Japanese gaming console maker Sony has announced a price reduction in their sole handheld gaming device Sony Playstation Portable.

The company said that they are cutting the price of this device by 15 percent, or $30, to about $170. The company faces massive competition from rivals Nintendo which dominates the segment with their Nintendo DS device.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward Williams spoke on this price reduction from Sony: “The PSP needed a price cut to reinvigorate the market. Wal-Mart sold the PSP for $169 for five hours on Black Friday — a time in which we believe the company was able to sell over 100,000 pieces of hardware.”

Market analysts believe that this price reduction would benefit major retailers like GameStop and the gaming companies which develop games for the Sony PSP.

The price cut is applicable only in the US market as the company currently has no plans to cut the PSP price tag in Japan.

T-Mobile has said that they are offering Sony PSP owners six months of free Wi-Fi access. This service would be available to those owners who have upgraded to the latest firmware on their Playstation Portable.

Sony said that gamers have to choose the “use wireless hotspot” option added by the latest firmware on their PSP Consoles. They would get the instructions to connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot.

T-Mobile have their Wi-Fi hotspots available at places like Starbucks, Borders Books and Music stores, hotels, airports, and other locations.

This six month of free net access include services like complete Internet access, including surfing, downloading games and other media. PSP owners also get to play online games on their Playstation Portable.

After six months are complete, the gamers can purchase the subscription at a special rate from T-Mobile. The rates are not released yet. This offer to get enrolled into six months of free access is open till March 28, 2008.

This is good news for fans of the movie series Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney Interactive Studios has announced that they would be launching a videogame based on the upcoming movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End for several gaming platforms.

The support platforms are: Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Wii, DS, PC and Xbox 360. The company added that the games for these platforms are being designed to take advantage of the specific features of the device.

The game would feature new dueling controls on next-gen consoles and the Wii version with motion-controlled sword fighting.

Craig Relyea, vice president of marketing, Disney Interactive Studios added: “Fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise will experience adventures inspired by the second and third films while going far beyond the events of those films. With the action, excitement, unforgettable characters and expansive locations from the blockbuster films, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End will be the definitive Pirates video game experience for fans. Our games go beyond the films to introduce legendary pirates, new locations and unique endings that will satisfy the pirate in each of us.”

Apple is credited with revolutionizing the way we looked at computers. They make fantastic Macs and make extremely user friendly software.

The company is now trying to do the same with mobile phones with the recently showcased Apple iPhone.

The latest rumor in the market is that the company now talking with Electronic Arts to put some exciting games on their Apple iPhone device.

The Macs are always considered are a weak platform when talked about gaming. Apple now seems to have shown openness and are talking with several game publishers, including Electronic Arts (ERTS) and Namco to develop a series of casual games.

Some of these games are already available on the Apple iPod platform and these should be ported to the iPhone.

Stan Ng, senior director of iPod Product Marketing spoke about these games: “Since the iPod goes with you in your pocket wherever you are, we saw a great opportunity to provide some fun casual entertainment. We picked games people can pick up and play while they’re waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting on the bus.”

Mitch Lasky, senior vice-president of EA Mobile talked about the Apple iPhone device: “We have been talking to Apple about games on (the iPhone). We see a lot of the technology that we’ve utilized on the iPod side being incorporated into the iPhone.”

Apple iPod is primarily a digital music and video player. However, Apple also had added game playing ability to the device.

The facility is available on all fifth-generation (video) iPod with iPod Software 1.2 or later.

Till now, the only way users could enjoy these games was by purchasing one of the offered games from the Apple iTunes.

The company has changed its philosophy and is now offering a demo version of its original brickbashing game, Vortex for the Apple iPod.

The game leverages the iPod’s click wheel to enable the gamer play in 360 degrees. The demo version of this game offers two levels. The full version is available on sale on the Apple iTunes service for $4.99.

Software giants and the makers of the Xbox series of gaming consoles Microsoft signed on a deal in late 2005 with game developer In-Fusio to develop a version of Halo for mobile phones and other devices.

However, that deal has now gone sour as In-Fusio is now suing the company for breach of contract.

The France based videogame company has filed this lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The company claims that they had agreed to make four payments to Microsoft of $500,000 for the exclusive rights to develop the mobile game. The designs of the game were subject to approval from Microsoft but the contract signed between the two companies meant that Microsoft couldn’t reject its proposals without reasonable grounds.

In-Fusio is further claiming that they had submitted several game designs to Microsoft last year but they did not respond back in a timely manner. Later on, Microsoft turned them down without any support to help develop the game based on the popular gaming franchise.

Microsoft now has until Feb. 1 to respond to In-Fusio’s complaint.

World’s largest videogame publisher Electronic Arts is targeting the users of recent Apple iPod models which are capable of downloading games from the Apple iTunes store.

The company has five games available for Apple’s device and these can be bought for as little as $4.99 each.

These games are “EA Sudoku,” “Royal Solitaire,” “Tetris,” “EA Mini Golf,” and “EA Mahjong.” However, these are no way comparable to EA games available for other mobile platforms like the Nintendo DS and Sony Playstation Portable.

These games are targeted at the mass audience as they are simple and addictive.

Apple is also rumored to be working on iPod devices which are more capable of videogame playability. Microsoft also is rumored to be working on some kind of a portable gaming station. The future of mobile gaming seems bright.

The makers of Sony Playstation Portable and Playstation 3 gaming consoles Sony is rumored to be working on an online video download service.

This service could be launched as early as next year. Sources say that this service is being developed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and it would allow users to download movies via a computer and store them on MemoryStick memory cards for viewing on the PlayStation Portable.

The reports also say that the company is also working on a service which could allow users to download content directly on their PSP devices.

Spokespersons for both Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. have declined to comment on these market rumors.

Such a service would enable Sony to compete on better terms with Nintendo which is having a ball with Nintendo DS handheld console.

Sony PSP owners in the North America can get their hands on some of the original Playstation games for their handheld console.

Sony has made available these games on the Playstation network and gamers can download them using their Playstation 3 consoles and transfer them to the PSP using a cable.

There are currently five titles available for download: Crash Bandicoot, Cool Boarders, Hot Shots Golf 2, Syphon Filter and Tekken 2. Sony is selling these for US $5.99.

However, the disappointing part is that these games are not designed to use the PSP’s Wi-Fi functionality to allow multiplayer gaming.

Gamers are also disappointed that they currently need a PS3 to get access to these games. Sony has said that they plan to launch a PSP specific network, which would allow the gamers to download games directly to a memory stick.

Japanese maker of consumer electronics Sony has started offering a software update for the PlayStation Portable.

This update would enable owners of both the PSP and the Playstation 3 to make them work together. This latest update takes the PSP’s firmware to version 3.0 and it also includes the Remote Play function.

Gamers can now stream content from the PS3 across a wireless LAN for viewing on the PSP. In addition, they can also now download content from Sony’s online store on their Playstation 3 units and move it to PSP for playing.

These include some of the games originally developed for the Sony Playstation (version 1) platform. The company is launching nine titles in Japan for around USD 4.

There are also other enhancements shipped in this firmware update. PSP owners can update to the latest version by choosing the Network Update item in the Settings menu.