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SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A fox-like alien and his robot sidekick on a mission to save the galaxy could also help save sales of Sony's PlayStation 3, which has struggled to find a game so good that it gives people reason to buy the pricey console. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has had several, including this year's "Halo 3," but Sony is still trying to find a megahit of its own as games like "Heavenly Sword" and "Folklore" have failed to make the kind of splash needed to convince holdouts. Now comes "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction," a...

Police: Pa. Boy Stabs Brother Over Game Jul 17 01:16 PM US/Eastern LANSDOWNE, Pa. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed his brother with a steak knife after the 16-year-old refused to turn over a video game controller, authorities said. Jahmir Ricks was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Antwan Ricks at their home outside Philadelphia. The older boy died of a single stab wound to the chest, police said, and a bent and bloody knife was recovered from the home. Lansdowne police said the younger boy told them, "I just stabbed my brother," when they arrived at...

WILMINGTON - Eighteen New Hanover County residents gave former Deputy Chris Long the opportunity to move on with his life Wednesday. After more than two hours of discussions, a grand jury refused to indict the former sheriff's deputy on manslaughter charges for the Dec. 1 shooting death of Peyton Strickland, a college student from Durham. With that, state Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the case closed. Time seemed to freeze as the judge read the decision. Members of Long's family, squeezed together on a courtroom bench, held their breath. "No true bill," said Richmond County Judge Michael Beale. Long, 35,...

HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE (HD) is caused by the aggregation of a different type of proteins. Some proteins have a repeat of a single amino acid (glutamine, often abbreviated as "Q"). These poly-Q repeats, if long enough, form aggregates which cause HD. We are studying the structure of poly-Q aggregates as well as predicting the pathway by which they form. Similar to Alzheimer's Disease, these HD studies, if successful, would be useful for rational drug design approaches as well as further insight into how HD aggregates form kinetically (hopefully paving the way for a method to stop the HD aggregate formation).

Sure, the PlayStation 3 got off to a rocky start and is now only number 3 in next-gen console sales, but Sony Computer Entertainment claims that things couldn’t be better. Well, it could definitely be better, but in any case, Sony is happy with its current status in the market. NPD sales data reported Thursday that the sale of 243,443 units in North America during the month of January contributed to a record $550 million in revenues. Strong sales of the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable, which earned sales of 299,352 and 210,719 units respectively, was also a major...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Crouched in military fatigues, you peer through night-vision goggles and brandish a semiautomatic gun as you hunt down terrorists who've overtaken Las Vegas. Incongruously, while patrolling a neon-decorated side street in the video game "Rainbow Six Vegas," you spot a jar of body wash. You spray the container with bullets, and voila! A 60-second video of whimsical bloopers pops up, and billboard advertisements of scantily clad women hawk Unilever Corp.'s Axe shower gel: "Score with Axe." Welcome to the new world of video gaming, where software companies are becoming more imaginative in wringing money from gamers....

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- We all know the new Nintendo Wii is the number one present to give this holiday season. You've heard the stories of those who camp out in front of stores the night before shipments come in, or those who pay double the cost on eBay. It's obvious that people will do almost anything to get their hands on this hot new item. I found myself waiting for a Nintendo Wii one late afternoon. A massive shipment had just come in that morning and the line didn't look too unbearable, so I decided to wait and try...

One of the big stories of last week was the buying frenzy over the limited number of the new PlayStation 3 consoles that were put on sale. There was a humorous political angle in this as well which was widely covered with the notable exceptions of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. An unpaid volunteer for John Edwards contacted a Wal-Mart store in Raleigh, NC and invoked the name of his boss in order to get first dibs on a PlayStation 3. Since Edwards has been in the forefront of slamming Wal-Mart recently his hypocrisy was especially...

MIDI - SEND IN THE CLOWNS I want that game...PlayStation game But I know that I don't dare buy in my name I'll send my aide WalMart is bad...so very bad By management the employees all are had I'll send an aide...one of my aides I want to be the president But if I shop there I know it's something you'll resent I must be sneaky, that really is quite evident I'll send an aide...one of my aides That game is great...I just can't wait But if I'm caught, I know it will seal my fate So I'll send...

