PS3insider

College Hoops 2K7 Cover Athlete Named

Administrator — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 17:46:08 +0000

2K Sports has officially named JJ Redick as the cover athlete for College Hoops 2K7. The game will be released in the fall for Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, and PS3. JJ is very excited about the oppertunity, saying, “I’m a huge video gamer and have always been a fan of the College Hoops 2K series for its authenticity and addictive gameplay. I’m very excited to be a part of 2K7 and from what I’ve seen so far, this game is going to be mind blowing.” This is the first news that College Hoops 2K7 will be available for PS3, so that is good news if you are a college basketball fan, and a future PS3 owner.

PS3 in Better Launch Position then Xbox 360?

Administrator — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 13:06:44 +0000

Mark Rein, of Epic, recently said in an interview with Eurogamer, that he believes the PS3 is in a better position for launch then the Xbox 360 was last year from a developer point of view. Rein noted that developers received their final PS3 development kits right when E3 began, whereas the Xbox 360 final development kits did not come until much later after E3 2005. The additional time with the development kits should allow developers to fully utilize the power within PS3 for the launch titles, and not make sacrifices for time, as they were forced to do with the Xbox 360. Mark Rein is confident in Epic’s ability to produce quality games for the launch, saying, “I know we’re getting some great results with it back at our house, so I would expect other developers will be as well.” I guess we will just have to wait and see.

NBA Live 07 to Include Live ESPN Integration

Administrator — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 02:21:10 +0000

EA has partnered with ESPN once again for NBA Live 07, in an effort to make the game as real as possible. One of the new features for the PS3 and Xbox 360 version of the game will be real world sports coverage in a variety of formats, including: Sportscenter every 20 minutes, streaming podcasts from ESPN radio, and more. Some highlights and other content will be downloadable and updated hourly. This sure sounds like great news for all sports gamers, and all I can say, is hopefully similar features will be added to Madden and the other EA Sports games.

Sony Named #1 Brand for 7th Straight Year

Administrator — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:23:12 +0000

Sony was named by the Harris Poll the #1 brand for the 7th straight year. The poll was conducted online of 2,351 American adults who were asked to name the best brand completely unaided, and without being given any choices. Since 1996, Sony has been named #1 nine times, losing the #1 spot twice to Ford. This year, Dell was #2, Coca Cola was #3, Toyota #4, and Ford #5. Microsoft who was in the top 10 of the Harris Poll in 2005 dropped of the list in 2006. Nintendo did not make the list either. Thinking in terms of the next generation console war, Sony should have an edge when it comes to trust and general brand name. However, knowing a company, and following a company on a daily basis are two different concepts. Many casual gamers are going to find the PS3 pricing structure very steep, and that may damage Sony’s brand. It will be interesting to see if/how the Harris Poll changes in 2007.

Sega and Ubisoft Want PS3 Price Drop

Administrator — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 02:32:24 +0000

Software publishers Sega and Ubisoft have both commented publically that they would like a PS3 price drop in order to keep it competitive with the other next generation consoles. Scott Steinberg of VP of Sega said, “I think it’s an expensive device, but it’s a very powerful device. Their job is to convince the world that Blu-ray has a high utility and delivers on a promise, a value promise, and I’m sure they’ll sell out.” Meanwhile Ubisoft President, Yves Guillemot, said the PS3 price must be lowered by 2007 in order to stay competitive with the Xbox 360. In any case, 2007 is truly going to be the year that defines the Playstation 3. Everyone knows all the initial orders will sell out, no matter what the price, but the winner to the console war is going to be the company who can get the casual gamers to purchase their console. If PS3 is able to drop its price in 2007 to say $400 they are going to have a significantly greater chance of accomplishing this.

Sony Launches Official Playstation 3 European Website

Administrator — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 22:56:01 +0000

Sony has launched the official Playstation 3 European Website, though it is far from complete. The new website has some screenshots from the launch titles, a nice gallery of PS3 pictures, a brief FAQ about PS3, the specs from Playstation 3, and a press release section. While there may not be that much actual content, this launch is a great thing as it will provide a reliable source of PS3 information and news, and hopefully limit the rumors flying about the web, most of which contain absolutely no truth. Now the question is: when will the North American PS3 website launch?

