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You're a multitalented guy with many skills who wears an ankle length shirt?

Sounds familiar.

"P.S., 360 still has a larger install base than the PS3. Not by a significant margin, mind you, but it's still ahead."

LOL. Let me guess...you just checked vgchartz.com to 'make sure'...

vgchartz.com - the site run by a 20 something year old Xbox fanboy who use to post fake sales numbers on the neogaf forums in a desperate attempt to make the Xbox 360 sales look larger than they really were. Who got banned for doing so and ran off and created his pathetic little fake sales website where he could make up inflated Xbox 360 sales numbers without anyone banning him.

What is so hilariously sad about vgchartz.com is the little Xbox fanboy, ioi, is so dumb that he in his desperation to inflate Xbox 360 sales that he regularly posts Xbox 360 sales numbers that are larger than the known Xbox shipment numbers. But hey! who cares that his numbers are hilariously fake and just made by him typing into his computer from his mom's house, right?

Even more pathetic for Microsoft is that even with rushing their under-powered and defective hardware out the door a year early, tens of millions in duplicate consoles sold due to the RRoD fiasco and other hardware problems, being 100-200 dollars cheaper than the PS3, they even further in their desperation to try to inflate their Xbox 360 sales numbers by being the only console maker who tries to pass off 'shipped to retailer' numbers as actual 'sold to customer' numbers.

Both Nintendo and Sony switched to reporting only actual sales to customers back in 2006 while Microsoft has refused to do so because it allows them to inflate their installed base numbers by some 2-3 million from all the unsold consoles sitting in retail warehouse and store shelves.

http://spong.com/article/19131/SCEE-Clarifies-PS3-Install-Base-Maths

Absolutely hilarious that all that and Microsoft still ends up in last place this gen.

But what do you expect? This is the same Microsoft who:

* Tried to claim their dead Surface tablet was 'sold out everywhere'!

* That their dead Windows Phones were the 'top selling' phone - when it was actually just one retailer for one brief bit of time that their top ten list showed the Windows Phone at the top.

If Microsoft lost this badly this gen, it is going to be even worse next gen when they no longer have the only first party developers Xbox fanboys cared about Bungie anymore and Microsoft trying to mimic Nintendo with the shitty Eye Toy ripoff called Kinect. One has to wonder if Microsoft is going to intentionally botch their hardware next gen so help pad their installed base like they unintentionally did this gen.

From the C&D letter:

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and its subsidiary Psygnosis (collectively "SCEE") have published or licensed "Lemmings" games...

Lemmings was developed by DMA Design, and published by Psygnosis:

The end of Psygnosis came when, in 1999, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) completely absorbed the company. Psygnosis' head office in Liverpool and studios in Stroud, Camden and Leeds were rebranded as Sony Studio Liverpool, Stroud, Camden and Leeds, with other studios being closed.

[ref]

I hate how they abuse their ownership over 'their' IP.

CAPTCHA: HOARDERS - hanging on to IP that wasn't even ours originally while we refuse to publish the titles

You call that realism? Have you watched the video? Your guy takes numerous bullets to his body and is still walking around fine and dandy. Pretty bloody far from being a "realistic" game.

Back in 2006 both Nintendo and Sony stated in public that they were switching to reporting actual sales to customer numbers. Googling only finds references to the original statements by Nintendo and Sony and not the original statements.

However, just a month or so ago Sony once again reiterated that they only report actual sales:

http://news.spong.com/article/19131/SCEE-Clarifies-PS3-Install-Base-Maths

"We calculate our install base by 'sell through' and have done for the last four years I believe", we asked for a little additional clarification...

"We classify 'sell through' as the number of units consumers have actually purchased from retail. 'Sell in' is the number of units we've sold to retail."

Didn't check for a recent statement by Nintendo, but I assume they still report actual sales.

Microsoft remains the only one who still tries to pass off their shipments of stock to retailers as actual sales to customers. Basically pads the worldwide installed base of the Xbox 360 by a couple million units.