(A little change of format in this edition of the DUmmie FUnnies... In yesterday's EDITION of the DUmmie FUnnies I noted that John Edwards' 6 year-old son had to be carefully taught to make fun of poorer kids for wearing shoes sold at Wal-Mart. I suggested that a certain Lutheran songmeister write a song parody on this theme based on the tune of You've Got To Be Carefully Taught from the musical play, "South Pacific." I was referring, of course, to Charles Henrickson, a Lutheran minister from St. Louis who has a penchant for writing song parodies, the number...

As my grandmother used to say: "It's not the whole world gone mad... just the people in it." When bidding ended it sold for $3,600. Not that it's really my business that someone is willing to pay thirty-six hundred dollars for a PlayStation 3. But this really does seem to be materialism at its worst to me. The Xbox 360 has been out for a year but it'll probably still be another year before we get one: by then it'll be a lot more inexpensive, many more games will have been published for it, and at that point most if...

John Edwards buys Playstation 3 from Wal-Mart … after bashing it posted at 6:41 pm on November 16, 2006 by Ian Send to a Friend | regular view Former Senator and failed candidate for Vice-President John Edwards obtained the new video game system Playstation 3 from his local Wal-Mart today: Just like the millions of Americans who turn to their neighborhood Wal-Mart for their holiday shopping needs, Wal-Mart announced today that former Sen. John Edwards is seeking to be one of the first to get a Sony PlayStation 3, one of the most coveted holiday gift items this Christmas season....

TOKYO — Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which went on sale in Japan over the weekend leading off a global launch, can't play some of the older games for the original PlayStation and the upgrade PlayStation 2, a company official said today. Sony Corp. had billed PlayStation 3 as compatible with the previous PlayStation machines. But Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said some of the 8,000 older games weren't working properly on PS3, making the wrong sounds or images, and some couldn't be played at all. He declined to give a number for the games that weren't functioning, but...

The new white PSP is coming to Europe soon, and Sony’s marketing department has put together an ad that will certainly be “controversial” (read: racist). The billboard shows a white woman, white hair and white clothes “abusing” a black individual. I bet she’s thinking “white PSP power”. Clearly this doesn’t appeal to anyone else than Starbucks Moccachino-drinking buzzword-throwing Manhattan marketers. I feel like getting rid of my (black) PSP in protest.

THOSE WHO IGNORE HISTORY are doomed to repeat it. One of life's more satisfying ironies, however, is that the same fate often befalls those who fixate on history. Consider the coming train wreck of Sony's PlayStation 3.At this year's annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Sony announced that its next-generation video-game console will begin retailing in November for $599 (or $499 for a stripped-down version). The news rippled through the gaming industry, the consensus being that Sony had doomed its new system with such a high price tag. Traditionally, home video-game consoles have sold for $199 to $299.This news...

Sony's next gen console gets delayed six months The Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun has reported that Sony will delay the launch of PlayStation 3 until November of 2006. The North American launch date is still up in the air. According to the report, issues surrounding copy protection for Blu-ray discs is the reason for the delay. If the reports are true (given the source, they probably are), Sony could miss the key holiday rush in the United States. Official word from Sony is expected tomorrow. Rumors have been circulating about Asustek Computer securing orders for the Sony PlayStation 3...

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Sony Corp.'s launch of its next-generation PlayStation 3 video game console could be delayed if industry specifications for some of its technology are not finalized soon, although it is still aiming for a spring rollout, it said on Monday. The launch of PlayStation 3 (PS3) has been the subject of heavy speculation in the industry as expectations are high for the powerful machine, which will feature cutting-edge technology in its DVD player, processors and graphics. PS3 will be competing with Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which went on sale last November, and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Revolution, which...

Sony's apparent underground graffiti-ad campaign is rankling some citizens. While Sony has not officially endorsed the campaign, the series of identical PSP-toting graffiti characters appeared in the last few weeks in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago. "Is anyone else concerned that Sony Playstation paid someone to vandalize our neighborhood to sell their latest toy," writes a Los Angeles resident. "It's quite obviously an advertisement, but when I called Playstation Consumer Services this morning, they claim to know nothing about the campaign. I guess there's just some clever youngster out here in LH that just really LOVES...

