The President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA), Jack Tretton, has told the Financial Times that he has no qualms about Sony meeting their corporate goals and selling every PS3 they manufacture.
Tretton was also asked whether the consoles stands now after a shaky first years. "Gamers are coming back to us, we are selling a higher percentage of games such as Madden NFL and Grand Theft Auto, because people are choosing the PS3 [over the Xbox].
Sales are up over 100 per cent and we are tracking well ahead of what we expected." Tretton replied.
To quote: Where do you stand right now in the console wars after a somewhat shaky first year?
Gamers are coming back to us, we are selling a higher percentage of games such as Madden NFL and Grand Theft Auto, because people are choosing the PS3 [over the Xbox].
Sales are up over 100 per cent and we are tracking well ahead of what we expected. We are hav... More »
According to XBitLabs (linked above), Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology Corp. has been contracted to manufacture external Blu-ray disc drives for Microsoft XBox 360 game consoles.
Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology Corporation is a joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Toshiba Corporation. The Blu-ray disc drives are rumored to cost in the $100-$150 range.
To quote: It is still unclear when exactly Microsoft plans to release its external Blu-ray solution for Xbox 360. Hypothetically, the company may launch it slightly ahead of the holiday season in an attempt to steal an advantage from the PlayStation 3. B
ut since sales of Blu-ray are still on a low level, the software giant may decide to postpone the unveiling till Consumer Electronics Show early next year in order to get the most attention of the media with new device.
Microsoft and TSST did not comment on the news story.
In 2005 the Xbox 360 was launched in North America with a price point of $500 for the premium model and $400 for the “core” model. At this time the Xbox 360 was the only “next generation” console on the market, and it would stay like that for at least a year.
Originally, Sony was to launch their console, the PS3 in early 2006, however the console was delayed into November of 2006.
Weeks after launch many found flaws in the system and wondered why they were their. It seemed like many people forgot about Sony’s original plan of releasing their console a few months after the 360 because they constantly refer to it has Microsoft’s own greed to launch a year before the competition, although the competition was to launch just months after.
Later it was revealed that Microsoft had “skipped” some of the details when it came to the development of the Xbox 360, but why?
1. “Last Generation” Microsoft took second place to S... More »
Electronic Arts today announced that it has a signed a publishing agreement to distribute titles from leading developers Epic Games and Grasshopper Manufacture.
Under the agreement, EA will publish an all-new action game in development at Epic’s Poland-based People Can Fly studio, responsible for the Gears of War PC port and the Painkiller first-person shooter franchise. The title will be released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
“Epic is excited to work with EA Partners to launch our next big IP on the global stage,” said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic Games. “EA Partners gives independent developers like Epic the muscle of a global publisher like EA, along with the focus and flexibility of a smaller team committed to working with our individual needs.”
On the Grasshopper side of the spectrum, EA inked a deal to publish an all-new “action horror game” produced by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami and directed by Suda51 ... More »
Blu-ray player sales are sucking wind as well they should. According to Cnet, sales of the DRM infected format players are dropping like rocks.
The not so bright people out there had expected sales to skyrocket once the format war was done, but it didn't. They thought was people would ignore the massive defects of Blu-ray and buy like the dumb sheep that they are, handcuffing themselves to the Sony bank account.
Surprise, it didn't happen. US consumers are still dumb sheep, but this time they are realizing what is being done to them and they aren't biting. Sony's hope of having 50% of disc sales this year be Blu-ray are more likely to happen because of falling DVD sales than rocketing Blu-ray.
The format has three problems, DRM infections, BD-J and greed. The greed part is obvious, Sony won the format war and are trying to charge people between 50 and 100% more for a product with marginally better quality. Sure, it looks better, and the 0.07% of p... More »
The company says it will not be using Sony technology in its "game console." To quote:
"As we have stated, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360," said a Microsoft official in an email to GamePro on Monday.
"Games are what drive consumers to purchase game consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available."
The statement comes amid persistent reports that Microsoft will release a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360 given the discontinuation of the console's now defunct HD DVD drive.
On Friday, the Economic Daily News (via Digitimes) reported that Pegatron Technology has secured an order from Microsoft to manufacture Xbox 360 models with internal Blu-ray drives for release this fall.
A report from Taiwanese news source Economic Daily News says that Pegatron Technology (a recently formed subsidiary of Asus that shouldn't be confused with the Decepticon leader) has received an order from Microsoft to manufacture a Blu-ray equipped model of the Xbox 360.
According to the report, Pegatron says that it plans to begin production on the HD version of the Xbox 360 soon, with plans to ship within the next six months, aiming for a pre-holiday release.
It won't be the first time we've heard talk about Microsoft gloming on to the format, as the DigiTimes recently pegged manufacturer Lite-On as a Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive maker and Sony executives hinted that its competitor was feeling Blu to the Financial Times.
MS CEO Steve Ballmer recently went on record about the move away from HD-DVD, saying the company will "support Blu-ray in ways that make sense."
Microsoft PR, of course, continues to beat the digital distributio... More »
Despite Blu-ray's utterly devastating victory earlier this year, Sony may be in a spot of trouble. Seems the company has a bit of a problem manufacturing the discs (I swear I've heard that before), and since it's the the biggest producer of The Blu (that's how cool kids say Blu-ray), it could be the biggest obstacle to the format’s success.
Not that that really matters, since in five years we'll have a new format. Demand for The Blu is expected to JUMP this year to 48 million units; Sony only has the capacity to manufacture 38 million, and that's after an upgrade to its facilities.
And while I'm thoroughly post-disc (technically), I did have my eye on the PS3, more or less because I could use it as a Blu-ray player.
But then I heard the system doesn't output DTS-HD, so what's the point? :P
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