Quite possibly the next best thing to owning a cell phone.
 

Sony has announced a new firmware update for the PSP-2000 (it's the slimmer and lighter version that recently hit the market for those of you wondering), giving users the ability to make free calls over the Internet via Skype. This new capability is available as a free system software upgrade, giving the existing PSP-2000 userbase the ability to connect with the millions of Skype users around the world.

Today's announcement also revealed that PSP owners looking to contact non-Skype users can also purchase Skype Credit, available for purchase at http://www.skype.com. With Skype Out, calls can be made to any landline or mobile number around the world. 

There are two ways to pay for SkypeOut:

·         Pay As You Go: Place a pre-paid amount of Skype Credit in your account and then refill it as you need it. It’s just 2.1 cents per minute to Skype’s 30 most popular destinations around the world.

·         Pay Monthly: Sign up for the Skype Pro™ premium subscription for just $3.00/month. This gives you free calling to landlines and mobile phones within the U.S. and Canada (with no connection fee**); a discounted rate for a personal online number (SkypeIn) to receive calls; voicemail; and other features, such as the ability to pay nothing per minute for local calls when travelling to 29 other countries (connection fee** applies).

You can also purchase a personal online number so you can receive calls wherever you are in the world with a subscription to SkypeIn for $60.00/year or $18.00/three months (save $36 on this feature with a Skype Pro subscription).

For more details, visit the official Skype website.

Best retro pack, evar! 

Could I get away with calling this the SNK Megat0n? No… well too bad because I think this is going to be on every diehard SNK fan's list this year. SNK Arcade Classics: Volume 1 offers a diverse range of action, sports, shooters and beat 'em ups; the perfect combination for retro enthusiasts, old-school vets or anyone who simply appreciates 2D gaming at its best. Check out what's packed in the first edition:

• Art of Fighting - The first game in SNK's second fighting-game franchise, set in the same universe as FATAL FURY.
• Baseball Stars 2 - The sequel to SNK's popular baseball arcade game.
• Burning Fight - New York detectives battle organized crime in this fighter.
• Fatal Fury - First released in 1991, FATAL FURY introduced the two-plane fighting system.
• King of Fighters '94 - The first game in the popular KING OF FIGHTERS series.
• King of the Monsters - In KING OF THE MONSTERS, giant monsters fight for power in epic battles.
• Last Resort - A challenging futuristic shooter.
• Magician Lord - Players help the wizard Elta save his homeworld in this platformer.
• Metal Slug - Known for its humor and fast- moving gameplay, this run-and-gun side-scroller was the first in the popular series.
• Neo Turf Masters - A golf game which debuted on the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999.
• Samurai Showdown - Set in the 18th century, SAMURAI SHODOWN features bladed-weapon combat and an international cast of characters.
• Sengoku- In SENGOKU, players face off against undead feudal Japanese armies.
• Shock Troopers - In this run-and-gun adventure, players save a scientist and his granddaughter from the Bloody Scorpions.
• Super Sidekicks 3 - A soccer game featuring teams from all over the world.
• Top Hunter - Bounty hunters protect colonists from space pirates in this futuristic action game.
• World Heroes - This classic fighter pits players against historical figures in a tournament enabled by time travel.

SNK Arcade Classics is currently in development for the PS2 and PSP. What? No love for the 360? Well don't act too surprised, we all know Microsoft's stance on 2D gaming. Or do we? Either way, someone needs to sign some checks, petition or just do a lot of yelling to bring this over to the 360.

No official date has been penciled in at this time, however the press release hints at a "first quarter of 2008" which suggests it should arrive in the next two or three months. 

Exciting stuff if you can't get enough of statistical figures.

If you've been curious how Sony's market share with its console and handheld division, the latest figures below reveal a rather interesting portrait of success as reported by the November 2007 NPD sales data. A few of the highlights which stood out and was generously bolded by Sony's PR division indicate the PS3 had the biggest increase of any hardware platform in between the months of October to November. Reportedly, 466K PS3 units were sold in November… a 285% increase over previous month's sales. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare stood out as one of huge hits this holiday season with 444K units sold, followed by Assassin's Creed with 377K units. All of this sounds great on paper and hopefully means that third-party developers will focus on bringing A-class gaming to the PS3 instead of exclusively hooking up the Xbox 360.

