It is no secret that everyone was expecting, or even deserved to see, a drop in the price of the PS3. With a console that started at $599 USD three years ago, everyone was waiting to see when Sony would begin to appeal to the majority of consumers who aren’t willing to drop that much on a video game console. But, the question is now that it has come, is it enough to bring Sony back into the console war?
The PS3 Slim is a console that is going to retail for $299 starting in early September. It will come with a 120GB harddrive and is 34% lighter and smaller than the original PS3; this PS3, however, has a matte finish and no longer features the option for installing a secondary operating system.
The Nintendo Wii has heavily dominated the market and brought countless people who have never played video games into the market, but the Xbox 360 has been the console of choice for most people who can only purchase a single console and want a more adult experience than the Wii. The PS3 has always had the advantage of a built-in BluRay player, but the reasonable price difference that Microsoft has kept between it’s console and the PS3 and exclusive games made the BluRay feature more of an added bonus for buying a PS3 than a true decision changer in choosing a console.
The game changes a bit now that the Xbox 360 Elite, the version of the Xbox that is most comparable to the PS3, is $100 dollars more expensive and lacks a Bluray player. There is still a version of the Xbox 360 at the $299 price-point, but it features a 60GB harddrive unlike the 120GB that is being shipped with the PS3 slim. Rumors are now circulating that this version will be completely phased out and the Xbox 360 Elite will drop in price to $299.
As they do every year, Electronic Arts ran a simulation of the Superbowl between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers in an attempt to predict the Superbowl. The Steelers won in their simulation. The funny thing is that the simulation is usually correct except for last year when the Giants won. The score of the simulation game was 28-24, a close game. We’ll see if its right or there is another upset. After the jump, the predictions and results of the last few Superbowls.
Way before Grand Theft Auto 4 was even out, details about 2 expansions exclusively for Xbox 360 were already buzzing around the internet. Eventually, it was uncovered that Microsoft had to pay a hefty 50 million dollar price tag for the exclusivity of the expansions. The game was released, received rave reviews, and made insane amounts of cash, but details about the expansions remained scarce…until now! It turns out the expansions were much closer than anyone thought, in fact the first will be hitting next month, February 17th, for 1600 MS Points which is $20.
Some have received early previews of the expansion and they say it features about 10-20 hours of extra gameplay, new weapons, new missions, new music, and a biker gang? Not sure about the last one, but it seems like a good value if it ends up actually giving 20 hours of gameplay. Some sad news is that there will be no area additions to Liberty City, only new buildings. Here are some links to previews of the expansion and be sure to check back here for a review of the expansion when it actually hits the marketplace.
Nielsen is now reporting for the months January-October of 2008, the Playstation 2 was the most played console. It took 31.7% of the minutes followed by the Xbox 360 with 17.2%. That is a pretty hefty gap, especially for a 8+ year-old console. Given that there are more Playstation 2’s around than Americans, it makes sense but still impressive. Sony seems to fair a little less well with the Playstation 3 which was behind the original Xbox and only ahead of the Nintendo Gamecube. The question still remains, when will a console dethrone the Playstation 2. I’d say that within the next year or so, the Nintendo Wii definitely will, but will it have the staying power of 8+ years that the Playstation 2 had? The entire list after the break:
All the RotPod team members would like to wish all of our readers a great New Year. We have a couple of resolutions, one of them being posting a lot more on the blog. Check back frequently for updates and have a great 2009.
A perplexing message was found on Konami Productions official website yesterday. The message can be seen above. There are many theories about what this message can mean, but mostly everyone is certain that there will be some sort of Metal Gear Solid released on platforms other than the PS3 or PSP. Some theories are that MGS will finally be making the move to the Xbox 360, which is both indicated by the color of the text and the power ring, which is present very prominently on the front of the Xbox 360. But, another theory is also that MGS will be releasing a mobile version for the iPhone as indicated by the ‘i’. Right now, everything is up in the air and your guess is as good as mine, but I’m going to put my money on the iPhone or mobile version. A Xbox 360 version of MGS has been rumored since MGS4 was announced years ago, but nothing has come to fruition and the evidence in this message is a little bit to coincidental (after all, that is the UNIVERSAL power symbol); however, I don’t want to rule anything out. You can hope, just don’t get too excited.
