Talk Playstation 3 News

Many Playstation 3 owners felt betrayed when they heard Namco decided to go multi-platform with the newest edition in the Tekken Franchise.

Having developed the game since the Playstation (1) Katsuhiro Harada, Game Design Manager tells us that he understand some fans are disappointed.

A great deal of fans who only have an Xbox and really want to play Tekken, which is the number one in the fighting genre. And we just had so many fans that said “we really want to get our hands on it, but can’t.” So we wanted to answer those fans. And it’s also the timing at this point – at the moment we have two high spec consoles on the market at the same time; the Xbox has a huge installed base in Europe and America. So it was more about trying to answer the fans’ requests and having as many as possible be able to get the game

The fighting system has been given a little upgrade, where you will be able to continue a combo once your opponent hits the ground to and bounces back or with perfect timing carry them to a wall and do more damage.

On the popularity of the game, Harada thinks that due to the big and varied fan base Tekken really separates them for their other big competitors in the genre. And by (finally) adding level changes when you hit somebody hard through a wooden floor, strategy gets a bigger role.
Another feature is the rage system, which we known from games like Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm where you will receive a boost in your attacking power when your health bar is almost depleted.
Add that with character customization Namco is doing everything to keep their fan demand pleased.

Expect the Playstation 3 version of the game to hit the shelves in the 3Q of 2009, though nothing is sure about this date as rumours have spread about a possible earlier release for the Xbox 360 version.

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Despite the Xbox 360 creating great sales number these last few months, David Reeves is not worried. In the PAL area’s Playstation managed to still outsell the Xbox 360 by 300,000 units.

He said

We’re relying on the fact that the industry will keep growing and while we might have a comparatively smaller share of the market we will have higher sales. PS3 is tracking where PS2 was at the same point in its life. The value added strategy will continue for some years to come. The PS3 is already ahead of Microsoft’s rival.

SCEE how ever managed to get out of the red number after two years of losses. So their not interested in lowering the price of the PS3, like the leaked report said.

The SCEE president continued by saying,

Our strategy is very much value added, and Sony’s business model for the console isn’t designed around dropping the RRP every time a manufacturing cost saving has been found.
When we came into the industry we started at zero. And we had to have a model that offered price elasticity. As soon as we got the manufacturing price down on PSOne we lowered the price. Same with PS2. But we’re not doing that on PS3 – that’s not the model, even if people are expecting it.

We can however expect a more aggressive approach once they have reached the break-even point, which he hopes is next year.

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Rumours of Cryptic planning to release their upcoming titles on consoles increases as Kotaku posted info about a job add on craigslist.

Though Cryptic is already deep into X360 programming, there was little news on how they did on PS3 programming. The job specifically states: PS3 Engine Programmer. We have developed a flexible, cutting edge MMO platform to power games like Champions and Star Trek Online. It runs on PC and XBOX 360 – now we want to support PS3 too.

Here is the joblisting:

PS3 Engine Programmer
We are currently looking for a full time PS3 Engine Programmer.

Are you interested in a challenge? We have developed a flexible, cutting edge MMO platform to power games like Champions and Star Trek Online. It runs on PC and XBOX 360 – now we want to support PS3 too. Are you an expert PS3 coder? Do you enjoy squeezing every last drop of performance and spare memory out of the system?

Every day you could be:

Exploiting SPU parallelism to get the maximum performance out of the system.
Extending existing systems to adapt to the ever-changing needs of a massively multiplayer game.
Collaborating with innovative art and design teams.
What you need to work here:

The ability to communicate clearly and concisely.
Extremely proficient in C programming and debugging. You must be a brilliant programmer.
Thorough understanding of the PS3 – SPUs, RSX, SPURS multi-threading, etc.
Love videogames – Console AND MMO.

Apply Online At: www.crypticstudios.com

So think you got the skills? Or even better, think this is true? Let us know.