News

Ken Kutaragi, head of Sony Computer Entertainment, revealed in an interview with the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun Playstation 3 is going to be backward compatible with PS1 and PS2 games.

The PS3 will run PS2 games in the same manner that the PS2 run PS2 games: emulation. Says Kutaragi, "PS one runs on PlayStation 2 through emulation rather than actual hardware. PlayStation 3 will offer the same compatibility for PS2 software and the format will continue forever."

Source: Games_Are_Fun

Nintendo is set to release two new colors for the Gameboy Advance.  The colors are "Pearl Blue" and "Pearl Pink."  It is not know whether the these two colors (which will retail in Japan on September 5th at a price of 12,500 Yen) will be available in North America or Europe as of yet.

Pictures of the two can be seen here.

Source: OmniPlay News

Courtesy PC World...

The XBox's graphics will now be licensed to Microsoft by ATI.  Nvidia, the graphics company that previously worked with the XBox, has backed out, claiming that it needs to cut business costs.  Rumors have also said that Microsoft was looking for another graphics company in the first place.  Also, according to the article, it doesn't sound like Nvidia could have been very pleased with Microsoft, since "Nvidia was also left with a sizable amount of unusable inventory after Microsoft changed the security settings for the XBox, forcing Nvidia to absorb that cost."

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From the looks of things, it doesn't sound like this was a partnership made to last.  Both companies got a little greedy, and now it's biting both of them in the butts.  They couldn't agree on prices and had to have mediators come in to solve the problems with them.  Hopefully (for Microsoft), the partnership with ATI will be much more successful.

Unfortunately for Nvidia, this brings them out of the gaming market almost completely, and for ATI, it means they're now dealing with both Nintendo AND Microsoft.  ATI stock is bound to jump after this.

Courtesy Herald Sun... (Ooh, a new sort of source for once.)

The title of this article, Game Over, is appropriate.  Playstation consoles can no longer be fixed to run games made to run on different models (that is, to say, they can no longer be modded).  Sony sells games in three distinct regions, and they are not supporting the modding of playstation consoles because of the evident threat of piracy.  This is an interesting and kind of unexpected decision by Sony, when the threat of emulation seems to be much greater than modded games.

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I don't own a modded playstation or know anyone that does, so this doesn't affect me.  However, as Tiddles kindly pointed out to me, this "sucks for Australia [because] nobody ever releases games there."  The Australian guy mentioned that their consumers can't use legally imported games anymore.  I don't know how much of a blow to their ecmonomy that is, but that pretty much shuts down imports entirely, except of course when people mod their playstations illegally.

Atlus brings the late Eighties period to Gameboy Advance with Double Dragon Advance and River City Ransom EX.  Atlus has released one screenshot of each for the public to drool over.  These are just not ports of the old of the old NES games (or even the superior arcade version in the case of Double Dragon), but are new games with completely updated graphics and improved stories.



Source: OmniPlay Gaming

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I must seem like a huge GBA fanboy from the few news updates that I occasionally do, but it's hard not to want one with the kind of software support that it has.

Nintendo recently announced that they are  creating a limited edition Gamecube and bundle in honor of Squenix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.  But this is not the only bundle that they have in store for a Squenix game though.  Nintendo plans on releasing a special addition Gameboy Advance in honor Sword of Mana, the upcoming remake of Final Fantasy Adventure.

Similar to the FF:CC bundle, it is unknown as of yet whether this bundle will see a North American or PAL release.

Source: OPGaming

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I'd go for this if I had money.  I could use an Gameboy Advance and I would not mind startig off with Sowrd of Mana for my first game.  ::goes to buy some lottery tickets::