Sony talks recoup.

Thu Jun 22, 7:31 AM ET

TOKYO (AFP) - The top brass of Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). have told shareholders that the electronics giant was firmly on the path to recovery and set a goal of selling 100 million PlayStation 3 machines.

"We will continuously execute structural reform to improve earnings and to fully carry out growth strategies," chairman Howard Stringer and president Ryoji Chubachi said in a joint statement.

Stringer, a Welsh-born former television journalist who is the iconic Japanese company's first foreign chief, marked one year in the job with Thursday's shareholder meeting.

His effort was rewarded with better-than-expected earnings for the full year to March although the botton line remains weighed down by painful restructuring costs.

"The management has been thinking how we can revitalize the company," Stringer and Chubachi said Thursday.

"In the year to March 2006, we were able to make steady progress at the appropriate speed toward our goals. We will continue this effort ... by proactively monitoring our progress," they said.

Over the next several years, the company hopes to sell as many as 100 million PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles, which will hit the market in November, said Sony Computer Entertainment president and chief executive Ken Kutaragi.

The PlayStation 3 is one of Sony's core products and its success is considered vital to the group's revival.

Sony has long dominated the home video-game market and in November the group said its shipments of the

PlayStation 2 console had topped 100 million since March 2000, including 22.2 million in Asia alone.

Gary: Of course that was before E3 this year. Arrogance brought down one giant in the industry about ten years ago or so...

New Mario huge hit.

Popular DS title sells more than 500,000 copies in the US in just over a month; Nintendo estimates 20 copies sold every minute.

By Tim Surette, GameSpot

Posted Jun 22, 2006 10:07 am PT

We've all heard about the success of the DS Lite and how it sold 136,500 units in its first two days on sale. Naturally, with that many more pieces of hardware in gamers' hands, software sales are bound to spike.

Today, Nintendo announced that its current hot handheld game, New Super Mario Bros., has sold more than half a million copies in the US since it was released on May 15. Putting that in perspective, Nintendo claims those figures translate into 20 copies being sold every minute since its launch. The game has consistently been in the top two on US console sales charts, and reclaimed the top spot last week.

The game has also been a hit in Mario's hometown of Japan. Released in the country 10 days after the US version, New Super Mario Bros. has also topped the charts there, where the DS and DS Lite are nothing short of a sales phenomenon.

New Super Mario Bros. appears to be well on its way to busting through the 1 million sold mark, with the European region launch set for late next week.

More Legalese

Tue Jun 20, 1:36 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal judge has granted a request by video-game industry groups for a temporary restraining order preventing the state of Louisiana from enforcing a new law that would ban sales of violent games to minors, according to court records obtained on Tuesday.

The ruling, issued by U.S District Court Judge James Brady on Friday, is the latest salvo in a heated battle over content turned out by the $13 billion U.S. video-game industry.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco last week signed legislation banning the sale or rental of violent video games to children under the age of 18. Under the law, which was to take effect immediately, violators would face fines of up to $2,000, or one year in prison, or both.

A hearing of the request by the Entertainment Software Association and the Entertainment Merchants Association for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for June 27 before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana in Baton Rouge.

The industry groups sued to overturn Louisiana's new law, saying similar laws have been struck down by six courts in five years.

Federal judges in California, Illinois and Michigan have found that laws passed by those states violated free-speech guarantees.

GRAW chapter 2 on Live

GRAW Chapter 2 Released On Marketplace

Ubisoft confirms that the continuing co-operative story of the Ghosts in Nicaragua has now gone live...

Posted: 19:12 on 22 Jun 2006

By: Jon Wilcox

Ubisoft has today announced that Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 'Chapter 2' Downloadable Content has now gone live on Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft Points (£10.20).

Bringing four new co-operative missions, eight 're-visited' multiplayer maps, two new gametypes and game mode "Team Battle", two new camouflage patterns, four character customisation faces, and five new weapons, the content is one of larger pieces of downloads available on Marketplace - and one of the most expensive with it. That said, the prospect of continuing the story of a second Ghosts team in Nicaragua is sure to appeal to GRAW gamers on Xbox 360, with the DLC perhaps better considered as an expansion pack for the title.

What I've been Playing:

COD 2

Uno

Brain Age

Anime News:

Naruto returns to PS2

Rumours from the Far East suggest that the ninja anime series may be returning to PlayStation2 later in 2006...

Posted: 11:29 on 19 Jun 2006

By: Jon Wilcox

With Ubisoft confirming back in April that they are to publish Naruto on Xbox 360, rumours from Japan are emerging that suggest the franchise may be making a return to the PlayStation2.

According to the reports (by way of French publication Jeux-France), Bandai Namco are developing Naruto: Konoha Spirits for Sony's current-gen hardware, with a possible Japanese release in Autumn 2006. Confirmation of the title is yet to be made by the Japanese company.

Con Corner:

AFO in little more than a month.