Two of the more unique mass-market designs on show on Computex 2017 have to be the Phanteks EVOLV Shift and Shift X SFF cases. These are the essence of a tower case (though they can also lie on their side like a roman citizen at dinner time, if you are so inclined.) These are aluminum and tempered-glass crafted cases, with a ridiculous 17 (W) x 27 (D) x 48 (H) cm footprint on the Shift. The Shift X is the taller solution of the two, with a 65 cm height. These little cases than could support water cooling and component placement in multiple orientations, and include an integrated RGB controller to boot.

The front I/O contains just two USB 3.0 ports, but it's the interior which shines. Phanteks managed to cram a lot into such a compact form-factor. Motherboards will have to be of the mini-ITX type, there's no way around that; however, there's also with support for 2x PCI slots, and the Shift X brings support for 2x internal 3.5" and 2x 2.5" drives (you can also mount 2.5" solutions on the 3.5" bays, mind you.) It also supports PS2 PSUs, while the smaller Shift has to cut one of the 3.5" bays, and only supports SFF PSUs. However, for their sizes, both Shifts support 3x 120 mm and 3x 140 mm fans on the front of the case, and 1x 120 mm, 1x 140 mm fans on the bottom. The EVOLV Shift will retail for $110, while the Shift X brings that number up to $160.

FSP, the performance power specialist, is pleased to announce its new FSP700-70RGHBE1 PS2 redundant Power Supply. The FSP700-70RGHBE1 joins the FSP500-70RGHBB1 as the latest server-grade power supply from FSP. This time, two highly reliable 700W power supplies are offered, achieving 22.4W/in3 (watt per cubic inch,) the highest power density currently available in a standard PS2 redundant form factor.

The two fully redundant, modular power supplies operate at 80 Plus Gold efficiency, and no specialized bracket is needed for installation. It is the first PS2 redundant which fits 80% of ATX chassis on the market without needing a special bracket. It's compliant with both desktop ATX 12V and server EPS12V standards, suitable for many industrial PCs, and also compatible with rackmount server chassis 3U and above. It offers reliable, 24-hr performance at temperatures up to 50°C.

Being skilled at a game will only get you as far as your equipment allows. At ZOWIE GEAR we try to develop equipment that will push or completely remove these limitations, so the skills of each individual gamer can be expressed freely. Our current range of competitive gaming products includes mouse pads, headsets, mice and peripherals. We are very proud of these products, as we believe they have helped set new standards of quality and performance within the competitive gaming segment. The keyboard is a key factor in different competitive gaming titles, where response-time and the ability to move freely is essential to increase the gamers' performance. It was only a matter of time until we would put our attention on developing a keyboard; with that being said, we are extremely happy with the outcome of our new keyboard for competitive gaming.

Developing competitive gaming gear which satisfies a wide variety of gamers through different types of games such as FPS, RTS and Racing games is a challenge. To overcome the challenges, we teamed up with professional players of Counter-Strike (FPS), Starcraft (RTS) and Kartrider (Racing), in order to develop a keyboard which allows for fast and efficient usage. With special thanks to Abdisamad 'SpawN' Mohamed, Young Ho 'Flash' Lee and Ho Jun 'Ho-Jun' Moon, we introduce to you the ZOWIE CELERITAS.

The official PLAYSTATION blog posted today that as of next month the second generation Sony PLAYSTATION game console will be sold for as low as $99 MSRP, down from $129. PLAYSTATION 2 recently sold 50 million units in North America, and now the console is cheaper than ever. First released almost nine years ago in year 2000, the PS2 is still loyal to its owners. To date the console offers over 1900 game titles as well as some of the latest games such as MLB '09, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Guitar Hero Metallica and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge.
The new price sounds almost too good to be true, but let us remind you that tommorow is April fools' day.

Announced nine years ago back in 2000, Sony's PlayStation 2 is without a doubt a major success for the company. The console is so good in fact, that today Sony said it has sold 50 million PlayStation 2 units in North America alone, a new milestone. Sales of the iconic console still remain strong, although now we have new consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to the most recently available figures from the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. sales only, in November Americans bought 206,000 units of the PlayStation 2. These are some remarkable numbers. In comparison, Microsoft's original Xbox console sold a total of 14.5 million units and is already long gone. Nintendo's GameCube, another PS2 competitor, sold 12 million units in North America, not even close to PS2 numbers. Today PlayStation 2 costs roughly $130, down from its original $300 price tag from nine years ago, and still offers the latest game titles, emulation of some PS1 titles, video and audio DVD playback, and a numerous hacks that allow installing desktop hard drives, playing of DivX movies, running spare copies of games and so on.

The newest addition to the Call of Duty (COD) franchise, Call of Duty: World at War, has outsold the first week sales of Call of Duty 4 by greater than 200%. This title is all set to become Christmas number one, and has gone to the top of the All Formats charts in the UK, according to data from GfK Chart-Track.

The figures are rough, and GfK Chart-Track didn't provide a per-platform breakdown, to provide how the game is being received by different platforms. COD: World at War added more console platform support, with Sony PS2 and Nintendo DS over its predecessor.

