PS3 Fanboy

Just how can the PS3 compete with this new product called Sonilex? It's lighter, it's thinner, it can even play Nintendo titles! It can even play the unofficial NES port of Tekken, plus 40 other NES games. What Sony machine could do that? Believe it folks, PS3 is doomed. With an asking price of only $32, just who could say no? We're already registering "Sonilex Fanboy," so watch out!

[Via Engadget]

Gamecock is trying to capitalize on the popular internet meme in their upcoming XBLA game, Pirates Versus Ninjas Dodgeball. Although currently an XBLA exclusive, it looks like there's strong interest to bring the game over to the PSN. "Sony really wants this Pirates vs Ninjas game we're doing for Xbox Live and we're platform agnostic so if we're investing in a title let's give it a chance wherever there is one," Gamecock CEO Mike Wilson told GI.biz.

The PSN offers a number of unique opportunities for developers. Unique games like flOw and Everyday Shooter have managed to flourish on the PSN -- certainly, they would've floundered if released in a traditional retail space. Also, unlike XBLA, there are no size limitations on what developers can provide. "The market's not there yet but it will be and it's nice that you don't have this 150MB limitation. It will be interesting to see how it emerges as a market.

[Via Joystiq]

While the news of naughty films on Blu-ray isn't exactly breaking news, it is interesting for a number of reasons. First off, Joone is the fellow that oh-so-long-ago said that Sony was blocking them from releasing their 'adult entertainment' movies on Blu-ray. Evidently, this isn't the case any more as Joone has changed his tone and said the real problem originally was the price of producing Blu-ray movies (which is quite a bit higher than HD-DVD movies).

The other thing that is interesting is that this is the first time that we have heard of the PlayStation 3 explicitly causing such an increased demand for HD movies that a studio changes its exclusivity stance in the HD format wars. For a long time, the HD-DVD camp has said that PlayStation 3 owners don't buy movies. Well if porn is any indicator, looks like PlayStation 3 owners luuuv their high-def movies -- as long as there are naked people in them at least.

[Via High-Def Digest]

Normally when we cover a story about Blu-ray, it comes with the whole "oh, it's outselling HD DVD 2:1" smack talk. However, we can't actually say that for the week ending December 9th. Instead, we can say "oh, it's outselling HD DVD 3:1" and crack a sly grin. How did Blu-ray wipe the floor with their high-definition competitor? It was the third Pirates of the Caribbean film -- Superbad helped out, too.

The funny thing to remember is that while between high-definition formats, Blu-ray is cleaning up, it's still such a miniature slice of the retail movie pie. So, while we do get our kicks by touting these numbers every so often, it's sort of a hollow victory until the madness subsides and the world decides on a single format to ever so slowly replace regular DVDs. Until then, when Christmas rolls around, we expect a large portion of you to have a Disney-inspired pirate movie under your tree. Next week will prove interesting as the latest Harry Potter film releases on both formats -- place your bets!

[Thanks, AG23!]

The PlayStation 3 has been garnering some surprising defenders these days, and we can now add another developer the list. In an interview posted on PlayStation.com, legendary game designer Sid Meier exposed at length about his love for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation brand in general. According to the article, Meier owns a PlayStation 2, a PSP, and a PlayStation 3 and actively uses them all (with Resistance being one of his recent favorite titles). Most interestingly though is that he feels that with the arrival of the PlayStation 3, it's time for him and Firaxis (his development group) to move into console gaming.

While Meier has dabbled in console gaming before, most famously with Pirates! and it's recent sequel, this appears to be a major paradigm shift for him. He explains his reasoning behind the shift a little more in-depth:
"Computers no longer have the edge on set-top systems. The technology is there; the audience is ready for deeper and more gripping experiences; and the bar's formally been raised in terms of enthusiasts' expectations. I hate to use the word convergence, but I don't know how else to describe the situation... The timing couldn't be more perfect."

Now, before people take to the streets and start screaming about how Civilization couldn't work with a controller, keep in mind that he has not specified at all what his next-gen projects are. Also keep in mind that the PlayStation 3 supports bluetooth keyboards/mice as well as the obvious USB support. So if Civilization did come out for the PS3, there's no reason to automatically assume he would 'dumb it down' for consoles. Still, it's much more likely that we'll see entirely new games released, though you can pretty much be guaranteed sure they'll carry at least a shred of the classic tactical style gameplay he's known for.

SCEA has declared that they will "actively pursue" legal action against hackers that attempt to crack the PS3 anti-piracy software. This announcement arrives just after recent news that hackers were close to completely cracking the PS3 anti-piracy software found in firmware versions 1.10 and 1.11. Their progress on the crack would allow pirated PS3 games to boot, but they still were not playable. The homebrew community is also still waiting in the wings, as even this latest attempt still prevents any type of homebrew gaming on the PS3 console.

Obviously, SCEA hopes to stalwart further progress and deter hackers from completely subverting the anti-piracy measures completely, because saying "please" just doesn't carry the same weight as legal action. Dave Karraker, SCEA spokesperson says, "the best we can do as a company, is to make our security that much stronger and aggressively pursue legal action against anyone caught trying to use an exploit in an illegal manner."

The pirates who want to burn and run copied PS3 disks? Yeah, they're bad. Bad, bad. Spankings all around kind of bad. And if you're thinking of doing it, you shouldn't. Go find someone to deliver a spanking for even thinking such thoughts. On the homebrew front, we're kind of indifferent. Now, we're stepping out on a very thin limb here, but maybe, just maybe if Sony was a little bit more organized in lining up a steady stream of content for thirsting PS3 owners, we wouldn't have hackers so interested in cracking the PS3 for homebrew. What do you think?

Ready for your weekly worldwide PS3 releases? Good. Here they are:

US Games

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

EU Games

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Asian Games

• NBA Street Homecourt

A game for each territory this week. Aren't we lucky. Ready to get started on some hardcore 1080p pirating? My brain has a habit of glossing over any mention of franchise-based games, so I'll probably be giving this one a miss. Let me know if I should reconsider.

Don't forget that the PS3 is region free, so feel free to choose any of the above list as your next purchase. Maybe you're a huge Pirates of the Caribbean fan and fancy playing a copy from each territory? It could happen, I suppose. And yes, I will be reminding you that the PS3 can read discs from any country every week. It's so easy to forget.

Release dates are subject to change, as always.