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Nearly 800,000 PS3s Sold In Europe
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
According to a report by the Financial Times, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said that Sony was nearing 800,000 PlayStation 3 consoles sold in Europe. With 600,000 of those sales reportedly coming in the first two days of launch, this would seem to indicate a healthy 200,000 units being moved in the three weeks following. One assumes that this is the sell through number, since Sony had previously indicated that 1 million consoles would ship for launch. The numbers are interesting from a couple of perspectives – first, that there would seem to be more people than expected willing to pay the hefty exchange rate adjusted price of the PlayStation 3. The second interesting thing is that European sales are quickly closing in on the Japanese sales numbers. While Japan has taken months to reach nearly 900,000 units sold, Europe is nearly at that point only a month after launch.
Read More 
| Financial Times
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With the PlayStation 3 exclusive title, Lair shipping in July, Factor 5 seems to be hitting up the press with their alpha-soon-to-be-beta build of the game to show off their progress. Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht spoke with Dean Takahashi from Mercury News about the game, and the development process for the PlayStation 3. Like most of the development interviews, the talk ranges from the background of the company to the specific goals of the game under discussion, and then usually to a comparison of the technology and the development process for the various consoles. Eggebrecht’s insights into the PlayStation 3 development cycle versus the Xbox 360 are interesting, and may point to why so many of the PlayStation 3 ports of Xbox 360 games are lacking. Eggebrecht claims that developers will “have a hard time if you port without having a PS 3 game in mind when you created the 360 version. That is where a lot of complaints are coming from.” The better path, according to Factor 5, is going from the PlayStation 3 to the Xbox 360, not that Lair will be coming to the Xbox 360 any time soon; Eggbrecht considers themselves lucky that they “didn’t have to think about the 360 at all.” The interview continues into some deeper discussion into the relatively memory limited consoles, at least compared to their PC counterparts and the interview overall is an interesting look into the development of a title that exists on so many different scales.
Read More | Mercury News
While the 60GB PlayStation 3 models have been plentiful on US shelves, the 20GB model has been difficult to get. Most stores have been removing the console from their online stores, including Sony’s official SonyStyle. Once that happened, gamers had to suspect that something was up. Now, 1up is reporting that Sony Computer Entertainment America has officially announced that the 20GB version of the PlayStation 3 is dead. Sony’s statement indicates that 90 percent of the retail demand was for the 60GB console, and that they are merely following the demands of the buying public. Realistically, though, various reports had Sony actually losing more money on the 20GB hardware than on the 60GB; retailer margin would likely be less as well, leading stores to order the model that could make them more money. The real customer demand for the 20GB model will never be known now, since a mere five months after launch the 20GB hardware is gone. One hopes that this is clearing the way for a price drop on the 60GB model, but that hope would seem to be slim at best.
Read More | 1up
Latest Gear Live Videos
Cell Speeds Up Medical Imaging Fifty Times
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 3 users have been racking up the work units through the built-in Folding At Home client in the console. The PS3 has proved to be particularly effective at folding proteins, doing the job more efficiently than the PC client. Now, IBM and the Mayo Clinic are announcing that the Cell processor can speed up 3D medical imaging by up to 50 times over traditional CPU configurations. While the new uses for the Cell processor might not be directly applicable to gamers, the more usages that can be found for the CPU can drive up demand, possibly leading to more optimizations in the manufacturing process and ultimately driving down the costs of producing the chip.
Read More | Mercury News
Warhawk On Blu-Ray… And PlayStation Network?
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Internet, PlayStation 3,
The nature of the Warhawk release for the PlayStation 3 has been elusive, to say the least. 1up was one of the first sites to report that the game would be heading to the PlayStation Network, and would not be a retail disc. Now, according to information they received from Sony Computer Entertainment America, the game is actually going to be heading to both Blu-Ray and the PlayStation Network. No clarification was given, but 1up speculates that there will be content differences between the formats, with the possibility of additional downloadable content to even out the releases. Even with this, though, it would see that either way would result in a less than satisfactory experience for each format. Either the Blu-Ray disc ends up being vastly underutilized, or the end user finds himself downloading tons and tons of content to keep up with their physical media brethren. It will be interesting to see how Sony handles this, if the rumors are true.
