A very important tool in marketing strategy is how you make your customers think that their buy is worth while. Why, throw in a few Blu-Ray movies in for free!
That’s exactly what PS3 is offering. Buying a set of new PS3 and you will get 8 Blu-Ray movies for free. So i guess they are not selling just games now, they’re selling the PS3 as a DVD player.
Now if you buy a 60 GB Sony PS3 or 80GB Sony PS3 on Amazon.com you get all-in-all 8 Blu-ray movies for free!. This is a nice and quick start on your Blu-ray movie collection.
The 8 free Blu-ray movies are comprised of the already running mail-in promotion of 5 Blu-ray movies and between August 28, 2007 and September 23rd Amazon throws in three more Blu-ray movies.
In July Amazon offered 6 Blu-ray movies and a Blu-ray remote with the $499.99 60GB Sony PS3. I thought that was a great deal.
Looks like there was a little “Whoops!” moment going on there for 2K when their server went down for a few hours, disrupting the PC launch for the new game.
PC owners trying to install their brand-new copy of BioShock have had a rough time of late, with several users reporting that 2K Game’s patch servers were down for some hours today.
Installing BioShock on a PC requires a user’s computer to connect to 2K’s auto-patch servers before the game can be played, something made impossible for some time today when the 2K servers crashed. 2K’s own forums were alight with disgruntled BioShock buyers who were prevented from playing the game due to the required connection. As of publication time, 2K’s official Web site was timing out, as was the BioShock Cult of Rapture site.
A 2K Games Australia spokesperson said 2K technicians were working on the issue, and had already added additional servers to help cope with the influx of traffic.
Perhaps there was an overload somewhere. Those of you who have played its demo will know how incredible the game is.
This long awaited game is set to come out in 21st of August 2007, in Canada and 24th Aug for Europe. I don’t know if it’s going to be released in Japan BUT BUT i am sure you can get your hands on one via eBay.
Anyway, I downloaded the demo on my XBox360 and HOLY MOLY, it’s AWESOME. I love the setting the game was set in. Dark and haunted, with crazy people running around hitting people with a wrench. It’s like a cross between emo goth and dracula’s castle set in the 50’s. God, I’m so in love with this game and can’t wait for its release!
The game takes place in 1960 in a fictional large underwater metropolis called Rapture, built in 1946 by Andrew Ryan, a Howard Hughes-like industrialist and caricature of Ayn Rand. Rapture was designed to be entirely self-supporting, with all of its electricity, food production, water purification and defense systems powered by undersea volcanic openings. At one point, it is learned that Rapture’s population numbered several thousand at its peak during the early 1950s, composed of those people Ryan viewed as the best examples of mankind. A large and tiered economy grew among the people, catering different quality products to different levels of the society.
A scientific discovery upset the balance of the society. Two scientists studying ocean-floor dwelling creatures discovered a species of sea slug that secretes pure stem cells. These could be used to enhance one’s body, improving physical or mental capabilities, curing diseases and healing injuries. A young entrepreneur named Tenebaum invested early on in the research to gain control over the material. The substance, dubbed “ADAM”, became so sought after in the society, that it became the dominant currency of the city. A “full-scale genetic arms race” broke out between Ryan and Tenebaum as Tenebaum’s monopoly on ADAM threatened the current social structure. Ryan eventually won, but everyone in the city was permanently changed. During the war, it was discovered that ADAM could be used to modify one’s body, combining technology and mutations to adapt and survive the conflict, but losing their humanity in the process. During the conflict, all natural sources of ADAM were destroyed, which eventually resulted in a major shift in the “ecology” of the city, as all inhabitants had become biologically dependent on ADAM to survive. On New Year’s Day in 1959, attacks with biological weapons lead to the downfall of Rapture’s society, and the city fell into a state of disrepair.
And with that, i shall leave you to ponder if you want to be a part of the game….
Looks like this is not a good year for Sony PS3 at all. First, they’re they’re the slowest in sales as compared to Wii and XBox 360. And now EA is blaming them for making their game, Madden, look sucky on the PS3 console when the game was fine in XBox360.
