While Sony is planning a video distribution service through the PlayStation Network, it could have a partner waiting in the wings. In a Q3 earnings call, Netflix executive Reed Hastings alluded that the video rental giant would like to expand its services online through a variety of methods, one being "internet-connected game consoles."
The Netflix president, CEO and board chairman said, "In terms of enabling the viewing of online content on the television screen, we are exploring a variety of options, including Internet connected, high definition DVD players, internet connected game consoles, and dedicated internet set tops, with a variety of partners, trying to understand the best ways to provide inexpensive viewing of online content on the television."
This could be a perfect opportunity for Sony to offer a robust lineup of content right out of the gate with a proven company like Netflix. Who knows, though, if Sony will be willing to share its piece of the pie?
This is the post we've been waiting to write for months. Thursdays have been referred to as "screw over Europe" day in the PS3 Fanboy office for quite some time now, but finally we get to deliver some great news. The American PSN Store Update is worse than the European's. There, we said it. Here's the full release list:
EyeCreate PlayStation Eye application(free)
Spyro the Dragon PS1 game for PS3/PSP ($5.99)
Piyotama Halloween skin add-on (free)
Ninja Gaiden Sigma "Rachel Master" add-on ($2.99)
Bionic Commando trailer (free)
Time Crisis 4 trailer (free)
The Water Horse movie trailer (free)
P.S. I Love You movie trailer (free)
AC/DC Live at Donington Blu-Ray trailer (free)
Reign over me Blu-Ray trailer (free)
Eye of Judgment wallpapers (free)
Spider Man 3 Goblin add-on has had its price cut to $2.99
Overall, it's not terrible. At least there's a new PS1 game - and you thought Sony had forgotten about those. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to sneak off and bask in the immense feeling of self-satisfaction we feel right now. Plus, we have some PlayStation Eye games to play.
"Konami Digital Entertainment has uncovered issues which can affect the online gameplay quality of PES 2008 on PLAYSTATION 3. We are working at full strength to find a solution as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologise for this inconvenience. Further announcements will be made as soon as we have additional details."
The PS3 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 has been giving a lot of soccer fans some serious distress. The online mode of PES is seemingly broken, according to various reports to Pro-G. "PS3 PES 2008 is practically unplayable online, with the ball pinging about uncontrollably and players randomly disappearing and reappearing." It notes that the PS3 version also suffers from a poor framerate, something not found in the Xbox 360 version.
Certainly, Konami is trying to fix these problems. However, it's disappointing to see yet another game get such poor treatment on Sony's machine.
This could be indicative of nothing, but on the other hand, we may have several new titles for the PS3 getting registered by Sony. Probably along the downloadable line, the following names have been confirmed pending for trademarkingness:
Ember
SkyBlue
Carriage Return
Race Day
Strings Attached
Our verdict? Probably PSN titles if anything. We're particularly enticed by Carriage Return because when we go grocery shopping, it's always an adventure to return the shopping cart. Replace those with carriages, and you've got a winner. Strings Attached sounds like something that may be more on the artsy-fartsy side, which is perfectly fine, but until we know more, all we can do is guess and scratch ourselves.
BlackSite: Area 51, Midway's upcoming Unreal Engine-powered shooter, is going to have a fairly robust online mode. According to IGN: "With the Xbox 360 version of the game, players will be able to play ranked and unranked matches, and voice support will have constant chatter for teammates while everyone will be able to hear each other if they're close enough, regardless of which team they're on."
Wait, but that's not the case for PS3! Most of these features are being cut for Sony's version. According to a Midway representative: "Basically, the PS3 supports the ability to host, search, and join - that's it. All of the other functionality did not make it to PS3: ranked / leader boards, match making, voice chat, private slots, etc." Essentially, expect a fairly bare-bones online mode for the PS3 version of BlackSite. This seems like a strange omission from Midway, especially considering the robust online features their upcoming Unreal Tournament will have.
