PS3 Fanboy

Speaking to Destructoid, Aaron Greenberg, Director of Product Management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, added fuel to the red-hot fanboy fire when discussing PS3's upcoming lineup for 2008. Greenberg's statement is certainly going to inspire some truly extraordinary comments from PS3 and Xbox 360 fans alike. While he is a Microsoft spokesperson, we wonder: do his complaints have merit? Read on:

"I know a lot of folks enjoy watching the console wars and we would never underestimate our competition. But answer to your question specifically, didn't Sony promise all of this last year including Home as well? We have been fighting Sony's promises from the day we entered the market and if you remember at that time it was all about PS2 being an online cybercity with partner announcements from the likes of RealNetworks and AOL. Then three years ago at E3 they showed what PS3 games would supposedly look like with the Killzone 2 video, that we are now learning will ship four years later. That means that we will have shipped Gears of War and Gears of War 2 before they can even get Killzone out the door," he said. "Think back to GDC 2007 when Sony promised to leap ahead in online with the Sony Home unveil. Here we are two years later and multiple delays for a product that appears to have little to no buzz. Where are the achievements? The friends list integration across all games? Where is the long-promised video store? Where are all the other products using and networking with their CELL chip? How come Blu-ray did not result in better games? What happened with Sixaxis and rumble? Where is the complete 1080p game library we were promised? If Blu-ray as they said would be such a catalyst to PS3 console sales, then why have PS3 sales over the past couple months not seen any lift since the format victory?"

Certainly, being a Playstation devotee has been frustrating. The system has been plagued by a slow start, and a number of key delays. Home and in-game XMB continue to be promises that have failed to materialize. This is a "ten year life cycle" on Sony's part -- but should that mean we should wait so long for the good stuff?

[Via GameDaily]

Is Aaron Greenberg right? Has Sony failed to keep its promises?
	Yes - Sony needs to keep its game up
	No - he's just a Microsoft shill

For those native to America, a trip to Japan can be quite a shock. Not only is everything clean ... everything is polite. Perhaps its the Japanese insistence to courtesy that dubbed this Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle the "Welcome Box." This package will embrace you with a 40GB system (colors of choice include: Clear Black, Ceramic White and Satin Silver), rumble-ready DualShock 3 and copy of MGS4. It will be available in Japan on June 12 for ¥49,800 (~$470). The limited edition "Hagane" Grey MGS4 bundle retails for ¥51,800, by comparison.

Are things finally looking up for the Japanese electronics giant? Sony, plagued by a slowing US economy and weakening US dollar, has struggled to meet its financial targets. However, things aren't all gloom and doom. A report by the Nikkei (via Reuters) shows that Sony's video game division is starting to turn around. The fiscal year, ending in March 2007, was a disastrous affair for the company, with an operating loss of 232 billion yen. The high cost of PS3 production and development bled money from the department.

However, due to improving sales and smaller manufacturing costs, Sony's game division will see its operating loss shrink by 100 billion yen in its March 2008 fiscal year. While that means it will still have lost 132 billion yen, it's certainly a turnaround from the previous year. Overall profitability of Sony has improved thanks to the game division's smaller losses.

PlayStation, once the leading brand of video games, has been struggling since the launch of the PS3. In the latest console generation, Nintendo has been posting incredible profits (much to the happiness of investors). Microsoft's game division has historically posted loss after loss, but has finally started to become profitable in recent months.

According to SCEA, the high demand for Grand Theft Auto IV on the PlayStation 3 is driving sales for Sony's system exponentially just within the first 24 hours of the game's release. Senior Merchandising VP of GameStop Corp., Bob McKenzie, chimed in backing up the claim on the retail side of things: "From our position, the launch of GTA IV has been tremendous in driving traffic to our stores, as well as providing a vigorous lift in PS3 console sales over this time last week. We attribute the growth to a huge fan base of PS2 owners who see this title as the trigger for the PS3 upgrade they've been planning."

GTA IV as the trigger for a PS2-to-PS3 upgrade? It's quite logical considering that Grand Theft Auto as a series is very closely associated with the PlayStation brand. However, GTA IV is not exclusive to the system, yet is still able to cause such a boisterous push in sales. Imagine what will happen when Metal Gear Solid 4 comes rolling in?

[Via press release]

With help of review aggregate site GameRankings.com, website Gamefunk decided to see how many "good" games were on each of the three home consoles ("good" being defined as anything over 80%, "bad" being games below 60%). Of the three, PS3 rose to the top, with the least percentage of "bad" games, and the highest percentage of "good" games. Take a look:

• Xbox 360: 374 games: 26% good, 24% bad
• PS3: 122 games: 33% good, 17% bad
• Wii: 189 games: 11% good, 37% bad

While the software library of the PS3 is rather small, in comparison to the other two, it's more likely that a shopper buying a completely random game from the PS3 shelves will fare better than when shopping for the other consoles. While we have to endure through a bit of shovelware on our system, we feel bad for the uneducated Wii shopper, where "bad" games are seemingly the norm.

