rss feeds
@gamegrep
Facebook
For the last several years Sony's has continuously been making annual loses and this year is no exception. While Microsoft is continuing their 16 month winning streak, Sony posted it's highest ever annual loss, causing share prices to drastically drop.
This news comes straight out of the Kiwi homeland itself, New Zealand, as what were easily mistake for the hottest hot pink I've ever seen actually happens to be Scarlet Red; the new color for the latest SKU from PlayStation 3 Slim console hardware lineup by Sony.
Several new details, in addition to several product images, have been revealed for DreamGear’s upcoming 360-esque Playstation 3 Phenom Wireless Controllers.
An online retailer is currently offering a big discount for the official first-party Wireless Keypad attachment for the DualShock 3 Playstation 3 controller
Sony/PlayStation seem to have a big announcement up their sleeves; otherwise they would've just come out and said it. Some people think it's going to be God of War IV. Looking at this teaser image, what do you think?
The final three contestants in Sony's PlayStation reality TV series have completed the final challenge and the winner has been crowned. VGBlogger recaps the final episode of The Tester Season 3.
Sony and Apple have been sued for infringing a patent from 2004 that covers "data vending systems that allow users to store and manage digital music, video, software and other items on a variety of electronic devices."
"n case the news hasn't gotten around to you yet, the PS Vita is touting a lifespan of approximately 3 to 5 hours. That is, of course, if players remember to turn off wi-fi and bluetooth functions throughout their play time."
"At the end of Sony's press conference at Gamescom they announced something rather surprising. The PS3 is getting a price drop to $250 in the US (as well as drops in other markets) and it is effective immediately."
"Sony is planning another Gamescom barnstormer – with a PlayStation 3 price cut on the cards.
An announcement is expected at the August event in Cologne. Trade insiders are hoping for an RRP of £199.99, with retail prepared to go to £179.99."
"Hello,
We wanted to contact Graf, first know that you have our support, we are a team that shall remain nameless, we never, ever made piracy network as is done in recent times . But in light of your circumstances we will review our principles we find scandalous the way Sony treats you, ready to send you to jail just for a misplaced pride and make an example."
Word has come in that supposedly there have been 40 warrants issued for search and seizure in the homes of Anonymous members in the United States while also there are claims that arrests have been made in the UK over the recent PS3 attacks.
Admist all the recent sales data of the 3DS and others, comes some info on how the Playstation 3 is doing. The PS3 is enjoying strong sales, moving more than...
Anonymous has come out of nowhere and cause many problems for Sony and their PlayStation 3. Today, Anonymous spoke about their latest attack and this could be one that changes the company. Check it out.
"What we've learned is that Portal 2 on the PS3 will be accompanied by a persistent Steam Overlay that can be accessed with a press of the Select button within the game. But what that overlay provides is pretty cool, particularly for PC and Mac users who already have a Steam account."
NoobFeed.com reports on the breaking news of George 'GeoHot' Hotz finally reaching an end to his trial in the case against Sony. This very sudden conclusion sees both parties glad to bury their differences and move on. Of course, no links were made to recent tribulations circling around this case.
The Xbox 360 may have more sales in the United States, but worldwide sales figures show that the Playstation 3 is the king of consoles. Even the strong sales of the Kinect have not...
The PS3s seized in a row over patents can be released, a court has ruled.
Electronics company LG won a court order, and PS3 consoles being imported into Europe were seized by authorities. However, a Dutch court has ruled that the units can be released. LG was ordered to pay €130,000 (just over £112,000) in court costs. A full ruling hasn't yet been made, but for now, Sony can freely ship the consoles.
Sony has been taking the steps they can to combat hackers with the on-going war against the PS3. This started as a "homebrew" debate and has deteriorated into GeoHot making diss rap songs where he really can't rap and now Sony has responded with the official statement that they will BAN anyone who logs onto PSN with a hacked PS3. You have been warned. Check out the official statement.
In a decision that will surely leave many scratching their heads, the courts have given Sony the right to seize George Hotz's personal computer to determine how he managed to hack the PS3. In a hearing held Thursday Sony requested that they be given the contact information for individuals that watched Hotz's Youtube videos or retweeted the jailbreak code on twitter, but Judge Susan Illston denied their request.
If you have been experiencing any issues with the latest firmware released for the Playstation 3, then you may just have a case against Sony. Check out the full story for the details. Cheers!
A month back US hacker George Hotz publicly released the PS3 security key on his blog and broke piracy wide open on the PS3. Since that day Sony has been fighting the issue through every avenue including a lawsuit against Hotz. Tonight Kevin Butler mistakenly tweeted the same key.
It seems like the American may have trouble getting their Playstation 3s if LG Electronics has anything to say about it. Check out the story for all the details. Cheers!
It seems like the land of the far east will be getting a sweet looking version of the PS3. Check out the link for pricing and whether it's currently coming to Europe and the Americas.
The recently-released 3.56 firmware update is apparently preventing many users with the 16 MB flash Playstation 3 models from being able to upgrade to a new hard disk drive.
Since the UFO glitch in Cod4 hackers/cheaters have got away with whatever they want on the PS3. With the recent PS3 update of 3.56 it seems Sony have granted power to Activision/Treyarch to ban anyone thats using Hacks online.
George "Geohot" Hotz, the guy responsible for the widespread 'jailbreak' software for the iTouch and iPhone, has released the PS3's master key. And to top that off, someone else found the PSP's master key within the PS3. So what does this mean? Well it means hackers have full control over the systems now. What the key allows you to do is 'sign' or decrypt code and enable it to be run on either the PSP or PS3. This is essentially the key to homebrew. And now that they have it, homebrew can beg...
A group of PS3 hackers recently sat down and had a conference. During this conference they went over the PS3, 360 and Wii's security holes and exploits. They deemed the PS3 an epic failure when it comes to security, stating that even the 360 is more secure. Perhaps people didn't notice just how bad the PS3's security really is because no one could figure out how to initially get in and get a foothold.
Which is funny because the PS3 has been more or less consistently hack free since launch ...
"Film Fans on LOVEFiLM subscription packages of £5.99 or above will be able to stream thousands of titles via their PS3. You’ll also be able to scroll through titles on the page and search through categories including ‘Pick of the Week’, ‘Most Watched’ and ‘Highest Rated’, so you will never be short of a great film to watch"
Straight from New York City, we give you breaking news. Geek Squad is apparently selling PlayStation 3's advertised as "Firmware Upgraded" with extra cost associated.
Despite the fact that you can Even if you don’t have it hooked up to your PS3, you can get a free firmware update from the Sony website, put it on a flash drive, then install it on your PS3. If not, you can go to a public library, your school, or a Staples, or hell even a Best Buy Online PC, any of the millions of free onlin...
"A recent consumer alert bulletin from Sony has outlined their plans to eradicate counterfeit Dualshock controllers from the market. They warm PlayStation 3 owners that these fakes are built by unreliable manufacturers and it's possible they may "ignite or explode" during use. Though Sony wouldn't be liable for any injuries caused by counterfeit gamepads, they are taking action via their latest round of firmware updates to patch out support for these imposters."
Sony Computer Entertainment has released a new system update for the Playstation 3. The new software apparently blocks the jailbreak USB exploit devices.
"Sony announced some good news for music fans last night at IFA 2010 in Berlin. Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity the cloud based digital music service is coming to PS3 later this year"
"Pirated copies of PS3 games may now be played on the console using a new technique to ‘jailbreak’ the PS3 and allow the running of unauthorised code.
PSJailbreak is the name of a system that combines a USB Dongle with a piece of software to perform an iPhone-style ‘jailbreak’ on the PS3 hardware, allowing users to circumvent the PS3’s anti piracy measures and run ‘backed up’ code from DVD, network storage or USB. The software also makes it easy to create backup copies of games which could..."
"It's an often cited fact that console publishers sell their consoles at a loss, particularly in the early years. Sony seems to have turned a corner, and the PS3 is bringing in a profit for the first time.
The news, first reported by Japanese gaming news site andriasang, reveals that Sony's PS3 began turning a small profit at the end of March 2010. Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda believes that the profits will increase in the coming months thanks to potential cost cutting measures."
Starting May 2010, SCEA introduces a new protection plan for the Playstation 3 console and it's little brother, the PSP. Both sets of hardware already come with a one-year manufactuer's limited warranty.
Playstation Insider today writes about the new footage of the well known, GeohHot hacker. He today released a video showing OtherOS still being a feature on 3.21 and it begin bootable as well a custom firmware being made.
Playstation Insider writes about the new hack that enables gamers who chose not to update to 3.21 firmware to still be able to sign onto the Playstation network as usual.
"The next PS3 firmware update will remove a unique feature of the Playstation 3 that may seem like a bad April's Fool joke to some while many other Playstation 3 owners probably won't care The 3.21 firmware update coming on April 1 will remove the ability for PS3 owners to install another operating system (OS)."
"First, I think it might be prudent to state that I am not a Microsoft or Nintendo fanboy. I’m a PC guy, and I run Windows only because that’s what most games require. Bill Gates and Miyamoto, while they seem like cool guys who have certainly made it big by running their respective industry niches (and in the case of Gates, the industry as a whole), enjoy no real positive feelings from me. To me, the console wars always seem to be to be at best a silly but entertaining distraction and are usua..."
"Nintendo Wii stormed the field with software sales of over 18 million units in the UK, retaining the title of Number One software format by units sold. Sony's PlayStation 3 also saw a dramatic increase by 14 per cent of software units sold, from 10.4 million units in 2008 to 11.9 million units in 2009. Overall, in 2009 UK consumers bought a total of 74.6 million videogame units - which works out at more than one per person in the UK."
"The holiday season has arrived and to celebrate PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEE) are releasing a selection of everybody’s favourite festive films in time for Christmas Day. Following the availability of a Cars Special Edition, the selection of festive themed titles will be available on 24th December 2009 across Europe."
It's been a while since Final Fantasy VIII was made available on the Japanese PSN. However, Sony are bringing the re-release to the North American PSN some time in the near future. As seen through the email they sent out to subscribers, the game is listed as "coming soon."
Firmware 3.15 was recently announced by Sony and now it has officialy been launched. This firmware update is optional, so you don't need to download it to sign in to the Playstation network.
Firmware 3.15 adds the ability to play PSP mini's on your PS3. It also adds the ability to transfer data from one PS3 to another. This update is also fixes a few bugs, such as the trophy syncing issue.
To download the update, go to the settings under the XMB, and click on system software update.
If you are one of the many who doesn't like the look of the PS3 Slim, there is some good news for you. You can drop oh about $4999 on a PS3 covered in gold, real gold. This sweet looking baby would complete your collection of a gold covered TV and surround sound system. What, you don't have a home setup made out of gold?
"We launched minis for PSP back in October but from the 17th December you will be able to enjoy these bite size games on your PS3 as well as your PSP. This firmware update allows the minis emulator to work on PS3 and we are working on getting the majority of the current minis ready for the PS3 from the 17th December.
This feature enables you to easily transfer all of your saved data from one PS3 to another. So if you decide to get a new PS3 you can make sure you don’t loose any of your exis..."
Facebook, coloured names coming!
Facebook sets to take the next step by coming to the Playstation 3, share your trophies and much more by linking your PSN to your Facebook account.
Kidnappers are being less creative now-a-days. And one teenage boy had to experience one odd kidnapping. Kyle Yarkosky was held at gun point by his attacker, forced to drive down walmart and buy a Playstation 3. The kidnapper is being charged with armed robbery and kidnapping.
"Sky Player, launched this week on the Xbox 360, may come to the PS3, according to Sky.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com, Sky's director of On Demand Griff Parry said: "It [Sky Player on PS3] may very well happen in the future."
The battle lines have been drawn in the war for console-owning TV watchers."
"Sony sold over one million of its new PS3 in just 3 weeks after its release. Even with sales that massive, Greenberg remains confident that the Xbox 360 will outsell the PS3 for not only the calender year, but for this generation of consoles.
“What I can tell you is we remain confident that Xbox 360 will not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation.”"
"Aaron Greenberg is at at it again, riling everyone who isn’t a Xbox 360 fanboy who believes the system will kill all-comers. This time it’s merely him expressing a simple belief that the Xbox 360 will outsell the PS3 both this calendar year and for the console generation as a whole. But as usual it’s the way he puts his message across. The man is a walking mouthpiece."
"Just yesterday, SCEA officially announced a stand-alone (not part of a bundle) 250GB PS3 Slim model. This latest PS3 SKU more than doubles the storage capacity over the $299 120GB PS3 Model, and for only $50 more.
One day following the 250GB PS3 Slim’s announcement, it’s already become available for pre-order at one major online retailer."
"Hi everyone! Since we launched the slimmer, lighter 120GB PS3 system, we’ve sold one million units worldwide within the first three weeks. We know that all of you are really making use of the PS3’s hard drive, as more than 600 million pieces of content have been downloaded from PlayStation Network. But if you are the ultimate digital consumer craving a bigger hard drive, we have the perfect solution for you.
Today, we announced the availability of a new PS3 system with a 250GB hard drive h..."
Toshiba are ready to show off their new Rezga. And its not just any other HDTV. Its a TV that uses the power of the Cell Processor to offer way more features. This LED TV uses the Cell to allow you to record and watch up to 8 channels at once. It will be priced at $11,000. So if you have spare change lying underneath the couch and need a new TV, you know what to pick.
"However, British CG specialists Digi-Guys – a development studio formed within the world-renowned Pinewood film offices – offered a ringing endorsement of Sony’s powerful console.
“Sony’s hype was right,” said Andy Whitehurst, Digi-Guys founder and veteran GC artist, speaking of Sony’s claim that the Cell processor is ideal for the future of HD gaming.
“It’s advantageous for our thought process. There’s better filtering on the Xbox 360 but the whole thing comes together better on PS3,” ..."
"The recently revealed 250GB PlayStation 3 will arrive in Europe this Thursday, October 1st 2009, and today the official UK Recommended Retail Price (RRP) and package contents have been revealed."
The PS3 sales started off strong, surprisingly strong. But many people questioned how long its sales streak would last. Well it last all through September. Selling well over 1 million units. And the holiday rush and blockbuster games haven't even released yet.
""There are several candidates for the name of the controller," said Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida. While still undecided, those names are making their way through Sony, being run up the flagpole and getting feedback from various internal departments.
"The SIXAXIS and the DualShock 3 — while great product names — are based on the actual tech," Yoshida explained. "The name we pick for the Wand Controller maybe won't be so techy.""
"I have been working with Ron Eagle, Director of Product Publicity at Sony PlayStation, for years and am always amazed at how deep he goes with the shoe projects he is involved with. Once again, PlayStation and Nike have teamed up to create something so very serious. It goes without saying that this is going to be a pair of shoes you either love or hate – there will be few that are in-between. I’m lucky enough to have a pair and I’m going to tell you right now – these joints turn heads – ! So ..."
"As promised, Sony has released a new firmware to fix the problems that the 3.0 firmware update caused for many PS3 owners. The update is not a mandatory update and will not kick you off an online session or require you to update your system. This is purely your choice.
Whether this new patch fixes any other problems or adds in new content hasn't been discovered, yet. It's safe to assume it'll only fix the previous freeze problems and glitches that the 3.0 firmware caused three weeks ago. Y..."
Colorware, established in 2000, is a company that has been offering a service to alter the color of your PC. Since then, they have expanded to offering custom paint jobs for cell phones, MP3 players and gaming consoles.
If you are interested in giving your PS3 Slim a personal touch of color, you can do so at ColorwarePC.com for prices starting at $149 to send in your existing PS3 Slim. Alternatively, you can pick up a brand new PS3 Slim from them starting at $449.
it has just been reported that PS3 sales have increased by 1000% over last week. So, it appears Sony's price drop and new PS3 Slim have been extremely effective in selling hardware. Did you contribute to that 1000% percent this week?
Game companies try to have a sense of humor in order to draw in their target audience. Sometimes though, advertisements backfire -- Sony's recent attempts sure did, anyway.
But the rage didn't come from gamers this time, or any particular group of people. Instead, Sony managed to upset the Nigerian government when the actor in an ad said, "Bernie, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Otherwise I would be a Nigerian millionaire by now."
Nigeria promptly got all butt...
The BBC iPlayer was recently added to the Playstation 3 with firmware 3.00. After that, the BBC has reported massive viewings from the the PS3. The PS3 overtook the mac (which has numbers of 8.5%) and has become the second most popular platform for the iPlayer.
The PS3 Slim was going to be a huge seller for Sony, we knew and so did they. But after the first week of sales, Sony was surprised by the numbers, saying that it was ahead of the their expectation. So far the Slim has only been on sale for one week, and the holiday season hasn't even started.
Q-Games, the acclaimed indie developer behind such titles as PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Eden have revealed some info about the new PS3 sparkle background. It was their team that came up with the idea to add the sparkle effect into the wave background and they were originally going for a gattaca style effect.
"Sony's US PlayStation Network man, Eric Lempel, has revealed some recent stats for just who is using the PlayStation Network. HD content apparently outsells standard-definition on the PlayStation Network and Sony's done some surveying to back this up.
Right now, 74% of the users who have PS3s have spent time watching Blu-ray movies," he explained."
"With the launch of the newly redesigned PlayStation 3 throughout Europe today, Electronic Theatre has taken the time to find out how both high street and independent retailers across the UK have been responding to the new hardware proposition. With the Xbox 360 having received a price-drop prior to the weekend and many retailers still carrying stock of the PLAYSTATION 3 unit, it comes as little surprise to find that the high street stands as a very competitive arena currently."
"As promised, Sony just released firmware 3.0 for the PS3. Revealed during their GamesCom conference a couple weeks back, Sony really plans on showcasing some new ideas with this newest firmware and improving current features, too."
Sarah Ewen of SCEE’s technology recently released a statement about why Sony decided to drop Linux support from the PS3 Slim. Here is what she said:
“The reasons are simple: The PS3 Slim is a major cost reduction involving many changes to hardware components in the PS3 design. In order to offer the OtherOS install, SCE would need to continue to maintain the OtherOS hypervisor drivers for any significant hardware changes – this costs SCE.
One of our key objectives with the new model is t...
"Can’t believe your eyes? Well they aren’t playing tricks on you. At one online retailer, you can pick up a PS3 Slim for $299. After you enter a coupon code, you’ll have a fresh new slimmed down PS3, that “only does everything” for just over $250."
"“…because of cost-of-goods and, you know, people have to have the PlayStation Eye camera as well, we are approaching the launch by making sure that all games that we create can be played with one controller and the camera. We will also introduce options for if you happen to have more than one controller available. Experiences will be enhanced if you purchase a second.”"
"The PlayStation entertainment experience continues to grow with the arrival of the PlayStation Network Video Store for Europe and the PAL territories. Launching this November in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, with other markets to follow in 2010, the service will allow movie fans to download all the latest releases straight to their PlayStation 3 (PS3) and PSP for viewing at home or on the move."
"Microsoft has today confirmed that which the industry had been predicting for some time. While rumours of a price-cut for the Xbox 360 have been rumoured since the beginning of Summer, and further so since Sony’s revelation of the PlayStation 3, and it’s new lowered price-tag, it’s only today that the Xbox 360 will see a reduction in it’s European Recommended Retail Price (RRP)."
"The PS3 Slim is coming out in September. This is true! Unless, apparently, you live in Florida, where residents in two separate towns are reporting that the console is already on shelves floors in their local Best Buys. UPDATED
A tipster sent us this shot from a Daytona Beach Best Buy, where there's already a healthy—and as of yet untouched—stack of Slims, marked at the expected $300 price. Meanwhile, Engadget got a similar tip from Brandon, which is about two hours away from Daytona, wher..."
Sony Europe’s head, Andrew House, has made a point to assure gamers that the release of the PS3 Slim will be as seamless as possible. However, many European retailers are claiming that they will run out of the 80GB, and Uncharted Bundle PS3. The drop in price for these two products, has cause a huge spike in demand, and Sony has not been shipping out any more than usual. Andrew House still stays optimistic for the launch of the PS3 Slim:
“I’m very pleased with how we have managed our inven...
