Nyko's wireless nunchuk peripheral was awarded CNET's best in gaming at CES this year. The wireless nunchuk "connects" through a dongle attached to the bottom of the Wiimote (seen above) and runs off two AAA batteries which allegedly provide 30 hours of use; the cost is $30 and should be out by late January or early February.

Nyko actually introduced many new peripherals at this year's CES. Coincidentally this would be the second year in a row that Nyko introduced a relatively useful product for the Wii, last year they came through with the Wiimote charge station which we're told has sold very well. Of course, not every Nyko product has to be reasonable, the Wii Party station is still one of the most atrociously awesome things we saw in the past year.

Many uses come to mind when thinking of a curved, 2,880x900 resolution (16:5 aspect ratio) monitor - multitasking aside, we'd have quite a fun time opening every Photoshop panel simultaneously, or created the most complex, intricate World of Warcraft user interface imaginable. Alienware decided to show off its arcing display at CES with Crysis, the apparent benchmark for all technology of the future.

Our friends at Engadget who are attending the show noticed three faint vertical lines, indicating the curved illusion is assisted by four sub-panels. The DLP display with LED illumination is due out the second half of this year for a currently-unknown price. Check out their gallery of the monitor; we also have video of the display embedded after the break.

The GPS receiver for the Sony PSP is about to find its way out of Japan and into US gamers' hands. According to Sony's CES 2008 page, "Your PSP will provide 2D/3D locations, driving directions, POI's, and even downloadable city guides."

No official release date or price - the peripheral in Japan retailed for approximately US $51. Of course, if you're impatient, you can always hack the PSP now.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Closing out this year's CES keynote, Microsoft's Robbie Bach invited Guitar Hero champion Kelly "TipperQueen" Law-Yone on stage to play Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" on Guitar Hero 3. Not willing to be outdone, keynote speaker Bill Gates brings out Slash - of Guns n' Roses fame - to play "Welcome to the Jungle" on a real guitar. We'll leave the real vs. virtual guitar debate to you and South Park. Instead, we'll just spend our time wishing for this performance - and The Office parody from earlier in the keynote - show up as online video soon.

Having previously announced its intentions to have the Xbox 360 as a set-top box (STB) at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates told the audience at this year's keynote that British telecommunications company BT Group will be the first company to use the console as a set-top box, whose interface was most recently seen by accident in a repaired console.

Said Gates, "The final announcement, last year we talked about the 360 being an STB -- this year we're excited to announce that BT will be the first to provide that capability. Buy a 360 and use it as an STB for your TV." No other details are given (what about DVR?), but we're hoping to hear some more soon. Check out our hands-on with the service from last year's show.

At CES today, Microsoft announced an expansion of its Xbox Live video offerings. ABC Television and MGM will both offer HD videos on the Marketplace. Coincidentally, these studios are exclusively aligned to Blu-ray. This agreement gives Xbox owners a chance to experience this content in HD as well.

ABC Television Network, ABC Family, ABC News, Disney Channel and Toon Disney are all part of this new offering. More than 500 hours of content, in both standard definition and high definition, will be offered including ABC Television shows Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. Past and current shows will be offered, as will archived ABC News broadcasts.

MGM will offer a wide variety of movies, from the Rocky series to Dances with Wolves. Movies across all demographics will be available, including Terminator, Silence of the Lambs, Legally Blonde, Barbershop and Agent Cody Banks. Platoon, Rain Man and The Usual Suspects will also be available.

Price and an exact launch date of this newly announced content have yet to be revealed. HD DVD may have gotten a serious death blow this week, but it appears Microsoft's on-demand offerings should more than satiate the HD film appetite of the Xbox fan.

So what's Bill Gates going to do now that he's retiring? As noted at in Engadget's liveblog of his CES keynote, Gates produced a video showing his final day in office. Said U2 singer Bono to Gates, "Bill, we've talked about this before. We're full up in the band. All positions are filled. I know... I know... I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero."

Bono is seen talking in a confessional akin to NBC's The Office. "Bill's always had a passion for music... and as long as it's not my music, I'm fine with that." So much for that. How about setting your sights a little lower - say, Coldplay?

We're less than a half hour away from Bill Gates' 12th and reportedly final keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (at least as Chairman of Microsoft). Hoping for some Xbox announcements? So are we. Our friends at Engadget are liveblogging the presentation and we'll keep you up to date on any pertinent (i.e. game-related) announcements. Stay tuned.

In the wake of the recent announcement of Warner Bros' new allegiance to the Blu-ray format (and, as result, sister company New Line Cinema's similarly adopted format loyalty), the HD DVD group has canceled their pre-Consumer Electronics Show press conference. We're not sure if the announcement will impact the HD DVD Promotion Group's booth at the show, though we imagine it will create an atmosphere for their visitors with a level of awkwardness similar to that of a nursing home.

