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The Playstation Home Fiasco And Its Aftermath
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Rumors,
For you gamers out there reading our blog who don’t also visit Kotaku.com regularly, you should! These guys have shown themselves to have real journalistic/bloggeristic integrity this week. For those of you that missed out, here’s a blow-by-blow account of what will one day doubtlessly be known as “The Playstation Home Fiasco”
For a few weeks, Phil Harrison had been talking about how the PS3 news to be presented at the GDC would make gamers “very happy”. Around this time, Kotaku starts hearing from “sources” rumors that Phil’s big announcement will be Playstation Home, described as fellows:
Basically, you get to make an avatar for your console (like a Mii) and this avatar has a room. As you play games and accomplish certain tasks, you will receive items with which to adorn the room that are specific to the game (achievements). The kicker is that this is going to be a new requirement for every PS3 game.
Before posting this story, Kotaku asked Sony if they had any comment. Instead of just replying with a standard, coy “Sony does not comment on rumors and speculation”, the reply this time was “post that story and you won’t enjoy the consequences”. So, being the good journalists that they are, Kotaku ran the story.
Well, this evidently went and made some folks at Sony very mad (thus only adding to the veracity of the rumor), and Sony decided that they would no longer deal with Kotaku. In fact, Sony dis-invited Kotaku from all future exclusive events, and asked for their PS3 dev kit back. Then the uproar REALLY began. Joystiq, noting that this meant the rumors were obviously true, reported on how Sony was blackballing Kotaku, a story that got some serious diggs.
In the end, Kotaku and Sony kissed and made-up, but I think Sony learned a valuable lesson about treating their bloggers right. Next time, let’s just keep people salivating with a standard “we don’t comment on rumors” reply, OK Sony? It’ll save everyone a lot of grief.
Read More 
| Kotaku
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Sony And Immersion Kiss And Make Up
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Immersion and Sony Computer Entertainment have officially ended litigation and reached a settlement regarding the use touch feedback technologies patented by Immersion Corp. According to the press release, it appears that Sony has decided to stop any appeal process and pay the full amount of the judgment against them. In addition, the two companies have entered into an unspecified business agreement to explore including the technology in future Playstation products. This may well mean that there will be a new Dual Shock SIXAXIS controller on the horizon, as Sony miraculously figures out a way to combine rumble and motion-sensing technology into their controllers.
Read More | PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance
Phil Harrison Talks PS3 Backward Compatibility Numbers
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
The “still unofficially sort of official” Three Speech blog spoke with Phil Harrison at Sony about the recent backward compatibility controversy with the Playstation 3 in Europe. Harrison estimates that there will be roughly 1,000 Playstation 2 titles supported on the Playstation 3 at launch, with more potentially coming in future firmware updates. Now, with an estimated 8,000 Playstation 2 titles released during the PS2’s (continuing) lifetime, the distribution of those 1,000 backward compatible games will be important. Still, 1,000 is a fair chunk of games; Microsoft so far has managed around 300 for their emulation solution. Percentage-wise, though, Sony is hitting roughly 25 percent of their past catalog, while Microsoft is around 30 percent. So, while things might not be as bad as some assumed, Sony again seems to be flailing around somewhat trying to get a clear message out about their flagship console.
Read More | Three Speech
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Tekken Dark Resurrection Delayed
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, Internet, Namco, PlayStation 3,
Well, while Tekken: Dark Resurrection was initially promised “this month” by Namco Bandai, February has passed and there is still no sign of the brawler on the PlayStation Store. If IGN’s latest release list is to believed, the game should be available on March 8th, another week out. With Namco Bandai promising basically a straight port of the arcade and Japanese PlayStation Network releases, it seems strange that the US version would see an unexpected delay. One can hope that extra functionality or optimization is being worked into the product, but that would seem to be doubtful at this point.
Update: Looks like IGN was wrong, according to reports, Tekken: Dark Resurrection should hit the PlayStation Network today at 5pm PST, only a mere day late.
Read More | IGN
It has been said that leveraging the power of Sony’s Cell processor and its architecture will be a lengthy learning process for game developers; Vivendi Games recently participated in a workshop with IBM to try and get a leg up on the process. One of the participants, High Moon, talked with Next Generation about what they learned. High Moon discussed the complexities of utilizing the SPE cores and balancing load; they also talked about new methods of game development and world generation, like “procedure synthesis.” Gamers best exposure to the concepts behind “procedural synthesis” in the future would probably be Wil Wright’s Spore, but one could see the technology being used in a number of different types of games. Still, learning the architecture sounds like it will take time; it could be years before the full power of the Playstation 3 will be unlocked.
