No cries of Developers Developers Developers during this interview with the CEO of Microsoft, penned by the Joysiq and Engadget folks.  In the interview, Ballmer discusses everything from backwards compatibility to integration with the iPod.  Definitely worth a read here.

Engadget and Joystiq combined their efforts to offer up some great live coverage of the Playstation 3 announcements during E3.  Photos of the new machine, game shots, even powerpoint slides.  Check them out here.

Hack might be an aggressive word to make use of, but Reuters and Engadget are reporting that various individuals have "jostled" the operating system and in-built applications of their PSPs to enable more functinoal functions like IRC, TIVO transfers, eBooks and comics.  Heck… Engadget even has produced a roundup of hacks - you can find it here.

Wired has an almost frenetic review of the new Playstation 2 game, God of War.  The description of the game is awesome and the game-meets-film aspects of this game are sure to get people thinking about the cinematic future of game experience.  A hot little section describes the way in which the game play viweing angle is auto-selected by the game - drawing us out of whatever hapitual user mode we might normally choose.  They claim the results leave the player with a more impressive experience of the game design.  I am going to guess it also makes some people a bit motion sick ;-)

A company called Information Appliance Associates, through their PocketMac.net website, has made availabel an application that enables Mac users to sync iTunes, iPhoto and contact information between OSX and the PSP.  The size of your memory stick RAM will obviously impact the potential here, and we have not been able to confirm whether the group has been able to find a way to play Fairplay encrypted files on a PSP (the encryption used on tracks purchased through iTunes).  They apparently have found a way to bring contacts managment to a piece of hardware lacking such functionality, but as far as music goes, you will probably need to stick with formats the P2P can handle (like MP3).  Via Cnet.

A judge put a stay on this ruling, but earlier this week a federal judge ruled that Sony should halt all sales of the Playstation in the US and pay upwards of $90.7 million in damages to Immersion Corp.  Immersion owns patents related to the vibrating feedback and other "force feedback" features of game controllers.  Serious stuff.

May 17, at E3, is going to be the day for the inevitable showdown among the three gaming platforms : Nintendo Revolution, Xbox2/Xenon, and Playstation 3.  Rumors are circulating that Sony will try to jump the gun with an "official" unveiling the the third playstation some time before E3.  With a new CEO and troubled times in the music hardware group, Sony is probably going to bet big on the Playstation 3 launch.  In response, more rumors fly that Microsoft will somehow release Halo 3 on whatever day Sony chooses to put the Playstation 3 up for sale.  Will these actions really matter?  Will the prices for the consoles fall so quickly that the avid gamer will just buy both platforms, even if only for 1, or 2 games.  So the platform makers take a loss on each platform, while the game market is split more evenly, such that big hits will be released EA-style, on both platforms (they usually release on multiple platforms, don't they?).  What difference will the platform make - is the video game industry about to become all about the games?

Here is a groovy site, VGMaps.com, offering up pixelated maps of the worlds you live within when playing oodles of video games.  There are maps for games from Price of Persia to Grand Theft Auto III.  Very cool site.  Some people must have alot of free time.  Via BoingBoing, via Waxy.

Sony has announced the first crop of movies available in the PSP portables UMD format will be priced from $19.95 to $28.95 in the US.  Recently anounced titles include House of Flying Daggers and Final Fantasy VII, while previously announced titles include Apocolypse, Resident Evil, Once upon a time in Mexico and XXX.  As many of you know, the PSP will ship with a copy of Spider-Man 2 (don't forget the hyphen).

IBM, Sony and Toshiba showed off the specs of the upcoming Cell processor.  The chip is to be the brains within upcoming Playstation 3, IBM workstations and Toshiba televisions.  Though intended to be OS agnostic, the chip has not been confirmed by those in the know to be being tested with Windows.

According to Computer and Video Games, Sony has announced there will be a playable PS3 at the E3 convention in May.  This news, combined with the hints from platform makers Nintendo (Revolution) and Microsoft (Xbox2) suggest the three big firms are looking to mix it up all at once at E3.  Sony said a more concrete statement will come out in late March.  We shall see.

The BBC has put together a story looking at the hype and aspirations of the upcoming video game platforms.  According to sources in the story, Microsoft has sent out Xbox2 development kits while kits for the PS3 and Revolution are still nowhere to be seen.  Additionally, they scored a destined-to-be troublesome quote from an executive at EA Europe who drops the bomb that the "rumours are that Playstation 3 will have a little more under the hood" than the Xbox 2." Not a good quote to hand to a major, global news source.

Some of the WeblogsInc crew is blogging up a storm from this year's Sundance Film Festival.  Reviews of films, rumors on outcomes and all that.  We will also let you know if any footage from the festival shows up on file-sharing networks.  For those with an inclination towards Indie films, check it out and see what films are upcoming.

The fact has been on the streets for awhile, but according to Joystiq. Nvidia confirmed the deal with Sony for the Playstation3 and (potentially) other Sony products.  David Roman, VP of Corporate Marketing for Nvidia confirmed that the deal for the "next generation computer entertainment system" was a licensing deal - meaing Sony will produce the chips.  And the chipset, according to GamesIndustry.biz is the next generation GeoForce.  The interview in question, conducted by XbitLabs is a good one for those who like to read corporate "I can't tell you what is going on but can throw some very clear hints", so settle into a good read.

A "test" update file for the PSP is making its rounds of the internet.  We are unable to confirm whether the file is the real deal or just some fake.  Contents of the update suggest new functions for the PSP including email, word processing (?), web browsing, integration with SonicStage and more.  There is a buzz of curiousity about these functions, but I have to admit - isn't this what we are all expecting.  All the of the handheld manufacturers are converging in an effort to make game machines that can do just that little bit more that would make them acceptable to the adult lifestyle.  We only have so many pockets.