Source Joystiq:

Though the DS leads the PSP by more than 3.2 million units in Japanese market share, the stateside race is a bit closer. By the end of 2005, Nintendo announced it had sold 3.97 million units compared to Sony's "more than 4 million" sold (not shipped) by mid February. I suck with numbers, but me thinks the DS sold well the first month and a half of 2006 and has only continued to do well up to this date with the release of several anticipated games. Keep in mind that UMD's have been selling poorly, so Sony might have a hard time continuing to play the "multi-device" card.

IGN writes: "Whether or not the imminent U.S. release of the 'brain-training' games will capture the dads-and-grandmas market that Nintendo so deftly wooed in Japan is anyone's guess. For now, the Stateside PSP vs. DS fight is shaping up like the Super Nintendo versus Genesis battles of yore -- a tough fight to the finish. And just as long as Sony doesn't debut a 32X add-on, it's likely to stay that way."

Would you liken the DS and PSP US market share to the SNES and Genesis of the early 90's? ...

Source Joystiq:

Though the DS leads the PSP by more than 3.2 million units in Japanese market share, the stateside race is a bit closer. By the end of 2005, Nintendo announced it had sold 3.97 million units compared to Sony's "more than 4 million" sold (not shipped) by mid February. I suck with numbers, but me thinks the DS sold well the first month and a half of 2006 and has only continued to do well up to this date with the release of several anticipated games. Keep in mind that UMD's have been selling poorly, so Sony might have a hard time continuing to play the "multi-device" card.

IGN writes: "Whether or not the imminent U.S. release of the 'brain-training' games will capture the dads-and-grandmas market that Nintendo so deftly wooed in Japan is anyone's guess. For now, the Stateside PSP vs. DS fight is shaping up like the Super Nintendo versus Genesis battles of yore -- a tough fight to the finish. And just as long as Sony doesn't debut a 32X add-on, it's likely to stay that way."

Would you liken the DS and PSP US market share to the SNES and Genesis of the early 90's? ...

Source Joystiq:

Though the DS leads the PSP by more than 3.2 million units in Japanese market share, the stateside race is a bit closer. By the end of 2005, Nintendo announced it had sold 3.97 million units compared to Sony's "more than 4 million" sold (not shipped) by mid February. I suck with numbers, but me thinks the DS sold well the first month and a half of 2006 and has only continued to do well up to this date with the release of several anticipated games. Keep in mind that UMD's have been selling poorly, so Sony might have a hard time continuing to play the "multi-device" card.

IGN writes: "Whether or not the imminent U.S. release of the 'brain-training' games will capture the dads-and-grandmas market that Nintendo so deftly wooed in Japan is anyone's guess. For now, the Stateside PSP vs. DS fight is shaping up like the Super Nintendo versus Genesis battles of yore -- a tough fight to the finish. And just as long as Sony doesn't debut a 32X add-on, it's likely to stay that way."

Would you liken the DS and PSP US market share to the SNES and Genesis of the early 90's? ...

Heres the latest Hardware sales from Japan:

DSL: 119,986
NDS: 39,307
PS2: 34,169
PSP: 31,077
GBASP: 5,627
GBM: 4,883
GCN: 1,458
360: 1,415
XBX: 108
GBA: 98

Some impressive figures the the DS and DS Lite ...

Heres the latest Hardware sales from Japan:

DSL: 119,986
NDS: 39,307
PS2: 34,169
PSP: 31,077
GBASP: 5,627
GBM: 4,883
GCN: 1,458
360: 1,415
XBX: 108
GBA: 98

Some impressive figures the the DS and DS Lite ...

Heres the latest Hardware sales from Japan:

DSL: 119,986
NDS: 39,307
PS2: 34,169
PSP: 31,077
GBASP: 5,627
GBM: 4,883
GCN: 1,458
360: 1,415
XBX: 108
GBA: 98

Some impressive figures the the DS and DS Lite ...

Source Gamespot

Yesterday, the United States Senate's Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights held a hearing designed to publicly discuss the issue of laws restricting game sales. Titled "What's in a Game? Regulation of Violent Video Games and the First Amendment," the hearing saw a two panels of four testify on the impact violent video games have on children and how games are--or aren't--protected as free speech under the U.S. Constitution.

The hearing was called by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), a vocal game-industry critic and co-sponsor of Senate bill 1902, the Children and Media Research Advancement Act. Also known as CAMRA, the act was first introduced last fall by Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), and seeks to have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigate the psychological effects of "impact of electronic media use." It is not the Family Entertainment Protection Act, which Lieberman co-introduced last fall with Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), which seeks to regulate sales of games the government deems violent.