Even Killzone 2 supposedly only cost about $30 million to make, and its a pretty huge amount of work.

Back in 2007, their budget for the game was $20 million. I can't imagine most high-end games costing much more than that to develop.

28 May 2008

Extracts from the Close-Out Memo
The signature on the loyalty oath taken by Judge Dava Tunis is a forgery. The judge recently recommended that anti-game crusader Jack Thompson be found guilty on several charges of professional misconduct.

According to a report in the Daily Business Review, with supporting material from the Florida legal blog, 'justicebuilding', "The state attorney's office has concluded the signatures of three Miami-Dade judges were forged on their 2000 loyalty oaths, but no criminal charges will be filed."

The reason for the lack of criminal charges is down to the statute of limitations - it's apparently nothing to do with the fact that Florida judges can rule in cases of law, despite forged signatures (which they had nothing to do with and no knowledge of at all).

The forgeries came to light due to Thompson himself requesting an enquiry into the situation.

The 'close-out memo' (a memo summarising the investigation) states that, "Judge Tunis stated to investigators that the signature on the Loyalty Oath document is clearly a forgery, and that she had no recollection of having signed the form."

However, the memo also states, "There is no conceivable criminal motive for a judge to have participated in a forgery of his or her own loyalty oath."

http://news.spong.com/article/15468/Jack_Thompsons_Judge_Signature_WAS_Forged?cb=842

I don't know.. you make what you will of that..

SPOnG: One of the things that crops up a lot in reviews and discussions of about Fallout is that a lot of the fans like the about Fallout humour. What does this mean to you?

Pete Hines: Well, Todd Howard (Executive Producer at Bethesda) has talked a little about this. We're not big fans of jokes... developers that try to tell jokes, it tends not to work very well. You know, the humour in Fallout 3 is that you can get a weapon and blow a guy to a bloody mess, then when you pull up your interface, you see a little smiling cartoon character holding his thumb up. Like that's funny... funny not in terms of jokes or winks at the camera and such...

The how-to guide for female stimulation. Here is a game that actually was made - and will NEVER see the light of day! http://news.spong.com/article/9372?cb=195

Is this all sarcasm that's lost over the interweb? A few things.

1) Everytime I try the PS3 in a department store, it freezes or is already froze due to overheating.

2) Silent operation? Not sure about that. But, have you seen the insides of a PS3? It's 50% heatsink. Sure, it might run quiet, but even with the massive heatsink, it still overheats...and the trade off is the size of the system. It's absolutely massive.

3) Last I checked, my local target had 5 PS3's, the EB across the street actually has a unit they've had since the first of the year, most stores I go to have "PS3 now in stock" signs (coincidentally right next to the "Wii currently unavailable signs"). Face, it, the PS3 is in stock everywhere. People who say otherwise live in an area that's having a spike in sales/popularity or an area that's getting below average allocations. FUD.

4) BlueRay has far from won the format war. HD DVD was winning the war by a long shot until recently. It's yet to be seen whether the current spike in BlueRay sales has anything to do with the free movie Sony was giving away with PS3's or any of the current buy one get one free BlueRay DVD incentives that have been going on (most definitely Sony throwing fuel on the fire to hype their format...they're dead in the water if it fails).

5) Virtua Fight 5 is already out in Japan. While it did top the charts with 48,346 in sales, It was only 3000 units ahead of Wii Sports, a game that's been on the market for over 2 months. Opening week big sellers typically always go to the 100k sales range the first week.

6) Europe is not going crazy with preorders. This is FUD. If you want a UK news site's opinion on this, try this article: http://news.spong.com/article/11800

7) You say "PS3 has the top selling game in Japan now " and then you say "Virtua Fighter is almost out." Are you just making things up, because Virtua Fighter IS out and IS the top selling game in Japan. Again, however, only by 3k units, being trailed closely by a game that's been out for months.