Here is what Gamespot spies heard:
What we heard: The PlayStation PS3 version of Madden NFL 08 came under a bit of fire this week. Many reviewers pounced on the fact that the Xbox 360 edition’s 60 fps frame rate is twice that of the PS3 edition’s 30 fps. While GameSpot’s own review of the PS3 edition determined that the difference wasn’t drastic, other reviewers were harsher in their assessment. The game was sacked by several high-profile critics, with USA Today declaring in a headline that the Xbox 360 edition of Madden “sticks it” to the PS3 version, calling the latter game “sluggish in comparison.”
For hardware makers, having a major paper like USA Today complain about one edition of a multiplatform release is bad. What’s worse? Having the publisher publicly admit the game is of lesser quality. That’s what many this morning thought EA has done with the PS3 Madden, following a spate of high-profile gaming-press reports bearing headlines such as “EA Defends Madden PS3 Deficiencies” and sourcing the N4G article.
“In the case of the next generation consoles, many publishers have been developing titles for the Xbox 360 for over 3 1/2 years,” the N4G piece read, attributing the response to a senior tech analyst. “While everyone who publishes now for the PlayStation 3 with the exception of Sony has been developing for the PlayStation 3 for only a little over one full year. The difference in the overall knowledge of the hardware is vastly different for both consoles and, as is the case with newer technology, it is very difficult to get it right the first time.” The message goes on to say all PS3 football games–including EA’s NCAA Football 08 and 2K’ All-Pro Football 08–run at 30 fps, not just Madden.
Resident Evil 5, the forthcoming installment that is set to be out in 2009 has it official trailer out! OMG OMG, it’s just that i have been playing Resident Evil SINCE the first one came out in PS! And now it’s going to be on XBOX360 too..that is like out of the world!
But only in 2009. 2 years from now is rather nuts. If I have to wait so long for that game, it better come out good.
Let’s check out the trailer now:
Does it look it it’s somewhere in the middle east or along the Mediterranean coast line? Cos that scene just looks like somewhere in Morocco or something.
The Knights are out to defeat Epic Games for false and misleading statement! Apparently the game ran as smoothly as slugs on eggs shells in the XBox360 that they are pretty much fed up.
Last August, rumors spread that Silicon Knights was ditching Unreal Engine 3 for its long-awaited Xbox 360 game Too Human, because the frequently licensed game engine supposedly ran poorly on Microsoft’s console. Those rumors didn’t last too long before Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack squashed them in a statement, saying rumors of the group “completely scrapping” the engine were false.
Despite Dyack’s statement, those rumors appear to have been partially true, as revealed by Silicon Knights this week in a 54-page lawsuit it filed against Epic Games over Unreal Engine 3. In its complaint, the Ontario-based developer claims that it licensed the engine based on “false and misleading statements” from Epic. Silicon Knights said the Gears of War creator’s contractual breaches forced it to begin making its own game engine last May, just before an underwhelming public debut of the Unreal-powered Too Human at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
According to the suit, Epic “has caused Silicon Knights to experience considerable losses and ultimately has forced Silicon Knights to spend its limited time and resources on building its own game engine rather than in developing its video game.” It goes on to say that instead of supporting its licensing partners, Epic has used its fees to develop its own competing products “while simultaneously sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games.”
Epic Games fired off an e-mail to various press outlets this afternoon to address the suit. “This morning we were served with a lawsuit by Silicon Knights,” wrote Epic Games president Mark Rein. “We believe the claims against us are unfounded and without merit and we intend to fully defend against them. We’d love to tell you more about it but unfortunately our lawyers want us to save our comments for the courthouse so we’re going to do our best to comply with their wishes. In that vein we’d appreciate if our friends in the industry and media would refrain from asking us about the suit because we’re only going to say ‘no comment.’ We just wanted to share the news directly before the rumor mill starts churning.”
