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Peter Dille, SVP of Marketing and PLAYSTATION® Network, was announced as the final keynote speaker for the CMO Council's 2008 CMO Summit, and he plans to share how Sony changed the game to realize new routes to revenue.

Press Release: PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - December 1, 2008) - The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council announced today that Peter Dille, Senior Vice President of Marketing and PLAYSTATION® Network for Sony Computer Entertainment America, will be a keynote speaker at its CMO Summit on December 10 and 11 in Monterey, California.

Dille will speak to the CMO Summit theme of "Routes to Revenue" drawing on his experience in creating new audiences, building deeper connections with core game players, developing digital channels and creating new sources of revenue in a highly competitive marketplace.

Dille is a 20-year marketing veteran with over 15 years in the gaming industry, including playing a pivotal role in the launch o... More »  


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Leading in-game advertising company Double Fusion will offer premium ad opportunities with THQ, SEGA, Eidos and Midway PlayStation 3 game titles.

Press Release: SAN FRANCISCO– December 1, 2008– Leading independent in-game advertising company Double Fusion has strengthened its PLAYSTATION®3 portfolio by securing exclusive advertising opportunities with the world’s top videogame publishers, including THQ, SEGA, Eidos and Midway.

The announcement comes during a record-breaking sales year for the videogames business, which propelled Double Fusion’s high double-digit revenue growth. The company continues to pave the way for advertisers looking to reach young consumers in an increasingly challenged and fragmented media landscape by offering immersive in-game marketing programmes available nowhere else.

“One only has to look at the recent videogame sales figures to realise that games are the one form of entertainment consumers don’t want to ... More »  


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Empire: Total War, is the new installment in The Creative Assembly’s Total War RTS franchise and will maintain the series 3D battles, grand turn based campaign map and rich historical flavor; while for the first time introducing 3D naval combat into the series.

Below is an interview with one of the game's developers:

WP: Who has the honor to speak with us? State your name, rank, and occupation!

Kieran Brigden, studio communications manager for Creative Assembly.

WP: Empire Total War marks the first time that the Total War series has had really intricate naval battles. Why have them now?

KB: Well, it's a combination of factors. One, we've wanted to do it for a while but the technology was ready now. Two, it's the period that's right for it. When you add naval battles to the game, you have to do it when it's interesting, enjoyable, and fun. The 18th century was the absolute height of cool naval warfare. You had thi... More »  


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Ever Since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Sega Dreamcast, the hedgehog has suffered some pretty piss poor releases. Sonic fans have been hurting for a long time now with titles like "Sonic Riders" and more recently "Sonic The Hedgehog".

What little good will gamers had left for the blue blur is quickly evaporating thanks to Sonic Unleashed, an otherwise decent Sonic game ruined by brawling levels that turn Sonic into a werehog combatant.

So why exactly do the development team keep screwing things up exactly? Turns out it's an entirely conscious decision.

In the latest IGN Three Red Lights podcast at the 19:40 mark David Clayman recalls a time when he talked to a member of the Sonic Unleashed team about this very issue...

"I asked one of the developers at TGS, you know I was like, come on everybody just wants Sonic running, li... More »  


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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.

T... More »  


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Sony has announced that an additional 32 PlayStation Portable titles now support Ad-Hoc Party.

Most games seem to be working with no problem, but there a quite a few that are suffering from issues such as slowdown when using voice chat.

To quote: Games that have no reported problems include:

* Derby Stallion P (Enterbrain)
* Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable (Square Enix)
* Initial D Street Stage (Sega)
* Nouryoku Trainer Portable 2 (sega)
* Sarugetchu P! (SCEJ)
* Dokodemo Issyo (SCEJ)
* Piposaru Academia (SCEJ)
* Bleach Heat the Soul (SCEJ)
* Bleach Heat the Soul 4 (SCEJ)
* Boku no Natsuyasumi (SCEJ)
* Minna no Golf Portable (SCEJ)
* Minna no Golf Portable 2 (SCEJ)
* Ratchet & Clank 5 (SCEJ)
* LocoRoco (SCEJ)
* Gundam Battle Royal (Bandai Namco)
* Gundam SEED Federation VS Z.A.F.T. Portable (Bandai Namco)
* Taiko no Tatsujin Port... More »  


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The infamous Xbox 360 "red ring of death" (indicating a failed unit) has caused Microsoft - and its customers - untold pain in the three years since the console's launch in 2005, and cost it $1.15bn (£738m) last year.

Microsoft has never said publicly why the console was plagued with faults: it seems that poor production quality was at the heart of the failures - an all-round problem with no single cause except impatience on the company's part as it tried to become the leader in videogame consoles.

It was an ambitious attack. Microsoft's engineers started working on the Xbox 360 at least a year after Sony's engineers began work on the PlayStation 3, yet wound up shipping a year earlier. With the first Xbox, the company lost $3.7bn (£2.3bn) over four years, mostly because costs of the box - particularly its hard drive - were too high.

Bill Gates didn't really care about the losses; that was simply the ante for getting into an exciting ne... More »  


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Gaming, like all mediums in existence, is constantly evolving. The Internet is almost unrecognizable from just 10 years ago.

Television programming has changed greatly, including such technologies as TiVo (DVR) and the unfortunate rise of reality shows on nearly every channel except Nickelodeon.

May God help us all. In the meantime, there are some trends we have noticed appearing in a lot of our favorite videogames, and those trends show a bright future for our favorite hobby. Some may disagree that these are good things, but they are indeed a part of gaming these days for better or worse.

5. Instant Co-Operative Play

Back in the day, co-op modes would typically split the screen in two in order to allow one player to move independently of the other. Split screens, however, were never very popular as they cut out the potential field of vision for both players and were often seen as a necessary nuisance. Since the Sega DreamCast... More »  


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