FUD FUD FUD

The PS3 will have it's heyday in the future when the price comes down and there's compelling titles. Until then, I suggest that you don't fall for Sony marketing FUD and live up to the reality that it's underperforming in the marketplace right now, even by it's skeptics predictions.

You (and your friends) seem to be in the minorty.

Fastest Selling 360 Game
#3 Most Popular Game
9.4/10
9.6/10

It doesn't matter if a 3rd party releases a Wii-mote type device for PS3 or 360. Developers won't use it unless it ships with either the system, or bundled with their game. I doubt they could be made cheaply enough to be bundled with games.

There is no definitive list, but I've always liked the way SPOnG does it. Split off point of view and dimensionality and then use a structured list of genres and apply up to three per title.

You can see their genre list on their search page as well as their POV and dimensionality lists.

There is no definitive list, but I've always liked the way SPOnG does it. Split off point of view and dimensionality and then use a structured list of genres and apply up to three per title.

You can see their genre list on their search page as well as their POV and dimensionality lists.

Why link to the original article when you can link to some blog that quotes it?

We're talking about "the rest of the gaming world" besides him. This does include the UK, but it also includes the US and Japan, where the console was considerably cheaper. Japan - 17,890,000 units; North America - 32,230,000 units; Europe - 25,880,000 units; Total - 74,000,000 units (source) Europe was only a third of the market on the PS3. All this proves is that the UK is full of suckers, and that only if the majority of the consoles sold in the UK were sold near launch. In fact, the majority of consoles in none of the markets were sold near launch.

Maybe you missed the bulletin. The PS3 will be upgradeable. In the land of gaming, 'can be upgraded' is the same as 'must be upgraded.'

From http://news.spong.com/article/10210?cb=894

we think it would be okay to [expand] the configuration once a year.

SPOnG had this article a few days ago: http://news.spong.com/article/10052/Miyamoto+Outli nes+Wii+and+DS+Interconnectivity

Points to a $249 price point.

Not true. That statement about Halo 3 launching at the same time as the PS3 was either made up by Times Magazine or Bill Gates has very short memory. http://gamesnews.yahoo.com/newsarticle?eid=431186& page=0 http://www.joystiq.com/2005/08/23/halo-3-delayed-u ntil-2007-to-launch-alongside-movie/ http://news.spong.com/article/9572?cb=148

Actually, the DS is trouncing the PSP pretty much everywhere but America. Here's some figures:
http://www.revo-europe.com/news.php?nid=8821
http://onnintendo.com/index.aspx?page=1&post=52&ye ar=2006&month=4 (wow, that's gotta hurt -- the DS and DS Lite are individually beating the PSP)
http://news.spong.com/article/9483/Worldwide+Ninte ndo+DS+Sales+Closer+to+13+Million?cb=681

Basically, the DS is outselling the PSP by almost 2:1 worldwide. I haven't been able to find any American figures that are newer than about half a year old, but they were fairly neck-and-neck then, who was ahead just depends on who your source is.

Steel Battalion
Guitar Hero
X Gaming
Bass Fishing
DDR
Samba De Amigo
Taiko Drum Master
Beatmania
Light gun

You can't combine all or even two of these controllers without killing game play.

Sony also confirmed that the controller dubbed 'the boomerang' will not be the final version of the controller. Phew - thank goodness for that!

Too bad that they've cancelled the Aibo, Qrio, and Qualia programs since then.

"To tell the truth, I don't think it's even that 2D is only possible on handhelds, but more that it's only possible on DS," said Igarashi-san. "Personally speaking, I'd jump at any chance to develop a 2D game for any console, or even the PSP, but those chances are getting fewer and fewer. I feel like the DS is the last fortress of 2D gaming. So if we can get a younger audience with this DS 2D game, and prove to them that 2D gaming is worthwhile and fun, maybe then we can increase the market for that type of game." -- 2D PSP Castlevania Dreams in Tatters

Anyone think that Metal Slug is going to be better in 3D? I don't know about Working Designs as a company, but I believe what they said about Sony:

"We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out," Ireland wrote of Growlanser, "and other games approved."

