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Times Online: Sony and Nintendo both announced new products and services at the world’s largest games conference yesterday - though the new releases were not as dazzling as observers had hoped for.

Sony’s biggest announcement was an upgrade to its PlayStation Network - the online portal for its consoles - which will allow owners to download TV shows and films and play them on their TVs.

The announcement - which followed a similar move from Microsoft that will mean Xbox 360 owners can stream films to their TVs from Netflix, the DVD rental company - shows the extent to which Sony is trying to get its games division to work more closely with its content arm, which includes the film studio Sony Pictures.

Sony said that some of the programming - which will be drawn from major studios including Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros and Sony Pictures - would be in high definition, allowing PS3 owners to tap into the Blu-ray capability of their devices. Owners of PlayStation Portables (PSPs) would be able to watch the films on the go, it said.

Nintendo used its presentation at the E3 games conference in Los Angeles to detail some new additions to its Wii console, which has been credited with introducing computer games to a wider audience, including older people and women. A new accessory - the Wii Motion Plus - that plugs into the console’s trademark “wand” will allow the device to become much more sensitive to twists of the wrist.

The Japanese company also unveiled the Wii Speak - a microphone that plugs into the Wii, and a new game called Wii Music, which lets players imitate the playing of about 50 instruments. In perhaps its most susprising announcement, Nintendo said that the Grand Theft Auto creator, Rockstar, was developing a version of the game for the handheld Nintendo DS.

E3 Nintendo Sony

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