Items tagged with consoles
To celebrate the launch of Marvel's Spider-Man, the hotly anticipated game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 4 Pro, Sony released a limited edition PS4 themed after the arachnid super hero. Themed consoles are nothing new, though this one seems to have struck a cord with gamers. Every time a retailer replenishes its inventory, it sells out faster than Peter Parker can change from an unassuming teen to a web-slinger in tights. Lucky for me, I was able to snag one at my local Walmart, which for a brief period of time claimed to have exactly five units in stock. I placed my order online, picked it up, and promptly sold it...
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When Atari first announced the Ataribox last summer, gamers that are into all things retro were rightfully excited. The forthcoming console even looked like the Atari that gamers of the '80s grew up with. Not long after, likely many folks got a bit worried when pre-orders were delayed in December, with some fearing the entire project could be nothing more than vaporware. However, as the Ataribox draws a bit closer to prime time, it has undergone a name change to the Atari VCS. We already knew that the Atari VCS would have an AMD APU inside with integrated Radeon graphics and would offer a "full PC experience," as well as built in retro classic titles. This means the ability...
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For a long while, it was incredibly difficult to find a Nintendo Switch in stock. The game console was flying off store shelves quicker than retailers could stock them, and there are cries of an artificial shortage on Nintendo's part as a ploy to drum up demand. I've been skeptical of that theory from the outset because the of the numbers, the latest of which pegs the Switch as the fastest selling home videogame system in U.S. history. Since launching 10 months on March 3, 2017, Nintendo has sold more than 4.8 million Switch units in the U.S. alone, according to the company's internal record keeping. No other console has seen higher sales figures in the same time span, not even the original Wii,...
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Almost everything that was cool or hip a long time ago eventually comes back in style. So it goes with retro gaming, and no company knows that better than Nintendo, which has been rebooting classic games with miniaturized versions of legacy consoles, including its original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES Classic Edition) and Super NES (SNES Classic Edition). So what's next? Perhaps a reborn version of its Game Boy, one of the industry's first handheld gaming system. Fun fact: Milton Bradley's Microvision released in 1979 is actually the first the handheld game console to use interchangeable cartridges (and it was also featured in the movie Friday the 13th: Part II). But while Nintendo does...
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Sony has taken various stabs at handheld gaming over the years. Remember the PlayStation Portable? How about the followup PlayStation Vita? Now would be a good time to introduce yet another handheld console, if that was the direction Sony wanted to go. But with smartphones now both powerful and ubiquitous, Sony sees little reason to go down that path, even with the Nintendo Switch proving incredibly popular. Andrew House, president and global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), touched on the topic of mobile gaming and the Nintendo Switch in an interview with Bloomberg at last week's Tokyo Game Show. Image Source: Flickr (MiNe-5DII_105-3350U) "The Nintendo device is a hybrid device and...
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For anyone wondering why the Nintendo Switch is still hard to find now six months after it launched, the answer is the same as before—Nintendo just is not able to produce Switch consoles fast enough to meet demand. While there will still be some who contend that it is an artificial shortage, consider that the Switch was once again the best-selling game console on the market in August, according to The NPD Group. It is the second month in a row that Nintendo Switch sales have come out on top of the competition. After outselling both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in July, the Switch was able to maintain its sales lead in August.. "The Nintendo Switch was August's best-selling hardware platform,"...
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Nintendo is still not producing enough hybrid Switch consoles to meet demand. We would say this is where you are supposed to feign surprise, but who are kidding, this is hardly shocking. What will be surprising is if Nintendo is able to get a handle on the situation in time for the holiday shopping season. History tells us not to hold our collective breath, though Nintendo says it is kicking up production. "We're doing everything we can to make sure everyone who wants to buy a Nintendo Switch system can do so," Nintendo said in a statement. "We will ramp up production for the holiday period, which has been factored into our forecast." Despite rumors to the contrary, this is not a case of Nintendo...
