Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
Tekken 6 Arcade Trailer Online
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, Namco, PlayStation 3, Screenshots, Trailers,
Namco Bandai showed off Tekken 6 via trailer at the AOU Arcade show in Japan, and now the same trailer is available for download on the official Tekken 6 Japanese site. The trailer shows off two of the new characters from the latest entry in the fighter franchise, Leo and Zafina, many of the environments, some development clips, and a couple of characters from previous games. Its still a little hard to tell how well this is going to look from the rather low resolution trailer offered, but one can’t help but get excited for the first fully HD entry in the Tekken series. Namco Bandai’s official site also offers up some screenshots and wallpapers for the new characters.
Read More 
| Tekken Official
Advertisement
Sony Looks To Outsourcing, 45 nm To Reduce Cell Costs
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
A Reuters report suggests that Sony may be shifting production of its Cell processor to outsourcing vendors in the future to reduce costs. The news agency spoke with Yutaka Nakagawa at Sony about the chip division at the company, and Sony is looking to significantly reduce its expenditures in that area. Sony predicts that they will be able to reach 45 nm circuitry for the Cell by 2009, but whether the production will be handled internally by Sony or by an outsourcing vendor is yet to be decided. Currently Sony handles the production of the Cell chip, a byproduct of the Playstation 2 days when the company found no other manufacturers with the technology to produce the hardware for that console. Now, Sony says that chip manufacturers have advanced to the point where it may not make financial sense for Sony to be the sole chip provider; ongoing price reductions in the manufacturing process of the Playstation 3 will be instrumental in helping Sony keep pace with Microsoft and Nintendo as they streamline production of their competing consoles.
SCEE Talks F1 Championship Edition On PS3
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Driving, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
The upcoming F1 Championship Edition is looking really sharp; with the US release coming at the end of February and as a launch title for the European launch, Game Director Graeme Ankers talked technical details with N’Gai Croal’s Level Up blog about developing for the Playstation 3. Of course, nobody would expect someone from an internal development studio at Sony to badmouth the hardware or the tools, but the interview does give some insight into how developers will be utilizing the RSX GPU, the PPU and the seven SPUs in the console.
Read More | Level Up
Latest Gear Live Videos
Sony UK Sales Head Resigns Ahead Of PS3 Launch
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 3,
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Sony Computer Entertainment UK head of sales Kevin Jowett has left Sony for unannounced reasons. SCE UK stated that Jowett had left the company to “pursue new opportunities outside of the industry.” Jowett’s departure is interesting in that it comes mere weeks before Sony’s European launch of the Playstation 3; the effect of his departure will likely be unknown until after the launch happens. Given that the sales roadmap has likely been set for quite a while now, it is unlikely that any major changes will happen, but it sounds like Jowett worked closely with a number of Sony’s retail partners and a change in that relationship could potentially have a huge impact.
Read More | GamesIndustry
Casino Royale To First 500K European PS3 Registrants
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
The ‘semi-official’ Three Speech blog today confirmed that the first 500,000 gamers that register their Playstation 3 console in Europe will receive the Blu-ray release of Casino Royale. Unfortunately the movie will not be a pack-in for release, and users in non-English territories will have to wait until the localized version of the movie is available. Still, this would seem to beat the Talladega Nights pack-in that the US received; on the other hand, one would expect the incentives for the console release in Europe to be slightly better, if only for the high price that those consumers are paying relative to the United States.
Read More | Three Speech
Sony Turns Duck Demo Into Actual Game
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Casual, PlayStation 3,
During Phil Harrison’s Q & A session at D.I.C.E., the Sony Computer Entertainment President revealed a new game to be released on the Playstation Network. The game Super Rub a Dub looks to be based around the infamous “duck demo” that Harrison showed off at E3 2005, and of course, gamers saw the original duck at the first E3 of the Playstation 2. The game will apparently be controlled entirely using the PS3 SIXAXIS controller, and Chris Kohler at Wired’s Game|Life blog has a few shots.