Read More | 1up
Gran Turismo HD Update Hits US PSN Store
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Driving, Hardware, Internet, PlayStation 3,
European owners of the PS3 have been able to get a rumble-enabled version of Gran Turismo HD since launch. Now, US owners can get the free update from the PlayStation Store, according to IGN. The update adds a world-wide ranking system, so US gamers can now compare their times with others across the world and adds rumble support for owners of Logitech’s Driving Force, Driving Force Pro, and Driving Force EX wheels. The quick addition of rumble support gives hopes to PS3 gamers that rumble support in other PS3 games as well as in new controllers will be coming soon.
Read More | IGN
Chart-Track Claims PS3 Sales Drop “Means Nothing”
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Chart-Track, publisher of video game hardware and software sales numbers in the UK commented on the recent sales figure leak that indicated the PS3 suffered an 82% sales drop in its second week of release. Commenting to Next Generation, Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch claimed that without context, the drop “alone means nothing.” With previous launches of the Wii and the Xbox 360 supply constrained, Bloch asserts that the PS3 launch can not be compared. And Bloch is correct; the number right now is meaningless, without the context of a trend. While the drop appears calamitous, gamers may get a better idea of the true state of PS3 sales as the weeks continue. The danger of such a drop, though, can cement the idea in the minds of the consumers that the console may be a “flop,” despite reality.
Read More | Next Generation
PS3 Sales Drop 82% in Great Britain
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hot Deals, PlayStation 3, Release Dates, Rumors,
After Sony broke records with their 165,000 unit launch in the UK, things were looking up a bit for the Playstation 3. The Playstation has traditionally sold very well in the UK, but this week’s news is not looking so good. From GamesIndustry.biz:
Sales of the PlayStation 3 have dropped dramatically on the second week of release in the UK, with official Chart Track figures revealing a fall of 82 per cent.
Chart Track data is gathered from 7000 UK retail outlets representing 90 per cent of the software market, including GAME, Gamestation, Play.com, Asda and HMV.
...
This week’s software charts revealed that sales of the top two PlayStation 3 titles, Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm, had dropped by over 60 per cent.
Does this mean that just about everyone in the UK who wanted a PS3 picked one up on launch day? Or is this due to a lack of supply available after the frenzied launch? Either way, hopefully Sony can somehow reverse this precipitous drop in sales… they could certainly use a bright spot to point to these days.
Read More | GamesIndustry.biz
Hideo Kojima Talks Metal Gear
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Culture, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Third Person Shooters,
Hideo Kojima talked about the Metal Gear franchise through the years at the GO3 Expo in Australia. Gamasutra covered his speech, an interesting walk through game development starting from the 80s through to his work on Metal Gear Solid 4. From the MSX to the PlayStation 2, it seems Kojima has been bumping against the technological limitations of each platform while trying to refine and evolve his “hide and seek” gameplay concept from the original game. While he offered no real new footage from Metal Gear Solid 4, he did discuss where he wanted to take the conflict in the next iteration of the franchise.
Read More | Gamasutra
Rock Band - Make Room for the Peripherals
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Electronic Arts, Hardware, Music, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
As we had guessed a few times before, MTV, Harmonix and EA are working together to suck the Guitar Hero well dry. The news today is that these three companies will be working together to produce Rock Band, a GH-like game that will include new peripherals that will let you drum, sing, and of course strum your way to rockstar fame. Looks like it’s time to make some more room in your home for gaming peripherals - given that the Guitar Hero guitar is nearly real-guitar sized, we can only imagine how big the Rock Band drum set is going to be… or perhaps they’ll build some nifty motion-sensing drumsticks?
With online play, killer peripherals, and a pretty hot looking list of record labels signing on, this game could be huge… both in the metaphorical AND physical sense. Hopefully the controller(s) won’t make the game as expensive as a new console, though. Rock Band is currently announced for the PS3 and Xbox 360 although developers have hinted that a Wii version is also in the works.
Click the jump for the full press release…
Click to continue reading Rock Band - Make Room for the Peripherals
Read More | USA Today
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