Hasta La Gadget!

Sony today made official what it called “the worst-kept secret of E3,” the PSP Go. The device is the latest iteration of the company’s popular handheld gaming console, the Play Station Portable. The new device is slimmer and offers a number of new features, includeing 16GB of internal flash memory, built-in Wi-Fi, and Integrated Bluetooth.

The company is also introducing Media Go, which will replace the Media Manager as a PC-accessible store.

The device will be available on October 21st for $249.99. Sony was careful to stress the fact that the device will not be replacing the PSP 3000. The company has expressed its commitment to both devices, as well as to UMD, despite the fact that the new device will no longer support that media platform.

Nintendo today unveiled a strange new controller during its E3 press conference. According to the company, the Wii Vitality Sensor device is something of a spiritual successor to the popular Brain Age and Wii Fit games.

The device, which sits on the player’s finger, attempt to “visualize something else that is otherwise invisible,” such as excitement and nervousness. According to Nintendo, “It will initially sense the user’s pulse and a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world.” No more details on the device were given.

Microsoft made headlines Monday with the announcement of its gesture-based, controller-free Project Natal for the Xbox 360, but the announcement also includes upgrades to Microsoft’s deal with Netflix.

Starting in the fall, Xbox Live Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers will be able to browse and add movies to their Netflix queues from the Xbox 360, not just from the PC, Netflix wrote in a blog post. Users will also be able to simultaneously watch movies with up to seven friends, chatting about the film while it plays.

The news builds on a deal that was announced in July 2008 and went live in November. Launched in tandem with the New Xbox Experience (NXE), the Netflix deal allows members to watch movies available via Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” library through the gaming console.

Rentrak, a media research company, announced today its newest service: the Ad Monitor for Video Games. This new informational service is intended to give producers an idea of where they stand in the competition.

From the year-to-date chart titled “Top 10 Selling Console Games,” the Wii Fit w/ Balance Board takes first place. Mario Kart, also released a little over a year ago, took the number 6 slot.The only other game to stay on the charts as long as these two Nintendo hits was Bethesda’s Fallout 3 (released in October 2008).

For rentals, Xbox 360 stole the show with Call of Duty: World at War at number 1, Gears of War 2 at second place, and Resident Evil 5 in third. The only non-360 games to make it to the list were PlayStation 3’s Call of Duty: World at War and the Wii’s Mario Kart.

Microsoft today kicked off 2009’s newly resurrected E3 with a star-studded press conference at USC’s Galen Center in LA, on Monday morning. As promised in a last-minute time change, the event kicked off at 10:25 sharp, a full 5 minutes earlier than originally scheduled.

Emceed by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, John Schappert, who promised not to show off charts and graphs and instead demo real games, the event kicked off with an exclusive demo of Harmonix’s Beatles Rock Band game. Due out on September 9th, 2009–the same date as the Beatles’ remastered catalog–the game features 45 Beatles tracks, including “I Saw Her Standing There,” “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “I Feel Fine,” “Day Tripper,” “Tax Man,” “I am The Walrus,” “Back in the USSR,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Here Comes the Sun,” and “Get Back.” The game also incorporates some previously unheard studio chatter from the band.

Beatles Rock Band also offers downloable songs and full albums, beginning with Abbey Road in its entirety. All proceeds from the exclusive Xbox Live download, “All You Need is Love,” will benefit Doctors Without Borders. Microsoft debuted the game with a demo from the “Harmonix House Band,” and brought onstage a number of special guests–including Yoko Ono-Lennon and a goofy banter session with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.