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PlayStation 3 used to hack SSL, Xbox used to play Boogie Bunnies
Between the juvenile delinquent hordes of PlayStation Home and some lackluster holiday figures, the PlayStation has been sort of a bummer lately, for reasons that have nothing to do with its raison d'etre -- gaming. That doesn't mean that the machine is anything less than a powerhouse -- as was made clear today when a group of hackers announced that they'd beaten SSL, using a cluster of 200 PS3s. By exploiting a flaw in the MD5 cryptographic algorithm (used in certain digital signatures and certificates), the group managed to create a rogue Certification Authority (CA) which allows them to create their own SSL certificates -- meaning those authenticated web sites you're visiting could be counterfeit, and you'd have no way of knowing. Sure, this is all pretty obscure stuff, and the kids who managed the hack said it would take others at least six months to replicate the procedure, but eventually vendors are going to have to upgrade all their CAs to use a more robust algorithm. It is assumed that the Wii could perform the operation just as well, if the hackers had enough room to spread out all their Balance Boards.[Via ZD Net]
PS3 gamer overcomes disability with custom controller, triumphs in l33t3st way imaginable
Yeah, we here at Engadget are hardened cynics -- our cold, black hearts have closed off to all but the most extraordinary tech-related stories, and we don't talk about the triumph of the human spirit a lot, but PlayStation 3 forum user KitsuneYume has us stepping outside our usual box today. With the help of an engineer, he made an "adaptive controller" that allows him to game with the pros despite serious disabilities. 20 out of 25 functions are accounted for by the system, and he uses his fingers, toes, and even his tongue to play -- your regular, everyday controller mod it ain't. The creator said he uploaded the pictures to make sure folks who might need it are aware the technology exists, as he contacted Sony a while back and they weren't able to tell him where to look. We hope this helps gets the word out, because we think everyone should have and chance to lie, cheat, and steal their way through Fallout 3.[Thanks, Jason]
Nintendo's competitors cut prices, but Wii stays same great price
Following news that Sony would be cutting the price of its PS3 console, rumors are floating about that Microsoft could be set to do the same with their Xbox 360 console. What does this have to do with us Wii-loving folk out there? Nothing, as Nintendo doesn't seem to think that Sony's price drop, or even a Microsoft one, is going to affect their great grip on the market right now.George Harrison, senior vice president of communications for Nintendo of America, says that a "$100 price drop won't make a difference." Harrison goes on to wonder "Can Sony afford a $200 price drop? I don't think so." We're inclined to agree, since apparently the only reason to own one is for a 3+ year-old game, anyway.[Via Codename Revolution]
Wii off to a flying start in Oz
The Wii is off to a healthy start down under, having shifted 80,000 units in its first five months of release. That's 0.4% of the Australian population, for those of you who lie awake at night wondering about such things. Looks like those pre-order bonuses paid off.The Xbox 360 has sold 160,000 units but has been out for more than a year. Things look less rosy for Sony, who's PS3 has the unfortunate luck of being stuck with a $1,000 dollar price tag and has people thinking twice about buying it, with just 36,000 units shifted.[Via Go Nintendo]
Sony CEO is late to the party, says Wii is "wonderful"
First Peter Moore praises the thing (and even tries to adopt Nintendo's business strategy) and now Sony jumps on the bandwagon too? Looks like Sony's Chairman CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, is smitten with the system, as he lets his real feelings out during an interview on the show CEO Exchange. We're told the show hasn't aired yet, and frankly, we kind of wonder if it actually even exists.Regardless, it seems like publicly praising Nintendo for the Wii is becoming a pastime, as all are stepping up to claim their love. We couldn't be happier, because if Sony and Microsoft fanboys are paying attention to what the execs at the top of their favorite companies are saying, they'll perhaps be persuaded to get a Wii of their own. Let's hope that's the case.[Thanks, Andrew; via PS3Fanboy]
Market research could have improved PS3's image
Few people hate Sony as a company; it is just the PS3 -- as well as the DRM and exploding batteries -- that pull the brunt of the ire. In fact, many of their other products are beloved by consumers worldwide and aren't decried by the media. The biggest reason is Sony's Electronic Division's strong consumer research practices. Sony's television and digital camera lines garner much consumer approval. This is helped in part by the creation of focus groups and people who actually listen to customer feedback. For example, when developing the Mylo device (a handheld WiFi device that allows chat-functions, Internet connectivity, music and a full QWERTY keyboard) they sent 850 of the devices out to determine the who, what, where, when, why and how the product would be used and made changes around the feedback gained; as such, the Mylo is poised to be another well-received Sony product. The PS3 is a device that appears to have been developed in a vacuum; one where only the engineers built what they thought was the ultimate console. This is shown by the general user unfriendly environment the PS3 has built; symptoms of which are seen in major media publications. While most of the problems can easily be fixed with firmware upgrades over time, there are still aspects that cannot be fixed -- such as the lack of a scaler chip to allow for a simple one-and-done resolution setting when using various features -- without angering earlier adopters or alienating customers with confusing redesigns so early in the life-cycle. How different would the PS3 be today if the PlayStation Division took the same consumer research approach the Electronics Division does?
