The Nintendo DS is very popular in Japan and taking full advantage of its popularity is the Nation Western Fine Arts Musuem. From the musuem counter you can borrow a DS which comes with a special catridge preloaded with the musuem details. Each room in the musuem has an access point so once you enter a room the screen automatically displays information relevant to the room. Browsing through the menus is very easy using the touchscreen. If you find a painting interesting just browse to the painting on the DS choose print and using Wi-Fi the picture is printed which you can collect upon leaving the musuem.

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Turn on your TV this week and you may see a striking commercial: An animated baby doll sits in a white room looking at a small black box. It coos with delight. It laughs with an adult's demented cackle. Tears flow down its cheeks - and back up again.

And just for an instant, an image from the PS3 game "Resistance: Fall of Man" flashes in its eyes. Will anybody notice it? Of course they will. The spot is one of the first commercials for the PS3, Sony's next-generation videogame console, whose rabid fans will surely scrutinize it. "We know people will be taping these commercials and freeze-framing them," says Brett Craig, a creative director at the Los Angeles office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, the agency that made the ad.

No kidding. The launch of the PS3 will be one of the most closely watched new-product rollouts of all time. Sony (Charts) is spending $150 million on the ad campaign by TBWA, which has done all the ads in the U.S. for the videogame console since the launch of the first PlayStation in 1995.

For the past year it has been working on the ad campaign for the Nov. 17 launch of the third-generation platform - giving the Los Angeles office a chance to demonstrate once again that it is one of the world's coolest creative shops.

In early October, Sony and TBWA gave me an advance look at the PS3 ad campaign, which made its debut the week of Oct. 30. The television commercials were still being cleaned up, but provocative billboards had gone up in four major cities, and the agency had begun an intriguing viral campaign that was resonating with hard-core gamers.

But coolness can be fleeting, as Sony has learned the hard way. Once, the company's name was synonymous with cutting-edge consumer electronics products. But Sony's image has taken a beating in recent years - along with its stock price.

The company has been trounced by Apple (Charts) in portable music players. Rivals like Sharp moved more swiftly to make flat-screen TVs. Sony recently had to recall 9.6 million laptop battery packs it had sold to manufacturers like Dell and Apple because some of them overheated and burst into flames. Its net quarterly profit plunged 94 percent.

Sony's bread and butter
Sony's PlayStation division has been one of its few bright spots. But Sony may be vulnerable on that front too. The PS3 was supposed to come out last spring, but was delayed in the U.S. and Japan because Sony couldn't manufacture the consoles fast enough. Europeans will have to wait until March.

Sony executives say the launch of the PS2 in 2000 had similar problems, but the console went on to sell 106 million units worldwide, becoming the most popular videogame platform on the market. Then again, Sony didn't need a hit new product at the time as desperately as it does today.

The company has also taken heat from fans for the PS3's price. A fully loaded unit will sell for $599. Sony executives say the console is worth it. "If it was all about price, then we'd all be driving Hyundais and we'd all be watching $199 TVs," shrugs Jack Tretton, executive vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Still, the high price could be a boon to Sony's chief gaming competitors, Microsoft (Charts) and Nintendo (Charts). Microsoft points out that for the price of the PS3, you could almost buy the most expensive Microsoft Xbox 360 ($399) plus the Nintendo Wii ($249), which hits the stores two days after Sony's new console.

That presents a huge challenge for TBWA going into the Christmas season. The goal isn't to sell the PS3 on the first day of the launch - PlayStation fans will probably grab every one of the 400,000 units off the shelves.

The agency's job is to persuade those who leave the store empty-handed to wait - to not buy Xbox or Wii - even if it means holding off until after Christmas before Sony can ramp up its manufacturing enough to satisfy the demand.

Hinging on advertising
TBWA's reputation is also on the line. Ad agencies are a lot like fashion designers. Marc Jacobs uses his catwalk fare to sell jeans. TBWA/Chiat/Day, a division of Omnicom (Charts), uses the Los Angeles office's showcase work for PlayStation (and Apple, another signature client) to attract clients at its 257 other offices around the world.

So the bar is high indeed. If the Los Angeles office doesn't clear it with the PS3 launch, Sony may not be the only client that heads for the exit.

Nobody understands that better than Rob Schwartz, who oversees the Los Angeles office's creative staff, a job he compares to managing the 1927 Yankees. He made sure TBWA pulled out all the stops last January when it met with Sony executives to discuss the PS3 campaign. TBWA rented out the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art for the occasion. Executives from TBWA and Sony spent the morning touring Ecstasy, an exhibition celebrating the sort of visions brought on by hallucinogenic drugs.

