February 27th, 2008 Hans
Throughout Solid Snake’s adventures he managed to infiltrate a nuclear weapons disposal facility, evade enemy forces within Big Shell, and survive the savage wilderness of the Soviet Jungle. Solid Snake’s 4th mission on the Playstation will be his easiest yet – to destroy the Xbox 360.
Come June 12th, that’s exactly what Solid Snake will do when the release of MGS4 will coincide with a new 80 GB SKU that comes packaged with Metal Gear Solid 4, a Dual Shock 3 controller, free online play, free WiFi, Blu-Ray, a standard hard drive, and the most advanced home console on the marketplace for the affordable price of only $499.
The Playstation 3 is already outselling the Xbox 360 in every single region and the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 will only strengthen its lead globally. Since Metal Gear Solid 4 is a third party title, every single unit that is packaged in the 80 GB SKU of the PS3 will be a sale for Konami, a deal that has been inked between the two companies that will assure that MGS4 remains a complete exclusive to the Playstation 3 and will never be released on the Xbox 360. This deal makes sense for both companies since it will trigger unprecedented demand for the Playstation 3 console while at the same time managing to make Metal Gear Solid 4 sell better than any of the previous titles in the saga. With complete exclusitvity, Konami won’t have to waste precious dollars that are better suited towards exclusive PS3 development in order to graphically downgrade a port that spans across 8 DVDs just so it is able to release on the inferior Xbox 360 console.
Posted in Playstation 3 | 112 Comments »
February 18th, 2008 Hans
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr_j1903.htm
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses
19 February, 2008
Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content
TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.
“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”
Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.
Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.
This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.
Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
Posted in Blu-ray, Playstation 3 | 164 Comments »
February 14th, 2008 Hans
Sony has started 2008 with a bang. Not only did Sony decide the format wars this past month by wooing Warner to the superior Blu-Ray format for exclusive support, but they’ve also recently announced that the Playstation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 in the third quarter globally.
Now, it’s America’s turn to change the tides: Playstation 3 outsells the Xbox 360 in North America and nearly edges out the Wii. Here are the official January NPD figures, ranked from first to last:
1. Nintendo Wii: 274,000
2. Playstation 3: 269,000
3. Playstation 2: 265,000
4. Nintendo DS: 251,000
5. PlayStation Portable: 230,000
6. Xbox 360: 230,000
These numbers are startling on various fronts, chief among them is the price of the PS3 relative to the competition. The best selling PS3 SKU, the 80 GB, is still priced at an expensive $499, yet it managed to candidly outsell the Xbox 360 which has numerous hardware SKUs with a lower pricing of $279. In terms of revenue, there is no doubt: The Playstation 3 generated the most revenue for January.
The numbers for the Xbox 360 are utterly disastrous. The Xbox 360 in its third January has not gained any momentum on the previous years since being released, despite the price cuts and the launch of Halo 3, and this is showing in the retail sector as pyramids of unsold Xbox 360 units are gathering dust on store shelves.
Posted in Industry News, Other Systems, Playstation 3 | 62 Comments »
February 5th, 2008 Hans
Just last week Sony Defense Force reported that Sony not only managed to make a profit last quarter, but the PS3 was also outselling the Xbox 360. To add more insult to injury for Microsoft and Nintendo, EA is reporting in their latest quarterly results that Sony is the reason for the vast majority of their earnings.
Q3 FY08 Sony/EA Revenue:
PS2: $301M
PS3 $102M
PSP $74M
Total Sony Revenue: $477M
How did Sony’s competitors manage in comparison? Not well. Thankfully Sony exists in order to keep the industry alive, otherwise we would be witnessing a gaming depression larger than what was exhibited back in the 80′s when Atari released E.T. for their gaming system.
Q3 FY08 Nintendo/EA Revenue:
Wii $139M
NDS $122M
Total Nintendo/EA Revenue = $261M
What say you Reggie? Not your problem? When third party software sales are absolutely dismal despite record hardware sales for both the Wii and DS, it is your problem. Apparently, people are picking up the GameCu….err, Wii just to play Wii Sports and couldn’t care less about more prominent franchise titles, and especially third party efforts which do not sell on the system. This could spark a long-term trend that will curtail support for Nintendo platforms and lead to stifled sales. But again, Reggie, not your problem? Nintendo’s still at least making money themselves, right? Well, you’re certainly doing significantly better than our last place contender…
Total Microsoft/EA Revenue = $196M
Peter! What’s happening…..[Lumbergh moment]
Seems like you left the sinking ship just in time! Congratulations on your promotion from Microsoft to EA. I’m sure the buckets of cash you received as a sign on bonus are yours courtesy of all the support EA receives from the Sony family of products, otherwise things wouldn’t be so rosy at the EA offices would they?
EA thanks you, Sony. Gamers thank you. Here’s to an amazing 2008 for the Sony family.
Posted in Industry News | 77 Comments »
February 2nd, 2008 Peter Leess
From the Videogamer.com interview:
Videogamer.com: Does the 360 download limit cause any problems?
David Sirlin: Yes, it’s difficult to store so many 1080p graphics in such a small download size. A lot depends on the specific shading that the final art will have, and how well that shading compresses. It also makes it difficult or impossible to include all the original game’s music AND all remixed set of music. We’re still doing our best to fit within the limit we’ve been given.
Playstation Network Store has already hosted fully featured Arcade games such as Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection that weighed in at over 500MB. So, Playstation 3 owners can rest assured that they will be treated to the full 1080P Street Fighter experience at home.
Will Microsoft ever stop forcing developers to compromise games on Xbox Live Arcade?
Posted in Industry News, Other Systems | 65 Comments »
