July 23rd, 2008 Hans
This article is too good to pass up. Perhaps we should invite Jane Wells and her son to be guest editors on Sony Defense Force; they speak nothing but the truth –the power of the Playstation, the awesomeness of Blu-Ray, and the magnificence of Metal Gear Solid 4 compels Xbots to trade in their loud, noisy, ugly, horribly built, RROD’ing Xbox 360′s in for the superior Playstation 3. As last month’s NPD pointed out, gamers everywhere are waking up.
The Ultimate Proof Sony Is Winning
Posted By:Jane Wells
Topics:Video Games | Movies & Film Studios
Sectors:Travel and Leisure
Companies:Sony Corporation
Forget the analysts. Forget the NPD sales figures. Forget the CEO’s. I live with the ultimate expert on the video game industry—my 16-year-old son.
He not only plays video games, he watches every show about them on G4, he participates in chat rooms about them on the internet, he competes in a variety of games on a variety of platforms. He always tells me the latest trend three months before I read about it in the media.
But he’s never been a PlayStation fan. Sure, he had a PS1, but as soon as the Xbox came out, it was game over. He loved the Xbox graphics, and once he was old enough to play “Halo,†he loved the games. He graduated to the Xbox 360, Xbox Live, “Gears of War,†etc. He even hung in there during the overheating Xbox “red ring of death†phase. Other than a two-year detour/obsession playing “World of Warcraft†on his computer, he has always been an Xbox fanboy. Sony just didn’t have great games.
Last week he recorded all of G4’s E3 coverage so he could watch it after work (he’s got a summer job to save money to buy gas and videogames, in that order). He was very excited after Microsoft had its news conference. “You can stream Netflix movies onto the Xbox 360!†he exclaimed.
Then he watched the Sony press conference, and the world as we know it changed. After hearing about “Metal Gear Solid 4â€, as well as other PlayStation exclusives in the pipeline and the awesomeness of Blu-ray, he promptly packed up his Xbox 360 and all his games and went down to Game Stop to trade them in. He bought a PS3 and “Metal Gear Solid 4.†I had to be there to approve the purchase of the M-rated game since he’s not yet 17, and I was surprised at how rapturous the Game Stop employees were about Sony. They then sold him a USED copy of “Metal Gear Solid 4.†“How can the game already be used?†my son asked. “Because some people get frustrated if they don’t have ‘cheats’,†he was told. But the cashier assured him that the game “was just as good as new.†My son asked, “How can that be?†“Because PlayStation players are ninjas!†was the response.
I’m happy to say my son didn’t accept this answer. Perhaps that’s because he’s now spending his own hard-earned money to purchase these games. He said, “Seriously, how does that work?†And the Game Stop fanboys explained that Sony now has a special coating on Blu-ray game discs which makes them virtually scratch-proof. We shall see.
One thing we do know. We may not be able to stream Netflix movies onto the console (yet) but now we can start ordering them on Blu-ray.
As we left the store, I said to him, “I never thought I’d see you with a PlayStation.†“Neither did I,†he replied.
Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/25782540
Posted in Features, Industry News, Other Systems, Playstation 3 | 246 Comments »
July 18th, 2008 Hans
2008 is the year of the Playstation 3 and the year that we all forgot the Xbox 360 even existed.
PlayStation 3 405.5k
PSP 337.4k
Playstation 2 188.8k
Xbox 360 219.8k
Wii 666.7k
Nintendo DS 783k
01. PS3 METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUN OF THE PATRIOTS KONAMI 774.6K (Does not include bundles with PS3 hardware)
02. NDS GUITAR HERO ON TOUR ACTIVISION 422.3K
03. 360 NINJA GAIDEN II MICROSOFT 372.7K
04. WII FIT W/BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA 372.7K
05. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA 359.1K
06. 360 BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY ELECTRONIC ARTS 346.8K
07. WII MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA 322.4K
08. WII LEGO INDIANA JONES: THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURE LUCASARTS 294.5K
09. NDS LEGO INDIANA JONES: THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURE LUCASARTS 267.8K
10. PS2 LEGO INDIANA JONES: THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURE LUCASARTS 260.3K
Posted in Industry News, Other Systems, Playstation 3 | 204 Comments »
July 14th, 2008 Hans
The recent announcement by Square-Enix that Final Fantasy XIII would remain a Playstation 3 exclusive in Japan marks the death of the Xbox 360 in the Land of the Rising Sun. Even more startling is that Square managed to announce this at Micosoft’s own press conference, only confirming Square’s commitment to the Playstation 3 brand and its desire to see the Xbox 360 flounder.
