MCV lead this week with a report on the recent PlayStation2 festival in Japan and hint at a September 29 launch date for the console in the UK. This isn't a firm date so don't get too excited just yet. Also on MCV's cover is the story that French games veterans Microids (no, we couldn't remember the last decent game they had either) are looking to set up a UK base. Though not strictly news, our highlight in MCV this week is the round-up of new peripherals, including the excellent-looking Recoil lightgun from MaxPlay (01202 668806, £24.99) which looks like a real handgun. It has a recoil action and reload pedal and we reckon it looks like a cracking bit of kit. MCV rightly point out that the realism of the lightgun is unlikely to endear itself with the anti-violence in games quarter, but hey! It's only a bit of plastic.

Rival trade mag CTW have a confirmation from Sega Europe's big cheese JF Cecillion that Sega won't be making knee-jerk reactions to retail demands that they drop the price of Dreamcast. Yet. CTW also report that EA have acquired US developers Dreamworks Interactive, responsible for the lovely PlayStation game Medal Of Honor. Finally, CTW report that Scandinavian company IQ Media have secured the distribution rights to a number of Hasbro titles in Sweden and Norway, which is nice.