PS2 Cut
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe cut the UK price of the PlayStation 2 by £30 to £269.99 on Monday, but stressed that this was not a "strategic" move. It was not a response to Microsoft's forthcoming Xbox games console, but the result of exchange rate changes in Europe. "We altered our trade rate so that the UK doesn't fall out of step," SCEE's marketing director said. This lets us assume there will be another price cut when the more advanced Xbox and cheaper Nintendo Gamecube finally do arrive.

PSXnix
With Sony about to support Linux on the PlayStation 2, a Czechoslovakian company, Blokman Trading, is offering a version for the original PSX as well. An untested version of the Linux 2.4 kernel can now be downloaded from www.runix.ru, with a game development kit and office package to follow. The PS2 version will come later. See www.runix.ru/news_n.html for details.

Pearl Harbor
There isn't a game of the film, but Koch hopes to capitalise on the hype with a mission-based arcade-style flight simulation game, Pearl Harbor: Strike at Dawn. It should be available in the UK now, for the PC. US and mail-order buyers can also pick up Pearl Harbor: Zero Hour, another mission-based arcade-style flight simulator, published in the US by Simon & Schuster International, and Pearl Harbor: Pacific Warriors, ValuSoft's budget-priced example of the genre. Pearl Harbor: Defend the Fleet, from Wizard Works, takes a different view: you play a gunner, on deck as the dive-bombers scream in.

Wannabe junior
Every adult in the UK has already bought at least one copy of Eidos Interactive's record-breaking game, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, so now the company is producing a junior version for children aged 8-14. Again, there's a voice-over by the host of the TV show, Chris Tarrant. The game will be available for PCs running Microsoft Windows 98 or later and Sony PlayStations next month. After that, no doubt, an Infants Edition and special versions for pets...

October dated
The final version of Championship Manager 3 will be released in October, with teams and fixtures for the 01/02 football season. It will include a data editor that will let saddoes give themselves maximum skill points and pick themselves for their team. However, this is not the end of civilisation as we know it. Championship Manager 4 will be released next year.