Sony PS3: Best BD Player Out There?

Everyone knows that Sony's PS3 is the cheapest way to bring a Blu-ray player home, but is it the best? That's the question the folks at Home Theater Blog and Ultimate AV are trying to answer. Both agree that as a standard DVD player the PS3's image quality is a bit soft, but when it comes to Blu-ray titles the PS3 is no slouch.

Here's what they had to say.

Ultimate AV:

The PS3 more than holds its own in image quality, and wins hands down on boot up and disc access speed.

Home Theater Blog:

It would be hard for me to recommend a PS3 as a primary Blu-ray playback device; to those with zero interest in gaming. On the other hand for those with at least a passing interest in gaming, multimedia and Blu-ray playback, the PS3 does indeed offer an attractive mix of features.

So while it may be difficult to find (depending on where you live), the PS3 is your best bet as far as "bargain" BD players go. – Louis Ramirez

(c) www.gizmodo.com

NexGen Wars Update: Xbox 360 leads, Wii catching up

Last July, Nexgenwars.com went on line to provide an "unbiased account" of how the three next-gen consoles are faring in the market. Back then Xbox 360 was the only one available with almost 4 million units sold. Today, after its two competitors finally launched, the sales figures are really heating up.

Based on NexGen estimates, Xbox 360 has now sold over 9 million (28%) since it launched over a year ago. Unless it sells another million within the next few days, MS will miss its 2006 sales target of 10 million

Nintendo is way, way, way off its target of moving 9 million Wii consoles by the end of the year. So far Wii sales is at 1,956,724 units (17%) since it launched. But then again, only 2 million units of the console have been released so far.

Lagging behind the two is Sony's PS3 at 792,619 units sold. Back in August Sony boldly predicted it will top Xbox 360 sales. Unfortunately, Sony didn't manufacture enough PS3s to go around to break Xbox 360's record.

Stay tuned for the final 2006 sales figures which we will post a few days from now.

(c) www.qj.net

Are people swapping PS3s for Wiis?

Jason McMaster has a report up over at GigaGamez saying that people are trading in their Sony PS3's for Nintendo Wiis. Even they were a bit skeptical at first when Tony Conrad, CEO and Founder of Sphere first pointed it out to them, but they started to believe the claim a bit when they did a little research through craigslist.org.

They decided to look up some of the hottest cities on craiglist: Austin, New York, and San Francisco. In Austin six people wanted to trade in their PS3s. In New York 18 people wanted to trade-in their big black box. In San Francisco, 48 different people want to trade in their PS3s for a Wii. This despite the price difference between the two.

McMaster spends some time speculating why people are willing to trade in at a loss. He wonders whether or not this has to do with with the fact that while most of the people who camped out for a Nintendo Wii did so for maybe four hours, PS3 lines were plagued with greedy eBayers and shootings.

McMaster has a few other theories but the scenario that he paints that we think is most reasonable is the eBay scenario. Here's his words:

Another scenario could be that they’re trading the PS3s, which are dropping in price on eBay, for the Wii to try and flip it right before the holidays. This theory is given credit by a few traders looking for two Wiis for a 60 GB PS3. That would definitely be a profit gain situation.

Can't get a PS3 and you really want one? Buy two Wiis. Can't get a Wii but you managed to snag a big black box through eBay? Trade it in and get two. To each his own.

(c) www.qj.net

PS3 or Wii: A Developer’s Conundrum

by Jason McMaster

Ernest Adams, Freelance Writer, Game Designer and contributor, has written another entry for his series, “The Designer’s Notebook,” about the PS3 and Wii. The question he poses in this column is “which will developers want to work on?” I believe that’s something we’d all like to know. Adams, in his column, says:

“For a long time, I’ve had a theory that there’s always room for two-and-a-half game consoles in the market – that is, two main contenders battling for first place and an also-ran that survives but never stands a chance of doing better than third. Being either first or second is normally good enough to guarantee healthy sales and long-term survival. The more critical question is, who will be the also-ran?”

