play
Latest
UK retailer drops PlayStation 3 price by 25
Two weeks out from the PlayStation 3's launch, UK retailer Play.com has the has given the system a price cut of around $50. Sweetening the deal is the inclusion of a free HDMI cable and a Blu-ray copy of Adam Sandler comedy, Click, all for £399.99, which is £25 less than the current asking price for the console.It could be easy to look at this as Play.com trying for attention or moving some excess stock were it not for a recent 82% UK PS3 sales drop reported by Chart-Track. The tracking group later made efforts to downplay the importance of the statistic, but this price cut would seem to justify, in some small part, the poor PS3 reception that the drop indicated.While it's unclear if this is necessarily a portent of doom for the console's future in the UK (we suspect not), it's at least a good deal for our friends in the UK; though, at nearly $800, still not even close to what US customers are paying for the thing.[Thanks, fromat]
Wii Sports and Wii Play sell one million copies each in Japan
Congrats are in order to Nintendo: both Wii Sports and Wii Play (Hajimete no Wii) have sold in excess of one million copies in Japan. Having two million-sellers already trumps the Gamecube, on which only Super Smash Bros. Melee reached that particular milestone.We know that the bundled Wiimote had a lot to do with selling Wii Play, though of course the degree to which it contributed cannot be measured. It makes sense that the two most casual, inclusive games on the system would sell to a Japanese audience that loves DS training games. We hope you guys like minigames, because it's safe to assume we're getting lots more of them!
Reggie downplays Wiimote's TV wrath, 360's European sales
NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime, ever the iconoclast, had some choice words for the San Jose Mercury News about the success of the Xbox 360 in Europe. In effect, he claimed that the 360's success in Europe is localized to the UK, while the Wii is (obviously!) doing great across the continent.Reggie also slyly wrote off the early (and not so early) strap issues, while blaming consumer ignorance for the few known cases. He said that the strap was originally meant to be a backup safety measure in case the controller slipped out of players' hands, but many users got too rough with their controllers and put excessive force into their motions. Of course, Nintendo has been kind enough to replace the straps.[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
The Game Boy musical teaches addict a lesson
So long as there are fanboys roaming the streets (and electronics aisles), weird fetishes and unashamed overkill will still have their places, but it's not too often that a gaming addiction finds a home on Broadway. In The Game Boy, Matthew Gandolfo and Robin Rothstein's family-friendly musical, a well-taught lad dubbed Chase purportedly falls a bit too head over heels for his dear Game Boy, which presumably leads to all kinds of childhood development issues. According to the production notes, the kiddo is simply consumed in the pixelated universe, and strives to "always being the best," regardless of the real folks he ignores in the process. As predicted, this behavior eventually results in a life of loneliness and dread, probably forcing poor Chase to switch off the Nintendo handheld and seek out his long lost friends. Of course, his parents could have just shipped him over Amsterdam to remedy the issue, but if you're interested in seeing the outcome yourself, be sure to hit up the Vital Theater Company in New York City from now until April 22nd.
Xbox 360 price drop at select UK retailers
It seems that British gamers who are willing to shop around can get the Xbox 360 for quite a bit less than the manufacturer's suggested retail price. GamesIndustry.biz reports that discount wholesaler Makro is selling the Premium system for £199.99 (Regularly £279.99) and Joystiq tipster Joanthan pointed out that UK game store Play is selling the Core system for £149.99 (regularly £199.99). The retailer-specific price drops are not officially endorsed by Microsoft, who told GI.biz through a spokesperson that "Xbox does not control the retail price of the Xbox 360" and that "prices are set by retailers." This statement may seem a little laughable to readers in America, where game hardware prices are remarkably consistent across retailers. In contrast to other consumer electronics, where retailers constantly try to undercut each other on the same merchandise, stores that sell game systems are reluctant to lower the price for fear of being cut off by the manufacturers. Hence, the price of a game system comes down across the board only when the manufacturer decrees it. Nintendo got a slap on the wrist from the FTC for such price-fixing practices back in 1991, but the lesson doesn't seem to have stuck in today's market. If Wal-mart wants to sell me a system for less than Target, who's the system maker to tell them they can't?
