Go Nuon
While the trend is for games consoles (PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox) to play movies on DVD, Americans can buy DVD players that also play games. The Toshiba SD2300 NUON-Enhanced DVD player has joined the Samsung Extiva DVD-N2000 in delivering games using the Nuon chip developed by VM Labs.
The first DVD movie to exploit Nuon technology - 20th Century Fox's remake of Bedazzled withLiz Hurley - will be released on March 13.
Millions like us
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? topped the Christmas games chart, as expected, in what was the biggest bonanza in UK gaming history.
According to estimates from Computer Trade Weekly magazine, "an amazing 8.9 million titles" worth about £242 million were sold over the six-week "holiday season".
WWTBAM? could also go on to reach an even wider game-playing audience. Codeonline Ltd, a wireless specialist based in Espoo, Finland, is developing versions of the game for the SMS (short messaging service) and Wap (Wireless application protocol) mobile phones. Codeonline has also developed a wireless version of Trivial Pursuit Challenge.
PS2 is coming
Life should soon get easier for would-be PlayStation 2 buyers. Ray Maguire, who runs Sony's PlayStation business in the UK, says 400,000 consoles will be shipped here by March 31. Meanwhile, Microsoft has delayed the European launch of its rival Xbox games console, which may now not appear here until March 2002. The idea is to avoid the product shortages that have plagued Sony.
Girls on top
Although men make up 55% of the gaming audience in the US, most online gamers (50.4%) are now women, according to a report by research company PC Data. However, men and women prefer different types of games.
Men are much more likely to play first-person shooters (38% v 12%), real-time strategy games (33% v 11%), and sports games (30% v 10%). Women prefer board/card games (78% v 51%), gambling themes (36% v 26%), and quiz/puzzle/trivia contests (55% v 25%).
The most frequently played games, online and offline, are Solitaire, Free Cell and other games included as part of Microsoft Windows.
