Need for Speed Carbon, the latest in EA's street racing series, will not be playable online for Nintendo's new console, Wii.

NFS Carbon will support online play for PS2, Xbox, PS3 and 360, but won't be available to Wii owners, according to US magazine Game Informer.

It has also come to light that Carbon will not make use the motion sensing capabilities of either the Wii remote or the PS3 joypad. Publisher EA apparently has concerns over gamer fatigue, what with will all the hand waving. And we can't have out of breath gamers, now, can we.

Via Gamesradar ...

In the next-gen console race, there are three main competitors: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. While many would love to see someone come out with some sort of "Everybody is a winner, hooray!" scenario, the simple truth is one company is going to be declared the loser. Though the finish line is still far down the road, industry analysts are already predicting who will break the tape and who will bring up the rear.

Sony has clearly been the favorite in recent years thanks to the unparalleled success of its PlayStation and PlayStation 2, but one analyst firm believes that the company may tumble down from the top of the heap. In a memo sent out today, San Diego-based DFC Intelligence explained how Sony could go from first to worst.

Though the memo contains the disclaimer that the prediction is "only one of several possible scenarios," DFC appears to be leaning towards Microsoft and Nintendo coming out on top through the next generation.

The main reason DFC sees a slide for Sony is the $600 price tag on the high-end version of the PlayStation 3. Though Sony has touted the machine as inexpensive relative to the hardware contained within it, DFC doesn't think consumers will see it that way.

"Sony has done very little to justify why the system is worth a premium price for consumers that don't care about raw hardware performance and are not hard-core audio/visual consumers," DFC said. "Unfortunately we believe that represents over 90% of the consumers in the marketplace."

DFC recognizes that software plays a large part in buyers' decisions, and points out that the PS2 was so successful because of its diverse portfolio of games and large third-party support. The broad range of software made the PS2 "a complete entertainment system for the family priced under $300," said DFC.

"With the PlayStation 3 the company is going after the high-end power user. It is almost as if Coca-Cola not only decided to go with a new formula, but also decided to exit the low-brow soft-drink business to go into high-end wines," DFC explains. "Of course, there is a market for high-end products but it is 1) a very different consumer type and 2) not nearly as big as the blue collar mass market. Wal-Mart sells more toys than FAO Schwartz and McDonald's sells more beef than Ruth's Chris Steak House."

There doesn't seem to be much of an easy way to right the ship either. According to DFC, Sony may have drastically underestimated the competition and will have a lot of trouble cutting the price, particularly in time for the critical 2007 holiday season.

"A $600 price point is okay for launch but it will not fly in holiday 2007. If Sony wants to drive unit volume 2007 needs to be not only the year of price cuts, but the year of drastic price cuts. There is going to be a shakeup in the video game industry and even if Sony executes perfectly there could be a new market leader in two years."

Via Gamespot ...

Mark Whittard, general manager of Toshiba's Information Systems Division in Australia, believes that Microsoft will release an Xbox 360 with an internal HD-DVD drive in future.

"I would imagine that there are plans in place to put an HD DVD drive internally in future revisions of the product," he told IT Wire in Australia.

"They're not speaking about it publicly at the moment but I would expect them to do that and fairly soon."

Microsoft has previously indicated that it plans to offer the HD-DVD - a rival to Sony's Blu-ray technology, which will ship as part of PlayStation 3 - as an add-on peripheral this Christmas.

But it has rejected suggestions that it will revise the Xbox 360 hardware in the manner Whittard suggests, believing it will confuse the market.

Last December, prior to the announcement of an HD-DVD add-on, the company said it had no current plans to release an Xbox 360 equipped with an internal HD-DVD component - although some would highlight its use of the word "current" as important.

Then again, Microsoft will also be acutely aware of the reaction to Sony's pricing for PlayStation 3, which will cost considerably more than its next-generation counterpart largely thanks to the use of components like Cell and a Blu-ray drive.

Furthermore, Microsoft has repeatedly asserted that games will not be allowed to run from HD-DVD discs.