Sony has started a full scale advertising campaign in Japan, to push the PS3 Slim. According to Japanese retailers, Sony is shipping 200,000 units to retailers on day one. Sony may be doing all this, as an attempt to lessen the gap between the PS3 and Wii install base. This may also be part of a global ad campaign, that has not yet started in Europe or the US. Either way, it appears Sony has high hopes for its slimmer console.
Amazon has now moved up the release date for the PS3 Slim, from September to August 25th. Those of you who have already pre-ordered your PS3 Slim, can expect it to arrive on the 25th as well.
"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has this morning released details of the official retail bundle that will be available to European consumers on September 1st, 2009, with the launch of the recently revealed PlayStation 3. A substantial redesign, the new PlayStation 3 will be available at a Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of £249.99."
Gamers with a home theatre system, or any high-end audio set up, will be glad to know the PS3 Slim comes with an updated audio feature.
The PS3 couldn’t bitstream Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio. Instead, it had to decode it and send it to your receiver as Linear PCM. That’s a thing of the past as the new PS3 slim can bitstream HD audio output to your receiver. If you have a basic set up for your PS3, you probably won't notice the difference, but gamers who have invested in an expen...
"Featuring an entirely new Cell processor based on the same Core architecture of the original PLAYSTATION 3 console, the PlayStation 3 will reportedly utilise a manufacturing process allowing 45-nanometer semiconductors, which decrease data loss considerably and, of course, produces a considerably small processor. The PLAYSTATION 3 hosted a Cell processor manufactured using the 65-nm process. With the new processor being a joint project between Sony, IBM and Toshiba, it’s highly likely that th..."
"Sony has finally confirmed the exact Recommended Retail Price (RRP) that the recently revealed PlayStation 3 (PS3) will arrive with on UK shores. Due to launch on September 1st, the redesigned PS3 system is considerably smaller than the original unit, and packs a 120GB Hard-Disk Drive."
"Internal components of the new “slim” model have been re-designed including improvements to the main semiconductors, power supply unit and cooling mechanism allowing the internal volume to be reduced by two-thirds. Power consumption has also been reduced, and subsequently, fan noise. The PS3 brand name is also being re-branded from “PLAYSTATION 3” to “PlayStation 3” and given a new logo."
The first bundle for the newly-unveiled PS3 slim is already on the way, with Namco Bandai and Sony announcing the 『Kidou Senshi Gundam Senki GUNDAM 30th ANNIVERSARY BOX』 for Japan, celebrating the series' 30th anniversary this year. The bundle will launch on September 3rd, and will retail for 38,359 yen.
Kidou Senshi Gundam Senki is the newest Gundam title for the PS3, taking place in Universal Century 0081. The game will ship with downloadable vouchers for an original HD animation, alon...
Sony was not able to give any new information on their motion control at Gamescom, except for a short teaser trailer, but Sony's motion control will make a full appearance at the Tokyo Game Show. Developers have received updated development kits for the controller, so we should see concept videos of games that will support the PS3 motion controller. The teaser trailer released at Gamescom will also be playing in Home later on today, for anyone who missed it.
SCEA’s director of marketing John Koller gave Sony's reason for not putting backwards compatibility in the PS3 Slim:
“Now that we’re at a point where we’re three years into the lifecycle of the PS3, there are so many PS3 disc-based games that are available that we think — and noticed this from our research — that most consumers that are purchasing the PS3 cite PS3 games as a primary [reason].”
“And it’s not just like 50 or 60 percent. It’s well into the 80 or 90 percentile range who are...
"And in a effort to curb consumers buying up stock and selling it on at a higher price if demand outstrips supply, the retailer is limiting the amount of units to five for each consumer in the UK.
"This product can sometimes be in great demand, and there can be shortages of this product across the UK," said Amazon.
"In an effort to provide as many customers as possible with the opportunity to purchase it, we are limiting the total number of units that can be purchased.""
"Yes, we can hardly believe it ourselves, but Sony came a-knockin' at our door today, and we were more than willing to answer. The PlayStation 3 Slim is now official in-house, and it's a matte-laden beaut."
Game Informer recently conducted a survey of 5000 participants to see the hardware failure rates for the current-gen consoles. It'll come as no surprise to see the 360 in the lead with a 54.2% failure rate. The PS3 had 10.6%, while the Wii only had 6.8%. Before fanboys begin to bash the numbers, they've given other statistical information to justify the rates. And remember, the sample size was only 5000. However, the most interesting piece of information from the survey was that only 3.8% of ...
"id Software John Carmack is hopeful the current cycle of console hardware is made to last, so that developers can leverage their tech for as long as posible. That said, if the next round of the console wars is to arrive sooner rather than later, Carmack believes it is most likely that Sony will want to be the first of the console giants to introduce new hardware."
During the conference call following the release of their financial report, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has said that the company will not disclose the publisher's plans for the HD consoles' motion systems. The earliest the company will talk about Natal and Sony's motion wand will be early to mid 2010.
"A video for U2’s I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight will be exclusively premiered on VidZone in the UK ahead of the single release on August 17th on Mercury Records."
The Japanese market has been dominated by the Nintendo DS and PSP. That trend did not change in the first half of 2009 as the two handheld systems once again dominated the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in terms of hardware sales in Japan so far in the year.
While not as blunt or harsh as Activision's Bobby Kotick's statement, Tecmo Koei's new CEO, Kenji Matsubara, has also expressed that he would like to see a PS3 price cut; however, he has taken into account the fact that it might not be viable for Sony.
Sony has come back strong with their answer to the popular Nintendo Wii motion console. Eyetoy is what truly started it off but failed to be relevant last generation. Sony is not making that mistake again and next year we will see the casual and the hardcore come together in a big way thanks to the Rebirth of the Eyetoy and the newly announced Magic Wand Motion Controller.
"Hello, I just wanted to provide everyone with a head’s up that the next PLAYSTATION 3 system software update (v2.80) will be coming soon. The playback quality of some PLAYSTATION 3 format software has been improved."
Sony had a huge plan for there press conference. Tons of great new footage for games, and new games for the console. Alongside with new motion controller and a new PSP model. All this would have stolen the show for Sony and blown away the compition...if it wasn't for all the leaks. Jack Tretton talks to CNBC about how the show would have been great if it wasn't for that, and how they have become part of the industry.
During E3, OXM spoke to Patrick Soderlund, Senior VP of EA Games, who said they have maxed out the Xbox 360, while the PS3 still has a lot of room left. He further goes on to talk about how Natal has great possibilities, but loves the games coming from Sony.
Li Mo & Associates, a Taiwanese firm that supports the PS3 Slim, has sent out cease and desist letters to multiple gaming websites who have posted up pictures of the PS3 Slim, which may just validate the photos.
"Just a few hours ago, I went to the one near my house and was quite surprised at what I saw. Apparently they had a installed a new vending machine less than a day ago which allows you to trade in your used PS2, PS3, X-Box, 360 and Wii games.
The machine looks extremely similiar to the Redbox DVD rental machines. When I went to use the machine, however, it still had more than a few bugs that need fixing. The first issue occurs right after you login. When logging in, you are asked to scan yo..."
"For the month of April, Sony’s PS3 only sold 127,000 units for North America. Sony ignored the poor performance completely by just concentrating in the future of PS3. Here’s what Patrick Seybold, Sony’s US comms boss said in regards to the NPD report:"
""I don't think it will be next year, but in three to five years it will become dominant on the market," said Reeves, talking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz.
"The legacy will be that people will see a tortoise and hare situation. In a way, in the end it will be a dead heat. People will say PS3 took a while to get going but it really caught up very quickly and confounded many of the critics from the first year," he said of the consoles position on the market.
"When I see the line-up a..."
"A listing for a Silver Dual Shock 3 controller has appeared on EBGames.com. The retailer indicates that the controller will be shipping on June 24, so you might want to hold off on any Dual Shock 3 purchases. The price point, $54.99, remains the same as the traditional black controller."
Here is a stereotype breaker. Nielsen co. did a study and discovered that PC gamers is mostly dominated by women that are 25 years or older. Talk about strange, but the other two are less of a shocker. Out of all three consoles, the Wii is the one with least activity and PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers hardly watch TV, mostly because they are busy playing.
"Hi everyone, we’re adding some great new features with the next PS3 firmware update (v2.70) that will continue to enhance your connected experience on the PS3. The 2.70 update brings a new Text Chat feature that enables you to communicate online with your PlayStation Network friends. Now, you’ll be able to chat with up to 15 online friends using the Wireless Keypad, on-screen keyboard, or other compatible keyboard peripherals. Not only can you chat with your friends instantly, but you can als..."
During Ciruit Cities liquidation, many people gave back their PS3's and 360's. As a result the company had many consoles left, and CC sold them all to a facility, promising they where all in working condition. As it turned out, the consoles the facility received, half of them where broken. And even more interesting, a lot of them still had their credit card information on login ID on the system, some even contained home made porn. You can consider them lucky, or a really pissed off company.
"Are you the proud owner of a Sony PlayStation 3 and you've gotten far too used to the XrossMediaBar for navigating through the console's various features? Well, you can now port that PlayStation experience over to your BlackBerry with the release of the PSB Elecite Theme.
As you can see through the screenshots provided below, this theme for BlackBerry devices accurately replicates what you would do with the XMB on your PlayStation 3. It's not quite the PlayStation Phone just yet, but this ..."
"It’s true, apparently. The entire PSP and PS3 XMB interface, otherwise known as the Xross Media Bar, was made a reality by a single person — Japanese-based UI artist Yasuhiro Yamanaka, according to the man’s LinkedIn profile. In it, he claims he “designed PSP and PS3 User Interface all by myself.” Yamanaka is also in charge of all on-screen localization, meaning all those dialogue pop-ups and menu item descriptors were written by him."
Though the Xbox 360 has a pretty high number of failures in its history, the PS3, as it were, is not immune either.
For those encountering the "Yellow Light of Death", some forum-goers at Maxconsole have come up with a fix. Check the pdf file at the source -- though you must be a registered member (groan) to do so.
NPD numbers for the lifetime sales of Wii Fit shows that it will pass the PlayStation 3 console by the Summer. At six million copies of the game sold, it has the PlayStation 3's roughly eight-nine million consoles sold in its sight.
In an amusing and not well thought out move by the European Parliament, they desire a "red button" on consoles for parents to be able to push when they see something "morally objectionable" in front of their kid's eyes. James Walker believes this already existed with the reset button. I would take it a step further and go ahead and say that button is called the "Power Button"
"This prompted many users to ask the obvious next question of when? Psyonix-Jared responded:
IIRC it will drop later this month. And contain lots of fun new fixes. I’m excited about this one, lots of new stuff. :)
Though, I dont think I can mention any of them just yet."
While complaints have dwindled over time, when the the PS3 was first released, many developers - even first-party - remarked at how difficult it was to 'unlock' the power of the console. However, Sony chief Kazuo Hirai has claimed that this is a deliberate strategy on Sony's part in order to increase the longitivity of the hardware. With games such as Killzone 2 only just beginning to harness the power of the PS3, just how much further will future games push technical boundaries? It wouldn't ...
That's right... You can now view what trophies you have unlocked, and yet to acquire (for games which you own, and have trophies support). And this can all be done from Playstation.com.
To do so all you need to do is log into playstation.com, click on My Profile, and just click the 'Trophies' tab and there you have it, a list of the games that you own that have trophies support, and the trophies that the game has.
Note, as highlighted above, at this point you can only see your own Trop...
"Microsoft's online service costs $50 a year, if you don't find a card on sale, and Sony wants to show you what you could be buying with that money if you were online with your PS3. You have to give it to them: $50 on the PlayStation Network gets you some pretty great stuff.
"Rather than paying a $50 subscription fee that competitors charge for on-line services, PlayStation Network users could put that money towards a variety of content," the company claims. What could you get?"
For whatever reason companies and corporations tend not to talk about newer models of their consoles, perhaps to prevent people from holding off in the early days of its lifecycle.
Despite this, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's president David Reeves decided to speak recently about the new 45nm Cell chips going in the PlayStation 3, also making light of some gamer's distaste for the cost the Blu-ray drive incurs.
Have Sony just gained themselves access to what may be the next step in the evolution of gaming? They'll certainly be hoping so. Sensory systems provider amBX technology has signed a deal with Sony to bring their technology to the Playstation 3 system, allowing users to experience entertainment sensory experiences in gaming, including light, rumble sound and air movements.
Sony will undoubtedly be hoping that support for sensory technology will give the PS3 the marketing ammunition to tak...
"Show notes:
MIR-12 Agent killed - the story explained.
Asian girls don't be rude - have sex with that zombie dude! - Is this even viral?
Superbowl - James has money on the Cardinals, wtf!?!
Tiger Woods, Geoff Keighley, Major Nelson, Derek Jeter in Orlando Feburary 3rd
NEWS:
Analysts say Wii could see "sudden collapse"
Platinum Games loves NeoGAF fan ads
Sony: PS3 will remain the most expensive console - Time to let go of Blu-Ray?
Activision announces DJ Hero - Great..."
"Here's a great measure of how lost and confused Sony and its collaborating "retail partners" are regarding PS3 - a novel way of charging *more* for everyone's least-favourite toss-box by making it gold. Yes, that's it. People aren't buying PS3 because it doesn't come in gold."
Smarthouse has made the argument that the PS3 is killing Sony both moneywise and in consumers perception of the brand name itself. They title the article insinuating that Sony needs to drop the PS3 and bring out the PS4, however upon further reading they state "One also has to wonder whether they have the resources necessary to produce the Playstation 4 or even the people that are smart enough to actually deliver a breakthrough product"
Square Enix's iPhone/iPod Touch only title Crystal Defenders is exclusive no more: the company has revealed it will be bringing it to WiiWare, PlayStation Network (PSN) and Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA).
The game uses many character classes from the Final Fantasy Tactics universe. Japan is getting it January 27 on WiiWare (for 1,000 Wii Points), with the other versions, reportedly different somehow, not dated or priced yet.
"Tamworth could not come too soon for Carissa, who had been hopping from foot to foot for months in anticipation of playing in Tamworth's famous buskers alley, Peel Street, a long stretch of road with scores of performers so close together they almost formed one vast continuous band. It was not so much that she wanted to dazzle people with her violin playing, though she certainly did that. It was more that she wanted to raise enough money to buy what any budding nine-year-old violinist would w..."
"Hi, everyone, we have a system software updates for PS3 coming soon, and I wanted to provide you with a sneak peak at the details.
The PS3 firmware update (v2.60) is designed primarily to enhance the systems media capabilities. The key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the ph..."
"Wow, that looks awesome. The bundle pack isn’t a bad deal either, providing you were going to buy Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 and an 80GB PlayStation 3 on the same day. You save nearly 2,000 yen ($21.50) with the Ryu Ga Gotoku 3: Rising Dragon pack, which retails for 45,980 yen ($495). In the future the price of the Rising Dragon PS3 should rise too since Sega is only making 10,000 of these available."
"Sales of videogames hit an all-time high in 2008, according to ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) which today revealed annual sales figures from GFK Chart-Track. Total sales of all videogame software and hardware amounted to £4.034 billion. There was a huge increase in games sales in 2008, with growth of 23 percent on figures for 2007. The market has now more than doubled over the last five years. The increasing popularity of videogames took total sales to £..."
"While checking the websites stats as i like to do from time to time, i did come across some rather interesting information. Looking at the section which tells me what terms people used in search engines before coming across PlayStation Gamer UK. There were the normal PlayStation UK and killzone 2 pre-order terms, the one which stood out the most however was that was a considerable amount of people (so much so it was the second most searched term before visiting this website ) entering Wi..."
In 2001, Sony partnered with Toshiba and IBM to create the Cell processor. Sony, Toshiba and IBM spent $400 million to design this processor. In late 2002, Microsoft also needed a chip for their then unnamed new gaming console and contacted IBM about it. In 2003, IBM showed Microsoft the specs of the in-development Cell processor. Microsoft quickly took the chance and contracted with IBM to have a chip like that built for them.
The result is what we know now as the XBOX 360 (or the red ring ...
"Jack was just saying that the PlayStation 3 didn't have a good Christmas in the US, but maybe the gaming console just found a new use as a poor man's supercomputer for cyber-mobsters looking to crack the security keys of the internet.
In a classic reminder to use your mad ninja geek skills for good and not evil, security researchers have used a supercomputer made of 200 PlayStation 3s to crack the keys of a fundamental internet security safeguard. It only took three days and some 'new mat..."
"Back then, an iSuppli analysis pegged Sony's "bill of materials"—the total cost of all the components used to build it—at more than $840 for the model that sold at the time for $599, and $805 for the starter model that sold for $499, making it a money-loser for Sony. It still appears to be a loser two years later, iSuppli says, but the loss is shrinking: The PS3 now costs $448.73 to build while selling for $399. Sony subsidizes the hardware price but makes its profits on the many games that i..."
OXCGN writer looks at the future of graphic between the top two heavy-hitters, the PS3 and the Xbox 360.
The former coming into its stride in 2009 will no doubt push Xbox 360 to doing more tweaks in that area, but he asks the question, will it really matter ? Isn't "gameplay" the thing "gamers" look for ?!
Makes for some interesting reading and discussion. So slip on over and check it out.
"Newswise — Using only the computing power of 16 Sony Playstation 3 gaming consoles, scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, have solved a mystery about the speed at which vibrating black holes stop vibrating.
It may be the first time this kind of research has been conducted exclusively on a PS3 cluster: A related 2007 UMass Dartmouth/UAHuntsville project using a smaller PS3 cluster also used a "traditional" supercomputer to run ..."
"Evil mum Karen Matthews has been given a £300 PlayStation in her jail cell as a reward for being a model prisoner.
The benefits scrounger - who arranged for the kidnap of her daughter Shannon to claim reward money - has been categorised as an "enhanced" prisoner because of her behaviour. She also has a DVD player and TV in her cell.
Matthews, 33, is being housed on the "Care and Separation" - segregation - unit of New Hall Prison in Wakefield, West Yorks, where inmates can also watch a ..."
"Zavvi has reduced the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU to £99.99, making it the lowest price point for the console since the system was launched.
The Premium 360 pack has also been reduced in price to £149.99, while the Elite gets cut to £199.99. These cuts are expected to last until Christmas Day."
We've seen this year have some awesome titles for all 3 consoles, especially PS3 getting some great sales. But apparently according to CNN PS3 is dying by the hands of 360 and can't compete.
Reasons are PS3 is too expensive, and it also being a blu-ray player and no one wants hi def movies, although that sounds extremely skeptical based off Blu-ray being the number 1 electronic this holiday season. The last reason is PS3 has no must buy titles, LBP generated Buzz but isn't a game changer an...
"Looking at the breakdown of scores, it's clear that while the PlayStation 3 only has three more exclusives than the Xbox 360, it has quality on its side, with four games scoring 9 or higher, compared to only one on Xbox 360. The Wii, meanwhile, comes in with two. All three systems have exclusive strengths and weaknesses, but if we had to call a winner - and we do - we'd give it to the PlayStation 3: Sony's system has the highest standard of exclusives, paired with plenty of variety."
"Electronic Theatre SONY Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that its highly anticipated PlayStation Home Beta service for PLAYSTATION3 will become available for all PS3 users around the world on December 11th, 2008..."
Presented by Playstation Network, Sony today, through the Official Playstation Blog announced the release of Pulse. A new show available on Playstation.com that will keep fans in the know about Playstation News.
Along with that, we've gotten our first show which is available for viewing here
"Games industry trade body ELSPA (the Entertainment Leisure & Software Publishers Association) today urged parents looking to purchase video and computer games for Christmas to always check the game's packaging for the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) age ratings and content descriptors. PEGI age ratings appear on game packaging and are intended to protect children and help the public make informed choices when buying games for children. ELSPA believes..."
Microsoft boasts a 3:1 sales advantage on their Xbox 360 console versus that of Sony's Playstation 3, citing U.S. retailer reports. Additionally, the 360 saw a 25% jump in hardware sales over Black Friday 2007.
An analyst from Macquarie Securities revealed Nintendo makes $6 on each Wii they sell -- and that's supposed to be a lot! Microsoft about breaks even, meanwhile, and Sony loses money on each PlayStation 3. Quite an industry we're in.
