Random PS3 News Thread

[jefXfree]

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have announced that they are hosting a We are PlayStation photography competition that has now launched in Europe. Electronic Theatre ImageThe team?s jubilation at getting a BUZZ! question right; the laughter of a room full of SingStar fans; the entertaining journeys playing your PlayStation Portable! They?re all classic PlayStation moments that you?ve seen or experienced hundreds of times - but can you capture them in a photo? If you can, your name could be in the hat to win some great prizes. There?s also the possibility of a serious cash prize, the possibility of the images being used in future PlayStation campaigns as well as a new Sony D-SLR a350 digital camera and lens. Get snapping and upload your photos by the 16th March 2009 for a chance to win.

The rules are simple ? capture the perfect image of you, your friends or your family enjoying a PlayStation moment with your PLAYSTATION3, PlayStation2 or PlayStation Portable and upload it to www.weareplaystation.com. There are different categories your photos could enter: Caught in the Moment, Unexpected Places, PlayStation Parties, True Love and Endless Play. A panel of guest judges will assess top user-rated snaps on their merits and work out which photographer deserves the top prize of 1000 euros and a Sony D-SLR a350 camera. Ten runners up will receive cash prizes of 100 euros each, while the next best 100 entries will get their hands on a top PlayStation game or vouchers for the PlayStation Store. All entries have the chance of being used in a future PlayStation marketing campaign.

Of course, PlayStation is all about its community ? and that?s why we?re asking you to judge the first round of the competition. PlayStation fans can visit the website and decide which shots will be put before the judges by rating each photo with a score from one to five. Also, every time you Electronic Theatre Imageenter the site, you can give your favourite image a secret ?Super Vote? which will be used to determine the finalists in case several entries generate the same overall rating. The images with the highest average score and, in the event of a tie, with the highest number of ?Super Votes? will go before the judging panel ? so it pays to get everyone you know onto the site and voting.

With so many great moments for so many different PlayStation communities, this is the chance not only to show off your natural eye for a photograph, but also to show the world just how much fun you have with your friends ? and a PLAYSTATION3, PlayStation2 or PlayStation Portable. Visit www.weareplaystation.com for competition terms and conditions and get snapping!
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PRILOSEC DEATH

 

[BlueCali]

Sony: Our First Party Studio is bigger than Microsoft and Nintendo Combined!!!

SCEA hardware marketing head John Koller has claimed that Sony’s first-party development division is as big as that employed by Nintendo and Microsoft. In total.
“Our development studios - the Worldwide Studios team - is as large as Microsoft and Nintendo’s combined,” he said, talking at GDC.
Koller said that Sony’s first-party roster for the coming years would feature a mix of fresh ideas and surefire successes.
“We have a tremendously creative group, and a line-up for the next few years that will bring a lot of new IP to the market, but will also being a lot of [tried and tested] franchises and new iterations to the PS3 in particular, but also PSP,” the exec added.
Koller didn’t give a figure on how many people were employed in Sony’s Worldwide Studio division.
Both PS3 and PSP’s first-party slate for 2009 is looking nice and healthy, with games like God of War III, Heavy Rain and inFamous already hoving into view for PS3, and a new MotorStorm, a LittleBigPlanet SKU and more on the way for PSP.

http://www.vg247.com/2009/04/07/son...s-as-big-as-microsoft-and-nintendos-combined/

 

[thunda123]

Wow, Sony is going down a road I don't like them going down. They are getting pounded by both Nintendo and Microsoft and they are lashing out at everyone and everything. They are getting really childish in their public relations and comments right now.

They need to start worrying about selling more consoles and more games. They can talk all they want about their first party games etc. but they still don't sell nearly as well as some of the first party games from Nintendo and Microsoft.

It's pretty easy actually....sell more consoles, you sell more games. I understand they might not be able to drop the price yet but why resort to lame behavior because you're getting outsold every month.

sorry for the rant, but Sony is really bugging me right now. I read a comment by someone from within sony yesterday and it had to do with the psp and the new dsi. i swear, sony has lost it's mind.

