"If there's one console maker that should worry about Xbox 360's multi-model price cut, it's Sony, claims analyst Jesse Divnich with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.

"[Between Sony and Nintendo,] Sony should be the most concerned [about the 360's price cut]," he told Edge on Thursday. "...Going into this holiday season, the PS3 will not only have the highest price point, but also the smallest software library, weaker line-up of exclusive titles (compared to Xbox 360’s Gears of ..."

Japan's game and hardware sales from last week have been revealed, with Rhythm Tengoku Gold, a Ninteno DS game, coming first. One of the newest additions to the Japanese market, Afrika, came in second with 38,000 units sold. Rounding out the top five is J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship for the PS2, PSP Fate/Tiger Colosseum Upper for the PSP, and Wii Fit.

Over on the hardware side, the DS Lite sold the most, reaching over 56,000 units! Second was the PSP with 41k new owners, ...

"Tecmo’s had its share of troubles lately especially with Tomonobu Itagaki, the creator of Dead or Alive series and developer of the Ninja Gaiden remakes, leaving Tecmo. Also Tecmo has not been as profitable as it once were back in the hey-days of it’s rein.

Now with huge publisher/studio Square Enix eating up Tecmo for breakfast we witness yet another case of a well known studio getting merged into a larger studio. Recently we witnessed the Activision Blizzard merger, as well as EA taking ..."

"After a bumper week of Xbox 360 sales in Japan, brought on by the release of Tales of Vesperia, the Microsoft console has fallen back to reality with only 7,358 units sold for the week ending August 17. The previous week the Xbox 360 shifted 24,962 units and outsold the PS3."

"More of a reminder than a news story this one; Sony's new PlayStation 3 goes on sale today in the UK from £299.

The basic package comes with two USB Ports and a DualShock 3 SixAxis wireless controller. There's no PS2 backwards compatibility though, that's a thing of the past. And the original 60GB version.

Just in case you missed it, Sony's going to be releasing ANOTHER PS3 SKU this Halloween, that one will pack a 160GB hard drive.

Since PS3 launched last September, we've gone 60, 40..."

"This just in: Extreme Gamers spend more heavily than even heavy gamers. In the follow-up to last year's Games Segmentation II survey, industry-tracking NPD Group found that the highest order of gamers spend on average 45 hours a week playing games, having purchased roughly 24 titles in a three-month period. That's a marked increase from last year, in which the then-top Heavy Gamer demographic spent 39.3 hours a week gaming, purchasing on average 13.1 games over the same period of time.

In ..."

"Last year saw record gaming sales at US retailers, but 2008 is on pace to crush those numbers. Heading into the back half of the year, the industry has already posted six straight months of double-digit software sales growth, and analysts are unified in expecting a seventh later this week when the NPD Group releases its US retail sales figures for July.

Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian was the most conservative of the usual NPD-prognosticating suspects, suggesting US software sales..."

"In order to stay competitive, said Sony, it had to invest large amounts of money in research and development to introduce the PlayStation 3 into the market, and these sorts of expenditures don't always get recouped, especially if a platform "fail[s] to achieve such favorable market penetration... resulting in a significant negative impact on Sony's profitability."

Even if it can recoup its investment, Sony said, it's still possible to have lost large amounts of money on the platform's intr..."

""...They must have been planning, thinking they have enough time, to port the second game to PS3 and release at the same time with the same quality," he said.

"So they massively underestimated the effort that was needed to re-architect the game to properly take advantage of the PS3's multi-core architecture."

Third-party developers are now coming to terms with the PS3, and will no longer need to port over Xbox 360 versions of their games.

"That re-architecture only needs to happen on..."

"HW
PlayStation 3 208.7K
PlayStation Portable 182.3K
Xbox 360 186.6K
Wii 675.1K
Nintendo DS 452.6K

SW Top 10
Top 10 SKU's May 2008 Rank # Units
(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc.)
360 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) APR 2008 1 871.3K
WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA APR 2008 2 787.4K
WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA MAY 2008 3 687.7K
PS3 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) APR 2008 4 442.9K
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AME..."

"Trion World Network has announced that its first title will be a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and that the company has become a licensed publisher for the PlayStation 3 in order to bring it to Sony’s console."

""Console market share appears to be less of a priority; price cut less likely," he said. "On its earnings call, Sony management indicated the company is now more focused on achieving profitability in the PlayStation segment and rolling out online services (e.g., PlayStation Home) rather than chasing unit market share vs. Microsoft and Nintendo. Importantly, management comments also suggest that a price cut is less likely on the PS3 this year, at least in the near term.""

