Nintendo tops Sony

Nintendo's market value surpassed that of Sony, a company with eight times more revenue, underscoring the success of the Wii game console in outselling rival PlayStation 3, reports Bloomberg.

Shares of Nintendo, based in Kyoto, western Japan, rose as much as 2%, to a record 46 350 yen, in Osaka, valuing the company at 6.57 trillion yen ($53 billion). Sony's stock fell 0.9%, to 6 490 yen, giving the Tokyo-based company a capitalisation of 6.51 trillion yen.

Sony, which overtook Nintendo as the world's biggest console maker after PlayStation 2's introduction in 2000, suffered production delays and slow sales with its latest player. Wii's lower price and a wand-like controller that players swing like a sword or tennis racquet helped Nintendo widen its sales lead over the PlayStation 3 in Japan last month.

The release of controversial video game Manhunt 2 is being put on hold just days after ratings boards in the UK and US classified the game in ways that would make it unable to be sold at game retailers, says MTV.com.

"Take-Two Interactive Software has temporarily suspended plans to distribute Manhunt 2 for the Wii or PlayStation platforms while it reviews its options with regard to the recent decisions made by the British Board of Film Classification and Entertainment Software Ratings Board," the game's publisher revealed in a statement.

Manhunt 2 had been scheduled for release on PS2, PSP and Wii in the second week of July. The game is developed by Rockstar, the studio behind the Grand Theft Auto series. Take-Two Interactive, which owns Rockstar, is the publisher.

Microsoft's director of its Security Technology Unit, Jeffrey Jones, previewed a report that was soon to be published about the number of reported and addressed vulnerabilities in Windows Vista over the first six months of its consumer market shelf life, at TechEd, in Orlando.

The generally confused and negative reaction among attendees, who ended up arguing with Jones for most of the session, prompted Beta News to decide that, amid the other news emerging that week, it wasn't worth covering.

The essence of the report is that Windows Vista had far fewer reported security vulnerabilities during its first six months than Windows XP. While that statistic is not altogether meaningless, on its face, it is open to varying interpretations; and Jones' presentation of these statistics ended up encouraging, if not demanding, questions about interpretation - including his own.

eBay will start turning on its US AdWords ads on Friday, ending a 10-day pullout that made headlines worldwide and was seen as a sign of the companies' deteriorating relationship, reports PC World.

The company has determined it doesn't need to spend as much as it did before the ad blackout, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said Friday. "In general, our AdWords spending will be significantly lower than it was before," Durzy said, declining to be more specific.

eBay reallocated its US AdWords budget to other advertising channels, and found that it is not as dependent on AdWords as it thought before doing this test, Durzy said.