Sony has no plan to cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console, the company's chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda said Friday.

"This year, our strategy is not to sell more quantity for PS3 but to concentrate on profitability, Our plan is not to reduce the price." - Oneda told a forum in Singapore.

His comments followed a report in the Wall Street Journal which said Microsoft plans to cut the price on a popular model of its Xbox 360 game console in an effort to boost sales in the face of stronger competition from rival Sony. The Journal report cited people familiar with the matter and said the price cut would come as early as Sunday.

Oneda also said he expects Sony's PS3 operations as well as the broader game segment to be profitable for the current year ending March 2009.

Reference:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121574819606745349.html

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 4:58 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PlayStation, Sony

New research shows that U.S. retail sales of video games, consoles and game accessories hit $1.12 billion in May, a 37 percent rise over the same month last year. These parameters reported on Thursday by Market researcher NPD Group.


Take-Two Interactive Corp's Grand Theft Auto continues to be the No. 1 selling video game, and its version IV, released in April, sold 871,300 units in May. According to the research the top-selling hardware unit is Nintendo Co.'s Wii console. 675,100 units were sold in May. Nintendo's DS handheld player took second with 452,600 units sold. Those units have captured the top two spot's for four consecutive months. Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 trailed with 208,700 and 186,600 units sold.


As to hardware sales, they rose 34 percent to $428.6 million, while software sales rose 41 percent to $536.9 million, compared to the same month last year. Sales year-to-date come to $6.6 billion and the industry is on pace to bring in revenue between $21 billion and $23 billion for 2008.

Reference:
http://www.npd.com/corpServlet?nextpage=corp_welcome.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-06-13-video-games-sales-may_N.htm?csp=34

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:17 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

A supercomputer with components originally developed for Sony's PlayStation video-game console has become the world's fastest computer. It can process more than 1,000 trillion calculations per second, known as a petaflop. Built for the Energy Department's Los Alamos lab with off-the-shelf components, Roadrunner is named for the state bird of New Mexico and will be used to monitor the U.S. nuclear-weapons stockpile.

Roadrunner cost $133 million and is twice as fast as IBM's Blue Gene system, which had been considered the worlds most powerful. The Blue Gene is at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Along with almost 7,000 dual-core processors from Advanced Micro Devices, the Roadrunner also has almost 13,000 improved Cell microprocessors originally developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. The Cell combines the Power Architecture instruction set with coprocessors to accelerate computing.

Roadrunner will make it possible for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration to certify the reliability of the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons without the need for underground nuclear tests. To accomplish this, it will be used to solve classified military problems. To illustrate the power of Roadrunner, the Energy Department said it can perform a calculation in one day that would take 46 years if everyone on Earth used a hand calculator for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Some observers see the Roadrunner as a resurgence in supercomputing for the United States, which dominated the field from the 1960s to 2002 when Japan's Earth Simulator briefly became the world's fastest by executing more than 35 trillion mathematical calculations per second.

Reference:

http://www.ibm.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 12:16 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: IBM, PlayStation, PSP, Sony

Speaking in a new PlayStation Blog post Susan Panico, Senior Director of the PlayStation Network, has announced a new interactive digital magazine TV show called Qore. An addition to the PlayStation Network (PSN), the subscription-based gaming program will debut today.

Available only on the PlayStation Store on PSN, Qore is the first in a series of original content planned for the PlayStation community. Qore will feature exclusive multimedia news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews, and behind-the-scene looks at popular PlayStation games. Sony said subscribers will also have special access to game demos, betas, add-ons and other downloadable and game-related content.

The first issue of Qore comes packed with exclusive content for games such as SOCOM Confrontation (including an invitation to the beta), Secret Agent Clank and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Qore is available on the PlayStation Store for a one-off payment of $2.99 per issue, or for a yearly subscription fee of $24.99 for 13 issues.

"Qore is the first step in providing original content dedicated to the PlayStation community and evolving the network into a place where our customers can gather, share and discover new forms of entertainment," - said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America.

