Archive for September, 2006:
Blu-ray Not A Burden For Sony’s PS3
Sony’s Phil Harrison once again makes a rather arrogant statement, claiming that the Blu-ray drive isn’t a burden for the PS3. In an interview with GamePro he says
“There’s this sort of misunderstanding that the Blu-ray disc player for movies is somehow burdening the console with unnecessary cost. That is completely not true”
As you may remember, Sony’s reason for the European PS3 delay was, (drum rolls), The Blu-ray drive! Here is the exact quote from the press statement:
The revision of the launch date in the SCEE territories is caused by the delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PLAYSTATION 3.
He does say “Blu-ray disc player for movies”, but a Blu-ray player is for movies and games, so claiming that it has no impact on the PS3 cost and production is, in fact, a straight up lie.
GTA Blamed For Triple Murder
Anti game crusader Jack Thompson is once again suing several companies on behalf of a family whose son “played GTA and shot three of his relatives”. The $600 million (yes, million) lawsuit includes Take-Two and Sony, among others.
Thomson says that the kid, Cody Posey (16), was playing the game “obsessively” and calls it a “virtual reality murder simulator”. According to the suit, the game
“trained him how to point and shoot a gun in a fashion making him an extraordinarily effective killer without teaching him any of the constraints or responsibilities needed to inhibit such a killing capacity”
Does anyone wonder why no one asks where these “obsessive” kids got the guns in the first place? Or is that too obvious?
Sony’s Huge PS3 Demo Kiosk Campaign
Sony will be setting up five times as many PS3 demo kiosks than they did with the PS2, over 15,000 PS3 demo kiosks will appear across North America after the launch of the console. Price: $30 million. SCEA co-chief operating officer Jack Tretton said,
“Once the consumers get their hands on a PS3 and understand what’s under the hood, I think price will not be a factor in the decision-making process”
On the contrary, I think once they see the price tag, things might not be as simple as Tretton says. It’s pretty hard for the average consumer to understand what’s “under the hood” while playing a demo kiosk.
Analysts are saying they expect Nintendo and Microsoft to sell 4 times as many consoles by year-end, while the PS3s in the kiosks are meant to “convince” people to wait for the PS3 when they have enough money, or when there are enough consoles for everyone. Either way, things are looking bad for Sony, at least in 2006.
Read (Bloomberg)
Wii Web Browser Free Until June 2007
The Opera powered Wii Internet browser will be free for all regions until June 2007, a press release from Opera reveals today. The browser won’t be bundled with the console, but will be delivered via a free download from the “Wii Shop Channel”.
It’s based on the same standards as the current Opera 9 browser, and will support Flash and Ajax powered applications like Google Maps and Flickr. There is no information on how much the browser will cost after the free period ends. Full press release after the jump.
Resident Evil 5 – Not Xbox360 Exclusive
Rumors were spreading like wildfire about Resident Evil 5 being only available on the 360, and not the PS3. Today, a Capcom spokesperson stated that Resident Evil 5 “is a multiplatform simultaneous launch on PS3 and Xbox 360.”
Even though the game was revealed at Microsoft’s X05 event and at E3 2005, RE 5 did not make much of an appearance at any of this year’s gaming events. RE 5’s release date is to be announced, but it is expected to be released during the spring of 2007. The game’s development status is also unsure at the time, only a few blurry screenshots have been released.
Alan Wake Running On Quad Cores
During the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), developer Remedy showed off their latest game, Alan Wake. The game will make use of multicore processors, including the upcoming quad-core CPUs from Intel, Core 2 Quadro. Bit-tech was present during a demo of the game, and reported seemingly stunning visuals and physics.
Alan Wake is a psychological thriller in development for PC and Xbox360. Remedy has previously made the very successful Max Payne games.
Australia Might See Wii Shortages
While North America will see over a million Wii consoles available at launch, Australians might not be as fortunate. Nintendo of Australia spokesman Vispi Bhopti says that while there will be “significant” number of consoles available (without giving a number), they cannot guarantee “total supply”.
“We will be guaranteeing preordered stock at retail–so that’s definitely the way to go to secure it because we can’t guarantee total supply because we don’t know how many consumers are going to go wild over this. We are bringing in a significant number of Wiis into Australia–it won’t be a small drop.”
“But at the same time, our expectations are so big for this product that we would, to err on the safe side, recommend that people preorder.”
So basically if the console turns out to be very popular, there would be shortages. That’s pretty much the same for North America, or any other region. Nintendo has promised 4 million consoles this year, half of those will most likely end up in North America, with the remaining 2 million split between Japan, Europe and Australia.
