In attendance at the Sony Computer Entertainment Staff Annual Briefing held yesterday in London, an anonymous source going by the alias of ‘Legends’ has just tipped us off on all manner of huge PlayStation news. We must make it clear that D+PAD weren’t in attendance, but we have no reason to doubt the validity of Legends’ claims.
Price cuts coming in March, PS3 performing better in Europe than 360
Our source tells us that SCEE President David Reeves took to the stage to discuss the current economic climate and how it shouldn’t affect PlayStation business, though was quick to mention that SCEE will be getting more competitive on price from March 2009 onwards. Our guess is that we’ll be seeing price cuts to PS3 around Easter to tie in with the release of Killzone 2…
Reeves then went on to say that the PS3 has a bigger install base than the 360 in PAL territories, and that the install base gap will significantly increase ... More »
Sony's director of hardware marketing, John Koller, has stated that they working on further PSOne additions to the US PlayStation Store and they should be arriving shortly.
To quote: There are many classic PS One games available to download through PlayStation Network in Japan, but we’ve seen barely any here in the United States (does anyone want to play “2 Xtreme,” anyway?)
I didn’t ask John Koller, the head of hardware marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, whether this was changing when we spoke earlier this week. My bad, readers.
But he did follow-up over e-mail last night.
“Yes, we are working on further PSone additions to the PS Store and should see those launch shortly,” he said.
IGN (linked above) has posted its review of the official Sony wireless keypad for the PlayStation 3, and seems to have a problem with its general design more than anything.
They note that the biggest issue is the top mounted nature of it, but essentially QWERTY keypads for game controllers don't really work that well and its probably best to pick up a microphone and talk.
To quote: But regardless of the poor touch support and ill-advised key design, the biggest issue I had with the Wireless Keypad is that Sony opted to design it as a top mounted add-on. I don't want to seem partial one way or another, but I definitely think Microsoft had it right when they made their keypad attachable between the handles of the Xbox 360 remote.
The keys seem much easier to view and access when they are located just below your thumbs on the thumbsticks. To be fair, the choice in top versus bottom attachment may have been out of Sony's hands. It's possible that Mi... More »
If you're one of the lucky ones, in your inbox you should receive a PlayStation Home BETA invite to the much-anticipated PS3 Home BETA. This chap has recieved an e-mail as of 5:46 EST, and some should be receiving their invites as we speak, good luck!!!
To quote SCEE community team manager TedTheDog's announcement on the official PlayStation boards:
Last night v1.0 went live in the beta and our existing testers are now up and running with it.
Today, Friday 21st, over a hundred thousand invitations will be sent across the SCEE region and next Thursday the 27th another larger batch of invitations will be sent.
If you are lucky enough to get an invitation then please note there will be load test event on each of the two evenings.
For everyone else Open Beta will not be far behind.
Today, 7-Eleven announced that they will start carrying certain video game titles for sale, including Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
Additionally, they will make several prepaid game cards available for companies (and games) like Nexon, Habbo, Gaia, Guild Wars, Runescape, Aeria, City of Heroes, ijji and Neopets.
Press Release: Gamers never die; they just grow up … and continue to play ... and play ... and play. Today, the average gamer is not in his teens, but in his early 30s and, not surprisingly, most likely male. They play at home, at social gatherings, at work (shhhh) and online.
That’s good news for 7-Eleven, Inc. whose customer base skews heavily male between the ages of 18 and 34. The world’s leading convenience retailer is ready to take the proverbial plunge into video game sales after dabbling in it over the past years with successful Slurpee® beverage promotio... More »
Sony confirms its recently announced network numbers include accounts from both the PlayStation 3 and PSP, but no duplicates; analyst estimates 50 percent of PS3s have gone online.
On Tuesday, Sony made a stir when it announced that its free PlayStation Network had attained 14 million "active users."
The number, revealed to celebrate the PlayStation 3's second birthday, was remarkable, as it appeared to match the 14-million-strong subscriber base for the pay-to-play Xbox Live. Microsoft's online service launched in 2002 and has been a central pillar of its strategy since the Xbox 360 launched in 2005, one year before the PS3.
Three days later, Sony has now clarified what exactly it counts as an active PlayStation Network user. "Seeing as PlayStation Portable does include PlayStation Network services (i.e. games store natively on PSP), yes those numbers do include all PlayStation Network registrations," said a Sony representative.
Video game consoles left running round-the-clock can send your annual electricity bill soaring. That's probably no surprise for most gamers. But the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based conservation group, has conducted a study of gaming machine energy use to raise awareness among gamers and pressure manufacturers into making more energy-efficient machines.
The NRDC's study found that Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii machines in the U.S. use about as much electricity in a year as every home in San Diego combined. Much of the energy comes from machines that are left on, but not in use, the NRDC said.
Of the three consoles, Sony's PS3 was the biggest energy hog, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360. Nintendo's Wii is by far the most energy efficient-and even uses less electricity than its predecessor, GameCube.
To quote: With more efficient devices and by utilizing existing power-saving features, consumers ... More »
A couple days ago we reported on a few holiday adverts that are part of a “bigger campaign”.
Today Sony's Senior Vice President of Marketing & PlayStation Network Peter Dille detailed their PlayStation: Entertainment Unleashed ad campaign officially via PS Blog as follows:
This is one of the fun parts of my job, when we get to unveil our TV commercials and give you, our loyal fans, a preview of our spots before they hit the airwaves. This year’s campaign is dubbed “Entertainment Unleashed” and for good reason.
The campaign actually began quietly a few weeks back with three fifteen second “tease” executions. Hopefully, you’ve seen these by now. These initial ads depicted various people catching glimpses and reflections of beautiful PS3 game footage magically appearing ... More »
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