PlayStation Store users downloaded more games in June 2011 than before the PSN closure, reports EEDAR.

Based on a sample of IGN users, the report found that 17 per cent of users had downloaded a game from the PlayStation Store last month, compared to 13 per cent in March, before the shut down of PlayStation's online services.

The Welcome Back scheme allowed gamers with a PSN account to download two free games from a set selection, Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Nation and Wipeout.

Even when the four free titles were omitted, 15% of those surveyed has downloaded a PSN game, suggesting paid for games were also positively affected by the scheme. PlayStation's share of games purchased by consumers also increased from March to June, from 40 per cent to 44 per cent. Again, even with the free games removed from the analysis, the share had still increased by 1 per cent.

"While this increase in market share is small, the fact that the PlayStation 3 market share increased both with and without the free offerings indicates that the Welcome Back Program likely boosted sales of other paid content, specifically those available either exclusively through download or those that had a physical or digital purchase options."

EEDAR's report also notes that scheme may have had a negative impact on retail, as opposed to digital, sales in June.

The research lead EEDAR to recommend that publishers make older versions of games free to users for limited periods around the release of sequels or follow ups. It's sources indicated that games like LittleBigPlanet 2 benefited from having an earlier iteration released as part of the free scheme.

"In one case, it increased the awareness and possible purchase intent of sequels even though a sequel was non-existent (i.e. Dead Nation 2)."

Research firm EEDAR produces GamePulse, an information service that provides analysis, review scores and customer data to the video games industry.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ystation-store ...

Future Publishing has closed its on-console PS3 video magazine FirstPlay to make way for a new, free show.

The new show – which is currently unnamed – will be free to eligible UK PSN account holders.

It will be ‘aligned with SCE UK’s Access to PlayStation community strategy,’ and will be reporting from the Access events. It will feature HD previews, interviews and cover upcoming PS3 games and Blu-ray films. Gamers will be able to download the show from PSN.

FirstPlay launched last year and its last episode was released on July 6th.

“We went a long way very quickly with FirstPlay and this new phase in our partnership with PlayStation will allow us to take HD video magazine content to the next level,” said Future’s entertainment group publisher Simon Maxwell.

“Production on the new show is well under way and editorial standards are impeccably high. We’re looking forward to providing SCE UK with top-quality video content for more PlayStation gamers than ever before.”

SCE UK’s marketing chief Alan Duncan adds: “This is a great content initiative which forms a key part of SCEUK’s strategy to reward and engage with our consumers in a more meaningful way.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/new-d...nounced/082248 ...

Speaking to Develop Online, Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studio President Shuhei Yoshida said that the gaming megalith sees value in the continuously expanding world of indie development, and that supporting those developers is the key to industry growth.

"We have to support those smaller teams," he said. "Without doing so, the whole industry will stall, in terms of innovation." Yoshida thinks Sony's forthcoming PS Vita will serve as a good platform for indie developers currently subsisting in the mobile-phone universe, citing the handheld's capacitive touch-screen and AR capabilities as an entry-level gateway for development on the platform.

He also added that the Vita's development kit has been specifically engineered with affordability in mind, and that the system is "small and light and easy for developers to handle." With smartphones gobbling up increasingly larger slices of the mobile gaming pie, Sony seems to be positioning itself as the indie-friendly option for mobile developers looking to enter the world of dedicated gaming devices.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/11/so...-says-yoshida/ ...

CCP's upcoming persistent first-person shooter DUST 514 will require a cover charge from PlayStation 3 players, with the fee refunded as in-game currency.

The unusual approach is part of the developer's plan to help manage the roll-out of the highly-anticipated title, where consequences in the console game will have an effect on PC virtual world EVE Online, and vice-versa.

"In the beginning you have to pre-buy credits, so you pay something like $10-$20 to enter the game and you get the equivalent number of credits in the game once you do that. We call this the 'cover charge'," CCP's CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson told GamesIndustry.biz.

We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it
Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CCP
"You're really getting the game for free but you have to pre-buy credits in the beginning. We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it.

He added: "We have always been a big believer in growing up a social network behind the game in a slow and predictable way. Because we have seen that if you don't do that you can end up with a very unstructured experience, where there's no cohesion to the community. By growing it at the beginning we help to make a healthy environment initially."

A PlayStation 3 exclusive, DUST 514 is one of the new wave of titles that Sony is using to try out various free-to-play models on its home console - the only format-holder willing to experiment with a business model growing in ubiquity for online titles.

In-game currency will be spent on micro-transactions, although Pétursson wouldn't elaborate in detail on whether these will be vanity items like those that have caused outrage in the EVE Online community, or more game-changing content such as weaponry and ammunition.

