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!
Low-End PS3 Still $500, But Now with HDMI
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 3,
After Ken Kutaragi’s announcement that the Japanese low-end PS3 would now feature an HDMI port and see a price drop down to about $425 USD, us Americans became pretty curious about whether we’d see any benefit out of this. The answer is yes and no…
Yes, the rest of the world will indeed now be getting an HDMI port on their 20GB PS3’s and
No, we don’t get a price drop.
According to Sony, adoption of HD televisions has been much higher than they expected, leading to the reason for the HDMI port on even the low-end version. Still, with the 20GB version comprising only 20% of the shipped PS3’s, one wonders if the low-end version won’t be impossible to find anyway.
Read More 
| PSX Extreme
Advertisement
Epic’s Sweeney Talks PS3 Development, User Content At Tokyo Game Show
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: First Person Shooters, Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 3,
At the Tokyo Game Show, Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney discussed multi-core development, PS3’s Cell chip, and the possibility of user generated content on the Playstation 3, according to a report from Gamasutra.
Sweeney indicated that multi-threaded development takes “about twice the effort and development cost.” Speaking specifically about Cell, he claimed that development “required about 5 times as much cost and development time.” It seems like Sweeney accepts the fact that for CPU power to grow, they are going to have to go to a multi-core model, but the increased development costs are disconcerting.
Sweeney also mentioned that he was interested in bringing user-created content to the PS3. Sweeney’s comments indicated that Sony might be more favorable to providing user content on the PS3 Online platform than Microsoft. While it isn’t a lock that user mods and levels will be accessible to Playstation 3 Unreal Tournament 2007 gamers, this does seem to be a possibility at this point.
Read More | Gamasutra
Sony Adds HDMI, Drops Price Of Core Playstation 3 In Japan
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
During Sony’s keynote at the Tokyo Game Show, it was announced that both the core and premium configurations of the Playstation 3 would now include HDMI 1.3 support. In addition, the pricing of the 20 GB core unit was set at 49,800 Yen, roughly $425 US. Sony’s reasoning for including the HDMI port in the lower cost console is that the adoption of HDMI accelerated faster than Sony expected, so they felt that component now made sense for all models. Sony’s specifications on their official Japanese Playstation 3 site have been updated to reflect the change. No announcement for any pricing adjustment was made for the US, nor was any mention as to whether the United States version of the core console would get an HDMI port.
Update: The core console will feature the HDMI port in all territories, but the US price will remain fixed at $499
Read More | Playstation.com (Japan)
Latest Gear Live Videos
Ubisoft Leaks New Game Information Via FTP
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, First Person Shooters, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, PSP, Screenshots, Wii, Xbox 360,
Information on a bunch of Ubisoft’s future game releases was leaked through a public file on Ubisoft’s FTP server. The 2 GB RAR-compressed file included information on games like Far Cry 2, Far Cry PSP, a Star Wars PSP title, new TMNT games, a new entry in the Splinter Cell series called Conviction and much more. The file was pulled, but not before members of the NeoGAF forums could pull down a copy. Images and other assets have are being slowly posted into the forum thread by people with a copy of the archive file.
Read More | NeoGAF Forums
Gran Turismo HD: Attack Of The Microtransactions
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Driving, PlayStation 3,
Word from Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the Gran Turismo series, indicates that gamers may end up shelling out a lot of money if they want to have a complete set of cars and tracks in the upcoming Gran Turismo: HD. According to translations posted on the Beyond3D forums, Yamauchi spoke to Famitsu about the implementation of micro-transactions in the new game. There will apparently be two versions of the game: Gran Turismo HD: Premium, which will include 2 courses and 30 cars. Another version, Gran Turismo HD: Classic will start with no cars; cars can be purchased for 50 – 100 Yen, and each course will cost 200 – 500 Yen. The game will include 750 cars and 50 tracks, meaning that a gamer looking at getting all the available content would be spending hundreds of dollars. Should this information turn out to be correct, it would appear that Sony has definitely taken the microtransaction economic model to heart.
Read More | Beyond3D Forums
Famitsu has reported that a new game in the Ninja Gaiden series will be heading to the Playstation 3. The game will be titled Ninja Gaiden Sigma, but it is unknown at this time whether this will be a completely new entry in the franchise, or an upgrade of a previous installment. Famitsu mentioned that the game will feature graphical upgrades, and gameplay changes including the ability to wield dual katanas and play as different characters.
