MicroTechXP

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has again warned that they may struggle to meet the huge demand for the Nintendo Wii this holiday. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to, but were we to get in a car right now and go to 100 retail locations in the San Francisco area, we would not be able to find a Wii in at least 60 of those stores. Our hope is that by next week, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and on Dec. 23, you’ll be able to find a Wii.” Reggie told CNN.

[Maxconsole]

pSony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has confirmed that it will be releasing a 160GB PlayStation 3 bundle featuring Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune in November 2008.img height=”80″ alt=”psava” src=”http://www.mtechxp.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/psava.jpg” width=”79″ align=”right” border=”0″ brSet to retail for USD 500, the bundle contains a copy of the action-adventure title from Naughty Dog, along with a single DualShock 3 pad.brSCEA boss Jack Tretton commented: “As Playstation Network continues to evolve with our recently launched video delivery service and more exclusive games, PS3 owners are demanding more storage capacity.”br“Consumers also are utilizing PS3 as an entertainment hub for their digital media, placing content such as their entire music collection on the hard drive. The 160GB PS3 system addresses this growing consumer demand in a compelling bundle that delivers significant value.” [a href="http://www.psu.com/Uncharted-160GB-PS3-bundle-revealed-News--a0004987-p0.php"PSU/a]/p

pimg height=”278″ src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2008/09/gow2_piracy.jpg” width=”494″ /Epic Games a href=”http://kotaku.com/5056532/why-no-gears-of-war-2-for-pc-well-piracy-for-one”won’t be bringing Gears of War 2 to the PC/a. That’s their story and they’re stickin’ to it. It’s quot;definitelyquot; not happening, swears designer Cliff Bleszinski, pointing to a worsening PC gaming environment./p pquot;The person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know [BitTorrent] to know all the elements so they can pirate software,quot; says Bleszinski. quot;Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC.quot;/p pa href=”http://www.totalvideogames.com/articles/Gears_Of_War_2_-_Cliff_Bleszinski_QA_13820.htm”Gears Of War 2 - Cliff Bleszinski Qamp;A/a [TVG]/p

pSorry PS3 gamers, but according to Treyarch and the people at Activision, the upcoming online multiplayer beta for Call of Duty: World at War will be for Xbox 360 and PC owners only.img title=”gaming-ms-nintendo-sony” style=”display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px” height=”122″ alt=”gaming-ms-nintendo-sony” src=”http://www.mtechxp.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/gamingmsnintendosony.png” width=”125″ align=”right” border=”0″ / br /For those of you who remember, Infinity Ward pulled a similar move last year by hosting the Call of Duty 4 beta only on the Xbox 360. After speaking with a Activision representative, I was told that the reasoning behind doing an Xbox 360 and PC beta was primarily due to increased server and connectivity data. br /quot;We are running the beta only on the Xbox 360 and PC,quot; said the representative. He continued then to point out that most betas on the PS3 are run by first party anyways, and if Treyarch runs their testing on the Xbox 360 and PC they acquire more data on servers and connectivity. br /Personally, I think that it’s imperative to sufficiently test emall/em networks a game will be running on, and that includes the PlayStation Network. Yes, if you were to run the beta solely on the PlayStation 3, you’d acquire less data than a 360 beta, but why not have a beta span multiple platforms? Is it that much more work? [a href="http://www.psu.com/COD--World-at-War-beta-to-be-Xbox-360-and-PC-only--a0004931-p1.php"PSU/a]/p

