Sony support for Gulf Cup

SONY Gulf will sponsor the 19th Gulf Cup, the Gulf's most popular soccer event which is set to take place in Muscat from January 4 to 17, next year.

This is the first major Middle East soccer tournament Sony is partnering with and is an extension of the Sony's global eight-year Fifa partnership from 2007 to 2014 that covers the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

"Football is the GCC's favourite sport. I can't think of a better way for Sony to enter the hearts and minds of the people and celebrate the game with them than to partner with the best of the Middle East football action through the Arabian Gulf Cup of Nations," said Sony Gulf managing director Osamu Miura.

"Sony isn't just committed to the promotion of football at the global level, but we are very keen on supporting it at the regional level."

"We have great respect for the energy, enthusiasm and dedication to the sport in our region and we look forward to promoting football in the region and exciting our Sony customers along the way," added Miura.

Each of the eight Gulf confederation countries will be represented by their national teams bidding to become the GCC champion, with the first game, between Oman and Kuwait, scheduled to be held at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat on January 4.

"We are delighted that Sony has agreed to become a partner of the 19th Arabian Gulf Cup of Nations. As a partner of Fifa and of the Uefa Champions League, and now of the most important tournament in the GCC region, Sony's pedigree in international football sponsorship is second to none," said Fahad Al Raisi, assistant undersecretary, Ministry of Sports Affairs, Oman.

"Most of all, this partnership will allow us to enhance fans' experience of the Gulf Cup of Nations tournament through Sony's hi-definition products, leading to a successful and memorable event."

As the official electronics and data partner of the 19th Gulf Cup, Sony will enjoy various category exclusive rights regionally. Sony Gulf will also have access to other Gulf Cup of Nations properties and sports, namely, Handball, Basketball and Volleyball.

 

Source : http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/

Crowning the king of the consoles

Technology editor Darren Waters looks back at an eventful year in the world of game consoles.

At the start of 2008 there were three key questions that needed answering about the future of the games industry:

Could the Xbox 360 sustain a lead over the PlayStation 3?

Would anything derail the success of Nintendo?

And could 2008's video games match the heights of 2007?

If you are reading this and pushed for time, then the short answers are Yes, No, Not quite.

Early lead

At the start of the year the Wii was way out in front in terms of an installed base with 20 million machines in homes. By comparison the Xbox 360 was in 15.5 million homes and the PS3 nine million.

Analysts Screen Digest predicts that Nintendo will more than double its installed base of the Wii by the end of this year to 42 million, amplifying its lead over Sony and Microsoft.

The Byron review highlighted worries over game ratings

Piers Harding-Rolls from Screen Digest said Nintendo had enjoyed a "fantastic year".

"The Wii has maintained its price and they gain a profit from every bit of hardware sold," he added.

But a significant slowdown in sales in November and December in Japan points to a trickier 2009 for the company in which it may not enjoy the same blockbuster success.

The picture in 2008 was mixed for Sony and Microsoft, he said.

"The 360 and PS3 have performed fairly similarly, with just a few hundred thousand units difference over the year between them."

Screen Digest predicts that the PS3 will have an installed base of 19 million by the end of 2008, while the 360 will have 24 million.

"When we looked at the 360 at the beginning of the year we didn't think it was going to do as well as it has done."

An aggressive price cut and marketing campaign across Europe has seen the 360 do well in traditional PlayStation heartlands around the continent.

By contrast, the lack of a price cut for the PS3 combined with difficult economic circumstances for many consumers has seen the console fail to ignite as some predictions foretold.

"We think there have been corporate pressures to aim towards profitability," said Mr Harding.

"They are pretty exposed on price. Adoption has slowed and will be delayed.

He added: "We always felt that 2008 was the year that PS3 kicked off - but we think that will now be 2009."

Playing safe

This year was always going to be one of transition and development, rather than shock and awe. With no new consoles or significant hardware launches, the focus was firmly on hardware sales and software development.