One such game the company apparently failed to get approved was the PlayStation 2 action adventure game Goemon.

"Though almost finished and substantially improved from the Japanese release, Goemon is dead for the US, and that was really the final straw," Ireland wrote. "If I can't guarantee that the games I personally choose for us to release in the US can actually get approved and come out, there's no business to be done." -- Working Designs closes up shop

Unexpected admission by top Microsoft boss about Playstation 3: "They'll launch, let's face it. They'll launch and it'll be very successful."

Read the entire thing at Spong, here.

The userbase of the DS and PSP in the U.S. are roughly even at this time

Really? The numbers I've seen say the DS is leading. While current numbers are hard to come by, this claims that the DS is leading 13M:7M worldwide and since at least 2M PSPs have been sold in Japan and at least 1M in Europe (using very conservative numbers, most likely at least 50% more) that doesn't leave the 5M it'd need to match the DS in the US.

So where's the XBox 360?

On EBay, which currently accounts for 10% of all 360 sales. Looks like prices from $550 to $1000. I kept wondering why the XBox was being manufactured for shortages, when M$ wasn't taking advantage of shortage pricing, but instead pricing under cost*. One article raises the speculation that the secondary market might be intentional.** Maybe M$ decided it prefers an auction economy, perhaps to dodge allegations of price gouging, which are apparently all the rage, for better or worse.

So where's the congratulatory hype?

Here's some, though we're probably not seeing a huge amount of post-release PR because they can't meet extra demand such PR would generate anyway. And they probably gave their PR department a holiday after all their pre-release work.

Or maybe they fired them after all their ads got banned from TV.

Where are our promo boxes?

The other comments have covered this pretty well. Really, if M$ sent a big heavy box in the mail to the editors of /., would any of them actually risk opening it?

Or maybe yours just got smashed uh... "in the mail."

*Another estimate of XBox cost/unit, from BusinessWeek.

**I don't actually think M$ planned to sell direct on Ebay to capitalize on created shortages, but it's still an interesting idea.

See this.

While I think it was not fair of him to offer a donation for what he later called satire Jack Thompson made it semi clear that it was in fact a satire

This is my third post in this thread, but since this is near the top:

- The violence was over the top - not that this is special since games normally have a single person or unit take on massive armies anyway.
- He claimed that games unfairly target police officers, but these are generally the exception rather than the rule (and these games are pretty explicit by the fact that you are playing a criminal - the police are considered vaild targets since they are trying to stop yoou.)
- Reports say that one version of the satire had a comment added, where a security guard shot the protagonist before he could do any damage. Alternativly, you could accept my modification where the character beats himself up for creating such a violent game.
- The so called "satire" against video games hardly has its intended effect. In fact, it backfires since it describing most of the violent "anti-violent video game" critics.
- Even if it is satire, it is not written as such: "
How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've got the tech. It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game, right? Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you." It doesn't take a genius to recognise that this is a challenge rather than satire. Hell, it doesn't even take an Anonymous Coward.
- Even if it is satire, you don't make a satirical claim that you will donate "$10 000" to charity. On the other hand, you can make a satirical claim that you will donate "$10 000 000 000 000 000" to charity.

The full-text of the letter is at http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=9201&cb =0.1497723&cb=0.8835369

However if you paid attention in high school or college you may have heard of a work know as "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift. One of the early and most well known satires about Swift suggesting that Ireland suffering from Famine and poverty should eat and sell their children for food. Note the title of Jack Thompsons proposal "A Modest Video Game Proposal."

I have heard of "A Modest Proposal" but haven't read it. In any case, the original modest proposal is valid satire as it draws a conclusion that wouldn't work in the real workld.

However, Jack Thompson's proposal "A Modest Video Game Proposal." is valid for a game, as it is a work of fiction. In fact, on a "realistic" difficulty setting, it would be just like any other game as the character gets shot dead before any damage can be done - hardly a satire at all.