I'd go over the PSP and classic PlayStation info, but that would defeat the purpose of this article. Read on for the full NPD report:

Hardware Momentum (PS3, PS2 and PSP)

**For the month of November, PlayStation hardware unit sales reached more than 1.5 million units, an increase of 160% when compared to last month's unit sales (October 2007).

**PlayStation total hardware revenue was $373 million in November, sales dollars increased by 170% compared to last month's sales.

**For the month of November, PlayStation console sales reached 962K units.

**466K PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) hardware units were sold in November, a 285% increase over the previous month's sales. PS3 had the biggest October to November sales increase of any hardware platform.

**PlayStation 2 (PS2) also experienced great momentum in November, hardware unit sales reached 496K, a 170% increase over last month's sales.  Since its release in North America on Oct. 26, 2000, more than 120 million hardware units and more than a billion units of PlayStation 2 software have sold worldwide, making it the best-selling gaming platform ever released.

**According to the latest Nielsen data (April – November 2007), PS2 is the most played videogame console averaging 42.2% usage minutes compared to 11.8% for Xbox 360 and 5.5% for Wii.

**PSP (PlayStation Portable) continues to experience strong sales momentum with new pricing and the availability of new entertainment packs.  In November, 567K PSP hardware units were sold, nearly a 100% increase over last month sales.

Software Momentum (PS3, PS2 and PSP)

**PlayStation total software revenue in November was $414 million, sales dollars increased by 128% compared to last month's sales.

**In November, retail dollars from PS3 sales totaled $138 million, a 192% increase over last month's sales.

**PlayStation had three software titles in the top ten list across all consoles: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for PS2 sold 966K units, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for PS3 sold 444K units and Assassin’s Creed for PS3 sold 377K units.

PLAYSTATION Network Momentum

**Just one year after launch, there are more than 3 million registered PLAYSTATION Network users worldwide who have downloaded more than 60 million pieces of content.

**In North America alone there are more than 1.8 million registered users who have downloaded more than 34.5 million pieces of content.

**A recent PLAYSTATION Network price promotion for Calling all Cars™, Everyday Shooter™, flOw™ and Pixel Junk Racers™ resulted in a combined 920% increase in total downloads

The Neo-Geo is reborn on every console on the market. 

If the impending releases of Neo Geo Coliseum and King of Fighters XI wasn't enough to get your SNK fill, the home of fighting excellence has announced a flood of titles coming to the US shores in the near future.

"We're pleased to once again be bringing fans more of the quality fighting and great arcade games they've come to expect from us," said Ben Herman, president of SNK PLAYMORE USA CORPORATION, "and with the addition of a number of downloadable console titles, SNK aficionados will have even more options available to them."

No kidding.  Here's the big list:

THE KING OF FIGHTERS COLLECTION: THE OROCHI SAGA (Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP)
METAL SLUG 7 (Nintendo DS)
SNK ARCADE CLASSICS Volume 1 (PlayStation 2, PSP)
SAMURAI SHODOWN ANTHOLOGY (Wii, PlayStation 2)
METAL SLUG 3 (Xbox LIVE Arcade)
SAMURAI SHODOWN 2(Xbox LIVE Arcade)
FATAL FURY (Wii Virtual Console)
WORLD HEROES (Wii Virtual Console)
MAGICIAN LORD (Wii Virtual Console)

In addition to these console titles, they've reaffirmed a selection of arcade newcomers:

THE KING OF FIGHTERS XII
KING OF FIGHTERS: MAXIMUM IMPACT REGULATION "A" 2
SAMURAI SHOWDOWN SEN (JAPANESE TITLE)

Heading to PSP, DS, and Cell Phones next year.

SquareEnix's biggest announcement at TGS so far is the further expansion of the Kingdom Hearts series in the form of three new portable titles: Birth By Sleep for PSP, 358/2 Days for DS, and Coded for mobile phones. 

Birth By Sleep seems to be the most straightforward of the three, playing much like it's PS2 predecessors, while telling a prequel story.

358/2 Days (is that supposed to be pronounced "179 Days"?) will apparently focus on 4 player simultaneous play involving members of Organization XIII and will be fully 3D, not sprite based like the GBA's Chain of Memories. Word is the title will make sense when you play the game. Hey, any title that doubles as a math problem has piqued my interest.

Coded is the obligatory cell phone game that, like Before Crisis, Parasite Eve 3, and FF Agito XIII, no one outside of Japan will ever get to play. Do you really need to know any more than that?

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