A new study from Ireland’s Research and Markets forecasts that Sony will continue to dominate the market for console video gaming through the year 2010, although its lead will probably shrink in the face of competition from Microsoft and Nintendo.
According to the study’s predictions, Sony’s forthcoming Playstation 3 console will account for just over half the installed base of next-generation gaming consoles, with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gobbling up 28.6 percent of the market and Nintendo’s soon-to-be-renamed Revolution controlling 21.2 percent. The report puts Microsoft ahead of Nintendo due to the earlier launch of the Xbox 360 console and the company’s capability to outship Nintendo.
The report doesn’t forecast that the peak sales for any year through 2010 will exceed yearly sales for years past, although it posits that, overall, sales of next-generation console systems will eventually exceed sales of current-generation video game systems as the overall market grows.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.