Big Sam will take over early next week on a contract which could be worth £3million a year.

Allardyce said afterwards: “It was a good meeting and my agent will speak to Newcastle again over the next few days to discuss matters further.”

That will simply be to fine-tune the contract details before Newcastle make an official announcement.

Shepherd added to pals: “The club needs a lift and Sam is the nearest I’ve seen to a replica of Joe Harvey.”

Harvey was the last manager to bring silverware to Tyneside by winning the old Fairs Cup — the forerunner to the UEFA Cup — back in 1969.

Shepherd also said: “I’m excited, Sam’s excited and we’re looking forward to making this work.

“We had a good meeting and we will continue discussions over the weekend but everything went OK. You don’t wrap up something like this in two minutes.”

Speculation has been rife Big Sam was being lined up for the St James’ hotseat but SunSport’s pictures are the first concrete evidence.

Allardyce quit Bolton after eight years as boss just two weeks ago. The next week, Glenn Roeder was axed as Toon manager. Shepherd then set to work on landing Allardyce.

He contacted Bolton chairman Phil Gartside yesterday. Gartside did not pick up the call so Shepherd left a message.

Shepherd had promised he would let Gartside know if he wanted Allardyce.

It will be a case of third-time lucky for Newcastle in their pursuit of Big Sam.

A combination of his loyalty to Bolton and Shepherd’s reluctance to get into a poaching row have stopped it happening before.

Exactly what Kutaragi means about the PS4, 5 and 6 ‘merging into the network’ is unclear, especially when he told eetimes.com that: “The design concept of the Cell processor is the network processor. Now it has become possible, so why not enter?”

Now that Kutaragi will soon part ways with Sony, eetimes.com reported that while “he will maintain an amicable relationship”, future projects will “largely be independent of Sony”. Specifically, Kutaragi told eetimes.com that: “Now I’m ready to start working with a much wider world”.

As for the reason why Kutaragi did not speak of the PS3’s successors earlier, aside from the obvious reason we can think of that they needed to get the PS3 out the door first and spoke about the PS3 being a platform for the next 10 years, Kutarai told eetimes.com that: “I could not talk about the next step. We’ve introduced PS3 in Europe, so now I can openly talk about” [future plans].

Precisely what effect this slightly startling news will have on upcoming PS3 sales, if any, is unclear. Chances are they’ll have no effect whatsoever, as any PS3 successor is likely to be at the very least 3 to 5 years away, given the traditional games console life-span of around 5 years, and given the enormous latent power that is meant to be packed within each and every PS3, just waiting for advanced games programming techniques to unleash it onto a high-def gaming hungry hardcore gamer world.

Still, at least Kutaragi has kept up his reputation for saying really interesting things that definitely have kept him in the headlines over the years, and especially so in the PS3 era.

Ken Kutaragi is most definitely a legend in the world of Sony and in the world of console gaming. Clearly we haven’t heard the last from him yet!

Microsoft has disclosed the time of launch of its eagerly-awaited Xbox 360 video game console, both for India and Africa. The company has also announced the time of launch and pricing for its external high-definition (HD) DVD player for the Xbox 360 in Japan. Making the announcement in Tokyo in Japan, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Peter Moore, revealed that Xbox 360 would be launched in India this week, and in Africa the following week. The external HD DVD player is designed as an add-on for the Xbox 360, and will be launched in Japan in November 2006. It will ship for around 19,800 Yen, which is approximately Rs 7,740, together with a universal media remote. Microsoft believes the HD DVD player will appeal to both, existing as well as new owners of the Xbox 360. Besides, existing Xbox owners will be able to purchase the HD DVD player for just $168 (Rs 7,691). According to reports, the new HD DVD player qualifies as the cheapest one on the market so far, the catch being it can be used only with Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Specially for the Japanese market, the company intends to ship around 50 exclusive game titles, including the two new role playing games, Trusty Bell from Namco Bandai, and Infinite Discovery from the Tri-Ace stable that have already been announced. Additionally, Microsoft has revealed that the Autumn software update for Xbox 360 will enable the console to output game and movie content in nearly 1080p resolution.

