Link: http://www.nintendodsi.com/

Ooh... a new DS! Well, I have the DS Lite - the second iteration which was slimmer, lighter and had a brighter screen (more levels) than the original DS. Now, the launch of the DSi has been announced.

Nintendo DSi launches in the United States on April 5, 2009, at an MSRP of $169.99. The colors available at launch will be Blue and Black.

Black and blue eh? Wonder what they mean? The hit to our pocket books? What's new is the camera. The TWO cameras. One on the external body and one that points at you when you flip the thing open.

Another improvement is the sound application which serves as both an interactive voice recorder and music player. Users can access different audio filters or control the pitch and speed of recorded voice or music files to alter voices or change the tempo of a song. Even with the screenshut, we can access music files saved on an SD card. With SDHC cards containing upwards of 8G of space... that's a lot of music.

Backward compatible? Yes... mostly... anyone want to buy a much loved, gently used 2nd iteration DS? I want this baby.

Noo... I just bought the PSP-2000. I never bought the original because it was a bit pricey and chugged sluggishly on several games. The PSP-2000 with improved memory and sleeker build did much better. The new will have an improved LCD screen as reported in USA Today and a few other places.

The revamped PlayStation Portable with the improved liquid crystal display and a built-in microphone will go on sale Oct. 16 in Japan at the same price of the previous model 19,800 yen ($180), said Shawn Layden, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan.

That's not too bad actually. They are improving and replacing the older models. Something to be expected in the CE world.

Indie game developers are finding a market with the big Three of Console Games, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. According to this Analysis, the big three are finding innovative exclusive titles at a relatively low financial risk by going with Indies. Reaching out to the Indie developer helps them keep up with new talent, and helps them find titles beyond the expensive, but familiar franchises that dominate the market.

First we hear about the use of the Nintento DS's WiFi capabilities at sporting stadiums for ordering food and drinks from the concession stands and obtaining game scores & playback, now the PSP get's a Google search function.

As reported on Game Daily

Sony Computer Entertainment America sent word today that with the next firmware upgrade (4.00), which will be available this week, the PSP will get Google Search added directly to the portable's XMB (XrossMediaBar). The search functionality will be listed as "Internet Search" under the Network category on XMB.

Neat idea, and something I'm going to have to try out.

Are we mainstream or are we mainstream? According to this Variety article, Paramount Pictures has signed Leonardo DiCaprio to star in a movie named "Atari" as it's founder, Nolan Bushnell.

Gamespot has more to say, and tells us that Bushnell has recently been pretty vocal about his feelings about the modern games industry. He has called current games "pure, unadulterated trash," Sony "arrogant and capricious," and added that he thought some titles on the market are "truly despicable."

The 64 dollar question is... "Will you watch this?"

Soon anyway... and some online retailers are promoting it as an ideal Mother's Day Gift. *cough* Walmart...

The Wii Fit Balance board retails for $89.99 and I may just have to pick this one up myself. When I saw it at E3 last year, the people lining up to try it weren't the 20 something young men, but the 30 something women with whom it struck a chord because the program they were running was the yoga and fitness program.

The little balancing game they were running was also interesting, and little trouble-maker me had to try something that alarmed the demonstrator. Instead of just leaning my weight to tilt the virtual board to get that ball rolling from one side to the other - I was on level 4 and there was a little hump between. I rolled it to the extreme other end then hopped on the other. Guess what? It worked. I batted the ball and it flew up into the air, over the hump onto the right side.

Go me!

After shrouding themselves in a "cone of silence" for three years since the company was formed, Kings Isle Entertainment revealed themselves to the public for the first time.

Game Daily tells us more and checking their website shows an impressive cast of actors... er... developers on the commander's deck.

Creative Director Tom Hall's flagship games include: the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, DOOM, Rise of the Triad and Anachronox. Other credits include Congo Cube, Hyperspace Delivery Boy and most recently, Area 51.

Todd Coleman (Director) and Josef Hall (Technical Director) both hail from Wolfpack Studios, developer of Shadowbane.

They have studios in Dallas and Austin, and of course... they are hiring!

Monks from the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz - a 12th century monastery just outside Vienna have secured a lucrative recording contract with Universal Music to record Gregorian Plainchant. Universal Executive Tom Lewis credits Halo3 for the resurgence of interest in plainchant.

Here's the article on Yahoo News.

Rather interesting. Halo3 won a number of awards for their sound, including best use of surround sound.

I may or may not have blogged here about this phenomenon before, as the first pilot programme was at the Safeco (Baseball) field here in Seattle. So it was a local phenomenon.

What they did was to allow fans with DS devices to download software that allowed them to get stats and player info, watch extra videos, order food and drinks and interact with each other during games. This "Nintendo Fan Network" will remain exclusive to Seattle through 2008, but Nintendo's winter marketing plan includes a slate of baseball, golf and monster-truck sponsorships and events that will put the DS to use.

This article in Advertising Age teases us about this program but doesn't tell us diddly about how this will be implemented, since the Fan network will remain exclusive to Safeco field.

Recognition! That's what's happening in the industry. Gamers are no longer stereotyped as unwashed, basement inhabiting individuals, we are now being viewed as potential billion dollar high-end audio and video systems customers. According to the Nielsen study:

• 40 percent of all American households now have at least one console, and the majority of these are located in a living or family room.
• more than 54 percent of PS3 and 48 percent of Xbox 360 consoles are currently connected to multi-channel (5.1 or greater), home theater systems.
• PS3 owners are the most connected to HD displays, followed closely by Xbox 360 and Wii owners.

Well, the Wii's only 480p - a fact I bemoan constantly.

The Consumer Electronics Installation industry is also beginning to write about games. What a telling departure from their usual articles eh?

The article describes 8 games and why CE Pros need to know about them, dropping little tidbits of information such as:

[Halo 3] not only crushed Spider-Man 3 (the movie!) in sales and caused the lowest attendance at movie theaters for an October in ten years....

Heh. I didn't know that.