There are now reports that the PS3 is easy to get hold of with many stores having surplus stock.
Well, actually, isnt that how it should be..?
The idea is that a customer walks in a store and buys one not orders one…

However, it seems to have spread concern in the industry that next-gen console sales might not be as aggressive as first thought and maybe the public’s demand for such expensive but powerful consoles may have been overestimated…

Sure, they are relatively expensive. Thats is, relative to the PS2 and Wii. The PS3 retails at $599 and the Xbox 360 needs a $200 HD Drive addition to pay HD DVDs. Along with games being $50-60 a pop you can see how money can get tight.

I dont see any cause for concern. The overall trend is good. Leisure and home entertainment continues to be a massively growing industry.

I believe that this is just the start and there is a lot of room for optimism.
Take the case of HD…

Firstly, HD televisions dropped in price significantly through 2006 at a level between a third and a half of their original cost. Even 1080P televisions, that make the most out of the PS3’s capabilities ,are now quickly dropping in price. This will entice more users to the world of next-generation consoles.

Secondly, HD DVDs and SONY’s Blu-Ray are very much in their infancy. As the back catalogue of movies and other media held on these formats continue to grow, we should see increased interest once again in the next-gen consoles. After all, the PS3 and 360 actually look like incredibly good value HD Players with games as a bonus. When you consider that they can also act as a music and home video center as well as a web browser its not too difficult to see the true valkue in these machines.

Once the public sees the true value in these consoles then sales should remain consistantly strong. Of course, a small drop in price would help as well!

www.ps3news.eu

Finally, SONY have announced the official release date of the Playstation 3 console  into Europe and Australia.

After missing out on the November release date they will now get their hands on it on the 23rd March 2007.

The rumors of the 60GB only being made available for this launch were confirmed in a SONY stratement:

“We will focus on the launch of the one with a 60 gigabyte (GB) drive and have no plan now to introduce the 20 gigabyte model,” Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said. Sony Computer Entertainment is Sony’s video game unit.
I have to say, as talked about on the www.playstation3.net forum, that this IS a good idea. It makes far more sense to concentrate their production on the premier model. In a way, the 20GB PS3 model was never really needed and it became obvious fairly quickly that the 20GB offered in the lower spec model was gong to be used up very quickly by game date and oither media downloads.

The price ?  Well, 599 Euros is a lot of money…

It equates to $775 US dollars at current exchange rates which is significantly higher than the price paid in the US. If it wasnt for the region lock on PS2 games and Blu-Ray disks then importing could have continued to be strong.

Still, at least Europe and Australia now have a date on which to focus and start saving up the many pennies they will need to afford it….

www.ps3news.eu

Who are they?

Orb has developed an award winning service that combines the use of an internet media portal and a proprietary software application. Orb leverages the best in already available technology (hi-speed broadband, Wi-Fi, wireless internet access and sophisticated portable devices) to provide a brand new way for people to connect with their digital media in the manner “how, when and where” they most desire.

In short, Orb provides the ability to MyCast.

MyCasting gives the user instant access to photos, music, videos, live television, and other digital content on their home PC at anytime and from any internet-connected device, such as a mobile phone, PDA or laptop. MyCasting is media anywhere. MyCasting is media freedom.

Whats exactly does it offer PS3 owners?

We can enjoy all of their digital media from their PCs on their TV screens.

Orb has created a simple new way to enjoy all of the digital entertainment on you home PC directly on your living room TV screen using Orb Networks software as the bridge.

Orb’s free software allows you to enjoy all digital media from your home PC as well as online videos from the growing source of Internet TV and content sites on any other networked device with an internet browser – be it other PCs, lap tops, PDAs or mobile phones with streaming players – and now TV with the Sony PS3 .

How it works

How Orb Works with the Sony PS3:

1. Download Orb at www.orb.com onto your on always-on Windows PC at home. It takes less than 3 minutes to do.
2. Turn on your TV and pen the Web browser on your PS3.
3. Using your controller, log onto your Orb account through PS3 at mycast.orb.com. That’s it. Now enjoy, watch and listen to any digital content on your home PC – videos, music, Internet TV and radio or any other online content you programmed in your Orb MyCast application: they are now all airing on your TV screen.

Once the Orb MyCasting application is installed, the user can use most any Internet-connected device with a streaming media player to stream their media content whenever and wherever they choose.

Should I download this?

I have no reservations about recommending this as a download. If you can use the extra functionality it offers then go for it!

www.ps3news.eu

The strength of the video gaming industry showed it’s ongoing strength with higher sales throughout 2006.

Sales of video games and accessories for consoles and portable devices grew to $12.5 billion from $10.5 billion in 2005.