NINTENDO will start selling its new Wii video game console in the US on November 19 for about $US250 ($330), as it girds for a three-way Christmas showdown with Microsoft and Sony.

The third-ranked console maker faces stiff competition in the $US30 billion interactive game industry. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has been available since November and Sony’s PlayStation 3 is slated for a November 17 North American release at two price levels: $US500 and $US600.

The PlayStation 3 will appear in Australian in March.

The Wii’s launch will be the first time Nintendo has debuted a console in the United States rather than at home in Japan. Wii, about the size of a hardcover book, will hit stores in Japan on December 2 in Japan and cost ¥25,000 ($282).

“We will make a profit on the entire Wii proposition out of the box - hardware and software,” Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime said.

Nintendo, once the game industry leader and renowned for the “Donkey Kong,” “Mario Brothers” and “Pokemon” game franchises, is hoping to recreate the more recent success of its Game Boy Advance and DS hand-held game machines.

The Wii features an innovative and intuitive one-hand controller, described by some as a magic wand. Nintendo also will offer a “nunchuk,” which plugs into the controller and enables two-handed play.

While its rivals strive to deliver sophisticated high-definition graphics on powerful, high-speed machines, Nintendo aims to expand the overall pool of gamers by offering an innovative controller and accessible, easy-to-play games.

Strong demand for the DS and its ground-breaking titles like pet-training game “Nintendogs,” in 2005 helped the Japanese game market post growth for the first time in five years.

“By making it quite natural for everyone in a household to use a game console on a daily basis, we are now taking a second step toward the expansion of the game population,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a news conference.

Nintendo plans to ship 4 million Wii units by year end, roughly twice Sony’s shipment plans for the PS3. Microsoft has said it will have 10 million Xbox 360s to market by year end.

Nintendo said 30 games will be available for the Wii by the end of the year, with about half at launch. Prices for the games will run around $US50, $US10 less than many Xbox 360 games.

The Wii’s one-handed controller looks like a TV remote and uses a motion-detection sensor that allow players to control the game by wielding it like a sword, waving it like a conductor’s baton, or swinging it like a baseball bat or a tennis racket.

“This is the first console that really, truly everyone can play,” Sam Kennedy, the head of video game website 1UP.com, said after the news conference in Japan. “Getting rid of the barrier of the (conventional) controller is a huge deal.”

The console comes out of the box bundled with a “Wii Sports” game and a nunchuck.

The Wii announcement was largely expected as Nintendo had said it would launch the console in the final quarter of 2006 at ¥25,000 or less in Japan and $US250 or cheaper in the United States. It aims to sell 6 million units by March.

The company said there would be 16 software titles from 10 developers available at the Japan launch including “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” by Nintendo itself.

Nintendo expects the latest instalment of the blockbuster software to sell for ¥6,800 apiece in Japan. Other launch titles include “Red Steel” by UbiSoft and games from publishers including Activision and Electronic Arts.

Nintendo also introduced “Wii Channels,” a feature that extends the capabilities of the device to allow users to view photos, watch video, surf the Internet and perform other PC-like activities.

“As a consumer you have to be excited by the $US250 price. Relative to the PS3 and 360, it’s a bargain,” said Mike Hickey, analyst at Janco Partners.

Sony plans to offer a version of its PlayStation 3 console with a 20GB hard disk in Japan on November 11 for ¥62,790, and in the United States on November 17 for $US500.

Australian and European gamers, however, will have to wait until March to lay their hands on the PS3, as Sony last week delayed that launch due to inadequate supplies of a key component.

The delay means the Japanese electronics maker will miss the critical Christmas shopping season in a key market, which could help Nintendo and Microsoft gain ground.

Let’s turn back in time and remember what caused the previous delays. First, PS3 was meant to conquer the world and smash its opponents back in 2005. No. It didn’t happen. Microsoft on the other hand managed to release Xbox 360 and it now has a very strong momentum on the market compared to PS3 and even Wii. Moreover, Microsoft reports impressive numbers concerning Xbox: more than 50 million downloads were made from Xbox Live on September 1st;

Xbox Live hosted more than 2 million hours of gameplay (this is equivalent to 228 years of online gaming in the first seven days alone); an average of 1.3 million text and voice messages are sent via Xbox Live every day, with half a billion messages sent amongst the Xbox Live community per year; and the list goes on…

What does Sony boast with? Well…nothing. No Blu-Ray, no PS3- this is what Sony officials are probably thinking. According to the most recent official statement, the decision to postpone the launch date in Europe was taken following “the delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PlayStation 3.”

