PSP consoles taken in van robbery in Dublin?
According
to the Garda Press Office “a number of Playstation 2 Hand Pods” and
an “assortment of PS2 games” have been taken in a van robbery in
Dublin. They are apparently referring to Sony’s handheld console the
PlayStation Portable, as well as games for such.
The van was robbed this morning at a petrol
station at Pinnock Hill in Swords, Co Dublin. The theft comes just days
before the launch of the new portable console on Thursday, althought
it’s worth noting that the PSP has however been heavily imported,
at least by a selective amount of hardcore gamers.
“These items are not available to the public at present. If they
happen to be offered for sale or supply to members of the public or
business fraternity could they please contact The Gardaí at Swords on
01 6664711″ states a Garda press release.
Related news
- PSP European launch in September (26/04/2005)
GAA PS2 game: retailer – ‘Sept-2005′
The high street and online retailer ‘Game’
is now stating on their site that the ‘Gaelic Football’ computer game
for the PlayStation 2 is set for release in ‘Sept-2005′.
As reported in , at the time Smyths Toys were displaying an in-store release of
August, while ‘Game’ also had this month as the release. At that point the
game’s publisher, Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland, told Games Toaster they
had “nothing further to report”, this has not
changed, so there is no official public release date, or month, set for the
game.
Meanwhile, any confusion about Pooka Games,
the original holder of the GAA endorsement, should be cleared up by reading the
latest feature article on GameDevelopers.ie. Noel Corrigan, shares his story of
the harsh reality of trying to set up a games development company. Because of
the lack of funding Pooka never made the transition from the drawing board to
full games creation — even with the support of EA, and the GAA.
Game development related CAO points
This year’s first round of points for the
CAO entry system into
the points for game development related courses:
Carlow IT – Computer Games
Development – 340
Tralee IT – Computing With Games Development – 300
Dundalk IT – Computing – Games Development – 270
University of Limerick - Multimedia Com. Games Dev. – 380
Trinity College Dublin - Computer Science – 365
University College Cork - Computer Science – 300
Source: RTE Online
Non-CAO courses in Ireland include ‘Training
in Computer Games and Interactive Entertainment Development’ (Ludo), and ‘Higher
National Diploma in Computer Games Design’, at Ballyfermot College of Further
Education in Dublin, and the ‘Interactive Computer
Entertainment’ (or ICE) at the North West Institute of Further Higher
Education in Derry. For information on all courses visit GameDevelopers.ie/courses/.
Ireland’s 360 price difference due to VAT rate – Microsoft
- ‘Game’ stores still quoting lower price, but with caution
On Wednesday, when the European and US price points for the Xbox 360
were confirmed, the Irish media received price points for the two
versions of the console 10 euro more then the price announced for other
areas of the euro zone. With the retail price for the Republic of Ireland
hitting 309.99 and 409.99 euro, for bare minimum ‘Core’ console, and
hard drive included package, respectively. In contrast to 299 and 399
euro elsewhere.
When Games Toaster asked the local Xbox PR office about the difference,
we were simply told, “Ireland has a higher VAT rate than other European
countries”.
Retailers stories are also differing, with four Xtra-vision stores,
three in Dublin and one in Galway, not knowing the console’s price, saying
that they were not informed of the price and it was not in their
system. Only one location was taking preorders with a 20 euro deposit,
another Dublin store told us that they are only taking orders for the
PSP, while the store who was taking preorders boldly stated that the
Xbox 360’s price — which was revealed on Wednesday – would not be
announced until two weeks before the launch.
Smyths, GameStop, and World of Wonders, all quoted the official
recommended prices for the Republic. While one ‘Game’ shop told us that
they have been given the lower prices of 299 and 399 euro from their
head office, but warned that this may change. In addition, the ‘Game’
store said that they had taken 15 pre-orders on Saturday alone, and
that they expect to fill their quota within a week, possible two.
Murdoch’s News Corp may buy IGN
The Financial
Times is reporting that Rupert Murdoch has put the computer games media
company ‘IGN Entertainment’ on a list of “desired acquisitions” of the media firm
News Corp, using the source “people familiar with the company’s plans”, although
the company has declined to comment.
News Corp is in the process of rapidly
expanding its internet presence, with FT.com stating that recently acquired
sites have pushed News Corp’s online reach from “16m unique users a month to
close to 50m”.
