ModNation Racers Gets A New Trailer

Giant camels , barrel launchers and and huge castles are the things you can encounter at ModNation Racers. That on top of the free creation of your own track and the ability to share your tracks with all your friends ModNation Racers has our attention.

Heavy Rain lacking innovation, doesn’t deserve the hype

Do you ever feel like you just don’t get it? Like everybody is running around you is going crazy over something, and all you see is garbage, yet you’re staring at the very same thing? Well, that’s the kind of feeling I’ve been getting recently with Heavy Rain. I saw the game at GamesCom, played the demo, read a lot online, and watched a ton of trailers, but I just don’t get it. Read more

PS3 Down And Out! #Update 8 Its “fixed”

All around the world, PlayStation 3 consoles simply aren’t working like they’re supposed to, with an error preventing people from not just going online.

UPDATE - Sony has updated, saying “We’re narrowing down the issue and continue to work to restore service to all. Updates as soon as we have them.”

UPDATE 2 - A mass story-telling session on internet gaming forum NeoGAF points towards the issue potentially being related to a calendar bug in older PlayStation 3 consoles, not the PlayStation Network as was first suspected. Bear in mind this is mob science, however, and is by no means official confirmation on the cause of the problem.

UPDATE 3 - Citing unnamed “developers and studios”, British site Develop say that the issue is affecting titles currently in production for the PlayStation 3, with debug consoles – used by developers to actually make games – thrown “into a rebooting cycle, due to an endlessly-looping error message”.

UPDATE 4 - PS3’s still aren’t working, and there has been no official update from Sony in over 9 hours. Their last Twitter update says that they believe the issue does not appear to be impacting PS3 Slim consoles.

UPDATE 5 - Sony Twitters Rest assured, we’ve many people working on fixing this issue. As soon as we have some news, we’ll let you know.

UPDATE 6 -As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3.

We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.

Errors include:

• The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
• When the user tries to sign-in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
• When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”
• When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
• Users are not able to playback certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.

As mentioned above, Please be advised that the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologise for any inconvenience caused.

For the latest status on this situation please check either PlayStation.Blog, Twitter or PlayStation.com.

UPDATE (And final) 7 -According to the official U.S. PlayStation.blog, the issue has been “resolved.” Patrick Seybold, senior director, corporate communications writes:

We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year. Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally.

If the time displayed on the XMB is still incorrect, users are able to adjust time settings manually or via the internet. If we have new information, we will update you through the PlayStation.Blog or PlayStation.com.

UPDATE 8 – Its “Fixed”

Industry choosing iphone, abandoning wii?

I think the iPhone makes a difference in the videogame space in a sense where it allows the industry to re-invent itself. Let me explain to you why.

If anything over the past few months stood out to me in terms of news and announcements, then I’d have to go with this trend of big developers and publishers seemingly losing interest in Nintendo’s white box of fun and starting to show their love to Apple’s iPhone. We’ve all seen big name publishers statements, thought mostly informal, with regards to the slow game sales on the Wii. And where some developers switch to PS3/360 development, others turned to the iPhone (or both). EA, Sega, Capcom, Square Enix and others have all started creating iPhone games in one form or the other. Read more

Uploader Gets A Fine Of $1.5 Million For Uploading NSMB Wii

This person was allegedly the first to upload New Super Mario Bros. Wii to the internet, doing so on November 6, one week before the game was released (an act that facilitated creative works in addition to piracy).

Not only is this bad news for this one guy, it should also serve as a warning to other would-be pirates. “Upon the game being uploaded to the Internet, Nintendo was able to employ the use of sophisticated technological forensics to identify the individual responsible for illegally copying the file and making it available for further distribution,” Nintendo said in a press release. “On 23 November, 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court search order in respect of the individual’s residential premises. This led to the seizure of property from those premises in order to gain further evidence against the individual.”

Seriously, guys, do not duplicate that disc.

Analysis: Matt Matthews says Xbox 360 Software Leads as Nintendo Falters

Gamasutra analyst Matt Matthews looks at the changing U.S. software landscape as part of their November NPD analysis, finding that Xbox 360 software is surging into the sales gap left by a declining Nintendo market.

According to Michael Pachter, an industry analyst for Wedbush Securities, Wii software revenue in November 2009 declined 18 percent from the same time in 2008. The only systems to see more dramatic decreases were Sony’s PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (PSP), which were down 69 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

But that’s not all,

After 12 months, the picture has shifted dramatically. As the following figure shows, software revenue from the Wii now accounts for under 30% of the market. Combined with the share from DS software, Nintendo now holds only around 40% of the market – a drop of 7 points from the previous year.

Be sure to read the whole article on Gamasutra.com if you’re interested. I sure found it an interesting development.

Sony losing money on PS3s

Sony has been losing a lot of money on each PS3 sold since it’s release in 2006. They had originally tried to lose less profit from the Playstation 3 by getting rid of the fat looking design, and went with the sleek PS3 Slim.

The total cost for producing the PS3 Slim is roughly $336.27 a console. They are selling the PS3 for $229.99, losing about $37.00 per console.

While the original PS3 was $494.00 to make and selling for $399.99.

Sony needs to come up with a way to cut production prices for the PS3, or end up like Sega.

3D gaming: probably doomed

Have you ever seen people wearing silly-looking glasses while watching a movie? Ever wondered what the deal was with those? Well, even if you haven’t, I’ll explain it anyway. They are watching what some people call a 3D movie. It works simply by letting one eye see the image from one camera angle, and the other eye sees the same scene from a slightly offset camera angle, creating a stereo image for your eyes. Through this process, the viewer is given the illusion that he sees the movie in 3D. Read more

New PS3 ad appears, shows respect to the elderly

A new PS3 television ad had surfaced this week, and quite frankly, it’s hilarious. I’ve been watching the new PS3 ads and Sony seems to be doing a good job marketing the PS3 in the US, but us Europeans? Not so much. I can’t recall seeing any PS3 ads over here in the past 6 months at all. Nevertheless, take a look at this one, it’s amusing. I certainly hope we’ll see these in europe at some point.

Read more

Atlus USA Launch Trailer: 3D Dot Game Heroes

Available May 2010. This is the date that you will be able to play this “retro chic (Zelda) meets modern sleek (3D Dot Game Heroes) in this ultimate love letter to retro gamers” game. Seamlessly fusing new and old, the golden era of gaming is felt in every detail of this lovingly-crafted adventure. An evil demon (Ganon) has captured the 6 wise men and 6 orbs that protected the kingdom of Dotnia (Hyrule), which now stands on the verge of destruction. Freely explore the vast world, fight off monsters, and puzzle your way through many dungeons to restore peace to the kingdom. Eye-popping visuals capture the nostalgic charm of pixel graphics in cutting edge 3D.

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