Quartet Project showcases robotic dance partner
Why bother Dancing with the Stars when you can bust a move with your very own trained robot? Sure, we've seen robots teaching humans and even robotic ballroom partners before, but the Quartet Project seeks to integrate robots into dance by using sensors to create a fairly intelligent and dynamic counterpart. Dubbed an "investigation into the kineasthetics of music," the live stage show melds dance, music, and a load of sensors into a new form of entertainment where the human dancer grooves to the music, only to be followed and "danced with" by a robot that senses its surroundings. Finally assembled after years of collaboration from experts in art, music, biomedicine, computational science, 3D animation, and motion control, the "mechanical and live elements" came together for a series of recent shows in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Unfortunately, we weren't there to witness the next metallic superstar showing its stuff, but we're fairly confident seeing a man-made terpsichorean breakin' a leg was a tad more exciting than listening to the Bacterial Orchestra.[Via MAKE]
Wii Fanboy review: Wii Play
Upon inserting the Wii Play disc into your Wii's disc drive, you might feel elation and experience the levels of bliss only known to the few who would actually go on to write a sentence this long about some mundane physical exertion such as placing a disc into an electronic device. It's OK, we felt the same way too, and in being greeted with the snazzy music that accompanies the game's logo in the Disc Channel of your Wii, you might feel as if your life is about to change.
Wii Warm Up: Coming up next
Here's a simple question: with all the AAA titles (supposedly) being released in 2007, which one are you actually looking forward to the most? Super Smash Bros. Brawl will certainly be a favorite, but recent hype and an unwavering faith in Miyamoto-san make us want to experience Super Mario Galaxy just a tad bit more. Maybe you're looking for the first truly-done-right first-person shooter on the Wii, courtesy of Metroid Prime 3, or perhaps you simply desire a return to a certain blue hedgehog's former glory in Sonic and the Secret Rings. Maybe we're wrong altogether. If you could have just one of the 2k7 games, which would it be? Which title can you just not live without?
Ze Frank plays with his Wii
Yeah, we know, making jokes about fake Wii games and "playing with my wii" innuendo is, like, so 2006. But when Ze Frank does it, it all seems so fresh and new, mainly because he does it ... oh, what's the word ... well. In between the "sophomoric ... even freshman ... ish" jokes, Ze also gets into the differences between playing with "girly" button-filled controllers and the Wii controller, which "you grab ... and you instinctively know what to do with it." Whether or not you agree with his sentiment, it's hard not to laugh when Ze makes absolutely everything about playing games seem dirty. Hey, if it works for space news, it can sure as hell work for video games. [Via VH1 Game Break]
Double dose of Wii Play trailers
Some new trailers showcasing a pair of the minigames to be included in Wii Play have hit Game Trailers and, like the trusty internet vacuums we are, have gathered and embedded them for your viewing pleasure. The first trailer, which is labelled as Tank Combat, shows just that! The second trailer shows us the fishing minigame, which reminds us a lot of a game we used to play as kids, involving fishing rods with magnets and gathering ducks in a pool of water (the name escapes us and Google is being no help).
Reggie sez: Online in Q2
When the big man speaks, we listen. And yes, we're referring to the deity that is Reggie Fils-Aime, standing atop his mighty pedestal after supplanting Zeus for the title. He was recently on Spike TV's GameHead, speaking rather generically about the Wii. But, as you may have guessed, there was a diamond in the rough: the news that the first multiplayer online Wii games will be announced in Q1 2007 and start shipping in Q2. Finally!We're a little disappointed that online didn't come right out of the box; God knows some games really could have benefitted: Madden 07, Call of Duty 3, and Red Steel certainly could have used the boost. Still, at least a smidgeon of online functionality is coming quite soon, with the ability to trade custom levels in Elebits via the magic of the internet intertron. That's its new name. Thus have we spoken, and thus it is so.[We don't normally steal our sister site Joystiq's pictures, but this one was just too good.]
Wii Play gets the preview treatment
The folks over at Siliconera recently got their hands on Wii Play, the collection of minigames that comes bundled with the Wiimote. Designed much in the way Wii Sports is, Wii Play is designed to show gamers how to use the Wiimote through a variety of different types of minigames. The games included are: Shooting: A hybrid between Duck Hunt and those old-fashioned pellet gun game you see at the carnival. Find Mii: A Where's Waldo-like game where the player must track down Miis in a crowd. Table Tennis: Even more simple than Tennis in Wii Sports, the player must move the paddle to the ball where it is automatically returned. Pose Mii: Players mimic the angle of floating Miis by tilting the Wiimote. Hockey: Neon-colored air hockey. Charge: In a bull race, you tilt the Wiimote to maintain balance on your bull.
Confirmed: no DVD playback for the Wii
Nintendo, in their almost-infinite tornado of news today, never mentioned anything on the promised ability for the Wii to play DVD movies. No mention in the press releases that followed their event today either? Hmm, how odd...So what does Nintendo's VP of Marketing Perrin Kaplan have to say about this? Well, apparently she confirmed to IGN that the Wii is going to totally toss out the DVD movie functionality all together. The decision to rid the console of this feature was apparently in the interest of delivering it at a cheaper price for the consumer. So Fanboy readers, is this a good or bad thing?
