Sony’s PSP blues
 
Sony has released its fiscal year report for 2009 (which ended on 31 March 2010), posting a net loss of 40.8 billion yen (around R3.3 billion). According to Techspot declining sales of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and PlayStation 2 (PS2) added to Sony’s poor financial performance. PSP sales drop by 4.5 million units, with 5.9 million games sold less than the previous year. Sales of the PS2 dropped by 600 000 units with 47.8 million less games sold. With the poor sales of its portable offering, it isn’t any wonder that Nintendo regards Apple, with their iPhones and iPads, as the (portable) gaming enemy of the future. While the rumour mill has started to grind out whispers of a PSP 2 launch, just in time for E3. 
 
Microsoft and LG join forces
 
Microsoft and LG have signed a strategic partnership that will bring 3D gaming to the Xbox 360 console in a bid to counter Sony’s recent firmware update for the PS3 that brings stereoscopic 3D gaming to their console. According to Pocket-lint this new partnership will also lead to Xbox 360 as well as Xbox 360 games being sold together with LG 3D TVs as bundles. The first of these bundles will be the Xbox 360 being sold with the LX5900 3DTV, exclusively in Korea for the time being.
 
Turbulence for US Air Force over PS3 update
 
It seems that it isn’t only gamers that are disappointed over the loss of the Install Other OS feature in a previous PlayStation 3 firmware update. The United States Air Force (USAF) has also voiced their disappointment over Sony's scrapping of that feature. They have a research laboratory in Rome, New York where it employs the processing power provided by 1700 160 GB PS3 systems within a processing cluster running on a different OS.

The update doesn’t affect the USAF as yet though, as their PS3 systems don’t connect with the PlayStation Network (PSN) and also doesn’t require Sony’s firmware updates. “We will have to continue to use the systems we already have in hand,” a representative from the research laboratory said. The update “will make it difficult to replace systems that break or fail. The refurbished PS3s also have the problem that when they come back from Sony, they have the firmware (gameOS) and it will not allow Other OS, which seems wrong."

Alan Wake released today
 
Alan Wake is available in retail stores across South Africa from today for Xbox 360 gamers at a recommended retail price of R699. This psychological action thriller is episode-based and according to its developer Remedy, who are the original developers of the Max Payne series, sports a storyline inspired by the likes of Stephen King and the TV-series Lost.    

Nintendo 3DS developments
 
Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata revealed that users will be able to easily turn off the 3D feature on the 3DS, since there have already been concerns over possible health effects of 3D gaming, including effects on children’s eyesight. He has also told execs from his company to regard Apple as their “enemy of the future”.
 
Iwata has also reportedly stated that the current name by which the new portable consol is known, 3DS, is just temporary. "I think the formal name will be made public in the not so distant future," he said.