PlayStation 3 Week » 2006

Tecmo games announcement coming ’shortly’

Friday, January 13th, 2006

IGN reads the new issue of Famitsu for us, and finds some ominous foreshadowing from the president of Tecmo: they will announce their PS3 titles soon.

After explaining that timing is important when announcing next generation games, he adds, with a laugh, “We will announce titles… shortly.”

• Tecmo: PS3 Titles To Be Announced Soon [IGN]

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Microsoft CEO trashes PS3

Friday, January 13th, 2006

Think the second-place pressure is getting to their heads? In an interview with Investor’s Business Daily at the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had this to say:

“[N]obody knows when PlayStation 3 is going to come. The rumours are it will come out in the spring, but only in Japan. And nobody knows what PlayStation 3 is going to cost. PlayStation 3 has a (Blu-ray Disc) drive built in, so who knows what the heck they’re going to charge for the thing, because those are very expensive drives. Who the heck knows what the games are going to look like for PlayStation 3?” he joked. “So, a lot of questions. And Sony has no strategy for an online service.”

• Sony has no strategy for an online service – Ballmer [Eurogamer]

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Forbes loves the Cell processor

Friday, January 13th, 2006

Forbes.com posts a relatively in-depth story on the Cell processor, which powers the PS2 and PS3 and just got its research renewed for another five years. In case you missed it, they say that the Cell technology is going to do “everything from making TVs to shooting things up into space to building huge supercomputers.” Even if that is a little outlandish, the story still a good read.

Cell boasts a staggering fiftyfold advantage in handling graphics-intensive applications that will define the next generation of visual entertainment–blindingly fast and seductively immersive games, virtual-reality romps, wireless downloads, real-time video chat, interactive TV shows with multiple endings and a panoply of new services yet to be dreamed up.

• Holy Chip! [Forbes]

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Sony, IBM and Toshiba renew chip-making deal

Thursday, January 12th, 2006

The partnership that created the PS2 and PS3’s Cell processor has been renewed for another five years, the three big developers announced today. Sony, IBM and Toshiba will continue research on some brand new, high-speed, very tiny computer chips, hopefully resulting in awesome gaming for years to come.

As advanced as the 65-nanometer [PS3] process is, Toshiba, Sony and IBM have the ambitious goal of developing 32-nanometer chips and beyond. The new agreement will also “help enable the three companies to more rapidly investigate, identify and commercialize new technologies for consumer and other applications.”

• IBM, Sony & Toshiba Extend Chip Research Pact [GameDAILY]

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Sony’s developer conference will cover PS3

Thursday, January 12th, 2006

We know you were disappointed in the PS3’s veritable no-show at the Consumer Electronics Show, so here’s a small consolation prize. Sony’s DevStation conference in London this March will focus exclusively on the PlayStation 3.

One problem: It’s only open to game developers. So don’t expect too much major news, but rest assured that someone, somewhere, is working on getting the PS3 on the market as soon as possible. For all the dirty details, check out the official DevStation web site.

• Sony confirms DevStation 2006 conference will focus on PlayStation 3 [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Hands-on with more PS3 games

Thursday, January 12th, 2006

We polished off the rest of the PlayStation 3’s playable offerings today, and we have a glimmer of hope among lots of otherwise unremarkable news. By the way, the Wii is incredible. We’ll get into that in more detail in a future post.

Madden ‘07 (30% done)

We’re sure this will turn out nice, but right now it looks horrible on the PS3 and is apparently less than 1/3 complete. It’ll introduce some new things, like lead blocker control, but as far as the PS3 version goes, it’s not really ready for human consumption. The Xbox 360 demo looked a lot cleaner, faster, brighter, and graphically superior. It wasn’t marked how far along that game was in development — the gameplay itself was about the same, but the Xbox’s look and feel beat the PS3’s hands down.

Gran Turismo HD (20% done)

The track environments look great, and the graphics in general make you feel very next-gen. There are four tracks and several cars playable now, among them the amazing Grand Canyon course from the trailer. We’re not in love with GT games in general, but gameplay-wise this seems to be on par with the old stuff, with no major surprises.

Heavenly Sword (50%)

We said Resistance: Fall of Man was the best game on display yesterday, and Heavenly Sword tops it. In this demo, you play a scandalous swordswoman who takes on a bunch of samurai-type guys in several rounds of arena beat-’em-up action. It’s a ton of fun, it looks great, and it feels like a cool mixture of Dead or Alive and Dynasty Warriors. Apparently the game itself is in the “adventure” genre, so it’s much more than just the arena-fighting demo we loved today.