Industry giant Electronic Arts is predicting much greater success for Sony's PS3 console over the next year, following disappointing sales in 2007. Last year the PS3 lagged well behind the Wii and Xbox 360 in terms of sales, with the Wii coming out significantly ahead of both. However, EA is predicting that the coming year will see Nintendo sell between 12m and 14m Wii consoles, Sony between 9.5m and 11.5m PS3s and Microsoft just 6m to 8m Xbox 360s. The PS2 is still expected to sell in its millions, with estimated figures of 3.9m to 4.9m units. Meanwhile EA reckons the DS will continue to dominate the handheld market by selling 14m to 16m units, with the PSP struggling to compete on 6m to 8m. That said, Xbox 360 sales figures can be expected to drop gradually, as the market is likely to become saturated sooner given its much earlier release date.

Nintendo managed the most successful sales figures in the USA for November, a month which saw console sales rocket thanks to Black Friday and the holiday season. Top of the pile was the Nintendo DS, which shipped 1.53 million units, followed by the Wii on 981,000 units. Microsoft's Xbox 360 came a reasonably close third, selling 770,000 units. Meanwhile Sony's three consoles came last despite improved sales, with 567,000 PSPs, 496,000 PS2 consoles and 466,000 PS3s being sold.

According to gaming magazine MCV, Sony could be planning a new even-more-slimline version of its popular PlayStation 2 console. The new PS2 would retail for $99 compared to $129 of the current slimline, with the main change being that the often-criticised power block on the slimline would be integrated into the main body of the machine. The new console is expected to be launched in early 2008 - looks like Sony isn't planning to let go of the PS2's success just yet.

Sony Corp., will introduce a new limited edition Ceramic White PlayStation 2 for the holidays to take advantage of the continued popularity of the older machine. A white version of the PS2, with the "SingStar Pop" game and two microphones, will sell for $149.99, the company said today in a statement. The console should become available everywhere by November 4th.

Sales of Nintendo's Wii games console soared to their highest this year during July as it continued to outsell both Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, shipping approximately 425,000 units. The PS3 also saw its strongest month of 2007, with sales rising from 95,000 units during June to 159,000 units during July following Sony's price drop for the 60GB model in North America. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360, which is still selling better than the PS3, saw its sales fall from 198,400 units to 170,000 units as the console continues to be plagued by reliability issues. Meanwhile the PlayStation 2 remains the second-best seller among home consoles, shipping 222,000 units during July, meaning the two least powerful consoles (excluding portable consoles) are selling best. These figures also mean that lifetime sales of the Wii have now surpassed those of the Xbox 360 as Nintendo continues to return to its former glory of the NES, SNES and N64 eras.

Nintendo has continued its recent console success throughout May, with the DS taking top spot and the Wii in a comfortable second in terms of sales. The Nintendo DS sold an impressive 423,000 units and the Wii 338,000 units, with the PSP next in line with 221,000 units, ahead of the PlayStation 2's 188,000 units. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are continuing to lag behind, with Sony's latest console on just 82,000 and the Xbox 360 on 155,000 units - the PS3 only beat Game Boy Advance figures by a mere one thousand units. Sales in May totalled $815.5 million, up 49% compared to figures from last year - a strong month for the games industry.

Sony has published its list of Playstation and Playstation 2 titles that will work with the European version of the PS3, with 72% of PS2 games claimed to be working on the new console. The list should be available here, but unfortunately it is no longer working so Sony may be amending the list. The v1.6 firmware announced earlier today will allow 1,782 of the 2,451 PS2 games available in Europe run using emulation, although it is claimed that many will not work 100%. According to Sony, games such as Kingdom Hearts and Twisted Metal Black run with "noticeable issues" (which have not been published). Removing non-essential USB devices and avoiding 60Hz mode (NTSC) may help to solve some of these problems, as well as limiting the number of players on one console to seven. President of SCEE David Reeves said "We will be adding additional titles to this list in future firmware upgrades, but as we have made clear before, in the future our resources will be increasingly focused on developing new services and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, rather than on delivering PS2 backwards compatibility."Update: the link now appears to be working again

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, that crazy "Adult Swim" show on Cartoon Network featuring a milkshake, a meatball, and a box of fries as main characters, is coming to consoles as a game. This as-of-yet unnamed game will be developed by Midway with the help of some of the creators of the actual show. 1Up hopes this game will be a lot better than other adult-themed television shows that have been turned into video games, such as the Family Guy and the Futurama game.

In the United States, the Xbox360 wiped the floor with all the other next-generation consoles, figuratively speaking in terms of console sales. The Xbox360 sold 1.1 million consoles, which beat the amount of Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 sales. However, while the Xbox360 may be the champion of the new, it has yet to beat the old. Sony managed to sell 1.4 million PlayStation 2s over the holidays in the United States. Whether or not the PlayStation 2 will continue selling this well, only time will tell. PlayStation 2 sales will likely diminish as more games come out exclusively for next-gen consoles, and next-gen consoles have less production issues (low supply, high demand).

A couple of days ago, we announced that Sony had won an Emmy at CES2007. After the gaming community collectively gawked at Sony winning an Emmy, Sony decided to print a press release announcing how the PS3 was the pride of CES. Unfortunately, there was some misunderstanding as to what Sony really won an Emmy for. Sony had indeed won an Emmy for their controller, like Nintendo did, but it was not for Sixaxis. Instead, Sony won an Emmy for the Dual Shock controller. Dual Shock is a feature not available on the PS3...at all.