Via Gamespot

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and the East Japan Rail Company have announced a deal that will provide Sony PSP rentals to passengers riding in first-class "Green Car" seats on Hayate trains. The offer begins October 1 and ends March 31, 2007. To be eligible for the campaign, customers must purchase a travel package through View, JR East's official travel agency.

Sony Japan sees this campaign as an opportunity to market the PSP to a wider range of age groups. The comfy Green Car seats are often thrown in to sweeten travel packages, meaning they are used by vacationing families and senior citizens traveling in the off-season, not just professionals riding on expense accounts. The rental package consists of the PSP, headphones with in-line remote, and software titles selected by Sony Japan. ...

News via Gamespot

One of the things Sims fans have been clamoring for in the Sims 2 are pets--and they're not talking about a decorative fish bowl or a rodent spinning in a hamster wheel. The Sims community has been asking for dogs and cats to be included in the life simulator, and Electronic Arts has finally obliged.



The Sims 2 Pets has been officially announced, after being teased at this year's E3. A promotional clip of the game was shown at EA's booth, but information was spotty at best. There was speculation that the game would be an expansion for The Sims 2 PC edition, a stand-alone console game, a booster pack, or even its own spin-off.

Those questions were answered today. The game is coming to the PC as an expansion pack, and in a somewhat surprising move, the game will also be going for a walk on consoles, namely the PlayStation 2, GameCube, PSP, DS, and Game Boy Advance. Currently, there are no plans to release an Xbox edition. All versions will ship on October 17, except for the PSP version, which gets let out in November.

Every edition will include "dogs, cats, caged animals, and more," as well as a create-a-pet feature that gives gamers an opportunity to design their own puppy or kitty. Various color schemes, body types, and markings will be available, as well as personalities.

Owners will also be responsible for training their four-legged friends, or risk having cats claw up furniture and dogs make a mess of the house. As players progress through the game, they'll receive codes for unlockable items, such as accessories, pet markings, or fur types, which can be shared with other Sims 2 Pets players.

Several editions of Sims 2 Pets will also carry unique features. The PC expansion will allow players to create designer breeds and pets to earn some extra Simoleans by working in three career tracks--security, entertainment, and service. On the PS2, PSP, and GameCube, gamers and their pets can travel to the Central Town Park and the Town Center, where they can shop for cat clothes and dog duds. The DS version gives a pet store and a pet care center to players, and owners of the GBA edition can try their hand at being a vet or become a professional pet trainer and compete in a trick contest.

EA has not yet released pricing or rating information for the games. ...

Europe's largest videogames show, Game Convention, has announced that 367 exhibitors have signed up for this year's event, making it into the largest GC yet - with over 150,000 people expected to attend over the four days of the expo.

The total floor space of the expo, which takes place in the Leipziger Messe exhibition centre in the German city of Leipzig, has grown by 13 per cent over last year to 90,000 square metres, while the exhibitor numbers are up some 31 per cent.

The event, which attracted 134,000 visitors in 2005, is also expecting to see a major increase in the number of consumers travelling to attend Game Convention during its public days, which run from the 24th to the 27th of August.

"We are assuming another visitor record," according to Leipzig Fair executive vice president Josef Rahmen, "and expect more than 150,000 people to come from all over Europe."

To assist travellers to the show, the German rail service Deutsche Bahn is running special trains to Leipzig from the cities of Cologne and Munich on Sunday August 27th, which will leave in the small hours of Sunday morning and travel overnight to Leipzig, with return services that evening bringing travellers back to their home cities after midnight on Sunday night.

As well as the main expo, Game Convention this year will be accompanied by a range of side events - including a concert of game music in Leipzig's Gewandhaus on August 23rd, which will act as the opening event for the convention for the fourth year running.

This year's concert will include music from Final Fantasy, Two Worlds, Anno 1701, Revenge of the Shinobi and Castlevania, and tickets for the concert have already sold out.

Ahead of the public expo, Leipzig will also pay host to the Game Convention Developer Conference (GCDC), which promises to be the largest such event yet and will include talks from Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, Stormfront CEO Don L Daglow and IGDA chairman Bob Bates - while celebrated designer Will Wright will be delivering a keynote talk at GC itself.

More information on Game Convention and GCDC can be found at the Game Convention website, www.gameconvention.de.

Via GIbiz ...

Article Via Gamesindustry

Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony has announced a 32.3 billion Yen (219 million Euro) profit for the quarter ended June 30th, thanks to a resurgence in profitability at its consumer electronics division.

The firm, in the same period last year recorded a 7.3 billion Yen (50 million Euro) loss, also saw revenues in the quarter leap by 11 per cent year on year to 1.74 trillion Yen (11.8 billion Euro) as sales surged in both the electronics and the Sony Pictures movie divisions.

