GameSetPics: British Gaming 'Gems', Part 2
July 9, 2007 12:02 AM | Simon Carless
So, following the first in the series in which, rather than quizzing EA about Spielberg's latest (pah, breaking news!), we wander around some British video game stores taking pictures of obscure games, we're getting on with some more randomness, as follows:

In the States, it's still incredibly hard to find a Nintendo Wii in stock, and I sense it's been the same in England until very recently, because I saw several signs at stores here in London triumphantly proclaiming that the Wii was available again - this one outside an HMV. Nintendo's worldwide success continues, then.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe continues to do an amazing job of making European punters happy with casual-focused games, firstly with the EyeToy titles, and more recently, the Singstar karaoke series. Singstar finally made it to the States recently, and the Buzz! quiz/mini-game series is another set of games that SCEA is being slow to pick up on. Here's a recent one, Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam, kiddie-focused and doing a great casual-spanning job.

Yet more SCEE bounty, this time a series of city guides for the PSP - a really cool idea which again targets the casual. Is it my imagination, or does SCEE understand the concept of the wider market so much better than the other Sony divisions? Or is there just something different with the U.S. market that makes it less willing or able to 'get' concepts like Buzz!, Singstar, and these guides?
Anyhow, stay tuned for a couple more in this series, including a look at Touch Generations' advertising in the UK and a UMD title that you'll never ever see outside of Europe. Fun!
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5 Comments
I am anxiously waiting for action shots of you, Simon, playing Love and Berry.
alice | July 9, 2007 1:04 AM
If you pass one of those passport PSP things again, can you check to see if they are region coded? .I'm in the US, with a US PSP, and this is something I might find useful.
TJ2000 | July 9, 2007 10:48 AM
Pretty sure the Passport things are not region encoded because they are interactive, not UMD movies, and all PSP games are region free.
I also found out today that many UK UMD movies are Region 0 - very neat! More on this soon.
simonc | July 9, 2007 12:54 PM
i'm pretty sure the DS has had things like the city guides for quite awhile. in japan they use the DS for everything, including cooking recipes, kanji dictionaries, english dictionaries, calendars, address books, etc. i personally feel that some of those things would sell extremely well here in the U.S. specifically the calendars, address books, dictionaries, etc. since i think the base for DS users is quite broad here and i know many adults, especially parents and even some grandparents that already own a DS. it would basically be like a palm pilot, but at 130 bucks MSRP, thats a steal for the capabilities of the DS. i'd love to have some of those features with me whenever i needed them, especially with the significant expansion of WiFi in most major cities and large towns. i dont really see why nintendo, or i suppose sony, doesnt at least test the waters with these kinds of products, since it would be relatively little risk, for possibly a great amount of reward.
SneakySnake | July 10, 2007 12:29 AM
I live in between the U.S. and Switzerland. The European region disks work just fine on my U.S. PSP. I own a few purchased in different countries. Even Non-English titles are no problem. The PSP does not discriminate. Getting online with a U.S. PSP in Europe is another matter. but not impossible.
I do like the fact that we do have a better PSP title selection here in Europe. There are other exclusive pieces here and oddly enough UMD is still doing rather decently here as well. For a while I could not follow what my friends were complaining about until I came home and saw for myself that the PSP game titles selection was pretty flat.
mastershredder | July 21, 2007 9:50 AM