Now that the exploding men and unrelenting rain of crates have been taken care of, it would seem a new issue has arisen in Modern Warfare 2. Specifically, a bug in the Xbox Live matchmaking assignments is reportedly dumping playlist searchers into private matches. (Nothing's worse than being teamed with the lowest ranking players, after all.)

Penny Arcade's Gabe tweeted (warning: foul language through link) that he had encountered the issue several times. Meanwhile, Infinity Ward's man in the trenches, Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling, confirmed the issue is known and that a fix is currently in the works.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/14/mo...g-malfunction/ ...

What can we say about this peripheral that we didn't say when it was known as the OpenOfficeMouse? It still has more buttons than any mouse has a right to have, but now it's adopted an edgier, darker look, and its eschewed the optical sensor for a 5600 CPI laser. Oh yes, and it has a new name: The WarMouse Meta. War is Hell, kids. PR after the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/14/w...me-18-buttons/ ...

PC gamers love to obsess over whether PC gaming is dying, but bit-tech thinks it's time to look at the other side and examine if console gaming is really as secure as publishers would have us believe. All three console manufacturers suffered from the recession — this year, Sony announced its first net loss in 14 years; a stunning ¥989.9bn, which includes record losses of ¥58.5bn in its gaming sector. Microsoft also announced its first loss since it went public in 1986 in the second quarter of this financial year, with a $31 million US loss coming straight from the Entertainment and Devices division, which is responsible for the Xbox 360. Not even Nintendo has escaped the financial plague either, with sales of the Wii dropping by 67 percent in the US, 60 percent in Japan and 47 percent in the rest of the world. In addition to reduced profitability, casual games and the rise of the iPhone further suggest the current model is not invulnerable.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/1...e-Gaming-Dying ...

Hi all, as part of a network wide feature we are adding affiliate sections to each of our sites in order to give users who visit dcemu more sites to visit that post news about the consoles we cover.

If you have a Nintendo DS site and are interested in affiliating then please reply via this thread.

a link on the homepage of each site is whats required. ...

One of Nintendo's most exciting announcements from E3 was the localization of WarioWare DIY, a DS app that lets players create their own WarioWare games, with custom graphics, sound, and gameplay. Nintendo didn't happen to offer a date during the thrilling E3 presentation, and it's said nothing at all about what should be a major part of the publisher's DS lineup -- until today.

In its Q1 schedule, Nintendo provided a date of March 28. You're not buying anything in March, right? The company also offered a Q1 date for WarioWare DIY Showcase, the WiiWare game through which WarioWare DIY games can be uploaded and played on a big screen.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/14/fy...n-ds-in-march/ ...

During an interview with Nikkei Japan, Sony's CTO Masayuki Chatani touches on the growing number of ways the PlayStation 3 has to accept payment, including the dreaded "monthly fees."

Last month during a Sony investor presentation, the company made mention of a potential subscription service for the PlayStation Network. While there's still nothing to announce on that front, Chatani once again brings up the possibility of monthly fees while discussing the cost of maintaining the PlayStation Network.

Servers and the like have running costs, and we would face difficulties if our business depended solely on the sell-and-forget model. After we sell the hardware, though, we continue to sell products such as content and services. We expect to see considerable growth in digital content, such as game download services, avatar items and the like. We can also accept payment in a growing number of ways. In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges. I think this variety of payment methods will bring about a diverse range of playing methods, too.

It doesn't sound to me like Sony would be charging for the PlayStation Network as much as they would be offering additional services and content on top of what players already get for free on PSN. Of course that's merely speculation.

Would you be open to paying a small monthly fee for easy access to downloadable content and items, or would you prefer to pay as you go?

http://kotaku.com/5425997/sony-bring...hly-fees-again ...

If you've seen the internet this weekend, you've heard about it: the "real Google phone" that "changes everything." But before we get carried away, a counterpoint: Google isn't magic. And the Nexus One isn't a game-changer—at least for now.

