S-Times -

Microsoft: Sony Is Playing Catch-Up To Us

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:52:23 -0400

Microsoft and Sony have been heated rivals ever since the first PlayStation and first Xbox hit the scene so many years ago.

And by the way the two companies talk about each other, it looks like the two will be talking smack until the end of time.

In a recent interview with 1UP, Shane Kim of Microsoft was asked whether the new Xbox Live revamp was due to massive improvements in Sony's PlayStation Network since it launched.

"Well, first, I disagree with the notion that Sony's breathing down our necks," Kim responded. "We've been doing this for a long time, and in the process of continually designing, tweaking, adjusting and improving our service, this was a natural progression of where our service was going. Sony's actually in the position of having to play catch-up. This was something that we needed to do not only to stay ahead of the curve, and draw in new consumers to what we offer, but this also obviously benefits our current installed base as well."

BioWare May Jump Into iPhone Game

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:43:50 -0400

Now that multiple pubs are putting out games for the iPhone, who else is looking to jump aboard the bandwagon?

According to BioWare co-CEO Greg Zeschuk, the company has multiple people looking into the iPhone possibilities.

“We look at every platform that comes along. Obviously, something that’s as big a cultural and technical success as the iPhone is something you really got to take a close look at," he told MTV Multiplayer.

"Certainly, there’s nothing written in stone yet but we’ve got a lot of folks looking at it. It’s intriguing. I think one of the things that we’ll have to see how it shakes out is what type of consumer buys games on it and what type of experience they’re looking for."

EMA: Blu-ray Will Surpass Standard DVD In 2012

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:14:07 -0400

The Entertainment Merchants Association has released their 2008 Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry, and the news bodes very well for the backers of Blu-ray.

The high definition format, which officially won the format war over HD DVD just a few months back, is poised for major growth, the organization states.

According to the EMA, by the end of 2012, sales of Blu-ray Discs will surpass those of standard definiton DVDs, generating sales of a whopping $9.5 billion.

Home video spending on the whole has been projected to grow exponentially to $25.6 billion in 2012.

Monster Madness Producer Makes Bizarre PS3 Claim

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:36:13 -0400

While discussing bringing Monster Madness to PS3, producer Lee Perez complained that the one of the largest hurdles to jump was the console's memory.

"The biggest thing is the memory. The PS3 only has 256 megs of memory. The 360 has 512 so you have twice the memory when you load a level," he told Videogamer.com.

"Now the offset to that is the Cell processor, so if you understand and your engine can understand how to use the multiple cores in tandem you can offset that," he continued.

There's only one problem -- PlayStation 3 has 512 megs of RAM as well. They're just in two different banks, that's all.

Microsoft Exec Thinks Sony Blew It With PSP

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:56:46 -0400

While PSP has been a reasonably successful product by any measure, don't count Robbie Bach, President of Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Group, as a fan of Sony's handheld.

"The PSP is a reasonably successful product at the profit-and-loss level. But as a product concept, there are cautionary tales to learn from it," he recently told VentureBeat.

"While it is good at producing audio, it’s not a good music player because it doesn’t have local storage (except for flash memory slots). You can’t keep your music there. It has a beautiful screen, but you can only get the video under the Universal Media Disc format. That format hasn’t been successful."

PS3 Star Ocean 4 Still Up In The Air

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:17:37 -0400

Ever since Star Ocean 4 was announced, the platforms the Square Enix title would land on has always been in question.

In April, Famitsu reported on new details about the latest entry in tri-Ace's space opera RPG series, but the mag again gave the disheartening news that the platform the title would appear on will be announced at a later date.

Square Enix producer Yoshinori Yamagishi was asked directly by IGN today about whether it was an Xbox 360 exclusive or not.

Sega: We Want To Be In The Top Five

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:15:27 -0400

Sega is one of the most recognisable publishers in the business, yet the company still hasn't cracked the top five.

Sega UK MD wants that to change as soon as humanly possible. And the ball is already in motion to make it become a reality.

“We have always been very clear in our ambition to become a top five publisher,” Pritchard said in an interview with MCV. “And the company has made acquisitions and investments as part of that strategy."

SonyNEC Optiarc Predicts Blu-ray Combo Drives To Hit $100 For The Holidays

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:34:52 -0400

Now that Blu-ray beat HD DVD, the dust has been settling for a few months.

And it looks like the predictions of higher prices may not be entirely accurate.