But the Blu Ray issue was exactly the same back in March 2006, when they first announced the simultaneous world wide launch of their long-expected gadget! Is it so serious that in more than 7 months they couldn’t deal with it? And let’s be frank: an official statement of this importance for Sony will always try to “sweeten” things instead of revealing the real dimension of the disaster, wouldn’t you agree? If I were an important company that couldn’t keep my promises or keep up with my competitors I would definitely try to reduce the impact of another lie, isn’t it?

And why is it a lie? Well, what rational human being would now believe that Sony WILL meet its latest goals (500,000 consoles totally, 100,000 in Japan and 400,000 in US)? What credibility does Sony boast with now (at least concerning PS3)?

Let me remind you another case of Sony lie: in July, there were some rumors about Sony’s gaming console being already in production at some of its Chinese partners.

Both Apple Daily and Commercial Times (Chinese-language newspapers) have spoken in their articles about the fact that Asustek Computer had already begun shipping PlayStation3 to Sony. Apparently this initial shipment had debuted at the beginning of July, in a small volume at start, but expected to rise until November 11, PS3’s (still) official launch date.

The publications were speaking about an actual monthly shipment of 200,000 units, which should gradually increase up to 2 million pieces by October 2006. The total amount of PlayStation3 consoles established by contract is 4 million pieces for 2006. They were all to be delivered in due time to meet customers’ demand for the Christmas shopping season…

Moreover, Phil Harrison President, Worldwide Studios at SCEI confirmed the report in one of his statements from the beginning of August: “It’s all going well. We are in full swing, from a developer point of view, and over 10000 development kits have been shipped. Developers now have final hardware in their hands, though there will be some upgrades to the operating system – there’s nothing unusual about that. The new controller is now in developers’ hands, so all the pieces of the puzzle are there.”

But, surprise! Sony Computer Entertainment US president Kaz Hirai admitted in late August that PlayStation3 has still not entered the production phase…

“We haven’t started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going. We’ve not announced and we haven’t set really a specific date to say, ‘As of this day we’re going to start manufacturing’ “.

Sony’s PR department tried to fix Kirai’s slip-up in a press release: “Unfortunately Kaz Hirai’s comments in the recent interview regarding PlayStation 3 production were misunderstood. We are still on schedule to ship 2 million units for our mid-November 2006 launch and additional 2 million units by the end of the year for a total of 4 million units.”

Whatta difference from that announcement to the one they gave last week! We’re talking more than 1,500,000 consoles simply vanishing into ether! And even worse, we are talking about the biggest gaming market in the world (which numerically speaking is Europe) left out! Houston, we have a problem…

There is a lot to say about what European gamers are now thinking and what they’ll be thinking when eventually (…) PS3 comes out. It will be even worse than what happened when Xbox 360 was launched with the same type of shortages in November 2005. But back then, gamers in search for next-gen games and a console to play them had only one choice: the Xbox 360. By the time Sony will have its PS3 on the market, Xbox 360 will have already gained a lot of fans and game developers, will have already prepared an HD-DVD player to compete with the PS3’s Blu ray drive, will have already packed a lot of attractive titles (Halo 3, Gears of War, the Xbox version of F.E.A.R. …) and will have already offered its XNA Game Studio Express program, an offshoot of the company’s more robust XNA Framework, which allows users to (almost) create their own game.

Gamers all over the world will feel frustrated, with Europeans on the first place. And they will definitely remember what a Microsoft official said at E3 this year: that there is no use in buying a PS3 since for the same price you get an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii. How much would you bet on the fact that in March 2007 PS3 will register disastrous sells in the European space?…

And let’s not forget Nintendo Wii since I mentioned it. A post-E3 poll organized by Famitsu, the ultimate gaming magazine in Japan revealed something no one would suspect: Nintendo Wii tops Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in customers’ preferences.

