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MotorStorm for the PS3 Will / Won’t Run at 1080p 60fps?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Driving, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Another day, another Sony PR fumble… The web is all a-titter this time with the controversy over whether or not Motorstorm for the PS3 will or won’t run at 1080p and 60 frames per second. For all of you catching up on the history of this story, here’s how it’s gone down so far…
1080p resolution running at 60 fps has been the holy grail of gameplay for quite a while, and a spec that the PS3 can technically support (though it has only done so currently in relatively “empty” titles like Gran Turismo HD and NBA 2K07). This has been a bullet point touted by Sony for a while, since the Xbox 360 doesn’t currently support games running at true 1080p. So when Peter Dille of Sony gave his keynote indicating that the already-beautiful Motorstorm would be running at 1080p and 60fps, the web was ablaze with Sony fans declaring victory. Motorstorm already looks amazing, with some great texture work and impressive physics, and having the game run at that high of a resolution and framerate almost sounded too good to be true. Still, even the attendees at the Sony CES booth were proclaiming that Motorstorm would be breaking this technical barrier. Well, after all this hubbub, it turns out that somebody either got it wrong, or was exaggerating the numbers, or just plain didn’t talk to their technical staff. Motorstorm will be running at 720p and 30fps, at least according to the developers.
All of this has put ArsTechnica’s Ben Kuchera in a pretty foul mood.
It’s not like the gaming press made up the 1080p, 60fps Motorstorm story by ourselves. Sony employees were telling the press that would be the resolution and the framerate. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, and say the people running the televisions at trade shows may get their facts wrong. Of course, the Senior Vice-President of Marketing for your company should know better.
In the CES keynote, which you can watch here, Peter Dille states that we’ll see Motorstorm at 1080p running at 60fps. He makes this point strongly, in an attempt to prove the power of the PS3, before telling us it’s the only “true” high definition system on the market. I would say that point is arguable at best, but there is no doubt he was selling Motorstorm as an example of their 1080p content.
Please Sony, just make sure you’ve got your facts right before you start touting your console’s specs, mmmkay?
Read More 
| 1up.com
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NPD December Numbers: $3.7 Billion, PS2, DS Dominate
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
December’s NPD final numbers have been released, and the video game industry as a whole did remarkably well, selling over $3.7 billion during the final month of the year. According to a GameDaily report, this puts industry growth year-over-year at 27.8%. In hardware, the biggest seller overall was the Nintendo DS, moving over 1.6 million handhelds. This was followed by Sony’s “last-generation” console, the PS2, which sold an amazing 1.4 million consoles sold.
For the current generation of consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 lead the pack at 1.1 million sold through December, followed by Nintendo’s Wii with 604,200 sold and Sony at 490,700. Supply constraints clearly impacted both Nintendo and Sony for their next generation offerings; Nintendo’s worldwide launch stretched console supply impossibly thin, and production issues kept Sony from pushing as many consoles to market as they would have liked. Microsoft has to be happy with their totals, maintaining their lead in the face of new competition, and the continued success of the PS2 helps take the sting out of Sony’s meager PS3 launch.
On the software side, Microsoft’s Gears of War continued to sell well and moved more than 815 thousand units, and clearly helped drive sales of the Xbox 360. Guitar Hero II was a huge seller for the Playstation 2, and the combined sales of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii and Gamecube moved over one million sold; Zelda for the Wii continued to have a huge attach rate with Wii console buyers, selling 519,200 units against more than 600,000 consoles.
Overall, each of the three console manufacturers has something to brag about for the month of December, and while the relative sales are interesting now, this is just the beginning of the next console war; most analysts are predicting that the holiday season for 2007 will be when consumers will see how the competition really shakes up.
Read More | GameDaily
Sony Online Announces Six Downloadable Midway Titles
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, PlayStation 3, Retro,
Sony Online Entertainment and Midway Games announced that six Midway titles will be brought to the Playstation Network in 2007. The six titles will be Mortal Kombat II, Gauntlet II, Joust, Rampage World Tour, Rampart, and Championship Sprint. Championship Sprint, Gauntlet II, and Rampart all had addictive gameplay; hopefully Internet play will be implemented with limited lag. The releases should be based around the arcade versions of the games; it would be tragic to get a port on par with the woeful Sega Saturn version.
The full press release continues after the jump.
Click to continue reading Sony Online Announces Six Downloadable Midway Titles
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1 Million PS3s Shipped To US
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
At the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony announced that 1 million Playstation 3 consoles were shipped to North America by the end of 2006. Despite shipping 197,000 consoles at launch, half of their promised supply, it appears that Sony has caught up with their production goals for the system and have ensured a stead supply of hardware to the North American market. This appears to have resulted in pockets of availability across the country as demand has somewhat cooled in some markets. It will be interesting to see how Playstation 3 sales figures change as supply increases to the market; the Xbox 360, the Wii, and the older Playstation 2 all sold well this holiday season. As supply increases, the true demand for each console will be revealed.