"It's not like in shooters where you've seen virtual goods sales. Whether that's some of the games you've seen in Asia, whether that's Battlefield, or other games," he said. "We don’t really have a set of things we're communicating on now because a lot of this comes out in the private trials that we're starting at the end of this year, where we're just starting to tune and test and see what works. That's how we'll define it.

"We have some initial assumptions but we'll put it out there and see how the player base during the trials reacts to it."

CCP was happy to make the game a PlayStation 3 exclusive because it meant the company could experiment more, and would face less restrictions than trying to fit the game to two home consoles.

"The console platforms are very difficult, especially when it comes to how they organise the backend. They take very different approaches. To be able to work within both limits a lot of innovation we can do.

"By going exclusive with either platform allows us to do more innovation. The lowest common denominators would have been so small we couldn't do things that are really interesting. Sony was quite motivated in allowing us to do things we requested of them to the point they said 'no one has really asked about that before and we've never thought about, but why not?' They were very enthusiastic and open to really do something world changing and that's what swayed the decision to go with them," he added.

While the game isn't due for at least another year, the EVE Online community has already mobilised itself, creating a meta-game to recruit top-class first-person shooter players from other online worlds to act as 'mercenaries' for EVE corporations.

"That is very similar to when we announced EVE Online in September 2000, we already saw corporations forming, this meta-gaming happening on the forums, people creating websites and recruiting three years prior to EVE launching," offered Pétursson. "We're now seeing a similar thing happen and it's very encouraging to see."

He also highlighted that DUST 514 should offer more varied experiences than the repetitive crop of online shooters available on console.

"We hear from the shooter community that people really love the idea that there's a persistent action and reaction to their gameplay. A first-person shooter can have a feeling of déjà vu with the same thing happening over and over again.

"And on the EVE side we have a lot of positive reaction that relates to people having friends that don't necessarily enjoy EVE but they like the idea of the content of EVE. So now there's an experience that they think friends will enjoy and they're excited about that. I've heard EVE players say that finally there's something in the EVE world that my son will enjoy."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...om-ps3-players ...

Zumba Fitness is in its fourth week in a row at number one in the UK software chart. It's also the 505 Games' exercise title's seventh appearance in the top spot since the Wii release at the start of April.

Codemasters' Dirt 3 has climbed to second place, while Transformers: Dark Of The Moon has moved into third, pushing LA Noire into fifth.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops' return to the top ten, up ten places to seventh place, is almost certainly the result of the the Annihilation Map Pack DLC on XBLA. UFC Personal Trainer also climbed from twenty second place to thirteenth.

A quiet week for new releases means no new entries into the top 40.

Last Week This Week Title
1 1 Zumba Fitness
7 2 DiRT 3
6 3 Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
2 4 LEGO Pirates Of The Carribbean
3 5 LA Noire
5 6 Virtua Tennis 4
17 7 Call Of Duty: Black Ops
9 8 Brink
4 9 F.E.A.R. 3
8 10 Top Spin 4
10 11 FIFA 11
23 12 LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
22 13 UFC Personal Trainer
19 14 Red Faction: Armageddon
16 15 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
14 16 Portal 2
13 17 Wii Sports Resort
15 18 Infamous 2
20 19 Dungeon Siege III
18 20 The Sims 3

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...re-type-charts ...

The former boss of Sony Europe has predicted that the hacking community may not be finished targeting PSN just yet.

Sony claimed at E3 last month that 90 per cent of PSN's user base had returned to the service following April's attack, which exposed the personal details of over 70 million gamers.

Reeves, now-COO of Capcom, admits that his current employer did "suffer" due to the PSN attack - but also believes that its aftermath has shone a light on the success of pre-pay cards.

"Yeah, we lost out, particularly in Europe and North America by not being able to put [our games] up onto the PSN... Capcom did suffer for a month, and we were not alone." he told ME Gamers.

He added: "We have seen in the last week...the last 10 days, quite a bit of resurgence in [PSN users], which is pleasant. We have seen on PSN, and probably Sony are in a better place to tell you this, that there is a resurgence in people buying the generic PSN cards in retail stores rather than putting up their credit card details... I think in the future they will make more non-generic cards, like game branded ones, such as Street Fighter or FIFA, or even Modern Warfare. But the generic ones have done well.

"People are playing it a bit safe at the moment because the hackers will be back [laughs]. That's my personal opinion. I mean...they will right? They are going to say: 'So you think you are secure?'"

Sony finally restored its full PSN service, including the PS Store, in Japan last week. The service had remained down in the territory for over two months.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...-will-be-back/ ...

While the industry’s platform holders continue to sell the motion control revolution to gamers, one of the sector’s top execs has admitted that he doesn’t like it.

