Geo deals with all kinds of media in Japan. DVD rentals, CDs, and, of course, video games are on their shelves. In a financial briefing, Geo outlined some of their key products like renting “Alice in Wonderland” on August 4.

In the games category, they listed Gran Turismo 5, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, and an unannounced PSP-4000. The Nintendo 3DS is on Geo’s expected product list too. According to the calendar, GeoNet will stock both products within this year.

Japanese blogs are buzzing about the find, but Geo’s calendar seems off to me. Notice Pokémon Black & White? Geo says those games are slated for October while Nintendo just announced both games for September 18.

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/06/27...for-this-year/

Atlus is bringing at least four games to E3 next week. Knights in the Nightmare, the PSP version, is one of them. Sting’s PSP port has a brand new opening movie and analog stick controls. You can see some DS/PSP comparison screenshots here.

Etrian Odyssey III, Trine 2, and Rock of Ages from Zeno Clash developer Ace Team are also be at the show.

Atlus says these are a “few of the titles we’re planning for the next few months” and these are some of the games that will be at E3. We’re meeting with Atlus during the show, so we’ll let you know if there’s anything else and ask them about Growlanser… again, if you really want us to.

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/06/10...north-america/

Sony Computer Entertainment has registered a very intriguing trademark for 'PlayView' in the US.

The first function mentioned in the file - pushed through in the US Patents and Trademarks Office - reads:

'Portable electronic device for receiving and reading text and images and sound through wireless Internet access and for displaying electronically published materials, namely, books, journals, newspapers, magazines, multimedia presentations.'

So far, so e-Reader, right? Interesting, yes. But not exactly a threat to the very-possibly-beautiful 3DS. But as we look closer, we also read that the TM covers:

* 'Computer game software recorded on optical discs';

*'Computer software for transmitting, sharing, receiving, downloading, displaying and transferring content, text, visual works, audio works, audiovisual works, literary works, data, files, documents and electronic works via video game machines and Hand-held games with liquid crystal displays';

* 'Video game machines with television for personal use'.

Intriguingly, it also encompasses, 'Retail store services in the field of electronic games, videos, electronic publications and music'.

So we could be looking at some kind of wide-reaching addition to PSN - or perhaps a new service that lets PlayStation owners download and read books.

Or maybe - just maybe - could this be the long-rumoured Sony Ericsson/PSP crossover?

Also covered by the TM are: 'Information providing devices, namely, computer terminals with encrypting software for transmission of messages via the internet web site and e-mail communication' and 'telephone apparatus'.

Whatever the TM - filed on June 3 - covers, picking out Playview's formation is speculation at this stage. Such a myriad of descriptors doesn't help with nailing down a function.

But maybe that's the point. Maybe - just maybe - 'PSP2' does everything. It's an e-reader, email provider, word processor, mobile phone and games machine in one.

Too good to be true? Consider that Sony Computer Entertainment of America trademarked this particular (as yet unused) tagline back on May 17, again in the US... 'It changes everything.'

So, The Sony Playview, then. What do you reckon?

E3, we need you now more than ever.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS

Piracy on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP formats costs the industry an estimated £28.9 billion ($41.6bn / ¥3.816tn) over five years, according to research by Japan's Computer Entertainment Suppliers Association.

The group, which organises the Tokyo Game Show, conducted the research between June 2004 to 2009, in cooperation with Tokyo University's Baba Lab.

Research was based on downloads of the top 20 software titles in Japan across 114 piracy sites, according to a translation by Andriasang. Piracy costs the Japanese market ¥953 billion during the period, and assuming the region accounted for 25 per cent of the global software market, the figure was multiplied by four.

The research noted that peer-to-peer networks were not included in the research, and admitted the actual costs to the market could be much higher.

The CESA said that America had the most pirate servers, followed by China, with the two regions accounting for 60 per cent of all piracy servers. The US was the busiest region for piracy, followed by Japan and then China.

Both the PSP and the DS are known to suffer from very high piracy rates, with multiple methods to play hacked software on both machines easily available online and in retail stores.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/handheld-piracy-cost-industry-gbp29m-over-five-years