Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has claimed reports that its senior staffers let slip how much the company plans to charge for the PlayStation 3 when the console ships next November are "incorrect".

The PlayStation 3 will set European consumers back €499-€599 (£349-£419), a senior Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) executive has let slip. Sony is expected to announce worldwide pricing and other such details at an 8 May event the week before the E3 computer games trade show.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 console contains illegally used technology, Lucent alleged last week - and filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the software giant to back up its claim. It is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial.

Games Digest A slew of new revelations about Nintendo's next console, the Revolution, have not so much set the games world alight as poured cold water over it. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata last week said: "We don't think it's necessary to do the simultaneous worldwide launch simply because others are doing this."

Nintendo's Revolution console will be powered by a 729MHz processor - 50 per cent more clock cycles than its predecessor in the GameCube - and a graphics chip set to run at 243MHz, it has been claimed.

Sony has stopped manufacturing the PSOne - the redesigned version of the original PlayStation aka the SCPH-100 - it has emerged. With the PS3 due to ship in November, the PS2 is set to become the entry-level system, so there's little need to keep making PSOnes.

Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will not impose a region-coding scheme on games. That the consumer electronics giant was considering such a move was first signalled in November 2005, but it was made official policy this week by the company's head of games development, Phil Harrison.

Taiwanese manufacturer Bluetake has announced a Bluetooth stereo audio adaptor for Sony's PlayStation Portable. The gizmo's neatly contoured to fit along the base of the handheld console and clip into the PSP's earphone socket.

ransmeta has confirmed it is engaged on "proprietary" design work for Microsoft, a revelation that will undoubtedly fuel speculation that the software giant is working on a mobile version of its Xbox 360 games console. In fact, it's more likely to relate to the shipping 360 product.

Microsoft is doubling or tripling the number of XBoxes it will send out to retailers every week. It has added a third manufacturer - Celestica - and has got a solid supply of components.

The UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS) has placed Apple's iPod and the some of the company's iTunes Music Store downloads in the standard shopping basket the organisation uses to monitor the cost of living in Britain.

Comment World+Dog is this week feverishly reporting on rumours that Microsoft is hard at work on an iPod killer. Or it may be a PlayStation Portable killer. Or perhaps a PMC killer. No, wait a moment, PMC - aka Portable Media Center - was Microsoft's last attempt at an iPod killer, and just look at what that did to restrict Apple's revenue growth...

Sony has revealed it will demand punters pay a penny under £150 for the basic PlayStation Portable package when it launches here on 22 March. Announced last week, the box contains just a PSP and a mains adaptor, unlike the bundle-heavy Value Pack that launched in September 2005.

Games Digest Sony Computer Entertainment's president, Ken Kutaragi, announced a raft of new details about the PS3, PSP and PNP at a press conference in Tokyo last week. The big announcement, that the PS3 will launch in mid-November in Japan, the US and Europe simultaneously, has already been covered by Reg Hardware. But more interesting is the emerging picture of how Sony sees the PS3 squaring up against the Xbox 360, Nintendo's Revolution and the home PC in the living room.

A video has been posted on the web that appears to confirm claims that the Xbox 360's anti-hack security system has been... er... hacked. The video shows a console with its lid off playing a copy of a game.

A bus driver has been sacked after passengers complained he was driving the bus while playing a portable games machine.

Sony is to launch a global content download service for its PlayStation Portable handheld games console, the company said today. It will also ship a PSP version of the hugely popular PS2 accessory EyeToy, and a GPS-module to enable not only navigation but location-specific game functionality.

Sony's PlayStation 3 will require a hard disk drive, the consumer electronics giant revealed today. It indicated the console would ship with a 60GB 2.5in drive and that it would be upgradeable, suggesting the unit is removable - much like the Xbox 360's HDD.

Update It's official: Sony has delayed the roll-out of the PlayStation 3 to early November from the late March timeframe the consumer electronics giant had originally pegged for the product's release. However, it confirmed the console will launch in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan simultaneously.

Three ex-Gizmondo Europe executives have have emerged as the minds behind US-based virtual network operator Xero Mobile. The start-up's pitch: offer mobile phone users free airtime if they'll put up with adverts being pushed to their handsets.