Big sales needed for PS3 game profit
Regardless of what any of us want, the whole idea of making video games is to make money. As it stands, it would seem that Sony isn't making it easy for anyone. This could be bad news for the PS3's future. According to Namco Bandai President Takeo Takasu, due to production costs, each PS3 game will have to sell at least a half-million units to be able to make a profit. For comparison, the Wii costs half as much (which means half the sales for profit). The news is in stark contrast to the PS2, where some games that sell 100,000 titles are able to make money. The sales levels required just to make money on the PS3 should be troubling for gamers. Sony's current Greatest Hits requirements are 400,000 copies, so it is very possible that a GH title could have lost the publisher money (and we could start seeing more of them as publishers scramble to break even). Will the high development cost prove to be prohibitive to the developers of niche games that made the PS2 a true global hit?
Resistance padding files only 420MB per region [update 2]
[Update 1: We got our answer. The entire thing is blown way out of proportion. There are still padding files, but they're a relatively meager 420MB per region. 2: We've removed the original headline which read "Resistance = 17.75GB of garbage?" We've maintained the original post below for accountability, but remind readers that the speculative remarks about the game's size aren't accurate.] Resistance: Fall of Man was billed to be the defining game for why Blu-ray exists in the first place. Resistance developers Insomniac stated that the game took up 22GB of space and that all those bits and bytes were necessary to make the game work. It would seem that ripping the disk in Linux shows otherwise. A NeoGAF forum member by the name of squatingyeti posted a long list of padding files on the Resistance disk; the padding took up approximately 17.75GB of space. Padding is frequently used to push data to the outer edges of the disk to improve read times, but Blu-ray is supposed to be a constant read over the entire disk. It's possible that the data isn't fully true and we would like to see some confirmation; however, if this report that 81% of Resistance is just empty filler and could fit on a single-layer DVD is accurate, will this put a hole in Sony's claim that Blu-ray is absolutely necessary this generation? The padding isn't needed to make the read speeds any better and (if true) is a lame way for Sony to justify Blu-ray for gaming.
PS3 and homebrew; PSP all over again?
What's the first thing you'd do when you finally got your PS3 home? The logical step would be to slap in a Blu-ray movie or enjoy some Resistance: Fall of Man on your mammoth 1080p screen. One gamer had none of that and decided that booting up Super Mario Bros. -- a game released in 1985 before high-def was even an idea -- on his nexst-gen console (we tried Donkey Kong ourselves). While we only see a brief flash of SMB followed by some Linux command lines -- which could very well be faked -- this video could show where the PS3 is heading. If the PS3 turns out to be like the PSP (a machine some use mainly for homebrew programs), Sony is going to have a hard time making the PS3 a profitable venture; they aren't going to make a penny if someone is playing a pirated copy of an NES game. Sony could very well prove that loss-leading on a multimedia machine is a bad idea. They simply are unable to control the content coming into the machine (outside of an epic war with homebrew hackers volleying firmware updates and firmware hacks back and forth). Unlike other consoles, where it would take some hardware modifications that some may find too difficult, Sony made it a feature to be able to use the PS3 for whatever you want (which we applaud); however, machines like those need to be profitable. Sony can't make up their big losses on each unit if no one buys games. [Thanks, dcemu]
Sony not competing with Microsoft, Nintendo
You'd think that after the buzz the PS3 has been getting lately, Sony would be a little more confident in itself. Analysts are predicting major victory for the PS3 and it even got a (pseudo) political endorsement. Yuichi Ejiri, general manager of sales and marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong, wasn't completely ecstatic about his product. According to Dow Jones, Ejiri "conceded that competition in the game console market is intensifying with rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. offering cheaper devices," an odd concession from a Sony official on the day the PS3 launched in his own territory. The Hong Kong 60GB PS3, priced at HK$3,780 (or $485 US, those lucky bastards), is competition for HD-DVD, or so Ejiri says. Sony is sending the consumer base mixed messages on what the PS3 is supposed to be. Is it competing against the Xbox 360 or against HD-DVD? Sony is going to have a difficult time trying to split loyalties between the two abilities. We suggest they pick one main feature (go for the games!) and treat the other as a value add.
