PlayStation development took center stage at Casual Connect when Sony Europe's developer relations manager George Bain addressed an audience of Eastern European developers.

The PlayStation 2 has sold 131.3 million units to date, he said. The software sales for that platform have been over 1.4 billion.

The PlayStation Portable has sold 41.3 million units. Software sales have been 169 million.

And as of June 30th, the PlayStation 3 has sold 14.4 million units, with software sales of 94 million.

The most important information Bain had for his audience was news that, in Europe, the PlayStation 2 "is effectively an open platform," adding, "You no longer have to submit a game for content approval." He used examples from Russia and Indian developers, saying they can "create low-development cost titles and release them in their market."


Without the need of a licensed publisher, it's a direct relationship between a developer and Sony.


Bain reports that there is no cost to become a licensed developer, but dev kits do cost. In some cases, Sony lends dev kits.

In a press release from November of 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment International announced that dev kits for the PlayStation 3 would cost $10,250.

Bain told his audience that if they were working on a smaller casual title, they could alternately use debug units which are less expensive – 10 percent of the cost of a full dev kit.

The PSP is easier to develop for, Bain pointed out: "It doesn't require a huge amount of programming resources to develop on the PlayStation Portable." He also outlined the release of Media Manager version 3 – an application that would function as iTunes, but for the PSP.

Moving on to the PlayStation Network, Bain reports over 12 million registered accounts, as of September of this year. And 5 million of those subscribers are from SCEE's territory alone.

"One thing that a lot of developers seem to forget is that PlayStation Network is free," said Bain. "Consumers do not have to pay a monthly fee," he said in reference to other similar services.

He also said that Sony does not require a demo of games that are for sale. "It's up to the developer if they make a demo or not."

"Game developers should create games for local markets," Bain said. Several new policies allow for that.

First, Sony is adapting a global approval system. Previously games had to be submitted separately through Sony Europe, Japan, and America. Now, the game idea is sent through a single website for approval.

And now, Sony will allow developers to publish by going through a third-party publisher. "This has never been done before," notes Bain. "This is something we're actively promoting."

"...without the need of a licensed publisher," he continues, "it's a direct relationship between a developer and Sony."

Something else to ease the process is an edict that, once a game has been approved, episodic and expansion content won't need to be approved before being published.

Currently, developers interested in utilizing in-game ads must work with the only two licensed ad providers, Double Fusion and IGA Worldwide, but Bain says the company is in discussions with additional partners.

Bain concluded by restating: "Developers no longer need a publisher to distribute games on PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3."

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...latform/?biz=1 ...

PlayStation development took center stage at Casual Connect when Sony Europe's developer relations manager George Bain addressed an audience of Eastern European developers.

The PlayStation 2 has sold 131.3 million units to date, he said. The software sales for that platform have been over 1.4 billion.

The PlayStation Portable has sold 41.3 million units. Software sales have been 169 million.

And as of June 30th, the PlayStation 3 has sold 14.4 million units, with software sales of 94 million.

The most important information Bain had for his audience was news that, in Europe, the PlayStation 2 "is effectively an open platform," adding, "You no longer have to submit a game for content approval." He used examples from Russia and Indian developers, saying they can "create low-development cost titles and release them in their market."


Without the need of a licensed publisher, it's a direct relationship between a developer and Sony.


Bain reports that there is no cost to become a licensed developer, but dev kits do cost. In some cases, Sony lends dev kits.

In a press release from November of 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment International announced that dev kits for the PlayStation 3 would cost $10,250.

Bain told his audience that if they were working on a smaller casual title, they could alternately use debug units which are less expensive – 10 percent of the cost of a full dev kit.

The PSP is easier to develop for, Bain pointed out: "It doesn't require a huge amount of programming resources to develop on the PlayStation Portable." He also outlined the release of Media Manager version 3 – an application that would function as iTunes, but for the PSP.

Moving on to the PlayStation Network, Bain reports over 12 million registered accounts, as of September of this year. And 5 million of those subscribers are from SCEE's territory alone.

"One thing that a lot of developers seem to forget is that PlayStation Network is free," said Bain. "Consumers do not have to pay a monthly fee," he said in reference to other similar services.

He also said that Sony does not require a demo of games that are for sale. "It's up to the developer if they make a demo or not."

"Game developers should create games for local markets," Bain said. Several new policies allow for that.

First, Sony is adapting a global approval system. Previously games had to be submitted separately through Sony Europe, Japan, and America. Now, the game idea is sent through a single website for approval.

And now, Sony will allow developers to publish by going through a third-party publisher. "This has never been done before," notes Bain. "This is something we're actively promoting."

"...without the need of a licensed publisher," he continues, "it's a direct relationship between a developer and Sony."

Something else to ease the process is an edict that, once a game has been approved, episodic and expansion content won't need to be approved before being published.

