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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
Gallery: Sony And Immersion Kiss And Make Up
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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
Gallery: Phil Harrison Talks PS3 Backward Compatibility Numbers
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
Gallery: Getting The Most Out Of Cell
Xbox 360 Security Hole Revealed, Already Patched
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
The Bugtraq mailing list recently published the details of an unsigned code execution security hole on the Xbox 360. The timeline of the security hole would seem to make this vulnerability the same one demonstrated at last year’s 23C3 Hacker Congress, as seen in this excerpt:
Timeline:
Oct 31, 2006 - release of 4532 kernel, which is the first version
containing the bug
Nov 16, 2006 - proof of concept completed; unsigned code running in
hypervisor context
Nov 30, 2006 - release of 4548 kernel, bug still not fixed
Dec 15, 2006 - first attempt to contact vendor to report bug
Dec 30, 2006 - public demonstration
Jan 03, 2007 - vendor contact established, full details disclosed
Jan 09, 2007 - vendor releases patch
Feb 28, 2007 - full public release
The public demonstration date is key; that would be the same date of the anonymous Xbox 360 hacker video release. Further, the overview of the vulnerability claims:
We have discovered a vulnerability in the Xbox 360 hypervisor that allows
privilege escalation into hypervisor mode. Together with a method to
inject data into non-privileged memory areas, this vulnerability allows
an attacker with physical access to an Xbox 360 to run arbitrary code
such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full
hardware access.
According to the release, Microsoft has patched the vulnerability as of January 9th, but then Sony thought they had patched the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories security hole as well. The existence of such a vulnerability indicates that the security of the Xbox 360 isn’t as bulletproof as Microsoft intended, and it would seem a mere matter of time before another exploitable hole is found to enable homebrew development on the system.
Read More | SecurityFocus via Xbox Scene
Gallery: Xbox 360 Security Hole Revealed, Already Patched
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
Gallery: SCEE On Backward Compatibility Changes
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
Gallery: PAL PS3 Backwards Compatibility Crippled
Xbox Fan Had Seven Xbox 360 Replacements
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Xbox 360,
In the ongoing saga of the Xbox 360 hardware defects, one Xbox 360 fan probably set the record for the number of replaced consoles. Dean Takahashi at Mercury News reports on the circumstances of one Xbox 360 fan, Rob Cassingham. As a major fan of the original Xbox, Cassingham bought six launch consoles, some for his gaming center, and some for personal use. Since the launch, all six have failed. Takahashi details the problems Cassingham had with support, even as his problems had to be escalated all the way to Peter Moore. In terms of Xbox 360 failures, Microsoft seems to be following their pattern of denial and then grudging acceptance. The company initially denied that any problems existed with the launch consoles, and then offered free repairs for those gamers affected. More recently, Microsoft lengthened its warrantee on the console to 12 months, and an investigation into hardware failures was aired by the BBC in the UK. Other gamers have reported even having to replace the refurbished units they got from Microsoft. Microsoft’s stance continues to be that the Xbox 360 has a failure rate in line with other electronic devices, but this seems to fly in the face of reality.
Read More | Mercury News
Gallery: Xbox Fan Had Seven Xbox 360 Replacements
Extremetech Dissects Vista Gaming Performance
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PC,
It has already been reported that there are some games that have problems under Microsoft Windows Vista, some due to compatibility problems with the OS, others with driver issues. Even for games that run correctly under Vista, often there is a performance hit taken by the OS. Extremetech has looked at a suite of game titles with some of the highest hardware requirements and run them all under Windows XP and Windows Vista across three high-end video cards to see what the performance hit actually is. Overall, Extremetech’s findings show that both nVidia have some room for improvement in their driver sets. Generally, the ATI card took a bigger performance hit in testing, but generally across the board, the cards dropped framerates by as much as 40%, but generally more in the range of 5 – 20%. The lack of maturity on Windows Vista video card drivers and the lack of DirectX 10 games on the platform suggests that the best option for gamers at this point is to wait for the software situation to firm up a bit more before upgrading.
Read More | Extremetech
Gallery: Extremetech Dissects Vista Gaming Performance
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
Gallery: Wii Leads January Sales, Playstation 3 Trails
Internal Wavebird Mod For Wii
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Wii,
One of the mods for the Gamecube has resurfaced for the Wii. Gamers were originally able to internalize the receiver for the Wavebird controller on their Gamecubes to get the dongle out of site. With the sleek lines of the Wii, the wireless receiver can be even more of an eyesore. Now, the classic mod has been updated to work with the Wii, thanks to foobar2k at the MaxConsole forums. The mod does require the disassembly of the Wavebird receiver and some soldering, and of course will void your Wii warrantee; in fact, foobar2k managed to break the DVD drive cable on the Wii while trying this mod. Still, those with a little soldering skill and a lot of caution can internalize the wireless receiver while keeping the ability to use the first wired port as well.
Read More | MaxConsole Forums
Gallery: Internal Wavebird Mod For Wii
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