HELLO

FOR years, games consoles were confined to bedrooms, where fans could blast away at characters on screen with outsize weaponry or play football games that made you feel you were really there in the stadium. It's all down to their evolution from a games centre for teenagers and guys who never grew up to an entertainment hub - streaming films, running the net, playing music - for the entire family. Microsoft's Xbox One, launched at midnight on Thursday, and Sony's new PlayStation 4, on sale this coming Friday, are now marketed as an entertainment centre for the entire household . "This is a savvy bit of marketing by both companies," Scots gaming expert Scott Munro said yesterday. "Microsoft and Sony realised that by restricting their consoles to games they were limiting their market. If they advertise them as all-singing, all-dancing media systems for the family, they open the consoles up to a much wider market. "Their idea is to market the