PS3 Games Available for Preorder at Best Buy

Administrator — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 19:15:07 +0000

BestBuy.com is now taking preorders for 9 PS3 games including: Devil May Cry IV, Final Fantasy VII, Indiana Jones, Killzone 2, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Resident Evil 5, Tekken 6, and WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw 2007. The games all contain a price tag of $60, in line with the Xbox 360 game pricing. Please keep in mind that retail stores have not always been the most reliable sources of information regarding consoles and games, though now it is possible to make the preorders. Also, it is worth mentioning that Best Buy will not charge your credit card until the item ships. Therefore placing the preorder now will not cause your credit card to be charged until sometime in Novemeber.

EB Games and GameStop Not Taking PS3 Preorders Until After September

Administrator — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:51:53 +0000

EB Games and GameStop stores have officially stopped taking preorders for PS3, but it was not that their corporate offices made this decision, but rather Sony. Sony informed the stores via a conference call that one million consoles would be available on launch day for North America, one million for Europe, and one million for Japan. However, at the end of September, the Tokyo Game Show is scheduled to occur. Could Sony possibly announce at TGS that they are ahead of schedule and have additional consoles? Yes. Could they also announce that they are behind schedule and don’t have the 3 million consoles? Yes. The point is that by waiting until after September, EB Games and GameStop will known an exact number of consoles that they will receive, thus allowing them to not oversell, and avoid an Xbox 360 launch fiasco.

PS3 UK Pricing Announced

Administrator — Fri, 19 May 2006 02:42:20 +0000

Sony UK President Ray Maguire announced today in an interview that PS3 will cost GBP 425 for the premium model of PS3. At this point in time it is unclear whether Sony will even sell the basic PS3 model within the UK. This price announcement comes as a pretty big shock, especially when PS3 will be sold within the European Union for only 599 Euros. Converting 599 Euros at the current market value to GBP, and the price is GBP 405, meaning a GBP 20 markup for all gamers within the UK. Video game consoles have historically been sold at higher retail values within the UK, compared to North America, however they have typically always been priced the same as the prices within Europe. It will be interesting the explanation Sony will give for this pricing strategy.

E3 2006 Wrapup

Administrator — Sat, 13 May 2006 20:03:15 +0000

Well E3 certainly was a very interesting conference for Sony, and the future of Playstation 3, however interesting is not always a good thing. The biggest complaint among gamers leaving the conference was the price of Playstation 3. With a starting price of $500 for the 20 GB model, and a $600 price tag for the 60 GB model, many gamers are no longer able to afford buying a new Playstation 3 console, especially when Microsoft and Nintendo are offering their systems for substantially less. It is understandable that Sony is including a lot more features in the PS3, then it ever did in the PS2, but the question is whether a $200 price increase from the PS2 launch is justified by the addition of a hard drive, wireless controllers, brand new hardware within the console, and all of the other new features? Personally, I am really excited about all of these new feautres, but I’m puzzled why Sony is not able to offer a bare bones version of PS3 for somewhere in the $300-400 price range. Sure Sony can not stay financially stable and offer the full PS3 for $300, but if they took out the hard drive, used slightly less powerful hardware, and used slightly less powerful graphics couldn’t they offer something at a lower price?

$500 is quite a bit of money for a gaming console in today’s electonics market. For $500, you can buy a decent PC. For $500, you can buy a nice television set. For $500, you can buy a nice stereo. $500 just seems too much money for the base model of a console. Throw in the cost of an extra controller, a memory card, and a few games, and you are looking at an initial price of almost $700. The question is whether or not there is any game out there on the market that you want to play on PS3 so badly that you will be compelled to shell out all that cash. Sure, PS3 is going to be the must have gift for Christmas 2006, and it will most likely sell out within stores within hours, but I think you are going to see a lot of the casual gamers turning away from Sony, and choosing to purchase an Xbox 360, or a Nintendo Wii, simply because of cost.

Hopefully for Sony’s sake, and PS3’s sake, they will be able to lower the prices soon after the launch. It would be a shame to see Sony lose its market share to Microsoft and Nintendo simply because of pricing alone. Overall, the PS3 console is amazing, but price is defintely going to be a major problem.