[Via Joystiq]

Disaster! Panic! One of the biggest releases of the year and people are having problems? That almost never happens. Sometimes. Reports are coming in of Grand Theft Auto IV freezing during, and just after, the opening cutscene. Weirdly, anecdotal evidence is revealing that the issue seems to be exclusive to the 60GB version of the PS3. How frustrating!

Don't worry, there's a fix. Rockstar has stated that simply deleting your game data and then reinstalling will fix the issue. So if you're being plagued this particular bug then give that a go and see what happens. If it works, let us know. If it doesn't, then let us know that too. If you can keep the tears back long enough to type out a comment, that is.

PS3's long-awaited video service may debut this summer, according to the LA Times. The newspaper has been in touch with a variety of executives, who have been in negotiations over the past few weeks. Due to the "sensitivity" of continuing negotiations, the executives had to remain anonymous.

Unlike previous efforts of Sony's, the upcoming service is looking towards using "open standards" and will work on a number of computers and portable devices, PSP included. Primary competitors, such as Apple's iTunes service and Microsoft's Xbox Live Video Marketplace, both adopt fairly restrictive DRM policies.

Sony's video service has been a long time coming, as it was originally planned for PSP many years ago. However, mismanagement at the company had pretty much stalled development until recently. PS3 has been vital to the success of Blu-ray -- if implemented correctly, PS3 can be the starting point of a very successful video downloads service.

[Via Next-Gen]

Remember Ben Heck's magical PS3 laptop? Well, now you can buy one -- provided you have the cash. Currently available for $8000 on eBay, 100% of the proceeds will go to charity: the National Cancer Coalition. The laptop will come signed and well, free shipping will be thrown in. Not that it really matters when you're already shelling out this much dough.

[Via Joystiq]

We thought it was bad enough people would go so far as to steal from children to get their grubby mitts on a PSP or PS3, but whenever we hear about a shootout with the PS3 at its core, we do wince a little. It seems two kids, at one point friends, got into a hit and run shootout the other day as they both tried to keep a PS3 for themselves. Talk about not sharing.

A crossing guard was hit by their car, while the two fools arguing over their PS3 shot one another: the first got hit in the arm and leg, the other in the chest. They're in custody. If the police auction off that PS3, it'll probably be relatively cheap. It was involved in a shooting, after all. The reason for the altercation is unknown, but it most likely amounted to "I want it this weekend," then "no, I want it," and then the rest is history. Lame.

While January and February were both wins for PS3, March took a downward turn, as PS3 sales trailed Xbox 360. Granted, it was by a small margin (5k), but it was a defeat nonetheless. Sony's latest press release reminds us that a flood of PS3 exclusives are yet to come, such as Metal Gear Solid 4, SOCOM Confrontation, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and more.

Jack Tretton added his thoughts on March NPD figures. "Our sales momentum continues to defy what is traditionally a sluggish sales month. PS3 continued the strong momentum with a year-over-year sales growth of over 98%. It is proof that, in these economically challenging times, consumers recognize the long-term value of our platforms and the tremendous heritage of our brand in delivering the best entertainment experience."

For the official NPD numbers, click past the break.

It's not easy to find deals on PS3 hardware. Retailers barely make a profit on these packages, and it's usually up to glitches to find a new system for anything lower than MSRP. That seems to be the case with this latest Kmart deal. You can pick up a new 40GB PS3 system for $360 + $6 shipping. You'll have to use coupon code "AK10OFF7" to take advantage of the savings. We don't know how long this will last, but for those of you that have been on the border about buying a PS3, this might be your best opportunity yet.

[Via Slickdeals.net]

If SCEE does plan on releasing the Gunmetal Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 in Europe then they're leaving it a little late. Regardless, a European release may still be on the cards according to videogaming247, which states that their Sony contact is waiting on official word from On High. "I've asked if we're getting this but have yet to have an answer confirmed," said their Sony representative.

If the Gunmetal PS3 is coming to Europe, why haven't we heard about it yet? One of the reasons might be the DualShock 3, which still doesn't have even a vague release date for Europe. Considering one of the big selling points of the MGS4 bundle is the new rumbling controller, announcing one without it would give Europe just another reason to be angry at how they're treated by the Video Game industry. There's no telling whether DualShock 3s will even be available separately in time for MGS4's June 12th release date. Here's hoping, though!

Bargain hunters will want to take advantage of this new coupon from GameStop. Used games will be discounted a full 25% -- but this will only work at retail outlets. This coupon is valid until 4/17, so you'll have to hurry if you want to take advantage of it.

Dusty fans can greatly affect a console's performance. They also generate a vexatiously louder than usual noise emanating from your powerful machine. If you want to keep things nice and tidy and/or want your fans running smoother, you'll want to have a quick look at this clip.

It's basically a video instruction about running a fan test on your PS3 which also blows out the dust and essentially cleaning it up. What's nice is there's very little effort involved, so you can actually do this every day. Just a warning though, it's only for 40GB models -- doing this on other models will cause the unit to explode nothing to happen.

[Thanks Jakob!]