The mind of a PS3 scalper (hint: it's not pretty)
We know those waiting on the PS3 were a vicious lot. We've seen them -- or actually experienced -- these hoards mob game stores and act in a generally violent manner. Some of these gathering Huns actually wanted the PS3 for themselves, but others did it for the eBay markup. "Charlie", or so he identified himself to The Escapist, is one of those people giving those buying a PS3 today a bad worse image. Charlie is a scalper and he is not afraid to admit it. Charlie had a good night's sleep, showed up 30 minutes before the store opened, cut right in line, and helped himself to a pair of PS3s with the assistance of an employee friend. He brazenly boasts that "any true gamer who wanted it would have been waiting in line for three days." While we weren't really crying for the PS3 campers, we can certainly feel for hopefuls who waited hours in the elements just to have someone show up and snatch the PS3 right from under their (no doubt very cold) nose. Charlie plans to flip the units on eBay for mad profits. Is he -- and those like him -- an enterprising entrepreneur or just some jerk who stole a legitimate gamer's fun? [Thanks, Rob Salvore]
PS3 is following in 360's footsteps
We're all familiar with the Ring of Death on the 360. If you see it, you know it is time to pull out the extended warranty slip -- or shell out another $400 -- because you're going to need it. Sony couldn't have any of that and are countering with their own: the Red Button and Beep of Death. A newly purchased PS3 (and owner) had played Tony Hawk's Project 8 for a grand total of 30 minutes when the PS3 decided it didn't want any more of that. Maybe THP8 made the unit sick, the game doesn't exactly have a great image (pun intended). In any case, this is one unhappy PS3 consumer. Sony is certainly starting to push their luck with these PS3 problems. Yes, the 360 had its own set of issues, but we figure Sony should have learned from Microsoft's mistakes; instead we get this mess. We wish they'd put just a smidgen of quality assurance behind their product. Let's hope Nintendo doesn't break its streak of quality hardware; a triple play may turn consumers off console gaming. Check after the break for the video. [Thanks, Kumar Shah]
SCEA marketing VP talks about crying babies
With the PS3 a paltry few hours away, Sony heads are pulling all the stops to make those who don't get one feel better less angry about the situation. One of those Sony heads hard at work is Peter Dille, senior VP of marketing at SCEA. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Dille feels good about Sony's marketing direction. In an interview with N'Gai Croal of Newsweek, Mr. Dille calls the (in)famous crying baby ad "the ultimate Rorschach test." He explains that whatever you feel about the PS3 after watching the commercials that "those answers are true, if that's what it means to you." He also goes on to dismiss Microsoft's accelerated demos for Gold members and blogging community, indicating the PS3 is in a far better position in both areas. So, if the crying baby ad is the ultimate Rorschach test -- and whatever we think about it is true -- does that mean the PS3 is creepy and disturbing if we felt that way? While Mr. Dille is quite confident in Sony's efforts, we haven't exactly seen this massive influx of positive buzz about the PS3. Trucking out a bunch of celebrities isn't proof; they're what we call paid spokespeople.
PS3: HDMI doesn't like you
The PS3 troubles continue to roll in. First the (admittedly minor) backwards compatibility issues, then we find out the PS3 can't run 1080i, now a new issue has come to light: some folks are having a rough time getting HDMI to work right. The guys over at The Man Room have unpacked their PS3 (sans-ceremony) and immediately plugged it up to their HDTV using HDMI cables. The result was less than optimal; they were greeted by flickering that required some resolution changes -- our guess is HDMI can't output 480p, though not a big deal since who wants to play on 480p anyway -- to get the dashboard working right. Just when they thought it stopped, popping in a Blu-ray movie resulted in the same thing, which they said would sometimes stop and sometimes continue (the guys never really gave a definitive answer on what they did to fix it). The Man Room postulated that the PS3 has some HDMI handshaking issues and their apparent resolution is to keep rebooting until it works right. HDMI is supposed to be Sony's main firearm in its arsenal against the 360; some gamers are going to have to put in a lot of work on top of hard earned cash to get their PS3 running properly. We recommend just keeping at it and pray for a firmware update from Sony to keep it fixed. [Thanks, the worm]
0.002% of Taiwan to get a PS3
Yes, the PS3 is in very short supply. We're going to have to camp out days in advance; most of us will be told our wait was for naught (except maybe a $60 discount on a 360 game). As bad as we have it, Taiwan will have it worse. According to Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong (SCEH), Taiwan will be getting a whopping 500 units. Taiwan has 23 million people according to the CIA Factbook; this means .002% of the population will get a PS3. For comparison, Japan has 127 million people, which translates into .06% of the population getting an opportunity for a PS3. Even if the US only gets 200,000 units as some predict, Sony will get the PS3 in .07% of the population's hands. Count your lucky stars you're not in Taiwan; they're going to have the toughest time getting their hands on the difficult-to-find machine. We're confused, however, as to why Sony chose to do this. What exactly will selling a paltry 500 units do? They would have been better served staying in Japan and holding off on a Taiwan launch until production numbers picked up. It isn't exactly a major battleground in the war between Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.