"Leading independent in-game advertising company Double Fusion has strengthened its PLAYSTATION3 portfolio by securing exclusive advertising opportunities with the worlds top videogame publishers, including THQ, SEGA, Eidos and Midway..."
"Network
"
"Breaking news for all the Playstation fans: Playstation Underground is coming to an end, and when it does, your membership will expire. The Playstation Network (PSN) will take place of Playstation Underground. The PSN, as many of you know by now, gives you access to a growing population of enthusiastic gamers, friends and competition."
"This news is sure to be met very positively by PS3 gamers who are currently having to put up with sporadic Trophy support from this winter's biggest releases. Mandatory Trophy support will also put an end to post release Trophy patches that force gamers to replay games to earn the Trophies."
It's not everyday that mistakes such as this happen, but when it happens, you can be sure that the gaming community will be all over it, as is the case here. Whilst trying to advertise Windows Vista, Microsoft have unconsciously (we presume) advertised the PlayStation.
The error of course comes in the form of a leaflet published by Microsoft which tells people about playing games on Windows Vista... only the images they use is off kids playing (and seemingly having fun) playing on a PS2.
"Alongside the recent LittleBigPlanet and stand-alone 80GB model bundles, the new packs contain an 80GB PLAYSTATION3 Console (including one DUALSHOCK3 Controller), a Blu-ray Remote and either I Am Legend or 300 on Blu-ray Disc, with a Recommended Retail Price of £299..."
SCEA VP for sales, Ian Jackson, talks about the PS3 worth your money at the price its at. Noting that you won't find any video game system under $400 for what the PS3 is packing, for the 80GB version case anyway.
Ian Jackson also states that the sales target for the PS3 in fiscal year 2009 is 10 million. And he's very confident it can reach that amount, since the PS3 is already close to hitting it.
After the recent October NPD Report, Sony is still positive for the PS3. Its still in positive momentum with selling 190,00 units and 90% growth year-to-date. With the upcoming holiday, Sony should be looking at a good Christmas.
The PSP is still going just as good with selling 193,000 last month. With consistent positive sales from both system, Sony should be happy.
The price of the Playstation 3 has come under fire many times, and this time is no different, as GamePlayer gone out against the Playstations 3's pricing point comparing it to the XBOX360 and taking a look at other comparable products.
Things looked at include the Arcade and Premium version of the XBOX360 and various other Blu-ray players on the market.
Stefanie Shea, an Army wife, has been doing more than her share for her husband and his brothers in arms. She founded Fun For Our Troops, a non-profit organization that helps provide video games, mp3 players, and other great techno goodies to our troops stationed overseas.
The website is linked, as is the address if anyone wants to make a contribution or donation.
Happy Veteran's Day everyone! Semper Fi!
If I understand this correctly - you will now have to purchase things wirelessly using your PS3 (if you have one) or directly over the PSP PSN (with Firmware 5.00 or higher). Sony is effectively removing the ability of those who lack that capability to make purchases from the online store.
Is it just me, or does cutting out a portion of your userbase and preventing them from purchasing new products just not seem like a good idea.
If this is an incentive to drive people to purchase PS3s ...
Despite the PS3's overpricing, amazingly, it has conquered sales yet again in Q2 worldwide, states Eurogamer. The Playstation 3 shifted 2.4 million units whereas the 360 only managed 2.2, this is no indication as to how Q3's sales for both consoles may turn out.
"Sony also has the right to keep records of anything you say or do online, or to simply listen in. "SCEA reserves the right to monitor and record any online activity and communication throughout PSN and you give SCEA your express consent to monitor and record your activities," the agreement reads. "Any data collected in this way, including the content of your communications, the time and location of your activities, your Online ID and IP address and other related information may be used by us ..."
"Changelog:
Support for the PS3 Official Bluetooth Headset - enables High-Quality (HQ) mode, which delivers clear and wide-band online voice chat. Plus, on-screen indicator shows battery status, volume level and use of HQ mode.
PlayStation Trophies interface enhancements - This update makes sharing and comparing your trophies with your friends even easier. On 1st part of the profile page youll see a symbol under level that represents level and the actual percentage towards the next le..."
Previously we were told what games would have trophies from Leipzig, and we've gotten a similar sort of list with new games which have been confirmed to be getting trophies on release:
Wanted to get Valkyria Chronicles demo, but don't have money to buy Qore? Well, if you have an EU account, you'll be treated to downloading the exact same demo for free and without the need for any subscription to a pay-per-month service....
Valkyria Chronicles is just one of the latest demo updates made to the store, other additions include Linger in Shadows game... uhh... visual interactive demo... take a look at the full list of additions below.
Thursday came and went, and brought with it a number of new updates to the playstation store, however it seems that many people have forgotten about the store entirely with the Tokyo Game Show currently underway. However the folks over at the Playstation Blog surely haven't forgotten and have posted the latest US additions to the store.
Included in the update are demos for the much awaited Warhawk as well as pay-to-use themes. Be sure to take a look at the incredibly large list of updates ...
It seems that Sony are pulling the big guns out for this years Tokyo Game Show with 14 new unannounced titles attending the event;
Konami you say ?
Gamestop may experience a drop in video game consoles soon if the word gets out... that a local store has been storing consoles in the bathroom.
That's right, one Gamestop was found to be storing their Xbox360's and PS3's in the store's bathroom facility. Is this the kind of treatment we'd want our console to go through before purchase?
Sadly the video that one customer had made was deleted, though the reasons are unknown the statement and picture (albeit blurry) are evidence enough for...
"The adjustment will drop the 40GB model to $360 and a 40GB bundle with an HDMI cable, Spiderman the movie and Transformers the game to $400. Additionally, stores that have trade-ins of the PS3 40GB will be selling it for $360."
There has been a bunch of video content released for the PSN on the Playstation 3 today, from TV shows to movies. And for what finished top last week, The Forbidden Kingdom finished top for movies, and Xam'd: Lost Memories Season 1 finished first for TV shows. Click on the images I've attached to see the full list of top sellers.
Here are the TV shows releasing this week:
* Burn Notice, Season 2
* Crime 360, Season 1
* Deadliest Catch, Season 3
* Married with Childre...
Next week - Friday, September 26 - there will be a little get-together with all the PlayStation Blog readers down in Orlando. The meet-up spot will be at the UCF School of Film and Digital Media, where you learn to design and creates video games.
You'll be treated to some good BBQ cookin' and games, which you will be playing for prizes! The awesome peeps over at the FIEA will also be there to answers any questions you may have.
Today there has been a bunch of stuff released for the Playstation online store, from trailers/videos, game content, themes, and demos. Some of the demos released were mercenaries 2 and NBA Live 09 for America, and Europe gets NBA Live 09 as well, and Soul Calibur IV. Both regions get Rock Band DLC, and America gets Call of Duty 4 DLC. Read the source for the full list.
"Sony has confirmed that new PS3 service Life with PlayStation was briefly up, running and available to the public earlier today.
As reported on the US PlayStation.com forums, some PS3 owners managed to get it going.
According to Sony, this wasn't meant to happen. "Today, while testing the application, Life with PlayStation was available for download temporarily, by mistake," a spokesperson told Eurogamer. The error has since been rectified, and you can't get hold of the app any more. We..."
"Hi, everyone, I wanted to give you a heads up about PS3 firmware update (v2.43). Unlike previous updates, firmware v2.43 is specific to the Japan region, and only PS3 users there will be required to
install the update. PS3 users in all other regions will not be prompted to download v2.43. However, if you manually initiate a firmware update by clicking on System Update under the XMBs Settings icon, the v2.43 update will be available, regardless of where you are located."
Part One of the interview published just a couple of hours ago, and now the second part of the interview is up. Read how Peter Moore went up against Sony firstly as part of Sega with the Dreamcast, and then as Microsoft with the XBOX.
Yesterday, the weekly PlayStation Store video update commenced, giving us Americans new T.V. content, such as Mythbusters and UFO Hunters. There were also some movies, which include Spiderman II and the unrated version of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
The top 20 downloads from last week were also released, with Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow getting the top spot for the films and the first season of Xam'd Lost Memories gracing the number one spot for television.
For those that don't know what Entropay actually is, let me tell you - It's a pre-paid, virtual credit card, which allows people to add funds from to the card from anywhere... the advantage of Entropay is that if your in the UK, you can essentially get a US credit card, and then add funds to the store via the pre-paid credit card.
However here is the downer - Sony have made some changes which will now stop the card working on the Playstation Network, so if you have one of these and were ho...
Weaker than projected numbers coming in from August have caused many Video Game Related futures to take a hit today. EA, ActivisionBlizzard, and THQ - big name companies were down around than 3%, while GameStop fell a whopping 5%.
The Wii was sporting low sales figures, as were all consoles. Only the Sony PSP managed to inch its way positive.
Blame the economy, blame the industry, blame the ESRB, but whomever you blame - it just goes to show that even the video game industry isn't a saf...
It may not be a Thursday, and it may be a day late, but we've finally got the Playstation Store update in the EU, and oh boy does it bring an accolade of new items to the store. In fact we now have four new demos, a number of Rockband Tracks, Pain Character Packs, and videos and wallpapers, now all available on the EU Store. So take a look at the full list of items at the source, and the list of demos included in the update below.
With the release of SingStar Country just over a little month away, the official PlayStation website is hosting a contest titled "Sing Your Way to the CMA Awards!"
All you have to do is visit a specific radio station to participate! They're spread wide across the country, with one in LA all the way to Philly.
If you win the contest, you will receive a 40 inch HDTV, a PS3 with a copy of SingStar, a PS2 with the newest game in the SingStar francise, SingStar Country, and of course be abl...
This week there are a bunch of new videos out, between movies and TV show seasons. They also show the top movie and TV show downloads from last week, with Harold and Kumar on top of the movies category.
Here are the movies releasing this week:
A Clockwork Orange
A Time To Kill
Big Fish
Blazing Saddles
Cant Hardly Wait
Cheaper By The Dozen
Civil Brand
Dogtown and Z Boys
Eraser
Get Carter (2000)
Ghostbusters II
Goal! The Dream Begins
Half Nelson
I Am Legend
Interview with t...
"Hi again! The weekends here time for your weekly update of new movie & TV shows on the PLAYSTATION Store.
This week weve added new video content from the following television series:
* American Dad, Season 1
* Ben 10: Alien Force, Season 1
* Burn Notice, Season 1 & 2
* Crime 360, Season 1
* Futurama, Season 1 & 2
* Galaxy Railways, Season 1
* MADtv, Season 13
* Rescue Me, Season 4
* The First 48, Season 7
* The Unit, Season 2
* T..."
One thing unique to this generation of gaming is the fairly regular stream of new SKUs (models) of consoles. Sony has seven different versions of the PlayStation 3 (some are variations of variations), while the Xbox 360 has four, if I'm not mistaken (the Wii has a whopping one configuration).
Capcom and Gamecock think this is "just peachy", but Codemasters chief executive officer Rod Cousens says it's potentially confusing and excessive. What are your thoughts?
There hasn't been a decent firmware update for the PS3 in a while so its about time a new one was announced. CVG (Computer and Videogames site) has learnt from a source on the development team that the next update 2.50 will feature built in screen capture capabilities. So this would potenially mean it would be present in every game and perhaps even videos. Look out for this one.
Inside of the PS3 is 256mb of GDDR3 RAM, including 256mb of XDR performing at the speed of 3.2 GHz. In this video, Rambus, the makers of the RAM, and Sony explain what makes the PS3's RAM so much better than around-the-house PC's.
Hopefully, some of you guys are interested in this stuff (like me). Video is in the source.
We've all been wondering what games will contain Trophies, ever since they launched back a couple of months ago, and whilst only a few titles have been patched with trophies so far, how exactly does the future of Trophies and the Playstation 3 look? Well, ps3trophies.org decided to go to Leipzig to ask that question and they've got back a list of games that will include trophy support.
Today Sony has announced their new bundle. A Ps3 with a 160GB hardrive that comes with two free games, Uncharted, and the PSN game, Pain and a Duelshock 3 controller. This Harddrive size may be will need with the rise of great PSN games and all the movies and tv shows that you just want to save on your ps3. It will hit store shelves in November at the price of $499.
"Sony has outright confirmed that the company will NOT be announcing a price cut of any description at Leipzig Games Convention next week in Germany. Got that?
"It's not going to happen. If you're coming for that you'll be disappointed," Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Nick Caplin told Reuters. We can't remember if we were really expecting one though.
Anyway if you are in the market for a PS3, be warned that the 80GB goes on sale in the UK soon.
At E3 SCEE confirmed that the 80G..."
With Sony slowly gaining ground on Microsoft in terms of consoles sold, is Sony starting to hit Microsoft where it hurts - its weakspots? Well Arstechnica takes a look at just that.
The issues being looked at the include but are not limited to:
A man walks into an EB Games store and pulls out a gun on the clerk. He then tells her he needs a PS3, saying his family was being held hostage, and the only way to save them was with a PS3. The thief stole the console and got away with the crime. Now if this was a true hostage situation, or a just a clever story, we don't know. But what ever it was, someone now has a free PS3.
Sony has just confirmed the release date and price for PlayTV. It will be coming out on September 19th for the price of £69.99. PlayTV is digital video recorder for PS3 that can record TV while you play games or watch other programs. You then can watch your favorite TV programs on your PS3 or on your PSP later. Currently it will only be released in Europe.
After a leave of absence this year, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced that the British Academy Video Games Awards will be returning March of 2009. The award ceremony will be on March 10th at the London Hilton, Park Lane.
So far, there have been 13 categories revealed for the show. Some include Action & Adventure, Artistic Achievement, and their newest category: Handhelds. The goal of the awards is to "support, develop and promote the art forms of the moving imag...
As revealed at E3 last month, Sony is going to be releasing an 80GB PlayStation 3 at the tidy price point of $399. Release dates have been conflicting, but it's now been confirmed for August 27.
Speculation on the features available for the model circulated the net following the announcement; online retailer GAME has listed everything that will be included. Read on.
"Because of this success, he feels that Blockbuster will soon become an ideal location for the rental and purchase of Blu-ray products.
Keyes commented, "We think we are seeding the Blu-ray population. We are seeing consistent growth, new customer growth, which is probably contributing to our increased [in-store] foot traffic.""
We've Fan(boy)s at each others throats regarding their console of choice, one of the most widely used arguments are the number of Exclusives a console has, and what they are. However, what many people are unaware of is exactly the number of exclusives their preferred console has and thats what qsf5.com have set about to list - a list of all Exclusives for each of the consoles that have been released in 2008.
Hackers have been able to bring Microsoft's Windows Vista onto the Playstation 3, essentially turning it into a PC, ironically. In order for them to make this successful and work they had to emulate Vista. As a result, it's significantly slower (it took 25 minutes to boot the OS).
A video of it in in action can be seen in the quote, though it was recorded on a dodgy digital camera.
"What exactly is survivor mode?
Its a new, highly challenging difficulty mode exclusive to the PlayStation 3 version of BioShock.
How does this differ from Hard Mode?
Youre more vulnerable, enemies are tougher, every resource is more precious.
Why did you guys decide to make this?
When we designed the original three difficulty modes of BioShock, we tried to define a spectrum encompasses as much of the shooter audience as we could, balanced as optimally as possible. However, we know ..."
GameTrailers have claimed they'll release some news regarding the DLC for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV this Friday on GameTrailers TV. The PC edition is scheduled for release this November.
In addition to this they've also said they'll be interviewing Michael Hollick (voice of Niko Bellic) on the same day who may bring them this insight to the DLC (unless they already have it themselves).
I wonder what it will be - could it be a new island and missions?
"Grand Theft Auto IV will be released for PC on 21st November in Europe, Rockstar announced today.
Pleasantly, that's just a few days after the PC version arrives in North America on 18th November.
Rockstar founder Sam Houser says it "looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can't wait for people to play it".
A PC version of the game has been rumoured since before the PS3 and 360 versions were even released, but Rockstar has never previously confirmed it.
The most telling sighting ..."
The Interscope Pack will include the tracks Tina by Flyleaf, Carcinogen Crush by AFI and Putting Holes In Happiness [Remix] by Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Track Pack will be available to both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Track Previews via Youtube: Tina, Carcinogen Crush and Putting Holes In Happiness.
According to the main image (->) it is speculated that the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band 2 will arrive in stores on September 14th whilst the Playstation 3 owners will have to wait over a month later at a date of October 19th.. whilst in addition the Nintendo Wii owners will have to wait an additional month on November 18th.
Reports from SCEE claim that the Warhawk trophies will be arriving to the Playstation 3 (via a 1.5 patch download) on August 27th. There is said that there will be over 50 different trophies that you can get though it will depend on how many extension packs you have already downloaded into the game. The Platinum Trophy is however still said to be available to get with out any of the packs according to Dylan Jobe.
Square-Enix's/FFXIII's Director, Motomu Toriyama has said in a recent report that his team are currently not in the developing of the Xbox 360 port version of the game at the moment becuase the development kits needed are yet to arrive.
In addition to this he has said that his team are "fully concentrating on the PS3 version".
Discuss in the Final Fantasy XIII forum
In the recently weeks there has been speculation revolving around Valve's up and coming 360/PC title Left 4 Dead in the view that there was going to be a port version arriving to the Playstation 3 via EA.
However today it seems there has been an announcement from Valve's Doug Lombardi for which has ended all current reports on the idea of there being a Playstation 3 port as he has stated: "There is no PS3 version of Left 4 Dead currently in production"!
Five days ago firmware 2.42 was released for the Playstation 3 and it seems that it caused many more problems than it has solved, with people reporting discs no longer being read. Personally speaking, my PS3 works fine, but is yours one of those which have now become broken?
Sony Australia have announced that the 'Platinum' selection will be arriving on Monday for the Australian market and will come at the down under price of $49.95. The titles that have been selected for this include Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Heavenly Sword and Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.
"Firmware 2.40 (or 2.41 for some people) was a fantastic upgrade, in fact, its the best firmware release weve had so far (apart from a few problems, so lets call it 2.41). Lets identify whats missing and needed in the next Firmware upgrade presuming its firmware 2.5 if there are no small updates in between."
In addition to Sony's plans of allowing gamers to submit there created levels to them which in turn could become potential downloadable content for the game are now planning on extending this idea in which they are now planning on rewarding that creator with a cut of the money that was gained by the product.
"The sale growth has not only gained impressive numbers on the PS3 console but Sony is seeing tremendous improvements along all 3 consoles on the board. PS3 Hardware Sales Exceed 311% Year-Over-Year with total PlayStation unit sales over the 405,000 mark."
"Unveiling the new Home, Sony revealed that video rentals and purchases are finally coming to the PS3. Video will be fully integrated into the PlayStation Store, which will have a new video section. And you can transfer them to your PSP via USB, and have them on multiple devices at once! Standard and high def, with rentals running $3-$6 and $10-$15 for purchases. It takes about an hour to download a two-hour movie. Most of the major studios are on board (Kotaku has a partial list in their live..."
"At its E3 press conference today, Sony announced that, starting in September, the 80GB PS3 would be available for $399.99, down from the $499 Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle currently in place for the 80GB configuration. The newly priced 80GB system will be on par with "the current functionality of the 40GB PS3," according to Sony CEO Jack Tretton. We're not sure if this means the cheaper 80GB system will be losing functionality (like SD card readers and software PS2 emulation) that the 40GB system..."
We've known for some time that Movies will be coming to the Playstation Store sometime soon... well at the Sony Press Conference they have revealed that the content will be released not next week, or in a few months... but today.
All Playstation 3 owners are tasked to install the games when they insert a new game into their PS3, but why is it that we have to install the game when XBOX360 games work fine just from the disc? Well the latest issue of the Official Playstation Magazine (UK) has the answer and you can read it at the source below.
"The controller finally brings vibration - left out of the original PS3 pads for legal rather than design reasons - back to the Playstation. Rumble is subtly effective, especially on racing games, and is one of those features that you tend to miss when not there. So today's release has got to be good news for PS3 owners right? Not quite. The main problem is the price - the controller costs 40 quid. That's around 10 more than the original Sixaxis PS3 controller and the 360's pad. Reviews sugges..."