Parents and retailers are failing miserably to keep violent and sexually explicit video games out of the hands of children, according to a report that estimates seven in 10 youngsters are playing M-rated games meant for people over the age of 17. The 10th annual MediaWise Video Game Report, released today by the National Institute on Media and the Family, targets 12 video games parents should keep out of the hands of children and teenagers. The 12 Worst Far CryF.E.A.R.The WarriorsStubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a PulseTrue Crime: New York CityBlitz: The LeagueGrand Theft Auto: Liberty City StoriesGod of...

PALMDALE - In a giant hangar at Air Force Plant 42 where strategic nuclear bombers were built to win the Cold War, computer giant Microsoft has staked its future in the gaming industry, an $8 billion global market. An Internet underground marketing campaign brought 3,000 dedicated players from around the world to the Antelope Valley for Microsoft's North American launch of its newest game system. "It's basically a 30-hour party. There's never been anything like this," said Ricardo Torres, a senior editor at GameSpot.com, an online entertainment forum. In the virtual reality world of computer gaming, the giant from Seattle...

Sony's third-person shooter "SOCOM 3: US Navy SEALs" was the best-selling video game in the United States in October, market research firm The NPD Group said on Tuesday. Electronic Arts had the second and third most popular games with sports titles "NBA Live 06" and "Madden NFL 06." The top three sellers were all for play on Sony's PlayStation 2 console, according to NPD, which tracks sales of software and other retail products. The No. 4 title was Take-Two Interactive Software's urban action game "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories" for Sony's PlayStation Portable. Rounding out the top five was...

SONY Computer Entertainment is likely to abandon its practice of region coding games for its PlayStation 3 console, the head of its South Pacific operation said. Sony's current crop of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles contains technology that blocks the use of illegal copied games. It also prevents the use of game and DVD discs that have been region coded for other markets. However, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia managing director, Michael Ephraim, said the company was unlikely to continue the policy as international television standards emerge.

Microsoft Corp. is likely to win the next round of the game console fight against Sony Corp. based on a potentially huge cost difference that could see the Xbox 360 selling for half the price of a PlayStation 3 (PS3) by the end of next year, investment firm Merrill Lynch said in a Wednesday analysis. Based on a breakdown of the parts being used inside the two game machines, Merrill Lynch said the “PS3 will not only be significantly more costly than Xbox 360 at launch, but will continue to operate at a cost disadvantage for several years.” The investment...

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia's High Court ruled unanimously Thursday that modifying Sony PlayStation consoles so that they can play cheaper overseas versions of the company's games does not violate Australian copyright laws. The decision ends a four-year legal battle between entertainment and Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. and Sydney-based business owner Eddy Stevens, who supplied and installed "mod chips" in PlayStation devices. Sony divides the global gaming market into regions and programs its PlayStation consoles so that games sold in the United States or Asia cannot be played on consoles sold in Australia. The so-called mod chips bypass Sony's regional...

Church steps into PlayStation row Bobbie Johnson Monday October 3, 2005 Ten years after it launched the groundbreaking PlayStation videogames console, consumer electronics giant Sony has been handed a bitter birthday present - condemnation from the Vatican. An Italian advertising campaign intended to celebrate a decade since the machine's launch in Europe drew angry responses from Vatican officials, who said the "irreverent" images trivialised religion and insulted Italy's 56m Catholics. The advert, which is captioned "10 years of passion", shows a man wearing a crown of thorns constructed from the familiar square, triangle, circle and cross shapes of the PlayStation...

Well, it’s officially August 22nd in every time zone now, which means that Sony didn’t make good on its earlier promise to release version 2.0 of the PSP’s firmware here in North America during the week of August 15th. We still don’t know when they’ll get around to it, but check out this incredibly non-committal response reader Mike S. got from Sony when he emailed them asking about the delay: Hello Mike, Thank you for writing us. We do not know the exact date of the 2.0 system update for the PSP(TM) portable entertainment system at this time. We recommend...

