Posts Tagged ‘consolewars’

Netflix subscribers in the U.S. and Canada can now stream content through their game consoles without a separate disc.

For the first in this game console generation, console manufacturers have the choice whether console sales numbers are revealed or not as NPD has decided to cripple the publicly available data of video game sales and deny public access to hardware sales numbers entirely with the argument that it should be up to the console makers to release the numbers. Sony ignores requests for the data, while Microsoft brags.

Sony today announced that the PS3 will get disc-free Netflix next week and will be able to stream “some movies and TV shows in 1080p” resolution. Netflix will add Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 channel surround sound. So, when do we get Google TV on the PS3?

We so wanted Sony to have a good shot at this year’s Christmas season. But Sony has an incredible talent to shoot itself in the foot. The PS3 Move may be the best example yet.

We have said before that Christmas 2010 does not look too promising for Nintendo as Wii sales are declining, but it appears that the company won’t be celebrating at all this year as it just announced that the highly anticipated 3DS will launch in February 2011 – in Japan.

Sony has released another PS3 firmware update, conceivably one of the most significant upgrades in the console’s history. The free download adds a “D” to your plain PS3 and puts Facebook within reach of developers.

Luxottica, the Italy-based parent company of Oakley and Ray-Ban, today said that it will be offering 3D glasses that can be made to fit individual eyeglass prescriptions.

Analysis – Don’t get defensive just yet. We all love our Wiis. But NPD’s monthly market numbers reveal much more than plain shipment numbers for the United States. We decided this month it was time to dive deep into the data and found that U.S. consumers are increasingly ditching the Wii and are adopting rival game consoles, especially Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Nintendo needs a new Wii now, not in 2011 or in 2012. Nintendo has to face reality that the Wii is dying in the U.S.: It peaked in May of this year and has peaked in January of this year and entered a state of decline in May. It will be nearly impossible for Nintendo to return to positive growth again.

Microsoft will be introducing an updated Xbox 360 controller on November 9. The new wireless unit features a new color scheme as well as a flexible D-pad.

Sony is introducing two new Playstation 3 (PS3) models just in time. The console will soon appear with capacities of 160 and 320 GB and we are finally seeing Move pre-sales increasing as well.

It’s mid August, which means that it is time to startup the Apple rumor engine once again. The current trend-o-meter suggests that Apple will hold a music-related event in September, but our favorite is an updated Apple TV that will be running on iOS 4 and basically morph into a game console light, as it will be able to download content from the App Store, if the current rumors are right.