from Bloomberg.com:
Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 video-game console outsold Nintendo Co.’s Wii for the first time on a monthly basis in Japan in September, after a price cut, according to market researcher Enterbrain Inc.
From Aug. 31 to Sept. 27, 309,939 PS3s were sold, a monthly record for the console in Japan since it became available in November 2006, the Tokyo-based research firm said in a faxed statement today. Nintendo’s DS Lite and DSi handheld players sold a combined 297,060 units.
Sony cut the price of the PS3 in Japan on Sept. 3 by 25 percent to 29,980 yen ($335) and introduced a model that is one- third the size of the original and consumes 34 percent less power. A similar price cut in the U.S. helped the Tokyo-based company sell more than 1 million units worldwide in three weeks, bringing it closer to its annual sales target of 13 million, Kazuo Hirai, head of Sony’s games business said last month.
The company also said last month that it will lower the price of its PlayStation Portable handheld player 15 percent in Japan to 16,800 yen from October. The PSP was the third-best selling hardware in Japan in September with 83,887 units, followed by Nintendo’s Wii with 61,691 units.
Rival Microsoft Corp. followed with a $100 reduction for its most expensive Xbox 360 player to $300 in the U.S. and 29,800 yen in Japan. Nintendo was the last of the major console makers to weigh in, cutting the price of its motion-sensing Wii 20 percent to $200 in the U.S. from Sept. 27 and to 20,000 yen in Japan from Oct. 1.
Sony fell 5 percent to close at 2,450 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. Nintendo slipped 0.4 percent to 22,530 yen in Osaka trading, while Microsoft declined 3.3 percent to $24.88 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday.
With the PSP Go about to hit stores this week we take a look at The Gadget Show’s review of the new handheld:
Should be interesting to see if PS can capture the same type of audience with this type of gaming that Nintendo did. Read more from Joystiq.com:
We just got our first brief taste of some of the retrofitted PS3 titles which would support Sony’s new, tentatively-named PlayStation Motion Controller during Sony’s TGS 2009 keynote. However, a piping hot press release gave us some of the most detailed info on the peripheral to date — most notable of which is the re-confirmation that the hardware is still on track for a Spring 2010 release.
Equally as titillating is a comprehensive list of first-party “Motion Controller dedicated and compatible titles” which are set to drop (or in the case of the pre-existing titles, receive the new functionality via a patch) throughout 2010:
Software Titles for Motion Controller from SCE Worldwide Studios
Ape Escape (Working Title)
Echochrome 2 (Working Title)
Eccentric Slider (Working Title)
Sing and Draw (Working Title)
Champions of Time (Working Title)
Motion Party (Working Title)
The Shoot (Working Title)
Tower (Working Title)
PAIN*
Flower*
Hustle Kings*
High Velocity Bowling*
EyePet*
From PCWorld.com:
Sony’s redesigned PSP is rumored to be getting a new look. But all changes to this portable gaming device, expected to be released later this year, are largely cosmetic.
The biggest change to the PSP’s design is a sliding screen; as shown in a mock-up from VG247, it slides up to reveal various controls that are hidden beneath it when closed. new PSP, dubbed the PSP 4000, may be “significantly smaller in width,” because of the new design, Eurogamer says.
According to reports, the PSP 4000 will have to be in the open position to play full-featured games, but there’s no word on whether the rumored design includes game controllers or a keyboard underneath the screen. The 4000 may also allow you to play basic games, like LocoRoco, using the shoulder buttons (the L and R buttons at the top of the device) when the screen is closed.
This latest rumor comes after last week’s news that the PSP may let go of its UMD drive to offload more bulk from the game system. Instead of the disc drive, Sony may look to sell games through the online PlayStation Store or perhaps even on Sony Memory Sticks. If the rumors are true, then the 4000 is a significant step forward for the PSP; however, the new PSP will still be based on current PSP tech with no improved graphics or gaming features. That being said, with the PSP 3000 and these new rumors, it’s refreshing to hear about PSP updates that go beyond new colors, various entertainment bundles and incremental firmware updates.
The rumored release date for the 4000 is late 2009, and may be followed by a PSP2 in 2011 or 2012.
from the GlobeandMail.com:
People have long been able to watch YouTube videos on their televisions through media centre PCs, Apple TV, and the web browsers of certain game consoles, but the experience is less than ideal. YouTube was designed for the 18-inch viewing experience of someone sitting at a desk; its text and video thumbnails are just too small and unwieldy for the couch-bound.
Hence YouTube for Television, a new interface for the popular video sharing site designed specifically for the ten-foot living room viewing experience and optimized for web browsers available for the Wii and PlayStation 3 (plans are in place to roll it out for browser-equipped set-top boxes in the future).
