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More details are emerging about Nissan’s Urge concept car, which comes with an Xbox 360 built in. Drivers can use the Urge’s steering wheel, gas and brake pedal to control virtual Lamborghinis and Ferraris in the game Project Gotham Racing 3, all the while watching the action on a flip-down 7in monitor.

The Nintendo DS is flying off the shelves here in Japan. Nintendo claims that sales of the dual-screen wonder have topped 5 million units in the 13 months since its Dec. 2004 launch, making the DS a faster seller than both the Game Boy Advance (which took 14 months to reach 5 million) and the PS2 (17 months).

If you have $18k to spare and fancy a little cartoon racing action against Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man and all the ghosts, then Mario Kart Arcade GP could be for you.

Lik-sang (or Power Life to its Chinese-speaking friends) has a very useful little roundup of PSP television adapters.

Japan’s games hardware figures for the week just gone show that the Nintendo DS sold almost 300,000 units here, over 200,000 ahead of the PSP. As expected, the Xbox 360 shifted only 44,000, admittedly over just the launch weekend, falling a disappointing 2,000 sales behind the PS2.

Tracking companies Media Create and Enterbrain have reported their findings for sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan over the weekend and it’s already looking bad for Microsoft. The lower of the two estimates pegs the boxes actually sold at just 28% of those shipped to retailers.

The launch schedule for the PlayStation 3 appears to be official at last: spring 2006, according to Reuters.

As expected, the weekend’s Japan launch of the Xbox 360 was pretty uneventful. There was a sprinkling of customers in line for the 7am kick-off, but consoles remained available throughout the day, according to local traders. At least we didn’t see any knuckleheads trying to recreate Bloody Roar Extreme while they waited.

With the Xbox 360 set to complete its global launch in Japan tomorrow morning, local gamers are sure to be found lined up outside stores overnight. What they’ll find when they get their hands on the new console might make Western gamers a touch jealous: Microsoft is set to provide just one retail version of the 360 instead of the bare-bones/full-spec approach used elsewhere.

With few mountains left to climb in its own backyard, gaming giant Sega is looking to get busy in the Chinese market. The company recently scored an exclusive agreement to game-up the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and they’ll open a mammoth entertainment zone called Player’s Arena in a Shanghai department store on Dec. 24.

Mea Culpa — we’ve been a little remiss in reporting the fine work of our colleague Martyn Williams, who last week took the bold step of actually asking Sony about their plans for the new RSS-capable PSP firmware version 2.60.

By the side of Tokyo Bay, just south of DWT central, red velvet curtains are being drawn aside to unveil the biggest event of the year for trading card gamers as Magic: The Gathering 2005 World Championships opens at Pacifico Yokohama today (Wednesday).

We can’t get away from Sony at the minute — today saw the sneaky release of PSP firmware update 2.60, available via the Network Update option on the PSP itself.

Another Monday morning, another video game featuring a mustachioed man gyrating in leather hot pants. Such is life in the fantasyland that is Japanese gaming.

Gamers really desperate for a hefty hit of Xbox 360 action could do a lot worse than buy a ticket to Japan, where they’ll find Microsoft’s Xbox 360 lounge right in the middle of downtown Tokyo offering freeplay 360 consoles to all comers. Six games are being brazenly displayed in all their glory for anyone who wants a twiddle, which is precisely what we did one fine morning.

The Game Boy micro has so far been a rip-roaring success in Japan and it’s common to see even young women playing with their retro-styled micros on trains and buses here.

Via (Game Science)

The news is dripping out all over the web like oil from a greasy old skillet that Nintendo is set to cause a stir with its first playable software for the Revolution, or whatever it’s going to be called. Apparently, the game is supposed to be a wok cooking simulator and is believed to be the first of a series of very tasty treats from ‘Tendo, so fingers (and chopsticks) crossed.

(Via SPOnG)

Gulp – whaddya know? A Nintendo insider in the UK has revealed that the next-gen Revolution console is definitely NOT the final name of the product. Shelly Pearce, head PR honcho at Nintendo Europe, explicitly told our pals over at SPOnG that, “Revolution is a codename for the new machine.”

