Japanese gaming site 4gamer.net have confirmed a PC version of the classic Katamari Damacy for sometime in 2007. It’s great news to see such a wonderful game not only making it’s way to PC, but with online support too. You can try your hand at Japanese and check out the site here.

As with all new announcements, there’s not much to know, other than development team Windysoft’s involvement. The worst news is that any release outside of Japan/Korea is unlikely. It would appear that not much is being tinkered with, and will follow the same style/theme the past titles have used. Also no type of single player game has been mentioned either, this looks to be entirely online.

So, maybe not the greatest news for those outside of, err, Korea.

It really does seem that Sony are out to piss everyone off. If it isn’t enough that the rest of the world are getting a delayed, more expensive console, now it’s been confirmed that they’ll be shipping… less… of a console.

Remember the ground-breaking “Emotion Engine” chip in the Playstation 2? Maybe not, but it was a pretty big deal back in the day. It’s basically the CPU for the Playstation 2, something that is also included in the Playstation 3 for 98% backwards compatibility support. Unfortunately, that does not seem necessary in Sony’s eyes for anyone outside of the US or Japan. The console to go around the world will instead be using a software emulation system, which limits the amount of titles compatible.

To quote SCEE president David Reeds,

“PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system. Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay, and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”

What a load of crap. If this is the case, why do the US/Japan get the chipset? Sony have promised (hah) regular firmware updates to increase title support. Maybe those updates will be released late 2006, after we get the PS3 here. Oh wait.

Comments? Opinions? Discuss it in the Space-Meat forum here (thanks to B-Rad).

Something most Wii owners have been keen for will be arriving on February 26th.

The Nintendo 64 classic (and generally voted best N64 game) The Legend Of Zelda : Ocarina Of Time will be available on the Wii’s Virtual Channel from 9am on the 26th. Considering that’s in… a few hours, it may be available by the time you read this.

If N64 emulation is there for any reason, it’d be this. Now the wait for Majora’s Mask begins.