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PSP News
by Published on February 11th, 2011 19:15- Categories:
- PSP News,
- Playstation Vita News
Sony's forthcoming NGP device will coexist with the PSP, not replace it, so says Sony chief Shuhei Yoshida....
In an interview with Edge, Yoshida insisted it made no sense to think of the NGP as a replacement for the PSP seeing as Sony was still struggling to meet demand for its current handheld.
"The NGP features everything Sony can and wants to do today," he said. "It's a platform looking forward with great ambition.
"It can't replace a platform that has already been on sale for seven years now. In terms of pricing, we can't sell the NGP for the same price as a PSP. The PSP has become very affordable and popular, especially with younger generations.
"I think the NGP needs time to mature and get adopted by users," he added. "So, for the time being, both platforms will coexist."
The NGP is still a way off, with a late 2011 release mooted. It's worth noting that the PSP's release schedule between now and then isn't exactly bursting at the seams. There's Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on 25th February, then Dissidia Duodecim: Final Fantasy and LEGO Star Wars III arrive in March. After that though, things look bare.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...p-will-coexist
Personally if anyone will support older consoles its Sony, but the PSP has had more than its fair share of piracy, i can see 3rd party devs dumping it asap, what do others think ?by Published on February 11th, 2011 18:59- Categories:
- PSP News,
- PS3 News,
- Nintendo DS News,
- Nintendo Wii News,
- PC News,
- Xbox 360 News
As the dust settles on Activision's decision to put an end to its world-famous peripheral-based music franchise Guitar Hero and the difficult work of sacking those who helped create it begins, one question remains: where did it all go wrong?...
Only three years ago Guitar Hero shot through the $1 billion revenue mark – in the US alone.
Now, in what can only be described as a spectacular fall from grace, Guitar Hero is no more. Why? Why did Guitar Hero die?
To accuse Activision of milking the franchise dry with multiple games launched too close together may be an obvious start, but according to leading industry analysts it's a perfectly valid one.
"By 2007 Guitar Hero was available for most platforms and Activision continued to stripmine the franchise," M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon told Eurogamer.
"It is relatively easy to prepare iterative versions of a music and rhythm game once the formula has been set, and this dynamic facilitated the brand's over-exposure. In 2009 Activision released five separate SKUs of Guitar Hero and the brand essentially lost its relevance."
A damning verdict indeed – but it is one shared by many who are trying to make sense of Guitar Hero's demise.
"Guitar Hero was a victim of its success," said Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter. "The game was incredibly well-conceived, the peripherals were great, and the music offering was deep and broad. All of those factors led to unprecedented success, and each contributed to its demise."
For Pachter, the fact gamers could play new Guitar Hero games with the peripherals they already owned proved to be the killer blow.
"Once people bought the band kit, for example, they didn't feel compelled to upgrade, as the one they bought was high quality and did the job well," he said. "Once people bought a game, they had 60 - 80 songs to master, and few mastered all of the songs offered.
"Thus, when a new version was released, most consumers did not feel the need to buy it, since they still had 40 – 50 songs remaining to play from last year's version."
One analyst who cast's Activision's role in a brighter light is EEDAR's Jesse Divnich. For him, "nothing went wrong with Guitar Hero" and there was nothing Activision could have done to prevent its decline.
"Much like most entertainment products, consumers tend to get their fill quickly. There is a reason why most successful movies rarely go past their third-iteration.
"When the first Guitar Hero was sold, the time clock of its success and ultimate demise started and there wasn't a single strategy Activision could have implemented to hinder it. If Activision hadn't flooded the market, someone else would have, and the state of the music genre in 2011 would have been unchanged.
"There is absolutely nothing Activision nor anyone could have done to save the music genre. We should remember Guitar Hero for what it was, not where it's at now."
Gaming Insights director Nick Williams is more pragmatic – Guitar Hero died because gamers stopped buying it. "Activision's decision to cancel Guitar Hero and DJ Hero is probably a surprise to many gamers, but the momentum shift away from music games has been in the works for a few years now," he said.
"Trended data from Ipsos OTX's GamePlan Insights tracking study support the idea that music related games are becoming increasingly risky investments. The percentage of active gamers who like to play music games 'a lot' has dropped steadily over the last two years (from 38 per cent in Q1 2009 to 28 per cent in Q1 2011), which corresponds to measurable decreases in purchase interest for each new Guitar Hero release.
"During the same time, the incidence of active gamers who like to play shooter games 'a lot' has increased from 40 per cent to 47 per cent, with Call of Duty leading the charge."
With the axe ready to fall on DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games and the promise of 500 job cuts across Activision's gargantuan network already biting, Guitar Hero's death feels final.
But, like with the best superheroes, dead doesn't always mean dead.
"I wouldn't classify Guitar Hero as 'dead', but rather hibernating'," Divnich said. "It may take three to five years, and likely a whole new generation of consoles, but I see a possibility of a short revival in the future."
Pidgeon agrees. "It is possible that Guitar Hero will return, but a re-launch would have to be managed on a far smaller scale. Production costs would have to be minimized to enable profits on unit sales in the hundreds of thousands rather than in the millions."
