Late Night Consoling

Microsoft's UK Xbox head Neil Thompson and Chief XNA Architect J Allard have been suggesting recently that it's going to be quite some time until their Xbox 360 have to worry about competition from Sony's upcoming PS3. To trade publication MCV, Thompson said, "I'll be happy to compete whenever they turn up, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's not until spring '07. If they hit Xmas '06, then maybe it'll be a very thin launch; a launch in name only."

J Allard recently noted that "there's a big gap between what Sony claims and what they've shown. You might have thought our X05 presentation was a bit on long side, but they'll need an eight-hour press conference pretty soon just to give people confidence in that spring '06 date they've mentioned."

Sony has yet to reveal a date for the system beyond "Spring 2006", though that is widely thought to be applicable only to Japan. Traditionally, the manufacturer has gone with a staggered worldwide release schedule, and after the self-admitted problems Microsoft has been facing with a simultaneous launch it seems unlikely Sony will change its practice. The comments made by Thompson refer to what Microsoft speculates as PS3's European launch date; it is likely that Sony will follow the standard release order of Japan, then North America, then Europe and the rest of the world. For reference, it took about six months for the PS2 to reach a worldwide release, and about nine months for the PSP.

Enterbrain has released the top ten most ordered games for the holiday season, on the part of Japanese retailers. This is of course different from a sales report, but it gives an idea of what titles are expected to be in demand during the period of time when game sales are at their peak.

Unsurprisingly, the list is dominated first by the PS2, which has the highest overall install base in Japan, and then the DS, which for most of 2005 has been the bestselling hardware overall in Japan. The top game is Square-Enix's Kingdom Hearts II (PS2), followed by Namco's Tales of the Abyss (PS2). Mario Kart DS, which oddly ships somewhat later in Japan than in North America and Europe, is third on the list.

The rest of the list is all PS2 and DS software. It contains no games for the PSP, the waning GameCube, or unsurprisingly the Xbox. Notably, however, there is nothing for Xbox 360, whose Japanese launch Microsoft has been hyping with great enthusiasm. Though Microsoft will surely go much further in Japan with its upcoming console than with its current one, results such as these show that the company will have to fight for every inch of ground along the way. Unfortunately, the list did not reveal results past the top ten.

Since E3, Nintendo has made several mentions that the company will be setting up free wireless access points for its DS-compatible Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection across North America and Europe. Though gamers will be able to use their own wi-fi networks (or other publically available ones), Nintendo has gone out of its way to open up over a thousand official access points in Japan. Finally, the first concrete details of Nintendo's plans for non-Japanese territories are being made available. According to the reliable IGNCube, Nintendo of America will announce tomorrow plans to open up Nintendo access points at certain McDonald's locations around the country. Those points will be in place by the free service's launch on November 14.

As previously announced, Nintendo will also be releasing a branded USB dongle that will transmit a wi-fi signal from a broadband PC to a DS. Though its Revolution cross-compatibility has been long assumed, that feature was also confirmed, ensuring that gamers without a wireless network will only have to buy the device once if they plan on picking up Nintendo's next console.

Continuing with the growing trend of high-profile games getting soundtrack albums, Microsoft and Sumthing Else Music Works have announced that Rare's upcoming Perfect Dark Zero (X360) will be getting an album of its own on November 8. The album features music by David Clynick, who also contributed to the original Perfect Dark (N64), as well as work by musicians known as MissionPoe and Kepi & Kat.

This announcement means that both of Rare's upcoming Xbox 360 games, the other being Kameo: Elements of Power, will be receiving their own soundtrack albums.

Apparently gamers really, really love "alternate reality games" and countdowns, because we've sure been getting a lot of them lately. Microsoft in particular has taken to the practice of hiding even relatively mundane announcements such as "You can win a contest" behind elaborately constructed countdowns. Well, they're at it again. The manufacturer has set up another countdown site having something to do with its upcoming Xbox 360 console. Rumor has it that 4orty2wo, the company behind I Love Bees, is behind the stunt. There are all sorts of crazy rumors and connections involving binary code, hexadecimal, photographs, football games, and countdowns. Mainly countdowns. However, with only about 16 hours left on the clock by the time this Late Night Consoling goes live (I'm a bit late to this awesome countdown party), I'm going to pass on all the meticulous research. Sorry, guys.

RECAP: There is another website with numbers on it, and the numbers are decreasing.

1UP takes a look at the Nintendo history that led up to the Revolution controller in a feature entitled The Revolution Begins Now.

1UP also went and collected the Top 10 Worst EGM Covers ever, dating all the way back from one featuring Fabio, for an Ironsword: Wizards and Warriors II (NES) feature.