Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Sony Corporation has plans on cutting production costs in all sectors. While this may sound like good news at first as it may have led to a possible PS3 price cut, the actual reason behind this necessary change carries a more negative connotation.
The reason for the cost reduction is because the company is currently losing money off export goods. This comes to light from the strengthening value of the Japanese yen versus the US dollar. For every one-yen gain against the dollar, Sony loses ￥6 billion (US$58.3 million). With a weakened US economy and a loss like that, we wouldn't be surprised to hear that a PS3 price cut won't be happening anytime soon or within this year for that matter. Looks like that previous price cut prediction won't be coming true after all.
Various British retailers have told CVG that 80GB PS3 SKUs might be on the way to the UK by the end of Summer. CVG reports that employees from both wholesaler Costco and music store HMV are hearing that the 80GB models are likely to hit the UK in a few months.
Sony's official take on the rumor is one we're not surprised to hear, "There's no official word on an 80GB PS3 coming to the UK." At least it's better than the usual "Sony does not comment on rumors and speculation." Almost the same thing really though; however, from the former's wording, it sounds most likely that something is in the works.
Support for an 80 gig model in Europe seems to be a logical step. After all, with increasing mandatory installs and new features such as PlayTV coming soon, there will be a higher demand for more HDD space.
What could the US Air Force need 300 PS3s for? Military training via Warhawk? Maybe they want to give the troops some recreational games -- some echochrome perhaps? Nope, none of the above. Instead, the USAF will be using the 300 40GB PS3 consoles to conduct a "technology assessment of certain cell processors."
Apparently, the PS3 is perfect for the Air Force's research as it's the only hardware on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics they'll be needing, and it comes at a reasonable price. While we could think of multiple conspiracy theories about this research, we think we'll stay quiet and leave the speculations to you. Besides, right now we've got to tell the USAF that those 40GB PS3s won't be coming with four USB ports and Memory Stick slots like they have listed on the solicitation document. That is ... unless the military is getting a new 40GB model we've never heard about? Highly doubt that one.
In their latest poll, our good buddies over at EngadgetHD beg the question: What Blu-ray player will you be picking up? With the death of HD DVD ending the format wars, there is only one choice left for high-def needs: Blu-ray. New buyers and HD DVD refugees alike need to make a choice; so what Blu-ray player did they choose? Why, the PS3 of course!
Even though polling is still going on, the PS3 is the clear winner at 56.6% of the total votes. The next closest Blu-ray player is the Panasonic DMP-BD50 at 8.3%; we suspect it's not likely that the DMP-BD50 will catch up to the PS3's massive 48% lead. What does this mean for the PS3? It means that sales can only go up from here.
Posted Aug 13th 2007 3:00PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
To start with, we'd never recommend doing any of these to your PS3. We wouldn't do it to ours, even if these tests are, in fact, true. With that disclaimer, let's talk about the "108 hour" tests a set of PS3's went through to see how much the system could handle before failing. How much could they handle? Apparently, everything. PS3's were played for 108 hours straight, switching between games and Blu-ray movies. If you want a more detailed list of the test's parameters, they're here. Three scenarios all came with the same result: the PS3 freakin' rocks.
In a standard living room, the PS3 was perfectly fine except for a strange noise coming from the disc tray after 12 hours. Nothing surprising there!
The PS3 was put in the back of a freezer van for the second test, where the temperature gradually went from 50 degrees to 0 degrees (Fahrenheit). When the temperature reached zero, the PS3 started to become sluggish and eventually, the screen blacked out. However, this was due to a power cord getting a bit too moist -- the PS3 still worked fine.
Placing the PS3 in a hot sauna seems like a terrible idea -- where the temperature went from 100 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit over time. After 64 hours, there was a slight burning smell and after 108 hours, the console was extremely hot (no, really?) but the console still worked fine after 108 hours.
Amazing stuff, really. Again, we would never try to play our PS3 for 108 hours straight in our living room, let alone a freezer or hot sauna. Nor would we recommend you doing so! We'll take this test and their results with a grain of salt, but we have to admit -- our PS3's haven't had any trouble despite how long we've played them. So either the PS3 is indestructible, or it has every disease known to man. Anyone on their second PS3?
