The Official PS3 thread!

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » March 25, 2007, 1:13 pm

Winnow wrote:
vn_Tanc wrote:
This isn't me dissing the 360 cos I'm a Sony fanboy either. I love my 360 and don't own a PS3 yet. But it's the way things are. So enjoy crowing while you can compare 1st gen games on PS3 with 2-years-maturity titles on 360, because that's the only reason the comparison is bearing up just now.
You're talking three years after the 360's release. And first gen games will be out for the PS3 a year after it's released...what we're seeing aren't even that. FFXIII and MSG4 a year from now will be "first gen" and at least equal to the 360's current best although we'll have newer games on the 360 like Halo 3 to compare them with then. Who cares? Three years is a nice chunk of your life. If you need to switch by then, a 250.00 PS3 with rumble controller included won't be hard to swallow and an upgraded 360 would be much improved over the PS3 by that stage if released.

Live for the present. Microsoft has this figured out. They will switch to Blu Ray if needed (not a surprise as they already said they would if it won) and put out a new console if needed. Even a four year cycle would leave Sony with one year to have some games that were questionably better while Microsoft's hype machine pumps the next Xbox at the same time.

As of now (the present, not two years from now and three years after 360's release). A cheaper 360 has better current games and more games in the next year that are better than the more expensive PS3. Microsoft continues to focus on SDKs that make life easy for developers as well.

Why would you buy a PS3 now or in the next year? Your two games, FFXIII and MGS4 won't be out at least until then. Heavenly Sword is vastly overrated (and won't be out for many months anyway) but White Knight looks like it will be fun although not something that isn't capable of running on a 360 technically.

You typed a lot to say a big fat load of nothing there.

There are a couple of PS3 games out all ready that I'd like to check out but I don't have the money to spend.

The rest of your post is blah. My point is that eventually (under 2 years like I said) the PS3 will have titles that are beyond the capabilities of the 360. Your constant attempts to sway people's opinions here with your non-stop ranting will look pretty silly at that point.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 25, 2007, 2:11 pm

In regards to exclusives and the lame petition:

We are certainly moved that people are so passionate about our products that they would go to such extremes. At the same time we feel that allowing more people access to our content pleases far more people than it displeases (after all, we're not denying DMC4 to anyone that was already going to get it). It really is the best decision for the company and for consumers.
__________________

Christian Svensson
Capcom Entertainment Inc. - Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Research

Yeah. What he said.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » March 27, 2007, 7:17 am

Or to paraphrase:

"Have your seen our fucking dev costs?? We need to sell 2 million units to break even so you bet your fat nerdy arse we're going multiplatform. Unless Sony want to give us $8m. Which they don't."

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 27, 2007, 1:15 pm

Even the pro PS3 podcasters said it was embarrassing watching the PS3 fanbois "whine" to Capcom over DMC4. Is there so little left for PS3 owners that they weep over losing yet another exclusive?

Pull yourselves together man!

If the PS3 is the uber machine it's made up to be, having the same games on each platform shouldn't matter unless the developers release them as they are finished which would give the 360 ~ a year advantage in the development cycle. Sony should laugh in the face of having FFXIII available on the 360.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » March 27, 2007, 2:31 pm

Are you addressing me?

Like I give a fuck what platform these games come out on - I'll own them all eventually.

Anyone who cries abou the loss of exclusivity is a tard. Whether they're cryong over it's loss, or crowing over it from the other side.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 27, 2007, 2:45 pm

I wasn't addressing you.

From gamesindustry.biz:

Just days after the European launch of PlayStation 3, UK retailer Aria.co.uk has slashed the price of the console to under GBP 400 - more than GBP 25 below the recommended retail price.

The 60GB PS3 launched in Europe last Friday with an official RRP of GBP 425 / EUR 599. However, it's now available on Aria's website for GBP 340.38 excluding VAT, or GBP 399.95 inclusive.

That can't be a good sign. Shouldn't they be flying off the shelves?

From spong.com:

Under terms of strict anonymity, however, SPOnG was told by our contact at one branch of a major retail outlet, that on both Saturday and Sunday it sold more 360s than it did PS3s. Is that a bad sign? Yes. This soon after launch it would be just about acceptable for the masses of expensive, late PS3 stocks to be moving slowly. However, for the 360 to outsell it at launch weekend should come as a shock to Sony.

Oi!

From gamesindustry.biz:

Sony Australia has announced that more than 20,000 PlayStation 3 units have been sold in the territory since the console launched there on Friday.

is 20K a lot for Australia?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 30, 2007, 2:20 pm

Not exactly something that makes you want to run out and buy Rev A of the PS3 anytime soon:

Eidos has confirmed that it won't be releasing most of its major PS3 titles until next year, stating that the console's installed base will not be high enough before then.

As part of a statement released alongside the company's interim results for the six months ended December 31 2006, CEO Jane Cavanagh said, "We believe that PlayStation 3 will be a successful platform, and are developing technology and products for this console.

"However, as we do not believe that the installed base will be high enough until the second half of our 2008 financial year, most of our major product releases on the PlayStation 3 platform are not scheduled before that date"...

...Cavanagh said that the board of directors also believes the Xbox 360 and Wii will be successful, with Eidos's first titles for Nintendo's machine due out this spring.

Follow up on how much you're paying for "folding"

The Cost of Folding

From ps3.ign.com:

With the help of Stanford University, Sony recently made a version of Folding@Home available to PlayStation 3 owners worldwide. Helping out science is as simple as pressing X a couple times or even just letting your console standby for a bit. While this requires little to no work on your end, it does cost you a little cash out of your pocket each month to pay for the electricity. How much, you ask? That's what we're here for.

