A recent report by Merrill Lynch Japan predicts Sony will lose more than $1 billion on the PS3's first year on the market.

The analyst company recently calculated that the production of a single console will cost Sony approximately $494, but it will likely sell for about $399, a net loss per unit of almost $100.

These estimates are based on the current cost of hardware needed to build the console.

While Sony recovered from a similar, but smaller, loss on the release of the PS2, analysts are not sure that the company will recover from such a huge loss this time.

From the auction itself:

"Up for auction is a collection of games and ass. that took 15+ years to collect. First off 776 nintendo nes games.. THAT is only 10 games from having the complete set of usa released nes games...I quit collecting six or seven months ago, but i'm sure the last ten games are on ebay right now.. this list is far to long for a two finger typer like myself to type so I'll try to make this as easy as possible.. First thing you need to do is google search MIKE ETLER'S RARITY LIST.. Print this list out... You need the first 17 pages.. Now look at all the games on the list.."

See it here.

Both of these stories come from Gizmodo.

Sony has approached some UK vendors of grey market PSP's and asked them to turn over their customer lists so that Sony can deal with the customers. Hey that sounds like a great idea for a store to drum up repeat customers don't you think?

You can read about Sony's quest here.

Also, it is official - Unsigned code is running on US PSP's despite the supposedly strong DRM built into the console. It won't be too much longer before more homebrew and emu code starts showing up on the web.

Apparently when we reported earlier that the SAG had agreed not to strike on game makers we were premature.

While they did have a tentative deal in place, the members had to vote on it. Well that vote just happened and guess what?

They turned it down.

So now the game "actors" are going on strike for more money.

I guess a minimum 36% increase in pay wasn't enough.

You can read all the gory details on SAG's website here.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Sony (6758.T) will have 20 video games and 10 films on sale in September for the European launch of the PlayStation Portable, executives said on Monday, with 100,000 pre-recorded movies already sold around the world.

The European launch of Sony's hotly touted new gadget, which plays video games, movies and music, was initially scheduled for the spring, but was pushed back by six months due to supply shortages.

The PSP, better known as a device for playing video games than movies, is already on sale in Japan and the United States.

"Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will have 10 films available from day one," said Patrick Vyncke, the PlayStation chief for the Benelux countries. Twenty titles are scheduled to be on sale by mid-September.

The 100,000 movies Sony has sold on specially formatted discs do not include copies of "Spiderman 2," which were bundled with many of the PSPs.

Price details were not given, but films for the PSP cost between $19 and $29 in the United States. Titles are heavily geared toward young adults between 18 and 25 years old, the core target audience of PSP.

Movies aimed at older, younger and female gamers, including cartoons, will be launched at later stages, Vyncke said.

There's a group which has been steadily working on deploying linux on a Nintendo DS.

They've just recently completed (well almost completed -it's a little buggy) a touch screen keyboard for the DS

You can check it out here.

There's also a PSP-linux project, but there doesn't seem to be much happening here yet. Their site is here.

Two guys took a vacation and one brought his Nintendo DS. Sounds normal so far right?

But what if that trip took them to Mt. Everest?

That's what happened here, and they came back with their DS in tow and working fine.

You can read all about it here.

Sony plans to release 2 more "official" PSP accessories - A headset with remote and a charging stand (see press release here). Of course we believe Sony could have released much better "official" technology but, oh well.

More interestingly, there is now a homebrew release app for the PSP which initially shipped in the US. The software runs on the PSP with firmware version 1.50. The official release is slated for Thursday. To check if your PSP will support homebrew go to System Settings, then System Information.

For more info on the homebrew project go here.

Some of you may not remember the Amiga, but it was way ahead of the competition in terms of games and graphics.

the Outer-court blog has a great post of the best Amiga games of all time. They've even produced a short movie with them. Check it out.

There is a lot of talk lately about the future of gaming. Some are predicting that consoles have (or soon will) run their course.

And with the growth of high speed internet, and more companies getting into alternative ways of distributing media content it it concievable that a new system could become the next gaming platform.

