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Significant rumors were few and far between this week, but three stood out from the crowd. It looks as though Apple may challenge Nintendo for a piece of the handheld gaming pie. On February 5 th , Apple Inc. filed to protect their Apple trademark concerning “ hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games ”. We don’t know if this trademark protection will actually translate into a standalone handheld gaming product or if it will simply be a kind of retrofit software to make existing iPods gaming-ready. It was also widely rumored that the PS3 version of GTA IV would not have multiplayer online support. This rumor was started after a misunderstanding of Major Nelson’s comment that the 360 version of GTA IV would have content “unique to 360”. This rumor was quickly debunked, however. Finally, according to a blog post in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s forums, there may be two new motherboards for the 360 in the works. The new motherboards are known as Jasper and Valhalla. They run quieter with less heat and are far more energy efficient. These motherboards would be the third and fourth versions that Microsoft have implemented. |