According to Mike Goodman, a video-game analyst at Yankee Group, PSN is an entertainment network aimed at digitally delivering innovative content and fostering a community for a worldwide audience. The network has eight million members, according to Sony, and Qore is the latest addition. But Sony is still very much in building mode versus its rival, Microsoft's Xbox Live.

Reference:

http://blog.us.playstation.com

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 9:27 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Sharing, PlayStation, Sony, XBox

Sony has unveiled a video download service for PSP. Go!View, a new video download service for PSP created jointly with Sky, will allow PSP users to watch their favorite TV shows on PSP.



According to Sony: "This summer, PlayStation and Sky will launch Go!View, the first official PlayStation Portable video download service in Europe. Go!View will provide a wealth of programming from the worlds of entertainment, comedy, sport and movies for PSP owners to enjoy in addition to their usual gaming experience,".

So far, so good. Watching high quality video content on PSP is a pure pleasure. When I bought mine, the shop made a gift of 4 UMD disks. A five-hour flight easily ate up two of those disks and I really enjoyed watching the movies while on the plane.

The idea of Go!View sounds pretty interesting but I see a big question mark there. The service will come in two flavors: subscription and pay-per-view based. I don't think PSP users who know how to load tons of videos on their PSPs will be happy with that. So the big question mark is hovering on a question: why users will start using a paid service while there are many ways of loading the same stuff on a Memory Stick free of charge? On the other hand, it is really good to see an official video download service for PSP. Sony has not provided any dates of the service availability yet. Summer - that can be anywhere from June to August. So, we only have to wait and see.

Posted by George S. at 2:38 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

After several firmware updates, a number of interesting icons have appeared in the PSP menu, Internet Radio and Skype to mention some. You've probably also noticed a mysterious Go! Messenger icon in your PSP.

It is a new wireless communication package, which has been recently launched by Sony in partnership with BT.

The Go! Messenger server allows gamers to send video, voice and instant messages to each other from anywhere in the world from their PSPs – using any wireless broadband connection.

Naturally, to take advantage of this service, you would need an attachable video camera and microphone. But once you connect the accessory, you will have the ability to make video calls to your friends and leave fun video and voice messages.

Best of all, the calls are free! So, one more feature to fully enjoy your PSP.

Posted by George S. at 8:54 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

Well PSP is a cool device. However, some folks still find the L an R buttons to be awkwardly placed. It has never caused any problems to me and I must say the new Slim and Lite PSP is really cool. But hey, look what PSP could have been.


If Sony ever makes PSP with this design and features (hey it's not only design. Look at this really huge screen. hmm is it a touch screen?), nobody will ever argue which is the best portable system: PSP or DS.

No no. This is not Made by Sony. Rather, this mockup was made by a PSP fan. Great job BluezPS.

Posted by George S. at 10:08 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

There are many good games for PlayStation Portable. Some of them have become real hits. But this one... rocks. Sony has just released a trailer of God of War: Chains Of Olympus. The game has already been dubbed as the best PSP game of all time. The Japanese giant has released the final cover art as well. Even from the game cover it can be seen that the game is cool. The trailer further strengthens this assumption.

Posted by George S. at 6:14 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

It looks that Sony has seriously embraced the DivX format. As you are well aware, PlayStation 3 got it not so long ago and now PlayStation Portable is ready to support one of the most popular video formats.

This information cannot be considered to be 100% accurate and I'd say this is more a rumour with high chance of turning out to be true.

If the information proves to be true (which I believe is so), support of DivX will allow PlayStation Portable users to download videos through the PC (via PSN Store), PlayStation 3 or maybe even from third party online sites.

Posted by George S. at 8:46 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

Sony ha released more details about the PSP's support for Skype VOID. As we have learned, the Skype software will be available as a part of the next firmware update, which is scheduled for the late of this month. After the firmware update is performed, the networks section of the menu shall be enriched with the Skype icon. Wow!

