New Commercial DS release:



In Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest, players play as Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann as they explore and brawl across land and sea on a memorable quest in search of the legendary Dead Man's Chest. The game features thrilling moments from the movie and expands the fantasy of the franchise by offering exciting new adventures and locations inspired by the rich "Pirates of the Caribbean" universe.

More info here --> http://www.yesasia.com/?/info.php?pro...4&lsaid=219793 ...

Worldwide shipments of the Xbox 360 have passed five million units, according to the latest financial report from Microsoft - which also reveals the extent of the losses the company is making on the next-gen system.

According to the fourth quarter report for the three months to June 30th, Microsoft shipped 1.8 million units of the Xbox 360 during the period - up from 1.7 million units in the third quarter, and 1.5 million in the pre-Christmas holiday season.

Which means they've shipped more than five million overall, with the console proving most popular in North America - where over 3.3 million units have been shipped, compared with just 1.3 million in Europe and 400,000 in Asia.

With the five million unit point reached by June - just as the firm promised last year - Microsoft reiterated its target of selling (or at least, shipping) ten million units of the console by the end of the year - and added another ambitious target, namely the sale of 15 million units by the end of the next financial year in June 2007.

Looking at the financial side of things, the Xbox 360 is causing a serious impact on the firm's bottom line at this point in its lifespan - with the Home and Entertainment Division, whose revenues come primarily from the Xbox and its software, recording healthy revenues of $1.14 billion, but losses of $414 million.

That contributed to an overall fall in Microsoft's quarterly profits - although they aren't exactly doing too badly. They turned in a big fat $2.83 billion in profit, down from $3.7 billion in the same quarter last year. ...

Atari's planning to release downloadable car packs for Test Drive Unlimited on Xbox 360, starting six weeks after launch.

There won't just be cars in them either - there'll be new genre-specific radio stations, dealing in "Rock, Blues, Electronic, R&B, Jazz, Latin etc." with between 10 and 20 songs each.

Atari had originally planned to allow players to tune the game to actual radio stations, but this had to be dropped from the 360 version - though it may reappear on the PC.

Test Drive Unlimited is currently due out on September 8th, so we can expect downloadable content to start turning up getting on towards the end of October.

Atari also announced plans to release TDU for just $39.95 in the US - the same price as Rockstar Games' budget-style Table Tennis.

Whether that means we can expect the game to cost less here is another matter though, apparently - an Atari rep, having pointed out that the US and Europe are "different markets", told us to expect an announcement soon.

Still, with Atari boss Bruno Bonnell claiming, "Innovation should be available to everyone, not a privilege for those can afford high price tags," we'll be expecting a low-low price.

As well as the 360 Test Drive Unlimited, which is due out first, the game is also set to appear on PC, PS2 and PSP in October. ...

From the looks of it our own Stephen Speicher was on to something in his latest edition of The Clicker. We've received word from a trusted insider (no, not Mr. Speicher) that the shape everyone's been expecting the Zune to take may not be the approach most people (including us) assumed. Here's what we learned:

The Zune name isn't being kicked around with Microsoft; so as far as we know that's still a project codename, but probably will not be the device's final title. This is no surprise.
Microsoft's forthcoming portable will not use Microsoft's established media platforms. This includes Windows Media, Windows Media Player, URGE, PlaysForSure DRM, and probably also Portable Media Center. Instead it will use its own software, music store, and DRM that will be incompatible with all the major stores, systems, and device out there right now. Yes, this will piss off the industry (and some of the Microsoft faithful) to no end.

Due to this approach, the system is being referred to as the "Integrated Experience." This, we can assume, is not going to be positioned as the final name for the device, but the implications of the description and MO are clear.

It will be wireless and not flash-based, so large storage capacities are to be expected; wireless music trading is an important part of the device's feature set and marking presence. This we all already knew.

All this information does not conflict with information we've received from our other trusted sources.
We know, we know, this raises more questions than it answers. When Microsoft has already invested millions in establishing their software and DRM platforms, hooking up with huge names like Napster, Yahoo, Real, and MTV, and encouraging hardware partners to get Microsoft-centric devices on the market, now they're going to throw all that away and compete with everyone else (and themselves)? Well, the answer is very simple. In order to fight fire with fire against Apple, it's obvious a music service + device ecosystem like what Microsoft offers now can't compare to the user experience of an incredibly tight vertical integration. Microsoft can't take on the iPod without taking on its own platforms and partners -- they have to fight fire with fire.

If J. Allard and his crew at Microsoft really are behind this project, these details make perfect sense. The corporate culture of the company is such that Allard's team is expected to work outside the confines of Microsoft's typical boundaries, which might otherwise hinder the company getting a foothold in previously unentered markets. Does anyone actually think the Xbox 360 is anything like the normal Microsoft product and marketing experience? No. But it's definitely shaping up so Microsoft's media player is going to be more media player than Microsoft. ...