Unexpectedly, Sony has decided to release a new model of the PS2 in European and Indian territories; this appears to be based on Sony's feeling the PS2 is a "gateway console" for new or inexperienced gamers.
The new model (its unclear whether the one pictured here is the same one being released, as it looks like the same ol' slim PS2) is to be "slimmer, sleeker and more suave". Interestingly, the traditional AC adapter will be replaced by a built-in one.
More than that, the PlayStation...
"The second part of the Firmware 2.40 video walkthrough is now available to watch. In-game XMB and various other features were shown off in part I of the walkthrough, and part II shows off the trophy support. Super Stardust HD will be the first game to support the trophy feature. We've reported most of the features in our earlier articles, but it's still useful to watch the video."
"The Google Media Server - available here - is a free Windows app that sends media files to your TV via the Playstation 3 and other Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) devices. It works in tandem with Google Desktop, the desktop search tool that also runs various and sundry software widgets known as Google Gadgets.
With help from the Google Media Server, your TV can access videos, music, and photos stored on your PC, and naturally, it can tap straight into YouTube, the video-sharing site where Goo..."
Its finally stated that the 65nm RSX graphic chip will arrive this Autumn. This was stated none other than Kaz Hirai himself. He also stated this one is more efficient than the current one out.
Also noted that they have been cutting the manufacturing costs by reducing the amount components and decreasing the size of the chips.
This could make another price-cut possible in the near future. To some still waiting for the PS3, should be some good news. ;)
"We put a question mark at the end of the headline because we're not entirely sure if this is true. We haven't heard anything officially confirmed. The thought nonetheless is intriguing, so we want to see if there is any truth to this.
[Update: It's true. We've reached a maximum of 100. Thanks everyone who participated. Your effort is greatly appreciated!]"
After months and months of gamers begging and Sony promising it would happen, Sony has announced their plans to bring the Playstation Store to the PSP.
Previously, PSP owners had to purchase content either through a PS3 or PC, hook it up with a USB cable, download an installer for their PC, and could only then get items onto their PSP. That's all set to change sometime this fiscal year.
As you may recall, Sony plans to launch a video download service as early as this summer in the US. It was detailed today, and will be targeted both at the PSP and PS3, and will later expand to TVs, PCs, and their line of Mobile Phones.
The current interface is a lot like the revamped Playstation Store's interface, and offers movies and TV shows in both SD and HD, and both for renting and purchasing. Much more at the source!
Today at a group business meeting in Tokyo, Kaz Hirai announced quite a few things about the Playstation brand. One of the things was that the Playstation Network is now at 9.8 million users, and that over 170 million pieces of content have been downloaded by its users.
Some other tidbits are that the PSP has hit the 37 million mark, and that over 12 million PS3s have been sold.
A quick look at the rise of Indie game development. Thanks to the support of software such as the Microsoft XNA Game Studio - it is much easier for anyone with a little bit of programming knowledge and a good idea to push something forward. Who knows - it might even wind up on the front page of the Xbox Marketplace.
Eric Lempel, the Director of PlayStation Network Operations, has confirmed in a blog post that the PS3 Firmware version 2.40 will give you access to the XMB in-game. 2.40 will also include trophies, which is a new feature that we will be getting details on soon, as well as other things.
The article also addresses version 2.36 coming out soon and it is now, so go update your PS3, it fixes stability issues!
"Monolithic retailer Wal-Mart is offering a $100 gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player, which includes all PlayStation 3 system, such as the $499 80GB PS3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle that arrives tomorrow.
"Any Blu-ray player. Blu-ray. All of them," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien told Joystiq. The promotion appeared in the retailer's weekly flyer, but it is not clear when the deal is set to end.
The deal applies to both in-store and online purchases, and is likely t..."
"The Cell chip that forms the brains for your slick black PS3 has been used to power the fastest supercomputer in the world.
IBM's roadrunner supercomputer has shot into the record books after having become the first computer to process one quadrillion calculations per second. That's like one of those numbers you make up after a billion and, in more technical terms, is a *bleep*ing lot.
It managed that with 12, 960 Cell processors combined with 6,948 dual core AMD Opteron chips. We'd lov..."
The video games sales are expected to be revealed this Thursday and Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst, believes the Wii will triple the number of units the 360 sold, and that the PS3 will sell slightly less than what the Xbox 360 sold in May.
To read the other things Pachter had to say, click the source.
We all know that we can make Playstation 3 themes on our PC's but the problem comes from the fact that not many of us know how to. Well, The Playstation Blog have decided to give us a step by step tutorial on how you can go about creating your very own Playstation 3 Theme. Be sure to check it out.
Developing a Playstation game has always remained a mystery, where exactly would you go to buy a development kit? Certainly not to your local computer store, however you need not worry anymore. A new Playstation-edu program for universities and colleges will see students being given a chance to to access the PS2 and PSP development kits.
We may just start seeing more 'home-made' games for the two consoles very soon...
It shouldn't come as a surprise or shock to learn that the Playstation 3 loves Power... the Electrical kind that is, however you may be shocked to learn that the Playstation 3 uses five times as much energy as a refrigerator, which means those gamers that leave their Playstation 3 on for Folding@Home are looking at spending around $250 a year on extra electricity that they could have saved.
However don't think it's only the Playstation, the XBOX360 is no stranger to power either, and whil...
Could Sony be working on a secret project for the Playstation 3 which is likely to be announced during E3? Well with only a month to go before E3, SOE have sent emailed sites about 'something up it's cape'...
What possibly could this new game be?
It seems that an upcoming update may have the ability for "the Playstation 3 to playback 3D movies using the TDVCodec and Blu-ray discs". The current level of technology currently allows this to be done on a PC and it is hoped that it can soon be done on a PS3 with the help of some software.
It seems that we may very well be seeing 3D Movies on Blu-rays very soon...
We've been getting steady amount of rumours this past week about the in-game XMB and it seem like we have yet another rumour has now come to light...
At first it was rumoured that version update 2.4 would be released before Metal Gear Solid 4, and the update would contain both trophies and in-game XMB, and the PS3's upcoming game PixelJung Eden has also been shown to support the new trophy system.
Well, PlaystationLifeStyle.net have managed to get insider information and confirm the re...
Its been quite a ride, or as many gamers feel, a stressful time with Sony and how they operated with exclusives. Many PS gamers around the globe wished and wanted Sony to get off their ass and pay for exclusive rights. Well after losing GTA4, DMC4 and other once-exclusive titles, it seems they finally are "re-evaluating paying for PS3 exclusives".
However Kaz Hirai also states this will also be discussed by the publishers and that the exclusive deal would have to be their decision not Sony...
"Analyst Michael Pachter expects a $50 price drop will be hitting both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 this holiday, but that it will still be hard for the industry to match last year's extraordinary holiday sales.
Speaking at the Electronic Gaming Summit this afternoon, Pachter said that he expects an overall slowdown in video game sales over the next three years.
Pachter expects the industry to see 19 percent growth in the U.S. and 20 percent in Europe this year, with his predicted pric..."
"Vanessa Morgan, editor of the Australia and New Zealand Official PlayStation Magazine, has said that there are two big unannounced titles coming to the PS3 and she seems quite excited about them. "Sorry, not meaning to rub it in but OMG! The titles are BIG and so were the forms I've had to sign about not releasing any info until after the embargo dates pass BUT all will be revealed in the next two issues of the mag. We've had to fly to London, Paris, San Fran, Vegas and LA to nab this info. W..."
"SEC filings have revealed that Electronic Arts borrowed $1 billion from Morgan Stanley and other lenders to help finance a possible acquisition of Take-Two.
"There's no news here," said EA VP of communications Jeff Brown. "This is just a process point on something we announced in February."
With $2.3 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, EA already has the funds available to do the deal as it currently stands. With the deal not contingent on financing, wh..."
"The days of Sony snowing the consumers and the press are over," says Aaron Greenberg
They say that Sony hasn't kept numerous promises. They talked about Killzone 2 at E3 three years ago, what it would look like, and now it will ship four years later. They will have Gears of War and Gears of War two release before they can get Killzone up.
Greenberg says that the Xbox 360 is leading this gaming generation, with a better game library, and a better online community.
If you happen to be near the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey on May 3rd or 4th, you may want to stop by and see the gaming stations that will be set up. The PS3 will have an exciting thing called the PlayStation Patrol Truck, where you can talk to new people in the game lounge and play some games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, SingStar, and MLB 08: The Show.
And also check out some of the PSP's stations that will feature games like Secret Agent Clank and God of Wa...
Harmonix and MTV Games have announced that they will be bringing the Smashing Pumpkins hit "Zero" along with 2 hits by Mother Hips, "Red Tandy and Time Sick Son of a Grizzly are those songs. These tracks will be arriving to the Xbox 360 on April 29th for 160 MS Points and to the Playstation 3 on May 1st for £1.99.
For a chance to preview these tracks, click on the relevant links above.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Micheal Pachter as well as BMO Capital Markets' Edward Williams both believe that Grand Theft Auto IV will be more of a success for the Playstation 3 hardware sales then the Xbox 360's hardware sales as they believe people may be able to justify there reason to buy the Playstation 3 because of the heritage of Rockstar and the connection from GTA and Sony.
Electronic Art's have announced at the EA Studio Showcase that was held in London, that there is a Conquest Mode that is going to be offered for consumers through a Download for both the Playstation 3 gamers and Xbox 360 gamers.. and will cost nothing.
This may be a good guest-er by Electronic Art's but it could also be because of the poor feedback that they received from the "Weapon Charging Debacle".
The Echochrome demo and the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Variety Map Pack headline this week's PS Store updates. But, there is also so much more.
Lots of add on content. Which would include add ons for: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2, Rock Band, Guitar Hero III, Army of Two, and Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore songs.
New themes and wallpapers:
PS3 Themes - The Eye of Judgment Theme #2
PS3 Wallpaper - Gran Turismo 5: Prolo...
Electronic Arts producer Amir Rahimi has claimed whilst speaking to Video Gamer on Tuesday that the up and coming Wii exclusive Jenga based explosive puzzle game Boom Blox has the possibility of becoming a multi platform and come to the Playstation 3, Playstation 2 and Xbox 360.
The game however at the moment is still set to arrive to the Nintendo Wii on May 6th.
What started off in a village hall with only a few people would came and have fun with video games. Now it has exploded to a huge event with 2000 gamers all meeting for a one big LAN party. And it has become more then just a LAN party, people stay in a hotel or outside camping. There are also 4x4 racing and paitball. Goes to show you what happens when a few dedicated people can do.
Electronic Arts have announced that Matt Ryan has finally been selected to be the Athlete Cover for the Playstation 3 version of the up and coming annual title NCAA Football 09. During the breakdown of potential PS3 Cover Athletes is was said that Matt was the main choice so this may come as no shock to anyone who was following it.
Matt Ryan will be joining Darrn McFadden who has been chosen for the Xbox 360 version and Sparty who has been chosen for the Nintendo Wii version. The Playstati...
It was claimed over a month ago that an Echochrome Demo was arriving next week to the Playstation Network Store though unfortunately never made it. Well today, Echochromes Associate Producer Kumi Yuasa has announced on the Official Playstation Blog that demos of the game will be available for download from tomorrow for both the Playstation 3 version as well as the Playstation Portable version.
Kumi Yuasa though also claims that with both version players will have the ability to create the...
Infinity Ward have pulled back their version 1.6 Patch Release for Call of Duty 4 because they have found some bug's/technical issues during there testing process. They did not say much on what the problems may have been but they did state that one problem was that the kill cam broke when playing with mods, among other things.
Well according to a Japanese Gaming Magazine this is what they currently believe is going to happen as they already claim this is under production by Capcom.
Nothing has been claimed on the matter in the view of Capcom though Capcom's producer Yoshinori Ono did claim in the past it was possible for the game to come over to the Nintendo Wii but then again he also said it was possible for it to come over to the Gameboy.
All we do know however is this game is still being planned for both ...
Dan Houser, the Rockstar founder has shot all possible speculations on there being a Grand Theft Auto Movie as during a interview with Varirty he claimed that they do not plan on making one as Rockstar never deemed the idea interesting and instead wish to protect the property of the game instead of milking as much as possible out of the franchise as it is the main asset of the company.
Sony's 2nd Grand Theft Auto IV Bundle Confirm of the day and this time it is in direction of Australia though unfortunate to say Sony Computer Entertainment Australia have planned for this to hit the stores 2 days after the Official Release of the game which is April 29th.
The bundle is going to consist of a Playstation 3 40GB model, a SIXAXIS wireless controller and a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV and the price is currently planned to be AUD$749.95 (£358, $715).
The Rockstar founder Sam Houser has claimed that there will be a difference between the graphics for the Playstation 3 version and Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV. He also goes onto claim that each version has there own feel and look towards the gameplay though at the same time they are both (to him) neck and neck with each other on which one will be the better.
As previously speculated by Swedish retailer, Webhalen that a Playstation 3 Grand Theft Auto 4 Bundle was on the way. Well Sony Computer Entertainment Europe today have come out and confirmed that there will be one and it is going to be priced at 439 (£353, $700). The bundle is going to consist of a Playstation 3 40GB model, a SIXAXIS wireless controller and a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV and is said to save consumers a small but better then nothing 25 (£20, $40).
This however as it has o...
Nikko Citigroup's analysts believe that the Playstation 3 will become a profitable machine for Sony from the beginning of August (this is also the same time they said the Slim PS3 will come out) which is actually 3 months early from Sony have said for themselves to be the break even point for the machine.
Sony also believe that the only way for them to make a profit out of the Playstation 3 is when the cell processor and the 90nm are shrunk to a smaller size, so if that is the case you may...
Thats right, the Call of Duty 4 Map Packs are finally going to arrive to the Playstation 3 on Thursday, 24th April for both the North American gamers and European gamers.
In addition to this there will be a Double XP Weekend for both gaming sectors lasting from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th and on top of this, The Infinity Ward team will be playing online on the Friday from 11am to 2pm and 5pm to 8pm (PDT) so look out for them.
Play TV a add on for the PS3 announced last year by Sony supposedly will allow European PS3 owners to play, record and watch tv shows on the fly. But though Amazon just yesterday priced and dated the product Sony have since contacted Amazon and ordered them to take it down for unknown reasons. The pictures have been removed and the date changed to October, was the information simply incorrect, Or was Sony afraid of amazon revealing to much?
According to LA Times, the PS3's video download service is supposed to arrive sometime this Summer.
It's not official confirmation, but the timing is plausible. The E3 convention will be held in July, so it wouldn't be surprising if they decide to release it near, or even during, the event. All we can do right now is hope and wait for confirmation straight from Sony.
With the release of this, the PS3 should also give the 360 some competition. The PSP may also have something in this as i...
To furthermore speculation that have been previously mentioned on Gamegrep about the PS3 Slim is that it could actually be arriving for a very early Autumn release date according to Nikko Citigroup. These rumours are claimed in attempt to help Sony turn the Playstation 3 into a current profit as they are losing out at the moment.
According to the rumours the new version could pack a redesigned processor and smaller graphic chips so the console will not be as bulky and in addition to this t...
Silent Hill V is no longer be planned to be called Silent Hill V as Konami have decided to do a minor revamp on it and adding an extra word to it. This extra words being Homecoming, to make the new named title if you haven't guessed already, Silent Hill: Homecoming!
In addition to this Konami have claimed that the horror spoof, Silent Hill: Homecoming will come arriving to Europe at the end of September for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Amazon have revealed that July 31st could be the release date for the up and coming PlayTV for the Playstation 3 and that it will also come with dual TV tuners (that're HD compatible). This has not been backed by Sony though as signs are showing that they let this slip out by mistake though since this has happened the release date has been removed from public sight on Amazon.
According to figures released by The NPD Group, it states that the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 gamers are buying more games per year then the Nintendo Wii. To go into more detail these reports claimed that the Nintendo Wii gamers buy 3.7 games per years whilst the Xbox 360 gamers are in the lead on 4.7 per games whilst the Playstation 3 gamers follow on 4.6 games per gamer.
Rockstar have announced that for the up and coming phenomenon that is Grand Theft Auto IV, that you will no longer be able to listen to the Radio whilst walking around the streets through your Cellphone as once planned as they have removed this feature from the game, though have stated no reason why unfortunately.
Looks like the only method you are able to is retro style, and that is through the cars stereo.
In a Top Cow discussion panel in this weekends New York Comic-con function, it was "winked" about that the games new owners 2K Games were currently in the works of creating a sequel to the acclaimed title The Darkness. Nothing further was announced about the title but at least a small but not solid sign of it happening is better then nothing, right?
If there's one thing that can be said, it's that most polls are biased. You always seem to find sites such as PSPfanboy doing a poll where you can be sure that the readers have already got their mind set as to which console they prefer. However when the poll comes from a general Gaming site, where people from all walks of life gather... one thing can be said... the only bias in this is that it's a Poll for gamers.
Well, IGN conducted a survey of this sort, and it seems that amongst Gamers,...
Even with the last PSN update last April 15, you can tell that Europe receives little love compared to North America's updates on the PSN. This disparity is one of the many reasons why the European PS3 community is growing more angry with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE).
A forum post from gamer Kung_Fu_Russ Over at the PlayStation EU discussion forums, questions SCEE for its inferior online service. According to the post, Europe almost always get the short end of the stick when ...
That's right folks, Criterion Games have officially announced that they will be bringing custom soundtracks as part of their next software update for thier PS3 game Burnout Paradise. It also couldn't be even simpler to use the custom soundtrack.
Now this will be the first game on the PS3 to support custom soundtrack, and it's likely that more will follow suit.
The BBC knows talent and an opportunity when they see it. Instead of condemning the dude who ported the news organization's iPlayer to the Playstation 3, they decided to offer him a job.
"The 2.30 Update is live, and the PSN Store gets a shiny coat of new paint, and the Lair Add-on for standard non-motion controls. The interface is great — so intuitive and easy to use. Biggest gripe: none of the pictures seem to be loading. Well, at least for me. Anyone else?"
"Heads up, Sony PlayStation 3 owners! The latest and most highly-anticipated firmware for your Cell Processor-powered beast of a next-gen machine is now available for download. So what are you waiting for? Fire up those babies and watch as the goodness squeezes its way from the internet tubes and onto your videogame console.
While we don't quite have a changelog yet to check whether or not the promised additions did make it into the cut, let's take a look back at what's been promised to us..."
So far, it has been announced that the Steel PS3 will be released in Japan as well as North America. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe still doesn't know for sure if the folks at SCEJ are going to send any Gunmetal PS3 systems to Europe, but they don't want to deny it.
For those that have been living in a rock the past few days, the Steel/Gunmetal colored PS3 package will come in a bundle with a Steel colored 40GB PS3, a Dualshock3 of the same color, and MGS4 of course!
Earlier on today you heard about the Playstation 3's self-cleaning feature. Well turns out a French website, UltimatePS3 has claimed that the PS3 Fan Test is actually HARMFUL to your PS3. The fans speeding up is said to be a fail safe trying to get the bottled up heat out of the system, which can in turn burn your CPU and GPU. This has also allegedly been confirmed by Sony.
You read that right!
This new hidden feature has just been found out in Playstation 3 allows you to set your Playstation 3 to "self-clean" itself of dust internally when ever you like in only a matter of second to complete. In order to try this process out for yourself all you have to do is;
quoteStart off by turning the PS3 completely off from the switch at the back of the console and turning it back on while simultaneously holding the eject button.
A loud whir will signal your su...
Could Sony's Playstation 3 Exclusive Gran Turismo 5 be making a move over to the PC in the near future...? Well Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauchi has claimed in a short but brief interview (which can be found here in German) that the game may also arrive for the PC some time in the future as well as the Playstation 3.
This of course would be a great welcome to the PC as multiple driving simulations are quite the let down nowadays though this if were to be true and they go through with ...
With 7 Consoles currently battling (somewhat) for a piece of the Gaming Market, it's always good to learn what games have come out top for each... and well, Video Games Blogger has brought us just that. A list of the top 5 games that have been sold in each of the regions and each of the consoles. I'll give you the top for the XBOX360 and PS3 (since they seem to be the more interesting ones), but be sure to check out the source for the sales for the other 5 systems.