Read More | Total Video Games
Virtua Tennis Running In 1080P On PS3
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PlayStation 3, Screenshots, SEGA, Sports,
Sega recently displayed builds of Virtua Tennis for the Playstation 3 running in full 1080P resolution, according to a report by 1up. Assuming that 1080P resolution support makes it into the shipping product, this would allow Virtua Tennis to join Gran Turismo HD in the list of games that support the highest resolution display mode of the Playstation 3. People have debated the usefulness of supporting a resolution that so few end users will be able to access, but it is interesting to see what games will have the spare processing power to push that many pixels.
Read More | 1up
Gamestop Testing New Pre-Order Program
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PlayStation 3, Rumors, Wii,
Word of a new test program for pre-orders at GameStop/EBGames surfaced this weekend. GoNintendo found a thread on the NeoGAF forums pointing to pre-orders for the Wii and Playstation 3 opening for one week, starting September 18. The key part of the pre-order program was the catch: gamers would only be able to place a pre-order by trading in $50 in games or accessories. However, this “improved” pre-order program would not actually fix any of the problems faced by gamers last year. The pre-order would not guarantee a system at launch (or even during the holidays) and effect doesn’t really even hold your place in line.
Since the initial report, it has been confirmed by GoNintendo that the trade-in program is going to be a test program, only for GameStop stores in Hawaii and Guam. GameStop is apparently trying to determine how effective a program would be.
It is pretty easy to understand why GameStop would want to make gamers trade in software and accessories to hold their place in line for a Wii or a Playstation 3; trade-in sales made up by far the largest percentage of gross profit on last year’s annual report. GameStop gets the highest gross margin from used software sales; so much so, that it appears that trade-in software is more valuable to the company than cash. Trade-ins are traditionally the worst possible deal for the consumer, giving meager amounts of money for software that is then turned around and sold for large profits.
So, GameStop has huge incentive to push gamers towards trade-ins. But along with this horrendously punishing trade-in program, little is being done to fix their broken pre-order system. Like last year, the pre-order only gives the customer a place in line at the store they pre-ordered from. Gamers also witnessed in-store hard sell programs, where people that put money down on more of the profit-generating software and accessories got to jump in line. The new program seems to address this somewhat, but a place in line means nothing if the stores never get the product. When the Xbox 360 launched, gamers holding pre-order tickets would see GameStop and EBGames place huge, expensive bundle systems online, while stores were crying for product. GameStop has shown in the past that they care little for the people that have given them money in the promise of a game console at or near launch, and these new moves would seem to indicate that they have learned little from the past.
Read More 
| NeoGAF
Read More | GoNintendo
Tony Hawk Project 8 Online Only On Xbox 360
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Activision, Internet, PlayStation 3, Sports, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Last year’s next generation work for the Tony Hawk series was somewhat lackluster; the game really didn’t take advantage of the power of the Xbox 360 and was generally held up as an example of a quick port. This year, Neversoft hopes to turn that around with the release of Tony Hawk Project 8, which the company claims will be a ground up rebuild of the series for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. The game should be a launch title for the Playstation 3, and according to a preview from IGN, the game is looking virtually identical to the Xbox 360 version. However, it appears that online play will not be available for the Playstation 3, mainly due to the fact that Neversoft only received its PS3 beta kits three weeks ago. Neversoft will try and include things in the PS3 version to make up for this, but online play seems like a big feature to be missed. It seems a little strange that a higher-profile developer like Neversoft wouldn’t have access to the software libraries any sooner; if the same is true for other PS3 developers, this could mean that fewer of the launch titles for the Playstation 3 will have online support than were planned.
Read More | IGN
Rumor: PS3 Controller Named Sixaxis?
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Rumors,
Since Sony has removed the rumble from their Playstation 3 controller, the “Dual Shock” moniker no longer applies. 1up did some digging through some trademark filings, and found an unusual one coming from Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. A request for the word “SIXAXIS” was made, and while the descriptors of the usage of the trademark seem incredibly varied, the new design of the controller and the “six-axis” motion sensitivity would seem to make this a good fit.
Read More | 1up
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.