Pachter's conclusion? "The franchise can support sales at the $200 million level annually, so it will still generate profits, but with license fees and manufacturing costs, margins are not that great, and certainly not enough to keep 200 - 250 people employed working on a new version each year."
Hero developers across the world no doubt know that better than most.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...itar-hero-diedby Published on February 11th, 2011 18:33- Categories:
- PSP News,
- PS3 News,
- PS2 News,
- Nintendo DS News,
- Nintendo Wii News,
- PC News,
- Xbox 360 News,
- Apple iPad,
- Apple iPhone
Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption has taken five Interactive Achievement Awards at the DICE Summit, awarded by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in Las Vegas today.
The open-world game was honoured for art direction, gameplay engineering, character performance, game direction, and action game awards
Quantic Dreams' Heavy Rain took visual engineering, original music and innovation awards, BioWare's Mass Effect 2 grabbed story and RPG gongs and Playdead's Limbo was awarded in sound and adventure categories. CityVille and Angry Birds were given social and casual game gongs.
The Pioneer Award went to Bill Budge, creator of Pinball Construction Set, while BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka were inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. EA veteran Bing Gordon was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The full list of winners follow:
- Outstanding Achievement in Animation: God of War III
- Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: Red Dead Redemption
- Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Heavy Rain
- Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering: Red Dead Redemption
- Outstanding Character Performance: Red Dead Redemption
- Family Game of the Year: Dance Central
- Racing Game of the Year: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
- Outstanding Achievement in Story: Mass Effect 2
- Role Playing / MMO Game of the Year: Mass Effect 2
- Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Heavy Rain
- Outstanding Achievement in Original Music: Heavy Rain
- Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Rock Band 3
- Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: Limbo
- Adventure Game of the Year: Limbo
- Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
- Action Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption
- Sports Game of the Year: FIFA 2011
- Fighting Game of the Year: Super Street Fighter IV
- Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
- Portable Game of the Year: God of War: Ghost of Sparta
- Casual Game of the Year: Angry Birds HD
- Social Game of the Year: CityVille
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Bing Gordon:
- Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction: Red Dead Redemption
- Game of the Year: Mass Effect 2
- Pioneer Award: Bill Budge
by Published on February 11th, 2011 13:56
Play-Asia.com Lucky Lunar New Year Sale 2011 - 10,000 discounts and lots of chances to win fabulous prices.
Say good bye to the tiger and welcome the rabbit in 2011. Happy Chinese New Year everyone, those of you living in China or near large China towns can hear the fire crackers and see lion dances.
This is the single most important holiday period for the Chinese communities, it follows the Lunar Calendar and it almost always comes around a month after the western New Year. Families gather together for feasts, children get red pockets (with money inside) and everybody gets new clothes in joyous, vibrant colors.
Coming after the lively and adventurous tiger, the rabbit represents relaxation and recreation. It's time to blow some steam off, cool down and explore new directions. If there is this game in your wish list that you wanted to try, now is the time to grab it, it's likely to be available at a friendlier price, too. To spread the festive spirit around, like the past years, Play-Asia.com holds a lucky new year sale with bargain products that includes blockbusters, games of the season and many wonderful deals.
To top everything off we have our lucky draw! We give consoles, games and lots of store credits so head to the Sale Site and start looking.
Come catch the bunny:
We've let loose the bunnies and they will show you to the bargain items and the lucky draw. The bunnies hop on the product pages of all bargain items, just snatch them and make your purchase and you automatically join the lucky draw.
The more you buy, the more you save, and the better chance you have in winning that powerful console!
For items that gets restocked regularly, you just need to check in regularly to see if the bunny comes back. Yet, for limited editions, such as first print CDs and games, once its sold out, the bunny never returns, so make up your mind quick when you want to grab something super special.
Prizes:
- 1st Prize: A chic blue Nintendo 3DS Console
- 2nd Prize: An Xbox 360 Elite Slim Console (250GB) Forza Motorsport 3 & Alan Wake & Halo: Reach Bundle
- 3rd Prize: A festively red Nintendo Wii (Super Mario 25th Anniversary Limited Edition)
- 4-10th Prize: A store credit voucher worth US$ 50 each, redeemable for any purchase at Play-Asia.com
- 11-50th Prize: A store credit voucher worth US$ 20 each, redeemable for any purchase at Play-Asia.com
by Published on February 10th, 2011 18:49- Categories:
- PSP News
News via PSPita (translated via google)
E 'available for download v10 of the Custom 6:35, the CF developed by coder neur0n that turns out to be only compatible with PSP 2000, with the exception of the TA-088v3. The release today again the NID Resolver updates and fixes a bug in the recovery menu, specifically the function Toggle USB.
A complete changelog and follow the link to download.