Meanwhile, describing the battle between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as "one looming potential war" in the HD-DVD/Blu-ray confrontation, Whittard clearly feels the comfort of Microsoft's backing for HD-DVD - a project that Toshiba is also intimately involved in.

"With Microsoft's marketing engine behind HD DVD, who knows what will happen," he told IT Wire.

Microsoft had yet to respond to Whittard's comments at the time of going to press.

Via GIBiz ...

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and Square-Enix's Tetsuya Nomura both believe PlayStation 3 will be the best outlet for their games in two or three years' time.

Speaking in an interview with Japanese Ge-Maga, partly translated by IGN, Kojima, who has been a staunch supporter of PS3 since its unveiling in May 2005, compared the Sony console to a movie theatre - while Xbox 360 "is watching a DVD at home" and "Wii is a television program".

"If you think about the future of the industry and game creators, I get the feeling that the winner had better be the movie theatre," he said.

Nomura, meanwhile, was less flamboyant in his praise but backed Sony nonetheless.

"Thinking two to three years from now, the PS3 will be the most appropriate," he said. "We feel that when the games that we're making are released, the PS3 will be strong in the market."

But while both developers seem to be content with the Sony console, despite its apparent loss of momentum at E3, neither is entirely happy with Sony's announcements.

Unusually for Kojima, who typically echoes Sony's own sentiments about the high quality of the PS3 hardware, the MGS man expressed some concerns about the loss of rumble functionality - and even said he felt that, "The best thing would be a PS3 with controls like the Wii."

Describing the loss of rumble functionality as "unfortunate", Kojima also questioned why, if its removal was down to incompatibility with motion-sensing as Sony has claimed, the company hadn't simply allowed players to switch between the two.

Nomura's criticism focused on the price. "Right now, as a game machine, it's too expensive," he said. "If the hard disk and Blu-Ray spread, in line with that, the situation for the PS3 will change in one to two years," he added, before arguing that "when the games are there", the machine's profile will change "naturally".

Both Kojima and Nomura will have some say in that, of course - with Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Nomura's Final Fantasy XIII two of the system's most highly anticipated titles.

Via Eurogamer ...

Here's a funny one: Greek developer track7games has denied cancelling a PlayStation 3 version of its PC and Xbox 360 title Theseis, arguing that since it was never in development in the first place it couldn't have been cancelled.

The confusion arose yesterday when a PS3 fan-site ran a report citing a quote from track7games' Vicky Valvanos, who said, "if Sony were to offer us assistance in producing a PS3 version, we would be more than happy to oblige". Cue a news item claiming the game was canned due to development costs.

Track7games' subsequently declared, "we never cancelled something that did not exist in the first place". "We plan to develop Theseis for PC and Xbox 360 in the near future. As for the PS3, we simply made a strategic decision to not move ahead because we deemed it not probable at this time."

Which would have been fine, except that the fan-site, PS3 Land, then added, "Track7 now claim that what they originally told us was a 'joke'."

If you ask us, it's all a lot of fuss over nothing. The bottom line being that track7games decided not to develop for PlayStation 3 because it wasn't worth the hassle. And all the other lines rather wasting everyone's time.

Still, at least everyone's heard of track7games and Theseis now, eh? That's handy.

Via Eurogamer ...

Divineo USA have posted that this superb new Xbox Modchip is to be released any time now, heres the info:



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Features/Specifications:

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Buy from Divineo USA ...

Sega of America's vice president of marketing Scott Steinberg has joined the massed ranks of company execs discussing Sony's PS3 and the console's pricing, voicing opinions on the next-gen machine in an interview published yesterday (although the interview was actually conducted during E3) on website GameDaily BIZ.

So what's Steinberg got to say? Well, Sega are "staunch supporters of the PS3". Hurrah! Oh, hold on, there's a little more...

What does he think about the price label Sony's slapped on its next-gen console? Steinberg responded that he thinks it's within expectations. "I think it's an expensive device," he admitted, "but it's a very powerful device". Part of that power stems from Blu-ray, the next-gen disc format Sony is squeezing into its console and it's tech that Steinberg reckons Sony needs to convince the world has "a high utility and delivers on a promise, a value promise".

I'm sure they'll sell out", he said though.