The first big industry event of the year was the publication of the Byron report. In it, Dr Tanya Byron won the praise of many developers and publishers for highlighting the positive impact of gaming on children, but sparked a row which has yet to end over how games should be classified.

LittleBigPlanet was eagerly awaited by PS3 owners

Should it be the BBFC's role as an independent classifier, or self regulation through PEGI? Dr Tanya Byron seemed to be on the fence when she suggested a dual approach.

This infuriated all sides involved in rating games and it is still not clear how games will be classified in the future.

In June, E3 returned to its spiritual home of the Los Angeles Convention Center. But the more sombre and professional approach to a trade show only succeeded in making the event seem cheap and second rate.

There were few highlights from the show. Microsoft showed off its New Xbox Experience, a new front end and UI designed to take the best bits of the existing system and replicate the success of Nintendo's family-friendly Mii approach.

Sony's pitch was all about emphasising the long game. "Don't judge us now; judge us in 10 years," was the mantra, as Jack Tretton, head of PlayStation's US business, told the audience: "It took some time for mass market migration from PlayStation to PlayStation 2."

At least Sony had some decent games to finally talk about, including Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet.

Nintendo's press conference was the biggest disappointment - Wii Music garnered groans and sales on release have confirmed the limited appeal of the title, there were no updates on a new Zelda or Mario game, and the Japanese giant seemed to be resting on its laurels.

The UK games industry enjoyed mixed success in 2008.

Two of the biggest releases of the year, LittleBigPlanet and Fable II, were home-gown titles, but the financial pressures on developers were reflected in the closures of firms such as Pivotal Games, Sega's Racing Studios and NCSoft's European development office in Brighton.

Gears of War 2 was a favourite among FPS fans

And with the end of the year approaching it seemed that the most high profile closure would be Free Radical, the makers of Haze and TimeSplitters.

On the content side, the big winners of plaudits were Gears of War 2, Fable II, Dead Space and Fallout 3.

Games like LittleBigPlanet and Mirror's Edge continued to prove the level of vitality and creativity that remains in the industry.

But modest sales for the latter showed that gamers' tastes may be more narrow and limited than are suggested by opinion polls - which often decry the sequel-heavy nature of gaming.

Looking forward to 2009 I expect a few of the following questions to be answered:

Will Killzone 2 disappoint after a protracted development cycle and endless hype?

Can Heavy Rain really offer the narrative freedom that the developers seem to suggest?

Will Xbox Live in Europe start to offer decent film and TV content or will it continue to be second rate?

Do we really need a next-gen version of Wolfenstein?

Has Bungie squeezed every last drop of creativity from Halo or will Halo 3: Recon prove there's more left in the tank?

Can the community-developed recreation of Half-Life, Black Mesa, really be as good as the trailer suggests?

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Nintendo sold 1.7 million Wiis last week?

According to some not-quite-official but probably-relatively-accurate numbers from VG Chartz, Nintendo moved 1.7 million Wii units last week. That's a staggering number in its own right, and compared to the now-cheaper Xbox 360 (535,806) and the "hey guys, I'm still here, and I play Blu-ray discs" PlayStation 3 (239,576) it's a pretty commanding lead for Nintendo. The fact that most people in most areas can finally track down a Wii at a retail store for a non-inflated price probably isn't hurting things -- not to mention that really cool bowling game they've heard so much about. We're curious what console you might've picked up for a friend, loved one, family member, or that good looking person in the mirror this holiday season, so hit up the poll below. Then, after you've taken a particularly long sip of egg nog, hit up the video after the break and weep for humanity.

Source : http://www.engadget.com/

Frustrated DS Developer Picks Bad Time To Lock Himself In Room

Ambitious 25-year-old amateur developer Robert Pelloni has had his frustration with Nintendo widely publicized over the last few days.

