Analysts Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities and Jesse Divnich of EEDAR wouldn’t be at all surprised if Sony’s next handheld supported the platform holder's proprietary UMD format.
Update: Analysts: New PSP With UMD A Strong Possibility
Sony may surprise industry watchers and consumers when it eventually comes to making an announcement about the PSP’s next major evolution.
Presenting highlights from Edge's community-written blogs, with discussion on button layouts, why games should ape TV and how to learn an instrument using Guitar Hero.
Brütal Legend slagged my heart. I was ready for solos that shred, men that shriek, and monsters with teeth where they should have had faces. I was ready to dig the jokes and hate the gameplay. But nobody told me that Brütal Legend’s a love story. (Oh and hey: spoilers follow. So go play the game. It’s epic.)
Microsoft will take over an entire TV commercial break for the first time next month as part of its biggest Xbox 360 advertising blitz.
Diablo 2 art director and Flagship Studios co-founder Phil Shenk has officially announced his new social game-focused studio, Gravity Bear.
“We finally officially came out of hiding,” CEO Shenk said in a blog post on the independent developer’s site. “Gravity Bear is a new breed of social games company formed in 2008 with the goal of blending the best in online social platforms with the latest in modern game design.”
Despite users spending extended time and money in Home, Sony isn't currently aiming to develop it as a marketplace.
During the London Games Conference last night, Pete Edwards, director of PlayStation Home, said that Home users are spending money on items through microtransactions in Sony's virtual world.
General manager of Xbox Live Europe Jerry Johnson says that streaming platforms will not enforce change in the foreseeable future.
Speaking during a panel session on digital distribution at last night's London Games Conference, Johnson said that the market and current broadband infrastructure will not support streaming services like OnLive, Gaikai or OTOY.
A North American survey of more than 1,000 eight–17 year-olds has found that 66 per cent of respondents plan to ask for a new videogame system this holiday season.
Conducted by Weekly Reader Research on behalf of US retailer Game Crazy, the holiday gift tracker survey found that the most wanted system is the DSi (24 per cent), followed by the PS3 and Wii (both at 21 per cent).
In addition, 86 per cent of respondents said that they expect to ask for at least one game this year, with action and music titles the most in demand.
Speaking at the London Games Conference last night, co-founder and CEO of Facebook game specialist Playfish Kristian Segerstrale told panel chairman Phil Harrison that “physical media doesn’t have a chance in the future”.
It was a sentiment that Runescape maker Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard agreed with, reminding Harrison that he had claimed while head of worldwide studios for SCE that PS4 would have no drive. “I said a lot of stupid things back then,” Harrison joked.
Fishlabs CEO Michael Schade has revealed that the iPhone version of Rally Master Pro was hit by a 95 per cent piracy rate on its first day of availability.
The alarming piracy rate, along with complaints about the title’s price from consumers, has already led the developer to reduce the cost of the game.
Service to begin from the beginning of next year and will prove that the PC games market isn’t facing as heavy a decline as retail sales suggest.
Speaking at the London Games Conference, Gfk Chart-Track head Dorian Bloch revealed that the organisation, which currently provides official sales chart data for the UK, will begin offering charts for downloaded PC games from the beginning of next year.
Shadow Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has slammed the UK Labour government for its lack of support for the domestic games industry.
“NESTA’s research suggests the UK videogames sector could shrink by 16.5 per cent over five years, resulting in the loss of more than £180m in external investment and nearly 1,700 jobs. As in so many other areas, Labour ministers simply do not seem to care that we are falling behind our competitors in a critically important economic growth area,” he told attendees at the London Games Conference.
Sky Player has been pulled from Xbox 360 shortly after launch “due to an unforeseen technical issue”.
The online TV service launched earlier today with 24 channels available to watch via Microsoft’s console.
“The Sky Player on Xbox 360 service did successfully launch early this morning, it has subsequently been suspended due to an unforeseen technical issue," Microsoft said in a statement.
The next project from the creators of Magic: The Gathering won’t be paper-based. It’s instead being designed for the world of online, via Facebook and iPhone. Mind Twist is still very much just a codename to the public, but its developer, Mind Control Software, is squarely aiming its head-to-head, turn-based fantasy battle game at what it calls the ‘thinking gamer’.
EA’s DICE has labelled dedicated servers “the best solution for online PC gaming hands down”.
"This building is what we call a ‘church’,” Aled Jones explains at the beginning of Songs Of Praise every week. “It’s a meeting place for public worship, within which the socio-religious group called ‘Christians’ frequently manifests elaborate vocalisations we call ‘songs’.”
Delia Smith is making jam rolypoly: “In order to stay alive, we convert ‘food’ into a substance suitable for use by the body.”
Shareholders who lost millions when Midway went bust have failed to convince a federal court judge that top executives at the company deceived the public about the ailing financial state of the publisher.
Plaintiffs had alleged that former executives - including CEO David Zucker and chief financial officer Thomas Powell - failed to reveal the company’s ill health while simultaneously selling their stock for millions of dollars.
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Sean Murray I’m 17, waiting for my computer arts degree interview and I peek at the portfolio of the guy sat beside me. I’m 13 and Maeve meets me after school, but all she wants is for me to ask Jon out for her. I’m 28 on the way down to Future Publishing’s offices and I’m not interesting.
Sports-related social games and online community developer Watercooler has raised $5.5 million in Series B funding.
The funding round was led by online betting and gaming giant Betfair, and included investment from Canaan Partners. Betfair’s US president, Gerard Cunningham, has joined Watercooler’s board.
Trade body Tiga has predicted that the UK development sector will decline by 25 per cent within five years unless tax breaks are introduced.
“The UK games industry is still successful and world leading. However, because most of our key competitors benefit from a tax break for games production, our industry is at a competitive disadvantage,” said Gareth Edmondson, vice chairman of Tiga and managing director of Ubisoft Reflections.
A new study has found that a quarter of gamers in the United Kingdom have downloaded and paid for complete games or extra levels via their console.
The role of brick and mortar game retailers is diminishing, according to the UK National Gamers Survey 2009. Seven per cent of console owners said that they usually buy games as downloads via their console, compared to 14 per cent of PC gamers. The figures rise to 16 per cent and 23 per cent in the US.
Microsoft has responded to the announcement that Netflix will be made available on PS3, noting that it won’t be dropping the requirement to hold an Xbox Live Gold membership in order to access the movie streaming service via Xbox 360.
Sky Player has launched on Xbox Live with 24 channels available to watch via Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
Xbox Live members who are subscribers to the online Sky Player service and have at least a 2MB broadband connection will be able to access channels including Sky One, MTV and Sky Arts.
Non-Sky TV customers can subscribe to the service from £15 per month for the Entertainment Pack, but sports and movie channels will cost more, according to CVG.
Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling says that developers should play a crucial role in the marketing and PR activities surrounding their games.
“We know everything there is to know about Modern Warfare 2,” Bowling told MCV. “Not only do we know the game but we know the gamer. We know what to expect from them and what they expect from us. So it helps us guide design decisions and decisions overall, including with PR.