Tag: Industry - Page 55
News First Shots Of The PSP2's Development Unit Hit The 'Net, Send Us Gaga
Somehow VG247 has managed to acquire shots of an early version of the PSP2 development kit
It's real folks, these crumby photos prove it. The shots reveal forward and rear-facing cameras, as well as a track-pad on the reverse of the unit. According to VG247 this is not the final form factor of the PSP2 — in fact, the sliding PSPgo case has since...
News Sony To Conquer "Fourth Global Gaming Superpower" Latin America
One of the reasons the PlayStation 3 is doing so well -- despite XBOX 360's marginal lead in both the US and the UK -- is down to Sony's gaming division being a truly global brand
The news might not be occupying the front page of gaming websites, but the PlayStation is still a leading power in many European countries. While the sales aren't being...
News Mercenaries 3 Looked A Bit Like This Before Pandemic Died A Miserable Death
Mercenaries developers Pandemic closed up shop last year
They never got to finish Mercenaries 3, despite it being actively in development before their closure. Kotaku's got hold of a video demonstrating the game in its early form. The game was under the working title of Mercenaries 3: No Limits and was obviously still heavily under development at...
News New Data Shows The PlayStation 3 Trailing The XBOX 360 By Just 3 Million Units Worldwide
The PlayStation 3 is seriously closing the gap on the XBOX 360's worldwide sales total, and it doesn't even look like the marketing clout of Kinect is going to stop Sony's resurgence
New worldwide hardware figures shared by both platform holders detail the PlayStation 3 as having shifted 41.6 million units worldwide. The XBOX 360 (which launched...
News Sony To Announce New PlayStation Portable When "Timing Is Right"
Talking to investors yesterday, Sony has stated that it will announce a new PlayStation Portable product when the "timing is right
" The declaration comes days after Engadget's reports on the PlayStation Phone, as well as countless more rumours on the supposed PSP2. Interestingly — given their leaks all week — it was
News Sony PlayStation Division Records Profit In First-Half 2010, PlayStation Portable Winds Down
That PSP's successor couldn't come sooner according to the picture Sony's financials paint
In their fist-half report, Sony's revealed that PSP sales dropped from 3 million in the second financial quarter of last year to just 1.5 million this year. That's a significant drop in demand. It wasn't all bad for the division which holds the PlayStation...
News End Of An Era: Keiji Inafune Quits Capcom
Remember when Keiji Inafune said he hated his job and that the Japanese games industry was ruined?
Turns out what we interpreted as melodrama was totally real: the mouthy gaffer has revealed this morning that he's set to quit Capcom after 23 years. A managers work means evaluating your subordinates and speaking your dreams. Anyone who can do...
News Blimey: Zenimax Snaps Up Tango Gameworks & Shinji Mikami
Zenimax -- the parent company of Bethesda Softworks -- has just confirmed that it's bought up Tango Gameworks, and with it Resident Evil mastermind Shinji Mikami
Its refreshing to find a publisher who understands, trusts, and supports the development of blockbuster games and works to make it a collaborative effort, said Mikami. The library...
News Legendary Game Developers List Their Favourite PlayStation 2 Games
Furthering the PlayStation 2's tenth Birthday celebrations, a host of legendary game developers have posted about their favourite PS2 title on the PlayStation Blog
The suite of stars include the likes of Sony Santa Monica's Stig Asmussen, Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski and Irrational Games' Ken Levine. We've included the truncated list after the...
Rumour Apple Poised To Buy Sony? Errr...
Apple are a rich, rich company
Gone are the days of the Mac being the technology sector's punchbag; the success of the iPod has made Apple a global success - and they're only getting stronger with follow-up brands such as the iPhone and iPad. Basically, anyone in the technology sector is watching what Apple do next. And it's keeping a lot of...
News PlayStation Move Passes One Million Units In North America, Demand Exceeding Supply
Following the excellent sales numbers for PlayStation Move provided by SCEE earlier this month, many folks in the industry have been looking towards SCEA to comment on the device's launch window sales data
The subsequent silence has led to plenty of scare-mongering from the media; but Sony's finally silenced their critics by stating the motion...
News Hold-Up, What? THQ Announce New Montreal Studio Led By Patrice "Assassin's Creed" Desilets?
THQ means serious business these days
The publisher's just announced a new studio set to open in Montreal next year, and it's employed ex-Assassin's Creed boss (and all around Canadian video game wizard) Patrice Desilets to head the studio. Desilets was a key figure in Ubisoft's catalogue before he left earlier this year. He was responsible for...
