Despite the recent downtime due to hacks, Sony has reported that PS3 sales actually rose during the PlayStation Network downtime, promising that its system is “stronger than ever” at retail. Sales of the PS3 are up 14% year-over-year.

That’s pretty amazing considering that Sony was suffering one of it’s biggest disasters ever, both in terms of security and PR. Proof that you can’t keep a good console down.

This is not good news for Sony. Retail sources have indicated that PS3 console trade-ins have dramatically risen as the controversial PSN outage drags on. Apparently during the first week of downtime there was not any major change in sales or trades according to one store manager ‘at a major UK retailer’.

However, starting on the second week onwards, there has been an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 down the middle between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 in it’s place. Ouch! Sony had better get it’s act together before things get ugly.

Well 3DS fans, June 7th is your lucky day. That’s when Nintendo will release the update you’ve been waiting for, which will give you the ability to download titles directly to the system through the eShop.

The Japanese update will be launching a day earlier (Of course) and is said to include a Virtual Console emulation as well as a 3D movie player, so maybe we will even get that promised Netflix support. Keep your fingers crossed. You won’t have long to wait now.

Nintendo knows all about supply and demand and how to work the system. There is high demand for Nintendo’s games, so much so that often times third-party game sales on Nintendo’s consoles suffer at the hands of first-party titles.

Nintendo, in a move to avoid hurting it’s third party titles, has decided that they will only decide on the dates of popular first party releases after they know the release plans of other companies’ games. That has to be good news to third party developers.

There’s good news and there’s bad news for the big N. Nintendo’s net sales of $12.4 billion for the period ending on March 31st 2011 was 29 percent less than during the previous year. Also its $825 million of net profit was 66 percent lower than it earned last year. Things are not so great in the Mushroom Kingdom.

However, there is some good news. The 3DS has reached 3.61 million sales worldwide, but at the same time the Wii is down to 15 million global sales, a 25 percent drop from its 2009 total of 20 million. Looks like the timing is perfect for the new console.

We told you yesterday that Sony had stopped making the PSP Go. Well, now it is official. They have pulled the plug. Sony Japan has confirmed that it has ceased production of the PSP Go and that all future sales will be limited to current stock.

We can’t say we are heartbroken. It was a bad idea from the word Go. This move will allow Sony to shift its focus to the NGP, which is expected to ship in at least one country by the end of this year. Focus is good. It leads to good consoles. It is the right move.

According to an Engadget source, a price cut for the Wii is coming. It will cost just $150 starting May 15th. Normally we would dismiss this, but the timing makes sense, since Nintendo’s profits have been going down due to declining hardware sales. Plus, there’s also the rumors of a new console from Nintendo coming soon.

Also, last month Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime did hint that the Wii’s price might change in the near future. Still, we don’t have anything more official than that right now, so we will just have to wait and see, but it seems likely.

While the Xbox 360 is still outselling the PS3 in the US, new data from Strategy Analytics shows that globally, Sony’s console reached 43.4 million at the end of 2010, compared to 42.9 million for Microsoft’s system. Take that Xbox.

In comparison, the Wii’s worldwide installed base was 75.5 million at the end of last year. If you have been paying attention, global demand for Sony’s PS3 has exceeded that of the Xbox 360 for the past two years, and there’s no reason to think it will stop this year. Microsoft needs to keep innovating and build on the success of the Kinect to compete.

Some gamers have been complaining about headaches and eyestrain when playing the new 3DS console. It seems like it is only a few users right now who are having trouble playing games on the console comfortably. But Nintendo’s UK PR head Rob Saunders says that the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and that a risk of discomfort comes with the territory when you are talking 3D content.

Like with any activity that is strenuous on the eyes, he advises that people take breaks. Maybe they could use that break time to go outside and enjoy some nature. Watch a butterfly glide on the breeze, if you know what such a creature is. Feel the warm sun on your pale gamer skin. Whatever. Just don’t stare at a tiny screen all day and you should be fine.

If you were hoping to import Japanese games for your US Nintendo 3DS, this is bad news. If you want to play imports, you will have to buy a foreign system since a 3DS from one territory will not play games from another. It won’t even show up in the menu.

This is confirmed for the Japanese version so it is safe to assume that the US version will work the same. To some this is not a deal-breaker, but to others this is a big issue. If you want to play foreign games, you’ll need a 3DS from the same country.

You know that slider on the side of the 3DS? It adjusts the 3D aspect to the user’s preference. And although the 3DS’ screen doesn’t force you to wear glasses, it does have to be held at just the right angle to get the most out of the 3D effect. And there are many of us who would just want to use it for plain old 2D gaming. So it’s good to know that Nintendo now says that no game should require 3D as part of its gameplay mechanics. And frankly that’s just a good rule of thumb for making a good game if you ask us.

Hideki Konno, one of Nintendo’s producers says that the company wants all of its 3DS games to be playable in 2D, reducing the 3D aspect to an aesthetic enhancement. Some might feel ripped off, but what did you expect? Nintendo wants to please the mass market, otherwise people will soon tire of the 3DS, like they did with the Wii. Novelties wear off quickly.

After selling 500,000 units of the Nintendo 3DS handheld on day 1 in Japan, Nintendo has hit another milestone. Amazon UK has announced that they have received more pre-orders for the 3DS than any other gaming console they’ve previously sold.

The Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii all come in second to Nintendo’s portable glasses-free 3D gaming sensation. They didn’t reveal the exact numbers, but 3DS pre-orders were 20% higher than the PS3, 56% higher than the Wii and 255% higher than the DSi. Looks like the big N has a huge hit on it’s hands.

The Nintendo 3DS launches next week and now there are rumors that the company may focus on a replacement for the Wii. Frank Gibeau, label head at EA Games, said in a chat with IndustryGamers that he was aware of a follow-up coming. The device is unknown and wasn’t confirmed, but it is a fair bet that it will have have HD support, rivaling competitors from Microsoft and Sony.

Nintendo has been one of the most conservative console makers especially during this generation of console. The Wii was mostly built using faster but nearly identical processors as the GameCube. The company has often refused to discuss the possibility of a next-gen console as long as sales continued to dominate, but sales are not what they once were and it would seem that the time is right.

Japanese retailer Enterking has announced that it will not accept Nintendo 3DS gaming consoles that have been used with a hacked memory card for trade-in. So how will the retailer will know? Simple. Because the portable gaming console logs all activity, which can then be retrieved by those in the industry who know how. It is an attempt by Nintendo to deter pirates.

The most common card used is the R4 and some Japanese hackers can already install illegal DS ROMS but not games. Since the system keeps track of any and all hacks and has a Wi-Fi connection, it could also let Nintendo block pirated devices from accessing online services and games.

We’ve all been waiting for Killzone 3 to arrive. The game looks amazing and should outdo Killzone 2 in sales and overall awesomeness. But now 41.4GB worth of files have been leaked to Torrent sites containing Guerrilla Games’ upcoming first-person shooter for the PlayStation 3.

The game isn’t due to be released until Feb. 22nd. That’s a problem obviously. But it isn’t all bad news for Sony. Only hacked PS3 consoles will be able to play the game. The 41.4GB file contains the European version of the game and a rumored second non-3D version is making the rounds at roughly half the size.