Often lumped in with Nintendo's Miis and Microsoft's Avatars, Sony's PlayStation Home creations (Homies? Yeah, let's go with that) have yet to find a way to branch out from their more colorful cousins, not helped by the fact that the PlayStation Home service itself has proven to be, at best, a lacking online hub and, at worst, a colossal waste of time. But not so, says Sony's Jack Buser, director of the service, which has trudged along in beta since it's long-delayed release in December 2008.
According to Buser, 14 million users have logged into home in its lifespan, with over 50 virtual spaces created and 100 games available for play. But the biggest stat seems to be the amount of money Sony has garnered from the service from the 5,000 items available for download from clothing to Home furnishings, which are all "quite profitable."
Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that these items, by nature, are pure profit (as services like Second Life and FarmVille) have shown in the past.
Do you happen to be the owner of a PlayStation 3, Sony's most recent home video game console hardware which was released in November of 2006?
The congratulations! You're an early adopter! At least, that's the viewpoint taken by John Koller, the Director of Hardware Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
During a recent chat with Gamasutra regarding the current place of the PlayStation 2 in the market, Koller was asked of how the nearly nine-year old console stacks up against the rest of the family.
So you're trailing behind two competitors, one of which is seriously outpacing you in sales, and the other who is so far ahead of you on the charts that any communication between you and them has to be relayed through NASA. What do you do?
If you're Sony, you put together a side-by-side comparison of everyone's best to sling a little mud at the competitors' wares.
E3 may have come and gone, but it's not the end of convention season. Europe gets a slice of the pie in October with the Eurogamer Expo. And the public are invited to this one, too.
Sony have announced the titles they intend to showcase at the expo, which takes place between October 1 and 3 in London. There are three main tracks they're intending to exhibit: standard PS3 titles, 3D games and Move games.
More details after the jump.
Despite Microsoft's current lead in the high-def console market, Sony remains hopeful, believing that they will someday overtake Microsoft within this current generation. While it may seem like a mammoth mountain for Sony to climb, the journey is diminishing considering their continuous collective momentum.
Can Sony do it? Hit the break for more.
Back during GDC Sony proudly announced that the PlayStation Move would be making its way to living rooms sometime this Fall. Today, things got a little more specific as UK Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury announced via Twitter that the device is coming in September.
Hit the break for rumors and speculation.
Mind, that headline is not indicative of the game's quality; it won't be shown in public until next month's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Rather, Kick-Ass is the name of an upcoming film adaptation of a comic book about modern-day vigilante superheroes who fight crime without the aid of super powers.
You can find some of the more family-friendly versions of the movie trailers here, two more screenshots in our gallery, and a press release after the cut.
It would seem that rumors of the demise of IBM's Cell Processor have been greatly exaggerated. They originated from German website Heise Online's interview with IBM's Vice President of Deep Computing, David Turek, in which he said they had halted development of the next version of the Cell Processor, which had dual PowerPC processors and 32 Synergistic Processing Elements/SPEs.
Concerned about the fate of the PlayStation 3, Kotaku reached out to IBM and received word from Spokesperson Ron Favali, who said "As long as we have a contract with Sony we will continue to manufacture Cell processors for use in the Sony PlayStation."
As for the Cell Processor, Turek said "the core technology of the Cell processor will continue to proliferate throughout the IBM product line."
So long as we're getting a little retro here today, I figure we might as well throw in an early nod to another console celebrating an anniversary this year, as the original Sony PlayStation will turn 15 in Japan this September.
And to mark said occasion, we have a promotional video that was given out with the console at launch, thanks to GameTrailers user Manoaplace. He notes that the video quality may be a bit low, due to the age of the video, and a bit of tape rot during the Rayman section was too severe to salvage.
Also take note, there is a little bit of "fanservice" in one video, hence an age gate. You've been warned:
Video Games | | 1994 Japan Playstation Launch PromoXBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii
I've admittedly never been much of a fan of most of the 3D graphics from that era, but nonetheless, taking a look back does hold a certain nostalgic charm. Nonetheless, I wish Sony Computer Entertainment America hadn't tried to stunt the growth of 2D gaming during that period while 3D was still finding its way.
Edit: And for some reason, the embed code apparently doesn't want to work properly, so if you want to see it, just click here.
Normally, it's Microsoft which people speak ill of when it comes to customer service and the problems associated with getting a damaged machine fixed. But in a surprising twist, today has instead brought forth the tale of a perturbed and perplexed Sony customer.
PlayStation 3 gamer Martin recently encountered a problem with the disc-loading mechanism in his console, leaving his copy of Assassin's Creed stuck in the drive. So he took the steps to send his unit in to Sony for repair, but when it was returned, there was no sign of the disc anywhere. He called Sony to figure out what happened, and things only get more perplexing from there.
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