Talk Playstation 3 News

PSM3 Issue 106 has quite a lot of reviews for a lot of good games including Bioshock, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, FIFA 09, Pure and Mercenaries 2: World In Flames.

Below is the full whack.

PS3/PSN Games

Bioshock: 93%.
As fresh today as it ever was, Bioshock’s an essential PS3 play.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009: 88%
Sterling footy action but the lack of new ideas is starting to grate.

Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway: 70%
Inconsistant, but the tactical play will appeal to some.

TNA iMPACT!: 69%
A sillier and simpler game than Smackdown but a viable alternative.

SBK08 Superbike World Championships: 54%
Ugly and uncompromisinly tough. One for bike fanatics only.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: 59%
This is just another mundane Star Wars game to throw on the pile.

Pure: 75%
You’ll love it at first but Pure soon becomes far to familiar.

FIFA 09: 83%
The best FIFA yet, but EA are still a few goals short of the title.

Mercenaries 2: World In Flames: 76%
Technically weak and slightly scrappy but tons of simple fun.

The Last Guy (PSN): 80%
Small but perfectly formed arcade for a bargain price.

PixelJunk Eden (PSN): 76%
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: 37%
Hail to the Chimp: 43%
NBA Live 09: 63%

PSP Games

PDC World Championship Darts 2008. 43%
International Athletics: 71%

Source.

Over at Gamesindustry.biz some doubt was cast on which bundles the UK might be receiving.
David Reeves announced at Leipzig that Sony would be releasing 2 new bundles for the PSP.

These are the silver PSP-3000 plus Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, and black PSP-3000 plus 4GB Memory Stick. The United Kingdom won’t be getting these lovely bundles apparently. A yet to be announced bundle will probably take these two’s place as the price of GBP 149.99 price and release dat of 17th October are not a standalone PSP-3000.
The PSP-3000 will not be sold separately in the UK for the next few months after it’s release

The rest of Europe can get a hold of the Ratchet and Clank pack on October 15th and a still to be named date in november for the 4GB pack. You can count for a bundle price around EUR 199.

Source

John Koller, Direct of Hardware Marketing, let consumers know that PSP-3000 has equivalent battery life to the current PSP(-2000).

He said

While the enhanced screen of the new PSP draws a little more power, our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system including its components, so you won’t have to worry about losing any time when enjoying the more vibrant visuals displayed with the new PSP.

So will you still be getting this new version when it gets out?

Sony confirmed to MCV that the new models shown at Leipzig have been priced for the UK.

The PSP-3000 will cost £149.99 and will be available from October 31st.

The 160GB PS3 will cost £339.99. Date has been set for this release in the UK

Source

According to a report from Engadget Japan the LCD screen on the new PSP has a more colorful, a stronger contrast ratio, and a faster response time.

The stats show that:

• Color gamut is twice as wide.
• The contrast ratio is improved 5 times.
• The response time has doubled

This is very good news to gamers who complained about ghosting. Count this in with the screen being able to resist glare (must still be tested in the field) and you could say this is a good upgrade of an hardware.

Source (through PSP Fanboy)

As many developers turn their attention away from the PSP, Capcom has come out to squash all rumours that they are giving up on the PSP.

Despite the PSP outselling most of the other gaming hardware in Japan due to games like Monster Hunter 2ndG and current chart-topper, Phantasy Star Portable. The European success has dwindled since the release of the PSP slim/lite.

The PSP might be doing well in the US and Japan but the UK sales for example aren’t that impressive.
On the Capcom-Unity blog, Christian Svensson had a response to a worried member.

We’re still making new PSP games. We may be the most successful PSP publisher in the world with Monster Hunter Portable 2nd and 2ndG. It’d be a difficult decision to defend stopping development when we have such success on the platform.

So let’s hope more developers will voice their support in public to to ease the concern of many portable gaming people.

Source, Source

Eurogamer announced after receiving word from Sony that PlayTV will be released on September 19th for £69.99 (€ 99).

Originally the release was slated for september 10th but now seems to be pushed back for around a week (Ain’t that a surprise).

With PlayTV you’ll be able to record TV while you play games at the same time. There were some technical issue’s with this feature but they managed to solve it. This is a vital and much requested function in modern day DVR/PVR’s.
Some of the code for this feature and more were already implemented in firmware 2.41.

The release will start in the UK, followed by France, Italy, Germany and Spain. The remaining countries in Europe can expect it between September and December. There is still no official list or word of which countries these might be.
Australia and New Zealand can expect it around February 2009, this will give them more time to settle on digital terrestrial standards.

Check out an (old) preview on Eurogamers
Source

IGN let their readers know that THQ has canceled Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed for the PSP.

The reason why told by a THQ representative was:

Basically, the PSP version was cancelled because of control issues, Big Willy Unleashed was designed by a Wii developer specifically for the Wii. When it was ported over to the PSP, the controls simply didn’t translate well, and instead of pushing out the product with translated controls, it was canceled.

So the PSP loses a game while the Wii holds on to one.

Source

Find out whats in store for the Playstation Portable in this video.

Find out what’s ahead for the Sony PSP.

Sony E3 2008: Sony PSP Press

Sony has announced its 2008 line up of games. This year you’ll be able to purchase the following games on the Playstation 3:

(please not this is fiscal year 2008, so thats anywhere from now until March 31st 2008.)