And I don't mean to say that I don't understand what the Nexus One is, or what Google's trying to do. Nor am I saying that Google plan for the Nexus One—to offer a different type of cellphone buying experience than US customers are accustomed to, and to provide a model for future Android handset—is a particularly bad one. I'm saying that I don't get the hype: Google's Nexus one is an interesting experiment, not some kind of disruptive Google coup. Consider the facts:

It's an HTC Android handset. Sounds familiar! This means that on a material level, it's barely more of a Google phone than the G1—which Google passively oversaw—or the Motorola Droid—which Google actively helped design. And hey, people remember: Google still isn't a hardware company. Not even close.

It's not revolutionary hardware. It's the third (at least) Snapdragon-powered Android phone we've heard about. It's got a 5-megapixel camera. It's got dual microphones, to help with noise reduction. It's fairly thing. These are nice features for a new phone, but they're more or less exactly what we'd expect HTC to be working on next.

It's running a minor variant on Android 2.0. This is version 2.1, to be specific. We've seen builds of 2.1, albiet covered in the Sense UI, leaked for the HTC Hero (spoiler: not that impressive), and combined with the early glimpses we've caught from spy shots, they give the feeling that 2.1 isn't much of a step up from 2.0, which is what the Droid ships with. There will be some pretty new UI flourishes, and maybe a few UX changes. Again: this is typical, paced progress, not a drastic overhaul.

The new business model isn't really new. Even the most breathless commentary on the Nexus One admits that what the Nexus one means is more important than what's on its spec sheet. And yeah, it'll be the first phone marketed as the Google phone, and Google sales strategy—to offer the device without contract first, and probably unlocked, with a (hardware limited) choice of carriers—is foreign to the US market. But it's far from unheard of: you can buy unlocked phones at Best Buy, for God's sake. Oh, and Nokia's been handling their US smartphone releases like this for years.

Google doesn't have superpowers. Using their unmatched internet superpowers, Google can do more to convince the general public that an expensive, unsubsidized phone is a good idea than Nokia, whose marketing efforts have been wimpy and ineffective. But they can't do anything crazy, like give this thing away. They can sell it for cheap by relying on their own advertising network—or hell, their homepage—for advertising, as well as the massive press coverage they're already getting, and selling it at little to no profit. But to be able to match carriers' prices will be a stretch: They can absorb the cost of the phone in month-to-month fees and overage charges. What does Google have? Theoretical advertising revenue?

If what we see now is what we're going to get, the Nexus One is something worth paying attention to. It will be a way for Google to demonstrate what their vision for Android is without carrier interference. They'll control the software experience on the phone; they'll control how it's updated; they'll control what software is and isn't allowed on it. And they could use it to convey an vision for Google Voice, in which Google supplies your number, your nonstandard calling rates and your texting allowance, while carriers simply supply a neutral, dumb and ultimately out-of-sight cellular connection. But even if that is what they're doing—we don't know!—the Nexus One is a first step. It'll be an early product to guide progress, not the product that'll define it.

Whenever we talk about Google, we need to factor in a little windage. They're buzzy, they're huge, and they've thrown plenty of other industries curveballs before. This phone sits at the hype nexus (for lack of a better word) of Google Voice, Android, Google's online services and HTC. But for now, to say that the Nexus One has somehow changed everything is to buy into their reputation too sincerely, and to ascribe to Google mystical qualities—and to take for granted a series of future actions that Google hasn't even hinted at fulfilling yet.

Or, to compress it to 140 characters or less: "The Google phone matters as much as Google makes it matter." For now, people, calm down.

http://gizmodo.com/5426003/why-we-al...l-google-phone ...

PSP minis are now available to download and play on both the original target platform and PlayStation 3, an impressive feat achieved through the use of a software emulator added with the recent 3.15 version of the PS3 system software. Right now, Sony is working on full compatibility for all available minis, but a selection of them are currently available to try out now. Digital Foundry delved into its pockets and bought Heracles Chariot Racing, Echoes, Let's Golf, Stand o' Food and Breakquest for analysis.