On a related note, the massive development costs for the Final Fantasy XIII project have forced Square to announce an inferior Xbox 360 port in North America and Europe. Spanning 6 DVDs, Final Fantasy XIII will release on the Xbox 360 but only because Sony doesn’t care about the franchise enough to subsidize its enormous development costs.
As always, in the end Sony wins and Microsoft loses. Tomorrow, it begins.
Posted in Industry News, Other Systems, Playstation 3 | 230 Comments »
July 9th, 2008 Hans
SDF has obtained leaked details of the E3 press conferences for every single major first party attending this year’s event. Here’s the rundown of what you can expect at this year’s show which starts next week.
Microsoft:
Microsoft, like Nintendo before them, will copy Sony and come out with their own brand of motion control. The SixAxis revolutionized the gaming world with the motion control phenomenon we’re seeing today and Nintendo has already copied it with their Wii mote controller. Microsoft is next in line to copy Sony, and from what we hear the technology offers nothing new and is very disappointing. Microsoft will focus this year’s E3 on a shift away from hardcore gamers and will attempt to compete in the casual arena. Expect to see a direct copy of Sony’s HOME service in some form or fashion. This is simply a company where “innovation” is nowhere to be found. Expect massive disappointments on the gaming front too as Gears of War 2 looks downgraded compared to the original and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts leaves us wondering why Rare is still in business. Microsoft may have some new game announcements, however they will all look terrible.
Sony:
Expect to see Sony return to form at E3. They will start the conference off with a bang by detailing the tremendous sales growth of the Playstation franchise in 2008. The Xbox 360 continues to sell in last place in every single region while the Playstation 3 enjoys the first place crown for next generation systems. There will be quite a few magaton announcements, especially regarding a title that we are under strict NDA not to speak about that will amaze everyone. It is simply the best looking title ever. If you thought Killzone 2 made the Xbox 360 look like a Wii, you ain’t seen nothing yet — and no, this title is not God of War III (which will also be revealed and which also looks incredible). Game of the show? Little Big Planet.
Nintendo:
Nintendo will devote much of its time at the conference discussing how the Wii’s sales are nowhere near as good as the Playstation 2. Nintendo is deeply entrenched in the last-generation race against Sony’s 100+ million juggernaut. Unfortunately for them, the Wii still has 80+ million consoles to sell before they can come close to overtaking Sony. Luckily, this will never happen due to the Wii’s lackluster ongoing sales. Expect Nintendo to focus more on low-IQ gaming; shifting resources away from hardcore franchises and more into peripherals and games that soccer moms and young children can only enjoy because they don’t understand the concept of buttons.
Posted in Features, Other Systems, Playstation 3 | 190 Comments »
July 2nd, 2008 Hans
The groundbreaking 2.4 Firmware update which boasts of in-game XMB access is reported to brick the Xbox 360 in more ways than one (both literally and figuratively). Sony Defense Force has received an anonymous tip from a poster by the name of “XboxHater4Lyfe” that updated his Playstation 3 to the latest 2.4 firmware update and then subsequently turned on his Xbox 360 only to find that his 360 had received the infamous “RROD” system error.
Clearly, this is a sign. We’ll update you on this story as we receive further developments. We expect Microsoft to make an announcement soon.
Posted in Industry News, Other Systems, Playstation 3, Playstation Network | 160 Comments »
