Yup. TVs are used to run your console, and now consoles are helping you to watch TV. Or at least, BBC programming.

The iPlayer is a Peer2Peer legal download service not too dissimilar from BitTorrent, where you download your content of previous shows that have been aired on the BBC. There has been a debate about BBC’s iPlayer putting strain on the broadband network here in the UK, and who should pay for the upgrades in order to facilitate it.

But regardless, the BBC and Nintendo have signed a deal together which will allow Wii owners to watch programmes available via the iPlayer service, through the Internet Channel. This sort of deal, in my opinion, will trump the whole movie rentals service and such, but I have a few questions:

• Are they going to include 4OD (Channel 4 On-Demand)?
• How will they facilitate the downloads? Will they stream/cache or even store?
• If the latter is true, then how? Will it be a removable Hard Disk?
• When are broadband companies going to wise up and pull together to upgrade the network, independant of this little pow-wow?

Tags: bbc, iplayer, nintendo, wii, television, p2p

CVG phoned up Ubisoft to verify this, and it’s true.

Haze is set for May 23rd release. That’s the PS3 release; I’m guessing that it’s a timed exclusive much like Lost Planet. So ’start saving the coins’, they say.

Me, I’ll just sit back as another mediocre shooter gets killed by the hype bug.

From CVG.

Tags: computerandvideogames, haze, ps3, hype

Activision has estimated that the gaming market is worth about $10.4b in Europe, compared to $10.1b in the US.

It’s stated that this was taking into account the strength of the £ vs the $. However, even with the credit crunch, I highly doubt these figures are inaccurate. Think about it: We get charged double the price for games in the UK alone, and with the steadyness of the Euro, they get charged more as well.

Considering that 72% of the US plays video games, this is a most disturbing result, and I hope someone pokes their oar into it, and try to bring our prices down.

From MCV.

Tags: activision, gaming market, we lose, mcv, money

CVG is running a story that has stated that rumours are abound that the console will get an approximate cut of 40%. The cost of a Wii would go down from 249 Euros to 149 Euros, with a Mario Kart Bundle moving for 199 Euroes this spring. This is all according to a source of France Nintendo, telling Jeux France.

It also mentions a two-game bundle, with games unknown, plus two Wiimotes, for the original price of 249 Euros. Let me get that into Pound Sterling.

• 249 Euros= ~£199
• 149 Euros= ~£119
• 199 Euros= ~£159

I thought the price was meant to be £179 over here. Maybe I’m out of touch, but all of these happening in May is quite unlikely. Maybe later, closer to Christmas. Chances are even I’ll buy one, since I can now cherry pick the better games compared to last time.

Just as a note, Nintendo UK has kept quiet on it, but CVG are going to poke them once they’re out of bed.

Tags: nintendo, wii, price cut, jeux france, computerandvideogames