Getting a fully-featured PSP emulator working on the PS3 is no mean feat but it is perhaps not surprising that Sony targeted the minis first: many of them are 2D and few of them really push the three-dimensional capabilities of the hardware. Based on our tests, it does very much suggest that the emulator is a work-in-progress with performance levels up against the same game running on PSP changing quite drastically according to the title you're playing.

Perhaps the first thing you notice when booting up a mini is the upscaling. While many of the open-source emulators out there like to offer the ability to run games natively in whatever resolution the user chooses, Sony's emulator stays with the original 480x272 and upscales accordingly, leaving small black border on all sides. Presumably this is the perceived "safe area" Sony has allocated to make sure that no precious game resolution slips into the overscan area of many displays.

Writing emulators is never easy, especially for relatively recent platforms and in many senses it's a miracle that Sony is able to run native code at anything approaching real-time speeds. However, it's clear that there is plenty of work to be done in getting the code up to scratch and ready for "show time" with the average, non-mini release.

You can fully expect Sony to be doing just that, based on past form. The PSone emulator built into the PSP firmware is a good indicator: just like the PSP code on show here, it's entirely software-based, and it has gradually evolved over time (though it has to be said, it was excellent from day one). So fingers crossed that these technical issues will be resolved and that the process of easily syncing game progress and high scores between console and handheld will be addressed.

For now, targeting the PSP emulation at the minis exclusively is a very smart move: it serves to put the range back into the spotlight, it'll drive some more sales based on the novelty factor, and it's a good proving ground for Sony to test its emulation code.

Longer term, once performance is more solid, you can bet that Sony will be offering full-fat PSP back catalogue games for download - perhaps when PSP2 is available, perhaps sooner. Having PSP software compatible with 30 million more devices potentially means big bucks for both platform holder, developer and publisher alike.

Full Article --> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...sis-blog-entry ...

PSP minis are now available to download and play on both the original target platform and PlayStation 3, an impressive feat achieved through the use of a software emulator added with the recent 3.15 version of the PS3 system software. Right now, Sony is working on full compatibility for all available minis, but a selection of them are currently available to try out now. Digital Foundry delved into its pockets and bought Heracles Chariot Racing, Echoes, Let's Golf, Stand o' Food and Breakquest for analysis.

Getting a fully-featured PSP emulator working on the PS3 is no mean feat but it is perhaps not surprising that Sony targeted the minis first: many of them are 2D and few of them really push the three-dimensional capabilities of the hardware. Based on our tests, it does very much suggest that the emulator is a work-in-progress with performance levels up against the same game running on PSP changing quite drastically according to the title you're playing.

Perhaps the first thing you notice when booting up a mini is the upscaling. While many of the open-source emulators out there like to offer the ability to run games natively in whatever resolution the user chooses, Sony's emulator stays with the original 480x272 and upscales accordingly, leaving small black border on all sides. Presumably this is the perceived "safe area" Sony has allocated to make sure that no precious game resolution slips into the overscan area of many displays.

Writing emulators is never easy, especially for relatively recent platforms and in many senses it's a miracle that Sony is able to run native code at anything approaching real-time speeds. However, it's clear that there is plenty of work to be done in getting the code up to scratch and ready for "show time" with the average, non-mini release.

You can fully expect Sony to be doing just that, based on past form. The PSone emulator built into the PSP firmware is a good indicator: just like the PSP code on show here, it's entirely software-based, and it has gradually evolved over time (though it has to be said, it was excellent from day one). So fingers crossed that these technical issues will be resolved and that the process of easily syncing game progress and high scores between console and handheld will be addressed.

For now, targeting the PSP emulation at the minis exclusively is a very smart move: it serves to put the range back into the spotlight, it'll drive some more sales based on the novelty factor, and it's a good proving ground for Sony to test its emulation code.

Longer term, once performance is more solid, you can bet that Sony will be offering full-fat PSP back catalogue games for download - perhaps when PSP2 is available, perhaps sooner. Having PSP software compatible with 30 million more devices potentially means big bucks for both platform holder, developer and publisher alike.

Full Article --> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...sis-blog-entry ...