We've taken a few bits of information and compiled a rough and estimated chart of how much it would cost you to run Folding@Home on a PlayStation 3 for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These are estimates in the truest sense of the word. For instance, according to Stanford University's Folding@Home FAQ for PS3, a PlayStation 3 should use about 200W of power while running the application. For our electrical costs, we borrowed a chart from Nebraska's website that breaks down the average electricity costs for each state during December 2006.

lowest: Idaho | 4.78 Cent/kWh | $6.88/month
US average: 8.49 Cent/kWh | $12.23/month
highest: Hawaii | 19.28 Cent/kWh | $27.76/month

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 3, 2007, 3:51 am

Grats early Blu Ray adopters!

Dear Mr. Early Adopter, start crying. The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players of the format released after October 31 must support BD Java which is currently not standard for today’s hardware. All players released after October 31 must also hold a minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage. Those with network options will have to have 1GB of memory to support Web downloads. The main problem lies, however, with BD Java - a programming language for Blu-ray Disc media used mainly to deliver picture-in-picture for in-movie commentary and special features. “Blu-ray player requirements and BD-Java specifications have been gradually changed over and over again, which has caused a good amount of grief for player manufacturers. The new specification and requirements will ensure that all Blu-ray players manufactured past October will be able to support the full range of BD-Java capabilities, including picture in picture and more,” said optical storage analyst Wesley Novack.

Owners of current Blu-ray Disc players should rest assured that playback of Blu-ray movies will still be possible, only the BD Java-specific features will be unavailable. Unlike the HD DVD standard, Blu-ray players are not required to have Ethernet ports for firmware updates. Blu-ray machines with upgradable firmware will likely have a greater chance of conforming to the mandated format this fall. Only a couple Blu-ray movies feature picture-in-picture commentaries, those titles being Descent and Crank, though they do so without BD Java. Cleverly, and perhaps inelegantly, two complete versions of the movie are stored on a 50GB Blu-ray disc: one version contains the normal version of the film, while the second one features the picture-in-picture commentary hard-encoded on top of the film.

Blu Ray sure likes to duplicate effort. No wonder it doesn't do much besdies that with the additional storage space over HD-DVD. Sony rocks.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » April 3, 2007, 4:14 am

wow PS3 is really fucked now. thanks for the update, winnow, you miserable fucking troll.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 3, 2007, 4:30 am

Thank god for kyou's post. I didn't want to make four in a row.

Kutaragi blamed for troubles at Sony

A new report from Newsweek, spied today on GameSpot, places further blame for problems concerning the PS3 at Sony, firmly on the doorstep of Ken Kutaragi, the PlayStation godfather who was recently 'moved' into the role of Chairman at Sony Computer Entertainment. Reports in recent months had blamed Kutaragi's 'slowness' for the PS3 losing exclusive titles like GTA IV and Assassin's Creed.

The report, which includes an interview with Stringer himself, says Kutaragi was 'uncommunicative', and often failed to relay important decisions to Stringer, overall Sony head-honcho.

The interview adds that Kutaragi failed to inform Stringer of the PS3's production problems, and that he also allowed development to go over budget without informing higher-level bosses.

This being the guy that kyoukan thought could do no wrong simply because he worked for Sony and hell, they're bigger than Jesus to anyone that knows about consoles. Sony management spawns from a sacred temple somewhere deep inside Mount Fuji.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » April 3, 2007, 1:17 pm

Heh I defy you to link a post by ANYONE here giving Kutaragi that much credit.

Ken's been losing his marbles since shortly after the PS2 launched.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 3, 2007, 9:17 pm

Sales not looking so hot the second week. I suppose slashing the price on the PS3 below retail made the first week look better than it should.

After a flurry of attention over the PS3’s UK/Europe release last week, sales have dropped 82% in the country. Sales of PS3 games also took a big hit in sales since last week. Sony declined comment to GI.biz

previously posted:

From gamesindustry.biz:

Just days after the European launch of PlayStation 3, UK retailer Aria.co.uk has slashed the price of the console to under GBP 400 - more than GBP 25 below the recommended retail price.

More news from that Sony managment kyoukan worships...and it's not Kutaragi this time:

Anyway, with my hackles now slotting back into position, I have a story to relate, and – incredibly – it involves Marillion, and another botched PR stunt from Sony.

Doubtless, this story will have slipped past the games industry gossip hounds, because they all prefer to get their musical fix from tiny young men in striped blazers, skinny-fit jeans, and dishevelled, “Don’t give a shit” hairstyles which took their team of stylists four hours to tease into shape.

It turns out that I’m not the only Marillion fan with ties to the games industry. Back in February, I attended the 2007 Marillion Weekend (shut-UP), in Holland. It was basically three days of gigs, and getting really, really drunk (“Three days of Marillion gigs? You’d probably have to get really drunk!”: A.N. Hilarious Wag).

On one of the afternoons, the band took to the main stage to announce the winners of a couple of raffles, and burn some effigies of Fish, and stuff.

One of the winners very generously gave up his prize of a signed t-shirt, offering instead to auction it in aid of one of Marillion’s favoured charities (‘Victims of Prog Rock’). Suffice to say, he received a warm round of applause (mind you, I’m not sure I’d want to wear a t-shirt that someone had scribbled all over either…). I can’t remember what the t-shirt eventually went for, but it was in the region of 650 euros.

Mid-auction, the band’s keyboard player put an impromptu shout out to one “Phil Harrison”. Turns out that this was the Phil Harrison you and I know as the president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios. I’d heard rumours that he’s a friend of the band, and something of a fan of their music, but I hadn’t realised he was at the convention.

Rather than bid, Harrison offered to auction a brand new PS3, paid for from his “own pocket”. The band’s keyboard player duly started the bidding at around 100 euros, getting a couple of incremental increases from interested – but slightly bemused – fans.

