PS3, Get Fun!

Archive for the ‘Sony PS3 Facts’ Category

These are some new images of the PS3 Home

Read the rest of this entry »

More About: PS3 Home

PLAYSTATION^®HOME BETA SERVICE WILL BECOME AVAILABLE TO ALL PLAYSTATION^®3 USERS ON DECEMBER 11
Highly Anticipated Service Open For All PLAYSTATION 3 Users

Tokyo, Foster City, London, December 10, 2008 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that its highly anticipated PlayStation®Home Beta service for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) will become available for all PS3 users around the world *1 on December 11, 2008. Following the successful completion of the closed beta service, PlayStation Home’s open beta service will continue to evolve with new features and functionality.

PlayStation Home is a ground-breaking 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. By leveraging the power of PS3, PlayStation Home delivers overwhelming visual graphics and rich gaming social experiences only possible on the PS3 platform. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore the virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat. PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by using the “Club*2” feature to create clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. PlayStation Home also allows groups of users to launch directly into their favourite online games together from PlayStation Home.

PlayStation Home, available as a free download*3 starting December 11, will launch directly from the PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation®Network column of XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) on PS3. Users will be able to experience basic features and services of PlayStation Home, free of charge*4. PlayStation Home will allow open interaction among users, business partners and SCE, and will evolve with additional features including dedicated game spaces, special events and exclusive themed items, to further enrich the entertainment experience on the PS3 platform.

“PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3’s overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe,” said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCE. “We are committed to providing PS3 users with exciting gaming experiences with PlayStation Home and together with our partners and users, expand the new world of interactive entertainment as we move forward.”

For users accessing PlayStation Home in the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) regions, themed virtual environments will be available to explore. Starting with a themed Far Cry 2 space, PlayStation Home will offer game inspired environments that allow people to discuss the specific games, plan strategies and access content and clues that will enhance the gaming experience. The number of gaming environments such as this will regularly increase, with spaces for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune™, Warhawk™, Motorstorm and SOCOM following very soon. SCEE is working with leading publishers such as: Electronic Arts, UBISOFT, Midway, Sega and Atari to create engaging environments that will provide users with an on-going gaming experience.

“We are very excited to be bringing PlayStation Home to Europe and the PAL territories, offering users an interactive, social, gaming experience,” said Daniel Hill, Home Service Manager, SCEE. “PlayStation Home is unique to anything else in the gaming world and by partnering with both global and regional gaming and non-gaming brands, we are able to offer exciting and entertaining content that will enhance the PlayStation experience.”

SCEE today also announced the first partnerships with some of the world’s most respected lifestyle brands for the Open Beta. Fashion leader Diesel, contemporary furniture designers Ligne Roset, energy drink Red Bull, film studio Paramount Pictures and video content providers Hexus TV and Eurogamer are the first on board. They will offer resident’s virtual clothing for their avatar, virtual furniture for their PlayStation Home apartments, exclusive video content and a virtual flying challenge: the Red Bull Air Race.

Visitors and residents will be able to explore PlayStation Home with their avatar character and, thanks to Diesel, avatars can look great from the start with Diesel offering the latest men’s and women’s designer avatar clothing, with items ranging from free of charge to €1.50. So for those visiting PlayStation Home, they can dress their avatars in the latest jeans and jacket prior to getting out and about.

On the home front, PlayStation®Home gives everyone their own apartment to spend time in and entertain friends – who will now be able relax on exclusive Ligne Roset furniture. At the virtual store, people will be able to choose from a selection of the most popular Ligne Roset designs, including the iconic Togo and Facett upholstery collections. It will be possible to personalise furniture by selecting from a wide selection of fabrics and leathers allowing a unique and individual look. This is an opportunity to get acquainted with Ligne Roset’s cutting edge designs created by some of Europe’s most talented designers.

As the very first consumer brand space, Red Bull has created the Red Bull Island where visitors to the Island can interact and take part in many of Red Bull’s unique events. Initially there will be the opportunity to get inside the cockpit of a Red Bull Air Race plane and compete against the PlayStation community. The real-world Red Bull Air Race World Championship has become a global phenomenon in just four years, attracting millions of spectators. Now those spectators can leave the stands, become a pilot and tackle the Red Bull Island course themselves. The Red Bull Island will continue to expand, adding new and exciting content in early 2009.

