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SCEA trademarks 'Resistance 2'
A trademark has been filed by Sony Computer Entertainment of America for the name Resistance 2. Although this writer initially assumed SCEA was prepping an educational game on introductory circuitry, the rest of the Joystiq staff quickly reminded him of the well-received Resistance: Fall of Man that launched with the PlayStation 3. Wow, we did not see this coming -- it's a holiday miracle! Is Sony laying groundwork for a sequel? Do they really think it financially wise to make a sequel to one of the best, most critically-acclaimed titles on the PS3? (Answer: probably.) Perhaps they're just protecting the name before someone else claims the title for Resistance 2: Fall of Hen, which is in fact a sequel to the 2000 film Chicken Run and a direct competitor to the equally punful, and equally fictional, Deers of War. (Answer: No, they're not.)No formal announcement has been made. According to the game's lore, Chimeran forces have invaded all of Europe, giving developer Insomniac a vast number of prestigious churches to anger.[Via Trademork, PS3FB]
Heavenly Sword gets patched to 1.1
The PS3-exclusive action game, Heavenly Sword recently got a 1.10 patch. Right now, the contents of this 18MB download are mysterious. It has been confirmed that DualShock 3 support has finally been added to the game, for those lucky enough to have imported the rumble-ready controller. But, certainly the patch must hold other surprises. 18MB is a lot of data for just rumble alone ...
God of War may be the last PSP game from Ready at Dawn
Expectations are high for the upcoming God of War game on PSP. The development team behind the critically acclaimed Daxter found themselves enthralled with God of War on PS2 during development of the PSP game and made an easy pitch to SCEA to make their own GoW game. "The first meeting just went like 'we should make a God of War PSP game' and they were like 'yeah you should.' And that was pretty much it." Unfortunately, it looks like Chains of Olympus will be the last PSP game from the talented team at Ready at Dawn. "This team is ready to move onto something pretty big, and we've be planning it for quite a while, and this team needs to show what they're capable of doing on next-gen or current-gen." While we'd love to see the team continue their magic on PSP, it will be interesting to see what Ready at Dawn will be able to produce on even more powerful tech. For the complete interview (with new screenshots!) visit 1UP.
God of War: 222MHz versus 333MHz
A few months ago, Sony finally unlocked the PSP's full processing capabilities. It was always locked to 222MHz, but since firmware 3.50, developers had access to 50 percent more megahertz of power. Ready at Dawn, developers of God of War: Chains of Olympus, found themselves relieved by the removal of the processor restriction. They were already hard at work on the game, optimizing for the lower clock speed -- but when they had access to the full power of the PSP, things got really interesting. This video demonstrates the differences between a months-old version of the game, running at 222MHz and a newer build, running at 333. The differences are subtle at first. The game was never a graphical slouch, and would've been beautiful even with a restricted clock speed. However, you'll notice better lighting, more particles, and a few minor differences in the newer builds. Every minute difference adds up to create an experience that will be unparalleled on PSP for quite some time.
New God of War screenshots will stab you in the eye
Click for full-resolution image. Your mouth would also be hanging wide open if Kratos jumped on your face and was going to deliver some serious stabbing to it. These brand new screenshots of God of War: Chains of Olympus certainly don't disappoint, delivering the same visceral, violent feel of the PS2 originals. If you were in the same position as this goliath, what would your final thoughts be? %Gallery-3212%
Can we see your combos, Kratos?
Remember God of War: Chains of Olympus? It's a small indie game that's coming out for PSP. You may not have heard of it, but it involves this guy named Kratos running around killing things. We think it's pretty cool. Here's a brand new video of the game in motion, just to remind you that March is very, very far away.
Sony outlines firmware update plans for 2008
Faster and fewer -- that's apparently Sony's plan for 2008 regarding firmware updates. In an interview with MTV Multiplayer, SCEA's Eric Lempel talked a bit about the old firmware strategy and outlined what we can expect in 2008. He said that "We're trying to certainly cut down on the amount of times we do it ... We definitely understand that it does happen frequently and that can be somewhat annoying to some users." We haven't been particularly bothered by it, but a few times it has hindered our ability to satisfy an urge to play a game online.For those who got the PS3 around launch in November of 2006, you will have experienced the original PlayStation servers -- those things that were really slow and irritating? Things have sped up since then and things are planned to continue to speed up, says Lempel. In addition to little things like no longer having to connect the controller via USB during updates, "we'll continue to work on other ways of making it easier and faster and we'll probably roll those out some time next year." We look forward to hearing what's in store for us. In-game messaging and a possible soundtrack customization option is really all we need. Nobody can honestly care about watching a streaming video while their game is paused, right? Or viewing a slideshow of pictures? Let's be reasonable.
