by Kyle Orland Sep 5th 2008 6:20PM
Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business
Since CNBC analyst Jane Wells granted us poor peons a glimpse into "
the ultimate proof Sony is winning" two months ago, we at Joystiq have been eagerly awaiting another chance to hear from her son, the
twelve16-year-old oracle who
sealed Microsoft's fate by trading his Xbox 360 for a PS3. And lo, today the all-knowing king of business analysis
didst speak once more, granting his youthful wisdom to us poor, unwashed masses.
"Hear me!" came the oracle's
booming, high-pitched voice from on high as he surveyed his subjects from his beanbag chair throne. "Though mine PS3 still brings me pleasure, the pleasure of Xbox Live friends may be one that I have treated too lightly. My patience waiting for an offering of new games from Sony has forced me once more to explore the
shores of Azeroth. Lo, though times are tough, do not be tempted by the spawn of Nintendo, for I would not be caught dead with that thing."
With that, the doors of knowledge closed with a shattering thud, once again leaving us confused and in the dark. Still, we thank our benevolent information masters for this new glimpse into the heart of the game industry, however brief.
by Kyle Orland Sep 5th 2008 4:50PM
Filed under: Culture, Simulations, Sports
Don't be surprised if this Sunday's edition of
ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown looks a bit more like a game of
Madden. According to a
New York Times report, the Disney-owned sports network will use the "EA Sports Virtual Playbook" and a special studio and camera setup to allow "both real and virtual people move around the ESPN set to demonstrate plays and possible situations." It sure sounds a lot simpler than getting real NFL players to crash around the set, but we'll reserve judgment until we see it in action this weekend.
by Kyle Orland Sep 5th 2008 3:50PM
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business
OK,
fanboys, before you hit that spittle-flecked "post comment" button after just reading that inflammatory headline question, hear us out. We're not just idly speculating here -- we're basing our query on an unusually frank quote from Microsoft Senior Vice President of Interactive Entertainment Business
Don Mattrick. In an
interview with BusinessWeek, Mattrick said that he's "not at a point where I can say we're going to beat Nintendo." Coming from a guy whose
job it is to promote Microsoft's position in the market, that's a pretty big admission of doubt. It's not just Mattrick that's doubtful-- analyst
Billy Pidgeon told the magazine, "I expect the 360 to remain in second place this generation. But it's going to be close."
The question, then, becomes how much this sales position really matters. Microsoft's sales might fall just shy of Nintendo's, but that doesn't seem to be hurting the company's ability to attract
big-name games or roll out
new features for the system. In fact, with Nintendo's decidedly less powerful system catering to a
decidedly different audience, Microsoft's position relative to Nintendo might not matter nearly as much as their position relative to Sony. And on that score Mattrick has no doubt: "We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony," he told BusinessWeek.
by Kyle Orland Sep 4th 2008 4:58PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360
As part of its recent
quarterly earnings announcement, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV has sold ten million copies through Aug. 16. These sales helped lead the company to
a staggering $433.8 million in revenue in the third quarter, over twice as much as the same quarter last fiscal year.
For comparison, the PS2 version of
GTA: San Andreas sold 12 million copies worldwide. During a conference call, the company said it would continue to promote
GTA IV through the holiday season, and that it expected lifetime sales for the game to "track well ahead of any previous
GTA title."
by Kyle Orland Sep 4th 2008 4:00PM
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Sony PlayStation 3, Peripherals
In a world where video providers seem to be adding increasingly disruptive
digital rights management into their video streams, you can always count on video game accessories to provide a hole for unprotected video to break through. First it was the Xbox 360's HD-DVD drive, whose component output allowed for
DRM-free copying of the now-defunct high-def discs. Now it's Sony's European
PlayTV digital video recorder add-on for the PS3, which
CVG reports can "export [recorded] videos to your PS3's XMB menu as MPEG-4 video
" for free use on other devices.
At a time when everyone from Tivo to Microsoft seems to slap some sort of protection on digital video recordings, it's frankly a little baffling that Sony (itself a major video producer) would leave this hole in its digital recorder. Not that we're complaining, we're just waiting with trepidation for the other patch shoe to drop.
[Via Evil Avatar] by Kyle Orland Sep 4th 2008 1:00PM
Filed under: Retro, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business
Microsoft has long acknowledged that it considers $200 the "
sweet spot" of console price points. Now that the manufacturer has finally hit that sweet spot with the
new $199 Xbox 360 Arcade, we've been wondering exactly what kind of impact Microsoft can expect, historically, in its bottom line. Luckily, Matt Matthews over at Edge Online did all the heavy lifting for us
over a year ago, looking at the effect of system pricing on sales numbers in the last generation of the console wars.
The results, as you can see above, are pretty clear. Only 13% of original Xbox systems sold at the $300 price point, and a plurality of sales came at an eventual floor of $150. Sony's PS2 similarly only sold a quarter of its eventual installed base at a price greater than $200 (Nintendo's Gamecube never sold for greater than $200).
