Nintendo and Sony roll out big titles

Posted by signup

Two new video games from Sony and Nintendo have players exploring jungle islands for lost treasure or skipping across the galaxy to save a kidnapped princess.

On the face of it, Sony’s Uncharted and Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy can’t be more different.

Uncharted harnesses the PlayStation 3’s graphical muscle to produce a movie-like adventure, while Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii uses cartoonish graphics and simple controls to breathe new life into an aging franchise.

The games also answer challenges facing Sony and Nintendo.

Although Nintendo has been selling as may machines as it can make, players have started to grumble about the lack of must-have titles that offer a more rewarding experience than short minigames.

That’s where Super Mario Galaxy comes in.

A product of Nintendo’s legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario Galaxy is being hailed as the most innovative and fun Mario adventure in more than a decade.

The portly Italian plumber once again has to save Princess Peach from the clutches of the evil Bowser, and this time his path hops across an amazing variety of planetoids.

Add in dizzying perspectives, weird gravity effects, and finely-honed motion controls, and you end up with a game that has scored 97 out of 100 on Metacritic.com and is expected to sell 16 million copies worldwide, according to online prediction market simExchange.com.

“It definitely captures the essence of what makes Mario so great,” said Jeremy Parish, features editor at gaming news Web site 1up.com, which scored the game a 9.5 out of 10.

“Some hardcore gamers might be turned off by how cutesy this is, but if you look beyond that, the gameplay is rock solid, it’s incredibly new and inventive,” Parish said.

For Sony, Uncharted is the kind of showcase game it sorely needs to drive sales of the PS3, which has languished behind the Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune puts players on the trail of a hidden treasure of Sir Francis Drake, the 16th century English privateer. It is set in the modern day but crafted in the style of classic adventure movies–think Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider meets Lost.

Its lush jungle settings and mix of brawling, shooting and exploration set it apart from other popular games this year that feature heavy military or alien-invasion themes.

“There are lots of sci-fi games that are very dark and brown and grey and sort of post-apocalyptic. We wanted to do something more lush and green and vibrant,” said Evan Wells, co-president of Naughty Dog, the Sony studio known for cartoony games like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter.

“The goal was to create this pulp action adventure and make it very cinematic and make it feel like playing the lead role of a hero in a summer blockbuster,” Wells said.

Uncharted has an average rating of 89 on Metacritic.com, the highest of any exclusive game for the system along with Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, which came out last month.

“It is another solid addition to the library and I’m sure that for some folks that is something that would push them to buy a console this holiday,” said Billy Pidgeon, games analyst for market research firm IDC.

Super Mario Galaxy was released in the United States on November 12 while Uncharted comes out November 19.

PS3 is number one down-under says SCEA head

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Sony Computer Entertainment Australia head Michael Ephraim has analysed the latest sales figures for the PS3 locally and has declared the hefty black gaming console number one in the region.

Quoting figures from data trackers GfK in Australia, Ephraim tells us (via an interview with Gamespot AU ) that the 50,000 units moved since the PS3 launch March 23rd makes it number one next-gen gaming console.

Despite the Wii hitting 100,000 units sold since its own launch December 7th 2006, Ephraim basis his ‘number one’ call on a week by week basis; “Based on GfK since launch, PS3 has been the number one next-gen console, outselling Wii and Xbox 360 every week, except for last week,” Ephraim said.

“Since March 23, PS3 has been the number one-selling next-gen console in Australia, and this is GfK figures. We’ve now sold 50,000–and we’re very excited about the fact that it’s being sold in retailers that are gaming retailers as a gaming device and other things, but as you’ll notice it’s now being sold in Harvey Norman consumer electronic stores as a Blu-ray player.”

Not so much on iTWire, but on other forums, I copped a bit of a battering for my article on the PS3 focus. Perhaps the shift from a simple gaming vision to a more holistic entertainment hub spotlight is where Sony should be pouring their effort. (read article here ).

