DCEmu Homebrew Emulation & Theme Park News
wraggster
by Published on May 31st, 2012 23:10- Categories:
- PS3 News
Industry veteran and former Sony executive Richard Browne delves into Sony's video game history and asks, "Can they rise again?"
I have to preface this article by noting that I have long term ties to Sony. I was an employee of Psygnosis when Sony bought the Liverpool company back in the early '90s. Because of this tie I've been a long time supporter of Sony, and some have even deemed me a fanboy, which to some extent I probably am, or was. You'll forgive me if any of that comes out here.
Pre-Playstation
Sony's rise to prominence in the gaming business began in the early '90s when they entered into an agreement with Nintendo to produce a CD-Rom drive for the Super Nintendo. At the time I was working at Psygnosis, and as pioneers in the CD-Rom field we were early into discussions around the format. Psygnosis was working very quietly on a Star Wars CD game with Lucasarts; it was in its formative stages but the work the company had done with CD technology to date put them in good stead (alas, the contract to do the game would never get signed). When the SNES CD drive became a possibility, Psygnosis started working with DMA Design in Dundee (who had been highly successful partners from Menace to Blood Money to the infamous Lemmings) to try and emulate how the system would work.
By CES of January 1992 DMA had an emulated demo of the Star Wars game running on a SNES with a mega-cartridge dropped on top of it to simulate the CD drive and some aspect of its immense capacity. The demo was pretty spectacular, as was the falling out that Sony and Nintendo subsequently had over how their business relationship would work. As history will report, Nintendo ditched the concept of CDs and Sony went to work on building their own games console to take on its formerly proposed partner.
"The real genius of the PlayStation was its marketing. Sony realized that people who played games were growing up; it wasn't just a kids-focused business anymore"
Psygnosis and Sony had started business dealings in other parts of their respective organizations, in Sony's case through Imagesoft. Psygnosis worked on a number of titles through this relationship - Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Last Action Hero (in which Arnold Schwarzenegger was infamously not allowed to be seen holding guns), and Mickey Manic with Traveller's Tales to name just a few - but it was when Sony decided to enter the hardware business that the relationship became more formal.
PlayStation
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was just one bloke - one Phil Harrison - but clearly Sony understood it would need more than just Phil on the ground to build a console division. With that in mind, and with other potential suitors waiting in the wings, Sony made the decision to purchase Psygnosis and put its joint MDs Jonathan Ellis and Ian Hetherington in charge of the new-found company. Initially, SCEE was set up to be a Publisher; rather smartly Sony realized that to sell hardware it would need a sales and distribution channel and with Psygnosis as a basis they could build and grow just that. For several months Phil would travel up to Liverpool for the week to work at our offices though in time Ian and Jonathan would open Sony's first London base on Golden Square from which the Company would work. SCEE began releasing a slate of cartridge games across Europe and the infrastructure began to grow.
In the meantime Sony Japan had been hard at work creating the PSX as it was well known, and relatively early on in its life a prototype appeared amongst much secrecy in Liverpool. When people refer to that first machine as a photocopier they really aren't exaggerating overly. It was large, noisy and ran very hot. Nothing ever changes with prototype hardware it seems. The Advanced Technology Group at Psygnosis (of which I was part) started to try playing with it immediately before running into what could only be described as a slight problem.
The only way to program the system was through NeXT workstations. We didn't have any. In fact most of us had never even heard of them. Through some pioneering research one of the team found two existed in England, at a Sony dealership in Basingstoke. They were quickly dispatched to the Psygnosis offices so the team could actually start to figure the machine out. What was clear though was this was going to be a problem, there was no way this machine was going to go mainstream if the programming toolset for it was almost impossible to acquire.
Fortune sometimes smiles and fate sometimes pulls through. Not long before the whole Sony Psygnosis marriage occurred we'd been looking to sign up the best and the brightest 3rd party developers in the UK. Andrew Spencer was one such man we signed up, we worked with Archer McLean on Super Dropzone, and I'd been in touch with the guys at the Assembly Line because I had been incredibly impressed with their work on Xenon 2 - and Adrian Stephens was working on this amazing Stunt Island game with Disney.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...of-sony-part-1 ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 23:01- Categories:
- DCEmu
While ISFE boasts an impressive survey of European gamers, NPD is for the first time sharing its data on non-new, non-boxed video game sales in the UK via MCV.
Its latest report in the Q4 2011 spending on areas like pre-owned, rental, subscription and digital games reveals just how big – or, indeed, small – these categories are.