Read More | Yahoo News
Some Blu-Ray Movies Will ONLY Play on PS3
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Culture, PlayStation 3, Rumors,
We all knew that Sony hoped the PS3 would be the Trojan Horse to get Blu-Ray into homes across the world. But I don’t think anyone could’ve expected that we’d be forced to play some Blu-Ray discs on the PS3 only. the good folks over at PSXExtreme have noted that the Blu-Ray movie “The Descent”, currently plays only on the PS3 - those of you with your $1,000+ Sony or Pioneer Blu-Ray movie players are out of luck.
According to Sony, the problem is based on the fact that the production company for the disc, Lion’s Gate, decided to include some Java-based special features on the disc, which only works on the PS3 console. However, this is apparently preventing non-PS3 Blu-Ray player owners from viewing any part of the disc, which seems like a rather strange problem.
Sony is working on a fix for this issue, though at this time we’re not sure whether that would be a replacement Blu-Ray disc that, you know, actually plays on Blu-Ray players, or a firmware upgrade for their players. Either way, it’s not a good piece of news for the format.
Read More | PSX Extreme
PS3 Steering Wheels Won’t Have Force Feedback. At All.
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, Driving, PlayStation 3, Rumors, Simulation,
It’s old news by now that the PS3 controller doesn’t have force feedback built into it - it’s just one of those things that you’ll have to deal with if you decide to go with Sony’s expensive new console. What’s new, breaking news to us is the fact that the PS3 doesn’t even know how to transmit a signal telling ANY controller to vibrate or give force-feedback. And for all you racing fanatics out there, that means that Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3 is going to feel like you’re driving on ice.
Rumors that force feedback for the PS3 isn’t possible started circulating earlier this week on the NeoGAF forums, but just recently 1up.com received confirmation that, indeed, driving on the PS3 just isn’t going to be the same:
All PS3 games are programmed for the SIXAXIS which doesn’t have force feedback, therefore the force feedback in the wheels won’t be recognized.
Yikes. Looks like the Xbox 360 may soon become the console of choice for driving fans.
Update: It looks like, whoever the Sony rep is that gave 1up the above quote, they got something wrong. As seen in the comments, several users have pointed out that NFS:Carbon features force feedback for 3rd-party steering wheels. So perhaps this just means that any steering wheels designed specifically by Sony won’t have force feedback? We’re going to wait for Sony to give some further clarification on this one before we comment any further.
Read More | 1Up
GameStop’s Holiday Sales Top $1.7 Billion
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360,
It looks like enforced bundles of the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, along with strong holiday sales have boosted GameStops financials, as the company raised guidance for their fourth quarter and full year results. GameStop reports that total sales for the holiday season reached $1.73 billion. The top five video game releases for the holiday season were:
- Gears of War
- Final Fantasy XII
- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Guitar Hero II
- WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2007
Interestingly, no Playstation 3 title made the list, but two Playstation 2 titles did, along with one Xbox 360 release, one combination Wii/Gamecube release, and one multi-platform title in Smackdown. Console shortages might have limited the revenue that the company received from next generation releases, but this would seem to be one more data point indicating that the Playstation 2 will still be a sales monster into the coming year.
Read More | Reuters
Tekken: Dark Resurrection Download Hits Japan
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, Internet, Namco, PlayStation 3,
Tekken: Dark Resurrection for the Playstation 3 has been made available via download through Sony’s Playstation Store in Japan. For 2,000 Yen ($16), gamers can get an HD updated port of Dark Resurrection for the PSP, including support for 1080P. Like the PSP release, it appears the download does not support direct online play, but will support ghost mode updates.
Read More | Game Watch
Sony Offers Gran Turismo HD To North America
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Driving, Internet, PlayStation 3,
North American Playstation 3 users will also get to enjoy Gran Turismo HD Concept along with their Japanese counterparts on December 24th. The “concept” edition of Gran Turismo will be offered for free via the Playstation Store, and will includes the Eiger Nordwand course, and ten cars. The cars include both a standard and a tuned model:
- 1995 Suzuki Cappucino
- 1989 Mazda Eunos Roadster 2004 Honda Integra TYPE R
- 1996 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV GSR
- 2006 Infiniti G35 Coupe
- 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GSR
- 2005 Lotus Elise 111R
- 1994 Nissan SKYLINE GT-R Vspec II
- 1995 Toyota Celica GT-FOUR Rally Car
- 2006 Ferrari 599
Gran Turismo HD will offer both a time trial and drift trial mode, online rankings, and replay upload and download. While the official release date is December 24th, but some users are reporting that the download is available now.
The full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading Sony Offers Gran Turismo HD To North America
Virtua Fighter 5 Coming To Xbox 360
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, PlayStation 3, SEGA, Xbox 360,
Sega today announced that their flagship fighter Virtua Fighter 5 would no longer be exclusive to the Playstation 3. While the PS3 version launches in February, Xbox 360 owners will have to wait a few scant months until the Xbox 360 version launches some time in the summer of 2007. The announcement knocks yet another exclusive title off the PS3 list. Full details of the Xbox 360 version have yet to be announced, but one can be sure that when it ships, dedicated devotees of the series will be dissecting both console versions to determine which will be the definitive one.
Read More | IGN
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