The launches of the new consoles helped, of course. Both SONY’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii both sold out at launch which in itself meant more games were sold although these two consoles were obviously lacking a large game library at launch. Both consoles run ou of supply in the US and more units could have been sold if production was able to have been increased.

The Xbox 360 selled well and sold a large amout of games and the PS2 showed that it still has a voice worth listening to with the best sales figures of all.

Lists of the best-selling console/hand-held and PC games follow:

Top 10 console/handheld video games 2006

1. Madden NFL 07 by EA

2. Cars by THQ Inc.

3. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy by LucasArts

4. NCAA Football 07 by EA

5. New Super Mario Bros. by Nintendo

6. Need for Speed: Most Wanted by EA

7. Gears of War by Microsoft Corp.

8. Call of Duty 3 by Activision Inc.

9. Lego Star Wars by LucasArts

10. Fight Night Round 3 by EA

 

www.ps3news.eu

Nope, they’ve not started making it out of the expensive precious metal thats costs twice as much as Gold! Especially not for $600.00 !

Playstation 3 console sales have reached a million in Japan. This was actually a couple of weeks after SONY’s original forecast target for a million console sales by the end of 2006.

Apparently, sales in Japan have been slightly faltering in the last few weeks and there is actually a small amount of surplus stock floating around the country. At first I was surprised but then realised that funnily enough the Japanese gamers, on the whole, have been more into quirky, fun games than in-depth power games. As such, the Nintendo Wii will always make it bigger in Japan. They are reported to be selling 85% of production of the PS3 which is still a good figure for the sale of a console.

On the other hand, console sales in the USA reached a million before the end of the year and continue to be strong and in shorter supply. Now, strangely,  I have heard conflicting reports about PS3 availability. One member on the www.playstation3.net forum mentioned that his local store had constant stock and couldn’t sell it. However, many people report that the PS3 is still hard to get hold of which is borne out by the premium the console still seems to fetch on the major online auction houses.

The US and Europe have always enjoyed consoles and high powered gaming PCs and when Europe finally gets it’s dose of PS3 mania I fully expect things to get manic on a level seen at the other launches. I would also expect PS3 sales to remain strong in Europe throughout the summer especially with the promise of PS3 games that fully exploit the power and performance of the PlayStation 3 console.

SONY still expect to have sold 6 million PS3 consoles by the end of march. So long as they do indeed start supplying Europe with consoles in March and they suffer no production issues then this figure should be easily attainable.

www.ps3news.eu

 

Console sales update….

Wii tops Playstation 3 (Yahoo news)
Nintendo Co. Ltd.  sold 604,200 of its new Wii video game consoles in the United States in December, beating Sony Corp., which sold 490,700 units of its new PlayStation 3, according to retail market research firm NPD.
Well, surely thats a  decent result.
Give that the PS3 costs twice and much and people couldnt even get hold of them , I reckon they make strong sales figures in my book, all things considered…

Its the headline that annoys me in that it joins the others in making a statement that doesnt really seem ‘totally’ relevent. Its like they are saying the PS3 did badly. I am sure, judging by demand that if Sony had produced a million units in the US by Christmas then they would have sold one million…..

You dont see statements or headlines like ‘SONY’s Playstation 3 sales well despite supply problems’… You know what I mean? They just seem to take an aggressive stance aimed at SONY all the time.

Incidently, the Xbox 360 sold 1.1 million which sounds right given a year’s headstart and with a much larger game base!

BUT.. probably due to its lowered price the Playstation 2 was the big winner selling 1.4 million units! The good thing about this and there are natural customers for the PS3 when they want to make the step up to Next Gen consoles.

The best selling game in December was Gears of War for the Xbox 36O.
It is a great game and like Halo before it, was probably responsible for selling a lot of the consoles. PS3 owners will probably have to wait for Metal Gear Solid 4 to come out before having a game that will top it.
Though Resisitance Fall of Man does come close.

The next best selling games for December were Playstation 2 titles: Guitar Hero 2 and Madden NFL 07.

So, its plain to see the Playstation 3 has some catching up to do. I don’t doubt that the cheaper Wii will still sell more units 2007 but the PS3’s numbers will still be very strong and as more PS3 power orientated games come out we will finally see what makes the PS3 so special.

www.ps3news.eu

The first inkling of more intrusive Company Advertisements within actual games was mentioned a few months back with EA Sports announcing an official comment that they are embracing more in-game advertisements. Of course, sports games in particular appeal to a younger and eager product buying sector and we have always got use to ‘adverts’ on the billboards by racing tracks in games so far.

On the one hand you have to say that mainstream Films have been advocating product placement for many years. I’ll never forget that scene in Terminator when a naked Kyle Reese runs into a store to avoid the cops, picks a trench coat and then the Nike sneakers appear unde the curtain… Can we expect more ‘groan’ moments in our favorite games on the Playstation 3?