X-Play has revealed the release date for Killzone 2 on their daily show. The date: February 27, 2009. This date was made official for only the United States, but the other dates (for PAL regions) should be around that date. The game was originally slated for March of 2008, and then pushed back to Q4 of 2008, but now it has an official date of February after a slew of delays, problems, and few details about the game. The FPS does have some of the best graphics in any console game ever giving even Crysis, a PC game, a run for its money. The game is definitely set to impress with extraordinary multiplayer from what I’ve seen. The Playstation 3 desperately needs a game like this to thwart the rise in popularity of the Xbox 360 and maybe take some more market share. We’ll wait and see if this game can do it, but from what I’ve heard about it so far it might actually hold a chance of getting a lot more PS3’s off the shelves.
It seems like everyday there are more awesome levels of LittleBigPlanet coming out. We usually don’t post about them, but we are nonetheless impressed with the level of customizability that some people are reaching with the game. But by far my favorite is the following level. Upsilandre has created a calculator in LitteBigPlanet using a similar architecture to switches on a processor. He claims to have over 1,500 parts to make the calculator; it is definitely an impressing feat to any nerd out there. Here is a video:
We’ve been trying to keep you up to date on the New Xbox Experience that was set to release this fall. And at their TGS keynote, Microsoft annouced that the fall update, which will encompass the New Xbox Experience, will be released on November 19th. The update is being received with a lot of praise by everyone who has played with it at the Tokyo Game Show. The update radically changes the GUI which I’m sure many fans of the blades will initially be against, but after some time the new intuitive, fluid, and active design should begin to catch on. Along with a new design, their is tons of new functionality. Some of the major features include ripping games to the HDD, streaming Netflix movies right to your console, and a radically different in-game menu. As we get closer to November 19th, excitement for the update will increase. Get excited.
<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:af0e0dcd-5cff-43a2-bd32-4841fe6a89d1&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Avatars in the new Xbox experience">Video: Avatars in the new Xbox experience</a>
Yesterday, Major Nelson released a video of creating an avatar for the New Xbox Experience(XNE). For those who don’t know the XNE is the total revamp of the Xbox 360 Dashboard that is expected to be released with the fall update. It really is very different and adds a big new feature, avatars. These are very similar to Mii’s for the Wii and avatars for Playstation Home. It seems as if Microsoft wanted to get in the game. Just watch the video above to see the entirely new interface for yourself.
A new set of achievements for Halo 3 has been rumored for a little while, but no one knew any details about it’s contents and the date of it’s launch. It seems like today’s weekly update has fixed that. The updates can be expected this month, but it should also be noted that they keep floating back towards Halo 3’s one-year anniversary. In an update called Title Update 2(basically, a patch), Bungie plans on fixing many under the hood glitches in the game as well as crack down on cheating as well as bringing the following the achievements:
Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
It seems as if video game retailers may not be as affected by the recession as other entertainment industries; some very convincing evidence for this statement can be found in Gamestop’s quarterly earnings report that was released today. Gamestop raked in a record $57.2 million in profit from a gross income of $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2008. Compared with the situation a year ago, when Gamestop made $21.8 million in profit from $1.4 billion gross revenue, it is surprising. That is a 162% yearly increase in profit and a 38% increase in revenue. This is quite an accomplishment in today’s economy, and a good sign for video games making a place in mainstream entertainment. Gamestop cited GTA IV, MGS4, NCAA ‘09, Wii Fit, and Battlefield: BC as the top 5 sellers in the quarter, in that order, also noting that GTA IV’s first five days of release were out of the quarter. Things can only go up in the second half of the year with major blockbusters like Gears of War 2, Rock Band 2, Fable 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Call of Duty: World at War, Fallout 3, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and many more set for release.
The rumored Playstation button has been confirmed true as pictures of the PSP 3000 begin to surface. The button is said to simply act like a guide button and will bring up the X-cross media bar in-game and in-movie. This is an interesting feature for the PSP, but definitely not a huge advancement that will displace the DS as the leader in the market. Check out more pics after the break.
The internet has been abuzz these past few weeks with rumors of a new PSP. Some said it might solve the oil crisis, others said it could change the course of history, and others said it would just include a built-in mic. The last would prove to be the closest and who would have guessed that?
Sony announced the PSP 3000 today at Leipzig. The new PSP will look identical to the PSP 2000, but will have two new features: a built-in microphone for use with Skype and Go Messenger, and a better LCD screen with more vibrant colors and less glare. The system is set to launch in Europe on October 15th for 199 euros, while the PSP 2000 will fall to 169 euros. The system will be available as parts of various single-game bundles with games like FIFA ‘09, Harry Potter, Buzz! Quiz Master and others.