Kojima, director of Konami, gave a full fledge 20 minute demo on Metal Gear Solid at the Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation Premiere 2007 press conference in the massive Roppongi Hills complex on the 17th July 2007.
The demo, which lasted a full 20 minutes, began in the same unnamed Middle Eastern locale as previous MGS4 game trailers. Snake started out on the second floor of a ruined building. Looking down, he saw tons of rubble from the remnants of buildings obliterated by warfare. The landscape was particularly detailed, with walls broken into various shapes and surrounding buildings uniquely damaged. When Snake zoomed in on the walls using a scope named Solid Eye (after the 3D glasses from Metal Gear Acid 2), they showed a high level of detail with little or no pixelation up close.
While previous installments in the MGS series had Snake infiltrating areas that were guarded by a single superpower or army, the situation is vastly different in MGS4. The demo shows two different factions–professional PMC (Private Military Company) mercenaries, and civilian guerrillas, who were losing because they were less experienced. The demo started out quietly, with both sides just patrolling. By the end, though, there were explosions all over the place.
During the demo, Kojima had Snake side with the civilian army to help take out the PMC soldiers. Given that the PMC soldiers were wearing beige camouflage, it was difficult to spot them in the sandy fields and grayish walls. Kojima had Snake switch to thermal goggles to detect them, and then return to the normal scope to zoom in.
Looks like Sony is bringing some new guys in the PSP department. It’s said the improvements on the new PSP includes an extended battery life and a high definition video output to TVs.
SANTA MONICA, Calif.–Rumours have been flying around for a while that the PlayStation Portable would be getting a redesign.
One of the first rumours came from a UK event to launch the PSP in Education initiative, where Sony Computer Entertainment Europe managing director Ray Maguire called the current version of the PSP the “first iteration” of the hardware and that a “smaller, lighter” version would be coming in the future.
However, the company furiously backtracked after the event, with Sony America corporate communications director Dave Karraker saying, “Ray’s comments regarding decreasing the size of the PSP were made in the general context that almost all consumer electronics shrink over time as advances are made in the technology to shrink the components used in manufacture. We have not, however, made any announcement regarding any new PSP hardware changes.”
In June, Sony updated a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which showed a diagram of a possible new PSP model that featured a swivel screen and a way to switch between using it as a games machine and a mobile phone. More speculation followed that the new PSP was imminent and that it would also be a cell phone.
Today, Sony confirmed that a new PSP would be coming and that the redesign would indeed be a newer, smaller PSP. It also revealed the new model would come in a variety of different colours. Announced so far for North America are both the classic “piano black,” along with “ice silver.” There will also be a special Star Wars design: a white PSP with a picture of Darth Vader’s face on the back.
Microsoft has decided to extent the XBox 360’s warranty to 3 years instead of the usual one. As much as I love my XBox, I have heard stories about how the XBox just dies off suddenly with the “red ring of death” (three flashing red lights on the console’s front panel). Yes, this incredible machine unfortunately dies off rather unpredictably even though it never showed signs of symptoms.
At least Microsoft’s doing something about it :)
Today, Microsoft announced that it is once again revamping its warranty scheme for the Xbox 360. After mounting anecdotal evidence of the system’s failure rate due to the dreaded “red ring of death” (three flashing red lights on the console’s front panel), the publisher is changing its warranty to cover systems affected by the red ring for three years from the date of purchase. Any console that suffers the aforementioned failure in any territory the 360 is sold can be returned to Microsoft for repair for free, because the warranty also includes shipping charges.
“As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures,” the company said in a statement. The three-year extension is for all 360s, and will be retroactively applied to every console bought since the 360 launched. That means anyone who bought a console in November 2005 will be covered until November 2008.
[UPDATE] Peter Moore, Corporate Vice President of the Entertainment and Devices Division of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business, said he is personally sorry about anyone who’s suffered a 360 failure. “We haven’t done right by our customers, and for that I apologize,” he told GameSpot. “We listened, and we’re going to make it right.” In an in-depth interview with GameSpot, Moore outlined the new warranty, and emphasized it would be “global” in nature.
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