IGN are preparing for a flotation on the
stock market, they are apparently open to a private sale, the company is said
to be valued at $800m.
IGN Entertainment computer game related web
publications include IGN.com, GameSpy, Voodoo Extreme, and TeamXbox. The
company runs download services FilePlanet, 3D Gamers, and Direct2Drive. IGN
also hosts and runs their advertisement network over a large amount of ‘fan
site’ under their ‘Planet’ brand; sites include PlanetHalflife, PlanetQuake,
and PlanetBattlefield.
News Corp’s media portfolio ranges from
newspapers (News of the World, the Sun, the Times) to satellite broadcasters
(Sky, Fox) to book publishers (HarperCollins) to film studios (Fox).
Xbox 360 – euro, UK, US pricing confirmed
Microsoft verifies prices for two versions of their new console. No dates.
No, only US Dollars, euro, and UK pounds at the moment.
be made public at the Leipzig ‘Game Convention’, apparently due to
the lack of Microsoft executives travelling to the city just south of
Berlin, the announcement was actually made at the Leipzig convention
early today by Chris Lewis, the Xbox vice president, for Europe, Middle
East, and Africa. The launch date for Europe was not confirmed, but is reported to be the November 25.
The console will have two-tear pricing, with the higher
specification console going at
Xbox 360 US pricing released
The online version of LA’s broadsheet newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, is reporting the official prices of two versions of the Xbox 360.
One at $299 with a wired controller, but no hard drive, the other
$399 with a 20Gb hard drive, wireless controller with headset, Ethernet
cable, and remote control.
As GamesIndustry.biz points out,
the print edition of the LA Times will be on newsstands after
Microsoft’s announcement at the Leipzig ‘Game Convention’ this morning.
The state of Counter-Strike in Ireland?
On the state of Counter-Strike in Ireland, an Irish blog, ‘Adams Rants‘, writes…
“WCSL
is Ireland’s only competitive CounterStrike LAN. It is held whenever
there is enough interest, and I feel that this will be the last one
being organised considering the majority of the “good” CS Players
are now waving their magic wands and growing extremely long beards in a
little game called “World Of Warcraft”, and because of
CounterStrike:Source, there are no new people playing 1.6, the
preferred version by professionals and amateurs worldwide”.
Those interested could do worse then to keep an eye on cs-ireland.com, and boards.ie’s Counter-Strike board.
REVIEW: Battlefield 2
Developer: Dice | Publisher: EA | Format: PC
Reviewer: Cian Ginty
Titles deceive. After Battlefield 1943, and Battlefield Vietnam, this
is the third game in the series. It’s like as if Vietnam was written
out of history. Set supposedly something slightly in the future, with
three armies — the US, China, and a fictional professional
‘Coalition’ Middle Eastern army (which originally had a
terrorist-like look at earlier stages of development).
The main formula remains, you and your team fight to control flag
points, and yeah, kill each other. You still have a choice of solders,
from medic to Special Forces. Weapons and vehicles are obviously modern.
Multiplayer is still the point of the game, with the single player
mode existing for little more then good measure. But online play is a
no-go area for 56k or 64k ??? dial up users.
Using the built-in
Gamespy browser to find online games is annoying, but it can easily be
replaced by the brilliant All Seeing Eye. This reviewer always rushes
to the 64-person servers.
The new touches include the enemy always being the red team and a
‘power-up’ type system where you rise in military ranks – aiding to the
squad system, and unlocking extra weapons.
In the words of an addict – it’s an adrenalin rush.
[Notes: Review delayed due to an addiction, and more so the need for
a new graphics card -- make sure yours is supported before buying |Secondary notes: a list of Irish servers can be found here, the Battlefield forum of Boards.ie is here.]
WEEE – retailers to take back old consoles
Games
consoles, and other hardware, are among the items covered by the new
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. The WEEE directive,
which will require retailers to accept old electrical and electronic
products, comes into affect in the Republic this Saturday.
Retailers will be obliged to offer this service free of charge, but
it is only on a one-for-one and like-for-like bases. “the WEEE must
be of a similar type or have performed the same function as the new
item purchased. For example, [retailers] are not obligated to accept a
microwave if [the] customer has purchased a toaster” states a Department of the Environment document.
Retailers, as well as producers and importers, of ‘Electrical and Electronic Equipment’ should already be registered as such.