Sony’s PSP turns 5
 
Sony celebrated yet another milestone this week as its PlayStation Portable (PSP) turned five on Wednesday. The PSP was launched on 24 March 2005 in the US and Canada, with over 60 million units sold globally thus far. The PSP has been improved over the five years with a number of hardware revisions appearing, the last of which was the miniature PSP Go. Two weeks ago Sony celebrated the 10th birthday of the PlayStation 2 in Japan.
 
Nintendo 3DS to be unveiled in June
 
The biggest news of the week was Nintendo’s announcement that they’ll be showing off their successor to the DS, the 3DS, at this year’s E3 tech expo in June. It will be 3D-capable, minus the annoying 3D shades, and will make use of a “compatible cart”, meaning it’ll probably be backwards compatible with DS and DSi games.
 
Sony in the meantime has responded to Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS. Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) director of hardware and marketing John Koller stated in an interview with IGN that Sony are only focusing on 3D for the PS3. "I think it remains to be seen where Nintendo goes with 3D on a portable," Koller said. "Having been in the portable space for quite awhile, I think it’s an interesting move but one I’d like to see where they go from a demographic standpoint. 8 and 9 year-olds playing 3D is a little bit of a stretch given where some of our research is right now."

In related news, Microsoft is planning to showcase their complete Project Natal setup for the Xbox 360 at E3. According to Engadget the controller-less gaming system will "premiere" on 13 June, followed by a media briefing on 14 June.
 
Nintendo’s slothful 2009 sales spill over into 2010
 
Nintendo design guru Shigeru Miyamoto (think Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda) puts the company’s sluggish sales for 2009 down to a lack of fun titles being released during the year. "The fact that in 2009 we were not able to sell more than we did in 2008 was simply that in comparison, we were not able to produce fun-enough products," he said in an interview with The Economist. "There are always ups and downs in this business. As long as we create unique and unprecedented experiences with video games, there should be nothing to worry about."
 
Mafia II coming in August
 
Yesterday 2K Games finally announced the release dates for Mafia II, which will be coming out on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game will come out on 24 August in the US and 27 August internationally.