News NPD Cans Monthly Hardware Sales Data, Fanboys Retreat Into Hiding
The biggest source of fanboy entertainment every month is the NPD's US hardware sales report
Enter the wilderness of many video game forums and you'll read all about how "the PlayStation 3 sucks because it was outsold by the Nintendo Wii" and "the PlayStation Portable is dead because it sold less than 100k units". Frankly, it's...
News Keiji Inafune, Just Shut Up Already
Keiji Inafune, one of Capcom's leading figures, has revealed he hates his job
His claim comes just weeks after he declared the Japanese video games industry dead, and TGS' lineup as "full of awful games". Apparently, the dude's so jaded he's now revealed that he hates his job too. Cry Keiji a river. Asked whether Dead Rising producer loved...
News PlayStation Portable 2 To Release Holiday 2011 Claims British Source
You have to feel sorry for hardware manufacturers
They have to get their kit out to developers in order for the systems to launch with games — but man, trying to get people to keep their mouth shut is next to impossible. Apparently people just can't miss an opportunity to say they know something about Sony's next handheld. The latest in a string...
News Shock! PlayStation 3 Losing Ground As The US' Dominant Blu-ray Player!
Here's an amazing piece of research Home Media Magazine's carried out: the PlayStation 3 is losing its grip as the most dominant blu-ray player in the US
The report states that 47 percent of people watch blu-rays on their PS3, while 45 percent now watch with standalone players. Apparently six-months ago the PlayStation 3 had a two-to-one advantage...
News How Do You Fancy Another PSP2 Rumour, Yo?!
Develop's reporting that a number of key studios have received PSP2 development kits in time for a "significant launch window line-up"
The site's claims back up industry rumours that have been running over the past couple of months. Those rumours reached a head recently when NetherRealm's Shaun Himmerick blatantly stated that his studio has a PSP2...
News EA: The PlayStation 3 Can Still Topple The XBOX 360
EA believes the PlayStation 3 can still topple the XBOX 360 in terms of sales
The publisher's European senior vice president Uwe Intat made his feelings clear to MCV, "We could certainly see Sony come back in the UK it's still a head-to-head competition between PlayStation and Xbox, but on the continent Sony is traditionally stronger than...
News The PlayStation Network Netted A Cool $5.7 Million In August
The PlayStation Network business is booming with dollar notes according to an industry report by FADE
According to the digital entertainment analysis group, Sony's online network netted a cool $5.7 million during August - with sales lead by Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. According to the group, PSN sales were up 20 percent over July. Scott Pilgrim vs...
Rumour Sony PlayStation Recruiting Engineers With Android Experience
A couple of months back, there was a great stonking rumour that Sony were about to mix the PlayStation Portable platform with Sony Ericsson -- developing a phone that would employ the Android OS
There's been little other information on the endeavour, though eagle-eyed bloggers have spotted that Sony London are recruiting engineers with "mobile...
News THQ See Motion Control Games As A "Cheap Alternative" To Core Games
THQ's been talking about the "benefits" of developing games for the PlayStation Move (and XBOX Kinect)
The company's CEO, Brian Farrell, sees motion control games as a cheap alternative to traditional core titles. He said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in New York: They are more mass-market type games. The cost of games for Kinect...
News TGS 10: Oh Hey, Capcom Just Bought Blue Castle Games
Wow
Capcom must have enjoyed working with Dead Rising 2 developer, Canadian studio Blue Castle Games. The publisher's just announced that they've bought the studio out right. The team will be renamed Capcom Games Studio Vancouver. We wonder if that's the name that will pop-up at the start of Dead Rising 2. Still, this cements Capcom's ambitions to...
Report Sony To Debut iTunes-esque Media Service For PlayStation, Erm, Today
According to a report in the Financial Times, Sony is set to debut an iTunes-esque digital store today that's set to compete directly with Apple's platform
The new service will apparently demand some kind of subscription fee in exchange for both music and videos, and is set to debut at the IFA technology show in Berlin today. The report notes that...
News Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square -- What Does It All Mean?
For years people have pondered the meaning of Sony's brand-defining controller face buttons
The Cross (or X) and Circle buttons are simple enough to decipher — the Circle represents "go" or "ok" (as is its use in Japan) and the Cross represents "no" or "cancel". Comically, Western games have managed to...
News Sony Expecting Modest Day One For Move, Longevity
One thing we've always defended about the PlayStation Move is how it's going to fare commercially this Christmas
While we expect the device to do fine (particularly on the back of all the recent software announcements), we've never been convinced that the device will do gang-busters out of the gates. PlayStation Move has a lot of potential to be...