However, before you could say “Fake blog fiasco”, Harrison materialised on stage to commandeer both the auction, and the microphone. Realising that this was another solid gold opportunity to promote his floundering device, he blurted out the launch date, probably mumbled something about “a new dawn of interactive entertainment”, and inexplicably re-booted the auction with a fresh starting price of 600 euros.

With this following on from an extremely generous and selfless act by one of the fans, you could clearly see the band and their representatives crying slightly. Indeed, a couple of them shuffled off into the wings, presumably to acquire a large pillow with which to smother him.

What next ensued was the one lowlight of an otherwise well-intentioned, and extremely excellent weekend. For several minutes Harrison attempted to cajole an entirely silent crowd of several thousand people into bidding for his console. Terribly, but somehow inevitably, the bidding never moved beyond Harrison’s starting price. Indeed, he became increasingly desperate as it grew clear that everyone just wanted him to go away, and nobody was going to indulge his tasteless attempt at publicity.

In total, the PS3 received one bid, for the 600 euro starting price (“The price it’ll be in UK shops”, he kindly reminded everyone) – less than the t-shirt. Even then the sole bidder clearly regretted his purchase (which he only made on the promise that the console would be signed), for he spent a minute or so bellowing like a lunatic at his fellow audience members, urging them to pick up the bidding baton, and save him from his regrettable impulse purchase: “Somebody bid! It’s only a hundred quid per autograph! Please?! Why? Why? Why?”.

Harrison eventually shuffled off the stage to the sound of tumbleweeds, most of the band having left already, doubtlessly ruing the decision to let Sony’s corporate agenda taint a decidedly un-corporate weekend.

Frankly, it was one of the most awful things I have ever witnessed. On the one hand, you had a big marquee full of 2,500 Marillion fans squirming in embarrassment (“No surprise there – I’d be squirming with embarrassment if I was a Marillion fan”: A.N. Other Hilarious Wag), while on the other hand we all probably felt like Harrison had brought it upon himself, and deserved everything he got. Which he did.

I’m sure Phil Harrison is a very nice man, and if I were earning a six figure salary, and had a new console to promote, I’d probably go mad, and try and take over a rock concert too.

Nevertheless, is this just further evidence that Sony has lost it grip on both the public relations mule, and zeitgeist ass? You be the judge."

lol

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 6, 2007, 5:50 am

Here's a long list of exclusive games for the big three consoles:

http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=6759

They list released and uneleased games so it gives you a good overall view of the current and future outlooks.

360 has the most, Wii second and PS3 brings up the rear. It's a good reference. I haven't seen anything that comprehensive before.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 10, 2007, 1:57 pm

Japanese Gamers Want Big Games To Go Multiplatform:

Famitsu readers were polled on which exclusive games they would like to see go mutiplatform. If the publishers are paying attention to the polls, this could be great news for most of us. Of course, Final Fantasy XIII was on top of the list. Personally, I am really hoping FF13 makes it to Xbox 360, which has been a bit of a rumor for a while.

Even Japanese gamers want these games to go multiplatform so they can buy a less expensive console with more games and better online support.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » April 10, 2007, 3:08 pm

Can we just rename this thread to the "Winnow Ejaculates to the Sound of his Xbox Powering Up" already? Christ, you should at least wait until one other person posts before linking your fanboi koolaid again and again.

Actually on topic, however: Will the 360 and its economy sized hard drive actually be significantly less expensive than the PS3 after tarrifs are applied? Consider that any self respecting Rang is going to want something wireless (something both the Wii and the Piii have standard, which MS really should have had, being the front runner of online gaming and all) so add the overpriced wireless adaptar into that equasion. And of course, shooters are not as big a genre in asia as RPGs (true on a worldwide scale, as well), but that has already been pointed out to you like, a bazillion times in this thread alone.

Until the 360 produces a real good exclusive RPG (Blue Dragon seems the most promising canidate), he rangs have no reason to get one. All that making FF13 cross platform will do is insure that you pirating Xbox fanbois don't have to get a PS3 to rip it off, though having Square involved in your console, even this late in the race, can't hurt to be sure.

On the flipside, Motor Storm is so fucking fun that I actually stop playing Guitaur Hero to play it. The graphics also positively blow away anything on the other consoles, but the main draw is that it is just plain fun, especially online when you can smack talk over your blue tooth headset with other people. Mind you, I hate racing games, as a general rule, but I can't stop playing this game. Sony needs a few more games to come out like this (Lair looks extremely good) and then we can save this thread as the epic monolith to Winnow's obliviousness that it is.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » April 10, 2007, 4:47 pm

Do the rangs like GTA? I'm finally gonna have to pony up and buy one of these things when 4 comes out. I imagine that there are quite a few folks in the same situation.

IMO, GTA4 is the first "MUST HAVE" title on either of these consoles. This is truly where the battle lines will form. Which console will move more units with the GTA4/holiday 2007 seasonal combo?

In my world, it's probably going to come down to which console is cheaper and has at least a few recognizable titles.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 10, 2007, 5:10 pm

masteen wrote: In my world, it's probably going to come down to which console is cheaper and has at least a few recognizable titles.

You'll be able to buy and 360, GTA4, and a real gun for the price of a PS3 so that should answer your question!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 12, 2007, 5:54 pm

Execute this Sony Employee for questioning teh Blu Ray!

Jaffe: I Would Not Have Included Blu-ray in PS3

In somewhat of a shocker, God of War creator David Jaffe has admitted that if he could change something about PS3, he would have removed its Blu-ray player and sold the console at a cheaper price. He also revealed that he might one day found his own independent studio. More within...

In part two of Geoff Keighley's Bonus Round with Sony Santa Monica Studio Creative Director David Jaffe over at GameTrailers.com, the God of War creator had a number of interesting things to say, but it was perhaps his comments in a teaser clip for part three that will draw the most attention.