While claims that the Xbox 360’s DVD format is too small are becoming, you rarely hear of a developer pushing the boundaries of Blu-ray. And yet Codemasters is doing exactly that. Apparently the publisher’s upcoming Fuel - an open-world racer redolent of Mad Max - would exhaust four Blu-ray discs if it were created using quot;traditionalquot; methods. That’s according to Executive Producer David Brickley, speaking to a href=”http://www.videogamer.com/news/25-09-2008-9464.html”Videogamer.com/a br /quot;In the context of that map, which is one small corner of it, when the guys showed us this technology, if you were to build it in a traditional manner it would fill about four Blu-rays,quot; he said. quot;A gargantuan amount of data, just enormous. The challenge for us was to say can we come up with a race experience generated according to an algorithmic rule set, procedural generation, which is of a standard that is indistinguishable from one that’s been done by hand?quot; br /To put the figure in context, Brickley likened the world of Fuel to that of Burnout Paradise. quot;I did a little Power Point internally to do it and it zoomed them in to each other,quot; he said. quot;It’s like a little postage stamp because I think it does like four kilometres or something.quot; Fuel is reported to be 5,000 miles in scope. br /The game is being developed by Asobo, and is due out on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in Q2 2009. [PSU]

A 45 nanometer cell processor was first realized earlier this year, and Sony plans to include it in the PlayStation 3 sometime during 2009.

So how does this affect you? By creating a smaller chip, Sony circumvents some costs associated with creating the Cell, and a cheaper production price equates to more leeway for a potential PS3 price cut. Additionally, by reducing the size of the chip from 65nm to 45nm, power consumption decreases by approximately 40%. When less power is consumed, less heat is generated, and a slimmer console — like the slimline PS2 — suddenly becomes a possibility.
We’ll continue to provide the big picture of the Cell processor in the future — no matter how small it gets. [Gizmodo]

While Sony has taken steps to ensure that the PlayStation 3 will be the longest-lived of current- gen machines, some developers can’t wait to get their hands on the next slab of hardware.
Speaking at the Game Convention Asia event, Crytek President and CEO Cevat Yerli has declared that the PlayStation 4’s specifications will shape all subsequent Crytek projects. Those specifications have to be announced first, obviously - anybody care to predict a shipping date?
"Frankly, we are linking ourself to what the PS4 will take up as [its hardware] position," Yerli told IGN. "That is the console makeup that will drive all our research, so we cannot wait to know what the [machine] will be about. That’s probably the most important missing information we have right now in our company."
Crytek tends to ask rather a lot of its hardware, with the formidable Crysis virtually unplayable on maximum settings whatever your PC setup. Small wonder then that they’re eager to get their hands on the latest tech. [PSU]

PS3Life is a website with a lot of inside contacts. Today they reported that an anonymous source linked to the Sony camp told PS3Life that Sony wants to release Home and  LittleBigPlanet simultaneously.

A source linked to the Sony camp, that was anonymous, today said that they know that Sony intends Home and LittleBigPlanet to launch simultaneously. So they want Home, which predominates hype is a bit over the top is going, as well as possible out of the starting blocks to shoot.
Naturally, the two releases mutual links. Home LittleBigPlanet example, a cream containing advanced level building where you can find out tips on LittleBigPlanet level editor.

[PS3Life via Google Translate]

Tom Crago, the CEO of Tantalus and the president of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia, yesterday gave an overview of the Australian game development industry at GC Asia 2008, and IGN was there to nab a few little tidbits on L.A. Noire, the Rockstar-published game being developed out of Team Bondi in Sydney. No one has heard anything on the title for some time, but Crago confirmed that "it’s got - I’d suggest - another year or so to go". He also mentioned that it "could be the biggest budget videogame in development anywhere in the world. It would certainly… in terms of console titles, be in the top ten… LA Noire is a massive massive project."
And last, but by no means least, he mentioned that the game is coming to PS3 and 360 - up until now the title has only been confirmed for PS3. We’ll let you know as soon as we can get independent confirmation from either Team Bondi or Rockstar.
Mr Crago also spoke of L.A. Noire’s importance to the Australian development industry, saying that: "It’s one that we hold huge hopes for. It has been said about Australia that we’ve not been that successful putting out a title that really has set the world on fire; a big budget title that’s sold multiple million copies and that has really put us on the map as a hub for videogame development. There are plenty of people who are hoping that L.A. Noire will be that title." [IGN]