I powered up my Wii this morning and headed over to www.youtube.com/tv to try it out. After spending almost a minute waiting for the site to load, I found myself on a simplified version of the YouTube home page that consisted of three tabs across the top allowing users to search, sort videos, and access their YouTube accounts, and four large video thumbnails below that showed the most viewed, top rated, currently featured, and most recent YouTube clips. The few words present were giant and easy to read.
As far as browsing content goes, YouTube’s new TV interface is just as powerful as its PC counterpart. Searching for videos was a snap, and all of the standard tools—including favourites, playlists, and subscriptions—were just a couple of clicks away. Plus, you can set video playback to auto-play, which starts up a new video the moment the current video stops playing, simulating to a degree the experience of watching one program after another on television.
However, there are a few missing features for which some avid YouTubers might pine, such as user comments and the ability to upload videos. It seems Google’s goal in developing the TV interface was to facilitate a better viewing experience, even if it came at the expense of community and contribution.
On the topic of viewing experience, the videos don’t appear to be of any higher resolution than what you’d find on your PC, which means when they’re blown up on a TV several times the size of a computer monitor they look grainy and splotchy. I was sitting about two metres back from my 42-inch set and I found many of the videos difficult to watch. The image quality was a bit more palatable when I moved back an additional metre, but I’m not about to move my couch just so I can better appreciate YouTube videos.
And that’s the crux of the streaming-web-video-on-television issue. It doesn’t matter how smart or simple the interface; until YouTube video resolution gets bumped up a few notches I won’t want to watch the site’s clips on my high-definition set.
Still, I’m happy I took the time to check out YouTube for Television, if for no other reason than that I stumbled across the video below—a machinima dance-off between a group of Halo Spartans and characters from Unreal Tournament. Bless nerds with time on their hands.
Check out this cool post on how certain game franchises, consoles, and gaming in general have changed from 1998 to 2008. From GamesRadar.com
How Gaming has Changed in 10 Years
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from Engadget.com:
We knew it was coming this month, now we have the day: tomorrow. Yup, PlayStation Home will launch globally on December 11th. The 3D virtual on-line community is like Second Life, only with the risk of rootkit. Hot. All kidding aside, the new service gives PS3 owners a customizable place to chat (voice or text) and play games with other PlayStation Home users through personalized avatars. Just like real life except without acne and all your social shortcomings. Home will be available to download and “experience basic features” for free — some services (like creating a “club”) will require cash though, so be prepared.
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A 13 year old boy was diagnosed by doctors with a “Playstation Addiction”… he apparently had seizure like symptoms and was rushed to the hospital, but turns out he was just hopelessly addicted to video games. I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often?
Read more at CrunchGear.com
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Here are some links to more links of highlights from E3 as seen by the good people at Joystiq.com:
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Los Gatos, Calif. (PRWEB) July 16, 2007 — Free PlayStation 3.net released a new version of their free guide today that shows website visitors how to get their own Sony PlayStation 3 console for free. The new free PlayStation 3 guide details a whole new set of websites that provide the Sony PlayStation 3 console for free and how anyone in the world can acquire one without spending a dime.
Most free Sony PlayStation 3 websites require users to participate in “sponsor offers” before they can receive a free PlayStation 3 console, resulting in them having to spend up to $200, before receiving a Sony PlayStation 3 console. However, Free PlayStation 3.net’s new updated guide shows users how to get the Sony PlayStation 3 for free, without having to participate in any sponsor offers.
Since 2005, Free PlayStation 3.net has reviewed over seventy-five free PlayStation 3 websites and has discovered that a small handful of them ask users to participate in their sponsor offers, but if the users simply ignore their requests and proceed to the end of their sponsor offer pages, the user will still receive a free PlayStation 3 console.
Most visitors to these free PlayStation 3 websites, that decide not to participate in the sponsor offers, never proceed past the sponsor offer pages to the final page where they are typically asked to confirm their email address again and told that their game console will be mailed to them shortly.
Little do they know that on a few such websites, like the ones Free PlayStation 3.net identifies, that simply proceeding past the sponsor offers to the final page will still result in them receiving a PlayStation 3 for free.
“Thanks for showing me how to get a free Sony PlayStation 3 and free Nintendo Wii without having to spend a penny!” said website visitor, Ashley Parks of Chicago, Illinois.
About Free PlayStation 3.net
Free PlayStation 3.net has been helping people acquire the PlayStation 3 for free since May 2005. Learn more at www.FreePlayStation3.net.
PLAY