Taking full advantage of the PlayStation Home Theatre, SCEE has partnered with various content providers to enhance the cinematic experience. Offering a wide range of content, the PlayStation Home Theatre will provide lifestyle technology programming from Hexus TV, gaming content from Eurogamer and exclusive film content from Paramount Pictures. Starting with the release of the highly anticipated film, Watchmen, Paramount Pictures International will use PlayStation®Home to promote its latest films. Initially, PlayStation®Home residents will be able to view an exclusive video greeting from Watchmen Director Zack Snyder as well as the latest Watchmen trailer. A selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise e.g. T-Shirts with the smiley face logo, Doomsday clocks and character statues, will also be available in the New Year, ahead of an exclusive Q & A event where cast and filmmakers will meet selected press and competition winners fans within the Watchmen themed environment.

PlayStation Home is exclusive to PS3, free to download and easy to join. It’s the ultimate online community – a place where you can meet friends, try the latest games, hear new music, watch videos, relax in the apartment of your dreams and much, much more. With more and more spaces being created and partners like Diesel, Ligne Roset and Red Bull coming on board, the PlayStation Home experience is just getting started.

SCE will vigorously promote the expansion of the world of PS3 by introducing new services that will open up new possibilities and enjoyment in interactive entertainment.

*1 PlayStation Home will not be available in some regions.
*2 To be a “Clubhouse” owner, user will need to buy the entitlement to run the club.
*3 When the service is available, PlayStation Home icon will appear after booting/ re-booting the PS3 system. To enjoy PlayStation Home, users will need broadband network connection and PlayStation Network account in addition to the PS3 system.
*4 Some content and services are charged.

ENDS

Sony announced that the PS3 (40GB hard drive) in a new color ‘Satin Silver’ on 06.03.08 in Japan.

Data

Read the rest of this entry »

Helios ( German Firm) said it is offering a free download of its own modified Yellow Dog Linux distribution to use on Sony PlayStation 3 as a test-drive server.The HELIOS simplified Yellow Dog Linux distribution comes provides a Linux server Operating System complete with DHCP network settings, support for Java 1 . 5 and AppleTalk enhanced kernel.

Source

More About: Yellow Dog Linux, Sony, PlayStation 3

A Sony Computer Entertainment Europe spokesperson has confirmed the existence of the 80GB Playstation 3 system – stating that there are presently no plans to release the super-sized machine outside of Korea. In fact, we’re told the 80GB model will be the only kind of PS3 sold in the country.

“The chassis of the 80GB Korean PlayStation 3 is identical to the chassis of the European version. The only exception is the larger hard drive,” read a recent official filing on the new model stateside.

With the 20GB model PS3 being dropped in North America, and the lower-end system failing to see the light of day in PAL regions at all, how long before this 80GB console does reach new regions? And, perhaps more pertinently, will the 60GB system be reduced in price when it is? More on all this soon.

More About: Sony, Playstation 3, PS3

Following the NPD results for the April reporting period, which showed that just 82,000 PS3s were sold in the U.S. for the month, Sony Computer Entertainment America reacted to its recent performance. The company blamed its poor PS3 sales on a relative lack of compelling software, but the good news (as revealed at Sony’s recent Gamers Day) is that plenty of titles are on the way this year, including 15 exclusive games.

“PS3 did see a dip in sales in April that we attribute mostly to a lack of new software in the market,” Dave Karraker, SCEA’s Sr. Director, Corporate Communications, said in a prepared statement sent to GameDaily BIZ. “For the remainder of this fiscal year, we expect a flood of new games for PS3 totalling more than 100 titles across all genres, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, LittleBigPlanet and many more. We feel strongly that this robust library will help drive hardware sales in the upcoming months.”

In total, during the month of April SCEA generated $271 million in sales, Karraker said. He noted that this was “buoyed in part by the addition of the PS3 platform… as well as the strong performance of the PSP at retail, which saw more than a 25% increase on an average weekly basis from March to April, selling 183K units.”

Full Article

Sony Bets 34 New PlayStation 3 Titles Will Pare Losses (Update1)

May 17 (Bloomberg) — Sony Corp. and video-game publishers will introduce 34 titles for the PlayStation 3 console in the next year as the company rebuilds sales in the money-losing unit.

The PlayStation 3 games, including 15 developed in-house and 19 from independent publishers, were unveiled to reporters and analysts at the company’s San Diego development studio.

Sony’s video-game unit, which sold more than 100 million PlayStation 2 consoles, is under pressure to increase sales of the new console, ranked third behind Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360. PlayStation 3 contributed to Sony’s $562 million fourth-quarter loss, the biggest in four years.

Full Report

More About: Sony, PlayStation 3

Sony  revealed that through the fiscal year ended March 31, the company shipped about 5.5 million PlayStation 3 units and sold around 3.6 million of those. 13.2 million units of PS3 software were shipped.