The man, who claims to have spent over 15,000 hours making a 16-bit-style top-down role-playing game, has locked himself in his room in a 100-day protest. He hopes to publicize Nintendo’s apparent disinterest in selling him an official DS development kit. He needs the kit to finish the game and sell it officially.

As a result, development on his creation, “Bob’s Game” is stalled. A webcam now chronicles his voluntary confinement. His website begs for action from Nintendo, calling out Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aime, by name.

Compounding Pelloni’s problem may be his timing. He’s unhappy that Nintendo has gone 17 weeks without responding to a request for a development kit that should have been fulfilled within eight weeks. But he’s making these allegations and conducting his strike right before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, a time when he can expect to find any major company particularly unresponsive.

I’m usually able to get a response from Nintendo about any pressing news, be it unexpected language in games or video game supply. But since Monday I’ve gotten nothing more about Pelloni’s allegations and Nintendo’s stance regarding the matter than a we’re-looking-into-this response from Nintendo’s external public relations agency and not a peep from Nintendo internal.

Robert, I hope you can hold up in that room okay, because the way things are looking, I don’t think you or I will be hearing from Nintendo until 2009. Maybe they don’t care. Or maybe they’re on vacation. It’s hard to say.

 

Source : http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/

Christmas Memories: The Nintendo Entertainment System

The year was 1986. The Nintendo Entertainment System had been out for about a year and absolutely every kid in the entire universe had one except for me. I’d resorted to casually inviting myself over to the houses of friends, non-friends, enemies, and strangers, just so I could play Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, and RBI Baseball. I wasn’t proud of it, but it had to be done. I was hooked.

The actual unwrapping of the console was somewhat uncomfortable, due to the fact that it was given to me on Christmas Eve by my grandmother and I was made to open it in front of all my cousins, none of whom had Nintendo but who desperately wanted it as badly as I did. I restrained my glee, anxiously fidgeted in the car as we drove what seemed like 100 miles home, and watched my dad try to hook the thing up for 45 minutes before grabbing the cables myself and proclaiming, “One side, father! I’m only seven, but someday I’ll be a gadget blogger.”

The brief nanosecond between pressing the power button and seeing the initial RC Pro AM screen materialize seemed even longer than the car ride home, but there we finally were, my four-year-old brother and I, driving remote control cars around on a 700-pound wood-paneled Zenith TV. I won, naturally, as I’d been playing every Nintendo game ever released over and over in my head since the console had been released. That, and my brother was four.

Christmas morning brought two additional games in Ghost Busters and RBI Baseball. I remember thinking to myself that nothing would ever eclipse that moment. I see those Lexus ads on TV where the kids get the best presents ever – an Atari, a pony, etc. – and when they grow up, they find that getting a Lexus for Christmas is somehow better (!) and I wonder to myself about the exact moment when their souls were sucked out of their bodies by the pursuit of the almighty dollar, punctuated by an overpriced status symbol.

Drop an entire dealership in my driveway — I’ll take the Nintendo feeling any day.

 

Source : http://www.crunchgear.com/

Lawsuit Alleges Nintendo DS Caused House Fire

The January 2007 fire that caused "substantial" damage to the home of Kentucky resident French Harmon was sparked by a faulty Nintendo DS power adapter, alleges a lawsuit filed by Harmon's insurance company Liberty Mutual.

"The fire was caused by the [Nintendo DS and its AC adapter]," reads the court filing, which was acquired by GamePolitics. "Due to defects existing within the Product which caused a risk of overheating and fire, the Product was recalled by Nintendo."

The lawsuit charges Nintendo with breach of express and implied warranties, strict products liability, and negligence, stating that the fire and "resulting damages...were directly and proximately caused by the negligence, carelessness and/or negligent acts...of defendant Nintendo...in the design, manufacture, sale...of its Nintendo DS."

Overall, Liberty Mutual is seeking a payout of at least $236,304--a rough approximation of the sum it gave Harmon after the fire--along with reimbursement for legal fees.