"U.S. Video Games Industry - April 2008

April 2007 April 2008 YTD Apr 07 YTD Apr 08
Video Games $839 million $1.23 billion 47.0% $4.18 billion $5.47 billion 31.0%
Video Games Hardware $339.2 million $426.2 million 26.0% $1.62 billion $1.84 billion 13.0%
Video Games Software $389.4 million $654.7 million 68.0% $1.97 billion $2.88 billion 46.0%
Video Game Accessories $110.4 million $154 million 39.0% $584.4 million $750.6 million 29.0%

Hardware
PlayStation 2 124.4K
PlayStation 3 1..."

""As to the situation of the US dollar's weakness in the medium to long term, we already have a strategy to deal with it," said Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president, according to MSN Money.

"We will lower our production costs as possible as we can and we will choose production sites to cope with the industry's weakness, and in the short term, we will try to accept more orders."

For every JPY 1 gain versus the US dollar, Sony loses around JPY 6 billion (USD 58.3 million / EUR 37.5 million). I..."

It's the news that we have all been waiting for, and now we have it. Courtesy of ThreeSpeech for making us aware of the interview, and courtesy of ShackNews for the interview with the PSN Director of Operations, Eric Lempel.

When asked by ShackNews if an ingame XMB is possible in the near future his answer was:

We are looking at a number of enhancements related to accessing some of the XMB features during gameplay, including messaging your friends. While there's no time line to announce at ...

"Sony's stock prices shot up 4.54 percent (250 yen) to close at 5,750 yen - said to be thanks to the here recent boost in PS3 sales and a deal that saw the Dubai state fund invest up to $500 million in the company.

Koya Tabata, an analyst at Credit Suisse, spotted the obvious: "The news of brisk PS3 sales in North America apparently had an effect on Sony shares."

Conversely, Nintendo shares dropped by 800 Yen (1.28 percent) to 61,700, while Wii remains widely sold out in the major terri..."

"Sony reports revenues up

But games division losses double, dragging down overall figures

Sony Corporation has announced its financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2007, showing an overall revenue growth year-on-year of 12.3 per cent.

However, while the Corporation made an operating profit of JPY 90.5 billion (USD 787 million) during the quarter, up from a loss of JPY 20.8 billion (USD 182 million) last year, the games division's losses doubled in the same period.

Altho..."

In an interview with Japanese website ITMedia +D Games, Kaz Hirai revealed much information with regards to the future of the PS3, and the guys at Developmag have provided us with an overview of what was said. So what did Hirai have to say about the PS3 well let's take a quick look...

With regards to companies increasingly devleping games for multiple platforms, Hirai said ”When you consider the cost of developing on today’s platforms, I think it’s a logical progression that they’re all th...

Leipzig Games Conference is just around the corner, and during the event, Sony is expected to announce the addition of Freeview as a feature of the consoles. For those that don't live in the UK, Freeview, is basically a selection of channels that are pretty much free to watch.

The Video-on-demand service is expected (note that it's still a rumour at this point) to be brought to the systems before December of this year. To find out how much truth there is in this article, we'll have to wai...

"“The difference between 60 and 80GB is very small, we just feel that going up 20GB is not worth it,” Reeves told Norwegian website Dagbladet.
However, “If you go to double it, it’s worth it”, he added. “So maybe you’ll see something a little bit later.”

“We don’t think it’s necessary to reduce the price”, he continued. “We think that consumers want added value in Europe. We think it’s the right decision.”"

"Industry analyst Michael Pachter expects the 80GB PlayStation 3 to drop in price to USD 499 once all stock of the 60GB model has sold out, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The 80GB model currently retails in North America for USD 599 with a copy of Evolution Studio's MotorStorm, but Pachter believes the newly introduced unit will drop in price for the standalone console.

"In our view, the Sony entry level price of USD 499 is here to stay," he said.

"We believe that there are presently 2 to..."

"According to the latest GfK figures, in excess of 50,000 PlayStation 3 consoles have now been sold in Australia since the system launched on March 23, 2007. A Sony Computer Entertainment Australia representative commented that "With new and classic titles being made available regularly via the PLAYSTATION Network (PSN), and a strong portfolio of exclusive blu-ray disc based games set to launch over coming months, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia remains confident in the PLAYSTATION 3 con..."

""It's with enthusiasm, eagerness and, honestly, a little bit of relief that we lift the cover on our first official Sony Computer Entertainment America company blog," wrote SCEA PR manager Patrick Seybold in today's post, adding "welcome and sorry for the wait.""

"PlayStation 3 could see a price cut with cheaper Blu-ray components

The Blu-ray Disc drive inside every PlayStation 3 is one of the console’s most expensive components. Fortunately, production capacity of blue-violet laser diodes required for the Blu-ray Disc drive is ramping up faster than originally projected, which could soon drive down costs for the PlayStation 3.

According to Semiconductor Today, Sony Corp. subsidiary Sony Shiroishi Semiconductor Inc. of Japan claims to have establ..."