I'm really pissed right now - damn spammers trying to take advantage of news and blog services. I've just spent the last 45 minutes deleting bogus comments off of our posts!!!

These stupid spammers are trying to build links to their sites using our blog!!!

Bloggers unite! Here is a list of the IP addresses that I've banned from commenting on this site. I'd recommend you do the same. After I post this article I have to continue to clean up the past few days of comments.

81.118.4.16
134.39.173.75
160.79.240.52
168.143.113.128
195.117.196.6
195.230.170.16
200.118.118.4
203.113.29.1
203.113.29.2
205.213.112.69
209.114.176.69
213.172.36.62
213.174.191.234
220.65.209.66
24.203.182.48
63.171.232.106
65.75.190.110
65.95.32.233
65.95.37.210
65.95.39.218
67.18.32.6
67.68.206.30
67.68.233.246
80.223.246.97
80.58.33.107
80.58.34.237
80.58.4.111

Upset over a failed drive in his Xbox a pi$$ed off gamer has sued Microsoft "on behalf of all Xbox owners across the United States."

The suit, filed in LA Superior Court, seeks to represent anyone who bought an Xbox in the United State since the console's November 2001 launch.

The plaintiff, Sean Burke, said his console stopped reading any and all discs after less than a year of use, whether those discs were games, CDs or DVDs.

"The defective Xboxs stop working after minimal usage, after unreasonably, unconscionably, unusually and unexpectedly short amounts of time," the lawsuit said.

Microsoft said it was reviewing the complaint.

"We've designed and manufactured the Xbox with the highest quality standards and our customer satisfaction is very high," the company said in a statement.

The suit seeks damages, restitution and various other costs and fees.

Gee I wonder if this was a modded Xbox or not?

Some new (and accurate!) details have recently surfaced about the PSP's Japanese launch: its official release is slated for December 12, 2004; a paltry 10 days after the Japanese launch of the Nintendo DS. Furthermore, Sony has set the price at 19,800 Yen, which comes out to roughly 190 US dollars.

Looks like Nintendo's got a fight on their hands...

And if that wasn't enticing enough, Sony has also announced that a PSP Value Pack will be sold for 24,800 Yen; it will include a carrying case, headphones/line-in remote, battery pack, AC adapter, 32 MB Memory Stick Duo, and a swank carrying case.

Man, after buying a PSP and DS, I might not have enough cash for everyone else's Christmas present...

From the Gaming Horizon

Nintendo has launched a multi-million dollar marketing campaign to promote the release of the Nintendo DS, set to launch November 21st, and hopes to convince older gamers that the DS is not a children's toy.

Continue reading »

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been confirmed as the pre-show keynote speaker at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. According to media reports, Big Willy could bring (wait for it).....

A new Xbox.

The rumor mill is in full swing. With the announcement of Bills' appearance, the video gaming community is convinced that Microsoft will reveal one of its best kept secrets at the upcoming CES.

Gates' official outline of his keynote for 2005 says to "expect the unexpected". Game sites all over the web are speculating that this could include the Xbox 2.

Oi, what a day. First, my blog goes down, and now I find out that one of the most anticipated games of the year has been leaked.

A game that promotes theft has been stolen. Talk about ironic.

Smarmy remarks aside, Rockstar North's forth-coming crime-a-palooza (gotta love those hyphens) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been stolen, with pirated software, cover art, and manual making the rounds on various warez sites.

Rockstar has stated the following in response to the leak:

"The proper authorities are investigating the theft and are continuing to investigate all possible leads to ensure there is no further dissemination of our creative content. Downloading, possession and distribution of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, including making the game available on the internet, is theft.

We take the theft of our intellectual property very seriously and we are and will continue to diligently and aggressively pursue this matter."

Much like with Halo 2, Rockstar is also stressing the fact that they believe in no way will the leak be affecting the official October 26 (October 29 in Europe) release of the game. Unlike Microsoft though, Rockstar has yet to say anything about possible consequences should one be caught pirating or possessing a pirated copy of the game. Judging by the game's content though, pirates should probably keep an eye out for Sam Houser and his posse driving around with Glocks and Uzis.

Console huh? Okay so this has nothing to do with Console's or Conspiracies but according to our crumpet eating pals over at the BBC Half-Life 2, the sequal to one of the best video games of all times. is set to go in Mid-November.

I think the really interesting part is that Valve has been letting members of its online Steam community get hold of encrypted copies of Half-Life 2 over the internet. It means thousands of people already have the game on their hard drives, but it is locked. When officially launched, Valve will release the codes to access the encrypted files and start playing immediately.

So is this the way all games are headed? And soon with the penetration of broadband and Internet enabled consoles will we be buying our console games like this as well? What do you think?

Someone sent us this little note this morning. Interviewed by Japanese site PC Watch, Izumi Kawanishi, who runs Sony Computer Entertainment's network systems division, indicated that the end-of-the-year launch window depends on games publishers.

The comment follows concerns expressed by analysts that Sony has misjudged the device's development cycle. Basically meaning that the PSP in March 2005 is not going to happen. Now whether this is Sony's fault or the developers fault remains to be seen. But you heard it here first. The PSP won't be out by the target date.....

Hi. I'm Chris. I'm the new staff writer around here. I like gadgets, and long walks on the beach, and snuggling up with a good boo...

