Mick Hocking is a pretty important man in Sony towers.

As well as being a senior director of SCEE, he runs three major Sony development studios in the UK.

Oh, and he's the company's worldwide studios boss for 3D games.

Basically, when he talks about 3D, it's wise to listen... which is exactly what we did today, when Mr Hocking gave a presentation of what we can expect from PS3's 3D powers at an exclusive London event.

Below are the very words he used - and if you're a hardcore gamer, it's pretty difficult not to get very, very excited about what's coming down the line...



This year is obviously a very big year for us. There's the launch of Sony 3DTV, and also, crucially, the upgrade of the PlayStation3 to support 3D games.

Now, in June this year we did the 3D Firmware update. Every PlayStation 3 that's connected online now has a new version of this Firmware.

At the last count we've got 35.8 million PlayStation 3s out there - that means there's an instant market of around 36 million 3D-ready PlayStation 3 consoles. The upgrade basically makes every PlayStation 3 HDMI 1.4 compatible - that's the standard that governs 3D displays.

What this means is that there is no setup at all required. If you have a PlayStation 3 and you buy a 3DTV, you simply connect via your HDMI cable and your PlayStation 3 will automatically recognise that you've got a 3D display attached.

It knows the size of the screen as well, which is very important for actually rendering 3D correctly and giving you the right sense of depth.

And in our games you'll see the menu to play the game in 3D automatically. You don't have to press any buttons or go through any menus - it's all completely automatic and seamless, which is jolly good.

We've launched four titles in June to support the 3D ready PS3 - and these are also bundled with our 3D Bravia TVs for free. If you've already purchased them [in 2D] from our PSN store, they're also free to download - or you can go along and buy them if you don't have them yet.

There's Wipeout, Motorstorm, Super Stardust and PAIN - which involves throwing a character into scenery and hurting them as much as possible. All these are full games except for Motorstorm, which is a demo.

In September this year, we're launching another Firmware upgrade - and this one is going to upgrade the PS3 to support Blu-ray movies in 3D. Again, you won't have to do anything - just connect your PS3. For the film market that's a very significant event.

Then later in the year - we're not going to date it yet - the PS3 is going to support 3D photos. Of course the popularity of 3D isn't just going to come from movies and games. There's 3D cameras on the market, there's 3D camcorders coming on the market in the next 12 months as well, and 3D broadcasts.

Crucially for us, PlayStation 3 will be able to store all types of 3D content. And we can do this through properly upgrading the Firmware on the platform.

more --> http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Successors to the Wii and Xbox 360 are more likely to arrive before the release of the PlayStation 4, according to a top Sony exec.
“Looking from the outside, it was Microsoft that released the first of this generation of consoles. Naturally, in my opinion, Microsoft will make the first move," Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Develop.
“Or, because Nintendo’s approach was not to upgrade much on its basic hardware – Wii doesn’t even support HD resolution – so they might be the first to move."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39917/Xbox...-PS4-to-market ...

Successors to the Wii and Xbox 360 are more likely to arrive before the release of the PlayStation 4, according to a top Sony exec.
In an exclusive interview with Develop, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said he imagined either Nintendo or Microsoft will jump first to the next generation of consoles.
Five years into the current console generation and the three big platform holders have decided against discussing future hardware. When asked why he thought this was, Yoshida said:
“Looking from the outside, it was Microsoft that released the first of this generation of consoles. Naturally, in my opinion, Microsoft will make the first move.
“Or, because Nintendo’s approach was not to upgrade much on its basic hardware – Wii doesn’t even support HD resolution – so they might be the first to move.

“Probably the watch should be on these companies, in my opinion. Because PS3 was later than Xbox, and is more powerful, so it has a longer lifespan.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...next-gen-first ...

Rockstar has announced it will release a series of downloadable content packs for Red Dead Redemption.
The four packs will be released on both PSN and Xbox Live over the next few months, starting with the Legends and Killers Pack next month. Also named was the Liars and Cheats Pack, Free Roam Pack and Undead Nightmare Pack.
“We want to continue to provide Red Dead Redemption’s fans with a steady supply of innovative new content,” said Rockstar founder Sam Houser.
“Our goal is to continue to pack as much entertaining gameplay and as many surprises as we can into the massive world of Red Dead Redemption over the coming months.”
Each Pack will add new content, characters, environments, weapons and more to the multiplayer mode – although the Undead Nightmare Pack will also add single-player missions as Marston faces off against ghosts and zombies.

With the exception of the Free Roam Pack, each DLC has been priced at £9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points. The last one, Undead Nighmare, will be released this autumn.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39915/New-...-DLC-announced ...

Rockstar has announced it will release a series of downloadable content packs for Red Dead Redemption.
The four packs will be released on both PSN and Xbox Live over the next few months, starting with the Legends and Killers Pack next month. Also named was the Liars and Cheats Pack, Free Roam Pack and Undead Nightmare Pack.
“We want to continue to provide Red Dead Redemption’s fans with a steady supply of innovative new content,” said Rockstar founder Sam Houser.
“Our goal is to continue to pack as much entertaining gameplay and as many surprises as we can into the massive world of Red Dead Redemption over the coming months.”
Each Pack will add new content, characters, environments, weapons and more to the multiplayer mode – although the Undead Nightmare Pack will also add single-player missions as Marston faces off against ghosts and zombies.