Read More | Next Generation
SCEE On Backward Compatibility Changes
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
After Sony Computer Entertainment Europe dropped the bombshell that backwards compatibility for the Playstation 3 in Europe and Australia would be limited compared to the US and Japanese hardware, the company talked with Three Speech to try and justify their decision. As stated before, the company is changing the hardware to reduce costs. SCEE confirmed that the relatively expensive Emotion Engine/Graphics Synthesizer would be removed and replaced with just the graphics hardware, and Playstation 1 and 2 compatibility would be provided through a purely software emulation solution. Microsoft has taken basically the same approach with the Xbox 360, and while Microsoft supports a great number of titles, there are a number of popular titles left out. Sony still hasn’t made any announcements regarding the number of titles supported when the console launches on March 23. Sony promises nearly all PS1 titles, but PS2 title compatibility is still up in the air. A strong software compatibility list would do much to help Sony’s reputation in the territory, but one has to feel that if the emulation story was a strong one, Sony wouldn’t have raised a warning flag before launch.
Read More | Three Speech
PAL PS3 Backwards Compatibility Crippled
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Sony is changing the hardware specifications for the Playstation 3 in Europe and other PAL territories, according to a report by Reuters. The report, confirmed by Sony, indicates that backward compatibility for PS2 and PS1 games will now be provided by a combination of hardware and software, rather than the hardware solution in the Japanese and American Playstation 3 consoles. This move may be a cost-cutting measure for Sony; software emulation would allow the company to remove the costly Playstation 2 hardware in the console used in other territories. Sony claims that PS1 compatibility will be high, but that PS2 compatibility will be limited as Sony focuses on “developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3.” One would expect high compatibility for PS1 games; Sony’s emulator for the PSP already seems to work with a large number of games tested by PSP hackers. Without full compatibility for PS2 games, though, Sony may find itself competing against its previous generation console more than expected. Given that the European territories already face the highest adjusted price for the console, this announcement can’t be good news for Sony fans abroad.
Read More | Reuters
Warhawk PS3 Downsized, Downloadable
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, PlayStation 3, Simulation,
It looks like the rumors that Warhawk for the PS3 was in trouble might have been correct. Sam Kennedy at 1up is visiting Incognito to preview the latest developments on the follow-up to the Playstation title, and he indicates that Warhawk has been downsized from its original ambitions as a retail PS3 title. Supposedly the title is now slated to be a downloadable title with multi-player support only, a pretty drastic change from the original offering. If the title can bring a strong multi-player experience while maintaining the graphic quality at a reasonable download price, Sony might have a good reason to get on the Playstation Network, but it will still be pretty far from their original promises for the game.
Update: Sony has officially denied the rumors to Kotaku with a non-denial denial stating that they “have not made any decision with regards to distribution for Warhawk”
Read More | 1up
Wii Leads January Sales, Playstation 3 Trails
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360,
A Credit Suisse analyst has Nintendo’s Wii leading January console sales with 436,000 units, according to a report from Bloomberg news. The report cites January NPD data, and has the Xbox 360 selling 294,000 units with the Playstation 3 trailing with 244,000 consoles sold. Above 200,000 units for January is a decent showing, but it will be hard for Sony to spin its numbers in the face of increasing availability on store shelves. Nintendo, of course, will be happy with their January sales; every indication into the third week of February has the Wii still facing shortages on shelves, so one might expect this trend to continue. While many had dismissed the Wii’s new control scheme as a fad, the console’s continuing popularity gets harder and harder to deny as the months continue.
Update: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has comments from both Microsoft and Nintendo here.
Read More | Bloomberg News
Sony to Consumers: Cost Drop Is Not A Price Drop
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 3, Rumors,
In an interview with 1up.com, Sony’s Phil Harrison recently clarified the talk surrounding the PS3’s price and the possibility of a price drop. In a nutshell, when Sony said they were looking for ways to “cost reduce” the PS3, that means they’re looking for ways to manufacture it cheaper, so that THEY lose less money on each PS3 shipped. As for a drop in the PS3 price for consumers, you may be out of luck for a while.
1UP: Recently, Takao Yuhara indicated that price drops are a part of Sony’s plan to expand the market when the timing is right. Is it damaging, this early in the console’s lifecycle and just ahead of the system’s launch in Europe to already be talking about price drops?
PH: Well, do you know what he said was, cost reduction, not price drop, and there’s a big difference between cost reduction and price drop. So, that I believe is where the confusion came from. Obviously, we are investing our money in making PlayStation 3s cheaper to manufacture—that’s part of our business plan.
1UP: You’re not going to pass the savings along?
PH: When we can, when there are savings to pass along to the consumer, we would obviously choose to do that. That’s the business model.
1UP: Wait? You guys are doing this to make money? Really?
PH: That’s videogame hardware 101.
Read More | 1up.com
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