V10 Changelog:
Quote:
- Fixata function Toggle USB Recovery Menu
- Updated NID Resolver
- Added a patch for the function AntiCFW
NB: Please note that the 6:35 is the Custom installation on PSP 2000 except TA-088v3
Download Here ...by Published on February 10th, 2011 18:48- Categories:
- PSP News
News via EP
virtuosflame aka liquidzigong just released 635PRO-A1
source
Google Translation:
Quote:This is the one from China (L) CFW. 635PRO as an enhanced version of it has XMB ISO display.
635PRO-A1:
[!] fix order of ISO
[!] fix large memory support, and now we can unlock the memory 55M
[!] can not run after the fix into the UMD ISO
[!] fix USB Device can only be enabled once
[+] Merge HEN and installation procedures can be directly installed in the OFW
[+] Add Tekken and Soul Calibur patch
[+] Add key D9161AF0
[+] Add in the RESET VSH VSH MENU
Features:
Support all types of PSP, which PSP-1000, PSP-2000, PSP-GO is strictly tested
Support the unlock 52MB of memory, has reached the level of the times 5xx
The NP9660 has a built-in and March33 ISO driver to support more gamesHere's what i did:...
- disabled all plugins.
- boot 635PROHEN.
- run 635FastRecovery (black screen and PSP shutsdown).
- boot 635PROHEN.
- run 635PRO-A1 hold L button and installed it again.
Download Hereby Published on February 9th, 2011 22:14- Categories:
- PSP News
News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?module=news&...5&view_reply=1
The Japanese plum developer update once its plugin Light VSH Menu, the Quick menu of the XMB (already included in the various Custom Firmware) is intended for those who use the HEN for 6.3x firmwares. The release today of the plugin introduces the function Hide MAC Address and fixes some bugs in previous versions.
A complete changelog and follow the link to download.
Changelog v0.5:
Quote:
- Added Hide MAC Address
- Fixed some bugs
- Support for version.txt
Download Here ...by Published on February 9th, 2011 21:27- Categories:
- PSP News,
- PS3 News,
- PS2 News,
- Nintendo DS News,
- Nintendo Wii News,
- PC News,
- Xbox 360 News
Do you have $30, some empty space on your shelves and some time to kill? For a limited time, Amazon's offering a buy one, get one half-off deal on over 200 games for 360, PS3, Wii, DS and PSP -- all of which are already priced at $19.99 or below. Check out a handful of the eligible titles below.
Buy One, Get One Half-Off (partial list)
- Dead Space Platinum Edition (360) -- $19.96
- Mass Effect 2 (360) -- $19.96
- Dante's Inferno (PS3/360) -- $19.99
- Fallout 3 (PS3/360) -- $19.99
- Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii) -- $15.96
- Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) -- $19.16
- Borderlands (PS3/360) -- $19.99
- BioShock 2 (PS3/360) -- $18.68
- Halo 3: ODST (360) -- $18.99
- Plants vs. Zombies (DS) -- $19.82
- Darksiders (PS3/360) -- $19.83
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...57431&plpage=1 ...by Published on February 9th, 2011 20:37
Activision director of Dev Relations and Acquisitions Bob Loya is concerned that the increasing number of game platforms is presenting a problem to publishers.
In an interview published today, he told GamesIndustry.biz that " One of the biggest challenges we face right now is that, while several years ago there was just the 360, PS3, Wii, Xbox, PS2 and the DS, now we just have so many different platforms and pieces of interactive entertainment that are vying for consumers' time.
"It's much harder now, because we're competing on so many platforms, so many mechanisms for getting content to gamers - and as exciting as it is, it's extremely challenging to get your consumer and keep them. They have so many more options now."
Despite this, new technologies were providing new opportunities. For Loya, Microsoft's Xbox 360 motion camera was especially appealing.
"I'm really excited about Kinect. I know that Microsoft is gearing up another round of games that's probably going to be focused more on the core gamer - that's extremely exciting for me, to see what they're able to come up with, and see what the technology is able to do for those core audiences, as opposed to the casual audiences which it already does a great job for."
Activision's latest financial results, in which it is expected to reveal some of its plans for the coming year, are due tonight.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-and-keep-them
...by Published on February 9th, 2011 20:32
Id Software technical director John Carmack believes smartphones will soon replace dedicated handheld consoles.
Speaking to The Dallas Morning News, he claimed that the upcoming Nintendo 3DS and Sony NGP could prove to be the last of their kind.
"The smart phone may turn out to be 80 percent as good at gaming as a dedicated gaming platform. People are going to carry their smart phone, and if it's an 80 percent gaming device, how many people in the gaming market will be satisfied with that? That's the question that's in everybody's mind.
"If that's what the consumers are going to trend towards on there, there may not be much as developers we can do about that," he said.
In terms of future efforts from Sony and Nintendo, he reasoned that "You don't always get to build pyramids just because you want to."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ming-handhelds
Speaking for myself and a rather drunk one at that but thats another story, i cant see phones taking over from handhelds, sure for casual games the iphone, ipod touch are great but for an hardcore game theres nothing better than getting a real console with real controls, touchscreen controls are good but surely arent as good as a dpad and button for that real gaming experiance.
what does the DCEmu membership feel about it ?
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Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita