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

 

[jefXfree]

Pink DualShock 3 arriving September 21

via Engadget

Should the classy white, or the patriotic red and blue PlayStation controllers not take your fancy, Sony's rolling out another hue just for you, discerning consumer: pink! The Japanese maker of everything with an electronic pulse has a bit of a tradition with this color and it's not like the great PS3 hasn't been licked by a few strokes of red lite before. Pricing is your typical $54.99 for this wireless console commander and GameStop should have them in within a couple of weeks.

 

[mobius387]

Unlikely Goldeneye 2010 for PS3/360

The Wii re-imagining of GoldenEye seems be coming along nicely, but Activision isn't too keen on the idea of bringing the game to other platforms.

"We would really hope that everyone who wants to play it will go and play it this year," said Julian Widdows, executive producer at Activision. "We've spent so much time and effort, personal time and effort... you know, kids have been born! There's a list of GoldenEye babies somewhere! This is the console we've made it for."

Widdows' comments, made whilst speaking to VideoGamer.com at a preview event in London today, will disappoint anyone who was hoping that the game might eventually appear on the PS3 or 360. Still, Widdows refused to rule out the possibility entirely.

"Never say never! " he said. "Who knows? Things happen, don't they, with big publishers? But for the time being it's all about the Wii, and that's really how we hope people will go and experience it, because that's how it's been built. It's not been built for the PS3 and Xbox 360, it's been built for this."

GoldenEye, which is being developed by Eurocom, was presented alongside Bloodstone - the new Bond game from Bizarre Creations. We'll be running previews of both titles later in the week.

videogamer.com/news/goldeneye_2010_unlikely_to_reach_ps3_or_360.html

 

[jefXfree]

Capcom snaps up Blue Castle Games

Capcom development boss Keiji Inafune has just announced during the publisher’s Tokyo Game Show press event that the company has purchased Dead Rising 2 developer Blue Castle Games.

As a result, the studio will now take on the name of Capcom Games Studio Vancouver.

Elsewhere, he touched on his previous comments regarding the state of the Japanese videogames industry, stating, "As long as Capcom is around, the Japanese games industry is NOT dead."

 

[jefXfree]

TGS 2010: Sony's next target is 3D

Sony seems poised to expand its market share by adding more 3D titles to its list of features for the PlayStation 3. At Sony’s keynote speech during TGS, a video montage featured 3D trailers for Final Fantasy XIV and Metal Gear Solid: Rising.

3D trailers for a Hot Shots Golf game, Gran Turismo 5, and Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories were also shown. We’ll have more news on 3D and from Sony’s keynote as it happens.

 

[jefXfree]

Revenue From EA's DLC Outstrips Physical Sales

"We think that used games in America at this point are perhaps 20 per cent of overall business," declared EA's chief financial officer, Eric Brown during a technology conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. As such, the company's $10 initiative has become a vital component in generating revenue lost by used game sales and surprisingly, EA's downloadable content sales have grown to outweigh the profit created by physical game sales.

Alluding to EA's Project $10, Brown stated that, "The price is $10, which seems to be gaining user acceptance – the acquisitions, the take rates are quite high, well north of 60 per cent on the titles we've seen so far.

"There hasn't been any significant push-back from the consumer, because I think people realise that if you're buying a physical disc and it requires an attachment to someone else's network and servers, people know bandwidth isn't free."

Brown also noted that the initiative hasn't fallen victim to consumer backlash, before going on to say that sales of DLC earned EA far more profit than Project $10, with FIFA cited as one of the most successful examples, with add-ons like Ultimate Team raking in big bucks.

"FIFA 10 generated just over $30m in gross DLC sales – so that'd be above and beyond the revenue that we made just selling the physical disc," said Brown, adding, "Instead of selling one product with a unified $60 price point we see people buying a $60 disc and then bolting on hundreds of dollars of DLC. We're happy to have $500 worth of extra content to sell."

Don't be surprised if EA ramps up its volume of DLC in the future then, with more add-ons for its sports titles a certainty. Are you happy to buy $500 worth of content though?

Brown also observed that the PlayStation 3 was growing to become a more important platform for publishers than the Xbox 360, noting that, "They're actually up about 34 per cent calendar year to date, so PS3 is much stronger than the 360 which is in turn stronger than the Wii."

 

[jefXfree]

Yakuza producer wants to expand in to new genres

Speaking during an interview with the chaps at Kotaku, Yakuza producer Masayoshi Kikuchi has said that he has no intention of bringing the curtains down on the long running Japanese gangster series, though admitted he is keen for the franchise to branch out in to new genres.

“We want to spread the Yakuza franchise into different genres,” said Kikuchi, in light of news that the latest instalment, Yakuza: Of the End, will feature a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested Tokyo.

“We don’t want to stop the Yakuza franchise. In terms of making entertainment, we’re deadly serious,” he explained. “We want to have the ability to branch out and create new game experiences [with Yakuza.] We’ve done it in the past with Yakuza Kenzan, a samurai themed game. Making differently themed games is our challenge to create new types of entertainment.”

Kikuchi then humorously added: “For all we know, Kiriyu might become a kindergarten teacher in the next game.”

However, it seems that Kikuchi’s ambitions stretch even further than injecting a bit of zombie-slaying in to the crime series – he’s now keen for the Yakuza brand to achieve the same iconic status as SEGA’s legendary speedy anthropomorphic hedgehog, Sonic.

“We definitely are trying to make that happen,” he commented. “But I’m not the company president. I’m not sure if Kiriyu will ever replace Sonic.”

 

[jefXfree]

Gamers make accurate decisions faster than non-gamers, new study finds

Many studies have shown some evidence that spending a lot of time playing video games can mean, for instance, that a person will perform worse in school -- probably because they're too busy playing The Sims to study. Recently, however, some newer studies have begun to show some more complicated evidence. A new study published in Current Biology, for instance, discusses players of standard action games, and how doing so augments their decision making abilities. What gaming does, according to the study's perspective, is help people make probabilistic inferences -- decisions based on incomplete information -- increasing the efficiency of determining odds of something happening or not. The study examined both gamers and non-gamers, and found that given the same rate of accuracy, the gamers would consistently make decisions faster than the non-gamers. The entire article can be found at the source link -- but for now, just take comfort in the knowledge that in some ways, playing video games is making you smarter.

 

[jefXfree]

PlayStation Network Regular Scheduled Maintenance (9/21)

PlayStation Network will undergo maintenance tomorrow, September 21st. Maintenance is expected to start at just after 8 am Pacific and will last for several hours, until approximately 5 pm Pacific. During this time, users won’t be able to access the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home or Account Management, and may encounter difficulty while signing in to PSN.

Because this maintenance window overlaps the normal PlayStation Store publish, we’ll be making new content available tonight. Grace Chen will post the store content as normal when the content is live.

Please stay tuned to the PlayStation Twitter feed for updates on tonight’s store publish and for a notice when PSN is fully back online.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

[jefXfree]

PlayStation Network will undergo maintenance tomorrow, September 21st. Maintenance is expected to start at just after 8 am Pacific and will last for several hours, until approximately 5 pm Pacific. During this time, users won’t be able to access the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home or Account Management, and may encounter difficulty while signing in to PSN.

Because this maintenance window overlaps the normal PlayStation Store publish, we’ll be making new content available tonight. Grace Chen will post the store content as normal when the content is live.

Please stay tuned to the PlayStation Twitter feed for updates on tonight’s store publish and for a notice when PSN is fully back online.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

I wonder if this will be the launch of 3.5...

 

[jefXfree]

Gamers Unite Today: Join the VGVN

This is from Sony's actual blog. Otherwise I probably wouldn't post it

No doubt, most gamers are aware that this fall the United States Supreme Court will be taking up the legal challenge to California’s law that would limit the sale of computer and video games and chill the creative freedoms of our industry’s artists.

The issue at hand is whether a state can limit access to video game based on their content. If the California succeeds at the Supreme Court, then states across America could begin limiting access to video games and stores could stop selling games because they won’t know what titles fall under a particular state’s laws and which don’t. How does that affect you? Imagine walking into your local game retailer and finding out they don’t sell games you want because they’re worried about government intervention. This isn’t hyperbole; it’s a very real scenario that could happen if California succeeds.

This month, the industry achieved a milestone in fighting for video games. The ESA filed with the U.S. Supreme Court a legal brief that strongly defends the rights of gamers, video games, and the artists who work so hard to create those games.

Others recognize the seriousness of this situation and have stepped up to defend video games, the First Amendment and promote education about parental controls and the video game industry’s rating system. No less than renowned comic book creator, Stan Lee, who brought to life such iconic figures as Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Hulk, has encouraged gamers to organize and take action. Stan highlighted the video game industry’s great work in helping parents by providing a leading rating system and parental controls—which, when taken together, help ensure that the games kids enjoy are parent-approved. His open letter encouraged everyone to join the Video Game Voters Network, which is the grassroots coalition of voting-aged gamers who want to be kept updated on legislative threats to computer and video games.

Following Stan’s lead, I’m writing today to encourage you to join the VGVN. Politicians will listen when their constituents weigh in on issues and we need gather an army to fight for games. Please consider joining the VGVN to aid in the defense of video games. And, tell three of your friends to do the same! Joining is free and easy to do. Go to www.vgvn.org and sign up!

We’ll keep doing our part in the Supreme Court, but we need you to do your part, too.

Thanks for joining!

 

[jefXfree]

Kojima says it'd be "nice" to "introduce" new game at TGS 2011

Kojima says it'd be "nice" to "introduce" new game at TGS 2011

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has indicated that he would like to showcase his new project at next year’s Tokyo Game Show.

Writing on his Twitter, the Kojima Productions Boss commented, “I think it would be nice if next year I can do not just editing, but introduce my own new game (game design, script and direction).”

For those unaware, Kojima’s editing remark pertains to the rather swanky Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trailer Konami recently displayed at the Tokyo Game Show 2010.

Elsewhere, the legendary developer couldn’t resist a spot of teasing during a Metal Gear Solid-themed cosplay event over the weekend: “It’s 5! Shall we make 5! With this, I won’t have to quit Konami. I’ll be there for three more years,” he joked.

Quite what Kojima has up his sleeves next remains a mystery, with everything from Metal Gear Solid 5, Zone of the Enders 3 to a new, “taboo” project having been touted in recent months.

 

[Horhay]

Gamers Unite Today: Join the VGVN

Stupid things the governor decides to spend tax payers' money on! Also that damn rep from San Francisco who keeps pushing this every time he gets an opportunity. There are bigger problems in California than worrying about the sale of video games. Bunch of useless politicians...

 

[jefXfree]

Stupid things the governor decides to spend tax payers' money on! Also that damn rep from San Francisco who keeps pushing this every time he gets an opportunity. There are bigger problems in California than worrying about the sale of video games. Bunch of useless politicians...

I completely agree... Who cares about a budget crisis, water shortage, and growing homeless population...

We HAVE to try to regulate the game industry... Since it's obviously the governments job, NOT the parents.

 

[jefXfree]

Naughty Dog's new game is "too far along" for Move support

Naughty Dog duo Christophe Balestra and Evan Wells have said that the developer’s next project has come “too far along” for the studio to consider implementing PlayStation Move functionality.

The pair didn’t comment as to what exactly it is the team’s been working on as of late (though popular speculation points to, unsurprisingly, a new Uncharted game) but made it clear Move support isn’t really an option anymore.

“Maybe in the future. Right now, it’s kind of difficult because we’re so focused on the next thing. It would be too late for us to start thinking about that. Move certainly has potential,” said Balestra, during a chinwag with Game Informer.