According to SonyNEC Optiarc, prices will be dropping substantially by the time the holidays roll around.

Tom's Hardware is reporting that the firm has gone on the record with their expectations that Blu-ray combo drives, which can read BDs and write all sorts of DVDs, will reach the $100 mark prior to the holiday season.

DFC Predicts PS3 Will Overtake Xbox 360 Next Year

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:31:07 -0400

DFC Intelligence has come out with its latest forecasts and the outlook looks very good for PS3.

According to DFC, PS3 will overtake Xbox 360 in 2009.

"The Xbox 360 was unable to take advantage of Sony's struggles to build the type of large lead needed to maintain a long-term advantage," the group wrote in its May 2008 Dossier.

On the whole, they predict that Wii will take win the next-gen race, because it "has enormous momentum and appeals to the broadest audience."

Toshiba: Goodbye HD DVD, Hello New Blu-Ray Killer?

Fri, 30 May 2008 20:13:26 -0400

Toshiba took a huge gamble with its investment in HD DVD and the company lost big time -- reports claim they took a bath to the tune of up to a billion dollars.

But it looks like they're going to give it another go.

Crediting unnamed sources at Toshiba, Japanese daily Yomiuri is reporting that the company is working on a new DVD format extension that will feature quality that compares to both HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Yahoo reports that the rumored players will be priced lower than the current Blu-ray structure.

Hirai: My PS3 Plans Are Bearing Fruit

Thu, 29 May 2008 17:30:52 -0400

About a year ago, it was not an enviable position to be in Kaz Hirai's shoes.

He had just taken over from living legend Ken Kutaragi, the man who was known as the father of the PlayStation. And PS3 was not selling as it was supposed to.

But now some time has passed and things are looking up for both Hirai and Sony. This year, PS3 has been neck and neck with Xbox 360 for second place.

"I think that some of the initiatives that I put in place after I took over the job in Japan are starting to bear fruit. We talk about this all the time: the fact that we’ve repositioned the PlayStation 3 as being first and foremost a videogames console. I think that cleared up a lot of confusion in everybody’s minds – certainly people in the press as well as consumers," he said in an interview with Three Speech.

Sony Describes PSP As 'Gateway Drug'

Tue, 27 May 2008 18:25:03 -0400

We don't usually expect huge companies to compare their products to drugs in any way, but Sony is the kind of company that keeps us on our toes.

At the 6th annual Wedbush Morgan Securities Management Access Conference in New York City, SCEA senior marketing manager was quoted by GI.biz as described PSP as a "gateway drug" into the console world, describing consumers that buy the handheld moving on to purchase PS3 later on.

"It's become, from a gaming perspective, a lot different than I think we even envisioned it when we first launched it," he said.

Looks Like Suikoden Is Headed For PS3 & PSP

Sun, 25 May 2008 21:10:12 -0400

It looks like the classic PSOne role-playing game Suikoden is going to hit both PS3 and PSP.

The title has received ratings from the ESRB for both platforms, and that's pretty much money in the bank that it's going to eventually hit.

Video Game Generation theorizes that we're going to see a bargain basement pricing of $5.99 when Suikoden does arrive, although since it's a Konami title it could be as high as Castlevania: Symphony of the Nights, which clocks in at $9.99.

PSP Outsells Wii, DS In Japan Once Again

Fri, 23 May 2008 17:01:28 -0400

The PSP is certainly on a roll in Japan.

Sony's handheld once again demolished the competition, selling a whopping 70,536 units for the week of May 5 through May 18. The closest hardware competitor was the Wii, which came in at number two with 41,572.

Coming it at three for the week was Nintendo's DS, which cleared 34,905. Next up at four and five were Sony's PlayStation 3 with 7,701 units and PS2 slightly behind at 7,022.

As always, the Japanese are still not fans of Microsoft's Xbox 360, which came in last at a measly 1,474.

Report: Xbox 360 Exclusive BioShock Coming To PS3

Thu, 22 May 2008 11:22:53 -0400

According to the cover story of the UK PlayStation magazine PSM3, the Xbox 360 exclusive BioShock is coming to PS3.

While no details are available about the upcoming title, the website CVG states that the issue, which comes out June 5, will include a detailed preview of the new PlayStation 3 version as well as a plethora of screenshots.

When asked for a comment, Take-Two issued a blunt "no comment", but that's to be expected. There is also another European magazine that's promoting the PlayStation 3 port of BioShock as well...so there's obviously something in the works.