CES Video Game Announcements in Review

For those not in the know, the Consumer Electronics Show has been taking place over the last few days in Las Vegas. PCs, Consoles, and even portable game machines can easily be brought under the umbrella of consumer electronics, meaning interesting new hardware related announcements have come from the Expo for every major platform, except oddly Nintendo.

The PSP rumors of the addition of Skype have turned out to be true and Sony will be implementing the Voice over IP service to only the new thinner PSP later this month. The US PSP will also be getting the GPS, camera, and keypad accessories. Another interesting addition to the PSP is the ability for PS3 owners to copy a lower resolution version of any Blu-Ray movie to their PSP's memory card, an addition Sony promises to implement in 2008.

Speaking of the PS3, Sony has promised that the most asked for software update will be coming out this year: the ability to use the XMB in game. Taking a page out the Xbox 360's operating system, this Cross Media Bar (XMB) update could potentially allow users to see what their friends are playing and join their online games, all without quitting out of their current game.

Getting the least attention this year, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 will finally be getting Internet Protocol Television (which they announced last year), starting out on the European service provider BT Vision. Unfortunately, Xbox 360 users will not be able to use this service to record or pause live TV (which is what I thought IPTV was for). Microsoft did not announce the fabled "Xbox 360 Ultimate" with internal HD DVD drive, which is probably a good thing considering HD DVD's recent loss of Warner Bros. as a content provider. At least there is the potential of a Blu-Ray player for the Xbox 360.

PC games weren't left out, with Microsoft's announcement of many more "Games for Windows" games including: Alone in the Dark, Bionic Commando, Conflict: Denied Ops, Empire: Total War, LEGO Indiana Jones, Microsoft Train Simulator 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, Space Siege, and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Hardware announced for the PC includes Alienware's awesome looking super wide screen curved display, which is the equivalent of two 24 inch monitors stuck together . iZ3D showed off their innovative 22 inch 3D computer monitor, which unfortunately isn't compatible with SLI or Crossfire, Dual Displays, OpenGL, or 64-bit applications. The idea of truly 3D games is intriguing though.

I'm most excited about the PS3 getting in game XMB, yet another addition that will tempt me into purchasing my own and Alienware's drool worthy curved computer display. Anything catch your interest at CES?

Oh yes, and here is some video of Alienware's swanky new curved display ... I want that:

Posted by Clayton Ashley at 1:30 PM | Comments (4) | Posted to Business | PC | PSP | PlayStation 3 | Xbox |