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Nearly 800,000 PS3s Sold In Europe
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
According to a report by the Financial Times, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said that Sony was nearing 800,000 PlayStation 3 consoles sold in Europe. With 600,000 of those sales reportedly coming in the first two days of launch, this would seem to indicate a healthy 200,000 units being moved in the three weeks following. One assumes that this is the sell through number, since Sony had previously indicated that 1 million consoles would ship for launch. The numbers are interesting from a couple of perspectives – first, that there would seem to be more people than expected willing to pay the hefty exchange rate adjusted price of the PlayStation 3. The second interesting thing is that European sales are quickly closing in on the Japanese sales numbers. While Japan has taken months to reach nearly 900,000 units sold, Europe is nearly at that point only a month after launch.
Read More 
| Financial Times
Gallery: Nearly 800,000 PS3s Sold In Europe
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RedOctane Investigating Xbox 360 Patch Issues
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Activision, Hardware, Internet, Music, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
The launch of the Guitar Hero series on the Xbox 360 has been going less than smoothly for RedOctane, with complaints about the functionality of the whammy bar on the guitar peripheral to objections to the cost of downloadable content. A quick timeline of the issues:
- April 3: Guitar Hero II goes on sale for the Xbox 360
- April 3: Complaints surface online about defective whammy bars.
- April 4: RedOctane states that they are “looking into the issue.”
- April 7: RedOctane isolates problems with the controller to two model numbers, offers RMAs for defective guitars, lists workaround on support site.
- April 11: Xbox 360 downloadable content launched at over $2 per song, gamers complain about price gouging
- April 14: Software patch posted to Xbox Live to fix whammy bar problems
- April 14: Reports surface online about Xbox 360 consoles getting “Red Ring of Death” after applying software update.
- April 16: RedOctane investigating console issues with patch
While there has not been a conclusive link found between RedOctane’s update and the Xbox 360 problems, this does mark the latest in what has been a fairly long list of issues with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. There doesn’t seem to be a good way to resolve the problems: if there is no link between the update and the Xbox 360 consoles dying, then this just adds a further black eye to Microsoft’s ongoing issues with the 360. If there is a link, then confidence in RedOctane will only drop further and the company may be facing repair bills for dozens of consoles.
Read More | Eurogamer
Gallery: RedOctane Investigating Xbox 360 Patch Issues
While the 60GB PlayStation 3 models have been plentiful on US shelves, the 20GB model has been difficult to get. Most stores have been removing the console from their online stores, including Sony’s official SonyStyle. Once that happened, gamers had to suspect that something was up. Now, 1up is reporting that Sony Computer Entertainment America has officially announced that the 20GB version of the PlayStation 3 is dead. Sony’s statement indicates that 90 percent of the retail demand was for the 60GB console, and that they are merely following the demands of the buying public. Realistically, though, various reports had Sony actually losing more money on the 20GB hardware than on the 60GB; retailer margin would likely be less as well, leading stores to order the model that could make them more money. The real customer demand for the 20GB model will never be known now, since a mere five months after launch the 20GB hardware is gone. One hopes that this is clearing the way for a price drop on the 60GB model, but that hope would seem to be slim at best.
Read More | 1up
Gallery: Sony Kills 20GB PS3
Cell Speeds Up Medical Imaging Fifty Times
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 3 users have been racking up the work units through the built-in Folding At Home client in the console. The PS3 has proved to be particularly effective at folding proteins, doing the job more efficiently than the PC client. Now, IBM and the Mayo Clinic are announcing that the Cell processor can speed up 3D medical imaging by up to 50 times over traditional CPU configurations. While the new uses for the Cell processor might not be directly applicable to gamers, the more usages that can be found for the CPU can drive up demand, possibly leading to more optimizations in the manufacturing process and ultimately driving down the costs of producing the chip.
Read More | Mercury News
Gallery: Cell Speeds Up Medical Imaging Fifty Times
Gamefly Offering New Free Wii Promotion (Sign Up Your Friends)
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, Hot Deals, Wii,
First free DS Lites, and now a free Wii? Has Gamefly been stockpiling Wii’s all this time? Are THEY the reason no one can find the new Ninty console anywhere?
Anyways, Gamefly.com is currently offering a promotion that could get you a Wii for free (or about $60, if you want to enlist some imaginary friends’ help). All you have to do is get 5 of your friends to sign up for the service (which is the Netflix equivalent of videogames), and once they’ve been paying members for a month - with plans starting at $14.99 - you get a free copy of Nintendo’s elusive console.
If you have five real gamer friends, then perhaps you can convince them to sign up as a donation to your “I really want a Wii” fund.