However, the videogames division of the firm recorded an operating loss for the quarter as revenues plummeted by some 30 per cent and the costs of developing the PlayStation 3 continued to mount. Sales of the PlayStation 2 hardware and software were down for the quarter - as, disappointingly, were sales of the PlayStation Portable.

The results have spurred speculation that Sony may be about to turn its fortunes around after several years of weak financial results and painful restructuring efforts. The firm's British chief executive Howard Stringer - who became the firm's first non-Japanese CEO when he was appointed a year ago - has continued the firm's restructuring efforts, and now appears to be reaping the rewards.

As well as announcing its first quarter results, Sony also took the opportunity to update its forecasts for the full year - maintaining its profit target of 130 billion Yen (881 million Euro), but raising its revenue target marginally from 8.20 trillion Yen (55.6 billion Euro) to 8.23 trillion Yen (55.8 billion Euro). ...

Rumours of an autumn price cut for the Xbox 360 have resurfaced, with an unnamed source at a Taiwanese OEM component maker suggesting that production cost negotiations will lead to a US$100 retail price cut.

A new report on DigiTimes cites an unnamed OEM manufacturer, who claims that Microsoft has already negotiated production cost reductions with its suppliers, apparently in preparation for a price cut of up to US$100 ahead of the launch of PS3.

However, it should be noted that Microsoft is currently losing a significant amount of money on every Xbox 360 sold - and given the strong official denials of an imminent price cut, it seems more likely that component price reductions would be negotiated in an effort to reduce the firm's losses.

Indeed, only a couple of months ago Microsoft Europe boss Chris Lewis told our sister site Eurogamer TV that Sony had taken away any immediate pressure to slash the console price, due to the exceptionally high price point of the PlayStation 3.

Lewis' comments were backed up by UK head Neil Thompson, and further denials of an autumn price cut came in June, when John Porcaro, group manager of PR and communications for Microsoft US stated: "The official word from folks in the know is that there are currently no plans for a price drop this fall."

Whilst the DigiTimes report suggests that production costs for the console could be reduced by 15-20 per cent, industry watchers have suggested that a price cut before the end of the year is extremely unlikely.

Microsoft already has a competitive advantage over the PlayStation 3 at retail with its current price point - so the production cost reductions are likely nothing more than practical business sense as the platform holder increases unit production in preparation for the traditionally busy Christmas period.

However, it could equally be argued that revealing plans of a price-cut too soon could impact on current sales, as consumers hold back in preparation for a lower retail price point. As it stands, Microsoft remains firmly behind its previous denials of any shift in retail pricing before the end of the year. ...

Hi all,

I've been at my PC all day but now I've updated my howto's again .
I now support the rt2500 (PCI) card (I have no rt2500 PCI card, so please report any bugs or etc. here or on the DSlinux forums) and have added a slow-system part/version of my howto.
If I am correct the rt2500 should be functional in newer versions of Knoppix.
I still use the same Linux WMB app with the rt2500, so maybe it helps compatibility.
The slow-system part/version requires no compiling to be done, shaving down a lot of time if you have a slower system.

Hope it helps some people!

Scor

Slow-system link.
Normal link. ...

ZOO Digital says Premier Manager 2006-2007 will be out in time for the start of the new Premiership season.

And just in the nick of time, too - it's out on August 18th on PS2 and PC, with the first games kicking off the very next afternoon.

ZOO promises a "massive overhaul" in terms of navigation and player database, with the option to manage in England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany or Scotland in both domestic and European competitions.

The full game will cost just £19.99, and arrives in time to side-step the usual battle between Football Manager, LMA Manager and Championship Manager, the latest versions of which are all due out later in the year. ...

GPF posted this on his site:

Ok finally got around to doing what I need to do, here is the new home of FrodoDS

http://gpf.dcemu.co.uk/Frodoc64.shtml

latest sourcecode is there and the an old binary from April that I posted in the forums for a test earlier. ...

After you've dropped more money in a vending machine than you ever thought possible, you're left wondering how to fill your new iPod with media to escape the monotony of your 10 hour layover. Enter 22Moo, an Australian hardware and software designer who is developing an iTunes kiosk -- dubbed PodBuffet -- to place in airports, train stations, hotels, shopping centers, and who knows where else. The prototype is powered by a Mac mini attached to a 15-inch touchscreen display that allows users timed access to the iTunes Music Store. Equipped with WiFi and all the appropriate USB, FireWire, and dock connectors, the PodBuffet won't refuse service to any iPod. The idea is to provide convenient access (and satisfy those cravings) to Apple's media mall when your laptop is MIA, and we can imagine this setup creating quite a few impulse indulgences as well. 22Moo hasn't announced a launch date nor any plans to bring these stateside, but hopefully the famished can enjoy the all-you-can-afford PodBuffet sooner rather than later. ...