Of course, history is an imprecise guide here. The original Xbox dropped under $200 within six months of its initial release, while the Xbox 360 went nearly three years (
exactly 1018 days) before hitting the sweet spot. And while the original Xbox also had competition from Sony and Nintendo, it didn't have to compete with "premium" configurations offered by Microsoft itself. Still, we can't imagine being the first current-gen system to be available for under two Benjamins will
hurt sales of the system. For now, the unanswerable question remains: Exactly how much will it not hurt?
by Kyle Orland Sep 4th 2008 12:00AM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Casual
Like a hot nurse kissing a mime, there's something good and something bad in
today's update from the always-busy developers behind the PS3's bone-breaking simulator,
Pain. First, the bad news: the downloadable "Uncle Jimmy's Fun Park" level,
originally planned for release tomorrow, has been delayed, and is currently targeted for release on the ominous date of Sept. 11.
Why was it delayed? Well that's the good news: the development team has been spending its time scaling back the difficulty of the
somewhat ridiculous trophies it announced last month. Seems testers didn't have too much fun grinding their way through the "one billion points" trophy, among others. The new trophy list, which is copied below the break, is also set to be downloadable on Sept. 11
Continue reading Pain DLC delayed a week, trophies toned down
by Kyle Orland Sep 3rd 2008 10:00PM
Filed under: Retro, Microsoft Xbox 360, Fighting
No matter how many times Rare tries to
tamp them down, rumors about a continuation of the
Killer Instinct franchise continue to surface
periodically. This time the rumors come from fan site
MundoRare, which received the above photo of purported
Killer Instinct 3 sheet music from an anonymous "someone at Microsoft."
Of course, this shot doesn't really prove anything -- that header at the top could just as easily read "
ULTRA Punch Out!!" or "
The MORE Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy" and work just as well. We're sure some photoshoppers out there will have their own ideas of what other big name sequels this photo could possibly confirm. What we're really interested in, though, is what this purported music actually sounds like. Anyone out there with some MIDI sequencer skillz want to help us out?
[
Update: The community comes through! Check out the alleged theme as either a
MIDI (thanks Dan H.) or a
violin synth MP3 (via
Giant Bomb)]
[Update 2: Check out this
awesome remixed version of the "theme" (via
NerdiestKids)]
by Kyle Orland Sep 3rd 2008 9:00PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Online, Casual
Those of you who just can't wait for that
somewhat amorphous Little Big Planet release date should keep your ears to the ground this month. A developer on the PlayStation message boards
let slip that the game will be put through a "limited public beta" sometime this month -- a sort of stress test of the game's architecture before the full release.
How do you get in on that hot, hot customizable platformer action? Well, that's also a little amorphous. "If it will be possible to 'sign up' for this test, full information on how to do so will be made public in advance of the test," the developer writes. "Similarly if the test is going to be conducted in an invitation-only we will let you know ahead of time." Of course, once that information is out there, you'll read about it here.
[Via
PS3Fanboy]
by Kyle Orland Sep 3rd 2008 7:30PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Rhythm
Who says you can't teach old bands new tracks? (Insert groans from audience). Activision sent word today that the
Guitar Hero World Tour track list will include three classic songs that have been re-recorded just recently. First off, MC5's 40-year-old classic
"Kick Out the Jams" has been "updated and modernized" by MC5's Wayne Kramer, with help from Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell and Guns 'N' Roses Gilby Clark. The Sex Pistols will be offering up a newly recorded version of 1969's "
Pretty Vacant" and Motörhead came back to the studio to re-record their 1979 hit "
Overkill" for the game.
Activision is casting these re-recorded classics as a way for fans to get "a unique experience of old yet new legendary sounds." Still, we have to wonder if the decision might have had more to do with missing or incomplete master recordings, a
problem that afflicted the "Who's Next" DLC that was planned for
Rock Band. Either way, it's nice to see some classic rock stars coming together to support a thoroughly modern interpretation of their songs.
If only they all felt that way.
by Kyle Orland Sep 1st 2008 5:00PM
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS, Hacks, Casual
You've probably all but forgotten about a story we ran
way back in March in which one Bernie Peng used a homebrew version of
Bejeweled to propose to his girlfriend of three years. Well,
Bejeweled publisher PopCap didn't forget about the proposal, helping to make the couple's wedding this Saturday an unforgettable affair.
According to the
New Jersey Star-Ledger, PopCap chipped in $1,000 for decorations ($500 of which went to a Nintendo DS-shaped cake) and $5,000 for free copies of Bejeweled that were given to all 250 guests. "There are good ways and bad ways to hack software and to us, this is a good way," said PopCap spokesman Garth Chouteau. After a honeymoon in Bali, the happy, nerdy couple will also get a guided tour of Popcap's Seattle headquarters.
by Kyle Orland Sep 1st 2008 4:00PM
Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Casual
Remember when Sony said its news-and-weather-service,
Life with PlayStation, would be
coming in August (after initially saying it would be
coming in July)? Well, calendar-equipped readers may have noticed that August has come and gone and the service is still not available. Not to fret, though, as a
post on the official PlayStation blog promises that the team is just "pushing some paperwork" on the service and asks that anticipatory fans (both of you) should "hold tight just a bit longer."
The post also reveals that the free service will integrate with
Folding@Home, so users can help Stanford researchers as they're scanning the headlines. Let's see CNN.com do that!
Next Page >
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