The expensive console took its toll on Sony’s bottom line, however. For the year operating income plummeted 68 percent from 226.4 billion yen to just 71.8 billion yen ($608 million). Sales and net income, however, were up 10.5 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. Total sales amounted to 8.3 trillion yen ($70.3 billion) and net income was 126.3 billion yen ($1.07 billion).

As was expected, the game division took a beating. Operating loss came in at 232.3 billion yen ($1.97 million) compared to an operating profit of 8.7 billion yen in the last fiscal year.

Sales in the game unit were up 6.1 percent to 1.02 trillion yen ($8.6 billion). Sony attributed the game unit’s performance to “the result of the loss arising from the sale of PS3 at strategic price points lower than its production cost during the introductory period, as well as the recording of other charges in association with the preparation for the launch of the PS3 platform.

” The company also noted that overall software sales declined because of lower PS2 sales. Sony was able to increase operating income related to the PSP, however, due to “continued cost reductions in hardware production.”

During the current fiscal year ending next March, Sony is expecting a major improvement for the PS3. “An increase in sales is anticipated as a result of the full-scale expansion of the PS3 business in Japan, the United States and Europe. In addition, a significant reduction in operating loss is expected due to rapid reductions in hardware production costs and an enhanced line-up of software titles in the PS3 business,” the company stated.

Sony Corp. as a whole is also very optimistic for the current fiscal year. The company expects profit will more than double to a record 320 billion yen ($2.7 billion). “Our results demonstrate a healthy recovery,” said Corporate Executive Officer Nobuyuki Oneda, who added, “The PS3 business will really get off the ground this fiscal year.”

“The good news is that profitability is being maintained in the electronics unit as well as sales,” Mitsuhiro Osawa, electronics analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities told the AP. “The results came about because of wise steering on the part of management.”

Indeed, it’s believed that the worst may now be over for Sony, and the company can begin to climb out of the valley. “It’s clear that Sony has got out of its worst period,” Mitsushige Akino of Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. told Bloomberg.com. “If Sony continues performing better than the market’s expectations, the stock may reach 10,000 yen.”

Source

More About: Sony, PlayStation 3

The new PlayStation 3 firmware update is upon us and PSU has the latest details of all the updates. Note that the update isn’t available yet for download, that these are just the details of what is to come. The new features/changes are as follows:

Users
- You can now password-protect user accounts.

Settings
- [Dynamic Normalizer] has been added as an option under [Sound Settings].
- [Energy Saver] has been added as an option.
- [Equalizer] has been added as a feature under [Music Settings].
- [Full] has been added as an option for [DVD Wide Display] under [BD / DVD Settings].
- [Photo Settings] has been added as an option.
- [PS / PS2 Settings] has been added as an option.
- [RSS Channel Settings] has been added as an option.
- [Sample Rate] has been added to [Audio CD Import] under [Music Settings].
- [Screen Saver] has been expanded under [Display Settings].
- The method of selecting an output resolution has been changed in [Video Output Settings] under [Display Settings].
- [Theme Settings] has been added as an option.
- [Zero Unused Disk Space] has been added as an option under [System Settings] > [Format Utility].

Photo
- Additional slideshow effects have been added.
- [Photo Effects] have been added as a feature.
- Wallpaper feature has been added.
- [Zoom] has been added as a feature.

Music
- Additional visualization effects have been added.
- CD information can now be entered.
- Three-speed fast forward and fast reverse has been added as a feature.

Video
- Files can now be played sequentially.
- Three-speed fast forward and fast reverse has been added as a feature.
- You can now select [Zoom] under [Screen Mode] when playing video files saved on the hard disk or storage media.*.
*An appropriate USB adapter (not included) is required to use storage media with some models.

Game
- Support for PlayStation 3 format software titles has been expanded.
- XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) is now accessible during gameplay.

Network
- [RSS Channel] has been added as a feature.

Friends
- You can now have multiple chat sessions.
- You can now select an image to use as your Avatar from [Photo].

Other
- Date and Time is now shown when the PS button is pressed.
- File sorting has been changed.
- [Help] has been added as a feature.
- Playability status with the PS3™ system has changed for some PlayStation® and PlayStation®2 format titles.
To check on the latest status, visit the search site for compatible titles.

- [Secure Delete] has been added as an option.
- Some PlayStation Network features have been revised

More About: PlayStation 3, firmware

This is a video where the PS1 and PS2 games will actually look DRAMATICALLY WORSE on the PS3 than on their original systems.