 

[BlueCali]

Sony Signs Deal to Bring More PlayStation-Related Merchandise

There are a lot of PlayStation and Sony fans out there. They can brag about owning every type of product the Japanese company has ever made, and are devoted to purchasing every piece of merchandise related to either the consoles, electronics or games that Sony produces, but it seems that they will need to start saving up for new stuff soon.

The Japanese company has just announced that it has partnered with Target Entertainment in order for the latter to manage all IPs belonging to Sony. From the PlayStation brand to the first- and second-party games created by the company, this will translate in a wide variety of objects bearing brands like LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm or Killzone. The products, according to the press release, will range from “clothes and toys to stationery, housewares and gifts.”

“Many of Sony Computer Entertainment’s first party software titles and characters are now recognised by millions of people around the world – from the legendary Ratchet and Clank through to the iconic Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet,” SCEE’s licensing and peripherals manager Stephanie Freeman stated. “We really want our consumers to have the ability to interact with our brands and characters in ways other than just on screen. We feel Target Entertainment Group has the vibrancy and experience to help us do this successfully.”

The excitement about the new partnership was shared by Helen Howells, Target’s global brand director, who revealed, “To work with a brand like PlayStation, and its range of products, is a great opportunity for us. With a portfolio of fantastic games we will offer new and longer standing fans a range of products that will really add to their PlayStation experience.”

So, PlayStation fans, get ready to be flooded with new and intriguing merchandise related to your favorite company and console brand. Hopefully, this won't translate into some tacky objects but rather into things people might buy and actually enjoy.

 

[BlueCali]

Wow, Sony is going down a road I don't like them going down. They are getting pounded by both Nintendo and Microsoft and they are lashing out at everyone and everything. They are getting really childish in their public relations and comments right now.

They need to start worrying about selling more consoles and more games. They can talk all they want about their first party games etc. but they still don't sell nearly as well as some of the first party games from Nintendo and Microsoft.

It's pretty easy actually....sell more consoles, you sell more games. I understand they might not be able to drop the price yet but why resort to lame behavior because you're getting outsold every month.

sorry for the rant, but Sony is really bugging me right now. I read a comment by someone from within sony yesterday and it had to do with the psp and the new dsi. i swear, sony has lost it's mind.

I think this is more of a statement, than bragging. Sony has finally grown some balls in my eyes, as they aren't just letting Nintendo and Microsoft take jabs at them. They are fighting back, with the right to do so, and taking it to them hard.

As for your complaints, those need to be addressed as well, and will be fixed soon I think, as Sony came into this generation with the wrong thinking, and the economy didn't help them. This is Sony's year to put up or shut up.

 

[DaMexiRican]

Hey, as long as they don't overprice it I might buy something. If they're gonna sell a "Playstation" beanie for $25 or more, forget it. Might as well buy a plain one for like $10.

 

[BlueCali]

Study: Primetime TV losing share to PS3/360

Today, media-tracking firm The Nielsen Company released the latest update to its quarterly "State of the Video Gamer" report, with a primary focus on usage patterns for console and PC gamers. As one primary takeaway from the report, Nielsen found that PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gamers are spending more primetime television hours gaming than watching TV.

Nielsen's report also found that Sony's stalwart PlayStation 2--which celebrated its 50 millionth unit milestone in North America during January--will soon be replaced as the most-used console. According to Nielsen, the PS2 will lose its top seat by the end of 2009, with either the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii most likely to succeed it.

Female gamers also received special attention in Nielsen's report. The media-research firm noted that girl gamers aged 25 and older comprise the largest PC game-playing block. Nielsen's survey found that the demographic amounted to 46.2 percent of all PC gamers, with females aged 25-plus accruing 54.6 percent of all metered gameplay minutes during December 2008.

Lastly, Nielsen offered data on the top PC games played during the last month of 2008. In both the male and female 25-54 demographic, Nielsen found that the most-played PC game was Microsoft's Solitaire card game, followed by FreeCell. According to Nielsen, more than 17 million gamers in the US played Microsoft's Solitaire in December.

