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With the holiday season rapidly approaching, Sony is pouring their efforts into selling the console they can actually stock: the PlayStation Portable, or PSP. Their lagging foray into the handheld market currently dominated by the Nintendo DS will be bolstered by a new marketing campaign that, oddly enough, mimics features the DS has had in place for a while.

The new PSP Download Stations will allow PSP owners to visit and download content via a wireless connection. (Sound familiar, yet?) Available content will include demos, movie trailers, videos, and game sharing. Sony is also launching a new advertising campaign pushing the PSP.

Unfortunately, Sony isn't doing the thing that fans have been most hoping for: lowering the PSP's $200 retail price as an added incentive for people to buy.

Source: GameSpot

Really, I don't see how Sony thinks that the PSP can possibly win in a head-on battle with the DS. Sure, it can show movies (if you can find anywhere to buy them), but, when it comes down to it, the PSP is just a Playstation you can take with you...but with shorter games and inferior graphics. The DS has innovation on it's side, not to mention the fact that the DSLite retails for only $129.99. In fact, if you're really on a budget, a refurbished DS will cost you only $80, compared to $170 for a used PSP. Then you factor in the complaints about dead pixels on the PSP's screen (which Sony claims are not a true defect and hence not a reason for repair or exchange), and it's really not hard to figure out why I don't own the only handheld to feature a Katamari game.

Of course, lowering the price would have gone a ways toward putting the PSP back in my ballgame, and doing so right before the holiday season could have done nothing but boost sales.

I don't think I need to call Sony an arrogant corporation this time. They pretty much speak for themselves.

After long waits and much anticipation (though, oddly, not as much as for the PS3), the Nintendo Wii has finally made it's North American debut.

Nintendo's newest console made it's official debut at 12:01 this morning, though many chains that opened for midnight launches for the PS3 forced gamers to wait until normal store hours.

Another marked difference from the PS3 launch was the attitude of the fans. While anxious PS3ers aggressively guarded their places in line, the Wii lines were more quiet and orderly, with some customers even displaying attitudes of friendliness. One Manhattan man and his friends even brought previous Nintendo consoles to the line and invited other hopefuls to play while they queued.

Furthermore, the much-anticipated Virtual Console is officially up and running, with games from all pre-Gamecube Nintendo consoles as well as the Sega Genesis system currently available for download. More titles are promised by year's end.

The Wii launch was marred by none of the violence and crime that affected the PS3 release. Were video game fans simply tired out after a weekend of camping out on sidewalks for the two new consoles, or was the Wii's relative abundance responsible for the calmer atmospher? Whatever the case may be, despite reports of Wii availability being as much as ten times greater than initial PS3 availability, stores still sold out within minutes.

Source: Gamespot

Finally, my personal story. I dragged my husband out of bed at six o'clock to take me down to the local Target while he went to Best Buy. He was number 69 in a line for 63 available Wiis, and I wound up being just three people too late. However, one of the earlier people in line kindly sold me his ticket for a mere $10. ($10 for two hours of standing in line that I didn't have to endure? Well worth it, in my opinion.) So, I walked out of there with my very own Wii and a copy of Twilight Princess.

So far, I'm loving the new console. All of the reports about the Wiimote being incredibly responsive, intuitive, and easy to use are absolutely true! The Mii feature is highly entertaining (my plaza is already populated with the Mario Bros., Link, Zero Suit Samus, and a few others of my own creation), and Twilight Princess is looking to be the best new Zelda game since A Link to the Past, way back in the SNES games.

Am I a Nintendo fangirl? Up until this morning, I would have said I was primarily a Sony fan. But, as far as I'm concerned, the Wii might have just won my heart. We'll see if others feel the same way--this just might be Nintendo's coup in the console war.

After numerous delays and much anticipation, the PS3 has finally reached the American market, greeted by cheering crowds, overt displays of capitalist greed, and, of course, muggings.

Patrons of Sony's flagship epnoymous store in San Francisco were treated to a grand display of the console's arrival as a flashy SUV guarded by armed security pulled up to make a delivery. Of course, the actual product was already waiting inside the store, but that didn't stop the crowd from going wild.

In New York City, where hopeful fans had been waiting in line for days, line cutters and rainy weather tried the patience of many. Celebrities entertained the crowd, but the real fun came when the doors to the SonyStyle store opened: everyone admitted knew they were guarenteed to walk away with a PS3.

And, of course, if you missed your chance at one of only 400k consoles, you could always try eBay, where American entrepreneurship has led some of your fellow citizens to sell for well over $2000--more than three times the price of the $599 tricked-out version.

Unfortunately, some of your fellow Americans saw launch day as nothing more than an opportunity to line up exciting new crime. A Gamestop in Elk Grove, California, was robbed of several PS3 and XBox 360 consoles by a pair of armed men, and line-waiters in Connecticut and Oregon were mugged.

Source: various Gamespot

Despite Sony's claims that the PS3 would be backwards-compatible and hence capable of playing games from the PS1 and PS2 consoles, it turns out that several games from both systems are producing errors in the PS3...and that Sony knew about this.

The problem was announced on its Japanese page November 11, the day the console went on sale in that country. The problem is expected to persist in the US version of the console.

When an incompatible game is placed in the PS3, strange sounds or images may result. Some games will simply not function at all. Sony refuses to list the incompatible games or give an estimate of how many will not work (Reuters, however, claims that the number is about 200). However, a search function on the webpage allows users to find out if a particular game will function properly. Among games that won't work? Final Fantasy XI, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, Tekken 5, and, one of my personal favourites, Silent Hill 2.

SCE spokesman Fukuoka Satoshi apologized for the problem, but claimed that it was unavoidable. [Insert some iceburg metaphors here.]

Source: AOL news, Gamespot

I've taken some knocks from you guys for my negative Sony postings before, but...wow. Try to find some good in this.

This might have undone my decision to purchase a PS3.

It's official: for the third year in a row, the creators of the webcomic Penny Arcade will be hosting a benefit to support children who have to spend the holidays in a hospital ward. Called "Child's Play", this multi-pronged attempt to make Christmas a little brighter involves auctions, a charity benefit dinner, and donations through amazon.com, dstore, and paypal.

Conveniently, one could hit two birds with one stone by purchasing items on hospitals' wish lists by doing it through the CoN's link. (Though not quite in the league of sick kids, this website could use a little charity, too.)

Source: Penny Arcade

Nintendo has finally released a firm launch date and North American price for its upcoming console, the Wii. Those of us in the United States or Canada can look forward to doling out $249.99 (USD) on November 19 and walking away with quite a package.

The console will ship with one Wii remote, the nunchuck attachment to the remote, a console stand, and a sensor bar with stand, along with the necessary cords and cables. This package will also include a Wii Sports sampler to show off the usage of the new controller.

Information regarding the Virtual Console has also been released. 30 classic titles from other systems will be available for purchase by the end of the year, and games will cost between $5 and $10 each.

New Wii games published by Nintendo will retail at $49.99.

All in all, this sounds like a great package. Nintendo really seems set to take the market by storm.

Source: IGN via Elessar (maybe he should just be a newsposter)