Hasta La Gadget!

Just because Sony’s focus during the Tokyo Game Show is on its two newest consoles, the Vita and the PlayStation 3, doesn’t mean the company’s forgotten about the PlayStation Portable. During its press conference this evening, Sony dropped ¥3,000 (about $40) from the base price of the PSP in Japan, putting the console at ¥14,800 (about $190). It’s unclear if any price drop will affect North American or European consumers, but we’ll update as we find out more.

Filed under: Gaming

Sony’s PlayStation Portable dropping by ¥3,000 to ¥14,800 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Allow us to introduce you to the JXD S602. It’s a new Android gaming device that comes running Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, and it’s pretty inexpensive too. It also sports a look that’s quite similar to the PlayStation Portable, which is nothing new – we’ve seen plenty of devices that attempt to “recreate” the look and feel of Sony‘s last-generation handheld, so it isn’t surprising to see another one arrive on the scene

The device comes with a price tag of $66, which signals that there probably isn’t much going on under the hood. Indeed, you’ve got 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor running the show, working with a PowerVR SGX531 GPU and 512MB of RAM. There’s a 0.3-megapixel camera on board, and 4.3-inch two-point resistive touch screen that displays 480 x 272 resolution. If that resolution isn’t quite your liking, it also comes with an HDMI port so you can play your games on a bigger screen.

Given the set of actual buttons present on the face of this device, you can tell that it’s geared toward Android gaming. The JXD S602 supports button mapping for Android titles, so if you’re looking for a cheap way to play Android games with actual controls instead of touch screen controls, this may not be such a bad choice. Have a look at the video demo below for a better idea of how the JXD S602 plays.

It isn’t a bad looking device, but then again we have Sony to thank for that more than anyone else. At the very least, it should satisfy your gaming needs, but don’t expect to get too much more out of it. The fact that it’s running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will definitely be appreciated, and when coupled with the low price tag, that might just net JXD some significant sales.

[via Obscure Handhelds]

JXD S602 Android gaming device looks awfully familiar is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NPD has released its report of video game sales data for June 2012, and like the months before, it isn’t all that pretty. Overall sales of both hardware and software were down 30% year-over-year, dropping from $989 million in June 2011 to $699 million last month. Hardware was the biggest loser, falling a whopping 45% to just $201 million in June.

Though software didn’t fare as bad as hardware did, it still did pretty terrible. In June 2011 software sales rang in at $461 million, but last month that figure took a 29% dive to $328 million. Accessories, on the other hand, actually grew year-over-year last month, climbing 4% to $169.8 million.

But wait! Before you start saying that we’re headed directly for another video game crash, keep in mind that NPD only tracks data for physical hardware, software, and accessories sales, meaning that everything else isn’t included in these figures. In fact, NPD analyst Anita Frazier says that when the company’s estimates for things like digital software purchases, DLC purchases (which includes money spent on microstransactions and subscriptions), rentals, used sales, and social game spending are all tallied up, consumers spent an estimated $1.36 billion on video games in June.

Looking at the top 10 software list for June, we see that Lego Batman 2 took the top spot, followed by Ghost Recon: Future Soldier in second place. Diablo III landed a third place ranking, while Max Payne 3 and NBA 2K12 rounded out the top five. Take a look at the full top ten list, but remember that this list only covers physical media sales:

1. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes – 360, Wii, PS3, PC, DS, 3DS, Vita
2. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – PC, PS3, 360
3. Diablo III – PC
4. Max Payne 3 – PC, 360, PS3
5. NBA 2K12 – PC, 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP
6. Batman: Arkham City – PC, 360, PS3
7. Pokemon Conquest – DS
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – 360, Wii, PS3, PC
9. Battlefield 3 – PC, 360, PS3
10. The Amazing Spider-Man – 360, PS3, Wii, DS, 3DS

Finally, the Xbox 360 finished off the month with 257,000 units sold, while Nintendo says that the 3DS sold 155,000 units, the DS 150,000, and the Wii rounded out the bottom with 95,000 sales. Sony has not yet commented on how many PS3s, PSPs, and Vitas were sold last month.

[via VG247]

June NPD: Lego Batman 2 on top, game sales down overall is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.