August 2006 Archives

Sony may miss PS3 shipment target for 2006

Due to shortages of blue laser diodes, a key component of Blu-ray pick-up heads, and cell processors, Sony may only be able to ship half as many PS3's as planned for '06. According to an article from DigiTimes, sources in Taiwan's game console manufacturing industry Sony's OEM makers in China... [More]

Wired Magazine asks if the PS3 can save Sony

Wired Magazine's September Issue has an in-depth article on what the PlayStation 3 means to the future of Sony. From the article, "Can the PS3 save Sony": "Sixty years after its founding in the ashes of postwar Tokyo, the company that gave us the transistor radio and the Walkman portable... [More]

Nearly 30 playable PS3 games to be at TGS 2006

Sony has announced that it will have 27 playable PlayStation 3 games at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show next month. I4U reports: "All in all Sony will show 35 games that are currently in development for their next generation Playstation at the show. Amongst the playable PS3 games will be:... [More]

PS3's processing power to help fight diseases

PS3 owners will be able to use the console's idle processing power to help fight diseases. Sony has teamed up with scientists to offer downloadable software that will run the distributed computing project, folding@home (FAH). BBC News reports: "The project harnesses the capacity of thousands of PCs to examine how... [More]

Analyst cuts PS3 forecast on component worries

Japanese investment firm Mitsubishi UJF Securities has lowered its rating on Sony, predicting a 50% shortfall in the company's launch estimates for the PS3 because of possible component shortages. Shares in the company fell by 3.2% on the announcement, investors wary of Sony's ability to deliver on its shipment forecast... [More]

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom

Sony Online Entertainment plans to break new ground with Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom this fall. The action game is set to debut soon after launch of the PS3 and is promised to be one heck of a ride. After serving the King loyally for years in foreign conflicts, an elite... [More]

Hirai: PS3 manufacturing hasn't started yet

In a recent interview, Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai said that the PS3 isn't yet in production. "We haven't started manufacturing yet," Hirai said. "Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they... [More]

PlayStation 3 interface revealed in video

IGN has posted the first high-quality video of the PlayStation 3's interface and menu system. The interface is based on Sony's "Cross Media Bar" (XMB) system used by the PSP, recent Sony TVs, and the PSX. IGN offers a walk-through of the interface below.... [More]

GameStop: PS3 pre-orders on hold for now

In a conference call taken after announcement of quarterly results, GameStop executive VP and CFO David Carlson said they won't be taking any PS3 pre-orders until more exact information regarding launch quantities was available. He added: “We don't want to do what we did last year, which was to take... [More]

Report: Sony to sell 30 million PS3s by 2011

In a report from the Yankee Group, the market research firm says it believes Sony will be leading the market in 2011, having sold 30 million PS3s. According to the report, that number will give Sony a 44% market share, in comparison to the 40% share they expect for the... [More]

Playstation Magazine editor goes with 360

Official Playstation Magazine editor Dana Jongewaard has posted an entry on her OPM blog claiming that she is buying a Xbox 360 instead of a PlayStation 3 this November. Citing several different reasons, including the fact that there are few "huge" exclusive titles hitting the PS3 in the launch window,... [More]

GameFly adds PS3 titles to game offerings

Online game rental service GameFly has added 27 PlayStation 3 titles to their selection of games available to queue. The games, which include such much-awaited titles as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas and Warhawk, will be available to users of the service when they are released. The GameFly service offers... [More]

PS3 will need adapter for PS2 memory cards

According to the official PlayStation 3 preview site, the upcoming console will need an adapter to read PS2 memory cards. This marks a pretty large change from the PS2, which was obviously equipped out of the box to read PSone cards, since they used the same style of connectors. From... [More]

Atari CEO: No PS3 titles until 2007

Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell has confirmed in an interview that Atari won't release any PS3 titles until 2007. Talking to GamesIndustry.biz, Bonnell had this to say about next-gen console support: "We're supporting them fairly equally; it's just that we're lacking information about the PS3 at this stage, because we have... [More]

Xbox Europe exec bashes PS3

In an interview with British gaming magazine MCV, head of marketing for Xbox Europe Richard Teversham slammed the PlayStation 3's pricing, stating "I think a lot of gamers out there are going to be saying ‘I’ll wait for the price to drop,’ or even better they’ll buy a 360.” He... [More]