He then goes on to discuss the merits of the Wii and PS3 from a developer’s standpoint. The PS3, he says, has computing power, and there’s no doubt that it’s the most powerful console ever made, whereas the Wii has interactivity on its side, with the Wii remote. He then puts forth a theory on the final outcome:

“So who, at the end of the day, will be the also-ran in this generation of consoles? On the global scale, I’d say it could well be neither the PS3 or the Wii, but the Xbox 360. The PS3 will win over the hardcore gamers who have to have the fastest, most amazing machine available. The Wii will skim off the younger players and those who don’t have as much money to spend.
Both have the advantage of being made in Japan, so they’ll crowd the Xbox right out of that market. In the US and Europe, it’s harder to say, but I see the Xbox’s early start as more of a liability than a benefit. They’ve racked up several million sales, but they can no longer claim to be the latest, greatest thing – especially as the PS3 plays Blu-Ray disks out of the box, but HD-DVD is only available for the Xbox as an add-on. The Dreamcast got an early start too, and look how that ended.”

It definitely could turn out that way, but who can really say at this point? What about the hardcore gamers who don’t want to spend $600 dollars to play Madden or FIFA? Surely that demographic isn’t completely covered by the Wii. Who knows if the Wii will even still be going strong this time next year? Maybe the “wow” factor will have worn off in regard to the controller. Each system has individual strengths.

The biggest advantage Microsoft has isn’t claiming to be “the latest and greatest”, but having a second generation of games that look great and play even better. One reason being that they’ve had their dev-kits (early versions of consoles for use by development houses for testing games) out longer, and another is their development tools are of higher quality. That’s what coming out first gets for you.

Sony has its name and the fact that it really has developed a powerful machine. I was skeptical of the PS3 at first, especially after spending so much time following it up to release and listening to the Sony Corporation say one bizarre thing after another, but they’ve really produced a high quality console. The fact that you can display movies and games at 1080p is pretty great as well as being able to swap out the hard drive. The weak launch titles may not do much for initial sales, but when the PS3 starts seeing some quality titles, it’s going to be something else.

Finally, Nintendo. What else can you say about them? Zelda, Mario Brothers, Metroid and Pokemon are all ridiculously popular and will always sell a system. They are currently making a profit on every Wii sold and have been in the black for years. Nintendo may not razzle-dazzle, but they’re not going anywhere.

“Who’s going to win this generation?”, seems to be the question that everyone is asking. The real answer, as of right now at least, is “who cares?” What we need to do, as consumers and enthusiasts, is buy your favorite console, get the games you want to play and enjoy it. We’re in the golden age right now, people, and we should be savoring every moment of it.

(c) www.gigagamez.com

Consoles in 2007

2007 is going to be a very interesting year for the console wars. Nintendo is off to a fantastic start with the Wii, and it appears the system built specifically to appeal to non-gamers and broaden the market has done just that—everyone who plays one says it's fun and wants one. That initial enthusiasm doesn't always translate into sales, though, much less extended sales. Once the talk shows and morning shows and news updates about the "hot holiday items" wear off, will those non-gaming masses still care? Will the idea of possibly purchasing or trying out this thing even cross their minds? Will Nintendo be able to keep the hot titles flowing fast enough to keep the core gaming demographic interested? After all, Zelda was a huge hit at launch, but nothing else has done very well, and the critical reception for other Wii titles is fairly poor. Nintendo's job throughout 2007 will be to keep the Wii fresh, keep it in the mainstream press as much as possible, and target it toward an expanding market that reaches beyond core gamers. It also has to prove that the sad reputation of the GameCube—only 2 or 3 Nintendo franchise games a year really worth getting for it—won't hold true. Nintendo needs to crank out the Wii hits, and bring forth plenty of great exclusive games from third-party publishers. That's not an easy task.

Sony has its work cut out for it. Despite the company's protests, everybody knows (and sales records have confirmed) that shipments have been below expectation and Sony has to make desperate improvements to increase supply. With a major region launch coming in the Spring (that usually requires stockpiling hundreds of thousands of units), that's going to be tough. The PS3 is at a price disadvantage, and Sony is already taking a big loss on each unit sold. It will be hard for them to reduce the price, but that needs to happen quickly. Many of the hot PS3 exclusives, like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII, are only maybe going to be done in time for a 2007 release. In short, Sony has precious little time to lower the PS3's price, fix all the little software flaws and glitches, add competitive online features to better stack up against Xbox Live, and release totally awesome exclusive games. Sony will be very busy in 2007.