Steinberg discusses the new PS3 ad campaign's success
As you guys are probably aware, the PS3 has gone through some rapid shifts in advertising lately -- shortly after their latest test with the ads highlighting important game titles among its other uses, Sony dropped their ad company and enlisted a new one. But how did those new ads work out? Scott Steinberg, VP of Marketing at SCEA, lets us know what's up with that campaign. In a nutshell, he says, "It's exceeded all our expectations. We've had great comments from analysts and our business partners that it's really elevating the PS3 business." Then let's bust out the champagne, right? Even the band in the commercial, Saliva, has felt some success from the ad campaign.Retailers have also helped by bundling in Blu-ray movies after the ads aired and as Steinberg explains, this helps explain "why it's being promoted in stores so aggressively. It's no doubt that it's a big part of our value proposition [for the PS3] and we feel we have done a great part of emphasizing on the merchandising half of things; it's paying dividends."Steinberg took a minute to talk about his move from the Sega Genesis days to his time now at Sony. Since we've got a soft spot for the ol' Sega boys, we'll give you the skinny. "There is so much passion around the technology and the products, and a lot of that at Sony reminds me of the 'halcyon' days when 16-bit was just taking off ... There's nothing like the technology and entertainment businesses; we've merged them both and it's an addictive cocktail." We hope he continues to spearhead such effective ad campaigns in the future and remind us why the Genesis rocked so hard and how the PS3 will, too. Assuming you thought the Genesis rocked hard. It did. It had Phantasy Star.
Tretton describes PS3 as "short term sacrifice, long term gain"
The strong arm of SCEA, Jack Tretton, sat down for an interview with MSNBC oddly enough and talked about Sony's strategy for the PS3 in the coming year. We actually move away from food analogies this time and get right into sports, as Jack explains the first year of the PS3 like "the first inning of a nine-inning baseball game ... You're not going to win many baseball games if you panic when you're down 1-0 in the first inning." He talks at length about the price cut of the PS3 and how it has boosted sales significantly, upcoming exclusive titles, and other stuff we've heard many times before.As for whether or not Tretton thinks consumers are ready for high-definition broadband-enabled consoles, he thinks that no, not every consumer is going to be able to take advantage of the PS3's many functions right away, but that's fine, he says. The system is designed to last a decade and by that time, everyone will love what the black monolith has to offer. Tretton also notes there is a learning curve consumers need to be aware of when buying consoles anymore -- it's not just a purchase, plug, and play scenario anymore.One final note -- he talks about the Sony "arrogance" that has been construed around the internet and says that they aren't actually arrogant, rather, bloggers and press ran the idea around so much that it started to stick with people and, well, perspective plays its role. Something along those lines.
Sony hires Deutsch for Playstation advertising
Agency Spy reports that Sony Computer Entertainment of America has already decided upon a successor for the American Playstation advertising account. The Los Angeles-based agency Deutsch, Inc. will reportedly be taking over the $150 million account, following Sony's decision to remove TBWA -- their ad firm of the last 13 years -- from the account's review.Deutsch, one of the five finalists in the review of the Playstation account, is an award-winning ad agency first established in 1969. Currently helmed by chairman Donny Deutsch (pictured above) and CEO Linda Sawyer, Deutsch's clients include the likes of Ikea, Snapple, Johnson & Johnson, and Verizon. The agency's acquisition of the lucrative Playstation account has not yet been made official; we have e-mails in to Sony and Deutsch, and are currently awaiting confirmation.Update: A representative from Deutsch, Inc. has confirmed that the agency has in fact been awarded the Playstation account. Now we'll just have to see what they plan on doing with it.[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
Sony America drops ad agency of 13 years -- now?