Posted Aug 3rd 2007 5:00PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
Other than doubling the sales of the PS3 in Japan, Hot Shots Golf 5 teed up to hit the one millionth PS3 sold in Japan the other day. While selling one million consoles in Japan should have been simple beyond belief, Sony should still revel in the feeling while they can. Will the game make a splash on US shores when it hits in a matter of months? Perhaps, perhaps not. As far as Hot Shots Golf 5 goes, it's one of the best-selling PS3 games in Japan to date and we're not surprised. It is, after all, their most popular domestic franchise developed internally. The question now is, will Japan sell 2 million PS3's by the end of the year?
Read the subject line again then remember worldwide sales are reportedly at 4.5 million. At Australia's "Experience More" Sony event, they estimated 6 millions PS3 sales globally. If we pretend they were estimating PlayStation Network users, it's a lot more believable. A lot of people are taking advantage of the multiple account system Sony has continually, kindly ignored! Alas, we can't do that.
The Experience More event was a huge promotion for the PS3, Blu-ray, and whatever else Sony felt like talking about (like those hot OLED screens). Blu-ray, they said, contributed to about 80% of all high-def content sales, excluding PS3 games. Australia itself, it was estimated, had about 64,000 PS3 units sold in it to date, which is pretty good considering the price (the chart listed above was claimed to be a little dated). So, is it 4.5 or 6 million units sold worldwide (CNN estimated about 5 million as a correction)? Different market estimates, we suppose, but that's a pretty big gap. Thoughts?
During Sony's recent financial statement, they announced that they've sold almost 4.5 million PlayStation 3s worldwide. Something to note is that they've changed their policy of stating how many systems shipped and are now actually abiding by the industry standard of saying how many systems have actually sold. This helps provide a clearer view of the PS3's success and is a much appreciated change from their past financial statements.
Onto the numbers themselves, the 4.5 million sell-through is nothing to be scoffed at and shows that they are keeping pace with the overall number of 360s sold during the same post-launch time frame. Unfortunately, the numbers aren't great -- especially when you consider that only 700,000 PS3s sold during the entire first quarter of the year, a huge decrease from the initial sell-rate. Of course, the decrease in sales makes sense considering there were almost NO GAMES RELEASED during that time frame. Funny how people don't buy consoles when there is nothing worth playing on it.
Regardless, Sony feels that the one-two punch of the PS3 price-cut combined with a plethora of high-profile titles coming out in the coming months will help propel sales of the system. Their goal is to have another 10 million PS3s sold by March 08, which would put it about 50% above where the 360 was at the same time (~15 million units sold vs ~10 million). While this is an optimistic goal, we can't help but feel some of their excitement. Games like Heavenly Sword, Lair and MGS 4 (just to name a few) have been making gamers salivate like Pavlov's puppies and the sales spike post-price cut shows that people really want a PS3, they just don't want to sell a kidney to get one.
For those who think Sony is a sinking ship, their report for the first quarter this fiscal year holds the words "profits" and "doubled". This is mostly thanks to Sony's other electronics divisions, like LCD TVs and nice cameras. It's not all cotton candy and ferris wheels, though. The PS3 is still selling below cost, supposedly, which is heading to pretty noticeable game division losses.
However, even with the losses, Sony acknowledges that compared to this time last year, profits from the PS3 selling are up 60%. All this leads us to ask what the PS3 actually costs to manufacture. Once the Emotion Engine stuff is removed, mass-production of the smaller pieces, or whatever else strategy Sony may employ, will they be able to sell the console at, say, $399 without taking a hit? It's a mystery, but let us know what you think it actually costs to manufacture the PS3.
Whoever said Sony didn't care about their consumers? Ever since the launch of the official PlayStation Blog, we've noticed time and again that not only does Sony care about their consumers, but they're actively listening to the fans. If you've visited the site since their announcement for firmware 1.90, you'll have noticed a little update to that post. An interesting quote to behold: "I noticed a lot of your comments were directly related to accessing XMB features in-game. We understand this is something you want and we are working on it."
There you have it! Sony has heard your cries and is working towards a solution for the requests about XMB access in-game. We're glad to hear it, since it has been an almost unavoidable topic on any and all posts regarding firmware updates or newly announced PS3 features. After you guys get this (which is probably going to solve your custom music quandaries), what's next on the agenda?