There is no word on US details, but we should except them very soon.
Update: Sony has confirmed that the PSP 3000 will be hitting North American shores on October 14th. A PSP core pack will be available alongside the single-game bundles, which will include a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo and a PSN download code for Everyday shooter.
Many people have been writing off PC gaming as slowly nearing death and being replaced by console gaming. But there are still some definite signs of life, mainly in the fast growing Asian markets. At Leipzig, PC Gaming Alliance released their report on PC Gaming revenues and it was pretty big. PC Gaming brought in a total of 10.7 billion dollars worldwide last year with a heavy influence on the Asian markets, which alone brought in 4.8 billion dollars. Retail sales saw a slight decline, but online sales, for such things as MMOs, were up and showed signs of strong growth. MMOs seem to be a constant growing factor for PC gaming and shows no sign of slowing down. Another big factor was the increasingly popular casual games market, which gains a lot of revenue from in-game advertising.
Even though there was the very disappointing release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars this week, we can look forward to a demo for the Force Unleashed. The game is shaping up to be one of the most technically advanced games to ever be released, and it is already being touted as the most expensive game ever. Although the story sounds intriguing, I think it could be the falling point for a game that looks to be amazing. We get a chance to try it out on Xbox Live and PSN this week, so that question might be answered soon. The demo will allow you to play one level of the game at the TIE fighter construction facility and it may feature a Jedi fight at the end (against Rahm Kota). Just get ready to download the demo this Thursday (August 21st)
I think most people agree that this hasn’t been the best year for Atari, with a series of scandals ranging from getting their CEO to step down by paying him under the table to attacking a German gaming website for posting a negative review of Alone in the Dark. Many have been expecting Atari’s fall for years as they are now known for releasing lackluster games and many very unsuccessful games every year. Last year they posted an operating loss of 11.3 million. Atari’s bad year culminated when Infogrames finished buying them through an aggressive stock maneuver. (Note: the CEO that was paid to leave was the same one that oversaw this transaction)
But, things may be looking up for Atari. They have finally posted a yearly profit of $3.5 million. In reality, this is chump change for corporations, but we’ll overlook that fact when looking at last year’s losses. Atari cited great sales on Alone in the Dark (over 1 million copies) and Dragon Ball Z as the reason for the profit bump. Let’s just hope the old giant can keep this up.
Crysis Warhead was announced as a game that is for a person that doesn’t have a $2000+ gaming rig. Theoretically everyone thought that would mean much more lenient system specs, but that might not be the case. See for yourself. Here are the Crysis original system specs:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better
RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better
After a big announcement a few weeks ago when Xbox Japan posted an outstanding price tag of 1800 MS Points ($22.49) for Castle Crashers, Behemoth’s new XBLA game, the internet went crazy at this highly priced game. Microsoft and Behemoth quickly responded against the rumors and said that the price was still under discussion and that there is no official number out yet. Today, they released an official price tag of 1200 MS Points, which is $15. A pretty standard amount for a big game like Castle Crashers and it will undoubtedly be worth it. Now we just have to wait until next Wednesday. Come back to this page for the flash counter above.
For those of us that don’t remember or don’t know, Nvidia bought up the company Ageia a couple of months back. Ageia is the creator of the PhysX cards, which are stand-alone PCI cards that were meant for processing the physics in games. The cards were gaining some momentum, but developers weren’t really catering to the cards because of the lack of market penetration. But that might soon change: when Nvidia bought Ageia, they announced that they would then be using their GPUs as physics processors also. This effectively means that anyone with an Nvidia card would also ‘technically’ have a PhysX card if speaking on broad terms. Aside from giving Nvidia cards more value, it also dramatically increases market penetration of these cards and will hopefully lead to more developer support. There were some worries that graphics performance would slow down because the GPUs would also be processing the physics, or that Nvidia might try to increase their prices. There is still no word on the former, but the latter seems to have proven false. The video above is some of the first footage of the Nvidia cards rendering particle physics and they seem to do a very good job. This is a very basic demo and although I would have liked to see some much more complicated rendering situations, this will have to do.
Nvidia has also released firmware for all 8-series, 9-series, and 200 series cards to gain PhysX support. They are all available for download here. And here are a list of games that support PhysX cards. Interestingly enough, Xbox 360 is listed as a platform insinuating that the 360 should be receiving an update that would let games use PhysX cards as they do have Nvidia graphics cards. Interesting.
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