Judging by Ephraim’s final comment on PS3 sales above, it looks like this is Sony’s thinking also. More power to them, in marketing it is all about finding your niche and pounding away incessantly.

Source

Sony official blog - Now accepts comments

Posted by multippt

Although Sony first set up it’s official blog a few days ago, no one is allowed to leave a comment on any of their posts. This time, things have changed, and Sony allowed users to leave their thoughts on their blog posts. Sony even encourages users to comment.

Not a bad move from Sony; Corporates rarely have blogs. This blog would content some updates on its products (usually related to PlayStation), and would probably tell more information than its press releases in its official site.

Sony: We didn’t recall PSPs in Netherlands

Posted by multippt

In an earlier report, we stated that Sony had done up a recall in the Netherlands. Of course, that report is not comfirmed. It turns out that the report turns out to be, false. Speculation on the PSP recall was first brought up when some retailers claim that they have to send back their supply of PSPs.

In a statement by Sony, Sony (Europe) said that they did not request for a recall. However, the PSP still remains in a shortage (out of stock), due to an increase in demand (caused by price-cuts) in certain European countries like the Netherlands.

Via MaxConsole

Rumor: PSP recall in the Netherlands, possible attempt to reduce homebrew?

Posted by multippt

There are rumors ongoing that Sony has recalled all of it’s current PSPs from retailers in the Netherland in order to replace it with new, “unflashable” units. This might have been in response to the growing popularity of custom firmwares.

Of course, this piece of information is not comfirmed yet, and if these new units were to be “unflashable”, it probably could render the PSP un-updatable even with the official PSP firmware updates. Poor game sales was seen as a possible reason as to why Sony attempted this move.

Due to the nationwide recall, the PSP would be out of stock for a period of time in the Netherlands. It’s not known if Sony would do the same for other retailers in other countries.

Via MaxConsole

Guess what? Sony admits viral marketing ploy

Posted by multippt

Earlier, we came across a blog (”all i want for xmas is a psp”). We went on to saying that the blog seems too suspicious and later did a little research to find out more.

Now, Sony admited to the fake blog by placing a notice on the site. Quoted from the site:

“Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn’t a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.”

Hopefully, Sony wouldn’t come out with more similar kinds of marketing schemes, where consumers end up being coerced to buy something.

Via “all i want for xmas is a psp”

Is this Sony’s attempt at viral marketing? - Creating a blog

Posted by multippt

Wow, about time Sony realized the power of blogging. Wow it is genuinely creative, no the blog (all i want for xmas is a psp) does not tell the tale of a real person.

I must say, the site does look like a real blog, with limited hints that it comes from Sony (marketing department?). The blog details on how the author have a PSP, while his friend doesn’t. His friend badly wanted a PSP for christmas (hence the domain for the blog). So, he tries to help his friend. Of course, there are “hints” of requests that you get a PSP to help his very friend of his.

The blog also consist of a youtube video (congrats again, Sony, you finally realized the power of youtube) that shows a person who says something about wanting a PSP (and he even got a PSP face plate for it too). The blog also consist of several PSP related stuff such as a card, a PSP iron on pattern sheet (for T-shirt), and an unusual “all i want for xmas is a PSP” $249 note.

While the posts have different timestamps (to make it more real), any blog can specially assign custom timestamps to their posts. In addition, how many blog owners can sustain the cost of a “.com” together with a web host that offers asp.net when there are actually lower cost alternatives? Also, wouldn’t the blog owner be alerted by Sony for copyright infringement for using the iconic symbols (that is, the circle, triangle, square and cross forund on the controller) from Sony game consoles? While it is possible that one can be trully raving for a PSP or is a fan of the PSP, how many would actually make urber professional (as if made by a marketing company or a skilled professional) (however though, the ad does not seem to do much influence though) downloadable freebies from their blog? Lastly, a check on the domain revealed it to be from Zipatoni. Zipatoni is a marketing company.

Well, its up to you to think if it is an actual blog or it is part of Sony’s effort at advertising the PSP.

Via Digg, “all i want for xmas is a psp”