“Personally, while there’s some great experiences on Move, and there’s some great experiences on Kinect, I’m not a motion control guy,” EA CEO John Riccitiello told Industry Gamers. “It’s still too imprecise for me.

“I like shooting something and hitting it. I like turning a corner and feeling precision. So I still like my swizzle sticks and my shoulder buttons and my Xs and Os, etc.”

What does please him, however, is Nintendo’s new control design debuted with the Wii U. So impressed is the exec that he personally took to the stage at Nintendo’s E3 showcase, despite the lack of concrete software confirmations.

“There is something about having that second screen that transcends anything I’ve ever done before," he added. “It's a high definition platform and I love the controller. I just think it’s cool. You’re a gamer - so you’ve got the screen here [in your hands] and you’ve got the [TV] screen there and you’ve got full control.

"I can draw a pass pattern for Madden, I can be playing an FPS up here while I’m calling in air strikes or whatever I want to do. I can give all the detailed control off the screen, I can see another part of a map... I always find it breaks the spell for me when I’m playing a game with a squad and I have to stop the action and move up for them. Now I can just move them down here [on the tablet].

“I think there’s something really powerful about a second screen that I think really matters. I think we’re just beginning to realize what we can do with it and I think it’s obvious we can do a lot with it.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/motio...itiello/082203 ...

News via http://ps3.gx-mod.com/modules/news/a...p?storyid=2852

Robo Hobo releases a new version of the emulator for PS3 multi-system Mednafen allowing the emulation of consoles NES, Game Boy, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Sega Master System, Game Gear, PC Engine, PC-Engine CD Lynx, NeoGeo Pocket, WonderSwan, and Atari 2600.
New / fixed: - Added support for Stella emulator of the Atari 2600 Mednafen PS3 R427 Official website: http://code.google.com/p/mednafen-ps3/ ...

News via http://blackbird.usask.ca/wordpress/?p=159

As of today, VBA PS3 has evolved into VBANext. All future development will happen on this page :
https://code.google.com/p/vbanext/
In short, VBA PS3 is dead – long live VBANext. The same will happen to SNES9x PS3 shortly when it blossoms into SNES9x Next (new name for SNES9x Slim).
Platforms


Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Japanese version – Gyakuten Saiban) on VBANext (PS3 version shown here) with the dot shader.
This new project will be a faster, slimmed-down version of VBA-M that is currently aimed at three platforms:

• PlayStation3
• Xbox 360 (WIP)
• Mobile (WIP)

It will replace both VBA PS3 on PlayStation3 and Lantus’ VBA360 0.03 on Xbox 360. In addition to that, a port to mobile platforms is tentatively in the works.
A few screenshots (taken from the PS3 version) can be viewed here.
PlayStation3


Donkey Kong ‘94 with Super Game Boy borders on VBANext (PS3 version shown here).
As for the PS3 port – a lot of progress has been made over the past few weeks. Super Game Boy border support is now in – when you select a game that is Super Game Boy-compatible from the ROM menu, it will display the border that would be visible on a real SNES with a Super Game Boy add-on cart.
It will perhaps be possible to add fourplayer gamepad support at a later date for Super Game Boy games as well – certain games like Wario Blast made use of the Super Gameboy’s access to the host hardware (SNES) to allow for multiplayer support with regular SNES pads. VBA-M supports this out of the box – so it would be a shame to let it go to waste.
On the display front – FBO mode will be added – this will allow for two shaders to be selected at once. All the features that are currently in SNES9x PS3 and other emulators will be added as well – for instance, border support (different from the Super Game Boy border support which is built into VBA-M) and possibly game aware shaders as well.

Mega Man V – another Super Game Boy-compatible game – shown running here on VBANext (PS3 version shown).
Xbox 360


Final Fantasy Tactics Advance running on VBANext (PS3 version shown) – now sans the FPS slowdown in the introduction screen.
The Xbox 360 port will require some cleaning up. I will use Lantus’ VBA360 0.03 sourcecode at first and then try to slim it down by removing dependencies such as libSDL. I’m confident performance will be even better now than it previously was on 360 – since VBA PS3 was based on Lantus’ core code changes after all – with the new slimline core, it is only bound to get better.
Sonic Advance 1/2 will work again with this updated Xbox 360 version because of the removal of the SFML network code (note – if a porter wishes to do so – he can reimplement this again by defining the switch ‘NO_SFML’ – the SFML network code’s only purpose is to allow Dolphin – the Gamecube/Wii emulator – and VBA-M interoperability – it has no other purpose and it actually breaks these two games from working).
I also got rid of a rather annoying display bug in Advance Wars 2 for the PS3 port (now evolved into VBANext) – so obviously that will be fixed on 360 as well, since it suffered from the same problem.
Mobile

A mobile port for Android is tentatively in the works. More progress on this one will be posted shortly. ...