Advertising Age reports Sony Computer Entertainment of America kicked their ad agency of 13 years to the curb yesterday. TBWA/Chiat/Day was eliminated from the review of the $150 million PlayStation account. After all the numerous incidents over the years and the disastrous PS3 launch ads, the company finally turned things around for this holiday season. Looks like it was a day late and $150 million dollars short.There's still some questions that'll probably be clarified when an official announcement of the new ad agency is made. For example, all information on the issue speaks directly to Sony America, however TBWA is also responsible for the twisted, disruptive, ridiculous, and sometimes racist, European ads as well. Sony has yet to comment.[Via GameDaily]
flOw dev discusses blossoming new project
If the Tokyo Game Show trailer was any indication, flOw developer Thatgamecompany is not shying away from abstract projects. Speaking at the Montreal International Games Summit (via Gamasutra), TGC President Kellee Santiago explained how music played an important role in the the initial development phases of Flower. Two musical pieces were commissioned to set the tone of the project, according to Santiago, to "get everyone on the same page... doing sample audio tracks to evoke the emotion [will] keep everyone's work consistent." Details about Flower itself are rather scant, aside from confirmation that at least part of the game has to do with growing flowers. Said Santiago, Flower involves the "possible emotional impacts of the feeling of growing a flower, and possible interactions as the sun." The title is due out on the PlayStation Network sometime in 2008.
So what's up with Flower?
Ever since we first got wind of Thatgamecompany's next project, Flower, we've wondered what the game actually was. With flOw, we learned that there's more to gaming than explosions and storylines, and with this game, we figured there was some sort of similar cathartic mechanism in the works. The first "details" of the game have been released and all we can say is there's certainly a lot of emotion to go around, but we've still no idea what to expect. You raise flowers in a field, but the game aims to make you "experience a field in a way you couldn't in real life," according to Thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago. During the game's development cycle, the team constantly wondered what the emotion interaction would be with the field if you played as the wind, or the sun, or the "emotional impact of flying petals around" as well as the emotions felt when growing a flower. The game originally had you controlling petals in the wind in an early prototype, but it's unclear whether or not that's still part of the game. Initially, there were even magical elements and special abilities in the game, but those were removed since they got in the way of your emotions. No matter what Flower ends up being, we know it's going to be an experience that will be difficult to explain to friends, but once we give them the controller, they'll understand. Maybe they'll shed a tear. Or not.
Joystiq Holidaze: explaining the PS3 SKUs
We'd love to say picking up PlayStation 3 is as easy as going to the store and grabbing the first box with the console's name on it. For better and worse, this generation of consoles gives consumers many choices at the (potential) expense of causing confusion at the store.So it's with this in mind that we present you this handy guide for discerning the difference between the various PlayStation 3 versions (aka SKUs) out there. Please note that the red and green coloring is not only festive decor for the holiday season but also a subjective highlight of what each version excels in (or subsequently lacks). #comparechart { border: 2px solid #333; border-collapse: collapse; } #comparechart td { padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; margin: 0; line-height: 1.3em; font-size: 80%} #comparechart th { font-size: 80%; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 4px; background: #eee; } #comparechart th.mainth { font-size: 100%; border-bottom: 1px solid #333; } #comparechart td.red { background-color: #f08c85; } #comparechart td.green { background-color: #b3e2c4; } #comparechart td.yellow { background-color: #ffffcc;} 80GB 60GB 40GB 20GB Hardware Model # CECHE01 CECHA01 CECHG01 CECHB01 Price $499.99 $499.99* $399.99 $499.99* Chrome trim Yes Yes Yes No USB 2.0 slots 4 4 2 4 802.11 b/g Yes Yes Yes No Flash cardreader Yes Yes No No Bundled Accessories Ethernet cable Yes Yes Yes Yes Video cables Composite Composite Composite Composite Backwards Compatibility PlayStation 2 Software** Yes (NTSC),Software** (PAL) No Yes PS One Yes Yes Yes Yes Notes:* This model is discontinued. The price on the chart represents the listed price before Sony axed it.** See explanation in F.A.Q. below.Alright, Joystiq, time to answer your own questions.Let's do this.
