Critical Hit

It seems every industry has been affected in some way by the natural disasters that hit Japan over the past several days, yet another setback for a nation already struggling with the tragic loss of life and property following last week's massive earthquake, the tsunami that followed and the threat of radioactive fallout still looming. Now we're hearing that Sony has closed down six factories in northeastern Japan, where Blu-ray Discs and other popular products are manufactured.

At the Games Developers Conference, Sony held a panel for their upcoming handheld, the Next Generation Portable. Though a bulk of the discussion was focused on information previously announced last month in Tokyo, we were able to learn more about the device's new flash memory game format, tentatively dubbed NVG Card.