Oddly enough, Microsoft seems to be in the best position moving into 2007. Its approach is less risky than Nintendo's and less reliant on shaking up the buying habits of millions of non-gamers. Thanks in part to some software delays (like Forza Motorsport 2, the lineup of exclusive titles for 2007 looks very good. Even the first six months of the year has several potential blockbusters in store. Thanks in part to Blue Dragon and some other imminent releases, Japan is starting to take notice of the Xbox 360. Sales are still not stellar and it is doubtful that we'll see a huge explosion in Japanese Xbox 360 sales in 2007, but the numbers should climb from "insignificant" to "a meaningful part of the business." And then there's Halo 3, part of a franchise so big that it will probably be responsible for millions of 360 purchases alone. Grand Theft Auto 4 will ship simultaneously on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, taking a very important feather out of Sony's cap. What was once an exclusive to Sony's platform and a big system-seller will now be available on both platforms, and the 360 will be the less expensive of the two ways to jump into the game.

Microsoft is entering the second year of production for the Xbox 360. Costs are already under control, with analysts claiming that Microsoft is already breaking even (or better) on each unit sold. With a move to smaller, cooler, more energy efficient 65 nanometer processors assumed to happen in the first half of 2007, the time is ripe for an Xbox 360 price cut. This is going to be hard for Sony to match with the PlayStation 3. Exciting things are afoot with Xbox Live. Microsoft added a video marketplace this year: Will that expand to music in 2007? Will there be a subscription model? The XNA Game Studio Express program that lets common programmers make Xbox 360 games without buying expensive development kits was just released. In 2007, we should see some sort of method for all Xbox 360 users to sample these homebrew projects. If this takes off, it could be a major point of differentiation between platforms.

Microsoft's main challenge is going to be making sure that launching early doesn't turn around to bite them. It has to remind consumers that the Xbox 360 is every bit as "next-generation" as the PlayStation 3 and convince them that the lower price does not mean inferior graphics or gameplay. The Xbox 360 has to continue to be seen as the "hot new thing" or risk being increasingly pushed aside along with the previous generation PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. It also has to make good on many of its release dates, and avoid pushing big franchises back to 2008.

The big unknowns? What will Microsoft do with the hardware? Will the next iteration of the Xbox 360 be more than just less expensive? Will it be quieter? Will it include built-in Wi-Fi, a bigger hard drive, or an HDMI port?

(c) www.extremetech.com

Wii still leads brand perception study

The latest update to BrandIntel's ongoing brand perception survey of the new crop of video game consoles finds the Nintendo Wii leading the pack. The data is compiled from criteria including general appeal, purchase intent and brand image in order to track consumer impressions. The Wii was the most talked-about console, leading the Sony PlayStation 3 by 12 percent and generating more than double the amount of conversations than the older Microsoft Xbox 360 does. Factors like price and the fun-to-play factor helped the Wii maintain the lead, although perceptions had cooled as availability has been limited.

More bad news for Sony as the PS3 continues to generate negative conversations due to the high price tag, plague-filled development and launch, and the highly debated merits of the graphics. In particular, conversations about the graphic capability of the console rank lower than those for the Xbox 360. On that same token, the Xbox 360 has indeed benefited from the shortage of Wii consoles, and its strong lineup of games has generated positive consumer discussion.

(C) www.fiercegamebiz.com

Sony exec: nobody will ever tap full power of PS3

In an interview with MTV, Sony executive Phil Harrison talked about the PlayStation 3 and where his company was planning on taking their latest game console.

To start off with, Harrison talked about how excited he was about the new possibilities offered by the online capabilities of the new generation of game machines. "The video-game business for the past 20 years was about shipping closed experiences," he said. Somebody made a game. Gamers bought it. They played it. End of story. Now comes a new trend, he said, where "the start of the relationship with the consumer is when you launch the game."

A cynical person might comment that the "relationship" being referred to is simply one where the consumer continues to empty his pocket on a monthly basis by purchasing extra add-ons and unlockable content for the games they have already paid for. However, there are plenty of possibilities afforded to consoles by the inclusion of online access. Many of these have already been explored for some time by the PC platform, such as the development of communities based around popular games.