When asked what he would change about the PlayStation 3, he responded, "I probably would have taken the Blu-ray out and sold it for less money." Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, but Sony certainly doesn't seem to view the inclusion of Blu-ray as a mistake. Jaffe didn't outright label it a mistake either, but he's the first Sony employee (to this editor's knowledge) to even question the need for Blu-ray.

SCE Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison and other Sony executives have repeatedly stressed the importance of the Blu-ray format, not just as a next-gen movie format, but as a game disc format that provides game developers with plenty of storage space to build highly detailed game worlds without the need for multiple discs. Microsoft has been using standard DVD-9 discs for the Xbox 360 and has thus far (in the U.S.) avoided any multiple disc scenarios through the use of highly advanced compression techniques. [Note: In Japan, Blue Dragon was released on three discs.]

Earlier on in part two of the Bonus Round, Jaffe once again commented on his love for smaller downloadable games, such as Calling All Cars. Echoing sentiments he expressed to GameDaily BIZ during a GDC interview, Jaffe commented, "I want to do games that take 10-13 months; I want to do games that aren't always story-driven, that are more gameplay-driven."

Interestingly, when Jaffe was asked about the possibility of one day starting his own independent studio, he seemed to embrace the idea as one he's already given much thought to. "I think it's a great idea and it's an idea that I've explored and will continue to explore," he said. "You never really know – Sony's been a great home for a long time and whether or not it's with an independent studio or staying within the walls of Sony, I always want to be able to contribute to Sony's [camp], but the specific way to get to that destination is under discussion right now. So whether or not that becomes a full fledged company or it becomes a more focused role within Sony, which is sort of all about these [smaller] games is sort of TBD at the moment."

For Jaffe, it's not just a matter of his enjoying creating smaller titles, but it also comes down to his realization during the God of War development period that he just can't do those big, epic titles anymore. "God of War was an eye-opener for me; all I did was live at that studio," he revealed.

"This is your life. It's the one you get, for the moment anyway, and it doesn't make sense to do things other than what makes you excited," Jaffe said. "For me now that I've gotten the 'big game' out of my system, this is what's in my system now."

And in typical outspoken Jaffe fashion, he remarked that big games aren't necessarily "better" than smaller ones and added regarding the drive to constantly create big blockbusters, "It's like, 'F**k you capitalist society that says all I need to do is work and contribute to the bottom line. F**k you up your a**.' I want a life."

Jaffe also said that while Calling All Cars, which uses the Warhawk engine, obviously doesn't maximize the PS3's power, "It's [still] a pretty advanced game under the hood; there's a lot going on." The important thing to remember, he said, is that it's $9.99 and fun to play. Of note, Jaffe did admit to a "mistake" of sorts on the development of Calling All Cars. He said that because the game is going to appeal to real gamers anyway (not "soccer moms"), it might have been a wiser marketing move to go with an "edgier or more mature" thematic on top of the same gameplay.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 19, 2007, 8:46 pm

Oooooh, that's gotta hurt!

lol

Square Enix Confirms FFXIII Is Not Exclusive To PS3

In a huge blow to Sony, Motomu Toriyama of Square Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy XIII, the blockbuster RPG highly anticipated by millions of fans of the series, will not be an exclusive game for the PlayStation 3 console. The Final Fantasy XIII project currently consists of two games for the PS3 as well as a mobile game but now it appears that other consoles will be receiving Final Fantasy XIII as well. The big question is which console Square Enix plans to support. The Xbox 360 is easily a very popular speculation choice but one must not rule out the Nintendo DS handheld and or the Nintendo Wii since Square Enix has been very impressed and pleased with the Wii's user base and the DS has already received the Final Fantasy treatment a few times.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » April 19, 2007, 8:55 pm

We will see if the 360 is one of them, considering how they just threw Red Octane under the bus. Development houses tend to avoid consoles that kill their popularity.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 19, 2007, 9:02 pm

No idea if the 360 will get FFXIII but they'd sell a ton of them and I'm sure Microsoft is doing what it can. Wii would blow for graphics...that would be a tragedy if FFXIII ends up on the Wii...all jaggy.

I'm sure some sort of DS FFXIII is in the works.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 24, 2007, 6:12 pm

First Porn and now Walmart picks HD-DVD. Dual HD-DVD/Blu Ray players will probably be cheap by the holiday season in 2008 so I doubt there will be a clear winner this year or ever, but HD-DVD certainly gets a boost from the evil, local store killing, Walmarts!

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html

Wal-Mart Names HD DVD the Winner

By: Rob Enderle
April 23rd, 2007
Page 1 of 1

There is one retailer that has the power to call the winner of the protracted Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD fight and that vendor is Wal-Mart. Over the weekend they apparently leaked plans to bring in a massive number of low cost (possibly sub $200) HD DVD players for Christmas.

The manufacturing side of this has apparently been in the works for a few years but this is the first time we have had projected prices for the result.

Why Wal-Mart, Why Now?

Wal-Mart uses DVDs to build store traffic. They tend to subsidize the price for the movies they feature to get folks into the stores and once there, these folks tend to buy other things. DVDs have been so effective for the company they threw their body at movie downloads initially and delayed the related services by several years. However, they have now realized that this kind of thing is coming regardless and have brought out their own movie download service to compete. But that doesn’t address the store traffic benefit that will be evaporating as people move away from DVDs for standard definition downloadable movies.

Wal-Mart sees the new high definition formats as a way to bring in store traffic again but they realized that won’t happen unless the players are affordable and there is only one standard. They recognized their own power in being king maker previously and are now using that power to drive the format that works best for them. They could care less about the technology as this is all about making money and they (like every other retailer in this space) know that two formats won’t allow the market to move outside of the fringes and the dual-mode players are simply way too expensive.