News Hirai: PlayStation 3's Aim Is To Emulate & Surpass The PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 3 is doing fine
The system's in good-shape, the content's fantastic, the marketing's decent and the PlayStation Move looks set to be a fantastic extension to the experience. Still, it has big shoes to fill. When you look at the PlayStation 3's 38million sales, it's hard to envisage the system ever catching up to the PlayStation 2's...
News Keita Takahashi's Taking A Break From Gaming, Misses The PS2 Era
Keita Takahashi is responsible for some bold, bold games
Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy are two examples. But after seeing the output at this year's E3, Takahashi reckons it might be time to take a break from the games industry. He told OPM that he's "not thinking about a future in video games," and added: At E3 I saw people putting...
News Jade Raymond Aims To Turn Ubisoft Toronto Into A "Triple-A" Powerhouse
Most studios can barely manage the development of one single big budget game at a time
Jade Raymond's not aiming small with the newly opened Ubisoft Toronto - she's told Develop that the studio aims to produce five "tripe-A" projects at the same time. The new outfit's currently known to be working on two big-budget titles — one of which...
News Pachter: PlayStation Plus Needs 2-3 Million Subscribers Before PSN Starts Turning A Profit
Industry analyst Michael Pachter has weighed in with his impressions on Sony's PlayStation Plus service, predicting that the company will need 2-3 million subscribers before they start turning a profit
Comparing the service to XBOX Live on his GameTrailers show Pach Attack, the Wedbush Morgan man said that the Microsoft service had a slow start...
News SEGA Posts Impressive Quarterly Profits, Sales Increase By 51%
What the hell? If there was any company we'd have bet on losing money this quarter, it'd be SEGA
Not that we have anything against the company - heck no, we love them - but a lot of their releases this quarter were weak. At least, that's what we thought. Turns out we were wrong. Very wrong. SEGA actually managed profits of 7 billion yen ($80.8...
News Slow Sales Hurt Capcom For Another Quarter
Capcom's been hit by another hard quarter in which major releases did not perform to expectations
In their latest quarterly financial report - dating April through June - Capcom blamed the slow growth of Lost Planet 2 which put their net sales down 2.4% year over year. Net income dropped an astounding 90% from last year to around 213 million yen...
News Back In Black: PlayStation 3 Hardware Jumps 118%, Reaches Touching Distance Of XBOX 360
Sony's finally back in the black
The company's first quarter earnings (ending June 30th) were fuelled by improved sales of computers, televisions and, yes, the PlayStation 3. Overall revenue increased by 3.8%, giving the company a ¥25.7 billion ($295 million US) net profit. Gloabal PlayStation 3 sales reached 2.4 million for the quarter, with the...
Report Capcom Upping The Output Of Major IPs
With about a billion new Street Fighter titles in the works, a report from Nikkei suggesting that Capcom are to increase their major IP output comes as no surprise
The report notes that Capcom are to reduce the development cycle on their major IPs, allowing them to release more entries in popular series' such as Resident Evil and Monster Hunter. In...
News Nikkei: Sony To Post Quarterly Profit, Stunning Year On Year Turnaround
Japanese business index, Nikkei, are reporting this morning that Sony are to post an operating profit of 10 to 30 billion yen over the period April through June
It's a dramatic turn-around for the company, who posted a loss of 25.7 billion yen over the same period last year. Nikkei cites strong sales in China, strong performance of new SLR camera...
News Kojima: "The Younger Generation Of Japan Is Losing"
Hideo Kojima has revealed that he believes Japan are in a "losing" battle due to the recent boom of Western games development
The Metal Gear man said that he feels the younger generation of Japanese game developers have lost their motivation. He came to conclusion after watching a TV documentary about foreign exchange students who were passionate...
News Sony: Apple Are The Arrogant Ones
Cue streams of comments about "pots and kettles"
Sony Computer Entertainment Australia's Michael Ephraim said that, well, Apple's become arrogant. To be fair Micky - they're kind of allowed. Didn't they just overtake Microsoft as the biggest computing based company in the world? That's no minor feat. Speaking about SCEE's advertising direction,...
Report Playstation 3 Price-Cuts Coming Later This Year
MCV's reporting from a "senior global publishing source" that the Playstation 3 will see its price drop again this year
The Playstation 3 was essentially relaunched in September of last year when Sony unleashed the new Slim system to much uproar. MCV's claiming that the Playstation 3 will be brought down to £200, and the move could be announced as...
News Sony Pushes Closer To Console Profitability With More Efficient, Cheaper Graphics Chip
According to PocketNews (translated by PSU), Sony's updated the Playstation 3's hardware once again with a new improved, cheaper RSX graphics chip that reduces the likelihood of the console being affected by the infamous YLOD (yellow light of death)
It also uses 15 percent less power. The 45nm version of the RSX chip replaces the older 65nm chip...