The first witness before the committee was the Reverend Steve Strickland. Strickland's Police officer brother was murdered in 2003 by a young criminal named who claimed to have played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City before committing the killing. As outlined in a civil suit in which Strickland is a co-plaintiff, the now-convicted murderer infamously told police that "Life is like a video game, everyone has to die sometime."

During his emotional testimony, Strickland lashed out at games' impact on society. "As I gather more information on the games and the people who call themselves 'gamers,' I could see how someone like Devin, who at one minute did not put up any resistance ... [could take] my brother’s gun from him in the police station, shooting him and then killing two other men in a matter of less then two minutes," said Strickland. "A game such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City could and did teach him how to do this."

Strickland also heaped praise on his attorney, anti-game activist Jack Thompson. "As a minister I deal with a lot of different issues and try to stay up and become educated on them but Jack opened up a whole other world to me that I did not even know existed," he said. "This is the violent video game world--a world that, as far as I am concerned, is straight from the pits of hell."

Next up was Dr. Elizabeth Carll, chair of the Interactive Media Committee of the Media Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association (APA). After saying that "there are many video games that are very helpful for children to facilitate medical treatment, increase learning, and promote pro-social behavior," she turned her attention to "games that include aggression, violence, and sexualized violence."

Though at first saying that games "may have a negative impact on children," Carll went on to declare that "a comprehensive [APA] analysis of violence in interactive video game research suggests exposure increases aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal, and decreases helpful behavior." She then declared the APA's support for CAMRA and asked that the game industry "link violent behaviors with negative social consequences" to promote better social behavior.

Following Carll was Dr. Dmitri Williams, Assistant Professor of Speech Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Unfortunately, the Judiciary Subcommittee had not released a transcript of his comments as of press time.

Williams was followed by Dr. David Bickham, a research scientist at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston, which is affiliated with Harvard's Medical School. At first, Bickham conceded that "Video games are a relatively new form of entertainment media," and that they should be considered "within the broader field of research exploring portrayals of violence in television, film, and other forms of visual media."

After citing several studies which linked violent media to aggressive behavior, Bickham declared "there are reasons to believe that the influences of violent video games are stronger than those of other forms of screen violence." He pointed out that games are interactive, reward the player for completing tasks, and "require almost complete attention" from the player.

Bickham continued by saying that "video games are designed to be incredibly engaging and 'fun,' often leading children to slip deeply into a 'flow state' in which they may be at increased susceptibility to the messages of the game. Scientific research has repeatedly demonstrated that children learn what video games teach, and often that lesson is doing violence."

Bickham's testimony was followed by that of the sole member of the game industry at the event, Entertainment Software Rating Board president Patricia Vance. Vance began her statements by declaring that "the issues being discussed in today’s hearing are critically important, especially to parents." She also asserted that the "self-regulatory [ESRB] system offers a valuable, reliable and credible ...

Source Gamespot

Forrester Research today released results of its Consumer Technographics Survey. In it, the parent companies of the three major game consoles--Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony--were among 22 brands rated.

Not unexpectedly, Sony's stature was tops among the three, ranking third overall among the 22 brands, Nintendo ranking 17th, and Microsoft ranking 20th, according to reports.

The companies ranked were limited to those with operations in the PC and consumer electronics fields, with respondents asked to rank companies in the areas of "trust" and "potential." In both categories, the Sony-Nintendo-Microsoft order held firm, with Sony and Nintendo in close proximity to each other and Microsoft trailing badly.

Microsoft distinguished itself by turning in the singular negative ranking in the area of brand potential. A widely quoted line from the study says "Microsoft faces big consumer defection risk," and goes on to say that many respondents would just as soon jettison their Microsoft products "if they could."

The top-ranking companies in the area of brand potential were (in order) Bose, Dell, IBM, Pioneer, and Philips. In the area of trust, the top rankers were Bose, Apple, Sony, Dell, and HP.

Gamers should note that the study sought opinions based on the overall brand name and its full line of products and did not highlight or otherwise isolate the game initiatives of either Sony or Microsoft. ...

SN Systems, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) specializing in software development tools, is delighted to announce the launch and availability of Tuner for PLAYSTATION®3 to all registered game title developers.

Available for free evaluation and trial, Tuner for PLAYSTATION®3 is a profiling tool that enables developers to quickly highlight bottlenecks and conflicts in source code, helping them to improve code performance.

Andy Beveridge, co-founder and Director of SN Systems commented, "Tuner has already been a major product, both on the PlayStation®2 and PSPTM (PlayStation®Portable), so it was a natural progression to develop it for PLAYSTATION®3. This latest version has been tailored to the PLAYSTATION®3's threaded architecture which will really help developers take advantage of the new hardware. It's another key tool in SN Systems' range of products that developers can depend on as they gear up for the release of their game titles." ...