Kaz Hirai has indicated that he expects PlayStation Home to boost sales of the PS3 this Holiday period. Moreover, he added that he expects the gaming division of Sony to be less affected by the current adverse economic conditions.
To quote: A Sony Corp. executive told the Wall Street Journal this month that the company expects the new online universe 'Home' to boost sales of the Playstation 3 this holiday.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Chairman and Group CEO Kaz Hirai told the publication that Home, which will allow PS3 owners to mingle in a virtual world, will be available by the end of the year.
Hirai added that he expects the company's game unit to be less affected by current economic conditions.
Sony in Sept. 2007 delayed the Home online service to spring 2008. It subsequently delayed the project to the end of the year.
Sony will sell a new 160GB PS3 bundle in Nov. next to the current 80GB SKU.
While most of this interview with Yoko Shimomura is regarding the release of the Drammatica album, an orchestral compilation of 20 years of Shimomura's games (Kingdom Hearts, Seiken Densetsu, etc), there's a stint at the end which really shows the potential the PS3 has for allowing composers to really dish out some serious musical numbers.
After talking a bit about utilizing streaming as a means to create more complex musical numbers (and noting how things like the Nintendo DS require more clever ways to create excellent music, but stating that can be fun, too), Shimomura said that "with the PlayStation 2, sound production was mainly based on the internal sound chip, not streaming.
It was a constant battle with memory and limitations, such as the number of sound channels. With the PlayStation 3, I'm expecting to have it sound the way I please, without limitations."
So rest assure... More »
Following the release of August's NPD numbers, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter stated that he anticipates September's top release will be Halo 3, which he expects to sell over 3 million units in its first 12 days.
Pachter also said the game is expected to drive console sales, and predicts that unit sales for Xbox 360 could exceed 400,000 in September in its highest figures of any non-holiday month since launch.
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