Nielsen's full State of the Video Gamer report is available through the firm's Web site.

Source: blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/the-state-of-the-video-gamer-suitable-for-all-ages/

 

[BlueCali]

New Official Sony Blog for our European Friends!!

As of April the 17th Three Speech will be bowing out to make way for a brand new and shiny EU PlayStation blog.

It’s your feedback, comments and suggestions that have made this possible, so you should all be very proud! Obviously both Three Speech and SCE UK are very grateful to everyone who has made this site so busy and lively over the past two and half years. Your input has really helped PlayStation to grow, and the new blog will be a further way for you to contribute ideas. It’s been good fun meeting all of you and we’re looking forward to seeing you on the EU blog!

We’ll have more info on this over the next few days…

Source: threespeech.com/blog/2009/04/hello-to-the-eu-blog/

 

[BlueCali]

Will Wright leaves EA - Creates new Stupid Game Developer

The top game designer in the United States — maybe the world — has left one of the biggest publishers in the industry. And he’s already got a new job.

***

Will Wright, famous designer of “Sim City,” “The Sims,” and “Spore” is leaving Electronic Arts, his publisher announced today. Wright will be running the Stupid Fun Club, an organization he started in 2001 with EA and had used for robot experiments, TV pilots and other offbeat ideas for years.

Wright had been part of EA since the publisher bought Maxis, the studio where Wright made “Sim City” in 1997.

Wright’s effectively done at EA today, Lucy Bradshaw, vice president and general manager at Maxis told MTV Multiplayer in an interview about the news earlier today. No one’s taken Wright’s office yet, but she imagines someone will occupy it. For aspiring Maxis employees with eyes on that space, note that it has windows and –fittingly for Wright — a “smoker’s patio.”

Wright explained his departure in a press release: “The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,” he said in the release announcing his career change. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms. In my twelve years at EA, I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future.”

Bradshaw said Wright will be working on ideas for a range of media formats at Stupid Fun Club, which will be jointly owned by Wright, EA — both holding an equal stake — along with an unnamed third investor who holds a smaller stake. “EA has first right on options to any games in development [from the Stupid Fun Club],” Bradshaw said. She noted that the career change was Wright’s idea. “At no point was there resistance,” she said. “There was a lot of collaborative dialogue about how the partnership would move forward.”

Bradshaw said that the development of Wright-created franchises owned by EA such as “Sim City,” “The Sims” and “Spore” will continue without Wright, steered, as they have been in recent years, by top creators in the company. And beyond that, she emphasized, EA is stocked with top creators. “Yes, Will is one of our amazing creators,” she said, “But EA did spend time thinking and investing in its own [intellectual property] and we’ve got a number of creators within the umbrella of Electronic Arts — Greg and Ray at BioWare, Alex Ward at Criterion doing ‘Burnout‘ — that you’ll continue to see EA innovate and continue to take in new directions.”

Asked whether Wright could be hired by another game publisher like Activision, Bradshaw emphasized that EA gets first look at any game projects that could spin out of Wright’s Stupid Fun Club work. When asked for clarification about whether that meant Wright was contractually prevented from working at another game company, she said she didn’t have the specific details on that but didn’t think that was possible: “Essentially it is a partnership with Stupid Fun Club that would dissolve if he was not the primary owner there.”

No game projects are currently in development at the Stupid Fun Club.

The Stupid Fun Club is based in Berkley, not far from Maxis. “I think we’ll see him here from time to time,” Bradshaw said.

A 2002 Newsweek article described the Club as an incubator for wild idea:

The two-year-old stupid Fun Club is organized around the interest in robots, shared by Thorpe and filmmaker Mike Winter, Wright’s partners in the club. Their first TV pilot, called “M.Y. Robot,” features six-inch-high puppets, a roaming robot and a 16th-century Japanese village that has been altered by alien technology. In postproduction, anime-style graphics were overlaid onto the footage to communicate with viewers in a secret script. Wright explains that he was appropriating Japanese visual styles in the same way the Japanese shows reinterpret American cultural mores. “As far as we know, nobody has done this,” he says.

