Though a big part in the resurgence of PS3 has been the launch of the Slim and the drop in price, SCE president and CEO Kaz Hirai has told MCV that it’s also down to the company’s new international, and less Japan-centric, view on the global games market.
Japanese-born Hirai took the role as PlayStation’s top dog just after the birth of PS3 in 2006, following over a decade’s hard work building the SCE business in America. He replaced the soon-to-retire Ken Kutaragi – but no one was fooled into thinking this was just replacing one Japanese innovator with another. Hirai brought with him a new global outlook for the PlayStation business, a fitting shift for the division of a previously staunchly Japanese company now run by a Welshman, Sony CEO Howard Stringer.
“I ran SCEA for 12 years, so I bring that region perspective,” he said. “Before, that perspective was focused on: ‘If it’s right for Japan it’s right for the rest of the world.’ But in fact, if it’s right for Japan it’s probably not right for the rest of the world, because the rest of the world has a different retail environment.
“So I made sure that with everything we do, we try and bring an international perspective on things. That’s not to say that was wrong in the past. Because back then the Japanese market was such a dominant part of our business.
“But now the Japanese market is probably about 20 to 25 per cent of our business. This is a very much overseas market driven organisation. So our new perspective is very important.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40788/Hira...t-of-the-world ...

Remember Microsoft's claims that, like-for-like, its £130 Kinect offered the best motion-control money could buy? Remember the chart it showed us all to 'prove' it? Sony's Kevin Butler's replied. You know what happens next.

Featured on Sony's semi-official new 'Move Vs Stuff' website (is that a reactive potshot we detect?) are a couple of 'instructive' images that will no doubt infuriate the firm's rivals.

A 'sensible' chart appears on the site's homepage, comparing Move, Kinect and Wii with a serious face.

As well as defining all of Move's good points, it takes a cheeky swipe at both Kinect and Nintendo's Wii. Both are only given one positive 'tick' each on the chart - in the desultory category of having a power cable.

Kevin's smug face beams out from the side, as the tagline borrows from the official PS3 ad zinger. It reads: 'It only does... way more than they do'.

However, click through far enough and you'll find an even more ballsy sell (pictured), which goes so far to give an old 'hoop on a stick' more kudos than its rivals - because at least it will 'remind grandma of her youth'.


Funny. Ludicrously arrogant, highly debatable. But funny.

We reviewed PlayStation Move last week. The long and short of it? The tech's great; the launch line-up less so.

Move's released on September 17 in the UK.

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

Hi!

The LoneWolfDS project has reached a significant milestone, this time with the 5th book of the Lone Wolf series: Shadow On The Sand. For those who had missed previous volumes, this is an attempt at porting good old paper gamebooks to the DS console. Why is this one special? Because this is the last volume of the Kai series, closing the first cycle of Lone Wolf's adventures. It's also the biggest of all the Kai books (400 sections spread in two main chapters, phew!).

A nice review of the book can be read here: http://web.ncf.ca/as300/b5.html

So what's new in this 5th book?
- A nice new adventure including 400 sections and several original plot twists!
- I made a new music to celebrate this milestone, called "The Last Chapter", bringing the OST to 10 tracks.

As with all other versions, you can continue your game from the last book. For this, you need to have the "The Chasm Of Doom.xml" file at the root of your SD card, and this saved game must contain at least one slot saved at the end of book 4.

You can get the game here : http://www.projectaon.org/staff/frederic/index.php

(please don't host the ROM on your site but use this link instead, as required by the Project Aon licensed! Thanks!)

If you encounter a problem or a bug, please tell me your DS and linker model and I'll try to investigate. Thank you for your feedback!

So now, what will I do for the rest of the series? I'm not sure yet. I'll first have to check what gameplay changes the new books may involve. I'm also starting to consider an iPhone port of my homebrew: I'm currently in a professional transition, and I'd like to earn a bit of money to feed my family. So porting it to online selling platforms might generate a bit of income. By the way, if you want to thank me for the work I've done during the last years, and encourage me to release further books, you can still make a donation on the download page. In those changing times for me, it will be more helpful than ever, and will be greatly appreciated!

Anyway, spread the word and have fun!

Frédéric Calendini ...

Microsoft and Sony reckon their motion control devices Kinect and Move will revolutionise the game industry, but one big hitter remains unconvinced of their relevance to that most hardcore of genres: the role-playing game.

Fitting Kinect, which enables controller free gaming, and Move, which uses a controller camera combo, into traditional RPG design is "awkward", Final Fantasy head honcho Yoshinori Kitase, who's doing the rounds promoting PSP-exclusive title The 3rd Birthday, told Eurogamer.

"Obviously this [The 3rd Birthday] is a PSP title, so we couldn't have made use of these new techniques anyway," he said.

"But it is quite awkward, particularly for example in Final Fantasy XIII, which came out last March in Europe. That kind of interface is quite difficult to be included in the RPG.

"But this is a gun shooter, and we would love to expand the franchise. In the future I think those technologies could be quite handy for us."

Using motion control add-ons during the long gameplay sessions typically experienced when playing RPGs wouldn't be appropriate, Kitase explained.

"The main difference between shooting games and RPGs – obviously there are some – but shooting games probably amount to up to 10 to 15 hours of gameplay.

"But an RPG, you have to improve your character fight and fight and fight, and then the ending, and then more to play with, that could be 40 to 50 hours.

