Sony PSP (With GPS) Hits The Market February 2008

Sony Corp plans to sell a satellite navigation accessory from February 2008 that turns its handheld PSP games console into a navigation device, the company announced at the Leipzig Games Convention on Wednesday.

The PSP equipped with the global positioning (GPS) accessory will compete with dedicated navigation devices such as those made by TomTom and Garmin Ltd.

David Reeves, head of Sony's European games unit, said the accessory would be priced between 100 and 150 euros ($A166 - $A249).

Sony separately announced an accessory for its flagship PlayStation 3 that will turn the games console into a digital video recorder. The accessory is a receiver for terrestrial digital broadcasts such as the Freeview service in Britain.

The move sets Sony apart from Microsoft Corp, which offers downloadable movies and television shows for its Xbox 360 console but no live TV.

A player that also owns a PSP will be able to transfer recorded programs to the handheld device and watch them on the go, Sony said. The product is to be launched in early 2008 in selected European markets.

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Xbox 360 Warranty Extended To Three Years

Company boosts console warranty after investigation finds too many consoles needing repairs.

Computing giant Microsoft today announced that it would boost the warranty on its Xbox 360 gaming console to three years from date of purchase. The new warranty comes into effect globally.

The announcement came after an investigation found what Microsoft is calling an “unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles”. The investigation looked into possible causes of the “three flashing lights” hardware failure that has affected an estimate 33% of all Xbox 360 consoles according numerous online reports.

The company believes it has found the cause of the problems and has made improvements to the Xbox 360 design but declined to outline what those faults were or what caused them.

However, the cost of its Xbox 360 program will be significant with the company announcing it expects to take a pre-tax charge of between $US1.05billion and $US1.15billion for the quarter ending June 30, 2007 as a result of the warranty upgrade.

“The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But, this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division. “We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base. We look forward to great things to come.”

To keep faith with its gaming market, Microsoft has announced that it will retroactively reimburse any customer that has previously paid for repairs that related to a three-flashing lights general hardware failure. This will also include shipping costs.

Microsoft is currently in a three-way battle with Sony and Nintendo in the gaming console market. According to figures released by market research firm NPD Group, Nintendo’s Wii console outsold the Xbox 360 in the US by more than two-to-one, selling 338,000 units to 155,000 with Sony’s PLAYSTATION3 coming a distant third at just 82,000 in the race for next-generation supremacy.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced the date for the expect release of its Xbox 360 Elite in Japan – October 11. The latest version adds HDMI video output plus a larger 120GB hard drive.

Reports from The Register are that Microsoft is having a tough time shifting its console in the tough Japanese market, where the Xbox 360 trails both the Nintendo Wii and Sony PLAYSTATION 3. In the month of June, over 270,000 Wiis were sold in Japan against 41,600 PLAYSTATION3s and just 17,600 Xbox 360 consoles.

Japanese market figures for the first half of 2007 are no better with the Xbox 360 selling just 122,000 units against a stagger 1.78million Nintendo Wiis and over 500,000 PLAYSTATION3 consoles.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 reliability issues have been heavily reported on the internet in recent times with much of the heat focussed on the console’s own heat production. Speculation has been raised on Gameworld Network that the failure is due to insufficient airflow near the graphics processor unit (GPU) causing the chip to heat and solder on its ball-grid array pins to melt.

At time of publishing, Microsoft has not outlined the reasons for the higher than expected failure rate.

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