Regardless of how much non-gaming work will be happening at the Stupid Fun Club, don’t presume that Will Wright is retired as a video game creator. “I think Will will continue in the games space,” Bradshaw said. “It’s something that’s very natural to him… I think what gamers might see is other directions Will might take on as well”

Last year, Wright told MTV Multiplayer he already knew what he was working on next. It would be something “pretty grandiose.” Today, it seems, we can also count it being stupid. And fun.

Source: multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/04/08/will-wright-leaves-ea/

 

[BlueCali]

Facebook Integration coming to PS3???

The MI6 Games Marketing Summit is going on right now and our man on the scene, Randy Nelson, just dropped an interesting tidbit in our laps. During a panel titled "Casual to the Core: Redefining the Gaming Dynamic," SCEA's John Koller talked about social media and how it can affect the games space. When asked by panel moderator John Davison if there would ever be a point when someone could be playing PS3 and have it "spit out something to Facebook," Koller stated that plans are already afoot. He said that such functionality is "critical not just for marketing but for the types of games we're trying to develop. That day is coming quicker than some may think."

One must try to remain skeptical of this, however. Koller didn't say any specific Facebook implementation would be coming, and could have just been referring to social media interaction as a whole. Still, we must admit it's a great idea, if only for something small like real-time Trophy updates for your Facebook friends.

Source: Joystiq.com - MI6: PS3 to Facebook Intergration

 

[Scoot87]

That sounds quite cool. Facebook on a PS3.

 

[Horhay]

Cool, remember a few weeks back I mentioned we had landed a bid with a big company to test for? Well today management went out to Sony Corp. to get the details. We'll be focusing on PS3 related testing, I'll probably get the latest scoop soon. I will most likely be learning the API which I am quite excited! but the heads up on everything straight from the Devs will be cool!

 

[BlueCali]

New Bluetooth Profile 3.0 - To Affect PS3?

The Bluetooth Special Interest group have announced that on April 21st, they’ll officially announce the details, regarding their updated Bluetooth profile, 3.0. Within 3.0, The new update will allow for less disconnects, and faster transfer speeds. According to Dvice:

“an entire music library, a complete DVD, a vacation’s worth of photos, all within seconds at the touch of a button and wirelessly will now be possible.”

What will this mean for the Playstation 3? If Sony updates the PS3 Bluetooth profile, perhaps your headsets will have better connection, and perhaps Sony will allow transfer of digital content between the PS3 and other Bluetooth devices. As of this writing, Sony have not commented about updating the PS3 BT profile.

Source: everydayplaystation.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/bluetooth-30-specifications/

 

[BlueCali]

PS3 Server Maintence - TODAY! - Should be over now!

Next week maintenance on the PSN

The PlayStation Network is sometimes maintenance and this happens again soon. Unfortunately, the servers of the PlayStation Network worldwide are offline. Next Saturday is the case, this has aka_Nero, Community Team Moderator of the Benelux, today confirmed on the official PlayStation Forums. The maintenance will last from 11:30 to 18:00 and will therefore, if you use one of the following games here online wanted to play this offline only can do in that period.

Source: translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ps3-sense.nl%2Fshowthread.php%2Fvolgende-week-onderhoud-aan-het-psn-8128.html%3Ft%3D8128&sl=nl&tl=en&history_state0=&swap=1

 

[Horhay]

Half of the stuff BT group do never becomes fully implemented. As of now BT Stereo profile is only available in like 10% of devices and is been out for a while. So I wouldn't even worry about this stuff until they actually show it working on devices on the market.

 

[thunda123]

Wow, what a terrible translation. Oh, and it sucks it'll be down that long.

 

[xtop]

i hope that translates into faster downloads for everyone

 

[mobius387]

so whats the time conversion for US time zones?

