It would seem as if Sony is preparing to release a new white colored version of its 40GB PS3 unit in America relatively soon as new photos at the FCC indicate. The new photos display a white system from a range of angles and it only has two USB ports with no memory card reader ports. Check out the filing at fcc.gov.

Last year, UK trade publication MCV stated that Rockstar is planning to release Grand Theft Auto IV on April 25th and further evidence has come forward to support these claims. A UK gaming website states that a third party source has confirmed an April 25th release date which is the last day of Take 2's fiscal fourth quarter. Elsewhere, GAME lists the PS3 version for release on April 25th with Amazon putting a an April 30th tag on the game.

Late last year MCV broke the news that Rockstar is planning to release possibly the biggest next-gen game to date, Grand Theft Auto IV, on April 25th – and now further evidence has emerged to back the claims.

UK consumer site Spong highlights information on US stock website Tradingmarkets that again claims that the game will not arrive in March as has been previously claimed, and will indeed be shipped the following month.

The website also goes on to claim that a further third-party source has confirmed April 25th as the release date – which, uncoincidentally, is the final day of Take 2’s fiscal fourth quarter.

Online retailer listings still provide mixed information at present. GAME lists the PS3 version for release on April 25th, but claims the Xbox 360 version will arrive at the beginning of the month. Elsewhere, Amazon.com claims the game will arrive on April 30th.

Agreeing with comments made by MS executives previously, Suda 51 indicates that third party titles for the Wii aren't selling in Japan and Nintendo are the only ones who really profit from the Wii. Speaking specifically about No More Heroes, Suda commented that sales weren't as high as he'd hoped and Nintendo titles are doing well but this pattern expands beyond Japan too.

Goichi Suda, otherwise known as Suda 51, claims that third-party titles for the Wii aren't selling in Japan and that only Nintendo is really profiting from its success.

Speaking about Japanese sales of his game, No More Heroes, he says, "Whilst the sales weren't as high as I hoped, other titles for Wii aren't selling so well either. Only Nintendo titles are doing well. This isn't just because of the current situation in Japan, as this is happening outside Japan."

He also expressed surprise over the casual audience that has been the primary adopters of the Wii. "Actually I was very surprised about the reality about Wii, because before I was making this game, I wasn't expecting that Wii would be a console targeted only for non-gamers. I expected more games for hardcore gamers. The reality is different to what I expected."

MTV managed to have a chat with the lawyer who is suing Microsoft based on their lengthy Xbox Live outages. The lawyer stated that MS knew what was going to happen with the Xbox Live overload and if they didn't then they wouldn't have put out so many Xbox 360 unit's to start with thus proving MS's priorities were out of order. Moreover, he went on to comment they take money for subscriptions but don't make sure the service will be there and in the process put the cart before the horse.

At least some gamers' hopes lie with Gibson, a consumer-fraud attorney who claims he's never lost a trial and who has recently been working on a case against coin dealers who allegedly suckered elderly collectors into bad deals (one of the alternate URLs for Gibson's law firm is coinfraud.com).

"When you have one person who is mad and they can't get a response, and they can't get their complaints addressed by a company like Microsoft, the only way to get their attention is in numbers," Gibson said. He said the company had to have known what was going to happen with the Xbox Live overload. "If they had not anticipated the sales, then they would not have put out that many units of the Xbox to begin with." Last week, Microsoft announced that Live had reached 10 million subscribers and claimed record-setting revenue for consoles sold in 2007, covering strong sales through the holiday season. Gibson said that proves Microsoft's priorities were out of order.

"They take the money for the subscriptions, but they don't make sure that the service is going to be there," Gibson said. "They kind of put the cart before the horse. To me, you make sure the service is going to be there. Make sure the product is going to be there. And then feel good about taking money for the service and the product."

Dennis said Microsoft could not comment on the lawsuit because the company has yet to be served. Gibson is in the process of doing so, after which Microsoft will have 20 days to respond to the suit.