Just to note, these sale...
In addition to the BAJA Debut Trailer that was posted up on GameGrep just under a week ago, this offers you a look into the New 15 Screenshot Batch that THQ have just offered to gamers which offers a bigger look into car and track details for what they will be offering us, though unfortunately these are not Gameplay graphics.
To see the further 9 Screenshots, click HERE
2K Games have officially confirmed that Mafia II will release for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in extension to the PC which was decided when the game was first under discussion.
In addition to this, Mafia II is said to be in the May issue of the Official Playstation Magazine where it will reveal that the game will store over 50 vehicles as well as 10 square miles of unrestricted territory.
Activision's Guitar Hero III on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will see the debut release of Def Leppard's new single "Nine Lives" one week before the official album release. It will however be part of a three track Def Leppard song pack which will also include Rock of Ages and Photograph.
This though will only be available on April 24th on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 for North America. Whilst the European Playstation 3 gamers having to wait until May 8th.
For a chance to listen to Nine...
Thats right, Sony has finally reached (past) the 2 Millionth landmark sale for the Playstation 3 in Japan for the week ending April 6th where they managed to pull of 11,303 sales.
In addition to this the top selling game for the Playstation 3 this week in Japan was non other then Pro Baseball Spirits 5 which is produced by Konami and this has raked in 60,215 sales.
Error 80010515 is more prone to happen within the first few months within a PS3 life, but it can occur into a years worth of service as well. According to gamerevolver, the error is not in the hardware, but in the firmware instead. A simple restart won't reset the firmware so the problem can always still exist.
Gamerevolver also has some simple ways of maybe keeping the error away, such as just keeping the dirt of the console to prevent over heating.
"Sony America has announced today that the next firmware update will also add high-definition audio features for Blu-ray movies. DTS stands for Digital Theater System and is a multichannel, digital surround-sound format. DTS-HD Master Audio is a lossless codec that delivers sound to movie fans at 24.5 megabits per second, a rate that Sony asserts is "significantly higher than standard DVDs."
DTS-HD High Resolution Audio is an optional surround-sound format for Blu-ray, and when loaded will ..."
Uk retailers "Shopto" has confirmed that there will be a GTA IV bundle package releasing for the Playstation 3 on April 29th and is expected to be £299. It is not however claimed what will be fully in the bundle though from the price you can assume it has the 40GB in it.
This has however not been confirmed by Sony yet though has been climed by Shopto to be coming soon.
In a news blog post, the BBC's technology news editor Darren Waters believes that by Nintendo claiming the right to stream there BBC iPlayer on the Wii is a massive blow for there rival company's. He also goes onto claim that this new addition of streaming there online shows onto the Wii kinda makes a mockery of what they (Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) stand for.. or well have claimed to and that would be "true multimedia machines" as Nintendo are the first to offer this service.
Infinity Ward have revealed that they have given the Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack DLC for the Playstation 3 to Sony and now it is up to them to certificate them for users in ready for a release. Though a release date has not been said they have claimed for it to appear at the same time as the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Game of the Year Edition comes available in stores which should be next week.
As previously posted, the "Complete" bundles of Rock Band will be retailing in Europe next month at a retail price of £180 ($360). This is £95 ($186) more than what American gamers already pay for the same equipment.
Today, though, whilst talking to Eurogamer, Harmonix's Rob Kay has come out and stated (in relation to why the European Gamers have to pay more) though VAT and the higher price of consumer electronics are not to blame though they had an impact, it is to actually do with how i...
Criterion Games have today announced that the 1.2 patch (aka: Bogart) for Burnout Paradise will be available to download on April 24. This update is said to be fixing problems that have been reported by users from the PS3 version crashing when a player is taken down to Enhancing the 360's streaming performance. They are also looking in adding new addition gaming features as well as fixing new bugs in the game.
Endless speculation seems to be surrounding the future of Bioshock 2 and whether or not it will be moving over to the Playstation 3 for the sequel (as well as staying on the 360). This article however, is further speculation off that and falls into the hands of 2K Games official website because on it they have been stating on the Job Pages that they are seeking someone with "experience developing for next-generation game consoles". Nothing to much to read from that but in addition to this hav...
Well MVC certainly think so. During read an interview between Scott Steinberg (VP of Product Marketing at SCEA) and GameDaily, it was hinted that Sony may go beyond a simple facelift of the store even stating that the service would be overhauled (I take this to mean something other than the simple facelift).
Among the hints given was that of a TV and Movie service (most likely to combat that of the XBOX360's) all which may arrive sometime in 2008.
Reports are currently claiming that the UK release bundle's for Rock Band are going to cost £95 more then in the United States for the Xbox 360.
Gamers in the US will be able to buy the complete bundle for $169 (£85) where as in the UK, EA has decided to split the bundles up and sell them individually so if you buy them all together it will come to around £179.98 ($360).
Yesterday, it was reported that GTA IV could have a PS3 bundle, but it had not yet been commented on by Sony.
Sony's commented now, however, and has claimed that it's nothing more than a rumor. They've not said whether it's a possibility or not, however, so it's possible that it might happen, but as of right now the official word is no.
"THQ executive Jack Sorenson has branded the hardware battle between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as "totally irrelevant", arguing that the rewards offered by each represent a "win" for games publishers.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz last week at THQ's product showcase in San Francisco, the US publisher's head of worldwide studios said there was "too much of an emphasis on the sports aspect of who's winning and losing", and that his company was focusing on opportunities rather than installe..."
Have you brought a Playstation Store Network game with the intentions to play it on the Playstation Portable and then wanted to share that game around with other friends on there Playstation Portable but can't because they are coded..?
Well it has now been found that hackers have found a way to do this and this is by (of course) decoding the encryptions that have been set by Sony on the downloaded games so now you are able to play them on any Playstation Portable without anything stopping ...
A survey by ChannelNews and SmartHouse conducted around 10 of Australia's main retail chains who operate over 2,000 stores reveal that the Xbox 360 is on a downward spiral with all new gamers more interested in the Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii.
The retailers have stated that since the RROD that occurred on the Xbox 360 in 2007, the consumers now look at the 360 and do not believe it to be a good value of money in comparison to the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii.
They also claim that th...
According to the NPD Group's earlier report this week it's has now revealed to talk about the online gaming via the Next Generation console. And to no surprise to some the Xbox 360 gamers are making the most use of that with Playstation 3 and PC gamers following. No Nintendo Wii was mentioned strangely..
Though when MTV's Multiplayer contacted the NPD Group to find out further information on this they replied and stated that the Xbox 360 Gamers in percentage to all online gamers was at a s...
Finally, Dualshock 3 has hit store shelves. An if you don't want to have abother black controller. You can pick up a silver one. The Dualshock 3 is at a hefty price of 55 dollars. With a few more bucks you can buy game instead.
THQ have announced at their Gamers Day event in San Francisco that Saints Row 2 will be hitting the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on August 26th for North America. It is however not known if this release date will be the same for the European gamers waiting for this to hit.
In anticipation to this release date though you should hope to hear more information about this game soon including news screenshots and gameplay.
The PSP might be making a comeback in Japan thanks to Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. In the last week, it's sold over twice as many units as the DS at a solid 129,986 units. The PS2 also seems to be competing well with its successor, having sold just under one thousand units less than the PS3. Nintendo's still going strong in Japan, and the 360 is... Well, struggling as always.
Farewell SIXAXIS, hello Dualshock 3! The force feedback Dualshock 3 controllers will be shipping tomorrow at the generous price of $54.99 US. Get them while they're hot, because Sony all knows everyone wants one for all those wrecks in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue!
In attempt to kill any speculation of the Playstation 3's exclusive title "Haze" moving over to either (or both) the Xbox 360 and PC format. Haze's script writer Rob Yescombe has come out and dismissed all that speculation and has thoroughly stated that the title is a Playstation 3 Exclusive demising all report even there own contradiction in previous months when Ubisoft had been reported to say that Haze was a PS3 exclusive just "for now".
The Economic state of America in terms of the US Dollars and how it is gradually decreasing in value isn't just going to affect the Economic factors of the US but it will also affect the gamers that are waiting to buy the Playstation 3 in the view of a price drop happening. As with these events that occurring, this means that there is a very, very, very slim chance of there being a price drop this year. Though Sony's President, Ryoji Chubachi how ever states they are going to try and lower th...
Atari have released a up to date version of current release dates that they have scheduled for there up and coming titles. Such titles include Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit for the Xbox 360 Playstation 3. The new updated list is as followed;
PlayStation Store shoppers, you may now let out that held breath. After Sony announced its plans to redesign the store, and after having revealed what it will look like, many people were asking whether SCE would take the opportunity to region lock the store. Their answer? No. You're still free to shop around in other regions in the store if you so desire.
DigiTimes started up a very intriguing rumor yesterday about Microsoft eventually integrating Blu-Ray drives with Xbox 360 consoles. Now they've even gone on to predict a price war between the 360 and the PS3!
If this rumor proves to be true, Microsoft could slowly regain some ground in the console war... But if I were them, I'd be more focused with the high console failure rates before I started adding Blu-Ray in.
Well according to a French retailer, YES!.
Why is it he come to this conclusion..? Well over the last week a few images have appeared over the Internet that shows the release schedule of the French retailer and on that schedule you can clearly see that GTA:IV is stated to be released on the Nintendo DS.
Maybe this may be a hoax but as Rockstar have previously released a Gameboy edition, anything is possible.
Konami have finally released information on the Limited Edition Version of Metal Gear Solid 4 that has been speculated for at least a year now. The Limited Edition Version will offer an additional Blu-Ray Disc which will have stored on it "2 Making of Documentaries of MGS4 Clips", "4 Chapters of the Graphic Novel" and the "Metal Gear Import Soundtrack CD". This has been priced at $84.99 and can be pre-ordered here.
In addition to this information on the Metal Gear Online Beta has been re...
In an interview to That Video Game Blog, Sandy Duncan, the man who set up and ran the European Xbox business for Microsoft believes that this generation of gaming will be the last for home consoles users (including handheld's) and from this says it will die out in the next 5-10 years and this is mainly based on the costs of new hardware being incredibly high at the moment and the fact that they will keep on rising.
Gamers on the Sega Forum's have posted reports that in the first level of Condemned 2: Bloodshot for the Playstation 3 there are times when the audio has the tendency to drop or even be lost for a set time.
Sega have said to be investigating the cause to find a solution but for now suggest to gamers to use the standard AV cable, instead of the HDMI cable whilst they sort it out and release a patch.
Yesturday Ubisoft's latest release schedule for Haze stated that it will be arriving in stores on May 22 though this is far, well not far but closeish from the truth as Ubisoft today in an amended release schedule issued and for Haze it stated they would be aiming for a May 2008 release though this is far from Official at the moment.
Sony have Officially Announced and Apologized for the Playstation 3's Vulnerability when in direction to the PSN and have said "this should never have happened".
It was found that users that hacked into the system and access peoples PSN accounts which offered the ability to use peoples Credit as well as change there Passwords. Tough thankfully, they could not find out user's Credit Card information
Sony go onto announce that a new patch will become available soon and this will close th...
If you connected to the PSN last night (March 12th) you would have been prompted for an update to the PS3's firmware, accepting would now bring you up to date withe Sony's latest firmware for the PS3, 2.17
Unfortunately, you will not find an in-game XMB. Sony did say March but this 2.17 update seems to just be some compatibility improvement. 2.17 mainly focused on improving online stability for some PS3 titles. We don't know which titles, just that there's some titles.
How hard is it to...
Sony may be trying to convince Microsoft to use their Blu Ray players, but Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronics president, says that the battle of Blu Ray is only beginning and that convincing people that the higher quality is really worth the extra money is the real challenge. The advances in technology to make regular DVDs look better on TV have made this more difficult according to him, a viewpoint I'd be inclined to agree with. We're quality freaks in our house, but HD isn't something we've per...
"Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer, firmware update 2.4 and the strongest line-up of games through our third party partners and our own studios. Id personally like to thank our trade and business partners for helping us on the start of the PS3 journey."
Available to be purchased at HMV for £99.99, the PlayTV add-on was supposed to allow UK gamers to watch and download freeview TV straight onto their Playstation 3's Hard drive, and more to that, they would then be able to stream it on their PSP's.
However the accessory which was dated for March 28th has now been canceled by the store after Sony told them that the product "no longer has a scheduled release date". From the looks of it, it seems that HMV may have had inside sources as to it'...
The next in next-gen controllers has finally been given a street date, and it isn't that far off, in fact it should be hitting the US before GTA4... set for launch on April 15th it'll be released at the same time as GT5 Prologue, however what the EU release date is, is still to be seen, hopefully we wont have to wait that long for it to cross the shores.
"Sony gives Toshiba something in return for its troubles -- Japanese Cell chip plants for $835M
A new twist has emerged with the death of HD DVD. After Warner, Best Buy, Walmart and Netflix jumped on the Blu bandwagon, the fate of HD DVD was already sealed.
Despite the grim news, the principle HD DVD developer, Toshiba Corporation, refused to initially comment on its plans for its HD DVD. However, as many analysts predicted, Toshiba came out last week and officially surrendered to Blu-..."
iSuppli's has predicted that this year Sony will sell about 10 million units, Nintendo Wii still leading with 12.2 and 360 with 7.5 units sold.
For their PS3 sales iSuppli backed their number by saying that games such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus, will likely cause the spike in sales.
And lets not forget about Little Big Planet which could definitely help boost some more sales.
However they do state that PS3 may not win over the casual cr...
It was no question 7+ months ago the 360 was plagued with an astounding failure rate of 33% from the infamous Red Ring of Death, the most in console history. But with the Falcon chips implemented it has gone down by half of what it was, 16%. While both Nintendo and Sony consoles was below 1% the least amount in history. However now it seems both those consoles are now at 3% failure rate.
There is no question with excessive amount of usage, any console can have break downs, such as Over-he...
It may have hit 1m in Japan back in June, however it has taken a bit longer (much longer) to reach similar figures in the UK, however it's still a great achievement nonetheless. Taking into consideration the console was put on sale 5 months after the US/Japanese release, it's most certainly a great achievement to have sold a million consoles in the UK, and more to that, it has been selling more consoles than the XBOX360 for the last month according to ChartTrack.
In fact the PS3 has actual...
It was stated by Universal previously that they would not support blu-ray anytime soon. However, the time has now changed, and it appears as though they have done a u-turn, and have decided to finally support Blu-Ray as well as the HD-DVD format.
As seen in this month's EGM (attached below) it seems to be a move many knew would happen sooner or later. 2008 sure isn't looking to be very good for Toshiba and those in the HD-DVD camp.
Well it seems Activision found some tools that helped developing PS3 games easier and efficient. If Call of Duty 4 is anything to come by, expect more great titles from them in the future.
Michael Griffith(president and CEO of Activision's Publishing Unit) did say it was still a tough nut to crack but without those tools, development would be a trail and error approach.
quoteOver the past year, our central technology group has created a proprietary set of tools for next-gen development th...
If you don't and you have a PS3, why don't you join Stanford University's Folding@home program and help the university learn more about protein folding in an attempt to find a cure for some of the most life-threatening diseases in the world today? There are currently a total of one million Playstation 3 owners that have joined this worthy cause, with more people joining every day.
Don't have a PS3? Don't worry, you can also use it on your PC, Mac, or Linux computer as long as you have a ...
"The Nintendo Wii and its motion-sensing gameplay might be hogging the media limelight when it comes to helping prize the sedentary and rotund from their pits of inactivity, but UK-based Gamercize is hoping its GZ Pro-Sport will help Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sloths to rise up and shed a few pounds in the name of fun.
Whether Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners warmly embrace the GZ Pro-Sport remains to be seen however, not least because all of the products available through Gamercize com..."
In an interview with Michael Ephraim, Screen Play asked them many questions regarding the future of the Playstation 3, and many questions were answered. Here's a quick overview of the key points raised:
- Larger Hard drives may be created by Sony and sold as additional peripherals, or Stores may do that them selves
- When PlayTV comes to the PS3, it will include a form of the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) which gives you details on upcoming tv shows.
- Sony (or specifically Michael) are unaware of...
Now before I begin, I'll let you all know that all the numbers contained within this article are from OFFICIAL sources, namely Microsoft and Sony themselves. So with the numbers and links courtesy of GameBlews.... here goes nothing:
In Jan 07, Microsoft said they sold 10.4m XBOX360 Consoles (skip to the 6:30 mark)
In Jan 08, Microsoft said they sold 17.7m XBOX360 Consoles (Confirmed by Major Nelson)
This gives a year on year sales figure for XBOX360 of 7.3m Consoles sold in 2007.
No...
Electronic Arts have released there predictions on the up coming years total Hardware sales and believe whilst the Nintendo Wii will lead it with 12-14 million sales, The Playstation 3 will sell more hardware then the Xbox 360 by 3.5 million over North America and Europe. In other news they have also predicted the Handheld sector by predicting that the Nintendo DS will sell 8 million/ or 2-1 more units then the Playstation Portable over the following year.
Sounds like a successful year for...
"For our tests, we cleaved to the following criteria: We only used out-of-the box hardware -- that means no charger packs for 360 and Wii, which must be purchased separately. We played a wide variety of games on each console, including lengthy single-player adventures and shallow down loadable games, both online and off. We played for varying time intervals, from fifteen minutes to upwards of eight hours (Hello weekends!). We used Duracell CopperTops for 360 and Wii testing. And we deemed all ..."
"According to the United Kingdoms second most popular gizmo and gadget magazine, T3, Sony may not only be prepping the masses for a white PS3 with DualShock controllers, and expanding the hard drive of the high-end SKU to 160gb, but they may also be preparing a PS3 slim for release in the fall.
With Sonys history of slimline designs in every console theyve ever released, this doesnt seem like that much of a stretch, but still one must wonder why they would do such a thing at this point i..."
"
Game developers are a dedicated bunch. When we made a request to talk with someone at Deadline Games regarding its work in progress, Faith and a .45, we shortly had Game Director Søren Lundgaard on the phone. The catch is that he lives on the other side of the world where the local time was pushing midnight. We offered to speak at a more convenient time but were brushed off -- working this late was normal. We're not complaining as the short phone conversation revealed a wealth of informat..."
"According to our sources from a number of GameStop locations, the system will be similar to the 360 with 120 or more gigabytes of hard drive space, as well as a Dual Shock 3 controller. There was no official date on when this new system would reach store shelves. This information appeared to follow up with that of a recent Ars Technica piece, where a reporter claimed a 120GB system with a Dual Shock 3 controller would be replacing the 80GB PS3."
"Our inside source of all things video gaming has been right almost every time it comes out of the shadows to give us information, so I'm going to dispense with the back story. Wherever his or her information is coming from, it's usually solid. After I spoke to Sony about the possible discontinuation of the 80GB PS3 model, I lit the mole-signal.
Working late into the night on Saturday, I heard a noise behind me. For both of our safety, I didn't turn around. "You've talked to Sony," the mol..."
PlayStation 3 could be getting achievements similar to the XBox 360. Sony has already announced a "Trophy Room" for PlayStation Home last year, but Sony is working on more than just this. Achievements on the PlayStation platform will not be a mere figure easily displayed on an online card, but will be considerably more indepth and broad in information presented.
"It's a general way of doing business in the gaming hardware marketplace, you sell your console at loss and make back on that through licensing. That is except for Nintendo that is who is able to make something for every unit sold from the get go. Some companies take a bigger hit than others, take the PlayStation 3 for example. For each console that Sony sold, they were taking a close to $200US loss despite the high RRP and when you consider the amount of units assembled, that's a considera..."
The moment you have all been waiting for, well PS3 owners of course. Sony has just confirmed at the CES 2008 (Consumers Electronic Show) event that the in game XMB (Xross Media Bar) is confirmed to be released later on this year. Even though we all knew it was going to happen sooner or later, it was just a matter of when. When Sony was asked for a specific date, Sony replied that it's true focus at the CES 2008 is hardware, so basically Sony shouldn't even be revealing such information, but I...
"Sony announced at this years Consumer Electronics Show that future Blu-ray titles will contain a portable copy of the movie / show embedded on the disc encoded specifically for the PlayStation Portable.