The field trip wasn't as frivolous as it sounds. TBWA wanted to inspire its art directors and copywriters to come up with something fantastic. After lunch the group retired to the exhibition's centerpiece: a room full of rotating sculptures of giant topsy-turvy ...

According to Best Buy's Retail Stock System (RSS), the number of available Wii systems per store is already established. The RSS states that there will be as few as 24 Wiis for the stores sitting out in the country, and as many as 120 for the more popular Best Buys situated in highly populated areas.

Also tied to this report is the status of Wii software availability. Each Best Buy may stock around 60 copies of Red Steel and 30 of Trauma Center: Second Opinion, although there was no word if the number of copies would increase with the number of available systems. However, it would make sense that the stores that received over 100 Wiis would receive more software copies.

Lastly, there is the possibility that some Best Buys have already received their first Wii shipments as the rumor listed "10/28 or 10/29" as the first time the store would get Nintendo's new system. Of course, the street date of November 19 remains the same, but it's an interesting tidbit nonetheless.

Nintendo was unable to be reached for confirmation, however several Best Buy employees were able to verify the projected numbers. ...

Critical has released an updated version of the Amiga Emulator for the GP2X, heres whats new:


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Heres whats new in the Palm/Tapwave Zodiac Release:


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You probably remember that a couple of weeks back when reviews of Rockstar’s Canis Canem Edit/Bully finally started to trickle out, that many picked up on the fact that the game featured some gay kissing.

Well, it seems that it’s taken a few weeks for the more conservative elements amongst America’s mainstream media to pick up on this ‘weak tea’ scandal, with a Reuters-penned feature currently doing the rounds.

“The video game maker that sparked uproar over a hidden sex scene in ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ is courting new controversy with its latest schoolyard title "Bully" -- featuring boys kissing”, begins the piece, which was picked up by The Washington Post, among others, over the weekend.

Most gamers raised an eyebrow and chuckled and then got on with the business of playing the other 99.99% of this classic game that didn’t involve having to kiss other boys. Reuters, however, is attempting to cook up more of a scandal from the gay kissing content – drawing links with last year’s Hot Coffee GTA scandal. It states that, “In ‘Bully’ the controversial scene was not hidden -- but it also was not advertised to consumers.”

In related, all-too-predictable news, Jack Thompson has also jumped on the gay content issue, firing off another lengthy missive to Take Two’s Paul Eibeler (cc’ing retailers Wal-Mart, Gamestop and Target), claiming, “It is my legal opinion that the sale of this game to minors, which is presently occurring at your stores in Florida, violates Florida’s “Sexual Material Harmful to Minors Statute,” Florida Statute 847.102.” ...

Looks like Sony can't get a PS3 shortage break. The Nikkei Keizai Shimbun paper reports today that due to component shortages, Sony will only have 80,000 PS3 units ready for Japanese launch instead of the originally planned 100,000 units. That's a 20% cut. First the European launch gets delayed because of production issues, now the Japanese launch availability is crippled even more than it previously was.

No word yet if the shortage will effect North American units but, if proportional, they could be cut to 320,000 available systems. Keep in mind that's six thousand less than the Xbox 360 sold in its first nine days, and a far cry less than the 900,000 360 units they managed to move in North America by the end of '05.

IGN also reminds us that the PS2 sold out of almost a million units when launched back in March of 2000. Expect Star Wars like lines a week before the November 11 Japanese launch. Not the day before or day of, the week before. May the force be with you, Japanese padawans. ...

Despite the PS3 and Wii consoles being oh-so-close to launching for our greedy little faces, there are actually pretty decent PS2 games due out in the next year. That's why Sony's announcing the release of a limited edition Silver PS2, which will retail for $130 and come with one DualShock controller.

If your PS2 is about to break, or if you really want to torment your kid who wanted a PS3 but was a spoiled little brat this year, grab one of these and play through Final Fantasy XII, God of War 2, and whatever else is coming this season. Oh, and maybe you can save up these PS2 controllers for use on your PS3. ...

Today, Japanese game site ITmedia Inc. revealed that Taito plans to give fans the opportunity to try out three of its upcoming Wii titles. The demos will be available at the Nintendo World promotional event, which is being held in cities throughout Japan on November 3, 12, 25 and 26.

The first title, Cooking Mama: Minna to Issho ni Oryouri Taikai!, will let players hone their domestic engineering skills by preparing and cooking virtual meals with the Wii remote. The next title, Densha de Go! Shinkansen '06 Sanyo Shinkansen Hen will let players test drive of one of Japan's famous bullet trains. Last but not least, fans will be able to sample Furu Furu Park, a collection of mini-games ranging from puzzles to sports and shooting. ...