 

Source : http://www.shacknews.com/

Intel Claims It Does Not Force to Buy Intel Atom with Core-Logic.

Even though Nvidia Corp. was quoted as saying that Intel Corp. only sells its Atom processors for netbooks and nettops bundled with its own core-logic sets, which is why none of device manufacturers were interested in Nvidia’s Ion platform powered by GeForce 9400M chipset, Intel Corp. denied that it blocks Nvidia from entering the market of ultra low-cost personal computers (ULCPCs).

“We do sell Atom both bundled and as stand alone,” an Intel spokesperson told X-bit labs.

According to Intel officials, Nvidia does not need to obtain a separate license to make and sell chipsets compatible with Intel Atom processors aimed mostly at ULCPCs.

Nvidia recently introduced its GeForce 9400M is a single-chip core-logic for Intel Atom processors with DirectX 10-compatible GeForce 9-class graphics processor inside that also supports dual-channel DDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0 x16 and x4 links, Serial ATA, USB, Gigabit Ethernet and so on. As all modern Nvidia GeForce integrated graphics processors, the novelty features hardware-accelerated high-definition video decoding and post-processing as well as supports various outputs, such as dual-link DVI-I, D-Sub, DisplayPort or HDMI.

The GeForce 9400M has dramatically better feature-set and performance compared to Intel’s own core-logic sets, but the power consumption of the GeForce 9400M (18W) is more than two times higher compared to Intel’s own platform (Intel 945GSE + ICH7-M consume 6W + 1.5W in maximum case scenario). Moreover, Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M requires expensive DDR3, whereas Intel’s platforms for Atom processors rely on affordable DDR2.

Even though performance and features are definitely advantages for mainstream users, they may not be appreciated by users of netbooks, which come with small screens and without optical disc drives. As Intel pointed out, the whole central premise of the netbook usage is basic Internet, browsing, email, social networking, not gaming or usage of demanding applications. Cost is a huge factor on the market of netbooks, hence, Nvidia’s Ion platform that requires DDR3 memory and higher-capacity batteries may not be the best option for systems like Acer Aspire One or Asustek Computer Eee PC.

 

Source : http://www.xbitlabs.com/

Merry Christmas, Barack Obama: Intel Officials Say Terrorists Plan WMD Attacks

In a rather unpleasant Christmas gift for the incoming president, yet another expert analysis has warned of the threat of weapons of mass destruction attacks, per the AP's Eileen Sullivan.
The report by the Department of Homeland Security details a variety of threats over the next five years, which roughly coincide with the first Obama administration. But the threat of WMD attacks stands out. They would do the most damage, and some have theorized that the reason the U.S. hasn't been attacked in the homeland since Sept. 11 is because they don't want to bother with anything that doesn't eclipse the 2001 assault.
Lest it seem like the kind of persistent warning that some view as hype, the report does note that WMD attacks would be very difficult to carry out. But between this report and that of the recent WMD commission, it's exceedingly clear that expert Washington opinion points to the need for the Obama administration to focus heavily on WMDs.

 

Source : http://blogs.dw-world.de/

Sony Vaio Pocket: Details of Sony’s new UMPC leaked

The mysterious UMPC Sony has been advertising through a short “mystery campaign” over the last days doesn’t seem as overwhelming as Sony suggested, at least if you look at the the first details of the device that seem to have leaked on Christmas day (Sony took the page off a few hours ago).

The Sony Vaio Pocket features a 1.33GHz Intel processor, a 1600×768 ultra-widescreen 8-inch display, a 60GB hard drive or 128GB SSD and uses Windows Vista as the OS. It wil be available in three different colors: Crimson Red, Champagne Gold, and Black Silk.

As always, information obtained through leaks has to be taken with a grain of salt. The picture Sony shows on the Sony Syle online shop website is apparently a placeholder (it doesn’t show the actual product) and the company hasn’t officially confirmed anything yet, for example the price of the Pocket.

Via Sony Insider

http://www.crunchgear.com/