This modest proposal is trying to make fun of fiction because it is fiction. This is no different than making a satire of a satire - it just doesn't work.

BTW, there's more than enough comments allegedly from Jack Thompson (known as Thompsonisms, in the same way that dumb quotes are Quaylisms.) Take one look at these comments, and take one look at this so called satire. If you consider this to be satire to bring down video games, then I hope that the devil can skate should this tactic prove successful.

For the record I am not siding with Jack Thompson but I'm not the smartest man in the world but when he claimed his work was ment to be satire I put 2 and 2 together so I would hope someone else has.

Putting 2 and 2 together results in one of the following conclusions:
- Jack Thompson can't write satire properly.
- Jack Thompson is making a sature about the violent anti-"violent video game" lobbiests.
- Jack Thompson will reneg on the promise to donate to charity in the event that such a game gets created to the letter.
- That Jack Thompson forgot about the fact that sec

That's not a very accurate picture you have there.

Have a look at the chart.

Games like The Sims, MS Flight Simulator and Football Manager are all over the chart. Approximately 1 in 3 of the top 75 PC games have no violence. Hardly any have any kind of sexual aspect (though WTF is that "stud farming" one?).

You're complaining that controvertial games are the ones that get publicy. Think about that for a second, will you...

Now, most of these games aren't art either. Or at least not art that interests me. But, so what? Nor are most films or most novels.

... at the Tokyo Game Show, according to Spong: http://spong.com/detail/news.asp?mode=news&type=n& cid=&pid=&vid=&prid=9130&n=Revolution+Controller+s howing+confirmed+%96+Iwata+keynote+to+reveal+all

Yeah, but according to this story at SPOnG the straight conversion was Dollars to Euros and the UK will be paying £209.99 and £279.99.

This is also confirmed by trade magazine MCV.

And actually, that's what the GI.b story says too.

The part of "niche" I don't understand is the part where the sums just don't add up on how you're going to fund it.

Nintenndo's general sales only only fell 14%. The 80% profit drop already includes that funding which you are referring to. Now do you understand?

Lumines, Nintendogs, Electroplankton, etc. are just not killer apps.

You may not think that Nintendogs is a killer app. That's because you're a gamer. Nintendogs is aimed at non-gamers, and in Japan, it's definitely moving loads of DS consoles. Nintendogs is very much a killer app for the DS, because it makes non-gamers and casual gamers buy consoles.

If you think Nintendogs is not a killer app, you're fooling yourself. It may not be a hit among traditional gamers, but it's definitely shifting DS boxes in huge numbers.

Have you read ANY of the Microsoft or Sony press coverage from E3? One of Microsoft's spokespeople said that Microsoft plans to start making money off the XBox in 2007. It's no secret that Microsoft and Sony both have tons of money to burn in order to gain control of the market.
Don't believe me? Here are some links. They're the first ones that appeared on Google, so if you want more, try searching there.

PSP Price
XBox 360 Price

Maybe there

Why is this is such a big deal? There has been no previous mention of Advent Rising hitting the PSP. What just because Square has released a ton of games for the PS2 that means all their content will be available on a Sony game device?

Just for a bit of historical perspective, SPOnG found out the new name almost a month ago.

Just for a bit of historical perspective, SPOnG found out the new name almost a month ago.

Sony have said they are making a 'considerable' loss on each PSP, selling for much less than the manufacturing cost: http://spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=7878

This price is much less than the PS2 was at the time of release and I think it's important to remember that the PSP has a 16:9 LCD screen, MP3/4 playback, WiFi, etc, etc to make it different from the GameBoy's pricing.

The price is reasonable enough for many people (myself included) to spend over-the-odds for an early PSP without regrets (except those with faulty units!).