News Phil Harrison - Come Back To Sony, We Miss You Man!
Good news: Phil Harrison has left Atari
Bad news: Phil Harrison probably won't be returning to Sony. The former Sony worldwide studios man (now replaced by Shuhei Yoshida) left Sony in 2008 to join Atari. Phil was a key member of each of the Playstation hardware family's launches, even demonstrating the Playstation 3 hardware with the famous ducks...
News Insomniac Label Infinity Ward Sackings As "Horrifying"
Resistance: Fall Of Man's lead multiplayer designer Jake Biegel has labelled the saga which saw the breakdown of Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward as "horrifying"
</span> He went on to describe that the event "reiterates how good it is to be working at a wholly independent developer." "I have some friends at Infinity Ward...
News Kojima Being Kojima: "I'll Leave The Industry If I Mess Up Next Project"
We love Kojima, but sometimes he's a bit melodramatic
Then we suppose the man that dreamt up the Metal Gear Solid franchise would need to be a little big melodramatic, wouldn't they? Yeah, ok then. It makes sense. Still, with Kojima's attentions seemingly already turned to his next project, the legendary developer has Tweeted about the consequences...
News Modern Warfare 2 Developer Infinity Ward Continues To Bleed Employees
Infinity Ward is dead at this point
Seriously, if you're still clinging onto that Call Of Duty and Modern Warfare brand, you may aswell stop. That's not to undermine Treyarch's efforts. They're a good studio that make good games. It's just that Infinity Ward are were the life-blood of the franchise. But that's studio's now all but dead. With gaffers...
News British Retailer GAME Earmark DLC Games
What do Battlefield: Bad Company 2, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3, and Dragon Age: Origins have in common? They all come with unique content that's freely available to those who buy the game new, but is restricted or premium if to those who buy the game used
A growing concern for retailers around the world dealing in the sale of used video games. But UK...
News Fired Call Of Duty Staffers Zampella & West Sign Up With EA, Form Respawn Entertainment
Remember those fired Infinity Ward staffers Vince Zampella and Jason West? Y'know, the ones who practically created the Call Of Duty franchise
Yeah, erm, they just signed a new publishing deal with EA. Their new studio's named Respawn Entertainment. The new studio will retain full control over the IPs they develop, while EA will handle worldwide...
News Japanese Hardware Sales Do The Ol' Sony One-Two
Sony's took the top two spots once more in Japan, with the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable topping the Japanese hardware charts
Sony's home console managed 38k sales, where their portable hit the 37k mark. The consoles were followed up by a bunch of Nintendo SKUs, with the PSPgo still floundering at the bottom of the charts. Hit the jump for...
News SEGA Confirms San Francisco Studio's Closure
SEGA's confirmed this morning that their San Francisco studio - responsible for the Iron Man and Golden Axe: Beast Rider games on the PS3 - has been shut down
SEGA issued a statement to IndustryGamers offering condolences to those employees whom are now unemployed. "Sega of America is sad to announce the closure of Sega Studios San Francisco...
News Blu-Ray Discs Are A-Getting Bigger
Blu-Ray discs are pretty huge
Traditionally they hold from 25-50GB on a single-layer, and 50-100GB on a dual-layer. Their size makes content such as God Of War III possible. But what if they were to get bigger? Well, they are. New 128GB BDXL discs are ready to go, but only for commercial usage. They won't work in your current PS3 because, well, the...
News Sony Account For 17% Of GameStop's New Product Puchased In Fiscal '09
Americans bought a lot of new games in 2009, but specifically, you guys over the pond bought a lot of new Sony products
According to an SEC filing for the past year, Sony products accounted for 17% of "new product purchases" from American games retail juggernaut GameStop in fiscal '09. Nintendo won the stakes with 23%, while Microsoft, EA...
News Japanese Game Market Shrinks By 0.6% In Fiscal '09
Today's date is March 31st
That means businesses everywhere stop talking about future endeavours, and start talking about... Past endeavours. That's right, the fiscal year has ended, specifically in Japan where publication Famitsu is reporting that the market in the East has shrunk by 0.6%. The publication reports that while software sales were up,...
News Former SCEE Executive David Reeves Joins Capcom Europe
Blimey - Capcom Europe's announced that they've appointed former SCEE exec of 15 years David Reeves as their COO
Reeves, who left Sony last year, starts his new position as of tomorrow. We don't think this is an April Fools joke.I established a close working relationship with Capcom during my time at Sony and have always admired its commitment to...