(Via SPOnG)

Nintendo’s website for its Wi-Fi connection service has just gone live in Japan, spelling out exactly what lucky DS gamers can get and where they need to go to get what Nintendo got and wants to give to ‘em.

(Via Game Science)

Retro gaming fans Stateside have only a couple of weeks to wait unto the Game Boy Micro Famicon edition hits the shops. On sale on November 28, the maroon and gold NES-inspired handheld will retail at $99.99.

(Via Nintendo)

As promised last week, we collared Sony about the problems dogging its latest special-edition PS2 that chokes on many games already available for the platform.

(Via IDG News Service)

Sony has decided to add a glorious new color, whose name it agonized over for many seconds before plumping for “Satin Silver,” to its line of slimmed down PS2s.

(Via Akihabara News)

Hot off the press from Sony comes the earth-shattering news that it plans to start shipping PSPs with bundled 1Gb Memory Stick Pro Duos. The new PSP Giga Pack will be Japan only at first and will go for ¥31,290. Start scouring the stores on November 17.

(Via SCEI)

Stefan over at SPOnG has just posted a mighty fine interview with Gran Turismo series producer Kazumori Yamauchi.

(Via SPOnG)

Those lovely people at SPOnG have been boasting of their superior fitness again, this time with a view to prodding us in the direction of the local gymnasium.

(Via SPOnG)

The much-hyped Touch! Generations range of educational/slightly-more-thoughtful-than-point-and-frag games on the Nintendo DS has apparently had the knock-on effect of encouraging folk to open their wallets for more good stuff.

(Via Game Science)

PSP Updates has been quick off the mark in pointing out that Sony has quietly released the 2.50 firmware update via the handheld’s Network Update function.

(Via PSP Updates)

Just a quickie to point out that any PSP (non-homebrew) lovers with firmware version 2.0 installed can get themselves some, er, street cred courtesy of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Paramount Pictures’ promo for the new Jim Sheridan movie Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

(Via Get Rich or Die Tryin’)

Lest it slip your mind, and because it gives us an excuse to run that photo, here’s a brief reminder that Sega’s follow up to Feel the Magic, called Where do Babies Come From? (or Akachan wa doko kara kuru no? in Japanese), hits the shelves of Japan next Thursday to titillate all Nintendo DS owners.

(Via Sega)

Game Science reports on the recent Nintendo DS conference, at which the company laid out its plans for total world domination.

(Via Game Science)

A PSP hack for all you regret-filled upgraders out there comes from MPH via PSPUpdates in the shape of a tool to reverse the process and take your pride and joy from firmware version 2.0 back to 1.5.

(Via PSPUpdates)

For the full skinny on the new Rev controller, read on for a comprehensive rundown from IDG News Service’s Martyn Williams live at TGS 2005.

(Via IDG News Service)

Our colleagues over at GamePro US have an interesting take on the likelihood of the new Xbox winning out over the PS3 in Japan. We’re not giving anything away by revealing that industry insiders are not optimistic.

(Via IDG News Service)

Just a quick heads up to let you know that we’ll be pitching camp at the Tokyo Game Show from early tomorrow morning to bring you the latest news on the next-gen console wars and the general madness that is Japanese gaming.

Although Hollywood prefers its Samurai in the easily recognizable Tom Cruise/Ken Watanabe molds, the Japanese game industry has long projected a far more believable, tough-as-nails image for these legendary warriors via the Onimusha franchise.

(Via Game Watch)

Microsoft used a Tokyo press event today to announce the firm global launch dates for the Xbox 360, with the US getting first look on November 22.

(Via GamePro and IDG News Service)

Speaking of the Micro, Akihabara News has word on Nintendo’s version of the Play-Yan for that splendid little fellow. Adding an SD card slot, the ¥5,000 Play-Yan allows the handheld to play back MP3 audio and MP4/ASF video at up to 30fps.

(Via Akihabara News)

The Game Boy Micro isn’t even with us yet (it hits the streets on September 13) and we already have a special edition; in this case in glorious old-skool Famicon colors. We like.

(Via Game Science)

Gamespot has been poring over Japanese magazine Famitsu, discovering an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment software platform development head honcho Izumi Kawanishi wherein he lets slip that an email client for the PSP is under consideration.