As for the launch title list, I'm pleased enough. The prospect of FIFA 2005 and Wipeout on the PSP is enough to keep me grinning :^)

Good luck resisting a full-price purchase ;)

According to some analysis of the GBA2 rumours, combined with Nintendo licensing Palm OS software it looks bad for touch screen gaming.

If the GBA2 launches this year, what are the chances of publishes launching games for both the DS and the GBA2? Slim to none, and Nintendo knows this, so license Palm OS, turn the DS into a PDA and throw your weight behind the GBA2 as the gaming platform.

Paranoid? The DS launches in Europe next Friday and there has been no public advertising in the UK yet.

SPOnG revealse this in mid January as part of their Exclusive Need for Speed story.

SPOnG revealse this in mid January as part of their Exclusive Need for Speed story.

Touting their average critical response is a joke. The gaming press is not exactly a hive of quality journalism. Most gaming magazines and websites are simply deliverers of the gaming industry's press releases. They call it news and charge you extra for movies and such. Review scores are determined by how much hype has been generated and how well the the reviewer is treated by the company. The Driv3r scandal last summer is an example of this.

Of course there are pros and cons. All I am saying is that IGN didn't exactly go out of their way to test the battery. I Spong reports 2:40 out of Ridge Racers at medium brightness, no wireless play, and no headphones. 3:10 with headphones.

Here's the link.

If you are willing to accept 3 hours for a game like this, that's fine. I don't own the DS because it has better battery life, but 3 hours would be troublesome. I mean hell, my town flooded a couple of months ago, and I couldn't go back home for a night. My GBA SP hadn't been charged in a while and it still lasted a few hours as I waited in my car for the water to recede.

To me a portable system is about versatility, and a shorter battery life means more maintainance and less versatility.

Another part of this debate is that Sony breaks their promises, and everyone lets them get away with it. The PSP does not last 10 hours. The PS2 cannot render Toy Story in real time. The PS2 HDD cannot download music and movies. And so on.

just one year before it was released, peter molyneux gave an interview to spong:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

he confirmed all the hype about fable, to quote him:

everything I have said about Fable is absolutely true. [...] yes you will have children

Q: What's so special about children in the game? Is there anything significant about your own children? PM: Children, your own children, are significant, very much so.
But that's all I'll say about that for now.

of course even when the release date was approching he didn't deny any of his allegation (another form of lie), only to make hypocritical apologies not before fable sold enough units..

nothing but deceptive advertising.

just one year before it was released, peter molyneux gave an interview to spong:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

he confirmed all the hype about fable, to quote him:

everything I have said about Fable is absolutely true. [...] yes you will have children

Q: What's so special about children in the game? Is there anything significant about your own children? PM: Children, your own children, are significant, very much so.
But that's all I'll say about that for now.

of course even when the release date was approching he didn't deny any of his allegation (another form of lie), only to make hypocritical apologies not before fable sold enough units..

nothing but deceptive advertising.

just one year before it was released, peter molyneux gave an interview to spong:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

he confirmed all the hype about fable, to quote him:

everything I have said about Fable is absolutely true. [...] yes you will have children

Q: What's so special about children in the game? Is there anything significant about your own children? PM: Children, your own children, are significant, very much so.
But that's all I'll say about that for now.

of course even when the release date was approching he didn't deny any of his allegation (another form of lie), only to make hypocritical apologies not before fable sold enough units..

nothing but deceptive advertising.

Apparently it already is!

But, since you're lazy and I'm bored of work... well, let's just say there are a very, very large number, many of which have already been seen in some sort of playable demo form, so it's less likely the release list the fact that Sony just hit all of their developers with this ( relatively ) last-minute "oh, by the way, this thing can do a lot of fancy graphics, but don't actually use those features or push the system, you have to keep your battery usage low" requirement, to which many likely said "uh, we have a problem...".

Here's just one list of PSP release games from SPOnG... use my generously provided Google link for others. The list generally includes all of the big-selling PlayStation2 games, plus a few new ( mostly handheld-oriented ) games.