Harrison talked about some of the problems his industry faces, such as the relentless attack on the morality of gaming by publicity-seeking politicians, and the struggle for the industry to be taken seriously as a legitimate art form. "I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as 'video games,' and games are supposed to be fun," he said, echoing the words of Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). He defended games such as Grand Theft Auto by saying that "games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses."

Harrison saved his most interesting comment for last. In discussing the future of the PS3, he stressed that developers are not currently using the machine to its full capacity. In fact, he stated that the current crop of games are using "less than half" of the machine's power, and that "nobody will ever use 100 percent of its capability." Of course, it is common at the beginning of a new console's life for games to not make full use of the power of the hardware: it takes some time for developers to learn the best tricks and techniques for squeezing every last bit of calculating power from any new platform. But to claim that nobody could ever make full use of the system's power, ever, seems a bit hyperbolic. Some developers, at least, will be wanting to tap the full power of the Cell, such as IBM's high-end customers in the HPC market. Some of this knowledge is bound to leak over to the game development world.

The major reason Harrison wants to hype up the "unlimited" potential of the PS3's architecture is to downplay comparisons between games running on Sony's console and Microsoft's Xbox 360. The two systems are not completely dissimilar: they both contain a PowerPC core running at 3.2 GHz, both have similarly-clocked GPUs, and both come with 512 MB of RAM. The 360 adds two additional cores running simultaneously, whereas the PS3's "Cell" architecture eschews the extra cores in favor of seven smaller "Synergistic Processing Units" (SPUs) that act as vector processors with a separate instruction set and a tiny amount of on-board memory. Whether or not two extra cores are equivalent to seven SPUs is a matter that has not yet been adequately resolved: many have argued that the Cell architecture has more theoretical potential power, but whether this will translate into significantly better-looking games is still unknown. Many games still don't take full advantage of the Xbox 360, either, and as the two heavyweights battle it out, it will be fascinating to watch what developers on both sides can accomplish. Still, in the end it is more about whether or not the games will be fun, and thus the race is on to sell as many systems as possible in order to create a larger market to encourage widespread third-party developer support.

(C) www.arstechnica.com

Pink PS2 will be a hit this Christmas, says GAME

 by Ellie Gibson

More stocks arriving as demand ramps up

The Nintendo Wii may be the most sought after console of the moment, but according to GAME there's another system in demand - the pink version of the PlayStation 2.

The retailer said that one of every two consumers buying a PS2 during the launch week of the new model picked pink, leading to initial stock shortages.

"The popularity of the pink PlayStation 2 has been overwhelming," said marketing director Anna Macario.

"In the autumn, a range of pink consoles were released - however we�re seeing a real demand for the Pink PlayStation 2. We�re now back in stock of the pink console in stores, so we�re hoping to fully satisfy the demand in time for Christmas."

GAME is currently offering a pink PS2 bundle with two matching controllers, a memory card, Singstar Popworld and microphones for GBP 129.99.

[Thanks goes to www.gamesindustry.biz for this article]

Sony patents LED-infused, motion-tracking controller

While the PS4 might be "just around the corner," and Nintendo's Wiimote is sure to give you all the (potentially dangerous) controller flinging fits you can handle, it appears that Sony's giving the whole "controller innovation" thing another go. Sure, Sony's faced its fair share of lawsuits (hasn't everyone?), and had noticeable trouble with Dual Shock in particular, but the less-than-revolutionary SIXAXIS controller is apparently lacking a heavily-desired feature: motion tracking. We're fairly certain that Sony is watching its toes to make sure the next lawsuit to hit doesn't come from the big N, but its latest patent describes a "handheld controller having detectable elements for tracking purposes," which admittedly sounds awfully familiar. The design looks simply like a revamped version of the current SIXAXIS, with embedded LEDs on the front of the device and an "external camera (Sony's sensor bar patent?) to capture the movements" of the user. After combing through the patent jargon, there's little doubt that the goal here is to deliver a controller that allows gamers to maneuver and react with more than just button mashes, but whether or not this development will actually be realized (or if games / lawyers will end up supporting it) remains to be seen.

[original post: www.engadget.com]