Read (GameSpot)
PS3 Games At $59.99 At Sonystyle.com
Our previous reports indicated very high prices for PS3 games, but it turns out that is only in Japan. The western market will see the same games for $59.99USD, as SonyStyle.com has 7 launch titles setup for pre-order. If you order before Thursday, you get free shipping included as well.
Since there is no region locking, Japanese gamers will be able to save quite a lot by buying their games overseas.
New Metal Gear Solid 4 Screenshots
New screenshots of Metal Gear Solid 4, some seen in the newest trailer showcased at TGS a few days ago. A number of the screens are the same as those blurry one displayed in the recent magazine scans, this time all crisp and in 1080p. Full resolution available here, more screens after the jump.
Character details look great, but to be honest, they rest doesn’t look as impressive as one might expect (looking at the 1080p ones). There is only minor anti- aliasing and no HDR lightning at all. A modern gaming PC could handle these sort of graphics. The Xbox360 certainly could. However, keep in mind that the game is far from completion and won’t be out in at least another full year.
Rockstar Announces L.A. Noire
Rockstar Games have announced their newest franchise, L.A. Noire, a crime thriller developed by Australian based studio Team Bondi.
According to Rockstar, the game is an “interactive detective story set in the classic noir period of the late 1940’s.” and will be a mix of action and complex storytelling in an open-ended sandbox type gameplay. As you can imagine, noir usually means lot’s of jazz, cigarettes and black and white visuals. Check out a teaser trailer after the jump.
Best of TGS Awards
CESA, the organizer of the Tokyo Game Show, has given out the awards for this year’s best of show.
- Gran Turismo HD – Sony (PS3)
- The Eye of Judgment – Sony (PS3)
- Heavenly Sword – Sony (PS3)
- Blue Dragon – Microsoft (Xbox360)
- Lost Planet – Capcom (Xbox360)
- Elebits – Konami (Wii)
- Seiken Densetsu 4 (Dawn of Mana) – Square/Enix (PS2)
- Tales of Destiny – Namco/Bandai (PS2)
- Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops – Konami (PSP)
- Monster Hunter Portable 2nd – Capcom (PSP)
- Phoenix Wright – Capcom (NDS)
So pretty much everyone wins and no one goes home empty handed. Except Nintendo, they weren’t oficially represented at the show this year.
Iwata Interviews Nintendo Developers
Instead of the press interviewing the employees of the respective game company, Satoru Iwata, President and CEO, has decided to interview his own staff on the creation and development of the Wii.
The interview includes many developers, such as Genyo Takeda, Kenichiro Ashida, and even Shigeru Miyamoto. They talk about the Wii from a developers perspective, but don’t expect a lot of objectivity, since it’s basically Nintendo on Nintendo. You can read the interview at the official Wii website.
Confirmed: PS3 Is Region Free
During an interview with Wired, Sony’s Phil Harrison confirmed that the PS3 will have region free games, including those downloaded from the PS3 online service. This means games from other territories can be played on a console, which is good news for the gamers primarily interested in importing Japanese games. Harrison also said that Blu-ray movies will not be region free.
A week ago, Nintendo made a PR bummer by announcing the Wii as region free, when in fact it wasn’t.
Read (Wired)
PS3 Games To Cost $75 To $84
Impress Watch, a popular Japanese press release website, reports that Sony spoke about pricing of PS3 games after the TGS press event, revealing that games will be in the 8,800 to 9,800 yen range, which is about $75 to $84. The prices could even out in the states, but $70 for a PS3 game still isn’t a good sign.
Sony’s reason is the increasing development costs (of course). I could also see that one of the problems is that games are using the Blu-Ray format, which is quite expensive to manufacture at the moment.
The high price of a console is one thing, it’s new technology and cannot be expected to be a bargain, games however, are something the consumers are meant to buy a lot of, and that’s not gonna happen at $70, which could prove disastrous for small time developers (coupled with the rising development costs).
Via Impress Watch
Weekly News Roundup
This week all the big news came from the Tokyo Game Show. Sony cut the price on its 20 GB PS3 version, and ta the same time introduced HDMI ports on both 20 and 60 GB versions. At the same time, Microsoft revealed pricing information on their HD-DVD add-on, and confirmed that Xbox360 will be able to play games in 1080p.
General news:
PS3 Price Cut In Japan
Xbox360 HD-DVD Add-on Pricing Revealed
New Xbox360 Bundle
Wii Officially Region Locked
Xbox360 Will Support 1080p
Business:
Analyst Calls PS3 Price Drop “Ridicuouls”
Gran Turismo HD Is A Total Rip Off
Microsoft Admits Xbox360 Hardware Issues
New Media:
BioShock gameplay Video
Far Cry Wii Screenshots
Virtua Fighter 5 Screenshots
Metal Gear Solid 4 Scans