Now time for some bad news. Unfortunately, Skype on PSP will be available for the slim and light PSP. In other words, the owners of the older model won't be able to use Skype. As far as I know there is not much difference in hardware between the older and the new models and it is a bit strange why the older model won't support Skype. Anyhow, the owners of the new edition must be happy.

Posted by George S. at 4:56 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

I have cool news for PlayStation portable owners.

Sony is planning to bring Skype to PSP in the near future. This will allow PSP users to catch up with friends and fellow games via Skype on PSP.

No doubt, Skype is the leader in VOIP. Its user base is over 245 million throughout the world and PSP is a really cool device to run Skype.

It is unclear though whether PSP will run a Skype client application or if it will work with the Skype via a gateway or proxy.

Anyhow, Sony will be revealing more details of the new service at the Consumer Electronic Show 2008 in Las Vegas on the 7th of January and I will keep an eye on this.

Stay tuned and don't forget to subscribe to our RSS feed.

Posted by George S. at 8:44 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: PSP, Sony

According to Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) PlayStation 3 is gaining developer confidence. This is something that PlayStation 3 has been severely lacking. Hopefully, the more developers start creating good titles for Sony's gaming console, the more appealing it will become for gamers.

Sony on its own is doing maximum to make the console feature-rich. Sony has recently released firmware update version 2.10 for the PlayStation 3. The most interesting new feature added to the update is support for DivX files. Thus, PlayStation 3 has caught up with Xbox 360 in terms of media capabilities.

Another interesting feature introduced in this update is a voice changer feature, allowing users to change the pitch of their voice in chat.

Some PlayStation 3 users have found out that the firmware update also includes the ability to play PS1 games on PSP via Remote Play.

Interestingly, on the portable gaming front, Sony is making progress as well. Sony Japan has introduced a free media manager. The old media manager is NOT free and besides it doesn't work on Windows Vista, which was a huge disappointment for me. However, the new media manager, which is already available for download, allows you to unleash the full power of your PSP's multimedia capabilities for free.

Posted by George S. at 7:38 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: PlayStation, Sony

At last Sony has launched much awaited PlayStation Store for PSP. This is a clear sign that UMD as a format has reached its death. While I believe the small disks will be around for some time, Sony's move to offer downloadable content is a step to a right direction.

Posted by George S. at 9:01 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: PlayStation, PSP, Sony

Today Sony made one more step to attract more developers to PlayStation 3. The Japanese maker of gaming consoles has halved the price of "Reference Tool" - the software needed for developing games for PlayStation.

The package is now priced at 950,000 yen (approx. $8,600) in Japan and $10,250 in the USA.

I think this is a very timely and effective strategic move. On one hand this decision will lower game development costs and on the other hand it must attract more developers. Lack of quality titles is PlayStation 3's number one enemy at the moment.

Naturally, Sony cannot expect an immediate effect of the decision but in the middle to long run, this decision shall affect sales in the positive manner.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a4WH3CrEX3Y0&refer=asia

Posted by George S. at 10:36 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, PlayStation, Sony

It looks like that Sony's latest marketing efforts have started to pay off. According to Media Create's numbers for the week ending November 11th, the sales figures looked as follows:

1. Nintendo DS: 78,884
2. PlayStation Portable: 58,964
3. PlayStation 3: 55,924
4. Nintendo Wii: 34,456
5. PlayStation 2: 9,043
6. Xbox 360: 5,817

For now PlayStation 3 outsells Wii. A while ago Xbox 360 outsold PlayStation 3. Quite funny. Weekly figures are of course more volatile than for example monthly or quarterly sales figures. However, it must be noted that the price cut on PlayStation 3 and introduction of the 40 GB model have definitely helped Sony increase sales by whopping 300%. Another factor for this dramatic increase is the shortage of Wii devices at the moment. Nintendo's inability to keep up to the demand may cost a lot to the company.

Posted by George S. at 11:38 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii

Nintendo has been the most successful player on the gaming console market so far. The company has made impressive profits, while its main rivals Microsoft has made relatively modest income and Sony has deep loses altogether.

