Late Night Consoling

Via its official Japanese site, Sony has announced the first wave of titles that will be downloadable from PlayStation 3's online service, as well as the first PlayStation games that will be downloadable and playable on PSP. PlayStation games will be downloadable to PS3 and PSP, but will not initially be playable on PS3; PS1 games downloaded to Sony's upcoming home console are at first only intended for transfer to the portable system. The list of announced PlayStation games to be made available is as follows:

- Resident Evil Director's Cut
- Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol. 1
- Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol. 2
- Bishi Bashi Special
- Arc the Lad
- Jumping Flash
- Hot Shots Golf 2
- Silent Bomber
- Tekken 2
- Mr. Driller

Sony will also offer downloadable PS3 games through its service. The concept is similar to that of the successful Xbox Live Arcade, though Sony plans to focus less on retro games in favor of newly developed titles. Two games will be available at launch: Blast Factor and Mainichi Isso, the latter of which will be released for free. A playable demo of Namco's Ridge Racer 7 will also be available. Other games Sony plans to make available on the service in 2006 include fl0w, Lemmings, Kazuo, and Puzzle. IGN has translated summaries of those games.

Pricing information was not yet released, though at its Gamer's Day event last week, Sony gave a general upper limit of $14.99 for downloadable content and suggested that many PlayStation games might be sold for $5 or less. All of the release information announced today relates specifically to the Japanese market, and it is highly likely that the list of available launch content will differ in other territories.

Today, Sony revealed its fiscal second quarter financial statements, with both Sony Corporation and PlayStation division Sony Computer Entertainment suffering sizeable losses. Sony Computer Entertainment reported losses of 43.5 billion yen ($365 million), a significant decrease from income of 8.2 billion yen ($69 million) in the same period of last year. The division saw a 20.5% decrease in revenue as well, down to 170.3 billion yen ($1.4 billion) from 214.2 billion ($1.8 billion) year over year. Decreases in yearly hardware sales of PlayStation 2 and PSP were a prime contributor to the revenue drop, with an increase in PSP software sales balancing out a decrease in PS2 software sales. The company has also seen substantial investment in the upcoming PlayStation 3, which is soon likely to become the most significant factor in any changes to the division's performance.

Sony Corporation also saw a hefty hit to its profits, while revenue on the other hand increased. The company's net profits for the quarter dropped an overwhelming 94% from 28.5 billion yen ($239 million) to 1.7 billion yen ($14.3 million) year over year. Revenue increased 8% from 1.7 trillion yen (14.3 billion) to 1.85 trillion yen ($15.5 billion) year over year. The company's widely publicized laptop battery recall was one reason for its financial woes. Also factoring in were decreasing profits of Sony Computer Entertainment, a crucial division of the company.

Microsoft today announced its latest financial results for its fiscal first quarter, which ended September 30. The company's Entertainment and Devices division--which handles its Xbox line--continued to post losses, but those losses were significantly decreased from the company's prior first quarter. Largely thanks to Xbox 360, the group saw losses of $96 million, up from a loss of $173 year over year. Total sales were similarly up to $1.03 billion from $606 million year over year. Xbox 360 had not yet been released during the company's previous fiscal first quarter.

So far, Xbox 360 has seen some 6 million units sold worldwide. The company is sticking by its long stated goal to sell 10 million units by the end of the calendar year.

Parent corporation Microsoft saw increases both in profits and revenue, with the former gaining 11% to $3.48 billion, and the latter also gaining 11% to $10.8 billion.

Nintendo has released its financial results for the first half of its current fiscal year, which ended September 30. The company saw profits of 54.4 billion yen ($456 million), up a strong 48% from 36.63 billion yen ($307 million) in the same period last year. Sales were up a whopping 69% year over year to 298.2 billion yen ($2.5 billion), largely thanks to increasingly strong sales of Nintendo DS and DS Lite hardware. The company has sold over 10 million DS units this year, with total worldwide sales of 26.82 million since the machine's introduction approximately two years ago. It hopes to sell an additional 10 million units within its current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2007.

Earlier this month, Nintendo increased its financial outlook, estimating profits of 100 billion yen ($839 million) and sales of 740 billion yen ($6.2 billion) in this fiscal year. Those forecasts have remained unchanged with today's announcements.

Activision sends word that it has launched a contest via MySpace, with the prize being a Wii console, a copy of Raven Software's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (presumably for Wii), and lunch with Marvel superhero comics legend Stan Lee, creator of many of the characters featured in Ultimate Alliance. To enter, simply add the game's MySpace account to your list of MySpace friends.