Some are proving to be as strong as ever, while others, such as social network games, are smaller than some may think.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/npd-l...-market/097027 ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 22:58- Categories:
- DCEmu
Once again the issue around calculating digital sales data towards the industry’s charts and research data has become a talking point.
Last week MCV discussed the suggestion that Blizzard’s Diablo III would have topped the charts if digital sales from Blizzard’s Battle.net store had been included in retail charts.
GfK Chart-Track shares the industry’s concerns about the current fragmentation of market sales when considering digital sales of packaged goods, and applauds UKIE’s commitment to bringing publishers/IP holders together in an attempt to address this issue. But this can never be a substitute for fast and integrated weekly reporting.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
We are ready to include digital sales like those of Diablo III, but the ball is now firmly in the games industry’s court to recognise the need for measuring the complete market and supply their data.
We already have the technology to incorporate those sales seamlessly into the charts and the flexibility to report the sales in the format that the industry requires. For example, the chart number for Diablo III could be a mixture of digital and physical, with the split between the two only revealed to the publisher/developer/IP holder and the retailers that sold the product.
However, it would be wrong to single out one publisher/developer/IP holder – why should they take the plunge if their peers simply sit on the fence, keeping their own numbers internal?
So what we say to digital retailers is that if they have the capability of supplying data, then we are ready to accept it.
Only with a critical mass of digital retailers would we envisage including digital sales alongside packaged goods. In the meantime, all digital sales can be measured and reported back to each digital retailer with a guarantee of confidentiality, through various solutions including our online secure data warehouse. Many of the detailed market analysis reports that we currently produce for traditional retail are just as relevant for digital retailers, and we can tailor reports to specific requirements.
DIGITAL RETAIL?ACTION
The current UK video games research project Chart-Track runs monitors sales through traditional retail channels for packaged goods, and over 35 different retail propositions including the High Street, the supermarkets and the internet. So the current sales charts are a measure for one part of the entire video game sales universe.
This project in the UK has been in existence for decades. And perhaps because of this, it is somewhat taken for granted that market intelligence of the packaged goods sector is so accurate, so meaningful and therefore so useful.
But with the growth of the digital sector the games industry risks losing its best research and PR tool – a chart that paints a true and accurate picture of the overall video games market.
Digital retailers have the power to support the games industry and the industry would welcome their involvement.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/opini...-debate/097029 ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 22:51- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
The Wall Street Journal reports that while Sony considered online-only content distribution for its next-generation Playstation, the manufacturer has decided that the new console will include an optical drive after all. Microsoft is also planning to include an optical disk drive in the successor to its Xbox 360 console as the software company had concerns about access to Internet bandwidth
http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/0...optical-drives ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 22:45- Categories:
- PC News
Renowned Overclocker HiCookie used a Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H motherboard to achieve a fully validated 7.03GHz clock speed on an Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge processor. As it stands, that's the highest clockspeed for an Ivy Bridge CPU, and it required a steady dose of liquid nitrogen to get there. HiCookie also broke a record for the highest memory speed on an Ivy Bridge platform, pushing his G.Skill Trident X DDR3-2800 memory kit populated in four DIMM slots to 3,280MHz. Not for the faint of heart, the record breaking CPU overclock required that HiCookie pump 1.956V to the processor, according to his CPU-Z screenshot. The CPU multiplier was set at x63."
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...erclock-record ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 22:43- Categories:
- PC News
Microsoft has announced the immediate availability of Windows 8 Release Preview. Unfortunately there isn't a Consumer Preview > Release Preview upgrade path — you'll have to format and perform a clean installation. After downloading the ISO, simply burn Windows 8 RP onto a USB stick or DVD, reboot, and follow the (exceedingly quick and easy) installer. Alternatively, if you don't want to format a partition, ExtremeTech has a guide on virtualizing Windows 8 with VirtualBox. After a lot of fluster on the Building Windows 8 blog, the Release Preview is actually surprisingly similar to the Consumer Preview. Despite being promised a new, flat, Desktop/Explorer UI, Aero is still the default theme in Windows 8 RP. The tutorial that will introduce new users to the brave new Start buttonless Windows 8 world is also missing. Major features that did make the cut are improved multi-monitor support — it's now easier to hit the hot corners on a multi-monitor setup, and Metro apps can be moved between displays — and the Metro version of IE10 now has a built-in Flash plug-in. There will be no further pre-releases of Windows 8: the next build will be the RTM
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05...le-to-download ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 22:41- Categories:
- DCEmu
Sega has confirmed the games which will be playable at its E3booth next week, and Platinum Games' Anarchy Reigns is troublingly conspicuous by its absence.