The big question was, “What gaming hardware are you looking forward to the most?” The Nintendo Wii did three times better than its closest competition. Wii: 68.8%, PS3: 21%, Xbox 360: 7.2%, and NDS: 3%. As for the price of the future PS3, 88.4% said the price is too high, 10.9% said the price is appropriate and only 0.7% said the console is inexpensive. And just think that this is a poll from one of the world’s richest countries and the traditional dominant market for Sony Playstation…

All in all, PlayStation 3 has small chances of fulfilling the prophecy made by Yankee Group, that it will win by 2011 the gaming-consoles war.  I honestly feel sorry for Sony because I know they have tried their best to offer to their faithful fans the best product ever. But they ended up totally covering themselves with shame and this calls for some high-ranked heads to fall. Otherwise, even the most true-blue fans will dump PS3 and a chain reaction will ignite, causing Sony to painfully remember the Betamax-VHS lost battle.

In answer to the question comparing Wii and PS3 price differential, Hirai says: “You also have to realize that we have a very strong, market-leading console called the PlayStation 2, which is at a very affordable price right now. Consumers will also understand that if you buy a PlayStation 2 right now, and you make some software investments, when you feel it’s right to move onto PlayStation 3, those software titles aren’t going to go by the wayside.”
Okay, so the consumer who can’t afford the PS3 is going to look at prices of the consoles and say to himself, “Sure, the Wii is cheaper, but if I buy this last generation Sony console I can upgrade to a PS3 when I have the money!”
Hmmm. That doesn’t sound like a particularly sound business strategy.

The Wii console from Japanese gaming giant Nintendo will cost under 250 euros (£170) in Europe, according to a senior executive at the company.

The figure is the first time the games giant has given a European price. Bernd Fakesch, head of German operations at the company, mentioned the figure in an interview at the Leipzig Game Convention in Germany. In May, the company said the console would cost 25,000 yen or lower in Japan and $250 (£133) or less in the US.

When it is released later this year, the Wii console will compete with Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. No exact date for the Wii’s launch has been given.

The Wii console, formerly known as the Revolution, was unveiled at this year’s E3 games expo in Los Angeles.

The console features a controller that looks like a TV remote control and uses motion sensors to allow gamers to use it as a tennis racket, sword or conductors baton, for example.

At its launch no price or release date was set.

In May this year, the company released its financial results and confirmed the American and Japanese prices. It omitted a European price.

On Wednesday, Nintendo held a press conference at the Leipzig Games Convention titled “Wii prove our promise”. Many industry observers expected Nintendo to confirm a European price and launch date at the event. It did not.

However, speaking to Reuters at the event Mr Fakesch said: “The price has not been decided yet, but I expect it to be … less than 250 euros.”

The price is considerably less than the cost of Sony’s PlayStation 3, which will hit European shelves on 17 November this year.

A basic version of Sony’s console with a 20GB hard drive will cost $499 (£266), while a premium model boasting 60GB of storage will sell for $599 (£320).

The exact price in Britain has not been announced but the head of Sony Computer Entertainment in the UK has suggested it could be around £425.

Pre orders of the next generation consoles are on offer for £550 ($1,020) at online shop, play.com.

Prices for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which went on sale last November, start at $299 in the US and £209 in the UK.

Both offerings from Microsoft and Sony boast more gaming power than the Wii.

But Nintendo says it aims to win over gamers with an affordable price and innovative titles.

The Japanese company hopes to sell 4 million consoles by the end of 2006.

Sony’s PlayStation 2 controls approximately 70 percent of the current-generation market, with GameCube and Xbox evenly splitting the final 30 percent. The prediction is based on the belief that Microsoft will lower the 360’s price next year, pressuring Sony to do the same with its US$600 console.

While the three current consoles combined for sales of roughly 140 million systems worldwide, the Yankee Group puts next-generation sales numbers at less than half that amount through 2011. Despite maintaining the same market share, the analysts put total Wii sales at 11 million units, about 10 million units less than GameCube.