Sony has delayed its firmware upgrade for North American PlayStation Portables (PSPs) to sometime this week, according to a posting on their Web site message board. “The PSP Firmware 2.0 Upgrade for the North American market will be available during the week of August 15th, instead of on August 12, as previously reported,” said the posting. Sony originally announced the North American PSP firmware upgrade as coming on Friday, August 12, 2005, but has delayed its release for as-yet unspecified reasons. Sony’s PSP is a portable gaming system that can also play videos, digital music and photographs, storing data on...

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 games console will launch later this year in two versions, one priced at US$299 and the other at $399, according to a report on the Web site of the Los Angeles Times that quotes the company. The more expensive version will include a 20GB hard-disk drive, wireless controller, headset, Ethernet cable and wireless remote control, the report said. Previously Microsoft, which couldn’t be reached for comment on the report, had said the Xbox 360 would be available in North America, Europe and Japan before the end of this year. The company has already disclosed many key...

ony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will release a system software update for its PlayStation Portable (PSP) next week that will add several new functions to the handheld gaming device, including the ability to browse the Internet and download TV programs, the company said Thursday. Chief among the additions to version 2.0 of the software will be a Web browser. Accessible from the PSP’s main menu, the browser supports HTML 4.01 and will allow access to most Web sites. The PSP already has a wireless LAN for online gaming and for downloading software from the Internet, but SCEI hasn’t officially allowed...

Confirmed: Sex minigame in PS2 San Andreas Cheat unlocks preexisting code in controversy-rocked Grand Theft Auto game, undermining Rockstar Games' claims of hacker mischief. This week saw a Grand Theft Auto game once again at the center of a nationwide controversy. The point of contention this time was the so-called "Hot Coffee" mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which had everyone from anti-game crusader Jack Thompson to US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) percolating with outrage and/or calls for federal game regulation. The Hot Coffee mod first surfaced last month, when the PC version of San Andreas was released. The...

An 11-year-old boy stabbed his baby nephew in the stomach after the infant's crying disrupted his PlayStation game. The boy told police that in the minutes before the incident he had kept "dying" as he played the game, based on the cartoon characters The Incredibles, in his bedroom. The crying made him feel like "an erupting volcano''. He paused the game and went to get a kitchen knife to repair a toy. Then he went into the baby's bedroom and stabbed him in his carry cot. The blade broke and he hid the knife under a television cabinet. Yesterday the...

"It is utterly undesirable, but we cannot stop software makers from selling such videos," a public relations official at Sony Computer Entertainment said. The hand-held PlayStation uses the universal media disc, or UMD, format, enabling the console to play games or videos recorded on optical discs 2.3 inches in diameter. Pornography producers will soon release sexually explicit discs for Sony's PlayStation Portable game console, most of whose users are minors. Two makers of adult movies plan to sell their products for the console as early as July, and several other pornographers are apparently ready to follow, Japanese newspaper the Asahi...

LOS ANGELES--Today saw the second of the big three console makers announce its next-generation platform. At its pre-E3 press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment gave the world its first look at the PlayStation 3, as it is now officially called. While the device's price has not yet been set, its release window--spring 2006--has. Flanked by Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Kaz Hirai, SCE head Ken Kutaragi introduced it as a "supercomputer for computer entertainment." The name was not unexpected, since Sony had been running an extensive teaser-ad campaign prepping the public for the PlayStation 3. The company had laid...

(AP) - TOKYO-Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp.'s video game unit has been ordered to pay $90.7 million in damages to Immersion Corp. over a patent infringement lawsuit related to a controller for Sony's PlayStation consoles, the company said Monday. The Tokyo-based company plans to appeal the decision by the federal district court in Oakland, Calif., a Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. spokesman said on condition of anonymity. In the decision issued Thursday, Sony Computer Entertainment was ordered to pay damages to Immersion Corp., a San Jose, Calif., company which develops and licenses digital technology. In a 2002 lawsuit, Immersion accused Sony...

SOUTHFIELD, MI—Bored with scaring elderly misers, the Ghost of Christmas Future is spending the holiday season taunting modern children with visions of Christmas 2016's hottest toy: the Sony PlayStation 5, a 2,048-bit console featuring a 45-Ghz trinary processor, CineReal graphics booster with 2-gig biotexturing, and an RSP connector for 360-degree online-immersion play. "You know how kids are—a year is an eternity to them," the wraithlike specter said Monday during a visit to the Southfield home of 13-year-old Josh Kuehn. "So just imagine showing them something they'll have to wait 14 years for. Teasing them with a glimpse of the PS5...

