News pick ‘n’ mix

Sony might need a hug in a mug

» UK:R continues the everlasting anti-Sony campaign, pointing out that last week the PlayStation 3 was outsold 7 to 1 by the Wii in Japan (11k PS3s, 75k Wiis). The country where it’s sold at a reasonable price. In the US the Wii outsold the PS3 2 to 1 in March (though the PS2 remains the highest selling home console). Those Japanese sales figures must be a little worrying for Sony, as even combining PS3, PS2 and PSP sales, Sony’s systems are still significantly outsold by the Wii – and the DS is outselling everything.

» Trying not to be too negative about the PlayStation 3, but desperately failing due to the news of Sony’s layoffs and other badness. At least Sony seem to have acknowledged the PS3’s supply and (lack of) demand issues. Sony president Ryoji Chubachi told the Financial Times, “We are re-examining our budgeting process in terms of pricing and volume. We are in the midst of revisiting our strategy for the PS3.”

» Some analyst is saying that the 360 is bombing due to its poor performance in Japan. Backing up his argument with links to Wikipedia and DVD copying sites, he… oh… well, it’s safe to ignore him then.

» PSone titles are coming to the PlayStation 3 in May, in the US at least. This week the PS3 had its firmware updated, allowing it to emulate PSone titles, and soon PSone titles should be available to download from the PlayStation Store. The US PS Store already has a few PSP-compatible PSone titles available to download, which will be updated for PS3 compatibility, so hopefully Europe will catch up soon.

» What do you get if you cross Fantasy Football League with Football Manager? Predictor Pro is an online football league where players do their best Stato impersonation and score points based on their predictions of real matches. It nicely bridges the gap between armchair enthusiast and career gambler, though if you mess up you won’t necessarily end up as a gin-soaked hobo with a hammer.

» On a similar theme, the online Football Manager Live has been announced, for a Spring 2008 release.

» Star Fox 64 is released for the Wii’s Virtual Console today. But you can hear more about that shortly in this week’s Virtual Console round up.