Late Night Consoling

After an odd unacknowledged delay, Sony has made the official North American version of the PSP 2.00 patch available on their website. The biggest addition is the web browser, though it also adds support for a few more file formats. The site also notes that "Depending on the software title, you may not be able to play without first updating the PSP system software," which will be a pain for homebrew enthusiasts who also want to play new PSP games. (Once they actually release some new PSP games, anyway. Oh snap.)

In honor of Resident Evil's 10-year anniversary, Capcom will be releasing a remake of the first Resident Evil (PS1) on the Nintendo DS. The game's Japanese title is Biohazard: Deadly Silence. Little is known about the title, other than it will incorporate first person realtime 3D battle sequences, and will make use of the DS' wi-fi capability and other unique features.

Ubisoft today released two new cooperative play maps for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory over Xbox Live. However, they apparently don't work. Whoops. When the maps are fixed, they will continue the game's co-op campaign.

Despite prior announcements, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (or Advent Children: Final Fantasy VII, depending on who you ask) will not be released in North American shores simultaneously with the Japanese version on September 13. It will come to this continent this "holiday season" in the form of a two-disc Special Edition DVD.

Contrary to much speculation, Sony has no plans to drop the price of its PS2 this holiday season. Some had suspected the manufacturer would do so in order to aggressively compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360. Ray Maguire, head of Sony Computer Entertainment UK, told the BBC that the current price point does not leave enough of a profit margin to justify dropping the price. The company hopes to attract new buyers with non-traditional games which appeal to people who are not yet gamers.

IGN has pointed out that EBGames.com has a listing for "Killzone 2 PS2" with a release date of January 1, 2006. IGN's calls to Sony revealed no further information. It is worth noting that EBGames.com also has a listing for "Killzone 2 (working title) PS3", and it is also worth noting (as I often note) that retailers rarely know much more than anybody else does.

Not surprisingly, Tecmo will be developing for Sony's PS3, according to president Junji Nakamura. Despite the well-known Team Ninja's history with Xbox, its parent company Tecmo has long supported Sony's platform. Nakamura did have a few things to say about PS3 development, though, noting that "compared to the Xbox 360, it seems to be somewhat out of place with today's developers. I believe that it is having an influence on the skills and abilities of developers. You will have to change your way of thinking."

Because we just can't get enough talk about Xbox 360 pricing, Gamasutra has many opinions given by industry professionals and more than a few "Anonymous"es regarding the subject.

EGM (by way of 1UP) takes a look at the history of fighting games from 1981 to 1987, culminating in the first Street Fighter title.