Both Microsoft and Sony, have made various price cuts. Given this situation, Nintendo has no intentions to cut prices. Moreover, shortly, Nintendo will be bringing a new feature, which will enable Wii users to view TV program listings on the Wii consoles that are connected to the Internet, further increasing value of its already popular gaming console.

Posted by George S. at 9:35 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii

Which gaming console is the best? I think this is a rhetoric question and will remain as such for good. However, the gaming console market has another side - financial and probably the most important to the manufacturers. So, let's cut down rhetorics and quickly look at how each console has been performing.

At last, news is quite good for Microsoft. Its Entertainment and Devices division has posted an operating income for the first quarter of 165 million dollars. This may look funny in comparison to Nintendo's 1 billion dollars made on Wii and DS sales. However, the same period last year left the Redmond company with a 142 million dollar loss. Things look even better for Microsoft if we compare Xbox's profits to that of PlayStation 3. Sony has a 849 million dollars loss.

While Microsoft has started making profits from the Entertainment and Devices division, the company is still losing money on each sold unit. However, business is not about how much you make on a single product but how much a business unit makes overall. Microsoft's losses on each sold Xbox are "covered" by the sold games to say so. Recently released Halo 3 has already taken off and is not the last word from the software giant.

Unfortunately, Sony's business model seems to be the same. However, PlayStation 3 lacks killer titles, which ruins the business model, hence Sony's deep losses.

Posted by George S. at 12:43 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

Little time is left till the holiday season and the competition among gaming console manufacturers is becoming increasingly tough.

To boost sales for the holiday season, Sony has cut the USA price of the PlayStation 3 by 17% and at the same time has introduced a less expensive model.

The price cut has an immediate effect, so from now on the US 80GB model costs $499 (was $599) and the $399 priced 40 GB model will hit shelves from November 2.

Unfortunately, price manipulation is the only weapon available in Sony's arsenal. Nintendo Wii sales have doubled PlayStation 3 sales mark. Microsoft's Xbox 360 sales are pretty strong as well. Moreover, the release of Halo 3 has further boosted Xbox 360 sales and no price cut was necessary.

It will be in the range of possibility to assume that Sony may need to cut prices further to come close to competitors, not to mention matching the more than 120 million PlayStation 2s sold worldwide.

Posted by George S. at 7:42 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

Until recently I have preferred playing computer games on a PC rather than on a console. Why not? My Sony Vaio easily crunches even the most recent games at a pretty high FPS. However, playing graphic intensive games on a laptop is not that comfortable, especially in a hot summer.

That is why I have decided to buy a gaming console and started exploring different options, understanding power and weaknesses of consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Nintendo's Wii is technologically the least sophisticated and the cheapest of all three consoles. Nevertheless, eight months since its launch, the Wii has outsold both Xbox and PlayStation. Nintendo expects to sell a total of 16.5 million Wii units in the fiscal year ending in March 2008, up from its previous forecast of 14 million. This is a spectacular comeback for Nintendo, especially considering the fact that the Kyoto based maker of "Pokemon" and "Super Mario" games had fallen behind Sony's PlayStation 2 in the previous generation of game consoles.

Nintendo's comeback isn't just based on the Wii. The DS portable game console sold 47.27 million units worldwide since its launch in late 2004, far outstripping any other console on the market.

Generally consumers win from fierce competition and the gaming console market is not an exception. Sony slashed US prices for PlayStation 3 game console by US$100 earlier this month to US$499 for the 60 gigabyte model. Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has been quite successful in the US, sold sluggishly outside of software giant's main US market. Shall we expect a price drop?
Consumers' quick reaction on Sony's price drop (PS3 sales more than doubled in the USA in the two weeks since the price drop) signal tough competition ahead.

Well done Nintendo! Price reduction on Sony PS3 is only welcomed. But my choice goes to Xbox 360.

Posted by George S. at 10:03 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox