Read this article. It is an interview with George Harrison of Nintendo, outlining launch procedures for the Revolution.

Apparently, Nintendo is adamant about not repeating the glorious lifespan of the Nintendo Gamecube, which saw unremarkable titles within the launch period, and is now dying off slowly and painfully as it waits for its one final release of any major significance, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The Gamecube did quite well in console sales, but has been extremely disappointing for gamers due to a lack of consistent strong release titles. The most recent releases of any value included Chibi Robo, and Odama.

Hopefully, with enough planning and third-party support, the Revolution can impress gamers much more than its predecessor. It seems absolutely vital to its survival, especially considering the bizarre control scheme.

GoNintendo.com is showing an image of a Nintendo DS TV Tuner that is scheduled to go on sale in Japan on April 29th.

Take a look at it.

The tuner - as a seperate unit - is absolutely massive and has a single, old-school, “rabbit-ear” antenna. The TV Tuner in itself is so bulky, that it might be more beneficial to carry a portable power supply and a fourteen inch television. I mean, really, adding a giant black box to the bottom of your tiny DS system in no way makes the system a good portable television.

There was a better tuner announced. They have a concept sketch up on the same article. Now, it looks reasonable. A simple flash card/tv tuner attachment that will allow your Nintendo DS to watch TV, without giving the impression that you are babysitting some sort of retarded offspring of the Nintendo DS and a fridge.

With this poor TV Tuner design, I can see the Nintendo DS as a television becoming immediately unpopular. I mean, how can you market that?

“In the eighties, carrying around a giant boom box was cool. Want to relive the sensation of giant retro electronics? Nintendo DS Television Tuners…Touching Your 800lb System Is Good…and You Look Less Shallow.”

A brief tidbit of news on the PSP2 appeared on Gaming Evolution, claiming that the smart and sassy new portable will not be a rebuild of the original PSP, but will be a new system unto itself.

It is said that the portable will have a built in hard drive, and will not support the UMD format. This is likely due to a huge sag in UMD movie sales due to their expensive price point. With the built in hard drive, many might wonder if Sony is considering a completely online-centric service for their next portable akin to Apple’s download service, with complete access to their movies, music and games for the PSP2.

It would make sense, and I think they could justify the cost.

It is said it wont be out for three years, so by the time it hits shelves, more people will have access to a broadband connection and will therefore be able to access the network.

I’d like to point out though, that this was from “an inside source” which is more than likely some fanboy who thinks he knows the industry. Gaming Evolution is traditionally a breeding ground for rumors.

Oh well, we’ll see how things turn out.

Lucent is suing Microsoft again for infringing on a patented video decoder used in the XBox 360 for the MPEG2 format. Lucent filed the patent in mid-1993 (apparently, despite the company only being founded in 1995) and it attempted to sue Microsoft last year, but the case was dismissed due to a typographical error in the patent.

Lucent corrected the error and is now taking Microsoft to the courts, insisting that they recall all XBox 360 units currently on the market. I have no doubt that, now that Microsoft is backed into a corner, that this will simply end in a more than ample cash payout to Lucent, and Microsoft will continue on their merry way.

Microsoft settled out of court in regards to the dual shock controller style that Sony is still being sued for, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a similar conclusion to this debacle.

I’ve touched on the topic briefly in the past, but it has recently resurfaced in a article linked to by Gametab. Apparently, Sony has let out some early pictures of their PSP Download Service, which will allow you to download original PSOne games to your PSP through your PS3.

Complicated? Perhaps.

A bit of a bummer that you have to have a $700 US dollar PS3 in order to get these PSOne games? Absolutely.

But - on top of all of that - each individual PSOne game costs $15 US to download, with no definitive word on deleted files being redownloaded for free.

I suppose the PSP download service will not be as convenient as previously believed, since most PSOne games (at least the good ones) can be found for less than $18 bucks Canadian at used game dealers, and I don’t really care about taking Resident Evil 2 on the go.

And it does not even concern the North American release. We’re still talking about delays in Japan, which I once believed to be a blissful utopia of awesome, where anything was possible.

Unfortunately, that “anything” seems to include frequent delays of the next installment in Namco’s “Tales of…” series, Tales of the Tempest, which was originally scheduled for release in April. The date was pushed back to June, and has since been slated as “the end of 2006”.

This is unfortunate, because that indicates that it wont turn up in stores in North America until April of 2007 at the latest, depending on how close to the end one might consider “the end of 2006”.

I’ve been looking forward to this game, since there hasn’t been a decent “new” Tales release since Symphonia. Sure, Legendia was an honest effort but it stripped away a lot of the core gameplay elements inspired by Symphonia, leaving a bland and shriveled morsel that was detestable when consumed. While Phantasia has been a treat to play, it was not technically new but is - instead - a reworking of Namco’s original title.

And there are other titles in the “Tales of…” series, namely Tales of Rebirth and Tales of the Abyss, but these never made it stateside. And, since I have no patience to study and learn the Japanese language (both text and audio), I can only wait for Tales of the Tempest which has had a North American release alluded to.

Oh well. I’ve got a massive list of games to beat anyway.