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Microsoft is looking ahead to its Xbox One X console that will deliver true 4K game play and is ready to move on from its original Xbox One system. In fact, it already has, for the most part. A peek at the Microsoft Store shows that Microsoft is no longer selling the original Xbox One in the United States, save for a refurbished unit with a 500GB hard drive. Otherwise, there are no other listings. In the United Kingdom, the landing page for the Xbox One shows it as being "out of stock." That is probably a permanent thing, considering that Microsoft discontinued production of the Xbox One a few months ago. With no more units being made and the Microsoft Store depleted of stock, it appears that...
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Microsoft announced at Gamescom 2017 over the weekend that pre-orders are now open for the Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition. There will be a limited number of these first-run consoles with the Project Scorpio branding that pays homage to the system's codename. The guts of the console are the same as the upcoming standard edition, though there are some other things that the Project Scorpio Edition apart. Larry Hryb, otherwise known as Major Nelson, posted an unboxing video of the Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition. One of the first things you will notice is the fancy retail packaging—not only does it sport the Project Scorpio branding, it also features an imprint of an "X" that is reminiscent...
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Part of the reason why new game consoles are in short supply is because scalpers gobble up as much inventory as they can afford and then jack up the price on second-hand markets (eBay, Craigslist, and so forth). Well, Amazon has decided not to be a part this practice, at least in regard to Nintendo's upcoming SNES Classic. The online retailer is refusing to honor bulk orders and reducing such requests down to a single system. "We're writing about your Amazon.co.uk order [number redacted], which includes more than one Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Unfortunately, there's been a change to the availability of this item on Amazon.co.uk. As a result, there is now only...
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Are you still having trouble finding a Nintendo Switch console in stock? Well, if it is any consolation, Nintendo is awfully sorry about the inconvenience, or so the console maker says. And in a recent interview with Arstechnica, Nintendo Senior Director of Corporate Communications Charlie Scibetta pushed back against the conspiracy theory of an artificial shortage to drive up demand. "It's definitely not intentional in terms of shorting the market," Scibetta says. "We're making it as fast as we can. We wantto get as many units out as we can to support all the software that's coming right now... our job really is to get it out as quick as we can, especially for this holiday because we want to...
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Do not adjust your calendars, folks, we have not traveled back in time to the 1970s or 1980s. Be that as it may, Atari is working on a new game console. The website you might have seen is real, as are Atari's intentions to get back into the hardware business after a 24-year hiatus. Remember the Jaguar? That was the last game system to come from Atari, and it was only in development for a few years. Of course, Atari has had bigger console launches, most notably the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), later renamed to Atari 2600. I spent endless hours myself on the Atari 2600, playing games like Pac-Man, Pitfall, and Adventure. Atari is largely responsible for popularizing playing video games at...
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The future of gaming is at 4K, or at least that is what the industry at large wants everyone to believe. There is a concerted effort to put the hardware in place, including 4K resolution televisions and upgraded consoles capable of pushing more pixels than ever before. Just look at Sony—the company is all about its PlayStation 4 Pro now, and it supposedly has plans to cut the price of its regular PlayStation 4 to $250 at E3.News of Sony's looming price cut comes from USA Today, a publication that is considerably more reliable than some random obscure website or blog where many rumors seem to originate. While we have not heard official word from Sony on a price cut, the source leads us to believe...
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It seems as though console makers are coming out with new and updated systems at a somewhat furious pace these days—Sony recently released its PlayStation 4 Pro, Microsoft added an Xbox One S to its lineup and is readying Project Scorpio, and Nintendo has put the Wii U in the rear view mirror with its hybrid Switch system. As all of this is taking place, Sony has decided to officially end production of its PlayStation 3 system.The PS3 had one heck of a good run up to this point. It launched more than a decade ago in November 2006, though if you head over to the official PlayStation website, you'll see that Sony has marked the latest PS3 model (CECH-4300) as "shipment complete," which means that...
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