Wells also chipped in, admitting that while his opinion on motion controls have changed in recent times (he initially wasn’t all that fussed about Nintendo Wii, for example), a Move-compatible Naughty Dog game would only be made if it were designed from the ground up in order to do the feature any justice.

“I think if we were going to tackle a game that supported Move, we would want to do it from the ground up. We’re too far along into what we’re working on next to really do it justice,” he said.

Naughty Dog is remaining tight-lipped in regards to its next game, though according to Nathan Drake voice actor Nolan North, a third outing in the Uncharted franchise is “common sense.”

 

[mobius387]

Gaijinworks Working On “Many” PSN Releases

Alundra and Arc the Lad are just the beginning. Gaijinworks founder Vic Ireland confirmed both titles and said more are coming.

“This is kind of off-topic because this isn’t a Sunsoft thing, but yes, these titles are the first of many I have been working on for release on PSN at Gaijinworks. There should be an official press release about them with all the details soon, but look for these first two very shortly,” Ireland wrote, perhaps while gripping one of those promotional Elemental Gearbolt gold plated Guncons.

During the reign of the PsOne, Working Designs handled a number of Sony Computer Entertainment owned titles including Alundra, Elemental Gearbolt, and the Arc the Lad series. I’d say those are shoo-ins since Sony has the license to those. Games like Thunder Force V and Lunar 2 would be nice to see again, but those are owned by other companies.

 

[jefXfree]

Candy Pink DUALSHOCK 3 Wireless Controller Available Now

 

[jefXfree]

Alundra and Arc the Lad are just the beginning. Gaijinworks founder Vic Ireland confirmed both titles and said more are coming.

“This is kind of off-topic because this isn’t a Sunsoft thing, but yes, these titles are the first of many I have been working on for release on PSN at Gaijinworks. There should be an official press release about them with all the details soon, but look for these first two very shortly,” Ireland wrote, perhaps while gripping one of those promotional Elemental Gearbolt gold plated Guncons.

During the reign of the PsOne, Working Designs handled a number of Sony Computer Entertainment owned titles including Alundra, Elemental Gearbolt, and the Arc the Lad series. I’d say those are shoo-ins since Sony has the license to those. Games like Thunder Force V and Lunar 2 would be nice to see again, but those are owned by other companies.

Interesting... I wonder what they'll work on.

 

[jefXfree]

THQ backs "extended lifecycle" for PS3

THQ bigwig Brian Farrell has joined the growing list of industry giants to back the notion that five-year console lifecycles are a thing of the past, stating his belief that both PlayStation 3 and will be sticking around for at least another 3-4 years.

Farrell’s comments come in light of Microsoft recently claiming that it has no intention of releasing a successor to the 360 for “years and years.” Similarly, Sony has reiterated on more than one occasion that it's plans for PS3 are stictly long term.

"The video game industry for years was based on this five-year product lifecycle," said Farrell, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in New York.

"We think those days are over. We think the product lifecycle for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will be an extended lifecycle.”

"We do think the majority of sales for our industry will be from these existing platforms. for about the next three or four years."

 

[jefXfree]

I don't think they need to either. The PS3 and 360 haven't even made their way into half of the world-wide houses. I'd definitely rather them wait and keep making their current machine better until better isn't possible.

The 360 might be the first to fold, but the PS3 has at LEAST 4 years left under it's belt.

 

[jefXfree]

Counterfeit PS3 Controllers Explode

Counterfeit PS3 controllers that look "practically identical in appearance" to the real deal have hit the market, and Sony is warning people that bad things may happen if you use them.

Despite warning consumers of the possibility of explosions, uncertain quality, and incompatibility with PS3 software updates, Sony doesn't give any guide as to what these counterfeit controllers look like. Moreover, it's unclear if there have been any actual reports of explosions, or if Sony's just advising people that these things are theoretically possible when you don't buy unlicensed peripherals.

Either way, if someone beckons you into a dark alley opens up a stained raincoat and wants to show you their goods – beware of cheap joysticks.