New from Divineo China



The G6 Lite *ENGLISH* is the flagship product from G6 Flash. It has internal memory and comes with 4G memory card (1G = 1 Giga bit = 1024 bit ). It supports both DS and GBA games but also includes emulators for playing FC, NES, SNES, GB, GBC, PCE, SEGA-MS & GG. The unit has a built in media player for playing the following formats:

- Dolby AC3 audio frequency file (*.AC3)
- target's file of DVD video (*.VOB)
- wave form sound file of Microsoft (*.WAV)
- MPEG-1 Audio Layer-2 file (*.MP2)
- MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 file (*.MP3)
- Real media file (*.RA, *.RM, *.RAM, *.RMVB)
- MPEG-1 media file (*.Mpeg, *.Mpg)
- MPEG-2 media file (*.M2V)
- Windows media file (*.AVI, *.ASF, *.WMA, *.WMV)
- VCD video file (*.DAT)
- QuickTime media file (*.MOV)
- MPEG-4 media file (*.AVI)
- DivX media file (*.AVI)

The G6 Lite also has a built in PDA program with full english menus ...

News from Divineo USA

We'll receive our shipment of NME and Globe chip soon. Both chips have great (and different) features. Chose which one you like the most, and reserve it asap. ...

Following Activision's announcement earlier this week that a brand new Spider-Man titles is currently in development for Nintendo's DS and GBA, titled Spider-Man: Battle for New York, the publisher has splashed a bunch of new shots across the 'net for your viewing pleasure.

Battle for New York sees you donning the lycra as Spider-Man to defeat the nefarious Green Goblin as he rampages through the city - alternatively, you can adopt your nemesis' guise and go on a quest to destroy New York. With the focus squarely on action (with a bit of RPG ability tinkering thrown in for good measure), Battle for New York on DS also throws in some mini-games as well as multiplayer battling.

Both versions of Spider-Man: Battle for New York are set for release at some currently undisclosed point in the future.

Screens Here ...

A question mark has lingered over Sony's UK release plans for the 20Gb PS3 in the last few months - i.e. will it launch here or won't it? It has to be said, things have been looking doubtful but - all of a sudden - there's a wee ray of light at the end of the tunnel for old Blighty residents hoping to see the 'dinkier' model skipping to these shores.

While nothing is set in stone, SCE UK's David Wilson told GamesIndustry.biz today that the likelihood is that both 60Gb and 20Gb PS3 models will be made available on these shores. He explained that Sony is, at this time, in "a period of open consultation with retail and consumers to decide on the best way to approach the impending launches of both SKUs."

But even if the 20Gb PS3 is given the green light, it may be that both models don't launch simultaneously in the UK on November 17 - PS3's European launch day. Wilson went on to say that Sony will be talking more about its designs for PS3's launch in the next few weeks. ...

Sega's VP Scott Steinberg has stepped in to remind everyone that his company's been behind Wii since day one - following recent analyst reports that many third-parties are likely to miss out on the potential success of Nintendo's Wii this Christmas, having underestimated the buzz surrounding the console following this year's E3.

"It's true that a lot of third parties have been flat footed when it comes to having games ready for the launch window," Steinberg explained, speaking to Next-gen.biz, "but Sega is certainly not one of them. Some third parties have shown a lack of imagination when dealing with this new platform. The way the Wii is being built you have to design for it. Ports and upgrades are no good. That thinking takes a little bit of creativity and not every publisher has the necessary creative people available."

On the subject of Sega's relationship with Nintendo and the reason why the company chose to support Wii, Steinberg revealed, "Sega has become a lot closer to Nintendo, which is ironic given the history of the two companies, but that proximity has given us a great view of how they wanted to get out of the polygon race and stop battling the technology companies and instead find a very comfortable position in family-friendly fun games like Super Monkey Ball. [...]

"That's what makes the Sega story unique - we have family-friendly games with a great Nintendo pedigree - we are one of the few companies that can say we had a great run with GameCube."

Steinburg acknowledged that, given the relative lack of success enjoyed by the 'Cube, it was unsurprising some companies were skeptical about Wii. However, he noted, "If you were applying a GameCube to Xbox to PS2 ratio to Wii, then you might have ignored Wii. But Nintendo's core competency is creating games and they have a platform here that allows publishers and developers to get creative in ways that are different from the other platforms. It's a real sea change."

According to Steinberg, it's easy for publishers to fall under the spell of PR when considering which platforms to support.

"We are all heavily influenced by the propaganda machines of the hardware companies and you could argue that Nintendo didn't kick into gear until E3 2006, when they seemed to go from zero to 60 in one day. They were being beaten up by pundits one day and lauded the next. The industry realized they had been ignoring Nintendo which was a massive error." ...