Read More | Game|Life
Pachter Predicts Wii Over PS3 In January
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Wii,
Michael Pachter at Wedbush Morgan is predicting that Nintendo’s Wii console sold significantly more units than the PS3 in January. He expects NPD numbers of around 500,000 Wii consoles sold to 300,000 Playstation 3 consoles sold by Sony. According to Gamasutra, the analyst is also predicting that game sales will increase year over year by 32%. Pachter believes that while the PS3 may be entering a lull, there is potential for sales of the console to rebound as hardware availability becomes more widely known, advertising increases, and better software titles emerge. Pachter also lays down his leading software title sales predictions as well. Of course, like many analysts, Michael Pachter’s predictions haven’t always been 100% accurate; he has admitted to overestimating Xbox 360 performance and also recanted predictions that there would not be a Bully sequel.
Read More | Gamasutra
Bethesda Clarifies Oblivion PS3 Rumors
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PC, PlayStation 3, Role Playing Games, Rumors, Xbox 360,
IGN’s preview of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the Playstation 3 seemed to trigger some debate about the release, particularly regarding the rendering engine upgrades and optimizations and the fact that many of the downloadable modules for the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game would be missing. Pete Hines, Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing at Bethesda tried to clear up some of the issues.
First, Hines clarified that the missing content for the PS3 version was not due to any technical limitations of the console. His explanation was that some of the content was not appropriate for the balance of the game for a new player and that for other content, Bethesda simply hadn’t had time to look into developing content for the Playstation Store; he believes that Bethesda will be making some content available at a later date. Bethesda’s decisions here seem a little flakey; saying that delaying the release of content so that gamers could have a better experience seems a little odd considering that an Xbox 360 or PC user that buys Oblivion this week can have the content on day one. Still, given the choice between having Oblivion in PS3 gamers’ hands earlier without Playstation Network support or facing further delays while Bethesda works on implementing downloadable content, one would certainly want to have the game sooner rather than later.
On the new hardware optimizations, Hines admitted that the PC and Xbox 360 would see the shader improvements in an upcoming release, but indicated that certain vague Cell-specific enhancements would be exclusive to the PS3. Specifically what those enhancements are were left undefined.
Read More | IGN
Metal Gear Movie In Development At Sony Pictures
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, PlayStation 3,
Gamespot talked with Yair Landau after speaking at the recent D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, where the Sony Pictures Entertainment vice-chairman confirmed that SPE would be developing the Metal Gear movie. There were no real details given about the live-action translation of the series, but Landau discussed the potential challenges in translating the series in an effective way for the fans of the series. Landau also discussed the possibilities of exploring other franchises in cinema form, including the Everquest series. Given the track record of movie translations of video games, it is hard to be optimistic. Still, having a large studio like Sony Pictures Entertainment should be a plus and the already movie-like nature of the Metal Gear Solid series should also help. This partnership would also seem to strengthen Kojima’s affinity for Sony platforms as well.
Read More | Gamespot
Half-Life 2: Episode Two Delayed Again
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Electronic Arts, First Person Shooters, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
EA and Valve Software officially announced the Half-Life 2: Episode Two packages that will be available at retail for the PC, Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3. Gamespot reports that two retail SKUs will be available, the Orange Box, which will include Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. This box will be available on the PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. The Black Box, only available for the PC will include Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. Pricing was not discussed for either set. Slipped into the announcement was a change in the release date; the game is no longer set for a summer release and is now targeted for the fall or winter quarter. One of the supposed advantages of the episodic release format was a shorter development cycle between releases; now it appears that Episode 2 will hit retail around 18 months after the release of Episode 1. We know Valve likes to release things when they are ready, but the continued delays are getting to be tiresome.
Read More | Gamespot
Advertisement
© Gear Live Inc. {year} – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.