Sony has upped its commitment to digital content with the release of over 100 games on the PlayStation Store as it launches its new handheld, the PSPgo, across Europe and the US.

The revised hardware goes on sale from today, and is supported by new PSP games, classic titles previously available on UMD and Sony's latest digital initiative – the PSP Minis.

Clare Backhouse, product manager for the PSP in the UK, told GamesIndustry.biz that Sony intends to ride the pre-Christmas market and grab early gaming adopters before increasing marketing in the new year to focus on a wider audience.

"I think we're quite lucky we're launching two months before Christmas - I think that'll really help boost sales," she said. "With the campaign as well that we've gone for it's quite targeted. I think we'll see the early adaptors, the gamers, the technology guys getting into it first and I think it'll sell quite strongly prior to Christmas.

"Then you always have a bit of a lag in January and maybe you'll see at the start of the new financial year, next year, it pick up again with a wider audience I imagine. That's when we'll start talking about other entertainment functionalities as well," she offered.

Already live for US consumers, the PlayStation Store has been updated with over 100 downloadable games, including the highly-anticipated Gran Turismo from Sony, and multiple titles from all major publishers including Electronic Arts, Activision and Capcom.

Designed for shorter play sessions, the handful of PSP Minis so far includes Subatomic Studios' Fieldrunners, EA's latest take on the classic Tetris and Alien Havoc from Creat Studios. Minis are priced between £2.49 and £3.99 in the UK.

Sony has also released the 6.10 firmware update for the PSPgo, allowing Bluetooth tethering options and revising the handheld's media capabilities.

Tethering – which only works on the PSPgo – allows users to connect via Bluetooth to a device such as a mobile phone and use it to connect to the internet. A new-look MediaGo update also enables users to connect to the PlayStation Store via the PC and manage music, video and images.

The console retails for around £225 in the UK, with Sony yesterday telling GamesIndustry.biz that it expects around 60 per cent of sales for the new system to come from PSP-3000 users trading in their old machines for the new model.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-across-europe ...

Microsoft will launch its Christmas marketing campaign in the UK tomorrow with a firm emphasis on communicating the non-gaming capabilities of the Xbox 360.

The platform holder has already begun its work with third parties, explained senior director for Northern Europe at the company's Entertainment & Devices division Neil Thompson, but there's much more to come.

"We have extensive above-the-line campaigns that have already kicked off, to be honest, with a lot of our third-party publishing partners," he told GamesIndustry.biz. You might have seen a lot of TV work we've already done around some great titles - The Beatles: Rock Band, and so on.

"But from October 2 we're launching our own TV work explaining to consumers the broader entertainment offerings we have on Xbox 360, which is going to centre on our music offerings, movie offerings - and then obviously the unique TV experience we've got in connection with Sky, and the Sky service we're bringing to Live.

"All of that is going to round out for us the broader entertainment platform that the 360 is, and we're working on some fantastic software titles from our end, such as Lips and Forza. Plus we've done a lot of work in the last few weeks, working with Activision on Modern Warfare 2, and other great titles that are coming out for gamers.

"So really it's an extension of what we were doing last year, with perhaps a little bit more emphasis around the broader entertainment offering, as well as all the great games that will be available."

The campaign follows an extensive television advertising spend from Sony in its efforts to put a similar message out to consumers about its new-to-market PlayStation 3 Slim - but Thompson was firm that Microsoft's campaign isn't a copycat ploy.

"In some ways I wish we were that agile," he smiled. "No, we're just focusing on what we think are our core strengths. We think gaming is a core strength of ours, we think the breadth of our entertainment offering is a real core strength. And Live, in many ways, is just our unique value proposition.

"We're very focused on what we think we're offering to consumers, rather than what anybody else thinks they're offering them."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...eting-campaign ...

Microsoft has announced the availability of a new retail bundle for its Xbox 360 Elite in the US in time for the Holiday season.

The Elite Holiday Bundle will sell for USD 299 and include two games - LEGO Batman from Traveller's Tales and Black Rock's Pure.

The pack will also include a wireless controller and headset, as well as a 120GB hard drive - but it won't include an HDMI cable, preferring instead the composite A/V version instead.

Meanwhile Microsoft has also released new colours for its Xbox 360 controllers, which are now available in the US in red, blue and pink.

The platform holder's USD 50 rebate on Elite consoles, announced earlier this month, ends on October 5.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ndle-in-the-us ...

Sony Computer Entertainment has moved to play down concerns from some sections of the retail sector surrounding the imminent launch of its PSPgo handheld, telling GamesIndustry.biz that most companies "were really quite fine with it".

The news comes a day ahead of the release of the new download-focused device, and following several weeks of reports centred around a number of retail stores across Europe which are refusing to stock the hardware.

But according to the PlayStation Portable product manager in the UK, Claire Backhouse, the reaction was a lot more muted than anticipated.

"We were very aware of concerns when we went into it and I actually expected a lot more negative responses than we actually got," she explained. "They were really quite fine with it."

"They see it as a way of getting people into the store because it's new interest, a new product. And they've had such strong sales as well of PSP 3000 almost off the back of it," she added.

Blackhouse went on to explain her view that those sales were in part due to a knock-on effect of bringing out a new tier of hardware.

"If you bring out a new product, people aspire to that but they might not buy it, they might buy the PSP 3000 instead. Especially if they're part of a family - dad might buy the PSPgo but the kids might get PSP 3000s. I think that works quite well for us."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...etail-concerns ...

Microsoft has issued a statement downplaying the Halo 3: ODST "Unreadable Disc" reports that surfaced last week.

"We are aware of a very small number of people who are reporting they can't play the game," the platform holder told Eurogamer.

"We are looking into it, but at this point it doesn't appear to be a widespread issue."

A 35-page thread reporting the issue on the Bungie forums has now spread to over 60 pages with members still frustrated at the lack of communication from either developer or publisher.

The disc-read error occurs on some Xbox 360s during the Halo 3: ODST's campaign, rendering the game unplayable from thereon out. Other games, including Halo 3, are reportedly affected as collateral, and there are even mentions of hardware problems following the error.

Bungie is busy gathering data from those affected.

Despite the problems, Halo 3: ODST went straight to number one in the UK chart yesterday after selling 64 per cent of its week one total within the first 24 hours.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...not-widespread ...

News via Nintendomax

Cl has released a new version of his text adventure for the Nintendo DS.

Download and GiveFeedback via Comments ...

From the newsletter:
...

From the newsletter:
...

Source: pspgen.com

...