Consumers will able to boot up their PlayStation 3, pop in a Blu-ray disc, then simply transfer the portable copy onto their PS3. From there, PSP owners can beam the portable copy over to their handheld device."
"Sony Computer Entertainment America Announces PlayStation(R) Hardware Sales
Exceeding 3.9 Million During Holiday Sales Window
1.2 Million Consumers Join PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) Family since Black Friday
FOSTER CITY, Calif., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ Sony Computer Entertainment
America (SCEA) today announced PlayStation(R) hardware retail sales reached
more than 3.9 million units in North America during the critical holiday sales
window (Friday, November 23, 2007 to December 31, 2007)...."
"File this in the "hmm, interesting" folder of your mind's desktop. Sony's polling its customers in the Asian market for ways in which they can improve their PC/PSP PlayStation Store. One of the selectable responses is "Monthly subscription plan (1 price for unlimited download)". Interesting idea."
One of the features from the latest PS3 update is the new gaia visualizer. A breath taking one that shows multiple visuals of earth from space. Gamasutra talks with the creators of the new visualizer and give us some interesting information about it. Like that this was actually a possibility for the start up screen for the PS3 but was changed to a music visualizer.
A newsletter backed by Sony reportedly revealed that 80GB PlayStation 3 models are coming to Europe. According to newsletter HD World which is supported by Sony, there's a "yet-to-be-launched European 80GB PS3."
What took our interest, of course, is the mention of the 80GB PS3 after that. The said company believes the "yet-to-be-launched European 80GB PS3" will go for around US$ 500 in late 2008.
Sony Europe was asked for comment and a spokesperson replied:
quote"The HD World newslet...
"The European Playstation website lists a new firmware update that will be released tomorrow. Version 2.10 is mostly a visual media-based update, with none of the listed features having any impact on gameplay. In other words, you can stop holding your breath - there's no in-game XMB here. Instead, we the arrival of two highly anticipated features. Blu-Ray profile 1.1 and DivX support will heavily increase the PS3's standing as a media hub."
Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) chief executive Kaz Hirai is confident that the PlayStation 3 will reach 11 million by the end of this fiscal year, reports the AFP. The PS3 "is starting afresh as a console to play games with. Although pricing strategy is important, now we would like to put our strength in the number of software games," he said in an interview.
Just recently, Hirai expressed his confidence in the 20GB and 60GB models of the PS3 which are still in stock, saying production ...
With ever increasing sales, the Playstation 3 is looking to do better in the following year than it has in the previous year since launch, and with that their software line-up seems to be increasing as well.
For those that want to know what Sony will be releasing in the coming months (first party-titles only), take a look at this and smile...
"GAME OF THE YEAR
BioShock
STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Harmonix
BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision/ Infinity Ward)
BEST RPG
Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios/ BioWare)
BEST MILITARY GAME
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision/ Infinity Ward)
BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
skate (Electronic Arts/ EA Black Box)
BEST HANDHELD GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo/ Nintendo)
BEST GRA..."
When talking to Naughty Dog's co-president Evan Wells, he talked about how Uncharted has been designed to become a first title in a franchise so more title will be in the works soon. He also talk about the Jak & Daxter franchise and mentioned that the possibility's of a sequel would be looked upon sometime in the future. As for Heavenly Sword though it has been reported by Eurogamer that when talking to a a Ninja Theory spokesperson he repeatedly referred to Heavenly Sword as "Heavenly Sword ...
"Today is the start of a new Ripten mid-week feature, where I, the resident Brit, get to rant about an issue in the gaming industry. This weeks rant concerns the much wanted In-Game XMB for the Playstation 3.
There was some fuss over the last PS3 firmware update before it even hit. 2.0 was rumoured to contain a number of much wanted things such as being able to play your own music during games, or bring up the cross-media bar (XMB) during gameplay. This final feature is perhaps the most w..."
Electronic Art's has released additional information about their up and coming title FIFA Streets 3 for the Nintendo DS by offering a new insight to a mini game that allows players to try out possible kick up skills in order to practice for training towards the big game. The Nintendo DS title will also be including a special African stage exclusively apart from the Playstation 3 and 360 version to try and bring sales in.
Want a Playstation 3 40GB but haven't got enough for one? Well this year for Christmas time it is possible to get a Playstation 3 40GB for only $299 as long as you have a Sony Card. In order to register to get a Sony Card sent to you, go here.
A must deal you should not miss out on!
Midway have announced that a download for 10 level Map Pack and 21 all-new multi player character skins will become available for Stanglehold on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. In addition to this the Xbox 360 product will offer a new achievements worth 250 points available. This product will be available soon for the North American customers.
tech.co.uk have extended there 10 PS3 Tricks Sony Doesnt Tell You with an additional new 8 from Customising your PS3 to Do your system updates at work.
These news features have appeared since new updates firmware updates.
For the additional 5, follow the source provided.
That's right it was recently promised to us, and it is finally here. The Playstation Store has now come to the PC. Giving you the same basic abilities as the PS3 version apart from the ability to download PS3 Game's (since they would obviously be pirated across the internet).
Check out the screenshots below, or go straight to the store by clicking the source.
NOTE: It still seems to be a site in progress, however you can log into it, and see what you've downloaded.
Sony has sent out a very delicious cake to the press for the 1st Birthday of the PS3. Though the system had a rough start, it pretty much has ended quite nicely. By selling a Million units faster than any PS system in history. And with nice end line-up of games. Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, Ratchet&Clank and Assassins Creed to name a few.
So happy Birthday PS3 many great hours of fun in your first year. :)
Ever wanted the chance to buy a Nintendo Wii for $79, Xbox 360 for $139 or even the Playstation 3 for $139. Well here's your chance. Amazon.com have set up a vote promotion which asks for customers to vote for which console they would wish to have at this lowered price. 1000 random selected winners will be picked from the votes and will be contacted by email and be able to purchase the consoles from Amazon.com for these prices. Closing of the deal ends on the 22nd of November.
The runner-u...
However clever you think your eyes are, they're nothing compared to the Playstation Eye. Recently released, packaged with The Eye of Judgment, the Playstation Eye is being used for things you'd never have thought of... well I certianly didn't think anything like this would be possible.
Just draw something, and after a quick analysis... the Playstation Eye will bring the drawing to life... go to the source and watch the video to see exactly what will be possible with the Playstation Eye.
...
Playstation 3 sales have tripled in the U.S since the 18th October price cut, which Sony's very own Howard Stringer describes as "the breakthrough we have been anticipating."
Sony has now sold just over 100,000 PS3's during the week ending November 5th. That's about 3,000 to 4,000 units sold daily.
Howard continues saying how the Wii is having hardware problems meeting the demand in the U.K and U.S. He moves on saying that the Playstation 3 has been taking so much heat over the past ye...
"Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. commented:
"We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3. Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format.""
"Usually trailing behind the Wii, the PlayStation 3, and the PlayStation 2, this week the underdog was on top. The latest figures from Media Create show that the Xbox 360 sold more units than Sony's PS3 in the Land of The Rising Sun for the week ending November 4."
For any one who has been following this format war, would know that Blu-Ray is winning in sales and has a lot of great movie companies behind its back. But Today, news came from Universal Studios that they are not planning on supporting Blu-Ray any time soon. They Say that they want to be able to market all the great things HD DVD can offer. He then went on to say this about PS3 owners
quote70% of gamers dont even know that their console has a DVD playback option.
the PS3 simply hasnt be...
There's a sweet deal on dell. When you buy a PS3 40GB console not only do you get Spiderman 3 the movie, you get Ratchet and Clank: tools of the destruction, which is quite possibly the best PS3 game out right now. The best part about this deal its only $399. So if any of you people haven't gotten a PS3 this bundle should very much interest you.
It seems the PS3 is gaining some needed ground in Japan. Though a reporter stated that the Wii was outselling the PS3 by 2-1, this is by far the fourth consecutive month that the Wii sales dropped.
With Nintendo Wii selling 110,415 and the PS3 47,183 in October things are looking good for PS3. This seems like an incredible feat considering 4-5 months ago the Wii was outselling the PS3 by 6-1.
Way to go Sony, now the biggest challenge is yet to come, the Holiday season. Can Sony make some...
The highly anticipated firmware 2.0 is almost upon us. Three Speech has confirmed that the update will hit in any time in the next two weeks. No info what will be in the update. The only thing we know is that you will be able to turn on your PS3 via PSP. But I found some daunting quote from a Three Speech member.
quote14. I Personally dont think we will see in-game XMB access this early, Sony should have labeled it 1.99 otherwise, as people are going to get let down
Every Thursday we have to wait to see what will be in the Playstation Store. And the Euro store usually gets the least amount of content. Well Three Speech has got a list of all the content that will be releasing in the next two months for the Euro Store.
Some of the major stuff are
Uncharted Demo
Folkore - Bottom of the Sea pack
MotorStorm Devil Crossing pack:
Track - Devils crossing
4 new tickets containing 10 races
2 new vehicles with 3 liveries each. One unlockable vehicle with ...
Piracy has been large problem in the gaming industry or actually in the whole entertainment industry. Where you can download or purchase games for a small price compared to the original game. Currently most next generation consoles and recent handhelds have fell victim to piracy, that's including the PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 & DS. While the PS3 is still retaliating and is the only console not to fall to piracy as of yet or it won't anytime soon. The following reasons explain why the PS3 has not fal...
The recent Playstation 3 price cuts have been increasing sell units vastly around the U.K. 64,087 Playstation 3 units have been sold the week ending 21st October. While the 360 has only sold just over 37,000. Still nowhere near what the DS had sold 171,260 units. Although things are looking up for the PS3.
Sony will be launching it's first U.K TV ad promoting it's Blu-Ray disc format. This should help support Blu-Ray before the holiday season. Sony's first Blu-Ray ad will be broadcast for the first time ever on Saturday at 12:42 on the famous Sky Sports 1 channel. Basically just before the football match between Liverpool and Everton. The advert will include why Blu-Ray is the future of high definition and the Playstation 3 will also be included. So this advert is promoting both the Playstation...
"Engadget, had earlier reported on the rumour that Sony were to sell its share of CELL, of which was denied. Today its became more clear that Sony is to sell its share of CELL to Toshiba in a deal worth some $858 Million - According to an anonymous Sony Official."
A few weeks ago sony announced the 40GB PS3 for consumers who couldn't afford the $600 price. We didn't know when this 40GB would hit stores in America. Sony confirmed that it will come out on November 2nd with a Blu-ray version of Spider Man 3. They Also confirmed some even more interesting news. The 80GB will also have a price drop. It will now be $499. Even better the 80GB price drop is effective immediately.
As everyone now knows, Sony has discontinued backwards compatibility on Playstation 2 games in the U.K and the U.S. So you won't be seeing any future updates regarding what PS2 games are now compatible with your PS3. Also Sony has said that with them taking away backwards compatibility, this will allow people to purchase more PS3 games. Seems like Sony has forgotten about the past and is focussing about the present and future. Plus if you still own your PS2 console then BC shouldn't be an iss...
According to VG Chartz, the Playstation 3 this week has outsold both the 360 and Wii the week ending 14th October. It seems that the 40Gb package has really saved Sonyand the same could be said about the price cut for the Playstation 3's 60Gb package. In Europe now there are numerous bundles you can take advantage of, it makes me regret purchasing a Playstation 3 at launch.
The Playstation 3 has sold during that week 77,827 units, while the Wii sells with a strong 75,033 and in third place...
After the 40GB Sony Playstation 3 package is introduced in the U.K. The Playstation 3 sales have increased by a milestone of 178%. Nearly double to what it originaly sold weekly. This weekly total is the highest ever since the two weeks at launch.
Playstation 3 is looking up for Sony.
"So, how come..." you're asking, "...this is Gadget O' The Year, when it's merely a runner-up in the Gaming category?" We say this: the PS3 doesn't so much move the goalposts for gadgets as hack them down and use them to build a very small shed with. In that shed is kept multimedia functionality the Xbox 360 can only dream of: one of the best Blu-Ray players to date, brilliant synergy with the PSP, and, just over the horizon, a stream of top add-ons, such as the TV tuner."
Again he tells everyone about his opinion on the PS3, stating that "its a waste of time". He also tackled the idea of the Sony PS3 being "future-proof", remarking that investment on the Cell Processor and the SPE yields no real long-term benefits. "There's nothing there that you're going to apply to anything else" he states.
Then says "You're not going to gain anything except a hatred of the architecture they've created," confides Newell. "I don't think they're going to make money off their ...
Behold before you the first liquid cooled Playstation 3. This method of cooling is usually used on gaming PC's if they overheat when users are playing various games on them. Although I don't know why it's being used on the Playstation 3 as they don't overheat at all. Probably only for people who get worried about their Playstation 3 overheating.
"Sony today revealed their upcoming 40GB Sony Playstation 3. Unfortunately this new model will not be backward compatible, meaning it wont support any PlayStation 2 titles. It will feature 2 usb ports and no multimedia card reader. However it seems that Sony possibly forgot to mention one "new" feature ..."
A reliable forum member named [-JuNka-], has posted that there will be a new Playstation 3 model which includes a 160GB hard drive and the new Dual Shock 3 controller. He continues on saying that this model will only be released in Japan for now, but a specific release date is not yet known, but it's expected after November.
UK gamers have been waiting months for this moment and its finally arrived.
Sony has officially announced that on October 10th a 40GB PS3 will be released at the price of £299 (( Around the same price as an Xbox 360 Elite - I know which I would rather have now )).
On a little low note though, this 40GB model will have no backwards compatibility, but this should be no issue for Sony fans who already own a PS2 ...
Also announced was a price cut for the 60 GB model, which will now be priced ...
"The original PlayStation lasted 10 years -- a tremendous innovation when other platforms died and were all but forgotten," Tretton told us in a recent interview. "The same thing is going on with the PS2, and I think that will be the case with the PS3."
He went on to say, "I don't think we expected nor we need to capture the lifecycle of the PS3 in the first nine months. We want to build evangelists, one consumer at a time, and it involves sacrificing in the short term before paying off in ..."
"During his Tokyo Game Show keynote address, SCE president Kaz Hirai promised a "much closer relationship" with Sony's partners.
Hirai pointed to Crisis Core, a Square Enix collaboration on the PSP, as a recent example.
"Some of these collaborative endeavours are going on behind the scenes already," Hirai said, "largely in terms of development assistance courtesy of Sony Worldwide Studios. Sony is also listening to the opinions of developers whose games are already out.""
"We've known it's been coming for a while now, but now it's completely official: the PS3 will soon offer a rumble controller !!
It's expected that along with a PS3 price drop for Japan, Kaz Hirai will be revealing the new PS3 rumble controller at his TGS keynote (later tonight U.S. time). Sources have also indicated that one of the big reveals may be that the playable Metal Gear Solid 4 demo will include rumble functionality. Those who have tried the controller spoke positively of it, saying ..."
Sony are expected to be releasing the 40GB Playstation 3 for a small sum of $299 the same week that Halo 3 will be released for the Xbox 360 in order to attempt to pull some sales onto there hardware to keep up with the Xbox360. If this is true they will be releasing the confirmation at the Tokyo Games Show. Also it is planned that the Playstation 3 80GB version will be dropping down to $499 once all 60GB have sold out.
"Hideo Kojima has confirmed that the PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4 will not be the last Metal Gear Solid game as the franchise will continue on.
Hideo Kojima was asked whether or not it would be hard to say goodbuy to the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
He stated that it would not be the end of the Metal Gear Solid franchise after Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3.
He stated that the Metal Gear Solid franchise would be the like James Bond franchise and continue on even without Snake.
Kojima state..."
A new rumour from Shane Bettenhausen in a 1UP Podcast claims that Sony will be releasing information at the Tokyo Games Show to confirm that the Sixaxis control for the Playstation 3 will be receiving Rumble. Shane also says that the PS3 Firmware Update for Version 2.0 will be released as well. A representative from Sony when talking to Spong says that they have no information on either matter at the current times.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd, one of the biggest electronic manufacturing service (EMS)has signed with Sony to produce low priced PS3. And with this will be Cheap SKU's that could lower the PS3 price some time soon.
And with this set a goal of shipments of 10 million ps3 in the first quarter of 08. That will bring fierce competition Globally between the three consoles.
We all have thought that the Nintendo Wii sales would be coming down in the next few months with less interest being shown in it but according to a online study which tested over 400,000 blogs and forums by BrandIntel states that more people plan on buying the Nintendo Wii over its Next Gen Rivals though it is a less powerful console and the reason for this, is because of the new audience they have tried to reach with casual gamers, that Sony and Microsoft have not covered.
Logitech is extending their gaming hardware productline on Wedneday by releasing a cordless headset and keyboard which will both support the Bluetooth enabled within the Playstation 3. The headset will allow users to chat in-game and during chat sessions while the "Mediaboard" will be for Messaging, Internet and managing Multiple Accounts. The Mediaboard will also offer a menu for the circle, square, X and triangle buttons from the PS3 controller and also have a touch pad for mouse like actio...
Opposable Thumbs state they have a inside mole within Sony Corp who has released further information saying that Sony are going to be planning a Price Drop for the Holiday season, this price drop and bundle will involve an 80GB model + Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray for $499.99 and the 40GB model + Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray for $399.99, and also on the smaller side the Playstation 2 will be offered for $99 per system. If these are true then you will be expecting Sony to announce them at the Tokyo Games Show.
In recent reports it has been shown that the Xbox 360 version of up and coming title Rock Band will only consist of wired bundles for the instruments and not wireless. Now it has been revealed that the Playstation 3 version of the game will offer Wireless bundle packs. The reason for this is because the wireless technology is too expensive to license on the 360, pushing the price-tag of the bundles too high. But as it does not cost as much for the Playstation 3 system, they will be offering W...
A recording of a Playstation 3 System in action in a UK Blockbuster shop shows the Xbox 360's top title Halo 3 being the trailer shown on the display monitor. A new marketing scheme by Sony that only hit one shop (^^) or just a general mistake by the Blockbuster boys? I'll leave you to cast your vote.
Recent reports of Sony Corp. shows they have the intention of selling approximately $2.9bn (£1.4bn) of shares into the company's insurance division, Sony Financial Holdings Inc. In the outcome of this, Mitsuhiro Osawa a Tokyo-based analyst when talking to Bloomberg stated Sony would be using this as a chance to strengthen its electronics and gaming business but more precise, he then went onto say a possible chance of a price drop in may be in works.
"Sony Corp needs to establish an unwavering marketing strategy for its PlayStation 3 game machine to drive growth of its console business, the head of Japanese videogame publisher Square Enix Co Ltd said.
"Sony first unveiled the PS3 as a mighty home electronics product. Then, after some badgering from game companies, it shifted the position of the console closer to a game machine," Square Enix President Yoichi Wada told reporters on Friday.
"(The future of the PS3) would be tough if it..."
As was reported earlier, a 9-year old boy Matty was able to steer and cotnrol the runaway truck carrying more than 100,000 pounds to saftey saving the life of his father. He wanted an PS3 in return, and now he has one, however it wasn't his father that got him it, but Sony themselves. Now he can use a PS3 controller in a much safer environment.
"Earlier today rumors spread that a new 60GB PS3 Starter Pack with Heavenly Sword and F1 Championship would make its way to Europe. Well it turns out the rumor is partially true. Beginning on September 19th, coinciding with the release of Heavenly Sword, France will be getting a new 60GB package.
SCEE provided the following details about the new 60GB Starter Packs:
- There will be an extra controller
- All SCEE regions will start getting a new 60GB starter pack
- Two bonus titles wil..."
"Microsoft had originally set a target of 15 million Xbox 360s by the middle of 2007, but dropped that target down to 12 million. Even with lowered expectations, the company was still unable to meet its goal, having only shipped 11,600,000 units by the end of June.
Plagued by red ring of death hardware issues, the Xbox 360 narrowly edged ahead of the PS3 in July sales, with NPD reporting retail sales of 170,000 units. However, Microsofts console unit sales lead over the PS3 fell from co..."
Dave Karraker, senior manager of corporate communications at Sony has decided to leave the company. He was the main PR voice in print, online and televised media for the PS3 and Home campaign. He has accepted a job with Skyy Spirits.
