Why was the NGP announced so far forward of the launch? How prolonged does Sony design a NGP to power prior to the refresh is needed? What impact will the NGP have upon Nintendo’s leverage in mobile gaming? Each of those questions has been rubbed by Sony Computer Entertainment’s arch Kaz Hirai in the video interview you can now eyeball after the break. In box you want a textual version of his responses, Kaz says the PSP inheritor was opened early in order to allow Sony to get as many third-party developers on house as probable (which is a lot simpler when you don’t have to worry about them leaking your hardware to Engadget), a brand new mobile console’s lifetime should be no less than what we’ve come to design from Sony’s home consoles (so at slightest 4 or 5 years), and Sony’s weapons for aggressive Nintendo’s prevalence will be the litany of integrated sensors as well as connectivity options during the NGP’s disposal. Kaz is careful to note that Sony is usually aiming to urge on a PSP’s current implement bottom, but we suspect Sony’s unaccepted ambitions have been distant higher than which.

Via Engadget

Netbooks and other low power computers make surprisingly decent gaming machines if you’re cool with playing older games or recent games that don’t require quad-core CPUs and 1GHz graphics processors. Unfortunately a lot of the best games do require more serious hardware, along with higher resolution displays, which you would think would rule out a netbook with an Intel Atom chip and a 10 inch display. But it turns out there are ways to play these games on virtually any computer with a fast internet connection.

A company called OnLive has been offering a streaming game service for a while. You can sign up for a free account and then pay to play a game. You don’t need to walk into a store to buy your game, or even download it to your computer. A remote server actually does all the heavy lifting, and just streams the game to your computer at 720p resolutions.

Today OnLive also announced a new $9.99 per month subscription plan that will let you play older or independent video games for one flat rate.

Engadget also got the scoop on another company called Gaikai which will begin offering a similar service soon. The difference is that Gaikai charges game publishers, not end users. The idea is that you can demo the game without downloading or purchasing it. So the service sort of acts like an advertisement for the full game, allowing you to play for a limited period of time.

In both cases, you’re likely to experience a bit of latency, depending on your internet connection, since every time you pull a trigger, try to jump, or perform another action your request is relayed through the internet to a remote computer rather than just running from your joystick to the computer or game console in front of you. Engadget reports that Gaikai games are playable, but a little less responsive than you’d like — but that should be good enough to let you know whether you want to buy a game.

It should also be good enough to help you kill a few minutes on your netbook by playing a game you never though it could handle.

Sure this ain’t the initial time we’ve seen Mario Kart step outward a diversion console, but we’ll be darned if Tomy’s Japanese line of RC cars don’t inspire the serious box of gadget lust. In addition to a usual remote controlled shenanigans, these guys have a capability to “shoot” virtual shells as well as bananas during alternative cars; power-ups have been indicated upon the controller via LEDs; and cars enclose infrared sensors so you know when you’ve been strike with the weapon (which causes you to rumble as well as delayed down Cars have been accessible from Amazon Japan to a tune of ¥2,730 (around $30) any.

Need more evidence that physical media is inching towards the door? Enter this Reuters conversation with Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. While the company — the largest publisher of “interactive entertainment” (AKA video games) — is hurting on sales during the awes ome global recession c urrently underway, he thinks the future is digital. All digital. Riccitiello had this to say on the matter:
“When people think of games, they traditionally think, in the U.S., of what sells on the Xbox, the PlayStation, and the Wii, and they forget about all thes e online services that are out there… if you add all that stuff up, it’s almost half the industry now. It’s about 40 to 45 percent. Next year it’s likely to be the larger share of the total industry and it’ll be bigger than the console game s all put together.”He went on to say that if EA’s digital arm was a standalone company, “it would be like the darling of Wall Street.” Of course, he’ s not just talking about XBLA and the App Store — this is an all-encompassing view of the digital market, including casual gaming, Facebook apps, and WoW transactions as well. It may not be the kind of all-en compassing push needed, but we are hoping this sort of noise rattles the industry enough to mobilize smarter, more centralized methods of online distribution.

Nintendo’s been doing a bit of digging and it tur ns out it’s already won the console wars. If we’re only talking about the ladies, that is. A whopping 80% of American female primary gamers (the person who primarily uses the co nsole rather than the occasional dabblers) do their thing on the Wii, which we see as a clear indication to the graphics-obsessed Xbox 360 and PS3 developers that women prefer their gam es to be fun to play, rather than just look at. Maybe if we also stopped dressing female characters in swimsuits, they’d find non-Wii games relatable too — that’s just a guess though, probably wrong.

Not too long ago we posted on the expensive but cool TouchScreen Rubik’s Cube and today we have the Classic Nintendo version.  Though I don’t recognize all of these icons, I’m sure there are fanboys out there that have these tattooed in special places.

Designed by deviantARTist r4r3truffle, this item is not for sale at this time.  I have never been that great at puzzles and I definitely have never completed a Rubik’s Cube.  I’m not so sure this version could get me interested.