Here's the first footage from Konami's newly announced Metal Gear Solid: Digital Comic for PSP.

MGS: Digital Comic is basically a 3D-enhanced quasi-interactive comic that retells the story of the original Metal Gear Solid. Instead of fully static images, you'll be able to scan scenes, which, as Konami puts it, will provide an element of replayability.

There's no firm release date yet, but you can expect Metal Gear Solid Digital Comic to hit later this year.

   

When listening to many key industry players talk about the future, inevitably the topic of downloadable games will be brought up. Most believe that this is the future, logging onto a store not unlike iTunes and purchasing your games. The benefits are clear for the gaming industry, it would lower the costs of getting a game out, and lower the time it would take to get the product to the customers. Gamers should also win, in that the price would likely be cheaper, and the games could be released sooner.

The PS3 is taking one step closer to making this a reality, at least in Asia where Sony is partnering up with Korea IT Promotion Agency. They are aiming to create a service called WA! PS3 Online, which will offer games, demos, music, movies, and more. Those who know the region can tell you that the Asian market has been plagued by piracy, much like the music industry here in North America. Sony is hoping to take the Apple approach and offer a simple service that gives their customers the ability to download content that otherwise might be pirated, for a discounted price.

It is still unknown whether the service, or one similar, will make it to other regions but the chances seem reasonably good. Most industry analysts predict that it may be another generation or two before the trend really catches on, but when it does we may look back on this generation of consoles as the ones to start it all.

The Taipei Games Show was rumored to be filled with all sorts of new PlayStation 3 information. When the twenty booths Sony exclusively dedicated to the console showed only older tech demos, fans were greeted with a familiar sense of dissapointment, similar to events such as CES 2006 and TGS 2005, both of which yielded little or no information that was highly anticipated by fan and web site alike.

The question has rapidly become how long can Sony pull off their high risk game of "cat and mouse" before they begin to feel negative consequences. The company has recently been hit with a barrage of setbacks including sliding stock prices, growing support for Microsoft's 360, and constant rumors questioning Sony's assertion of a spring launch.

Needless to say, Sony has done a good job of keeping quiet, even if it is hurting them in the short term. Numerous events are still scheduled to come, but E3 now seems to be a much more reasonable date for a release of information should Sony fail to meet a spring launch.

Developer sources are also suggesting that PlayStation 3 is currently scheduled to launch in September. A launch games release schedule seen by our sources states a September launch. Although the schedule does not explicitly state a hardware launch date, nor a launch territory, we understand Japan and U.S will both see the machine in September. Some in the industry have taken this as a lead to speculate that September 16 would be a launch date in Japan (a Saturday before a national holiday) followed by September 21 in the U.S.

 These dates are not confirmed and, as always, launch dates are subject to constant revision. A spokesperson for SCEA said the company does not comment on rumors. However, we understand Sony is preparing to announce HUB some time in the next few weeks.

TOKYO--Metal Gear Solid director Hideo Kojima announced during the Tokyo Game Show that he plans to retire from the series after the release of MGS4: Guns of the Patriots. And he might have already found his replacement.

During an additional Metal Gear Solid stage event at Konami's booth, which featured a guest appearance by Masahiro Sakurai, Kojima jokingly stated that one of the future plans for MGS is to have the famed creator produce the fifth installment in the series. While Kojima's statement of course was not completely serious, he acknowledged the former Hal Laboratory developer as one of the few great video game designers still left in Japan. Sakurai is a big fan of the Metal Gear series as well, so while he might not necessarily become MGS5's producer, this indicates some possibility that he might get involved with the espionage action series in one form or another.

On a more serious note, Kojima also disclosed during his stage show two core plans involving the future of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. For one, he plans to develop more games that are unique to handheld gaming machines, and secondly, he wants to expand MGS in the online gaming sector.

The author of "Opening the Xbox", a book dedicated to the creation and inner workings of the Xbox, has suggested that the Xbox 360 shortage is linked to GDDR3 memory chips.

Dean Takahashi says that the people within the Xbox 360 design team have revealed to him that the shortage of Xbox 360s is due to a fault in the memory chips produced by Infinion.

"Some Infineon chips ran slower than 700-megahertz speed than was required", according to the sources within the design team.

How this problem slowed down production, Dean says that “As a result, sources said, Microsoft has had to start sorting the slow GDDR3 chips from the fast ones, adding a delay to the production of the boxes and limiting the total numbers it can build.”

If Infinion is indeed the source of the shortage, it would explain why MS has been slow to give out specific details about it; as to keep relations with their partner at a professional level.

 Well As A Officer I must fullfill my duties so here's my first update

Since E3, a large bulk of talk has been around the idea about the PlayStation 3 coming standard with a HDD or not. Microsoft last year released two versions of the Xbox 360, the core system without the HDD and the premium system with the HDD and other accessories.

Well it looks to be that Sony would also do the same. According to the PlayStation product list, it indicates that consumers would infact have to purchase a HDD seperately from the PlayStation 3. The exact words shown are

Storage media (HDD, *Memory Stick*, SD memory card, and CompactFlash) are sold separately.

While this isn't an official confirmation by Sony as they haven't actually came out and spoke about it, it does give some concrete reasoning that the PlayStation 3 will ship in stores later on this year minus the HDD.

Hopefully more information on this matter will be revealed at E3 in the Spring.

Fans of Kojima Productions and its games may have heard that Mr. Kojima has shifted his focus away from written blogs to an online radio broadcast -- HIDECHAN! (Hideo Channel). Since its debut in December 2005, HIDECHAN! has gained much popularity in Japan. However, this Japanese-only broadcast has limited its reach.