Transformers: The Game was top of the UK all formats chart for a second week, according to the latest sales information from Chart-Track.

The rest of the top ten was dominated almost entirely by titles for Nintendo platforms, the only exception being the multi-format Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix at number six.

Pokemon Diamond remained second for another week, while Wii Play jumped two places to third. More Brain Training was fourth, with Mario Party 8 in fifth.

On the other side of the non-Nintendo divider, Pokemon Pearl was in seventh, the original Dr Kawashima's Brain Training stayed in eight, Cooking Mama rose one place to ninth and New Super Mario Bros re-entered the top ten in tenth place.

New entries this week included Surf's Up at number 11, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion at 17.

via gibiz ...

via gibiz

A recent New York Post story claiming that Apple and Nintendo are headed for a "showdown" in the portable gaming market has been rubbished by a leading analyst.

According to the story, Apple has been secretly plotting its foray into portable video games for months, looking to add games to its iPhone. Rumour has it that the company has already provided a major game developer with iPhone technology, and that Apple is expected to make a gaming announcement in the near future.

However, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter told GamesIndustry.biz that he doesn't think Apple is serious about gaming. "Rather, I think that they're trying to establish the iPhone as an all-encompassing entertainment device," he said.

"The markets are different. The iPhone is an expensive toy for the wealthy and self-indulgent, while the DS is an inexpensive toy for everyone," Pachter replied.

"I think that Apple will succeed in making mobile phone games a bit more accessible and fun, but cannot conceive of their gaining significant share of the handheld market. The iPhone is unlikely to ever compete effectively, as it is unlikely to attract the level of third-party developer support afforded the DS." ...

The target for the new game is USD 155 million, which would smash the box office record of USD 151 million held by Spider-Man 3.

Comments were made by Microsoft marketing boss Chris Di Cesare, who was convinced the film-like approach to marketing would help make the new game an order of magnitude more successful than Halo 2.

"When we opened to USD 125 million [last time], that really caught a lot of people's attention. It showed that videogames were no longer that thing that kids play in their basement," Chris Di Cesare told Variety. "We're confident we can do better."

And although he realises the comparison isn't entirely fair - as games cost considerably more than a ticket to the cinema - the numbers involved are simply too big to be ignored.

"I recognize it's not apples to apples. But it's big business any way you cut it," continued Di Cesare.

Halo 3 recently broke over one million pre-orders in the US, prompting many observers to say they would be unsurprised if one-day sales climbed as high as USD 170 million.

The marketing push to launch has called on help from some of America's biggest brands, with Pontiac, Burger King, Mountain Dew, 7-Eleven and Comcast all offering various forms of cross-branding.

Halo 3 is due for release in Europe on 26th September, a day later than in the US.

via gibiz ...

via gibiz

Peter Edward, director of the Home platform for Sony, has told an audience at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival that users who consistently abuse the upcoming Home service face having their machines banned and disabled from being used online.

In an admittedly radical but possible step, Edward noted that a serious abuser would "have to move house and buy a new PS3 before they could get online again."

Edward was discussing supervising the Home environment, although Sony doesn't intend to become a "virtual police" force. Instead, it will be providing different areas within Home depending on the age of the user, helping to apply appropriate non-game branding for products such as cigarettes and alcohol.

"Ultimately we know a users details, we know machine details and we know where they live," said Edward

"If you really feel like you've been abused or that someone has just shown wholly inappropriate behaviour then you are able to complain about it. If you really, really misbehave you can have your console disconnected at a machine level, so you would actually have to move house and buy a new PS3 before you could get online again.

"Clearly that's not something we would want to be doing very often but as a disincentive to mess round too much it's in our power," he admitted.

Rather, Sony expects players to police themselves and other users, taking advantage of various methods for blocking communication with any users that are disruptive.

"It's a hard line to draw because we don't want to be walking around telling everyone off for saying 'bloody' so we've got to strike a balance there," said Edward.

"We're going to be relying on users assessing what's appropriate to them – if they've been subject to behaviour they don't like they can complain about it rather than we walk around as virtual police."

With a presentation featuring potential branding from Durex, Marlboro and Bacardi, Edward said that it's not Sony's intention to offer a sanitised experience, and that more mature gamers can expect to see the same products advertised online as in the real world.

"It's relatively simple to be confident that somebody is over 18. So it's no problem to have areas that are only open to those aged 18 years' and over. We are able to do that quite comprehensively, we have access to the log-in data that they use for the PlayStation Network," offered Edward.

"Undoubtedly there are going to be some things and some brands that we are not going to want to be involved in the environment at any stage.

"But a large proportion of our demographic is over 18 so we will make a point of catering to that demographic – we certainly don't want to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator," he said. ...

So, Conviction is confirmed for PC and Xbox 360. But what about the other consoles? Double Agent was a 360 exclusive for a whole week. On this issue, Danny could give us a firm answer. “It’s NEVER gonna come out on the PS3 or the Wii.” It’s a logical decision. Nintendo’s console simply doesn’t have the graphical horsepower, and he candidly told us how the PS3 can’t handle AI nearly as well as the 360.

http://www.gameplayer.com.au/Home/PR...af49&v7Pager=3

Im guessing they say this because they are crippled by only 256MB of ram on both. ...

Activision today announced details surrounding new downloadable content for Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 . Guitar Hero fans now have the opportunity to download three original recordings from The Black Parade album from My Chemical Romance, beginning today, costing 500 Microsoft Points.

My Chemical Romance track pack includes the following master recordings:

· Teenagers
· Famous Last Words
· This is How I Disappear

The three My Chemical Romance tracks available for download can be found on their latest platinum-selling album, The Black Parade. ...

PSP Earth - The Original Source For Webcam Streams



PSP Earth is yet again returning Very soon! For known reasons to probably many of you... But as probaly one immitator will cry at what i'm about to say! The next release's sourcecode will be locked! Due to one person simply breaking the trust rules of PSP Earth!

I will be now copyrighting the code, so i hope no one will use it as there may be legal issues inovolved within someone using the source!although not the webcam stream sources as i do not own holders rights for them!

0.5 will now unfortunately be a small update to SHR and then you guys will have to wait a while, as im going to be releasing the version after 0.5 as an EBOOT! Sod GCSE's.. Well no maybe not!

But as some of you hoped, 0.5 will not include all the promised things, allthough does fix ALOT of the known bugs in SHR!

Features of *Unknown Code Name* Eboot Release:

1) Runs Straight From The Game Menu On The XMB
2) No Need To Run Internet Browser
3) Weather Forcast For The Area
4) Some Video Streams (Not Picture Refreshing) Although some will still be based on that!
5) Information About The Area
6) Map On The Area (Maybe A Joint Project With GPS ? Who knows)
7) Better GUI
8) More Webcam Streams

Thats about it for now, Lets just say this is a war someones already won!

May The Best Webcam Application Win! :rofl:

Thanks Guys! :thumbup: ...

News/release from Weltall:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

New screens from Gekko, the next Gamecube emulator for Windows. They made progress on the video plugin.



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