Asked if any alleviation of the Xbox Live issues would nix the suit, Gibson said the damage has already been done and that he would proceed. He said he has received more than 500 e-mails from gamers, 10 percent of them mocking or questioning the lawsuit but the rest expressing solidarity. He said that more than 50 more plaintiffs have joined Kay, Smith and Perez in the suit.

"What they would like to see is Microsoft fix the problem," Gibson said. "They'd like to be reimbursed for the money they spent when they haven't received the service, and hopefully it will make Microsoft do the right thing in the future."

Sony has confirmed that the GPS and Camera accessories will be released in North America by the end of the year. Secondly, SCEA reps revealed that Sony is working on a first party keyboard for the PSP that is set to be released in the middle of 2009.

Over a year ago, the PlayStation Portable's camera and GPS receiver went on sale in Japan. The photo-snapping add-on also hit the market in Europe in 2006, and its global-positioning cousin has been confirmed to arrive in the territory later this year.

However, to the frustration of North American gamers, neither the GPS nor the camera have been dated for the region--until now, anyway. Today at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony Computer Entertainment America reps confirmed to GameSpot that both peripherals will be available on this continent by the end of the year. Unfortunately, they could not give a more specific time frame.

SCEA reps also revealed today a welcome surprise for PSP owners weary of its cell-phone-like text entry system. They confirmed that Sony is working on a first-party keyboard for the handheld gaming system for release in mid-2009. When asked if said keyboard will resemble the mock-up that was shown off at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the reps demurred. "We're looking at several designs, but can't tell you anything more specific," a rep said.

Sony have confirmed that the reason Skype will only work on the PSP Slim & Light is due to memory constraints. The original PSP (PSP-1000) has 32MB of memory, whereas the newer Slim & Light model (PSP-2000) has 64MB. Sony did study the possibility of supporting Skype with PSP-1000, however they had to give it up due to the smaller 32MB of memory.

Sony announced at CES today that Skype will be made available for the PSP Slim & Light. By adding the Skype logo to the XMB via a firmware update, users will be able to access full Skype voice functionality including the use of Skype Out / Skype In, as well as access to the account admin functions.

Before you ask, the reason Skype will only work on the PSP Slim & Light (and not the original model) is due to memory constraints. The original PSP (PSP-1000) has 32MB of memory, whereas the newer Slim & Light model (PSP-2000) has 64MB. Nick Sharples had the following to say.

“Although PSP-1000 and PSP-2000 are identical in basic functions, there are differences in hardware specifications to some extent and, for that reason, PSP-2000 may differ in features from PSP-1000. We had studied the possibility of supporting Skype with PSP-1000 but had to give it up because of the smaller size of main memory on PSP-1000 series.”

Speaking to Game Informer, Sony's Peter Dille revealed that the company understands in-game XMB access is a feature important to their consumers. But as the PS3 is so advanced it takes time to implement major new features. However, he reassures us that the team is working hard on this feature as they continually evolve the feature set of the Playstation 3 console.

"As far as in-game XMB access, we know it's a feature that's important to our consumers. Because PS3 packs so much advanced technology 'under the hood,' it takes some time to implement major, new functionalities, but we are working hard on addressing this feature, as well as continually expand the capabilities and functionalities of PS3."

A bug has been discovered in the new Xbox 360 Fall Update. If you should change your Live ID associated with your gamertag then you will lose all your forum posts, CUL and icons. So, don't change your Live ID until the Xbox team come out with a working fix for the issue.

If you change the Live ID associated with your gamertag (as the Dash update allows you to do), you will lose all of your forum posts, CUL and icons. All your posts will appear as ‘anonymous’. We’re hard at work on a fix, but despite the team working on it all weekend, we don’t have a fix ready to go out with the update.

If you are particularly attached to your Community User Level or forum icons please DON’T change your Live ID until we deploy a fix. It should only be a few days, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We will let you know as soon as it is safe to change your Live ID and keep all your forum goodness.

Please help me spread the word on this so we can minimize the number of unhappy forum posters!