Read More | Gamefly.com
Gallery: Gamefly Offering New Free Wii Promotion (Sign Up Your Friends)
$600 For A Crystal-Coated DS Lite, And It’s Upside-down?!?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Nintendo DS,
Don’t get me wrong - if I wanted to spend a chunk of change on some bling, a Swarovski-encrusted DS lite might be towards the top of my list. But for $600 bucks, I want to make sure that everyone can properly view the full glory of my gaming obsession. With this mod? - Not so much. See, when I actually play my DS lite, I usually open the screen. And when I do that, well… that means the folks who are staring at my glorious, sparkling handheld are going to be looking at this crystal mosaic of Nintendo awesomeness upside-down.
Come on guys, even Apple figured this out a few years back when they switched the logo orientation on their laptops… if you’re going to make your product an advertisement, you want to make sure that the people who are looking at it can do so without doing a handstand.
Click the jump for more images of these almost-ridiculously-awesome handhelds.
Click to continue reading $600 For A Crystal-Coated DS Lite, And It’s Upside-down?!?
Gallery: $600 For A Crystal-Coated DS Lite, And It’s Upside-down?!?
HP Working On New, Decidedly Different Gaming Handheld
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, Internet, Portable/Mobile, Rumors,
Today’s gaming news-of-the-weird comes to you courtesy of HP, yes that HP, the old Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard brainchild. Apparently inspired by Nintendo’s recent non-traditional approach to gaming, HP’s device - currently dubbed the MScape, would react to visual and spatial clues in the gamer’s environment thanks to built in accelerometers and GPS sensors. We’re guessing it’ll be a cartridge based system. (GET IT??!?) Describes the article over at GameSpot.com:
The early concept involves a handheld and a series of small sensors that a game organizer could lay out around a city or park. Those sensors would trigger certain events in the game, like a bonus level or an attack by the bad guys, based on a small demonstration of the concept here.
Um, wow… is it just me, or does this have “amazingly bad idea” written all over it. We’ve all heard about the horror stories of people so wrapped up in their DSes and iPods that they don’t notice important details like oncoming traffic. Litigation’s going to get REALLY interesting when people start jumping in the middle of the streets to pick up power-ups.
Read More | Gamespot.com
Gallery: HP Working On New, Decidedly Different Gaming Handheld
Nintendo Looking At External Storage For Wii?
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Wii,
Cubed3 is reporting on a new press release issued by eSol Co., Ltd., indicating that Nintendo has entered into an agreement with the company to license their FAT file system and USB host support for embedded systems, to be used in Nintendo’s Wii console. Cube3 believes that this may be pointing to an external USB storage system coming for the Wii some time soon. However, the press release seems worded oddly for a new addition to the Wii. For instance, eSol’s Executive Vice President, Embedded Products says this:
I am very happy that we could take part in the development for Wii, a new game console from Nintendo. I believe that our products were selected because Nintendo highly-valued our long, successful history with many digital consumer products and high-reliability and functionality based on that. We will continue to provide superior products and technical services to strongly support developers in embedded software development.
This statement seems to indicate that eSol was involved during the console development process, and this licensing is not a new thing. Why the company is issuing a press release now about this seems somewhat odd, though. Still, even if this is not new functionality in the Wii, this announcement would indicate that Nintendo could potentially enable the feature in the Wii to allow USB-based storage in the future.
Read More | Cubed3
Gallery: Nintendo Looking At External Storage For Wii?
Gran Turismo HD Update Hits US PSN Store
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Driving, Hardware, Internet, PlayStation 3,
European owners of the PS3 have been able to get a rumble-enabled version of Gran Turismo HD since launch. Now, US owners can get the free update from the PlayStation Store, according to IGN. The update adds a world-wide ranking system, so US gamers can now compare their times with others across the world and adds rumble support for owners of Logitech’s Driving Force, Driving Force Pro, and Driving Force EX wheels. The quick addition of rumble support gives hopes to PS3 gamers that rumble support in other PS3 games as well as in new controllers will be coming soon.
Read More | IGN
Gallery: Gran Turismo HD Update Hits US PSN Store
Chart-Track Claims PS3 Sales Drop “Means Nothing”
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
Chart-Track, publisher of video game hardware and software sales numbers in the UK commented on the recent sales figure leak that indicated the PS3 suffered an 82% sales drop in its second week of release. Commenting to Next Generation, Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch claimed that without context, the drop “alone means nothing.” With previous launches of the Wii and the Xbox 360 supply constrained, Bloch asserts that the PS3 launch can not be compared. And Bloch is correct; the number right now is meaningless, without the context of a trend. While the drop appears calamitous, gamers may get a better idea of the true state of PS3 sales as the weeks continue. The danger of such a drop, though, can cement the idea in the minds of the consumers that the console may be a “flop,” despite reality.
Read More | Next Generation
Gallery: Chart-Track Claims PS3 Sales Drop “Means Nothing”
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