I'm talking about a highspeed link to your TV that serves you interactive gaming either through a cable box, or directly into the TV.

Its not as far away as you may think. Many direct to home satellite and cable providers already provide gaming (for a monthly subscription).

And just yesterday Disney announced that they had acquired a British firm which specializes in interactive TV games.

This goes to show that while console gaming may be quite popular now there are and will be even more alternatives down the road.

What would we have done with no new games?

A few days back we posted about how voice actors were thinking about striking if their demands weren't met?

Well it turns out they have come to an agreement with game makers and will continue to work.

You can read all about it over at Wired

I posted about this before the Xbox came out - when the console was just a rumor really. So I thought I'd revisit this topic.

When it comes to the internet and electronics M$ has its fingers in every pie. From MSN to smart cars and appliances to the Xbox.

Before too long your xbox will replace your windows based PC as the hub of your home electronics. And I'm not just talking audio and video I'm talking about communicating with your other windows enabled devices.

There's a scary though - having your home and vehicle run by windows??

What happens when you get a virus thru your Xbox? I would expect it would propogate throughout the system much like viruses can attack a corporate network now. But what would the outcome be? Your refrigerator and coffee maker quit working? Perhaps your car won't start.

Scary thoughts.

But this seems to be where M$ is pushing too. The Xbox 360 will be the next step in this evolution, at least until console gaming loses its appeal to M$. And they are much further ahead than other gaming consoles in the home automation arena. Mostly because they already have the PC, and you can get M$ media extenders which allow you to extend the media player to other TV's (I wonder if the media extender will work with Xbox??)

Until people realize there are alternatives to Windows (namely Linux and Mac) they will continue to dominate. I know from personal experience that since I switched to Linux a while back my computer hasn't crashed, I haven't gotten a virus or even a hack attempt past my firewall.

I don't get spam emails and I can freely download and install almost as many apps as there are for windows. I have yet to find a commercial app that isn't freely available in some similar fashion through open source.

The only drawback to Linux really is the gaming. Becuase more people use windows, game makers write their games (suprisingly enough on linux and mac) for windows. Even Microsoft's own team use Macs to emulate the Xbox and test games.

But I digress...While it is true that M$ is seeing their share of the home and corporate desktop slipping (albeit slightly - they still own something like 90% of the desktop market and their share of the server market continues to grow year over year). Therefore they have little to be afraid of, short term, in terms of the home computer.

It is interesting though that they are building just enough into the new Xbox that you still need your home PC - while your Xbox will handle your media needs, you still need your PC for the business side of life. Of course the 2 will communicate with each other, but you still need both.

I guess it's just another way for M$ to weasel their way into our homes.

Here's a cool idea if you have a DS - and live in Japan...

Nintendo to create WiFi hotspots for DS handheld - Yahoo! News

An enterprising prgrammer with the handle Mr. Mirakichi has hacked the PSP and made it run a program called RIN that let the PSP play software written for the original black-and-white Nintendo Game Boy system.

Wired News has a great article and even some Screen shots of the emu in action.

Wired also goes on to say that "There is one catch -- so far, the hackers have only found a way around the security of the original firmware that was installed on the first batch of Japanese PSP systems. Later units, including every one released in the United States, contain version 1.5 of the firmware, which tightens up security."

Recent trademark applications in Japan indicate that Sony may plan on offering more non-gaming content to PSP owners.

The company recently filed trademarks for "PSP Comics," "PSP Books" and "PSP Magazine" with the Japan Patent Office.

Imagine downloading your favorite book, mag or comic to your PSP to read on that long bus ride to work or school?

Other trademarks filed by SCE include "Xross Media Entertainment," "GT-Magazine Mail," "N.U.M.," "Double Smash" and "Kunoichi Densetsu."

In other PSP content news, two Japanese porn publishers have announced plans to release movie titles on the entertainment console this summer.

An anonymous reader writes "The PSP is now the ultimate in handheld emulation consoles, already it boasts Full Speed Gameboy Colour Emulation and improving Snes & Master System but added today it also has NeoGeo CD and Sega Genesis emulators added to the impressive list of homebrew releases."