Sony Computer Entertainment has further outlined the PS3 motion control sensing technology it first unveiled at E3.
The PlayStation Eye-powered tech has been designed to work "with any games across all genres from casual to core" and will arrive in spring 2010 with a "range of first-party and third-party content," according to SCE documents obtained by Kotaku.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has clarified comments he made last week suggesting that the platform holder was to release a new Xbox console in 2010.
In a speech at The Executive’s Club of Chicago, Ballmer reportedly said that a new Xbox console would feature technology that is “really close” to an actuality and an in-built motion sensing camera.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has warned that the publisher “might have to stop supporting Sony” platforms.
The US army has closed the Emeryville, California-based studio responsible for America’s Army.
A number of developers were let go this week following the release of PC military sim America’s Army 3, according to a ShackNews report.
Future development of the free-to-play series, which is used as a recruitment tool, has been shifted to the army’s Redstone Arsenal post in Alabama.
Activision has announced that the second map pack for Call Of Duty: World At War was downloaded over one million times in the space of three days.
Featuring four new maps, the Treyarch developed DLC launched last Thursday via Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store for 800 MS Points/£7.99.
Format: Flash
Developer: The Monkey Odyssey Project
www.gamepoetry.com/blog/4k-flash-4kpillars/
Nintendo platforms continued to dominate handheld and home console sales in Japan during the week ended June 14.
Total sales fell from 111, 558 units to 109,148. Wii and Xbox 360 recorded weekly sales increases, while all other platforms saw marginal declines, according to data from Media Create.
DSi – 36,872
PSP – 26,904
Wii – 18,442
PS3 – 10,009
Xbox 360 – 8,015
DS Lite – 5,408
PS2 – 3,498
Format: 360
Release: Out now
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Developer: Stainless Games
Format: PC
Release: 1999
Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
Developer: Verant Interactive
It was a wedding that first blew them away. They watched characters exchange rings and vows, in a world they had made and it was nothing they could have predicted. “There was a GM, me and Brad McQuaid, and we saw a wedding in the game,” remembers John Smedley, the original producer of EverQuest. “It was awesome.”
Activision titles again took seven of the top 20 positions on the NPD Group’s monthly PC chart, while EA games scooped five.
The former’s World Of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King was the bestseller during May, while the latter’s The Sims 2 Double Deluxe held second place.
Electronic Arts’ chief operating officer John Pleasants says the publisher is evolving from a software company to a live services company.
Sony is reportedly pushing developers to create smaller, “non-retail” games and applications for PSP.
According to Destructoid sources, these games and non-game apps will have a 100MB file size limit. They'll retail for considerably less than existing PlayStation Store titles - most likely somewhere between two and six dollars - and Sony's also said to be welcoming free-to-download apps.
UK developer body Tiga and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) have teamed up to launch Play Together, a series of initiatives designed to promote innovation and collaboration between UK videogame companies and with other creative industries.
Among the initiatives, Tiga-NESTA have proposed the formation of a new service that enables UK developers to share employees, allowing studios to quickly upsize or downscale their teams - a common industry difficulty - using local area or national talent.
The Sims 3 has retained the top spot on the UK all formats chart, despite a 48 percent drop in weekly sales.
The PC title held off competition from PS3, 360 and PC release Prototype, which debuted at number two, pushing Red Faction: Guerrilla down a place to third.
Wii Fit jumped a spot to fourth, while rival EA Sports Active slipped two to number six. UFC 2009: Undisputed was sandwiched between the two exercise titles.
Microsoft is reportedly planning to release a new Xbox console packaged with Project Natal in autumn 2010.
Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey believes Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 will likely be the biggest videogame release of 2009.
The Infinity Ward developed FPS, which is due for release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in November, is the direct sequel to 2007’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, which has sold over 13 million copies.
Hickey said he expects the game to sell 11.1 million units by the end of 2009, generating $803 million at retail.
More than three million unique users have registered for Sony Online Entertainment’s free-to-play MMO Free Realms.
The family-friendly title passed the milestone in less than seven weeks.
“SOE worked diligently over the past four years to ensure that Free Realms would take the online space by storm,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “We are pleased to be able to provide such a vast, in-depth and, most importantly, fun world to an average of 500,000 new gamers per week.”
Format: PlayStation
Release: 1998
Publisher: Infogames
Developer: Reflections
Towards the end of its life, it became fashionable to denigrate the PlayStation. To claim its incredible success owed more to the Sony publicity machine than the quality of the software. To bemoan the wannabe-cinematic formula of cutscenes, glitchy 3D and poorly selected camera angles that characterised so many mediocre titles released in the console’s latter years.
Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes Nintendo will cut the price of the Wii later this year in order to hit its shipment targets.
“Wii supply has finally exceeded demand, so we expect hardware sales to show year-over-year decreases for the first half of 2009,” he said in a research note. “In order to hit its full-year Wii shipment forecast, we expect Nintendo to cut the price of the Wii before [the] holiday, likely to $199.99.”
SCEA president Jack Tretton has spoken of his annoyance that a number of Sony’s major E3 announcements were leaked ahead of the show.
“People don’t respect confidentiality in this industry,” he told CNBC. “It’s tough enough to keep a secret within your own company, much less when you speak to third parties."
Patrick Soderlund, senior vice president at EA Games Europe, has confirmed that Swedish developer DICE is working on a follow up to 2008’s Mirror’s Edge.
“You will see another Mirror’s Edge for sure,” he told VideoGamer. “It’s just a matter of when that time is and what we do with it. We have a small team on it and I’m excited about what we do”
A US district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Nintendo by Guardian Media Technologies.
Hardware sales slumped in Japan during the week ended June 7, from 144, 521 to 111, 558 units.
The decline was primarily due to a drop in DSi demand. Having raced ahead of the pack the previous week with over 65,000 sales, Nintendo’s latest handheld sold just shy of 39,000 units.
Sales of all other platforms declined marginally, excluding Xbox 360. Microsoft’s console saw a 2,500 unit jump to take it above PS2 and DS Lite in the rankings, according to research firm Media Create.
In news about the latest version of XNA Game Studio, Microsoft announced that it is to change the name of Community Games, its XNA-based amateur games creation platform, to Xbox Live Indie Games.