So they need one standard and a lot of players in market before their DVD customers wander off to download land and stops coming to Wal-Mart for movies.

Why HD-DVD and not Blu-Ray?

For Wal-Mart the only real metric is cost. Wal-mart doesn’t really make money off of the movies and do not sell high-end home theater equipment. They are known for aggressive prices and, as mentioned above, they subsidize their DVD sales. They needed something that could sell for under $200 soon and they needed the lowest cost of the new formats. This is where HD DVD shines, not only had Toshiba agreed to license to low cost manufacturers early on, but HD DVDs are pressed on the same lines that regular DVDs are, they require no major equipment change out and the blanks, when compared to Blu-Ray are less expensive as well.

This made the decision simple, Blu-Ray was just too expensive to make this work and any technical advantages were insignificant against Wal-Mart’s need for the lowest cost offering. For them it is about price and that is where HD DVD clearly has the sustainable advantage.

What does this Mean?

It means that any studio wanting Wal-Mart’s support after year end had better be selling HD DVD movies. Wal-Mart won’t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them.

In short, the Blu-Ray aligned studios will now have to either support both formats or risk losing much of Wal-Mart's business and given how material this business is to them, you have to think that an anti-Wall-Mart decision would have a material impact on their bonuses and career longevity. It certainly puts Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony, in a particularly uncomfortable position.

So, if this move by Wal-Mart is true , and it appears to be (but we won’t know for sure for a few months yet), the format war is likely over and Wal-Mart has declared the winner. [shadow=][/shadow]

Post by **Sylvus** » April 24, 2007, 7:44 pm

and, in other news, ars technica announced in the last week that Blu Ray was outselling HD DVD 3:1. or somesuch, the link was at work and i'm at home.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 24, 2007, 8:01 pm

There's no doubt Blu Ray is outselling HD-DVD right now. HD/Blu Ray players haven't come close to reaching a critical mass that would make it matter. If Wal-Mart pumps out the sub 200.00 players and hypes HD-DVD, it will make a difference I'm sure.

I plan to eventually buy a dual mode HD player but am in no rush at all to buy a player. I'll start grabbing the HD-DVDs when they become more mainstream and stick to HD-HBO, or grab the HD version of my DVDs off the newsgroups for now. You can fit 33 HD movies on a Terabyte Hard Drive! That's $9.00/movie for a $299.00 drive.

Personally, I don't mind the 7-800mb Xvids and you can fit about 1,250 of those on a Terabyte drive for easy HTPC/Network access.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » April 25, 2007, 7:28 am

Might wanna hold off before celebrating an HD-DVD victory Winnow.

Check out the edit on http://laptops.engadget.com/2007/04/20/ ... n-the-way/

The whole article that you posted was also derived from a post on the AVS forum. Apparently the language is such that it could mean Blu-Ray as well as HD-DVD since it only mentions Blu-Light HD-DVD.

There's been no type of press release about this from either Wal-Mart or the HD-DVD Consortium either so I'm willing to bet that article is all purely conjecture based on a forum post at this point.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » April 25, 2007, 9:41 am

Whichever format Wal-Mart chooses will probably end up knocking the other far too low in the market to really be a contender. The amount of exposure to the "masses" that putting the product on their shelves can attain...scary.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » April 25, 2007, 11:49 am

Given that WalMart subsidized DVd's to get people in the stores for other purchases is incredible to me.

I'd never realised the draw power of a cheap DVD before.

It would be an interesting position for Walmart through to sell the PS3 and it's games yet not sell the accompanying movie format at all.

If this truly comes to pass, it'll be interesting to see how fast the different studios start cranking out HD-DVD titles.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » April 26, 2007, 1:56 am

Japan console sales week ending 22-Apr.

Console.. Week ..Weekly ..Total
DS .. 125 ..126,157 ..(-3%) ..16,444,104
Wii .. 21 ..75,952 ..(+8%) ..2,244,020
PSP ..124 ..29,405 ..(+11%) ..5,447,385
PS2 ..373 ..12,128 ..(-11%) ..21,847,292
PS3 ..24 ..10,925 ..(-17%) ..885,475
360 ..72 ..2,666 ..(-8%) ..376,500
GBA .318 ..1,316 ..(-6%) ..16,678,823
GC ..293 ..186 ..(-9%) ..4,019,836

Sony better find some creative ways to get PS3 numbers moving. 900,000 after 6 months isn't too horrible I guess but their weekly sales has only been shrinking. Nintendo on the other hand still showing crazy numbers. Where will it all end? From the looks of it it would seem Sony has lost their #1 position they held with the PS2 to Nintendo with the DS/Wii combo and I doubt they will regain it anytime soon. If evah!

(formatting crappy because phpBB sucks for tables.)

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » April 26, 2007, 3:23 pm

Kutaragi retires from his position at Sony/Playstation.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/playstation/ke ... 255545.php

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » April 27, 2007, 9:55 pm

Good. He had too narrow a scope and no idea how to move forward.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » April 30, 2007, 5:35 pm

http://www.lunabean.com/news/20070430_t ... ssteps.php

Top 10 Playstation 3 missteps

The Playstation 3 has had a bumpy ride thus far. Over the past few months I've opined about various wrong turns and I even offered Sony a piece of my mind, for free (I'm still waiting for that 32" Bravia as a thank you...geez), called How to save the PS3.

Today, however, I figured I'd come up with a nice, easy-to-read top 10 list of the missteps Sony has made. So, without further adieu, here we go...

10 - The "Spiderman" font. Why choose a font that already stands for something? It only serves to distract the gamer and make him/her think about Spiderman when they should be thinking about the PS3. On another note, I'm very excited about this week's debut of Spider-Man 3. See, I'm already thinking of something that's not the PS3 by just mentioning the font. My spidey senses are tingling...in a bad way.

