"Market analysts NPD have suggested that the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the US over Christmas -- with the Nintendo Wii trailing by just 200,000 units," reports GamesIndustry.biz.
Hard to know what's really happening here, but Bloomberg is reporting that "Ken Kutaragi, the developer of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation game console, stepped aside from day-to-day management of the unit after production delays forced the company to slash shipment targets."
The PlayStation 3 may be roughly twice the price of rivals, but users are getting supercomputer power for a PC price, according to iSuppli's teardown analysis. It's "a great bargain". The company says:
"Enterbrain, publisher of Famitsu, has revealed the the tie-in ratio of software to PlayStation 3 sales is 0.98 - less than one game per console," reports GamesIndustry.biz. Sure, there were only five games available at launch. But a lot of people didn't buy a game at all, which suggests they are intending to sell their machine for a profit on eBay etc.
Sony has a lot riding on the PlayStation 3, to the extent that a Japanese analyst, Masashi Morita from Okasan Securities in Tokyo, says: "Sony needs PlayStation 3 to save the company," according to The New York Times. The paper says:
The giant E3 games trade show is being downsized, or something short of cancelled, according to duelling reports on the Web.The main spat seems to be between Ars Technica (E3 game trade show not cancelled, but will be downsized) and Next Generation (E3 Finished as Big Exhibs Pull Support), but NG says: "Calls to ESA [Entertainment Software Association] staff are not being returned at present."
"A new billboard advert for Sony's white PSP has caused consternation across the US videogaming community. The ad shows a white woman threateningly grasping the face of a black model," says Keith Stuart on our Gamesblog.
Warren Buffett, 75, the world's second richest man, is giving the bulk of his $44 billion Berkshire Hathaway fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is already worth more than $30 billion. He will become the foundation's third trustee, after Bill and Melinda.
Sony has just postponed the launch of its Blu-ray players again, which prompts the question: Is Sony really going to get the PlayStation 3 out this year, even in Japan, and if so, what sort of specificaiton will it have? There seem to be few or no real facts around, but there are plenty of negative rumours.