• LittleBigPlanet
• MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
• Quantum of Solace
• SOCOM: Confrontation
• Ghostbusters
• Killzone 2
• The Agency
• Soul Calibur 4
• Resistance 2
• Mirror’s Edge
• Resident Evil 5
• Guitar Hero: World Tour
• NBA ’09 The Inside
• Buzz! Quiz TV
• Fallout 3

Looking good, can’t wait for LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, SOCOM: Confrontation, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, Resident Evil 5 and Fallout 3.

Source.

Did you miss the Sony Press Conference at E3 2008? No problem, here’s what went down.

• Over 130 games coming for 2008, including NCAA Football, Tiger Woods, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Warrios Orochi 2, Singstar Pop, Yakuza 2, Madden, and Mercenaries 2.PS3
• Resistance 2 footage shown, trying to escape the Leviathan. 8 player co-op and 60 player multiplayer.
• Greatest Hits for $29.99, including Warhawk, Resistance, Motor Storm, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night, Need For Speed Carbon, Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassins Creed, Elder Scrolls, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
• Gran Turismo TV features races from around the world, events, interviews, and reviews of new cars.
• DC Universe Online trailer shown.
• New 80 gig PS3 with 40 gig’s features for $399.99 in September.
• God of War 3 announced.
• Infamous trailer shown, where character does very acrobatic jumps and using lighting and other mental attacks.
• MAG, Massive Action Game, features 256 player online battles, with player divided into 8 person squads. PSP
• Buzz: Master Quiz for PSP in September and featuring 6 rounds.
• Limited Edition Lego Batman PS2 bundle, with the system, game, and Justice League: New Frontiers DVD for $149 this fall.
• Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters Entertainment pack this October for $199.
• Resistance Retribution coming Spring 2009. Third person game continues Resistance story.PSN
• Singular log in, so you can log into the PSN from PS3 or PC an have all your data available.
• Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty coming this summer for $14.99.
• New movie and television service going live tonight where you can rent or purchase movies and transfer them to your PSP so you can watch them on the go.

Source.

If you want to read the whole thing, head over to the Playstation.Blog.

I thought the conference wasn’t too bad, we saw a few exclusive games such as MAG (Massive Action Game). MAG will support up to 256 players and is a squad based game with teams broken down into 8, with fine-tuned soldier types, ongoing campaigns and character growth.

Resistance for the Playstation Portable seems interesting, a third person game that will continue the Resistance story.

Here’s some picture of the Sony Press Conference.

For the week ending 21st of June 2008 the sale figures according to VGChartz.com looks like this:-

The overall console sale figures now look like this:-

Consoles

Wii
6.31M Japan
12.32M America
9.45M Others

Total: 28.07M

Xbox 360
0.62M Japan
11.78M America
7.02M Others

Total: 19.41M

Playstation 3
2.23M Japan
5.16M America
6.28M Others

Total: 13.68M

Handhelds

Nintendo DS
22.96M Japan
23.54M America
28.00M Others

Total: 74.50M

Playstation Portable
9.76M Japan
12.94M America
13.04M Others

Total: 35.74M

(these sales figures are courtesy of VGchartz.com)

At Sony Group’s Mid-Term Corporate Strategy Meeting several Presidents of different division showed slide shots of a 2008 summer start/roll out of the video services.

Some Key Game initiatives that were discussed:

1. Expand content and services available on the network platform
2. Continue to expand the PS3 customer base through the strength of Blu-ray Disc
3. Accelerate PS3 sales through upcoming key franchise software titles
4. Continue PS3 cost reduction initiatives

With these initiatives set they hope to capitalize as well on the rapid grow in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries.

To achieve profitability in the Fiscal Year 2008, they will need to work on cutting down costs by chip shrink and reduction of components while strengthening the management.

Sony also wants to increase the network and wireless connectivity between products, not only limited to the Location Free, PSP and PS3. So that the customer can enjoy as many content as they have in their network.

After the break you’ll see more slide shots from SCEI’s President Kazuo Hira presentation.

Webcast of the meeting (Windows Media Stream)

Sony Group Strategy (FY 2008-2010) (pdf)

(more…)

In Pocketgamer’s interview with SCEE’s, Vice President of Publishing and Developer Relationships Zeno Colaço, Sony has a long-term plan for the PSP, he says.

Despite the current lack of games claimed by developers and gamers on the PSP, it will be hard to fill up the space left by publishers if they refocus their interest on other segments of the game market.

Zeno Colaço has one idea to solve it.

We need to revitalise the developer community to get behind PSP. For example, it’s easy to make a DS-type game for a PSP game in terms of cost and speed of development and we will be looking to do encourage that as we continue to develop the PSP. I’m not just talking about the hardware but the services and the business models and the support, too.

This is an idea that might become apparent over the next two years as the network services are further developed.

Despite the current slow down in titels the PSP still has a good tie-ratio. With four games to each PSP with 35 million units sold worldwide.

Read more of the interview over at PocketGamer.co.uk

Metal Gear Solid 4 was released and it sure shifted some units, it made the PS3 outsell even the Wii.

For the week ending 14th of June 2008 the sale figures according to VGChartz.com looks like this:-

The overall console sale figures now look like this:-

Consoles

Wii
6.26M Japan
12.14M America
9.32M Others

Total: 27.72M

Xbox 360
0.62M Japan
11.72M America
6.92M Others

Total: 19.26M

Playstation 3
2.21M Japan
5.11M America
6.26M Others

Total: 13.58M

Handhelds

Nintendo DS
22.92M Japan
23.37M America
27.73M Others

Total: 74.03M

Playstation Portable
9.71M Japan
12.87M America
12.95M Others

Total: 35.53M

(these sales figures are courtesy of VGchartz.com)