Sony's Play Station Portable draws queues on 1st day Sun Dec 12, 2004 05:11 AM GMT By Yukari Iwatani Kane and Nathan Layne TOKYO (Reuters) - Game fans braved a chilly Tokyo night in long queues to be among the first in the world to get their hands on Sony's Play Station Portable, the consumer electronics firm's first handheld game machine. About 200,000 of the sleek black devices, able to play movies, music and games, went on sale early Sunday morning as part of a drive by Sony to loosen rival Nintendo's iron grip on the market for handheld game...

Sony's next PlayStation is more than a year away, but there is plenty of appetite for clues to its enhancements. On Monday, Sony and its entertainment arm as well as IBM and Toshiba were to reveal some of the first details of the Cell chip, jointly developed by the three companies, that will form the basis of the next generation of PlayStation game consoles. The chip, which is still being designed, has been one of the most guarded secrets in the entertainment, semiconductor and computing industries since the companies started work on it in 2001. Industry analysts expect the new...

Microsoft Corp. started selling Halo 2, the sequel to the best-selling title for its Xbox video-game machine, as more than 7,000 stores opened at midnight Monday to cater to enthusiasts eager to buy the futuristic shooting program. The company hopes the fanfare will overshadow its biggest competition, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a game for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 that came out two weeks ago and is expected to be the top seller industrywide this holiday season. A number of area stores joined in the nighttime opening, including EB Games in Jensen Beach. The 24-hour Wal-Mart stores in Miami and...

A West Haven father was held in lieu of $15,000 bail Thursday for allegedly beating his 8-year-old son after the boy refused to give up his Sony PlayStation so his parents could pawn it for beer money, police said. William McKinney, 51, was arraigned on charges of risk of injury to a minor and breach of peace in Superior Court in Milford Thursday. Police Sgt. Paul Raucci said the altercation started around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, when McKinney demanded his son hand over his Sony PlayStation. McKinney explained to his son that the family needed to pawn the video game system...

Electronic Arts announced the release date for its much anticipated followed up to The Sims, despite a recent move by the Bush Administration and Christian groups to block the game from store shelves...

<p>QUINCY -- William J. Quarterone did not go back to sleep yesterday morning, too troubled after watching a bleeding man collapse in front of his home in the early hours. Minutes before, police said, the man had stolen some Play Station 2 video games, and was fatally wounded as he fled.</p>

'I am ashamed to be leaving you at this time of need, but I'm going out of pure, cold fear," Godfrey Meynell, 68, told the two Iraqi factory workers standing before him. His white hair was, as always, unbrushed; his navy windcheater zipped up to the chin. "This power plant is next to a bridge, surrounded by Republican Guard," he continued. "It's obviously a prime target." The men, who understood this fear too well, returned his handshake and thanked him warmly. As he heaved his rucksack into the taxi, Mr Meynell, a former Colonial Office civil servant, was tearful. He...

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCERhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/96968_babysell23.shtml Mother accused of selling babyPolice say former boyfriend's ex was buyer; $2,000 used to buy clothes, PlaystationsSaturday, November 23, 2002By CANDACE HECKMANSEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERKENT -- The 3-month-old baby was crying all of the time, trying her patience. So, his 28-year-old mother told police, she took him down to a local Fred Meyer and gave him to a stranger for $2,000 in cash.And it turned out the stranger was really her former boyfriend's ex-wife.The mother used the money to pay off a traffic ticket, then buy groceries, clothes, two Sony PlayStations and a VCR -- before she went out...

Microsoft cancels a video game deal The company tried to invest cash in Sega so that the Japanese video game publisher could rival game publisher Square.By Dean Takahashi July 16, 2002 Microsoft hasn't bought any game publishers to bolster the fortunes of its Xbox video game console, but not through lack of trying.This spring the Redmond, Washington, software giant almost struck a deal with Sega Enterprises to buy a controlling stake in the Japanese game publisher. But the deal turned out to be too complicated to pull off before the industry's big trade show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which took...