Consoles in this day and age, seem to follow a "Console Cycle"... well atleast Sony did with the Playstation trilogy... The cylce sees the introduction of a new generation machine every 5 to 6 years, however the production life of each machine is around 10 years.
Take for example the (original) Playstation which was released in Dec 1994. This was followed in Mar 2000 by the PS2, however it remained in production till Mar 2006 when Sony finally stopped making the machines. Which meant that...
Shu Yoshida, Senior Vice President of Product Development here inside SCEA talks about how games are made for Playstation.
A project is usually initiated from a studio, whether its from a team or a developer. First is a basic idea for a game, which then later turns into a overall concept. And when a concept is chosen than a prototype is made which is usually around 2 to 5 million dollars, and can take up to a year to make.
They say there process isn't a "green light", its a "Red light". T...
Kimberly Otzman, a spokeswoman for Sony's gaming business in Tokyo guesses that Sony will cut the prices of the 80GB Playstation 3's when the older, 60GB model sells out. The 60GB model will probably last through October, but once it's gone, Sony is expected to cut the original $600 80GB model to $500.
Once the flagship model of the PlayStation 3 hardware product lineup, Sony Computer Entertainment America made the decision at E3 to replace the 60GB PS3 with a new 80GB edition. Their strategy was to announce a $100 USD price cut for 60GB PS3 consoles in an effort to sell through the remaining stock, leaving the 80GB PS3 to occupy the $599 USD price point.
SCEA reassured that 60GB PS3 stocks would still be plentiful in the retail channel to assuage negative opinions surrounding their "tem...
Ps3Vault put the PS3 to the test to see how long it can handle watching Blu-Ray Movies before crashing. They took an internal thermal gauge to measure the temperature of the PS3 every 23 hours. They sat for 6 days watching movies before the system crashed, but it turned out that the reason it crashed was because it got so hot, it melted the internal thermal gauge, which then fell onto the console board causing the PS3 to die.
Given that the Playstation 3 currently doesn't have as many games available as the other consoles, it still does hold a fair bit of games. But are people making the most of the Playstation 3's capabilities? Well it seems that out of the many games that have been released only around 16 games so far are using the Playstation 3's SPE.
Whilst there may be more, the 16 games that are listed below have pretty much been confirmed to be using the PS3's SPE:
- Resistance: Fall of Man
- Ratchet and Clan...
Sony's Phil Harrison has released information saying that the PlayTV that is going to be offered to the PAL territories may never come to the American market. He goes on to state that the reason for this is because of the limitations of the digital terrestrial television coverage.
"Sony is primed to make key announcements for its PlayStation 3 and PSP consoles as the Leipzig games show, in Germany, opens its doors.
The Japanese giant is expected to announce a tuner for the PlayStation 3 that will allow the recording and playback of digital TV.
It will also give more details of a video download service for the PSP handheld, developed with Sky in the UK."
The PS3 price cuts seem to have payed off for Sony, in Canada at least, game industry research firm NPD have confirmed that the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 in the month of July.
Over 15,000 P3S consoles were sold in the July period which was 2000 more than the Xbox 360. Despite this the Wii and DS are still dominating the market with 36,000 and 46,000 units sold respectively.
The article also gives the top 10 games sales for the month in Canada which include, Guitar hero Encore and Marty p...
"Those on the fence about getting a PlayStation 3 this year might be swayed by an ongoing offer from Sony. Those who apply and are approved for a Sony-branded credit card will get a $150 rebate on anything they buy at the online Sony Style store with said card. Said store is also selling the $499 60GB PlayStation--meaning those who get the card will get the console for just $349 after their rebate arrives in 8-12 weeks.
The deal is made more compelling by several other factors. First, the ..."
SPOnG who was recently informed by the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, yesterday. Found out the incredible Low defective rate of the PS3 around 0.2%. SCEE founder Chris Deering, had this to say.
quoteElsewhere, SCEAs senior director of corporate communications Dave Karraker, been comparing the Xbox 360 reliability rate to there own PS3.If true, this is a hugely impressive statistic and is considerably less than the industry standard of three to five percent.
Could this be the answer to XBOX 360's GamerTags? During the Edinburgh Interactive Festival players had the chance to play the Unreal Tournament 3 Demo and the people at games-digest noticed something interesting in the game's menu system.
Now it could simply be something related solely to UT3, however the name (Gamercard) does make you think that there may be more behind it than meets the eye. When Epic's Mark Rein was quizzed about it, his reply was hugely suspicious:
- Oops, you shouldnt ...
North American PS3s may lose hardware based backwards compatibility. Why? Because Sony wants to push PS3 content and get owners to spend money on some of their new features and "quit living off the greats of yester-year." So if you plan on getting a PS3, like myself, you better buy one sometime soon, because you may not be able to use PS1 and PS2 hardware and maybe even software with the newer models.
Just yesterday it was announced that David Jaffe and Scott Campbell with Salt Lake City Studios were working on 3 Sony exclusives. Here is a interview with both Jeffe and Campbell concerning the PS3 and its sales prospects, how they believe things will pan out for the PS4 and PS5, God of War 3, review scores for Calling All Cars, casual gamers and what they believe the current state of the gaming industry is
The reasons as to why Sony and Rockstar Games are finally showing some signs of cooperation are coming to light. Although not confirmed by either Sony or Rockstar Games, it does appear as though the rumours regarding Rockstar Games becoming Sony Exclusive may very well be true... but the deal between them isn't simply a "I'll pay you .... to not make games for another platform" but a "Here's some money, now your soul belongs to us".
It seems that Sony is looking to take Rockstar "under the...
"Jaffe clarified statements that in addition to the Twisted Metal: Head-On port for PS2, his new independent studio of 20 employees will concurrently be working on the first of three original games exclusively for PlayStation 3.
"I can't disclose themes," Jaffe said, "but the new game is medium to hardcore in terms of game play and will focus heavily on multiplayer."
"I am more excited about this game than anything I have ever worked on. I cannot wait to unveil it," Jaffed added from Eat..."
"Here's a surprise (sarcasm detectors should be ringing): SOE is going to increase their support for the PlayStation Network. You can read about John Smedley's experience at the SOE Fan Faire if you'd like, but we're going to get right to the part where the news slants towards the PS3 side of things. In addition to talking about The Agency, Smedley talked about the synergy felt between SOE and the PSN: "The investment Sony made in us is quite big and the investment they've made in PlayStation ..."
"You just know it isn't going to be your day when you wake up to find that an advertising watchdog has slammed your latest campaign on grounds that it borders on glamorising violence. That's just what's happened to Sony today, reports Channel 4 News.
The complaint follows the placing of a PlayStation 3 promotion within the internal accounts of Yahoo! and BT Internet users, one which featured a character named Kovac who appears brandishing a knife alongside the slogans "mercenary or misunder..."
Well, it's official; the 80GB PS3 with bundle is now available in all stores. So if your going to download lots of content, then this system (with higher storage) is right for you! Plus, you get a high selling PS3 game with it.
Since the PS3 60GB price cut, the sales has increased 115% at the company's five major retailer sites, and Sony is expecting the system inventory to be phased out by fall.
Epic Games, Mark Rein has released information saying that the Playstation 3 version and the PC version of Unreal Tournament III will have Cross Platforming Play with one another. In addition to this, he also believes that the Playstation 3 will be the only console cross platforming with this title on the PC, so this means that the Xbox 360 might not be cross platforming with the PC version.
After the SCEA refused to lower the price of the Playstation 3 in Europe they planned on offering us the Starter Pack to make up for it but it now turns out that this is only a summer promotion and will be taken of the shop shelves at a predetermined date, states an Official Email From Sony.
"According to industry analyst GfK, the PS3 accounts for about 95 per cent of the market for high-definition DVD equipment in Australia.
The PS3, launched in March, provided a big boost to Blu-ray software sales, GfK analyst Sharane Lewis said.
It had sold about 55,000 units in Australia by the end of June, compared with just over 1000 units of dedicated Blu-ray players, according to GfK figures.
In contrast, total sales of HD DVD capable players, including the Xbox 360's $249 HD DVD ..."
Sad disappointment today for Sony consumers hoping to soon receive a revamped SIXAXIS controller on their PS3s... that just so happens to be bolstered by the inclusion of force feedback functionality.
Unfortunately dear Sony chums, the gaming behemoth has moved to deny the re-emergence of a rumble feature. Yet, if current Sony smoke and mirrors are anything to go by, it'll probably be announced at the Leipzig convention in Germany.
Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 "Starter Pack", boasting additional value for money for PlayStation 3 shoppers, will no longer be sold in Australia as of August 31. A marketing email sent to members of the official PlayStation website yesterday provided details on the offer's end date, less than a month after its original introduction.
Sony has declined to reveal details over what will replace the offer, if anything.
Currently all indications are pointing to the answer to Rockstar going Sony Exclusive to be no - with the whole "PS3 reason for GTA4 delay" and all... however if you hear the latest Cheat Code Central Podcast you'll note that around the 50minute mark, they do mention Rockstar going Sony exclusive.
Then if you take a moment to forget the current games in production that are multi-platform (that's right, forget GTA4 for a minute please), you'll realise that Rockstar have already announced, n...
"Never one to back down from any challenge, Axion Racing's Team Leader Bill Kehaly expects great things from his team's Sony PS3 console. "We felt having cars drive themselves was getting a little too easy, so we threw the Sony PlayStation into our bag of tricks," joked Kehaly. The PS3 joins Axion's cadre of Dell computers, SICK laser finders, Bumblebee stereo cameras, and FLIR infrared cameras all guided by twin Navcom Starfire GPS units. A Northrop Grumann LN-270 INS uses the earth's inertia..."
"At the WWDC, Carmack promised to have the same demo--which features over 20GB of texture information--running in real time on the PC, Macintosh, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 at the E3 Media & Business Summit in July. However, by the time the scaled-down expo was done, there was no sign of the demonstration anywhere.
Today, though, id Tech 5 surfaced. Behind closed doors at QuakeCon 2007 in Dallas, id CEO Todd Hollenshead revealed the demo was actually the first look at Rage, an all-new IP...."
In recent weeks we have heard Rumours and Leaked Confirmations over the Rumble Sixaxis Controller but all that has been blown away with Dave Karraker telling GamePro that they have not added rumble to the Playstation 3, and have no announcements regarding this feature.
Welcome to Blu-ray City. Population 54,308,945,521. Whilst we don't know what the numbers represet, we can tell you that Blu-ray city is the place to go if you want to learn a bit more about the Blu-ray and see what content will be upcoming to the Blu-ray in the future with Sony's new MMG Venue (Music, Movies and Games).
Giving you details on the latest content released on the Blu-ray format, the site features full-length music videos of Blu-ray disc artists who you will have seen or hear...
In a recent email regarding Take-Two's decision to delay Grand Theft Auto IV to next year, Sony Computer Entertainment America's PR chief Dave Karraker explains that while the PlayStation 3 will only stand to benefit from the game's launch whenever it occurs, its temporary absence will not spell trouble for the next-gen platform. That is to say, SCE is not relying on a single game's release to justify the PS3, and the company will be counting on a variety of other game titles to help draw in...
"Sales for Sony Corp.'s new 80GB Playstation 3 model increased 5,685 percent on Thurs. morning as Amazon.com began pre-sales for the product. The new 80GB model will include a copy of the online racing title MotorStorm and retail for $599.99. The item is listed to be released on Aug. 12 at the retailer.
Sony currently retails a 60GB PS3 SKU for $499. The model will be discontinued following depletion of stock at retail. The 60GB PS3 on Thurs. ranked as the No. 1 best-selling product at Amaz..."
Forget console skins, we need controller skins! Sony has come up with a real nifty product to dress up your Sixaxis Playstation controller. No, their not ust plain old skins, they're skins that change colour with body heat! The skins are selling a a little over $10. Skins that can protect your controller when gobbling down food, your hands all greasy and change colour? Sounds good.
Microsoft's taken yet another swipe at Sony, and this time it's Bill Gates that has carried out the low blow. During a recent Microsoft's investor chats, Bill Gates said
- "So we've always wanted to be a company that got the benefit of the scale, going back to the beginning where we said, hey we're not a one-product company. Many of our competitors were one-product companies. Now they're not one-product companies, but Sony's just in video games, Nokia's largely just in mobile phones, IBM's large...
"UK, August 1, 2007 - Not content with the fact it already plays games, Blu-ray discs, old PlayStation stuff and music, Sony's New Zealand sales and marketing manager Warwick Light says that next year the PlayStation 3 is set to become a TV recorder rather like Sky+ or TiVo."
As occasionally as it happens, Sony are today facing yet another law suit. This time it is with regards to the parallel processing cell chip that is in the Playstation 3. The Parallel Processing Corporation of Newport Beach, California a couple days ago, submitted a five-page complaint to the Eastern District of Texas.
With the page length of all other complaints (usually reaching double numbers), will this five-page complaint hold for long? The suit itself, also doesn't actually say whic...
You wouldn't think that someone could make something as bad as "poor sales" sound like a good thing, but that someone's obviously not Sony. Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda told journalists, that behind the poor sales of the PS3 there's a silver lining, behind the sales figures:
Sales of the PS3 have risen but we booked losses due to our strategic decision to price it below the (production) cost... Actually, because the number of units sold was not as high as we hoped, the loss was better than our or...
""We've announced the price cut in the US and have no additional plans beyond that at this time," Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters on the sidelines of a gathering of business executives in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan.
Sony's PlayStation 3 has been far outsold by rival Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii console in large part because of its lofty price. Even after the $100 cut, the PS3 is twice as expensive as the Wii.
Some analysts have said the $100 cut would not be enough to counter the momentum..."
GamePlay Metrics shows that the Playstation 3 is getting the most attention through gamers and is being played the longest. The average session with a PS3 is 83 minutes in the month of June. The Xbox 360 is behind with 61 minutes and the Wii with only 57 minutes. GamePlay Metrics used data from the Nielsen's People Meter TV with the Nielsen GamePlay Metrics' proprietary audio signature to get these stats. They tracked 12,000 houses with about 33,000 people. Nonetheless, the PS2 still caught 4...
Patrick Klepek of 1up has written an article, focusing on the Playstation 3 and how it is doing. Though the launch in November was good, hardware sales have been down 60% since June. Sony has desperately tried to draw attention with firmware updates and improved features, but none of that matters. It's the price and software that counts. Klepek doesn't think Sony is doomed, but they're unlikely to move out of third place for awhile.
Ever since Janruary, there has been a steady, but deadly...
Sony's profits have doubled, which is great and all, because they have decent electronics that barely let people down, such as LCD Televisions and digital cameras. Surprisingly enough, it's the PS3 that's losing ground in terms of their gaming department.
Though the game division increased by 60.5% compared to last year, Sony's PS3 is costing them greatly...as the parts that make up the PS3 cost them more than their retail price. Something we already knew, but with the $100 price cut recen...
Games Radar has tallied up the stats of the first half of the 2007 year to see who's winning the console war in 2007 alone. Using stats from Janruary to June, this is what they came up with. The DS is dominating with 2.7 million sales and the Wii is not far behind with 2.1 million. The Xbox 360 and PSP are tied at 1.3 million each and the PS3 trails far behind with 763,000 sales.
They also got the top 10 game sales for the first half of the year and 6 of the top 10 are for Nintendo, the P...
""...whereas our competition takes a bunch of old content and catalogs content from previous generations and offers that in a download fashion, our development organization are making games specifically for PS3," said Peter Dille. "When you download them, they're in 1080p, and they're showing off what's going on with Cell and the PlayStation 3 technology."
Oh, dont you just love a bit of corporate handbag action?"
"Data from research firm Media Create shows that sales of Sony PlayStation 3's console rocketed past the X-Box 360, outselling the competition by a ratio of Approximately 5:1.
It seems like things are going normal for the PlayStation 3 and all the Sony consoles in general with Japanese Sales."
David Reeves reveals that Christmas 07 is not a crucial time for Sony but instead stated Christmas 08 will be. He says that the Ps3 is like a tsunami and needs time to build up and will take a couple of years.
He also replays to the current price drop in the US by stating that July is not a big gamers month for big titles, so instead we though we would reduce the price, to annoy people.
"It's easy to write a PlayStation 3 hate article, everyone on the Net has posted at least ten in the last six to eight months. But, what would it take for you to buy a PlayStation 3, for real?
The reasons for not buying a PlayStation 3 usually land into three categories (or maybe a few more):
* I hate Sony
* It's too expensive
* No games of interest
For those that hate Sony with passion... you're lost to us. The other two concerns can be nailed in due time, right?"
"To capitalize on this already inherent system capability, Buffalo will be releasing the Buffalo Wi-Fi Gamer device in the US next month, and the company stopped by our office to show how it works. This wireless adapter, about the size of a pack of cards, doesn't need a PC at all - it simply plugs into an available port on an existing LAN. Once connected, you just press the "connect" button on the unit, then the AOSS function on the DS, PSP, PS3 and Wii, and after about 45 seconds of syncing u..."
Australians and people that live in the UK are charged up to $400 more than the US has to pay for the PS3 console. Many consumers are claiming that Sony is purposely "Price gouging" in an attempt to make up for lost proftis. Sony told Austalia that they'll get a starter pack with an extra controller and games. This pack costs less than $25 for Sony, but they're charging $125. In the UK, Sony ruled out the price cut for the PS3 just a few days after North America got a price cut. Instead, they...
An article on Kotaku, a popular gaming blog, that claims that Sony "confirms" the Sixaxis Rumble controller rumour, has got people talking. Brian Ashcroft, a Kotaku author said that a Sony employee confirmed directly to him that the controller was actually coming. IGN contacted Sony to get an official response and to many peoples dissapointment, Sony denies that this controller exists.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves says that the Playstation 3 will be the winner in the game console war by March 2008. He also says that the Xbox 360 will not take over the holiday season. He doesn't think that just having games for the 360 is enough. When asked whether that the cost is still high, he replied that it is, but people are still paying for it and now, they'll get two games and an extra controller.
"In an interview with Gamasutra, senior VP of marketing for PlayStation Peter Dille told Gamasutra that a direct download movie service for PSP and PS3 will be coming very soon, and that the company is actively working on the service. The comment was framed within a discussion of the PSP's new form factor.
"I think what might convince (people who havent picked up a PSP) would be the advent of a service that allows them to put content onto the PSP in an easier fashion," said Dille. "Theres..."
"Well, here it is, Sony's promised European PS3 announcement - it's a "high value" starter pack containing the console, two first-party games and two SixAxis controllers for 425 quid.
The starter pack will hit the UK on July 18, and be available in the rest of Europe on August 1.
According to Sony, "The choice of first party games available in the Starter Pack will vary to suit the interests of entertainment enthusiasts in each country, but will include million sellers such as Resistanc..."
Sony today announced that their PlayStation 3 video game system will not be recieving a price reduction in PAL territories. Unlike Northern American gamers, who will recieve a price cut next month, European and Australian consumers will instead have a "Starter Pack" introduced in replacement of the current PlayStation 3 retail box.
The aptly titled bundle, set to be released in August, will contain a 60GB PlayStation 3 system, two official controllers and two current chart games. Included ...
This E3 has differently been interesting, It has practically turned into a free for all with every company trying to wow the journalists more than the others. Here is a overview if how a observant spectator sees E3
"In a late breaking story SmartHouse News has been able to confirm that PAL markets including Australia and the UK will get a PS3 price cut on July 12th.
The Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment in Australia, Michael Ephraim, has confirmed that a PAL market announcement will be made on July 12 2007 regarding price cuts to the PAL market PS3.
It is expected that the PAL market Sony PS3 models, which are among the most expensive in the world, will be cut by as much as 17%. This..."
"With news of Sony's 80GB model PlayStation 3 comes word that the new console will eliminate the PS2 "emotion engine' chip.
"The current 60 GB model utilizes a hardware and solution for backwards compatibility, namely the Emotion Engine chip," said SCEA's Kimberly Otzman. "The new 80 GB PS3 will use a software solution for backwards compatibility, similar to that currently found in the PAL model.""
"Sony's recent redressing of the PS3's production problems has made it profitable according to Richard Doherty, an analyst at the US research firm Envisioneering Group.