PSN games Everyday Shooter, flOw (and more) on sale for $5
Sony's latest PS3 promotion asks, "When was the last time $4.99 brought you hours of entertainment?" We don't have the heart to remind them that bunches of XBLA games – like Space Giraffe – are only $5. Also, that coloring book we bought last week for less than $5 has brought us dozens of hours of entertainment ... Regardless, here's the deets of their promotion: four of the highest-profile (and, as luck would have it, best) PSN downloadable titles are being offered for the low, low price of $5. Did you miss the normally $10 Calling all Cars' discounted $5 price last month? Well, the gods at Sony have granted you a second chance. How about indie-darlings Everyday Shooter (normally $10) and flOw (normally $8)? Pick 'em up for, you guessed it, $5 each. Last on the list is PixelJunk Racers (normally $7), which will also be available for $5. You've got until November 29th to catch 'em all and add them to your collection of Black Friday steals.
Happy Birthday PS3: The cake is (not) a lie
You've gotta hand it to Sony. This is, as far as our memory serves, the first time we've gotten a birthday cake for somebody else's birthday. Even more unique, that somebody is in fact ... a something! After a slight delay in acquiring the cake last night (it wasn't a lie), we didn't think fair to eat it and not do anything nice in return for our PS3, so we did the nicest thing we could think of. We fed it a birthday present: the deliciously moist Uncharted.All next week, our pen pals at PS3 Fanboy are celebrating the PStriple's birfday in style: they're giving away an 80GB PS3 and an Uncharted prize pack (with all sorts of cool Uncharted swag!), all wrapped up in commentary on the console's performance thus far.
God of War's Cory Barlog leaving SCEA
1UP reports that Cory Barlog shall not pass his SCEA Santa Monica colleagues in the hallway anymore, as he's decided to leave the studio in order to pursue other opportunities, none of which are likely to involve James Lipton. The game director most notably took the reins of the Grecian testosterone epic, God of War II, from David Jaffe (who also recently departed SCEA to form his own studio) and ultimately oversaw one of this year's finest PS2 games.According to a Sony spokesperson, the publisher is grateful for Barlog's "work and creative vision for the critically acclaimed God of War franchise", but is also confident that the remaining team will successfully churn out "epic content with God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and God of War III for PS3." Yes, that's the same God of War III which remains officially unannounced but completely expected. Try not to muck it up, Mr. Barlog's replacement!
Welcome to Helios: a new God of War level
What is Helios? No, it's not a cell phone. It's a new level in God of War: Chains of Olympus. These brand new screenshots (12 in all) showcase Kratos' carnage once again. Just like Tartarus and Attica before it, these shots look absolutely stunning. In one of the screens, we see Kratos charging the spell acquired from the CoD demo. The lighting and particle effects look stunning, and we're certain that it'll look even better in motion. There's still a long while before we'll see more of Kratos' new PSP adventure. Until then, check out these new screens: %Gallery-3212%
SCEA discusses new ad campaign for holiday season
Key titles and features of the PS3 are the new approach for a revamped PS3 marketing campaign in the US. Gone are the white room ads featuring awkward and vague commentary about life, games, and a floating console. Sony hopes these ads will boost holiday sales by creating better awareness of what the machine can actually do and we hope so as well. As SCEA Marketing Manager Kim Nguyen put it: " ... the way I would describe the 'White Room' is 'thought provoking' compared to this new campaign, which is 'visually provoking;' you have to watch it several times to catch everything being shown. There's just so much the PS3 offers, and we're trying to emphasize that."The games to be mentioned are what Nguyen calls "system defining": stuff like Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Warhawk, and Heavenly Sword. Interesting how Lair didn't make it on the list, huh? Anyway. There is also going to be a huge push for Blu-ray, moreso than last year, as well as a lot of deliberation about the PlayStation Network. There will also be some coverage of the new $399 PS3, but it doesn't seem to be a focal point for the campaign. What do you guys think? Step in the right direction?
40GB PS3 + 80GB price cut confirmed for the US [Update]
Bet you didn't see this coming. We certainly didn't (that's sarcasm, by the way). SCEA have now confirmed that the 40GB PS3 will be coming to America for only $400 on November the 2nd. Not only that, but the 80GB model with have its price slashed from $600 to $500. Of course, the 40GB will "suffer" the same "drawbacks" as it does in Europe and Japan. Namely, a lack of backwards compatability, fewer USB ports and no memory card readers. Expect a surge in the sales of the 80GB system. We're just confused as to why Sony is waiting until November 2nd to get this launched. It's almost been out for a week over in Europe. [Update 1: Price-reduced 80GB systems are now available at GameStop. Also available at amazon.com][Update 2: Images of the 40GB box have been uploaded. Check past the break.]
