking on his blog. "We made the decision to next show the game when we are ready and we knew that X06 would not be the right time."

He continued: "When we do decide to show the game, our goal is to give everyone a true impression of the game -- one that includes story, audio, game play, artwork and technology. Things are going very well and Too Human is shaping up to be our best game to date."

Speculation was writhe after the game received a poor reception at this year's E3 (RIP), but Dyack promises it won't be long before we see it in action again: "Stay tuned because there will be a preview of the game in the future..."

Too Human is expected on Xbox 360 sometime next year. ...