Well, it seems Capcom enjoys tossing out gameannouncementsthis week. This time, we've gotten wind of the next installment of their Commando series, Commando 3. The title is going to be a downloadable game from the PSN and will be worked on by the same group who is responsible for Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix Extreme Title Ultimate Fighter Time Gaming Fun.
Up to three players can blast around and shoot stuff up at once in the game, choosing between the characters of Animal, Smoke and Boomer. That is, a former marine, a covert-op, and an old dude who seems likely to explode. There will be power-ups, the 80's style "screen cleaning" bombs, and co-op vehicles to coordinate your skills with. We look forward to hearing some more about the game in the near future.
Back at TGS, we gave you all the details on all the features the upcoming downloadable Wipeout HD would have. However, a new fact sheet reveals that a few of the game's features are being axed, quite possibly to make its "coming soon" release date. Some of the features missing include a community website, which would've allowed players to create profiles and see stats of other players. Various online and offline racing modes have been eliminated. The previously announced seven race modes have been whittled down to five -- Elimination and Head to Head modes are now gone.
In addition, Photo Mode, which will allow players to take in-game pictures, is also missing. Customizable race rules are also missing from this newly-shrunken release.
So what happened? It looks like this game is simply being pushed up, hopefully to release before the year ends. It seems that many of the community features promised in the game simply aren't possible using the current PS3 firmware. Certainly, "Game 3.0" features have played a vital role in the slowing down the release of Home, LittleBigPlanet and SingStar.
The line that separates the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 continues to grow thinner. Just recently, rumors sprouted that Microsoft has plans for a Home-style service, similar to that of the PS3's. And now, it seems, Sony is preparing to launch video and music distribution, which has been present on the 360 for a while now.
"We are building a software infrastructure to distribute video and music, more particularly video, through the PlayStation Network," Sony chief executive Howard Stringer recently said. While he gave no confirmation when we should expect such a service, he did say Sony plans to incorporate the PSP into the fray, as well.
"That is a Japanese and American combined effort to build a platform around a common software architecture to distribute video via the PlayStation network into the [PSP handhelds] and beyond," he said."We are trying to get our devices to talk to each other efficiently. PlayStation Network should migrate from gadget to gadget." If Sony can successfully make a no-hassle transfer of downloaded movies from the PS3 to the PSP, it definitely has the potential to be more compelling than its rival.
What could possibly be cuter than a fat little chicken helping you to hatch/destroy her eggs? How about a fat little chicken dressed up as a mummy, witch, or devil to go along with all your Halloween decorations? Yep, Piyotama is getting a seasonal makeover for Japan, boasting a downloadable skin for the holiday where kids are warned not to eat candy because people put AIDS needles in them. Oh, no one else had that pep talk when they were young? So much for living in a good area. There's also a summertime skin planned for Piyotama, but whether or not it'll get released in the US is anyone's guess.
What we should say before anything else is that EyeCreate isn't a game, necessarily, but an application that will essentially turn your PS3 into a media center that can edit audio, video, and image files so you can sort 'em and send 'em to friends. You will, of course, need the PlayStation Eye peripheral to make use of this application. Don't worry, the PS Eye is available as a standalone peripheral, so you don't have to worry about getting the Eye of Judgment pack if you aren't into that sort of thing.
This is only the beginning of a slew of applications and games that will support the new PS Eye, but the best part of EyeCreate is that it is completely free! Yep, you get some software that'll let you tweak a multitude of files for free. That's pretty awesome. There will be more about this application on the official PlayStation Blog later on, so keep an "eye" on that, or just wait and we'll let you know what's up when we learn more. Yes, that was incredibly lame, but we don't care ... so long as you rolled your eyes.
When we first learned about the insanely interesting downloadable title Everyday Shooter, we wanted to know one thing from Sony: when can we get our hands on it? Of course, that was the one thing they didn't want to tell anybody, so they simply said "it'll come out sometime soonish". Maybe that's not a quote, but it's close enough. We were surprised to hear Everyday Shooter is actually coming out this Thursday, with a price tag of a meager $10. Ah, for clarification purposes, this is for the US PlayStation Store (sorry Europe!), but we're sure an international release won't be far behind. Sony seems to be getting better at that. Anyway, there you have it: something great is coming this Thursday!