The analyst told Bloomberg that thanks to Sony's resolution of its production issues the PS3 has actually been profitable for several months, while he reckons that Microsoft loses money on every Xbox 360 it sells."
"Today PS3 owners are getting an idea as to what that extra space will be used for, as a Sony representative told Newsweek editor N'Gai Croal that the company is working on a downloadable TV and movie service for the system. Croal said he was told by the rep that Sony will talk about the service at its press conference Wednesday."
"Today, Sony confirmed to the Associated Press what a fusillade of reports from US retailers had augured last week. As of July 10, the PlayStation 3's North American price point is going south. The next-generation console will cost $499 in the US and $549 in Canada, the same price as the discontinued 20GB model.
The price drop announcement was accompanied by more unexpected news: The 80GB PS3, previously only available in South Korea, is also headed stateside. The larger-capacity system wil..."
"The DS may still be outselling all other consoles put together in Japan, but sales of Sony's consoles were up last week according to the latest figures from Media Create.
During the week ending July 1, PlayStation Portable sales rose by 5000 units to reach 38,305, while 16,316 PS2s were shifted - an increase of 26 per cent.
PlayStation 3 sales were also on the rise, up by 20 per cent to hit 11,914 units."
Onlinelib announces their intention to port its a third-party video streaming service for the PlayStation Network. The "Video Communication Server" (VCS) framework offers high-definition video on demand tailored for PlayStation 3 playback. No release details have been confirmed yet, but check out the official site for more information.
For those of you who are avid readers of Circuit City, you might have come across a certain article in the paper prophesying a certain 100 dollar price drop in Sony's new wonder console the PS3. Whether it is the truth or just another rumor is something to be seen, however the while the big boys at sony have denied it, there is wonder now as to whether this one of the surprises the company has in store at the upcoming E3.
""We developed the PS3 as a hardware that lasts for decades and believe we are in a marathon rather than a sprint," company spokesperson Nanako Kato said when asked by GamePro why the system was being outsold by rival Wii 6 to 1 in Japan.
"With that said, SCE will accelerate the expansion of the PS3 platform over the next several months by offering a rich lineup of attractive software titles and pursuing own promotional activities as a platform holder."
Regarding said promotional activi..."
We all know that a SIXAXIS rumble will soon come out, but details on the controller are still under wraps. PSM France believes that not only will it feature "vanilla" rumble, but also a "touch sense" feature that allows rumble to emanate from specific part of the controller.
SIXAXIS force feedback is said to be even "more powerful and more intense then the ps2's rumble".
"Many Xbox 360 owners probably know that Microsoft delivered last year's E3 updates via Xbox Live, and plans to do so this year too. With E3 less than one week away many gamers have been patiently waiting to see if Sony would offer something similar through Playstation Network. The PSN servers were just updated the answer is within the Store now."
According to Famitsu's Japanese game sales report for the month of June, the DS console product line continues to take top honors in Japan, netting sales of over 500,000 units for its fifthteen consecutive month. Second place on the June hardware sales chart also went to Nintendo for the Wii. Nintendo's hardware sales are believed to be a major factor in increasing Japanese game industry sales by 25 percent but the company's competitors, not to mention a 7.5 percent growth in game sales, al...
"Dave Karraker, spokesman for Sony, said Nielsen would have access to data from the PlayStation 3 systems as well as the PlayStation Network. This data will then be used to measure "behaviour patterns, the effectiveness of advertisements in games, and some basic demographic information such as the user's age.""
""Yes, my friends ps3 broke.
He came round mine explaining that his PS3 just died for no reason.
I asked him if he used any buggerd games, dvds, or blu-ray. He said no. I asked him if he dropped it etc. No, no no.
So I went round his to have a look. He had put black duct tape over the air vents. All of them.
I said 'why have you put duct tape over the vents?'
He replys with this:
'I am really cautious about my ps3. I really look after it. I don't want dust getting inside it so ..."
A BBC article discussing the fact that the Wii has sold 270,974 units while the PS3 has only sold 41,628, barely a sixth of that amount. As well as discussing the Wii outselling the PS3 in Japan also includes quotes from Phil Harrison, PlayStation's head of worldwide studios.
"In a move that may baffle many, Sony has yet to announce any plans for the PS3 for E3 compared to what Microsoft has for the Xbox 360 to bring E3 home.
Last year Microsoft did a great job on Xbox Live with the Xbox 360 as they brought the latest game demos, trailers, etc all from the show floor and piped them directly into the homes of Xbox 360 games and the Xbox Live service to enjoy.
So now the question comes up, with Microsoft getting ready to do it all over again for the second year..."
Sony's Phil Harrison the corporate executive and representative director of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) and Executive Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). Says you shouldn't judge a console by its launch line up of games and software.
He also goes on saying consumers don't care if games are First party or Third party, if they're good.
Also whats even more interesting is this "We have a larger platform-dedicated development resource than our competitors co...
Sony has overcome its Blu-ray laser problems, and is ready to start making its way back into the sales market.
Sony which ended up selling 5.5 million ps3 units in the fiscal year, ended March 31,2007. While facing production yield problems for its blue semiconductor lasers that features inside each machine.
A spokesman said it will ultimately come down to content. Which is good they're thinking about content. Perhaps at E3 Sony might cut the price of the system to really make it sell. Only...
"Sony's PlayStation 3 console will not have any effect on the final outcome of the high-definition disc battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD . New research shows that of the 80 per cent of US households which own a games console, only 13 per cent actually use it to watch movies.
Many console-owners are not even aware that their games machine can play DVD movies.
"Today's next-generation games consoles such as the Xbox 360 or Sony PS3 are true digital multimedia powerhouses," commented Dale ..."
A recent study of gaming households conducted by The Diffusion Group, a Texas-based research firm, concludes that North American gamers are still primarly using next-gen game consoles for gaming. In other words, despite the price gamers are paying for the multimedia playback features in consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, few are actually making use of them. Approximately 13 percent of the 2000 US households surveyed by The Diffusion Group that own these consoles admitted to using...
"Last week, Nintendo Australia was shouting from the rooftops about the success of the Wii down under, with the console becoming the fastest to reach 100,000 units sold down under. Now Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCEA) has gone on the offensive, with managing director Michael Ephraim saying the PlayStation 3 has been the number one selling next-gen console in the country since its launch, outselling the Wii and the Xbox 360 almost every week.
In an interview with GameSpot AU, Ep..."
"There are two reasons why the former frame of thinking is incorrect: First, the market was very different one year ago. The Xbox 360 was competing with the hype of the PlayStation 3, the shadow of the then-labeled Nintendo Revolution and decent PS2 and Xbox software sales. Second, sales for the Xbox 360 and Wii are continuously picking up, while the PS3 sales are continuously declining.
In the instance of the first reason, competition has a lot to do with console sales. During the first ..."
"Hey everyone, you told us you wanted to hear about updates a few days in advance, so heres a quick heads up that we have a PS3 firmware update in the works. Scheduled for release in the next few days, firmware 1.82 is an update that enables the playback of AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) files. As most of you know, these are high quality files that youll now be able to play on your PS3. Hopefully this update is moving us closer to the audio playback features many of you commented about in m..."
Sony is looking to get more people to buy Blu-Ray players instead of HD-DVD's and so they came up with this Promotional Deal. Buying a Blu-Ray player will automatically qualify you to receive 5 Blu-Ray movies free.
The list of free movies include, but are not limited to:
Babel
Black Rain
Blazing Saddles
Chicken Little
The Corpse Bride
The Devil's Rejects
The Guardian
Hart's War
Invincible
The Italian Job
Kiss of the Dragon
The Last Waltz
The Omen [2006]
Pearl Harbor
The P...
Immersion originally sued both Microsoft and Sony over use of its patented rumble technology in Xbox and PlayStation 2 controller pads. However, it later came to light that Microsoft had settled its differences via a significant dollar payout, as well as buying a large stake in the company.
Start loading up your piggy bank you Sony fanatics. According to Sony Entertainment President Kazuo Hirai, over two-hundred Playstation 3 games will be released by March of 2008. I for one, am really excited for this announcement. Maybe that signals some news about Dynasty Warriors 6 in the near future? Or it also confirms rumors of Grand Theft Auto IV's early release. Either way, this is good news for any Playstation 3 owner. A bigger variety of games is always good. If this is to happen, th...
Canada is getting lucky. With Canada Day coming up, Canada is going to have a few contests with prizes. Nice prizes. Yes, Sony is giving away three "China Red" 60GB Playstation 3's. Adrain Anz, the best tech designer, customizer and hand-crafter on computers and accessories will be doing the pieces himself. Each unit will be disassembled and tweaked to perfection with layers of paint to shock the lucky winners. As well as these red hot consoles, Canadians have a chance at 500 limited edition...
"Kazuo Hirai, the new president of Sony Computer Entertainment, has promised there will be 380 games released for PlayStation 3 by March 2008 - consisting of 200 retail titles and 180 PlayStation Network games.
Speaking to Japanese newspaper Nikkei Business Daily, Hirai explained that Sony plans to release this glut of games within the company's current business year, starting back in March 2007. That, fact fans, equates to seven PS3 released each week to meet Hirai's promise. Worldwide, th..."
"Where's our free toaster? Seriously folks, in case you're still looking for a good deal for your very own Sony PlayStation 3, we've picked up word of an interesting promo going down at the Best Buy site.
Aside from the customary PS3/game/Blu-Ray movie combo deals we've all gotten accustomed to in the past, Best Buy is also offering to throw in a Sony - 40" 1080p LCD HDTV. Here's a rough breakdown of the prices:
PS3: 599.99
Movie: 38.96
Game: 59.99
HDTV: 1,999.99
Total: US$ 2,698.93
..."
"Gaming site 'Innerbits' is claiming that two of their 'close sources' have confirmed that Sony has been working on developing the rumbling SIXAXIS PS3 controller for several months and are now just trying to iron out a few small bugs. One of the main current issues is the lack of a strong battery life for the controller while Innerbits also discusses the PR issue Sony will have when the controller is released as gamers will either have to do deal without rumble or go and buy additional contro..."
While the Wii is enjoying success as a console which breaks the mold (and the ice), Sega US' vice president of marketing fears it will only be a matter of time before developers run out of steam on the Wii. Sega's Scott Steinberg explains in an interview with Reuters that while the scope of the Wii is refreshing, the console as it stands is simply underpowered. At the same time, Steinberg believes the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 could enjoy renewed support over the next few years as those ve...
"This month's issue of "Popular Science" - the credible source of all things scientific - predicts that the PlayStation 3 will outsell both the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii by 2010. How? The magazine explains this off as due to the PlayStation 2's current trend in outselling all the next-gen consoles, as we can see in the scan of the "Popular Magazine" page below. How true can this be? This is after all the credible source of all things scientific. It's your call to believe in this prediction or..."
In an attempted burglary at a residential home in Hialeah, Florida. Damian Fernandez and his sister Deanne were home alone while there parents were at work. Two men knocked at their door and soon after broke in.
Deanne hid in her closest while her brother slept in the room next door, all while the robbers ransacked their parents bedroom taking jewelry and other valuables. Kicking in Deanne's bedroom door one of the men spotted an empty PS3 box. Going back out to steal said PS3 the robber m...
We pretty much seen this coming after the price drop of the Blue-Ray. Playstation 3 owners are probably sulking to themselves, wishing they waited a few extra months before buying, but oh well. We do not have an estimate onto what the price would be dropped to, but I have a feeling, since the Blue-Ray was dropped $100 dollars, PS3 will follow the path slightly, maybe drop it around $50 or so, making it around $550 dollars. That's still high, but the Blue-Ray is $499 so we must live with it.
"Browsing from your PS3 or PSP can be a convienient alternative to laptops and PCs depending on your media setup. One thing that isn't the best is the manner in which you input text on both of these devices (assuming you are not using a keyboard on your PS3 of course).
SPG recommends that you try OpenDNS to help speed up the task of inputing web addresses through the use of shortcuts. Not only will OpenDNS save you time on your PS3 or PSP, if set up correctly you can use the same short cu..."
"TOKYO --
Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console will come with a beefed up 80-gigabyte hard-disk drive in South Korea, and that model is being considered for the U.S. and other markets, a company official said Wednesday.
The PlayStation 3, which competes against Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, now comes with a 60-gigabyte hard drive. A 20-gigabyte version, which has been discontinued in the United States, still sells in Japan and some other regions.
"Increasing capa..."
"Sony lost more than half a billion dollars in the fourth quarter, but it was the pesky PlayStation 3 -- not the entertainment division -- that was responsible for the red ink.
Company posted a loss of 67.6 billion yen ($573 million), about 1% more than loss in comparable quarter last year, even as sales in the frame were up 13% to $16.8 billion.
Much of the loss was connected to the vidgame biz, which Sony continues to operate at a loss because of high production costs and intense comp..."
Sony's fourth quarter financial results highlight the losses which have hit the company thanks to its gaming business in light of the increase in sales seen its other divisions for the past fiscal year. Sales for its electronic products including Bravia LCD TVs and Cyber-shot digital cameras increased by 16.9 percent, while revenue for its motion picture division rose by 29.5 percent thanks to high profile releases like Casino Royale.
Unfortunately, the company's games division did not fa...
The world may still be big enough for more than one console, but according to Parappa the Rapper's creator, the PlayStation 3 might be too big for Japan. Acknowledging the PS3's slow sales, NanaOn-Sha head Masaya Matsuura explains in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz at the Nordic Game conference that the impressive physical dimensions of Sony's console alone is a root cause in hurting its appeal in the Japanese market.
Recall that the bulky appearance of Microsoft's original Xbox was b...
"Sony Online, publisher of massively multiplayer online time-sinks such as EverQuest series, Star Wars Galaxies, and the recently unleashed Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has announced a new service designed to help you keep track of all those online worlds many of us find so much more engrossing than the real thing.
Dubbed Station Launcher, the planned offering boasts features similar to those of publisher Valve's Steam content delivery system or Microsoft's ridiculously popular Xbox Live networ..."
"The PLAYSTATION®3 system software version 2.00 update includes the following:
- You can now password-protect user accounts.
- [Dynamic Normalizer] has been added as an option under [Sound Settings].
- [Energy Saver] has been added as an option.
- [Equalizer] has been added as a feature under [Music Settings].
- [Full] has been added as an option for [DVD Wide Display] under [BD / DVD Settings].
- [Photo Settings] has been added as an option.
- [PS / PS2 Settings] has been added ...
"In the current issue of Game Informer magazine, Square Enix unveiled its newest game, The Last Remnant, which was later revealed to be for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The company went on to announce a first for them, in that this title will be their first game released simultaneously in North America and Japan.
The game will be the first title from Square Enix utilizing the recently licensed Unreal Engine 3 and is currently on schedule for release at some point during 2008. The ga..."
Sony Computer Entertainment America's director of third-party developer relations, Michael Shorrock, outlined six important bases his company intends to cover with the PlayStation Network in the coming months during a panel discussion at the Online Game Developers Conference. Of the six "spokes" of a "Wheel of Services" being prepared by SCEA, PlayStation 3 owners will already be familiar with half: the push for wireless integration for gaming on the PSP and mobile devices, the PlayStation S...
"Pelican has released a new USB adpater with the following features:
1. 5-year warranty. Pelican will replace or repair your console if a Pelican product damages it.
2. It has a PS Home button on it and four red LEDs to indicate controller number.
3. Guitar Hero(tm) 1 and 2 Ready: Plug in your favorite guitar and rock out to Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on your PS3.
4. It doesnt support rumble.
During the tests we were only able to show that the PS Home button works and that ..."
Currently the only way to purchase content via the PlayStation store is to use a credit card, that is about to change in Japan as Sony are introducing PlayStation Network Tickets, a type of electronic cash that can be used with the Japanese PlayStation store, the tickets will be available in units of 1,000, 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 yen and can be purchased at convenience stores throughout Japan.
Sony haven't announced a similar program for markets outside of Japan. Due to the Japanese prog...
A member scanned in a page from his local news paper which reported on a man who tried to hold up a Blockbuster video and video game rental store demanding a PS3. However, the store in fact did not have any PS3's so the man had to settle on what they did have; an XBOX 360. To go along with his 360 he also took a handful of games with him to complete the package.
"1) Play games from any country
Harbouring a desire to play Super Gaiden Ninja XI? Now you can. In fact, you can handily play any PS3 game from any country.
2) The secret video reset
One of the most annoying aspects of the PS3 are its video settings. Take it up to the bedroom portable or round to a friend's house and there's a good chance that you won't be able to see anything onscreen because your 'new' TV is running at a different resolution or using a different cable connection. And - ..."
"May 1, 2007 - A handful of PS3-packing Europeans are jumping into Home today. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced that the first-phase, closed beta trial of the program has begun with internal staff members and testers.
Home is a virtual world built into the PlayStation Network. Users can create and customize avatars to represent themselves online, view trophies they have been awarded for progress in games, chat with friends and watch movies.
The beta test will be opened up to ..."
"Drawing its figures from the results of searches searches on its site, Pricegrabber was able to judge demand for each of the next generation consoles for the six weeks after launch.
The price comparison engine, whose clients include Comet, Amazon and Play, found that interest in the Playstation 3 improved 100 per cent in the two weeks leading up to launch. The results also showed that in the six weeks after launch, searches had increased a further 127 per cent."
I'm sure quite a few of us bought an Eyetoy before, or at least played a game with one. Now, the Playstation 3's Eyetoy, the Playstation Eye, is finally getting some details. For starters, the Eyetoy will be released with The Eye of Judgement. You will also be able to voice chat without the use of a headset. Anyone going to buy a Playstation Eye?
We know the PlayStation 3 has already made its mark on Stanford University's Folding@home distributed computing project, ever since the functionality was incorporated into the console's XrossMediaBar via the March firmware update. Sony Computer Entertainment explains that the collective of PS3s volunteering their processing muscle continues to make strides in simulating protein folds in a variety of cell environments for the purposes of medical research.
What's more, the company promises to ...
"The new version 1.7 firmware update for the PS3 promised one long-awaited update for the system: the ability to play PlayStation games that you've downloaded from the PlayStation Store's Game Archives section. Unfortunately, there appear to be some lingering issues with PS3 compatibility, as many upcoming Game Archives games are still PSP-only.
Sony Japan at last announced what games PS3 owners will be able to play when PS3-compatible downloads begin on 4/26. The PS3 will have just 11 titl..."
1up releases an interesting feature where they look indepth at a number of aspects of the PS3, including the launch, the short term effects, long term hopes, and a number of games effects on the industry (for example, Killzone 2 being hailed the second attempt at a Halo Killer). It ends up with a long interview which goes into a ton of details about the PS3 and it's current and hoped status.
"Skeptical analysts are still predicting a price cut for the PlayStation 3 this year, even though Sony may be about to reveal encouraging profit forecasts, according to reports from Japan today. Japan's Nikkei newspaper today claimed that Sony is expecting to improve operating profits to $3.35 billion this financial year the paper did not identify the source of its information.
We think Sony will find it hard to get through the financial year (which began this month) without cutting the ..."
"When asked about the decision to drop the lower end model from North American retail, a representative of SCE told Famitsu.com, "We're currently not considering changes akin to North America. However we would like to react flexibly with the market.""
Sony Computer Entertainment caught wind of recent comments made by God of War series head David Jaffe regarding Blu-ray on the PlayStation 3. Specifically, Jaffe mused that if he had his way with the PS3 design process, he would have left Blu-ray out of the machine in the early running to keep it more affordable.
According to SCE senior director of PR Dave Karakker:
"After the $499 edition of the next-gen console is removed from the Sony Style Web site, Sony confirms the console is being phased out.
"Initial retail demand in North America was upwards of 90 percent in favor of the 60GB [PS3], so we manufactured and shipped-in accordingly," said Dave Karraker, Sony Computer Entertainment America's senior director of PR. "Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60GB model from both retailers and consumers, we have ceased offering the 20GB model here in Nor..."
![Box shot of PlayStation 3 Hardware [North America]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvUGxheXN0YXRpb25fMw==/playstation_3_hardware_frontcover_small_elEMdc6Z0efhqDy.jpg)