Currently, developers interested in utilizing in-game ads must work with the only two licensed ad providers, Double Fusion and IGA Worldwide, but Bain says the company is in discussions with additional partners.

Bain concluded by restating: "Developers no longer need a publisher to distribute games on PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3."

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...latform/?biz=1 ...

Alert the SPCA.

With just under three weeks to go before the new Animal Crossing hits the Wii, Nintendo is kicking off a Cosplay contest to try and generate a bit more attention for their game.

But not content to get gamers to dress up in absurdly embarrassing outfits, the Animal Crossing Welcome Waggin’ Costume Contest is an invitation to instead embarrass pets.

The entrants of the top 50 photos of animals dressed in costumes or characters from Animal Crossing will receive a Wii video game system, a copy of Animal Crossing: City Folk, a Wii Speak microphone, access to exclusive information about the game and the eternal and voiceless scorn of their pets.

Daily photo picks and details about the contest will be posted over at www.welcomewaggincontest.com, which appeared not to be working when I checked it a bit earlier today. Entries for the contest will be accepted starting today and running through Nov. 16.

http://kotaku.com/5069147/nintendo-rewards-pet-dress+up ...

Wednesday sees the return of our old friend Leland Yee as he and California Governor T-101 attempt once again to get their violent video game law passed, this time in the Federal Court of Appeals. The law, which was shot down last year in federal court for being unconstitutional, sought to prevent children from purchasing games that contained "especially heinous, cruel or depraved" violence, putting in place $1,000 fines for retailers who sold such titles to minors. In preparation for this Wednesday's appeal, Senator Yee practiced his spiel.


"This is the same technology the armed forces use to help soldiers kill the enemy," said state Sen. Leland Yee, the San Francisco Democrat who wrote the legislation. "All we're saying is, 'Don't sell it to kids.' "

I predict this appeal will get them absolutely nowhere, though I suppose we can't fault them for using taxpayers' money to check back every now and then, just in case the Constitution changed while we weren't looking.

http://kotaku.com/5069281/yees-calif...-up-for-appeal ...

Of all of the beloved video game characters that have fallen by the wayside (or been forced there by a string of subpar games) Earthworm Jim is one we'd most like to see make a comeback. C'mon, game publishers, the guy practically oozes charm, just give him a gun and some things to shoot and you're three-fourths of the way there.

For now though, we'll have to sate ourselves with the original Earthworm Jim (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) on Virtual Console, which we suppose will have to do, if only to square off once more with Bob the Killer Goldfish.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/27/ea...rtual-console/ ...

Whoa, ch-check out this week's WiiWare selections. No, really, check them out.

Strong Bad Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands (Telltale Games, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points): If you've played the previous Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People episodes, this is a no-brainer. If not, you're probably better off starting at episode one.

Art Style: ROTOHEX (Nintendo, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points): Another entrant from the Japanese bit generations collection. Formerly known as DIALHEX, the game is essentially a stripped-down version of Hexic.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/27/st...ex-on-wiiware/ ...

So sayeth the immortal Pete Burns, "You spin me right round baby, right now, like a record baby, round, round, round, round." In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has hinted that, yet again, the supply for the Nintendo Wii might not meet the demand this holiday. The Regginator (a nickname noted in the article) said that production is up 33% over last year, from 1.6 million consoles per month to 2.4 million.

We've talked about Wii shortages once or twice before. "One of our competitors' projects," he said (we're thinking he meant Sony), "they will sell 10 million consoles worldwide this year. For us, that's three months of production." By his numbers, it would actually be closer to four months, but when you're dealing with multiples of infinity all day long, math tends to get a little fuzzy.

We still find it hard to believe that there's still potential shortages after 708 days, but the sales numbers seem to suggest scholars will need to create a new number system for sales calculations.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/27/re...t-meet-demand/ ...

Thanks to a f*****g stupid error, the iTunes Music Store in the UK has accidentally censored thousands of songs, albums, and artists' names. Innocent songs—like Danny Kaye's "I Thought I Saw A P***y Cat"—and not-so-innocent ones—like Nirvana's "Smells Like T**n Spirit"—have been asterisked by what an Apple spokeswoman has described as a "database glitch". Why "teen", "hot" or "Johnny" can be considered offensive, I really don't have a flying f**k, but things look rather silly in there

http://gizmodo.com/5069046/apple-acc...in-the-process ...

While Nintendo hasn't even announced the next Wii, a DigiTimes source claims that a company named Pixart Imaging is already set to provide Nintendo with the infrared chips for their next generation Wii device. (Pixart already supports the current Wiimote and products from Intel and Logitech.) While not necessarily the worst news, I'm sure at least a few of us were hoping for a solution to avoid those constant "point your Wiimote at the screen" error messages. Oh well, Nintendo could release the Wii2 with non-interactive, rotting banana controller and it would still sell a bajillion units.
http://gizmodo.com/5069136/next-gen-...l-use-infrared ...