Genji (60%)

After playing Heavenly Sword, this game (of a similar genre) pales in comparison. And considering that it’s one of the closest to completion for the PS3, that could mean trouble. Then again, PlayStation is going to face a lot of trouble this generation even if they have the best games on the market. If E3 is any indication, they don’t. More on our favorite new system, the Wii, to come soon.

commercial vacuum cleaners

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Sony’s PS3 critic wiped from the web

Wednesday, January 11th, 2006

Remember Josh Robinson, the Sony 3D artist who criticized the PlayStation 3 publicly after working with the dev kits for several months? Well, he trashed the system a lot more than you’d expect from somebody who collects a Sony paycheck, and now the site that posted his article has taken it down.

On the site’s forums, the webmaster had this to say:

We removed the post for a reason. I can’t go into it any more until I talk with the other members of DIF. When we clear things up, we’ll post it again. =)

We know it’s been getting tons of action, including links from big gaming blogs like Kotaku and a whole variety of other sources. No doubt he started to feel the heat and realize that biting the hand that feeds might not work out so well. Well, if it helps at all, we hope they go easy on you, Josh. You are a true patriot.

If you missed the story before it was removed, ~~here it is in Google’s cache~~. Don’t blame us!

• Forum entry on the missing story [DownInFront]

EARLIER: Our first post on the mostly negative hands-on PS3 review.

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Guessing the PS3’s price: $500?

Wednesday, January 11th, 2006

Columnist Chris Morris at CNN/Money tries to hit the PS3’s price point in a new article, citing a number of analysts and developers who are guessing it’ll be $500. Sony has already said it will be “expensive,” and, as Morris mentions, even the highest-ever console price positions it as the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market. He also revisits an old theory:

None of the developers, by the way, echoed my hypothetical theory that Sony might be pulling a head-fake on Microsoft with the high price warnings, though a couple did bring up the months of speculation leading up to the PSP’s launch. … It launched at $249, still incredibly expensive by handheld standards, but lower than some consumers were expecting.

Ah, the ol’ head fake. Our wallets hope it’s true.

• PlayStation 3 price – $500? [CNN/Money]

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Wake up for the Wii

Wednesday, January 11th, 2006

Never quite thought I’d awaken to the words, “It’s Wii time, boys and girls,” but I suppose E3 brings out the worst in all of us. We’re headed back to the Los Angeles Convention Center today and sprinting for the two-and-a-half-hour line that wraps around Nintendo’s booth as anxious gamers await their first chance to experience Wii.

We’ll hit you up with our impressions of the console formerly known as revolution, as well as hands-on reports with some of the playable PS3 games we missed yesterday. And by the way, the New York Times has confirmed our suspicions that the PS3 controller is a total last-second save.

Unfortunately for Sony, the admission by one of the Warhawk developers that his team got its hands on the new controller less than two weeks ago reinforced the impression that Sony only added motion-sensitive technology at the last minute in a hasty attempt to match Nintendo.

Two weeks? And here we were thinking they just came up with it during the hour-long press conference delay.

payday no bank account

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Take-Two prepares for PS3 launch shortage

Wednesday, January 11th, 2006

It’s never too early to start planning for the PS3 launch, even if it will be way behind schedule. So at a big corporate strategy presentation, an executive from Take-Two (publisher of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series) laid out their plans to cut back on advertising while the console is in short supply.

“If the hardware isn’t there, do you have to spend so aggressively to promote?” she asked rhetorically. According to Buckwalter, Take-Two would “cut back” where it could, so that ad dollars could be more freely spent when supply wasn’t limited.

Sounds like a sound economic strategy. Speaking of which, this might be a good time to retread those Xbox economics stories that tried to figure out the evil plan behind the 360 shortage.

Here’s another answer: In a misguided attempt to woo holiday shoppers, the console makers release their product way too close to Christmas, before production has had a chance to ramp up and actually come close to meeting the huge holiday demand. The moral of the story? Release your consoles earlier, and you’ll get the Christmas traffic anyway. Maybe even with some quality, second-round games.

• Take-Two exec talks ads, 360, PS3 [Gamespot]

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Archive for January, 2006

Tecmo games announcement coming ’shortly’

Microsoft CEO trashes PS3

Forbes loves the Cell processor

Sony, IBM and Toshiba renew chip-making deal

Sony’s developer conference will cover PS3

Hands-on with more PS3 games

Sony’s PS3 critic wiped from the web

Guessing the PS3’s price: $500?

Wake up for the Wii

Take-Two prepares for PS3 launch shortage