In a mass email to CES attendees, a representative for the group said they are "currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps." If these "next steps" don't include lining the pockets of every remaining film publisher on the market to convince them your format's still viable, HD DVD could go the way of the Betamax with a quickness.

(Via PS3F)

Scholastic News reporter Aaron Broder (pictured here) needs another four years before he'll be able to play M-rated, thrice-platinum Gears of War, a situation that put Xbox chief Peter Moore in "the difficult position of advising a reporter not to play one of the top games for the company's Xbox 360," according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

See also: Aaron Broder interviewed, Aaron Broder's report from CES.

[Photo credit: Aaron Broder, Scholastic News.]

In the mood for a good laugh, a proper el-oh-el? Then read this unbelievable, oblivious and altogether hilarious Gamesindustry.biz article regarding the wondrous insides of the PS3 controller. The gist of it sees the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences bestowing an Emmy award upon the Sixaxis -- for technology and engineering.

As you might expect, the award arrives in response to new-fangled "motion sensing technology", currently not featured in any other console in existence. Indeed, the engineers at Sony deserve a hearty pat on the back for taking the time to "re-define the original Dual Shock controller" and painstakingly remove any traces of rumble technology. Indeed, putting rumble and motion sensing into the same controller would likely spell unmitigated disaster.

Meanwhile, Jack Tretton, CEO of SCEA, chimes in on the whole affair and in doing so, sends out a distress signal from deep within an alternate reality. "The overwhelming consumer demand and critical acclaim for PS3 is testament of the platform's strength and the industry's desire for a true next-generation entertainment system." Come on, Mr. Tretton, even Quinn Mallory has a subscription to Time magazine.

Update: Oops! Sony got their controllers mixed up.

You've watched or listened to the keynote, checked out the interface screenshots, watched the video, or simply heard about it through one of the 250+ news organizations that have already covered Microsoft's plans to add IPTV capability to the Xbox 360 in time for consumermas 2007.

So what?

What might this mean for the console wars? How will this change the game? We're not nearly as smart or creative as our collected readership (after all, Time made YOU the person of the year), so rather than rack our brains, we'll sift through yours and publish the best responses in a subsequent post.

Task: in your pithy best, share how you believe that this announcement might change the console war now underway, if at all.

Let's get a couple obvious ones out of the way first:

• A larger hard drive is assured. Ain't no DVR going on with a measly 20GB hard drive.
• Perhaps content partners might offer free Xbox 360s to consumers who purchase multi-month (or multi-year) IPTV service contracts, in much the same way that mobile phone service providers offer highly subsidized phones for customers who sign a one- or two-year service agreement.
• Sony announces intent to match this functionality, but does as well copying Xbox IPTV as they've done copying Xbox Live.

Industry shows are interesting beasts to witness. Frequently, we get clues about the future of gaming simply by looking at who decides to show up. There is one big surprise listing at the 2007 CES.

According to the CES website, "It's all fun and games for AMD, Apex Digital, ATI, Dell, Logitech, Nvidia, Alienware, Microsoft, Sony and Gizmondo." This is a fairly odd sentiment given the company is now bankrupt and isn't making games anymore. Maybe the CES doesn't pay much attention to the news (or found it near-impossible to decipher) or Gizmondo pre-paid over a year ago and gets an empty booth.

Gizmondo doesn't seem to be dying a graceful death. Stories like the Bo Stefan Eriksson story keep cropping up. Maybe the empty booth at the 2007 CES will be the dénouement of this pathetic riches-to-rags story; or maybe a huge surprise with the return of Gizmondo.

[Thanks, Falafelkid]

This summer is shaping up to be great one, at least in terms of the number of UK gaming trade shows and conferences coming up soon. The great gaming fiasco of 2004 resulted in both of the major gaming trade shows in the UK (Game Stars Live and ECTS) being canceled when they decided to take place at exactly the same time, so it's great to finally see that the industry has picked itself up.

Click continue to see a round-up of some future gaming events within the United Kingdom. Joystiq's UK contingent (consisting of Jennie and I) hopes to be able to attend as many of these events as possible so if you're also planning on attending make sure to leave us a comment. If we've missed a show or conference, let us know and I'll add your tip to the table.

As expected, amidst the rather strong launch of the Xbox 360, Sony decided to sit the PlayStation out of CES. Well... not entirely. They did have some units on display, as Hexus.gaming proudly trumpets, but nothing new; there were no announcements and no anticipated hardware changes. The units were still labeled "concept units".

If Sony is planning on launching the PS3 in just a few short months, the decision to ignore CES while Microsoft continued to talk 360 is mystifying. Nintendo has continued to tease us along with short glimpses of the possibilities the Revolution will offer; yet, as far as we know, the PS3 is a faster PS2 that also plays HD movies. They are going to need to do much more than this sorry showing to sustain gamers' interest between now and E3. In the meantime, enjoy the pr0n. It looks identical to what we showed you 8 months ago at E3.

[Thanks bandersnatch; Via GameInsider]