With the exception of the Free Roam Pack, each DLC has been priced at £9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points. The last one, Undead Nighmare, will be released this autumn.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39915/New-...-DLC-announced ...

News via http://wii.gx-mod.com/modules/news/a...p?storyid=2869

dimok publishes a new version of its project named WiiXplorer . LibwiiGui Using this program offers many functionality and a sleek design ( done by Neorama ) .

Features:

- Copy / move / delete files / folders present on SMB / USB / SD .
- Ability to rename files
- Information about the files / folders
- Exploration SD / USB / SMB
- Address bar with the path
- Boot files .dol / .elf via a double click
- New style / images Neorama
- Support files TXT/PNG/JPEG/MP3/OGG
- unzip the ZIP file (do not work via SMB )
- Image Viewer (functions : next , previous , zoom , zoom out and roation )
- Support USB 2.0
- FTP Access
- Support PDF
etc. ...

New / fixed:

- Added GlyphCache all FontSize FreeTypeGX instead of an array fontSystems (this helps keep the memory)
- Increase the size of the arrows and the clickable area of the scroll buttons in the StartMenu
- Added the ability to zoom in / out buttons with the Over / Under on the image viewer and PDF ( the buttons are configurable)
- Fixed a bug with the TextEditor which did not display the last line .
- Added an option to sort the list of applications and chains of StartMenu ( sorted alphabetically)
- Fixed the clock alignment
- Update sources Disk Drive with those Wii ™
- Updated language files

Modification of the allocation of buttons by default :

- Button 1 : sets the selected item
- The remains of a button for 0.5sec : mark all elements of the current folder
- Button 2: apart the selected item
- Button Less: all elements apart

You must perform a reset of the control parameters in order to use this new allocation of buttons . Otherwise you will keep the old award .

Download Here ...

Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service appears to be earning the company in excess of $1.2 billion.

While Forbes published similar statements last month, financial network Bloomberg has coaxed Dennis Durkin, Xbox’s chief operating officer, into reiterating that revenue from downloadable add-ons, movies and other content now exceed that of Xbox Live's paid subscriptions.

Based on earlier revelations that 56 per cent of the 25 million Live users paid $50 for Gold level access in 2009, Microsoft is likely to be earning in the region of $625 million from subscriptions alone.

If other Live revenue - also including avatar customisation and classic game re-releases - does indeed exceed that, total earnings from the service will be greater than $1.25 billion.

Microsoft will not report its 2010 fiscal results until later this month, but Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar suggested to Bloomberg that the technology firm's operating income for the year ending June 30 will be $1.04 billion, six times greater than the previous year.

She also estimated that total Xbox Live sales for 2008 would have been around $800 million, and that the amount of Live revenue recouped after production costs is around 65 per cent.

With Xbox hardware notoriously taking several years to turn a profit, Live's burgeoning success may well be key to Microsoft's continued investment in gaming.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...USD1-2-billion ...

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has again spoken of his attempts to pursue "globalisation and a transformation to become network-centric", as he discusses the company's continued attempts to diversify its portfolio.

Speaking in a new interview with website VentureBeat, Wada insisted that of rival Japanese and Western publishers, "nobody has succeeded at globalisation." He attributes this to a tendency for parent companies to maintain too much control over subsidiaries or third parties - a mistake Square Enix does not intend to repeat.

"We acquired Eidos. By doing this, we have incorporated them in our group. They have become part of our family. It was not like we acquired slaves," he said."What I wanted to do is create an environment where completely different ethnic groups can co-exist in the same company. It is important that what’s in America should be handled by Americans. The same goes in Europe and in Japan."

Discussing casual games, such as Zynga's FarmVille, Wada stated again that traditional game developers were largely incapable of making such products." We have to use people who have not been involved in traditional game making," he said. "We try to get people who have not been involved in game studios before. In Japan, we recruited dozens of people as a group from another entity."

Wada also repeated his view, expressed in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, that network services were of far greater importance to the future of the industry than new hardware such as Kinect and the 3DS.

"Frankly, these are not the most essential parts of the console technology," he said. "The key parts of the console technology are Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and WiiWare. The true battle among these things is taking place very quietly. We will see the results of that battle two or three years from now."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...uare-enix-boss ...

Microsoft has announced it will update its corporate name in Japan as of next February, as it seeks to increase its profile in a territory that has been less welcoming for it than the West.

From February 1, 2011, Microsoft Co. Ltd., Japan will be officially referred to as the somewhat neater Microsoft Japan Co. Ltd.

Already colloquially referred to as Microsoft Japan, the division has been running since 1986, and is currently headed up by Yasuyuki Higuchi - formerly of Compaq, HP and Apple.

"The Japanese company establishes its 25 year anniversary in 2011," said Higuchi to explain the change, adding that the new name would better suggest local roots for the division.

Microsoft Japan's offices will also be relocated to Tokyo's Shinagawa ward as part of the rebrand.

Microsoft has traditionally struggled in Japan, though the release of the Xbox 360 S last week brought about a significant jump in the company's hardware sales.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-name-in-japan ...