9 - Lack of force feedback (vibration) in the controller. Much was made about Sony's decision to emulate the Wii's tilt motion controls. Whether or not you think Sony ripped it off is beside the point. The fact that they couldn't figure out how to get vibration and motion control into the controller, and then, as cover, came out and said vibration is overrated and not necessary, really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

8 - Lack of HD cables. Yet another poor decision by Sony who ostensibly claimed that the true HD buff would want to purchase their own cables when it seems Sony was just too cheap to throw in the very cables that would make the PS3's highly touted HD visuals come to life. This is an example of how being cheap actually ended up costing Sony money.

7 - Underestimating the Wii. Sony should have been more prepared for a battle for the hearts and minds of gamers, which Nintendo has definitely won. The $250 Wii should have been on Sony's radar as a potential threat, but their hubris allowed them to ignore it and put it down. Sony, therefore, effectively put down the gamers who would buy a Wii, thus making many of us not want to buy a PS3, just out of principle.

6 - The constant putting down of the customer. Number 7 leads into this one. Sony, throughout much of last year, continually put down their customers, saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, that they should shut up about the price and stop complaining. The PS3 is a good value, they constantly reiterated. Then, there are a variety of classic quotes including one referring to US gamers as "cheap".

5 - Coming out with two versions. A good deal of talk prior to the launch dealt with what console had what. Card reader? 20GB or 60GB HDD? Why confuse the buyer? Why distract the buyer? And, to the average person, $500 and $600 are the same thing: both prices are prohibitively expensive. There's a reason why the 20GB version was discontinued.

4 - No plan for online play at launch. Playstation "Home" was announced last month, three months after launch. You know, you can tout your online gaming capabilities all you want, but if you don't have a plan at launch, then one of your key features is really just a lie, isn't it?

3 - No "must have" games at launch. Console launch lineups are notoriously sparse and many bad games can be forgiven, but the Playstation 3's launch lineup was one of the worst to date. "Resistance Fall of Man" was the only semi-hit and most of the remainder of the games were ports of older games. Compare that to the 360's Perfect Dark Zero, Call of Duty 2, Kameo: Elements of Power, and Project Gotham Racing 3 and the Wii's Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wii Sports.

2 - Blu-Ray. Who cares about Blu-Ray? My guess is about 73 people. Okay, okay, I know it's slightly more than that...like 82. My point is that videophiles care about Blu-Ray. That was who bought the launch PS3s, not gamers. This fact escaped Sony and was a fundamental error. Gamers needed to have been the focus, not the living room entertainment crowd. To tell you the truth, I don't care if my game comes on Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, DVD, CD, or cardboard. A good game is a good game and to tie Sony's hopes for the adoption of Blu-Ray to the PS3 was, and is, a disservice to gamers.

1 - Price. $600 for a console? Even if it was gold-plated, dusted with saffron, and served caviar out of its disc tray I still wouldn't pay $600 for a console. Again, gamers are a lot smarter than Sony gives them credit for. We all know that the price will drop between year one and year two, which is about the same time that some decent games will be out for it. In the meantime, we'll all continue to play our PS2s, Wiis, and 360s until there is a compelling game and a price break.

I agree with most of those.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » May 1, 2007, 7:19 am

re: #9. If people are going to post "informative" lists like this they should get their fucking facts straight.

Fact: Putting vibration into that controller is child's play
Fact: The reason they didn't was they were getting sued for something like $180m for infringing patent with the dual shock rumble feature.
Fact: They've since settled and OMG SHOCKER will release a new controller with rumble built in.

edit: But, yes, that smug bald twat Harrison claiming "lol rumble is so out of date lol" was a massive misstep. But then so is letting that monkey open his mouth in public at any time. Or doing something REALLY dumb like putting him in charge of worldwide internal studio development. . .

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » May 1, 2007, 1:44 pm

vn_Tanc wrote:re: #9. If people are going to post "informative" lists like this they should get their fucking facts straight.

Fact: Putting vibration into that controller is child's play
Fact: The reason they didn't was they were getting sued for something like $180m for infringing patent with the dual shock rumble feature.
Fact: They've since settled and OMG SHOCKER will release a new controller with rumble built in.

edit: But, yes, that smug bald twat Harrison claiming "lol rumble is so out of date lol" was a massive misstep. But then so is letting that monkey open his mouth in public at any time. Or doing something REALLY dumb like putting him in charge of worldwide internal studio development. . .

I disagree. I'm faily certain whoever put the list together knew the 'facts'. But really the perception is the reality. And the peception, created by Sony themselves, is that Rumble was useless and nobody cared about it and nobody will miss it, etc etc. Nothing along the lines of "Hey, we'd love to include it but due to legal issues it is not possible at this time."

Having said that I don't exactly agree with the statement that they couldn't figure out how to get vibration and motion control into the controller. Unless Sony actually came out and said that but I don't think they did. At least I don't recall reading anything along those lines.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » May 1, 2007, 7:28 pm

In my mind, there are only three real mistakes they made.

First, the two models. This served no real purpose. They should have just stuck with one $600 model.

Second, the PR guy should have been canned early. Honestly, their own shitty PR has done more harm to the Ps3 than anything else.

Finally, they should have waited to release until they had ample numbers of units AND at least two must have titles ready to go. At a BARE MINIMUM they should have waited for Motorstorm to be ready and made an in house RPG for the shelves at the same time. This is the biggest mistake that all three consoles made and Sony should have had the sense to avoid it.

The rest of that list is laughable (spider man font, wtf?), equally true of other consoles, or both.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 1, 2007, 7:48 pm

I agree with the entire list except for the Spiderman font. I don't really care about that.