Someone pretending to be SCEA IT personnel was able to receive information on two PSN user accounts over the phone. However, the accidental release of information does not indicate a breach of any kind to the Network. Kimberly Otzman explained to GameDaily, "Just to clarify, there has been no hacking or electronic breach to any of SCEA's electronic security systems. An as-yet-unidentified PSN user impersonating an SCEA IT employee apparently called customer service agents in order to gain unauthorized access to two PSN user accounts not belonging to the impostor. The unauthorized accessing of the two accounts was discovered immediately after it took place, the unauthorized access was disabled, and the account-holders were notified."
Exactly how this impostor was able to so easily access this information is unclear, and a bit troubling. Undoubtedly, there will be new protocols implemented at SCEA to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future. "No consumer experienced any financial loss or damage. In response to the incident, SCEA immediately enhanced its customer service protocol, implementing additional security safeguards, and began an intensive investigation of the incident that remains ongoing," Otzman continued.
Even though we've had a Japanese demo for Bladestorm for a while, some of us really need to play it in English before we can pass judgment on Koei's not-quite hack-n-slash title. So, Koei is doing just that, releasing a demo on the PSN and Xbox Live tomorrow, October 4th, so we can try to wrap our minds around the idea that you can only swing your sword every once in a while. No matter. The fact remains we're really starting to get some demos before the games are released. That's always a good thing!
The PlayStation Network's upcoming downloadable title High Velocity Bowling certainly hasn't met critical acclaim so far. When Andrew played the game earlier this year, he felt the game's use of the Sixaxis controller was gimmicky and didn't successfully recreate the feel of actual bowling like that certain other bowling game.
Not only does this game attempt to get in on the hype Wii Sports has created, it also appears to have stolen the name of one of Nintendo's most disrespected and abused characters of all time. Watch the video and see if you can find who we're talking about.
Finally. A cheaper Warhawk will be available for the masses at retail later this month. By losing the headset, a new Blu-ray version of Warhawk will hit store shelves for $40, the same price as its digitally distributed counterpart. Some may ask, "what's the point?" While others, who may want to play the game on multiple systems, will cheer.
While Sony is planning a video distribution service through the PlayStation Network, it could have a partner waiting in the wings. In a Q3 earnings call, Netflix executive Reed Hastings alluded that the video rental giant would like to expand its services online through a variety of methods, one being "internet-connected game consoles."
This is the post we've been waiting to write for months. Thursdays have been referred to as "screw over Europe" day in the PS3 Fanboy office for quite some time now, but finally we get to deliver some great news. The American PSN Store Update is worse than the European's. There, we said it. Here's the full release list:
The line that separates the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 continues to grow thinner. Just recently, rumors sprouted that Microsoft has plans for a Home-style service, similar to that of the PS3's. And now, it seems, Sony is preparing to launch video and music distribution, which has been present on the 360 for a while now.
What we should say before anything else is that EyeCreate isn't a game, necessarily, but an application that will essentially turn your PS3 into a media center that can edit audio, video, and image files so you can sort 'em and send 'em to friends. You will, of course, need the PlayStation Eye peripheral to make use of this application. Don't worry, the PS Eye is available as a standalone peripheral, so you don't have to worry about getting the Eye of Judgment pack if you aren't into that sort of thing.
Someone pretending to be SCEA IT personnel was able to receive information on two PSN user accounts over the phone. However, the accidental release of information does not indicate a breach of any kind to the Network. Kimberly Otzman explained to GameDaily, "Just to clarify, there has been no hacking or electronic breach to any of SCEA's electronic security systems. An as-yet-unidentified PSN user impersonating an SCEA IT employee apparently called customer service agents in order to gain unauthorized access to two PSN user accounts not belonging to the impostor. The unauthorized accessing of the two accounts was discovered immediately after it took place, the unauthorized access was disabled, and the account-holders were notified."
