Sony has released a new firmware update for its PS3 gaming console. The update takes firmware to v4.10 and brings two changes – the first one is the renaming of PSN Account to Sony Entertainment Network Account. The name change Sony says is due to an effort to unify its PlayStation Network (PSN) and other Sony Entertainment Network services.

The second change is on the web browser front which now boasts an improved loading speed.

[Via PlayStation Blog]

Christmas holiday season shoppers would want to add a new gadget to their list this year. Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata confirmed today that the next-generation Wii aka Wii U will be released before end of this year to take advantage of the important holiday season shopping.

Although there are no exact dates, Wii U will make its way to US, Europe, Australia and Japan later this year.

Wii U looks similar to the original Wii but comes with a 6.2-inch touchscreen display that acts as a controller as well as secondary display to play games on.

[Via Reuters]

While we’ve seen many companies trying to capitalize on mobile devices to push their gaming accessories, a French startup known as ePawn is working on something unique called as ePawn Arena. The ePawn Arena brings the game on your iOS or an Android device to a larger screen with a touch and motion-tracking experience.

Apt for board games, ePawn integrates its technology in a normal 26-inch display that makes the display detect touch as well as track game pieces with the help of embedded tags. The tags are integrated in the game pieces, which ePawn will provide or sell them separately to tag any user’s game pieces.

As a proof of concept, ePawn showed us couple of games – Air Hockey and other one was a turn-based war game and the touch responsiveness along with motion tracking was pretty good.

ePawn plans to release the SDK soon for game developers to take advantage of ePawn Arena.

ePawn Arena is expected to launch in the second half of this year for a price of around $300-$400.

Razer showed off its recently unveiled Project Fiona Tablet concept at CES 2012. For the uninitiated, Project Fiona Tablet is a concept design based on Windows OS that will enable an immersive gaming experience.

Although intrinsic specs are a mystery, Razer did confirm to work with Intel to harness the power of the third-gen Intel Core i7 processor. Moreover, Razer has integrated couple of controllers at the side that claims to give an accurate full force feedback.

Razer plans to commercially sell the tablet by end of this year for under $1000.

The Razer Naga Hex features six large thumg buttons optimized for the user interfaces found in action-RPG and MOBA games. With a mechanical key infrastructure that requires less force to actuate, you gain the edge in speed over enemies, attacking before they can react. The Razer Naga Hex is also perfect for obsessive clicking in hack and slash games.

Since both the RPG and MOBA game genres require intensive clicking, the Razer Naga Hex’s buttons are constructed with special switches for a performance of up to 250 clicks per minute – perfect for pro-gamers with lightning fast reflexes.

Ergononically designed, the Naga Hex fits comfortably to your hand. The placement of the six thumb buttons has also been perfected over countless design reiterations, and validated by MOBA pro-gamers to ensure you’re getting the best game control and grip.

The Razer Naga Hex will also be Razer Synapse 2.0 enabled – this means the mouse is installed with the world’s first cloud-based storage software that automatically saves all user custom mouse settings and profiles to a cloud server. These settings can then be accessed from any computer, with any Razer Naga Hex, ensuring that the mouse is ready for use instantly, and setup just the way you like it.

Razer Naga Hex is priced at Rs.4,999 and can be pre-ordered from www.razerone.com with shipping starting from end of January. The device will hit the stores physically in March this year.

Gameloft, a well known publisher of downloadable video games and social networks, unveiled at CES a catalog of five games designed for the next HD TV range Lenovo K91 Smart TV. The K91 Smart TV will ship with three of the best Gameloft games preinstalled: NOVA 2: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, Dungeon Hunter 2 and Asphalt 6 -: Adrenaline. Two other titles, Backstab, and Shadow Guardian will be available for download for users of Lenovo K91 Smart TV from the App Store Lenovo K91 Smart TV. All 5 titles will be released in 720p HD resolution.

Lenovo K91 Smart TV will hit the Chinese market in Q2 2012.

Featuring integrated dual game controllers with ultra-precise analog sticks, Project Fiona runs gamepad-enabled PC games right out of the box. Along with the game controllers, Project Fiona is also designed with ultra-precise accelerometers and a highly sensitive multi-touch screen. This provides game developers with new game experiential opportunities to develop around the hybrid game control experience offered by Project Fiona. It also ensures current-generation PC games run on the tablet concept, as well as any existing games optimized for the touchscreen interface of a tablet.

Developer units of the Project Fiona Concept PC Gaming Tablet will be made available soon. The retail version is expected to ship during 2012 and will be priced below USD 1000.

PS Vita sold half million units to consumers since its launch on December 17, 2011 in Japan and December 23, 2011 in Asia. PS Vita launched concurrently with 24 software titles from both 3rd party developers and publishers and SCE Worldwide Studios.

The PlayStation 3 platform continues to grow in popularity with consumers across the world. The PS3 system exceeded 3.9 million units worldwide during the holiday sales season, and continues to build momentum and remains on track to reach its annual sales target of 15.0 million hardware units worldwide in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012

The PSP platform continued its growth, attracting a broader range of users with its enhanced line-up of software titles from 3rd party developers and publishers as well as from SCE WWS. Worldwide PSP sales exceeded 1.6 million units during the holiday season. The PSP systems continue to perform well with PSP-3000 series, the popular PSP system in Japan and North America, a wide variety of PSP software libraries, and PSP-E1000, exclusively released in Europe and PAL territories without Wi-Fi connectivity feature at an attractive price point of €99 in November 2011.

SCE will continue to deploy various measures to further expand the PlayStation business with strong support from users as well as 3rd party developers and publishers, and will vigorously enhance the world of computer entertainment system that is possible only on the PlayStation platforms.

Gametel, a gaming accessory by Fructel, besides supporting Android OS now supports iOS devices. Gametel is a Bluetooth controller that transforms your iPhone or iPad into portable gamimg console.

Compatible with Apple iPhone running iOS 4.0 or later and Apple iPad running iOS 3.2 or later, Gametel supports hundreds of arcade titles from the iCADE suite, including classics like Missile Commander, Asteroids, Centipede, Pong, Super Breakout, Lunar Lander and Warlords.

Alongside these retro titles, other selected iOS games, such as No Gravity, Silverfish, Super Crossfire HD and Terra Noctis, are also available to download from Apple’s iTunes App Store.

Gametel connects to the device via Bluetooth while a built-in adjustable spring-loaded clamp allows secure docking of any Android handset and iPhone. Once paired the Gametel automatically connects to the device every time it is powered on.

With a familiar controller design, Gametel’s D-pad, quartet of buttons and two shoulder triggers replicate console-style gaming controls; an impressive nine hour battery life provides more than enough playing time for long journeys and weekly commutes.

Gametel driver is available to download free from Android Market. The Gametel iOS app is currently in testing with Apple for inclusion on the Apple iTunes Appstore.

Gametel can be pre-ordered from Amazon UK for 49.99 GBP.

Sony launched the PlayStation Vita in Japan this weekend and it seems they sold pretty well. According to the numbers from research firm, Enterbrain, Sony managed to sell 321,400 units in the first two days of its launch.

This although, is less than Nintendo 3DS’ 371,000 units for the same period, Reuters says Sony gives a good choice of 24 games to choose from, which may save them from the drastic slump in sales like 3DS that forced Nintendo to drop the price.