A lot of critics are pressuring Sony for a strong showing of not only hardware sales, but powerful software sales as well this holiday season. They're citing it as a critical moment for Sony -- the make or break, if you will. SCEE president David Reeves sees it a little differently, arguing "I think each peak is crucial to maximise what you can do, but I don't think this Christmas is necessarily the most critical one - I think that's going to be Christmas '08."
In addition to these claims, Reeves again associates the PS3 with a tsunami -- a force to be reckoned with, indeed. Along with that, he squashes the European price drop rumors with the explanation of July not being a big month for games or gamers in general, so a price drop now would be annoying to consumers. He may be indirectly implying a holiday price drop, but he may not. Reeves concludes by saying this wonderful tidbit: "We're not putting our heads in the sand - we know it's not selling that well, but we know that it's selling according to the targets." We're glad to hear it and we can't wait to hear what's going to get announced at Leipzig!
We could never forget about our friends down under! It has been confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will get the bundle package treatment in Australia as well, starting August 2nd. This isn't really a price drop -- the console will still put you back A$999, but like Europe, will come with a lot of extras that makes it appear to be a bargain.
When you buy the bundle package, you get two Sixaxis controllers, a copy of Resistance: Fall of Man and a copy of Motorstorm along with your 60GB PS3. So, if you were unable to take the plunge before due to the high start-up cost of the system, this bundle doesn't make it any less painful for your wallet, except you'd have saved quite a bit on the extra peripheral and two games. Would you guys rather have the US consumers' price drop, or keep this bundle? Again, look for your version of Europe's bundle to hit shelves August 2nd.
Enterbrain recently announced that the PlayStation 3 has hit the one million console sold point in Japan, a point that the US and Europe both hit much sooner. We're not complaining! The announcement came from tracking over 3,500 stores in Japan, totaling 1.01 million consoles sold as of July 15th. If they counted every store in Japan, it's probably more like 1.02 or 1.03 million. Numbers are fun!
For those keeping tabs like middle-aged men at the horse races, this more than doubles sales of the 360 in Japan, which still hovers around 421,000 units sold (we rounded up). However, this announcement goes to show that the Nintendo Wii still outsells the PS3 by a ratio of about 3:1 in Japan. Yes, the Wii is near the 3 million mark in Japan already. In any case, kudos for Sony to hitting one million. Does anyone think they can cross 2 million by the end of the year?
We say "clownsplosion" because at first, the image of an atomic explosion seemed innocent enough (relatively speaking) and we didn't see the hidden image inside the puffs of PlayStation 3 exclusive smoke. We'd outline it, but we're too lazy. There's a madly laughing clown. A lot of debate has been floating around the PS3 Forums about this picture, but most seem to agree -- Twisted Metal. It's been a long time, what with the last TM game coming around the PS2's launch.
Why do we think it's Twisted Metal? What other game has a clown that would be so delighted to have an atomic explosion bearing a laughing clown hidden therein? Only Sweet Tooth will suffice. Yeah, the face doesn't look as dark and sadistic as Sweet Tooth, but the fact remains: there is an explosion and it is a clown. We welcome Twisted Metal coming on the PS3, even if it's a collection of the old games. Though we'd love a new entry with some badass online modes and "Create Your Own" car of sometimes-humorous death.
Posted Jul 17th 2007 5:00PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: Demos
It shouldn't be a surprise to any of us that the demo for Heavenly Sword is on its way. Heck, we already said that it was making its debut sometime in July. We've now got confirmation that the demo is, in fact, complete. Part of the Ninja Theory team came out on their official forums and said "it's in the bag ... so now it's a case of Sony deciding when they feel is the best time to release it to PlayStation Network." By that, we couldn't help but squeal like a schoolgirl with a crush. Could they mean this Thursday's update?
Not likely. Seems the demo itself is actually slated for next Thursday. You know, the 26th. We don't mind waiting an extra week, since most of the PS3 Fanboy staff is still in a hot competition to keep the highest score amongst one another in Super Stardust HD. As far as the game itself, Heavenly Sword is complete and going through the bug-fixing stage. If that's true, they should release it early. We're tired of waiting for this fantastic looking "launch title", honestly.
Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Sony Corporation has plans on cutting production costs in all sectors. While this may sound like good news at first as it may have led to a possible PS3 price cut, the actual reason behind this necessary change carries a more negative connotation.
During Sony's recent 