Oh. You want to know about the Halo 2 leak. I'll get to that in a minute.

So anyway, I like snuggling up with a good book when it's cold outside. Right now, I'm just devouring Wil Wheaton's "Just a Geek." It's really quite...

Halo 2 leak? Yeah, I know its important, but I'm sorta introducing myself here.

...

Fine.

According to BBC News, a complete (albeit entirely French) version of Halo was leaked late last night, and has been making the rounds on warez sites and P2P networks. Furthermore, Microsoft has all but admitted that the game is playable, although it lacks the apparently astonishing Xbox Live component. Weighing in at a relatively paltry 3 gigabytes (paltry for warez, anyway), it is currently unknown how the perpetrators got their dirty mitts on the game.

Understandably, Microsoft has been more than a little ticked off, although the report states that they do not expect the incident to hamper sales of Halo 2 when it hits store shelves November 9. If you managed to get your hands on a copy, you'd better watch out: Microsoft "takes the integrity of its intellectual property extremely seriously, and [they] are aggressively pursuing the source of this illegal act." Offenders are expected to be fined up to $100,000 (!).

Hmm... play Halo 2... get fined 100 grand... play Halo 2... get fined 100 grand...

Tough decision, huh?

Apparently we can't get enough of this.

There's a japanese site out there with more pics and even a short video demoing the new UMD (Universal Media Disc) capabilities of the PSP.

You can see the pics here. And for the video, click here.

Wow this is pretty crazy, I mean sure everymorning when NTHax0r and I arrive at the wearhouse we enjoy reading such blogs as Gizmodo, Portagame and Sprong but then one day we stumbled onto this feed:

Xbox Release RSS Feed
http://www.consoleconspiracy.com/forum/rss.php

Now we may hate M$ but when it comes to gaming check out this feed. It features creenshots, boxart AND the basic story behind the game as well as Xbox Live and Multi-Player options. Very cool and very bad-ass. It's done in conjunction with a place called Xboxanomics who updtaes off our server but are not affiliated with us. Keep up the cool work over there guys! Trust me if you like Xbox at all you will like this feed.

Faithfull reader absurdlogic (and hopefully future staff member) send us in this goodie from a UK magazine. The forthcoming Sony PSP will come in 3 flavors. The first one comes with a PSP unit, a battery, a charger and a 32 MB memory stick. The price? $199.99

The second flavor will feature the same thing but with a 64Mb and also include the strap with built-in headphones and the attachable camera. The price is $299.99.

The third, and last package, for $349.99 features everything from the first two but with a 256MB memory stick along with a GPS device and translation software.

So which one will you be getting?

In the "why didn't I think of that" category (also known sometimes as "who could be so stupid" category) comes this news from across the pond:

a mechanic, who's father also runs a driving school, was pulled over recently for running a red light. Police became suspicious however when they approached the vehicle and noticed a glow coming from inside.

When the man unrolled his window, the cop noticed that the guy had a playstation mounted to his dashboard, and on his in-dash screen, the game was going.

The guy tried to argue that it was only the demo screen on, but the cop didn't buy it.

This guy's father is a driving instructor don't forget.

He was ordered to perform 120 hours of community service and lost his license for a year. He also has to re-take his drivers test, and risks losing his job.

Nintendo said today that it will have 12 software titles for its new "DS" handheld game console when the dual-screen machine debuts in Japan on Dec. 2. The US version of the console will be released on Nov. 21.

Nintendo's DS features two screens, one of which is touch-sensitive and works with a pen-like device. It also has voice recognition and wireless communication functions.

A total of 124 DS games are now under development by 46 companies. The games that will go on sale on Dec. 2 include five titles Nintendo developed, such as "Super Mario 64 DS," and seven from other developers.

Japanese company Renesas has announced that it has taken all the core components of the Sega Dreamcast and combined them into a single faster chip, called the SH3707.

The new chip is almost twice as fast as the Dreamcast's 200 Mhz core processor. Further, it has an upgraded video system built into the chip. The SH3707 also has the capability of processing MPEG-1, -2, and -4 video and eight-channel PCM/ADCPM audio.

The company hasn't announced any customers for this system yet, but plan to begin shipping them early next year. Maybe the Dreamcast isn't dead after all.

Here are some interesting tidbits of information about the console gaming world:

Console gaming is estimated to be worth nearly $24 billion worldwide in 2003 with spending projected to grow faster over the next four years than any other entertainment or media market.

Electronic Arts, the leading video game maker, is now the fourth largest
software company in the world, behind only Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.

The average American spent 75 hours in 2003 playing video games, double the time spent in 1997 - only Internet usage is growing faster.

Continue reading »

Okay so it's not console related but Wired Magazine has a nice 8 page spread on the people who are making Halo 2 possible. Go pick it up and maybe you Halo Fanboys can actually learn something that doesn't involve the words

"I @M 50 733t. i jU57 oWnEd y0uR @$5!

And maybe they can realize that the more you guys sit out there drooling waiting for this game the more M$ is going to add to their profit margin. Screw Halo 2 I am going to sit back and wait on Half-Life 2. That's still on the way right? ....right?....

Who would have thought it would have taken so long, or that there would have been so much speculation over the next portable game player.

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