"...we think the platform is going to be successful; they just have a job to do in selling and marketing it to not only gamers, but they've also got to play with the Blu-ray platform in the consumer electronics market as well. So they've really got to do two things with their tech to get this platform to be successful", he opined.

Touching on the price of PS3, Steinberg referenced Virtua Fighter 5's port to PS3 and said how there's going to be little, if any, degradation to the graphics: "...effectively you've got thousands of dollars worth of arcade tech in a machine that's 500 bucks, 600 bucks. So there's a lot of value in that machine."

But Steinberg described the price as 'definitely a concern', when asked whether he was worried it may slow the adoption rate of PS3 amongst more mainstream PS2 users - he weighed this up against the strength of the PlayStation brand globally, saying, "Sony has been the clear winner... in Japan, North America and Europe".

He continued: "To ignore that [global brand strength] and sort of use price - I mean PS2 was $299 for a long, long time, so there's definitely a band of consumers who, if they're fired up about a piece of software or multiple pieces of software, they'll pay it."

However, Steinberg opined that it's "super arguable" whether this will still be the case after the fifth or sixth million PS3 has been sold, and reckons - because the console is expensive - Sony will have to reasonably speedily "lifecycle price the hardware" in order to bring it to the masses. $600 for PS3? "For a lot of families that's too expensive", he said.

Leaping away from PS3, Steinberg was also asked whether Shenmue III will ever emerge into daylight. "I really can't answer that", was the response, but did add that part of Sega's mission now is to look at its intellectual properties and "be real selective and smart" about what to 'next-gen' and ensure creatively that the company brings something new to the table with those IPs. Well, that's not a 'no' at least

Via CVG ...

Ubisoft sees a bright future for the next gen over in the US, with the company predicting that next-gen systems will fly off the shelves over the next couple of years and its market forecast for 2008 saying that nearly 40 million consoles will be shifted in the US during that year.

However, speaking to financial site Bloomberg, company president Yves Guillemot predicted that, while demand for the PS3 in the US this year will be exceptionally high due to gamers' expectations, Sony should rapidly drop its PS3 price in 2007 if it intends to win the fight against Microsoft.

It's certainly a fair point and, after riding the rush of initial adopters, Sony will almost certainly have to adjust its pricing policy on the next-gen machine if it wants to reach the massive audience it did with PS2 and remain competitive against the 360. Guillemot's comments also add weight to Bill Gates' argument that 2007 will be the crucial year when the next-gen battle is decided.

Still, it seems things are looking up for the Ubis, with several major series like Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia under its belt and a raft of new titles like Assassin's Creed and Red Steel exciting interest across next-gen formats. Ubisoft isn't done either, with Guillemot saying that it was quite probable the company would add to its portfolio by acquiring new franchises and studios along the way as it shapes up for more next-gen goodness.

Via CVG ...

Red Steel is one Wii title we're really, really looking forward to, because any game which allows you to swing a virtual sword in anger fulfils our long standing dream of engaging in epic sword battles from the comfort of our own living room (but not in any uncool Star Wars kid kind of way you'll understand).

Ahem anyway, Ubi's developers have just started up a blog and the first entry from producer Marie-Sol Beaudry from its Paris studio, details how it will be implementing that crucial sword fighting mechanic with the wonderful Wiimote.

Beaudry begins by saying the game's sword fighting proved a real challenge, but, "We quickly learned that wielding a sword and manipulating the controller was a lot of fun, but we didn't want to force people to become actual professional swordsmen - just have fun.

"Also, we have to consider the animations of the sword and matching it up with what you see on screen. We didn't want any delay whatsoever in response to what was happening with the controller and what you saw on the screen. "

However, Beaudry also acknowledged how important the controller is to anyone making games for the Wii and how it informs pretty much every design decision: "Everything we're doing in the game is directly effected by the controller. This includes everything from level design, overall game design, movement and storyline."

Beaudry teased with one last info nugget too, saying there are a couple of surprises in store for Red Steel players, finishing with the cryptic, "Also the sword fighting is going to offer more diversity in movements and couple of special moves I will not talk about this time."

More Info ...