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Nintendo famously called Apple the enemy of the future in the video gaming space, and by golly, it looks like the Japanese giant was right; Steve Jobs just told an audience that the iPod touch alone outsells Nintendo’s DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable combined, worldwide. How many games iPod touch users actually play and for how long wasn’t discussed, but Jobs said 1.5 billion “games and entertainment” apps have been downloaded — again, on the iPod touch alone, never mind all those iPhones.

Update: As many fine readers have suggested in comments, this particular statistic seems a little hard to swallow, given that the Nintendo DS alone sold roughly 132 million units — a good bit less than the 120 million iOS devices Apple claims, and only some of which are iPod touch — as of the Japanese company’s July earnings report. We’ve contacted Apple for clarification and hope to be able to explain the discrepancy soon.

Check out our liveblog of the keynote event right here!

Apple claims 50 percent of portable gaming market, iPod touch ‘outsells Nintendo and Sony combined’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Touchscreen controls are nice for some applications but, until someone invents transparent fingers, they’re a real bother for gaming. Many, including Apple, have toyed with the idea of putting the touch sensitive sections on the back of the device, and we have strong rumors coming out of Gamescom this week that this is the path Sony is taking for its next-generation PSP. Now, we’ve been hearing various rumors about this thing for just about as long as we’ve known about the first-gen PSP, but Sony is said to be quietly showing off a prototype unit about the size of a PSP-3000. While everyone agrees about the touch-sensitive portion ’round the back, it’s unknown what (if any) physical controls will go along with it. A release date for the thing is also unclear, with some saying next year and others saying it’ll be later than that. Whenever it ships we hope it’ll do the right thing and finally put the UMD format out of its misery.

Next gen PSP to have touch controls — on the wrong side? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Sony takes aim at iPhone gaming in new PSP ad

Sony takes aim at iPhone gaming in new PSP ad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no question that gaming on the Android platform has heretofore been relatively underwhelming, but that looks like it’s all about to change. It seems that Sony Ericsson — a company that has yet to even introduce an Android 2.0 device — is at work on a project to redefine gaming on Google’s mobile platform. We now know (via a trusted source) that the company is actively and heavily developing a brand new gaming platform, ecosystem, and device (possibly alongside Google) which are already in the late stages of planning. And we’ve got the goods on it.

Continue reading Exclusive: Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 gaming platform and PSP Go-like smartphone

Exclusive: Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 gaming platform and PSP Go-like smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest version (2.8.1) of the TiVo Desktop software is official, and it’s added a few new features in both its free edition and the upgraded Plus package. The basic software has added a few additional settings, but the most notable is the ability to view folders on a PC from the DVR itself. Those paying $24.95 for TiVo Desktop Plus should notice increased video quality on PSP TiVoToGo exports, plus new profiles for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, DROID, Pre and several Blackberry models. Dave Zatz has already gotten his hands on the latest version, reporting some issues connecting to a TiVo Premiere; hit the download page for your own copy and let us know how it works.

TiVo Desktop Software hits version 2.8.1, adds folder view from PC, export for iPad, Pre & more originally appeared on Engadget HD on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s certainly been fairly candid when discussing the PSP Go in the past, but SCEE CEO Andrew House went quite a bit further than usual in discussing the download-only handheld with MCV recently. When asked if he considered the PSP Go to be a success, he responded by saying that it was “introduced in a mature lifecycle to learn more about what the consumer wanted,” and that Sony has “definitely learned a lot,” adding that “one of the reasons we launched PSP Go was to understand where that consumer behavior was going.” He further went on to say that Sony was “getting signals from consumers that this was the kind of device that they wanted,” but says that Sony needs to “recognize that consumers like their packaged media library.” Does that mean a return to physical media for the eventual PSP 2? House unsurprisingly wouldn’t say, but we have a feeling Sony will be getting plenty of questions about it at E3 next week.

Sony’s Andrew House: PSP Go launched in part to ‘learn more about what the consumer wanted’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, we’ve got some good news and some less good news for potential PSP Go owners. The good news is that Sony has now officially announced the ten free game offer for PSP Go buyers in the UK, which is just as we had heard and is available in quite a few countries besides the UK as well (hit up the link below for the complete list). Not among those, however, is the United States or Canada, which is where the less good news comes in. While Sony has also announced a similar promotion for US and Canadian consumers, it only covers folks that buy a PSP Go starting today (not anyone that bought one after April 1st, as in the UK), and you’ll only be getting three free games, not ten — those include LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. What gives? We’re not entirely sure, but the only other incentive Sony is offering for North America is a new line of “Favorites” titles that will be priced at $9.99 apiece.

Sony confirms ten free game offer for UK PSP Go buyers, North America gets less awesome deal originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not sure if this is the “relaunch” that we’ve been hearing about, but it looks like PSP Go buyers in the UK will soon have one big new reason to consider the UMD-less handheld — Sony says that it’ll be throwing in a whopping ten free game downloads with each system. That deal will apparently also apply to at least some existing PSP Go customers (those that registered their system after April 1st), and it looks like you’ll get a surprisingly solid lineup of games, including titles like Little Big Planet, Gran Turismo, Wipout Pure, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Need for Speed Shift, to name a few. Unfortunately, there’s no indication on when or if the promotion will launch over here, with SCE’s UK sales director Mark Howsen only confirming that it will be rolling out in the UK “next month.”

Sony looks to boost PSP Go sales with ten free games — in the UK, at least originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These days, it’s the Pandora making waves in the world of handheld emulation, but GamePark’s GP2X could arguably be credited with starting the whole phenomenon. John Grayson recently decided that the original simply wasn’t keeping up with the times, however, and decided to swap out a joystick for a more traditional D-pad. Moreover, he yanked those weak AA batteries and shoehorned a pair of PSP Li-ion cells in there instead, boosting his SNES play time to just over four hours on a full charge. Thankfully for you, neither tweak seems all that difficult to implement, and the sub-10 minute clip waiting after the break does a rather outstanding job of giving you the play-by-play. So yeah, scram!

Continue reading GP2X gaming handheld modded with D-pad, PSP batteries (video)

GP2X gaming handheld modded with D-pad, PSP batteries (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 20:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/playstation/Sony_posts_another_huge_annual_loss_but_PS3_sales_are_up’; Sony just posted its yearly results today, and while a ¥40.8 billion ($439 million) loss is never a good thing, it’s at least a marked improvement from last year’s staggering $1 billion drop into the red, which was the company’s first loss in 14 years. LCD TVs and cameras were Sony’s big electronics sellers, while PS3 sales went up to 13 million from 10.1 million last year — and hey, Sony’s console actually became profitable at the end of the year as production costs have gone down. Now for the bad news: PSP sales were down to 9.9m from 14.4 last year, with game sales dropping to 44.4m from 50.3m units, while PS2 hardware went down to 7.2m from 7.7m units and PS2 software fell sharply from 83.5m units to 35.7m units. That’s not completely unexpected, as the PS2 can’t last forever and the PSP is getting long in the tooth, but it means that Sony faces some serious pressure to hit its target of 15m PS3s sold this year to pick up the slack and help it hit its goal of posting a ¥50 billion ($541 million) profit next year. Let’s hope that Move controller lives up to the hype, right? Sony’s also counting on 3D to help it get there, and wonder of wonders, it also expects Sony Ericsson to hit profitability, so that X10 mini pro had better be a big improvement over the Xperia X10. We’ll see if Sir Howard can keep all these various ships going in the right direction while still keeping the rest of Sony’s diverse operations (like its profitable life insurance business) in line — it should be an interesting year.

Sony posts another huge annual loss, but PS3 sales are up originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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