"It's quite continuous play, even though you don't have one go, obviously.

"That kind of technique might not fit so well with a very continuous title that requires long gameplay."

Still, Kinect and Move may end up playing some part in future games in the likes of the Final Fantasy series, Kitase pondered.

"We could have a chance to introduce those techniques in a mini-game in those games, if you like, to give them additional spice."

Move's due out on 17th September. Kinect's due out on 10th November. Not long now.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...kward-for-rpgs ...

Oh, sure -- we've seen an Xbox 360 enclosure stuffed with x86 innards, but we can't say we've ever seen anything quite like this. Gaming upstart Origin PC has just shattered every preconceived notion about its potential with the Big O, an appropriately titled luxury machine that combines a liquid-cooled gaming PC with a liquid-cooled Xbox 360 Slim. In one box. A pair of base configurations are available (though customizations are limitless), with both of 'em rigged up to run the PC and Xbox concurrently. In other words, these bad boys can actually crunch SETI@home data while you explore the vastness of Halo: Reach. The $7,669 build includes an overclocked 4.0GHz Core i7-930 CPU, Rampage III Extreme mobo, twin NVIDIA GTX480 graphics cards, 6GB of Corsair memory, a 1,500 watt power support, 12x Pioneer Blu-ray burner, two 50GB OCZ SSDs wired up as a boot drive, Windows 7 Home Premium, a liquid-cooled Xbox 360 and bragging rights the size of Texas Alaska. For those still unsatisfied, there's a $16,999 version that's frankly too lust-worthy to spell out here

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/o...ox-360-all-mu/ ...

Flash game Moschee Baba ('Bye Bye Mosque') has been taken offline by the Austrian government due to its Islamphobic content.

The game, a modification by Austrian nationalist group the Freedom Party (FPO) of 2009 Swiss game Minaret Attack, involves the killing of stereotyped Muslim characters and the destruction of Islamic structures.

"Styria is full of mosques and minarets!" the game asserted. "Don't let that happen: On September 26, vote for Dr. Gerhard Kurzmann and the FPO!"

Austrian president Heinz Fischer banned the game on Sunday following complaint from the Islamic community, reports Gamasutra, calling it "absolute nonsense" demonstrating "a real lack of taste."

UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, in Austria over the weekend, openly accused the game of Islamophobia and of being "totally unacceptable."

Attempts by far-right sites to republish the game have been blocked by its owner Alexander Segert.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...m-killing-game ...

SI Electronics is to launch new arcade machine technology in Japan which allows 3D visuals without the use of glasses.

Perhaps comparable to a larger version of Nintendo's upcoming 3DS handheld, the System Board Y3 can handle high-definition graphics in 3D with minimal performance cost, reports Andriasang.

While SIE's board may not ultimately slink across to the West, it is growing proof that stereoscopic glasses may not ultimately be required for home 3D displays.

The system, which is based around a 800Mhz IBM PowerPC processor, will be revealed in full at Chiba's Amusement Machine Show on Thursday.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ines-for-japan ...

Competitors hoping to release alternatives to Kinect will find it very difficult to replicate the advances found in the software powering the device, Microsoft has stated.
"I think what we've done with the software is something that's really hard to pull off," Microsoft Game Studios’ head Kinect designer Kudo Tsunoda told Eurogamer.
"We have a good advantage at Microsoft because we have groups like our Microsoft Research department that not a lot of other companies have, and we're able to solve some super-complicated technical problems in a short period of time. They were actually working on something like this before we even started it on Xbox.
"I think it's going to be super-challenging for anybody else to solve those problems.
"People have been trying for a long time and we're the first company that's been able to deliver this. If people are able to figure it out like you're saying, by the time they've figured it out we're going to be off into adding more new things to the platform.

"But I just think that's such a hard technology challenge that it will be hard for anyone to deliver on what Kinect is."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40774/Rivals-cant-copy-Kinect ...

Microsoft would be "welcome" to adopt Blu-ray for Xbox in future - despite its vocal refusal to accept the long-term validity of the format.

That's according to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) - which comprises key execs from Sony, Samsung, Disney and Warner Bros, amongst others.

Speaking exclusively to CVG, the trade body dismissed Microsoft's claims that the de facto gaming storage format to follow DVD will be online downloads and/or streaming.



European BDA chairman Graham Heaton said: "The amount of data required for a blockbuster game is getting bigger and bigger by the day.

"Already games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves are pushing the limits of the Blu-ray 50GB discs. The infrastructure for broadband throughout the world varies greatly and is a long way from being able to support the downloading and streaming of 50GB games in a consumer friendly format.

"It will be a very long time before this changes, so Blu-ray is in a ideal position to ensure that the best games are available to all gamers."

Microsoft has told CVG that it isn't interested in adopting Blu-ray for Xbox as it instead considers digital media the long-term 'future of home entertainment'.

Despite the trash talking, however, the Blu-ray Association said it would have no qualms accepting Microsoft into its ranks - in a kind of 'discreet service available' way.

"Any company willing to join [and adopt Blu-ray] would be welcome," added Heaton.

When asked if the BDA believed that Xbox would eventually have to adopt Blu-ray, he replied:

"That is up to Microsoft to decide."

Developers such as Capcom and Mercury Steam have discussed the "problem" of creating games on multiple DVD discs for Xbox 360.

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