Parent company Sega Sammy is restructuring its loss-making videogame business, warning of layoffs across its western operation as it focuses on its more commercially viable IP likeSonic, Total War and Aliens. In a blog post, the publisher confirms the games it is taking to E3.
Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines will be playable on the show floor, as will Super Monkey Ball's Vita debut, subtitled Banana Splitz. There's also Ron Gilbert's new game, The Cave; downloadable brawler Virtua Figher 5 Final Showdown; the HD remake of Jet Set Radio, recently announced for Vita as well as the console download services; and Hell Yeah! Wrath Of The Dead Rabbit.
But the absence of Anarchy Reigns further suggests that Platinum's ambitious multiplayer brawler will not see the light of day in the west - at least, not for some time, given that two of the games confirmed for the show, Aliens and The Cave, aren't due until early 2013.
Platinum admitted over the weekend that, while Anarchy Reignswas still on track for its July release date in Japan, the western launch was now "to be confirmed". Worryingly, the studio advised western players to import, pointing out that the Japanese release would be fully localised in multiple languages.
The news will also raise concern over the prospect of a western localisation of Yakuza 5. Due in Japan in December, the fifth game in Toshihiro Nagoshi's RPG-brawler series is the most ambitious since the original, with five playable characters and a greatly improved engine.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/sega...rchy-reigns-e3 ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 22:38- Categories:
- DCEmu
The PS3 version of Capcom's Dragon's Dogma has topped the Japanese charts this week, shifting 300,000 units in the process.
The Xbox 360 version shifted ten per cent of that number, but made it to number four regardless.
Nintendo's Mario Tennis Open debuted at number two - 102,000 units shipped - while Idolmaster Anime & G4U Pack Vol.8 found its way to sixth on its first week of release.
01. Dragon's Dogma PS3 (Capcom)
02. Mario Tennis Open (Nintendo)
03. Uta No Prince Sama Debut (Broccoli)
04. Dragon's Dogma Xbox 360 (Capcom)
05. Mario Party 9 (Nintendo)
06. Idolmaster Anime & G4U Pack Vol.8 (Namco Bandai)
07. Fire Emblem Awakening (Nintendo)
08. Juuza Engi Engetsu Sangokuden (Idea Factory)
09. Monster Hunter Frontier Online Forward .4 Premium Package(Capcom)
10. Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo)
http://www.edge-online.com/news/drag...s-330000-units ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 20:12- Categories:
- Apple iPhone
Cricket Wireless, the prepaid subsidiary of Leap, has just announced the availability of the iPhone 4 and 4S on its network. When they go on sale June 22nd, a 16GB 4S will set you back $500, while an 8GB 4 clocks in at a slightly more affordable $400. Both are available with Cricket's $55 "unlimited" everything plan, which includes all you can eat talk, text, and data -- provided your idea of "unlimited" data falls within its fair usage policies (in this case, 2.3GB of data). Cricket is hardly alone among America's smaller carriers in offering the iPhone, C-Spire as well as a number of regional carriers all stock Apple's wares. What makes this offering unique, is that Cricket is the first completely prepaid carrier to sell the handset. So, if you want an iPhone, but don't want the contract or the post-paid, usage-based fees? Well then, Cricket might just be your new best friend. Check out the PR after the break and hit up the source for more info.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/31/c...everything-pl/ ...by Published on May 31st, 2012 20:10- Categories:
- PC News
Until now, it seemed like Microsoft was gearing up to unveil the almost-final Windows 8 Release Preview in the first full week of June, just in time for what is sure to be the world's premier Ultrabook trade show. As it turned out, though, the folks in Redmond couldn't contain their jubilation any longer: the company is now rolling out the Release Preview several days ahead of schedule. The update, free to anyone who wants to try it, offers a few notable enhancements, including a trio of new apps, a "Flip ahead" browser gesture, Flash support and a couple of updated multi-monitor features. A few heavy hitters like Wikipedia and Box.net are also using the occasion to debut apps in the Windows Store. And the OS is now available in 13 languages. Mostly, though, this update brings performance and stability fixes, along with granular tweaks like being able to pin stocks to the Start screen. Certainly, a two-hour press conference was not necessary this time around.
Ready to upgrade from the Consumer Preview? Just remember that you'll need to a do a clean install, which means unless your user account is tied to a Microsoft ID you're going to lose your personal settings. Got it? Good. Get your download on now, and then meet us past the break for some early impressions and a video walk-through of the new features.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/31/w...d-impressions/
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