 

[DaMexiRican]

Hopefully it makes a better connection. I hate hearing nothing but schhh eecchhh when people are talking online LOL

 

[BlueCali]

Sony: PS3 Attach Rate For Blockbusters Is Higher

Countering recent claims by Microsoft, the game sales performance gap between Sony's PlayStation 3 the Xbox 360 isn't as big as many think, Sony is claiming.

Ahead of an upcoming interview with Sony's Peter Dille, the company has detailed to Gamasutra a series of examples from major blockbusters, from Street Fighter IV to Grand Theft Auto IV.

The statistics are intended to suggest that not only are unit sales fairly similar on both platforms -- but that the PlayStation 3 actually has a higher per-title attach rate.

"If you factor in Xbox 360’s longer time in the marketplace and larger install base, Xbox 360 should be selling twice as many software units as PS3 if attach rates were equal -- and that is just not what we are seeing at retail with many multiplatform titles," the company tells Gamasutra.

Sony Vs. Microsoft: Attach Rate Comparisons

According to Sony, as of the beginning of March 2009, the Xbox 360 SKU of Street Fighter IV has only outsold the PS3 version by about 44,000 units thus far -- "that's closer to a 1:1 ratio than a 2:1 ratio," Sony says.

In fact, Sony says its U.S. attach rate for Capcom's blockbuster sequel is better overall: with 402,919 software units sold life to date on the PS3, its attach rate is 5.5 percent, whereas with 446,435 units, the Xbox 360's rate would be only 3.1 percent.

The picture looks even better for PlayStation 3 with Tomb Raider: Underworld, which actually sold more units thus far in the U.S. (136,245) on PS3 than Xbox 360 (108,784) -- spelling an attach rate of 1.9 versus .7 percent, respectively.

The gap wasn't too wide with Ubisoft's Prince of Persia, either, where only 36,000 units separated the Xbox 360 and PS3 in America. The game sold 304,851 units on the Xbox 360 (2.1 percent attach rate) and 268,935 units on the PS3 (3.7 percent).

As for Grand Theft Auto IV, Sony cited the franchise's "rich legacy with the PlayStation brand" to explain its 26.9 percent attach rate versus Xbox 360's 23 percent. However, the Xbox 360 version has still sold 3,362,196 units to date in the U.S., compared to 1,959,798 units for PlayStation 3, according to stats provided to Gamasutra by Sony.

Sony, Microsoft, And Metacritic

Xbox 360 product management director Aaron Greenberg recently talked to Gamasutra about the critical success of the platform's titles: "We have over 130 titles rated over 80 on Metacritic; no other platform even has 100 at that level," he said, following February's NPD results.

But now Sony cites Metacritic data from April 2009's top 10 games on each platform to suggest that at 31 percent, it has a higher percentage of titles scored 80 and up than the Xbox 360, which has 23 percent.

"This means one out of every three PS3 games have an 80+ score, while Xbox 360 has one out of five titles that have garnered 80 + scores," says the company.

Sony also points to Metacritic scores to suggest that the Xbox 360's ratings heyday might be behind it. "Of the top 10 scoring PS3 games on Metacritic, 7 were released in 2008 or 2009."

"On the other hand, most of Xbox 360’s top rated software titles were released back in 2006 and 2007, when the console had little to no competition, with Xbox 360 only releasing 4 of its top 10 rated in 2008 or 2009," says Sony.

Finally, the company also says the top PlayStation 3 titles on Metacritic are younger than the top Xbox 360 titles: "The average age of PS3’s top 10 games on Metacritic is 9.3 months. Compare that with the average age of Xbox 360’s top ten, which averages around 15.7 months."

These numbers provide some interesting counterarguments to recent Microsoft claims, and Gamasutra will be publishing its Peter Dille interview -- providing further background on the stats -- in the near future.

Source: gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23186

 

[DaMexiRican]

Bla bla bla is what it translates to me. I understand where Sony is coming from, but to an average consumer, they're not gonna give a crap about that stuff LOL