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• Sorry, kids, Santa's stuck in reindeer traffic for a few weeks

  Posted Dec 14 2007, 11:01 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, video games
  Rating:

  Give Nintendo credit for at least trying to address the Wii shortage frustrating many parents this month. The company said today that you'll be able to buy a raincheck that will guarantee a Wii gets into your hands....by the end of January.

  Here are the rules: You can only buy the raincheck at a GameStop store on Dec. 20 or 21. And you have to pay full-price ($250) for the system at the time you buy the raincheck. Here's the funny thing: Nintendo is guaranteeing the Wiis but then saying the rainchecks are only available as supplies last. And we've seen how long anything related to the Wii lasts in stores.   Read More...

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• Nintendo shortage Wii-lly hurts company

  Posted Dec 03 2007, 05:13 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, video games
  Rating:

  I was shopping at a Best Buy in San Jose yesterday and here's what I found:

  

  Stacks of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. When I asked where the Wiis were, a saleswoman gave a small snort and shook her head. The store was out.

  It's a common scenario across the country, and in other parts of the world. A year after its release, the console that many expected would be in third place has become a hit of such proportions that people still line up overnight to buy one. I've had a Wii since its launch, and spent a good chunk of the weekend playing "Super Mario Galaxy." This console definitely holds up over time.   Read More...

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• Sony screws up again with new PS3

  Posted Oct 18 2007, 10:31 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo
  Rating:

  

  Sony makes some historic blunders. One of the biggest was making digital music players that wouldn't play MP3s, the most popular digital music format. Those devices played Sony's own ATRAC format, which the company killed a few months ago.

  Sony hasn't learned from its mistakes. Consider the PlayStation 3, the too-expensive game console that hasn't become the hit the company wanted. Sony's finally selling a cheaper PS3 in the U.S., just in time for the holidays. It'll cost $400, but will have only 40 gigabytes of storage -- half that of the standard version, which is getting a price cut to $500 from $600.

  That's fine. Some people don't need more than 40 gigs anyway in a video game system. But get this: the cheap PS3 won't play games made for the PlayStation 2. That feature is called backward compatibility, and it's a dealbreaker. A typical PlayStation 2 owner probably has a nice library of video games. The new PS3 won't play any of them.   Read More...

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