Not including rumble was a huge fuck up and cost will continue to be an issue for the general consumer for a long time to come.

It's a given that Sony's PR people have lost their minds. Sony PS3 commercials are the worst and the decapitated goat thing didn't win them any points.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 2, 2007, 7:37 pm

Final Fantasy Creator Slams Sony

Sakaguchi-san shares his frustrations with Sony, with comments on Microsoft and Nintendo not far behind.

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has criticised Sony’s Playstation 3 console insisting that it is too difficult to develop for, and accused Microsoft of failing to promote the Xbox 360 efficiently in Japan.

Speaking to US publication EGM, Sakaguchi proclaimed bluntly that the reason he has decided not to develop games for the PS3 is because "The machine's architecture is tricky, and I don't like Ken Kutaragi."

Moving on, he offered his views on Nintendo’s Wii console, branding it "intriguing", though added "Right now, I have no plans on making a game for the Wii."

Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker studio recently issued the Xbox 360 game Blue Dragon last December, which in turn gave the fledging console a much needed boost in sales. Up until that point, sales of Microsoft’s next-gen console in the region had been relatively poor, which Sakaguchi blames entirely on the company’s inability to communicate its products to Japanese consumers.

“Microsoft has to change its marketing strategy in Japan. There are a lot of excellent games on the 360, far better games than what's on the Wii or PS3. But not a lot of people in Japan have a clear idea what games like Gears of War are all about”, he said.

Lastly, he also briefly touched on Microsoft’s efforts outside of the console market, adding, “Just look at the Windows Vista commercial - it's terrible.”
May 2, 2007

Wow, the Lord God Master of everything to everyone Final Fantasy creator says PS3 sucks ass to program for (for those of you still in denial about it), the 360 has better games, and all Microsoft needs to do is promote it better in Japan.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » May 6, 2007, 2:04 pm

The PS3 install base will overtake that of the 360 by the end of this year.
And MS Xbox division has lost $24b so far including something mad like $700m this last year.

How are you blinkered fan boys spinning this one?

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » May 6, 2007, 2:19 pm

vn_Tanc wrote:The PS3 install base will overtake that of the 360 by the end of this year.

Unless something changes (like a price cut) I'll honestly be surprised if this ends up happening by the end of 2007.

Here's how some analysts think it will play out. It's all over the place!

Strategy Analytics [Jul-05] (Worldwide Through 2012)
Sony PS3 - 121.8 million (61%)
Xbox 360 - 58.8 million (30%)
Nintendo Wii - 18 million (9%)
Total - 198.6 million

Kagan Research (U.S. Through 2010)
Sony PS3 - 56.5%
Xbox 360 - 28.5%
Nintendo Wii - 15%

Piper Jaffray (U.S. Through 2008)
Xbox 360 - 19.6 million (48.3%)
Sony PS3 - 15.5 million (38.2%)
Nintendo Wii - 5.5 million (13.5%)
Total - 40.6 million

Citigroup (U.S. Through 2008)
Xbox 360 - 19.8 million
Sony PS3 - 11.0 million

UBS [Jan-06] (U.S. Through 2009)
Sony PS3 - 23 million (43%)
Xbox 360 - 20 million (38%)
Nintendo Wii - 10 million (19%)
Total - 53 million

Friedman Billings Ramsey (U.S. Through 2010)
Xbox 360 - 24.6 million (40.7%)
Sony PS3 - 23.3 million (38.6%)
Nintendo Wii - 12.5 million (20.7%)
Total - 60.4 million

In-Stat (Worldwide Through 2010)
Sony PS3 - 50%
Xbox 360 - 28.6%
Nintendo Wii - 21.2%

Wedbush Morgan Securities (U.S. and Europe Through 2010)
Sony PS3 - 45%
Xbox 360 - 35%
Nintendo Wii - 20%

Merrill Lynch (Worldwide Through 2008)
Xbox 360 - 47%
Sony PS3 - 33%
Nintendo Wii - 20%

IDG (U.S. Through 2008)
Xbox 360 - 15.5 million (43.3%)
Sony PS3 - 13.5 million (37.7%)
Nintendo Wii - 6.8 million (19.0%)
Total - 35.8 million

P.J. McNealy (Worldwide Through 2007)
Xbox 360 - 21 to 23 million
Sony PS3 - 13 to 16 million
Nintendo Wii - 12 to 14 million

Yankee Group (North America Through 2011)
Sony PS3 - 30 million (44%)
Xbox 360 - 27 million (40%)
Nintendo Wii - 11 million (16%)
Total - 68 million

Nomura Securities (Worldwide Through 2011)
Sony PS3 - 71 million
Nintendo Wii - 40 million

Enterbrain / Famitsu (Worldwide Through 2009)
Sony PS3 - 34 million (39.1%)
Xbox 360 - 28 million (32.2%)
Nintendo Wii - 25 million (28.7%)
Total - 87 million

IDG (North America Through 2010)
Xbox 360 - 23.9 million (39.2%)
Sony PS3 - 23.5 million (38.5%)
Nintendo Wii - 13.6 million (22.3%)
Total - 61 million

Merrill Lynch (Worldwide Through March 2011)
Xbox 360 - 39%
Sony PS3 - 34%
Nintendo Wii - 27%

Strategy Analytics [Nov-06] (Worldwide Through 2012)
Sony PS3 - 121.8 million (59.47%)
Xbox 360 - 59.7 million (29.15%)
Nintendo Wii - 23.3 million (11.38%)
Total - 204.8 million

SFG Research (North America Through 2010)
Xbox 360 - 29.4 million (43.8%)
Sony PS3 - 24.2 million (36.1%)
Nintendo Wii - 13.5 million (20.1%)
Total - 67.1 million