Video Games Live adds Halo 3, Civ IV to repertoire
Video Games Live is heading to the Hollywood Bowl and bringing with them a few pages of sheet music from the Halo 3 score, as well as music from Civilzation IV. Guests at the September 21 show include guitarists Steve Vai and Dweezil Zappa, as well as electronica artist Brian Transeau (BT).For those of you with old-school tastes, the original Lucas Arts composers will be giving "a rare special acoustic performance." The press release promises, among others, pieces from Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series. Sure, there's Halo 3, but we're more geeked out by the thought of Lucas Arts compositions.Ticket prices range from the very low ($3.00) to the very high ($65.00) and are on sale now.
PLAY! Symphony plays Prey in Phillay tonight (we'll be there)
Philly is racking up the video game concerts this summer. First, the Video Games Live concert at the Merriam Theater in June*, and now rival production PLAY! at the Mann Center tonight, 8:30.Just to make the evening super special, the promoters added some music from the (better than you'd think) Prey soundtrack to the already impressive program. Other titles on the RPG-heavy lineup include Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross and Trigger, Morrowind, Kingdom Hearts, Shenmue, and more. Tickets are still available so if this is the first you've heard about it, get buying.I'll be at the show tonight with (just a) couple oddly sized Joystiq shirts to give away so, if you can answer me who composed the music for Sonic Rush (don't answer it here!), you may get yourself a fancy tee.*I promise I'll recount my very tardy VGL experience in addition to PLAY! so y'all can compare and contrast.
Ecko: DS > Xbox 360
In the June issue of Play magazine, Marc Ecko commented on the gaming industry again, on everything from the current state of things to some of his most favorite games of the past. What stood out the most, however, were his comments about loving his DS more than his Xbox 360.Play: You're obviously a huge gamer. What are some of your favorite titles? Ecko: I've been obsessed with games since childhood. Favorite titles... where do i begin? Atari, Colecovision, i had all of them. Yar's Revenge, whatever. The NES Mario, Sega's Sonic, of course. I remember being immediately hooked by Metal Gear Solid, and on PS2 GTA3. Lately i've been playing a lot of DS games, i've found found a lot of them more fun than the Xbox 360 launch titles. Although i have to admit Fight Night 3 is amazing. I could go on for days, i have billions of games. Oh yeah, World of Warcraft is beginning to ruin my life. We're not huge fans of the guy, but we can't help but back up a statement as strong as that.
Flip4Mac begins beta testing Universal Binary WMV QuickTime components
For Intel Mac users who either love or hate WMV but have to deal with it one way or another, Flip4Mac has just begun beta testing the long-awaited Universal Binary version of their WMV QuickTime components. Announced in their forums today, it is more or less an invite-yourself program, as I had to contact them weeks ago to get on their email announcement list.After briefly testing on my MacBook Pro, it seems like everything is working just fine. I'm able to play embedded WMV files with no problem, but I unfortunately don't have any locally saved WMV's to try at the moment. So far, the beta seems like a success, and while I hate the WMV format just as much as the next Mac user, it's nice to no longer receive that 'plug-in not found' error.
Access iPhoto and iTunes libraries with a simple Automator action
You could also file this under "fantastic Automator actions that Apple should've advertised when Tiger was being released."A post at macosxhints has discovered a simple Automator action you can use to open panel containing your entire iPhoto or iTunes library (pictured), complete with albums/playlists, DnD and even search abilities. This is for all those times you groan at having to start iPhoto just to grab an image or two. Bonus points for the iTunes library action: songs are playable from this panel.Check out the macosxhints post for the drop-dead simple 3-step process (it's really only two steps) for creating this handy panel.
PS3 could debut in Europe for 500 euros, says SCEE exec
La PlayStation Trois! French gamers must be familiar with that combination by now, and if a certain Sony executive gets his way, the PS3 could be appearing in Europe for as low as 500 euros this fall.Apparently George Fornay (president of Sony Computer Entertainment France and vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) confirmed to Generation Europe 1, in French, that the PS3 could be priced around the 500 euro mark, most likely between 499 euros and 599 euros. For the unfiltered French audio, try the Play button near the middle of Europe 1's podcast page here.Such an estimated figure may include Europe's Value Added Tax (VAT), so the final price range in the States might well be lower than the current U.S. currency equivalent of roughly $600-$725 for those many euros. Of course, who's to say whether Mr. Fornay was simply speculating on a local podcast or whether he actually exhibited loose lips before the French press?[Thanks, Fan; also via Joystiq]