Apparently, although there may be some in-yer-face advertising on walls, track boardings and sports arenas the advertising will mainly take the form of secrets and downloadable extra goodies. Now, getting a company to pay the publisher a large sum of money to showcase their product in a subtle way is okay by me if it doesn’t spoil the gameplay one jot. However, if we have to pay for branded extras such as a can of coke to give your player energy, for example, then it is gong too far.

All this will eventually be resolved and the publishers will get to know how far they can go with this as sales become affected. This will dictate just how far this possible intrusion will go.

It could be worse….

Imagine finally getting in a position to snipe the last enemy, taking a deep breath, finger on the trigger, ready to pull…. and….. the screen goes black and the latest Advert from Chrysler hits the screen… Click HERE to resume the PS3 game….  Oh dear!

www.ps3news.eu

 

Well, SONY are keen to push that they wish the Playstation 3 to become a Media Center for the Home. A machine to play not only games and watch Blu-Ray movies but to download TV shows, other films, more games, music and other content.

Given the internals of the console is it not more of a PC than a games’ machine?

Let’s have a look at the evidence from what the PS3 offers from a PC point of view:

• Cell Processor with Super-Computer like power devloped by IBM, Toshiba and SONY.
• Graphics processor (RSX) co-developed by NVIDIA Corporation and SCEI.
• Computing power of 2 teraflops allowing never seen entirely graphical power.
• Typical RAM as seen on PCs.
• 60GB Hard Disk Drive for media storage.
• A full suite of interface connections from USB to SD Cards.
• Ability to browse the web, use a mouse and keyboard and Headphones. 

In fact, now there are options available to download a more advanced Linux Operating system so that the PS3 IS a PC, able to carry out typical PC functions such as spreadsheet work and detailed file management. You could install Windows on it but it takes up so much space and, more importantly, processing power, you’d be a fool to do so.

I can’t help thinking SONY will release their own more in-depth OS or after a series of downloadable system updates (currently on version 1.32) will, in fact, have an OS worthy of mention. We can expect far better file management, the ability to read, play and sort different media formats such as the many varying video and image formats.

At the moment, SONY haven’t allowed us to play on the PS3 whilst downloading other media such as updates or games. However, given the power of the console we can expect true multi-tasking to be just around the corner!

www.ps3news.eu

Well, first of all, Happy New Year everyone. I hope you’re not feeling as fragile as I do!

2007 is here, it has been a month and a half now since the Playstation 3 arrived on the scene. The question is what is available in the Playstation Store?

It was always a bit barren with little content. Well, things have not got a great deal better but there have been some very welcome additions in the last couple of weeks especially.

As of the 1st January 2007 this is what is available to download Online at the Playstation Store:

Full Games:

• Gran Turismo HD Concept – Challenging and real-world realistc car racing simulator that can run in full 1080P resolution for the lucky ones. SONY mention that the download is for a limited time only. In case that holds then you had better get cracking and download it. It will store on your Hard Disk and be available in the drop down games section. It is about 625MB so it could take a couple of hours to download!
  Price: FREE
• Go! Sudoku - The popular puzzle game with better graphics and some fancy animation. It has around 1200 puzzles and they come in varying levels of hardness in different packs. This is a game to keep your Gran happy.
  Price: FREE for the Starter Pack and $2.99 for each of the 4 level packs.
• Blast Factor – A physics based action game that is pretty intense and can run in full 1080P HD resolution. It also uses the Sixaxis motion control feature.
  Price: $7.99 for a limited time only and then goes back to $9.99.
• Cash Guns Chaos DLX – Difficult to say, not so difficult to play, thankfully! It’s basically a killing spree shooting game with the view being from above. Not too bad… Download the video first and see what you think of it.
  Price: $9.99
• Lemmings! - This a cracking online version of the popular Lemmings game where you have to lead the little critters to safety by building bridges, getting them to dig, climb or parachute there way to their goal. It offers different levels up to Mayhem, which is really tricky. It has a neat Online Scoring system so you can compare your time against others and maybe become an International star!
  Price: $6.99 and worth every Cent.

Game Demos:

• Lemmings
• Go! Sudoku
• Genji: Days of the Blade
• NBA 07
• Blast Factor
• Formula One Championship Edition
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Motorstorm
• Cash Guns Chaos DLX

Game Trailers

• Lemmings!
• Lair
• Genji: Days of the Blade
• Calling All Cars
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Warhawk
• NBA 07
• Motorstorm (2 videos)
• Cash Guns Chaos Game
• Dark Kingdom

 

Obviously GT HD Concept is the stand-out product here, especially as it is FREE. I find it rather dificult myself but how can you argue with a price of Zilch! There is no word yet on when more tracks and cars are going to be made available but keep an eye on the Playstation Store or this site for further news!

www.ps3news.eu