SFG Research (Worldwide Through 2010)
Sony PS3 - 62 million (46.6%)
Xbox 360 - 46 million (34.6%)
Nintendo Wii - 25 million (18.8%)
Total - 133 million

Screen Digest (U.S. Through 2010)
Xbox 360 - 42%
Sony PS3 - 38%
Nintendo Wii - 20%

Screen Digest (Japan Through 2010)
Sony PS3 - 64%
Nintendo Wii - 25%
Xbox 360 - 11%

IDC (Worldwide Through 2008)
Nintendo Wii - 32.1 million (37%)
Xbox 360 - 30.4 million (35%)
Sony PS3 - 24.5 million (28%)
Total - 87 million

UBS [May-07] (U.S. Through 2010)
Xbox 360 - 22 million (35.5%)
Sony PS3 - 21 million (33.9%)
Nintendo Wii - 19 million (30.6%)
Tolal - 62 million

I think that over the long-haul the PS3 will overtake the 360. Especially if they can do some proice cuts and get it into the $400 range. I just don't see it hapening by the end of 2007 though. At least that's my prediction. Add it to the list!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 6, 2007, 3:02 pm

vn_Tanc wrote:The PS3 install base will overtake that of the 360 by the end of this year.
And MS Xbox division has lost $24b so far including something mad like $700m this last year.

How are you blinkered fan boys spinning this one?

That's chump change! MS will make this year's losses back from royalties and settlements Sony had to pay Immersion to get back rumble...but you can add that amount to Sony's losses for the year! Quite a loss just to add a last gen feature that nobody wants!

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » May 7, 2007, 11:06 am

vn_Tanc wrote:The PS3 install base will overtake that of the 360 by the end of this year.
And MS Xbox division has lost $24b so far including something mad like $700m this last year.

How are you blinkered fan boys spinning this one?

I would be willing to bet on you eating your words by the end of this year.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » May 8, 2007, 6:20 am

Good good. I'll stand by my prediction and we'll see how things stand on 31st December 2007. Now we just have to agree on a reliable source of info for the figures.

And rofl@biglist of "analyst" predictions. Those dicks have NEVER predicted anything that wasn't utterly obvious. Remember the "zomg $25m dev budgets" predictions those monkeys came up with when the PS2 launched?

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » May 8, 2007, 11:02 am

vn_Tanc wrote:Good good. I'll stand by my prediction and we'll see how things stand on 31st December 2007. Now we just have to agree on a reliable source of info for the figures.

And rofl@biglist of "analyst" predictions. Those dicks have NEVER predicted anything that wasn't utterly obvious. Remember the "zomg $25m dev budgets" predictions those monkeys came up with when the PS2 launched?

Let me know what source you want to use, im sticking to my guns as well.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » May 8, 2007, 11:29 am

Internet tradition would dictate that we pull figures out of our arses then argue that they're true!

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » May 8, 2007, 11:43 am

vn_Tanc wrote:Internet tradition would dictate that we pull figures out of our arses then argue that they're true!

Perfect!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 13, 2007, 2:30 pm

Metal Gear Solid 4 Delayed until March 2008.

Awwww, no FFXIII until 2008, no MGS4 until 2008. It's only 10 more months to wait! Less than a year at least!

http://www.deeko.com/news/?p=1321

360 games Halo 3 and Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, etc etc etc look to be on schedule for this fall (that's 2007) At least PS3 will get to share the release of GTA IV this year.

Maybe Microsoft is going for the coup de grâce and rubbing out the last worthwhile exclusive title with a MGS4 360 release. (Unless you count Grand Turismo as an exclusive with its lack of damage physics model compare to Forza 2)

Man, even the 360 started having decent games around this time last year. Now Halo 3 can own the holiday season and maybe they'll release a GoW 2 just to mess with MGS4 early next year.

That Cell Processor must be a joy to work with. Just you wait! 2 years from now... +1 day tomorrow.

Keep on folding PS3ers!

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » May 13, 2007, 7:04 pm

Not to burst your ego inflated bubble, but FF games typically run 2 or more years apart because of the amount of work put into them, so 2008 is nothing unusual.

Two more shooters for the 360 (and ones that are sequals at that) is not exactly breaking news, either. Blue Dragon is the title they need to do well. Specifically, they need it to not peter out as fast as it did in Japan.

Oh, and don't even bother trying to compare racing games on the platforms. The fucking Wii has a better racing game than anything on the 360 right now and if you have played Motor Storm (or seen the demos for GT or Ridge Racer) you know how much you are farting in the wind on that one.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 14, 2007, 3:43 am

Are you saying Lost Odyssey is a shooter?

Halo 3 yes (best selling shooter)

You know about Blue Dragon.

Some Lost Odyssey ingame play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0td6QUtWgkU

It looks like FFX style combat to me. Same FFX creator.

So Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey to satisfy the RPGers and Halo 3 to satisfy the FPS and Online Team FPSers, and Mass Effect to just add to the pile. Ignoring the 360/PC combo games that won't be on PS3.

Enjoy 10 more months of nothing (can grab GTA IV for the PS3 instead of 360 I suppose)...IF those games come out in 10 months. Any longer and they'll run into GoW 2. (maybe Sony will have a game out that can match the first GoW by then)

Blue Dragon looks fun. A little more colorful than Lost Odyssey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azs5SWsJ ... ed&search=

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » May 14, 2007, 4:51 am

So, which console is bestest?

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » May 14, 2007, 12:45 pm

Is there any way I can take my name off as the author of this thread?

It's kinda spiraled into something I don't really want my name on..

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » May 14, 2007, 1:30 pm

Too bad! That's the chance you take when starting threads here.

I say it's fine as it is. At least most of it remains contained to this thread.