SINGAPORE: Brace yourselves, gamers, there’s a barrage of good news for you this week.

At the E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles, an annual gaming conference for the industry’s big guns, Sony announced a new, US$399 ($530) 80GB PlayStation 3 to replace the 40GB model. Not one to be outdone, Microsoft is also superceding its 20GB Xbox 360 with a 60GB model (US$349).

But, the biggest news is that Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII game is coming to the Xbox 360 console — yet another major franchise exclusive stolen from Sony’s PlayStation 3. In February, the once-exclusive Devil May Cry 4 from Capcom made its debut on the Xbox 360.

Besides the Final Fantasy coup, Microsoft also took the wraps off a karaoke game called Lips, which comes with a wireless microphone accessory. In addition, it is introducing virtual avatars for players, similar to Nintendo’s Miis.

Nintendo continues to build on the family-friendly appeal of its console with a title called Wii Music, which lets you play more than 60 musical instruments using the console’s wireless controllers. You get to mimic the way musicians churn out tunes even if you know zilch about melody, pitch and rhythm.

Nintendo also unveiled a new Wii Sports Resort game packaged with a precise motion-sensing accessory called Wii MotionPlus, which lets users cross swords and fence, or play fetch with a virtual dog by throwing a frisbee.

Closer to home, gamers can look forward to this year’s World Cyber Games Singapore National Finals and Asian Championship at the Suntec Convention Centre on Aug 7.

This year’s event will have a racing theme in line with the F1 Singapore Grand Prix, set to make its debut in September.

Top gaming seeds from 14 countries across Asia will be competing for up to US$15,000 worth of prizes.Halo 3, Guitar Hero III and Virtua Fighter 5 are among the new titles added to the14 official games. - TODAY/fa