The Wii (pronounced wee) sports an innovative controller: To hit a tennis ball, you swing it like a racket; to drive an SUV over treacherous terrain, you twist it like a steering wheel; to shoot a duck, you point it like a pistol. Getting consumers to try it - and jump-start Nintendo’s ambitious plan to trump Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3 - falls to Reginald Fils-Aime, 45, Nintendo of America’s new president and chief operating officer.

Fils-Aime (pronounced FEES-oe-MEY) knows pop culture. Prior to joining the company in 2003, he worked at Procter & Gamble, Pizza Hut and MTV. He spoke to USA TODAY about why he believes Nintendo, the top maker of handheld video game players, can retake top dog status in the billion-dollar industry it helped create 20 years ago.

  Question: What made Nintendo try to do something dramatically different with the Wii?

Answer: Our focus is interactive game play, a whole new way to play, that puts fun back into this business. It allows everybody to pick up and play and isn’t focused on the core gamer.

Q: The Wii seems to emphasize the controller, not heavy attention on graphics. Is that by design?

A: That is exactly by design. Our visuals for Wii will look fantastic, but in the end, prettier pictures will not bring new gamers and casual gamers into this industry. It has to be about the ability to pick up a controller, not be intimidated, and have fun immediately. The trick is being able to do that, not only with the new casual gamer, but do it in a way that the core gamer gets excited as well.

Q: Microsoft has made the comment that people can buy an Xbox 360 and Wii for about the same price as a PlayStation 3. Would you mind terribly if that happened?

A: I’d much rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, vs. buying any of my competitor’s products.

Q: A few years ago, Nintendo made a conscious decision to lie low when Microsoft introduced Xbox Live and began promoting its subscription online gaming service. In retrospect, does that look like a good decision?

A: I wasn’t here. What I can tell you is the way we’ve approached online play now is really with a view to the masses. With Nintendo DS (a dual-screen handheld player), for example, we offer free Internet play in a wide-ranging series of games. Our focus is getting as many consumers to enjoy that online experience as possible. And we’ve done that.

Q: You’re not pursuing a subscription model?

A: We view online gaming as essentially an enhanced way to enjoy the gaming experience and drive more sales of hardware and software.

Q: How do you extend your online strategy to Wii?

A: It’s the same premise. We will offer online-enabled games that the consumers will not have to pay a subscription fee for. They’ll be able to enjoy that right out of the box. The Wii console is going to be Wi-Fi enabled, so essentially, you’ll be able to plug it in and go. It won’t have hidden fees or costs.

Q: What is your plan for getting folks who aren’t normally interested in video games to try the Wii?

A: We need to get the consumer to admire what we’ve done. We need them to say to themselves, “Wow, this new Wii console by Nintendo is really interesting!” And they need to try it. They need to get bought into the proposition.

Q: Your background is in marketing. Without divulging competitive secrets, can you characterize your marketing plan?

A: It’s going to be massive amounts of hands-on activity, as well as showcasing exactly how Wii games are different. We’re going to create advocacy. We’re going to make it so that everyone who tries the Wii experience talks to their friends and neighbors. It’s going to be a really provocative sight to be seeing teens and 20-year-olds and 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds talking about how different this experience is.

Q: What can you tell us about timing and price?

A: We’re well on our way to sharing all of that information with our retailers and our licensees. We’ll be sharing that information publicly later on.

Q: Can the Wii take Nintendo back to the top of the mountain?

A: Our goal is to have as many teens and young adults as we have 40-plus-year-olds excited about the platform. We’re trying to expand this business here in the U.S in a way that it really hasn’t been expanded … for the health of this industry.

Q: Sounds like you’re more focused on new customers and not necessarily taking share from the other guys.

A: The interesting thing is if you do expand the market, you do both. You grow the category, but you’ll also dramatically increase your market share. As an example, Nintendo DS in Japan outsells all of our competitors by a factor of five to one. We are so far in advance of our handheld competitors that they’re not even on the map. That’s all based on a market expansion strategy. And that’s what we’re looking to do with home consoles.

Q: How do you handicap your competitors; what worries you most about them?

A: Our competitors are both going down the same path. Both believe that more and more performance with a higher and higher price tag are their keys to success. So what do I see? I think our two competitors will trade share between them, while we go off and grab share in a completely different way.