eBay: No PS3 for UK
The PS3 certainly is a hot item now that it's officially launched (in Japan at least). With Sony's inability to launch in Europe until March 2007 (at the earliest), European gamers are going to have to wait for their PS3 ... or hit up eBay and import a unit. Unfortunately, they've shut that option down post-haste. eBay's decided to put a stop to all that nonsense in the UK, stating that "PlayStation 3 consoles obtained outside of the EU cannot be listed on eBay.co.uk." This essentially means that Brits are going to have to find a different way to "smuggle" their PS3 into the country. We can logically assume that eBay will do the same in the rest of the EU markets they service. eBay's decision doesn't come as much of a shock. After the legal troubles Lik-Sang went through, the world's biggest garage sale is most likely unwilling to test Sony's patience. We can (somewhat) understand the legalities of blocking a retailer from selling product over borders, but this recent blockage makes us wonder; what is the problem with an individual in Japan or North America firing his PS3 off to someone in the UK? Is there some PS3 Proliferation treaty out there we're not aware of?
PS3's B.C. problems and how to blow it out of perspective
We all heard the news; the PS3 isn't fully backwards compatible with every PlayStation game. Of the 8,000 or so games in the PlayStation universe, roughly 200 of them won't work as advertised. It looks like the backcompat issue is yet another black mark on Sony's already stumbling reputation ... but is this really that bad? Business Week is one of those groups who apparently think background music not playing right in Radiata Stories during cutscenes is going to topple the Sony empire like Visigoths over Rome (alright, a bit extreme). They claim "the bad publicity could ultimately leave Sony at a disadvantage compared with Microsoft and Nintendo." We find that a bit of a stretch when Sony's got bigger issues out there and we haven't heard a peep from Microsoft's backwards compatibility efforts since August. Yes, Sony does have a few bruises from their blunders this past year; however, since the PS3 is on a completely different operating system (remember, we have to download emulators just to get DOS or even Windows 95 stuff working on Windows XP) such incompatibilities are expected. If anything, the meager number of games that aren't 100% perfect -- and how minor the problems are with the bulk of the 200 -- is incredible. If you can read Japanese, here is a handy tool you can check to see if your favorite games work.
Not all Japanese PS3 owners bought a game
Not to anyone's surprise, ice cubes in Hades couldn't finish melting by the time the PS3 sold out in Japan. All one of you who took those ten billion-to-one odds at Vegas just lost your money. There is one big surprise however: PS3 games aren't popular. Famitsu-owned Enterbrain crunched a few numbers and found out that the tie-in ratio was a measly 0.98. That means out of the 80,400 PS3 consoles sold, only 78,792 pieces of software went out retailer doors to keep them company (1,608 or more people didn't bother buying any software). Oops. While the PS3 is slightly better than the .91 the 360 pulled, both of them are embarrassed by the original Xbox and its 1.45 tie-in ratio (we all know how well poorly the Xbox did in Japan). If these numbers continue, Sony's decision to make the PS3 a "cheap Blu-ray player/computer" could bite them in the end. If those other 1,608 (or more) consumers are screaming "Look, Ma! No game!", we have to assume they're using the PS3 to watch movies -- or using its various non-revenue generating functions; we can't imagine anyone buying a PS3 to just look at (shininess be damned). Sure, they're still selling consoles, but game developers will see little reason to support a platform whose user-base isn't interested in buying software.
Actual Killzone 2 better than trailer?
When Sony showed off the first trailer of Killzone 2 off forever ago (E3 2005), they billed it as actual in-game footage. Later down the line, it turned out those "in-game" shots were just CGI mock-ups; target renders they're called. Now Sony is telling us those CGI mock-ups are inferior compared to the REAL Killzone 2. O RLY? Phil Harrison, Sony CEO and game commenter extraordinaire, made some bold claims in the most recent issue of OPM (reprinted at Sony's semi-official blog, ThreeSpeech); supposedly, KZ2 has "some elements [that] already exceed the trailer." Excuse us, Mr. Harrison, but we'll wait until we see a working game this time. Given just how good Gears of War looks, pumping something out that looks like the Killzone 2 E3 trailer is possible. However, given Sony's history on this particular title, we're less inclined to believe 'em until we (or someone else we can all trust) actually plays the real thing.
And the next-gen winner is ... IBM?
Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are all in a battle to get their product in your living room. Given that most consumers have either constrained time or money, they won't be able to get all three. Slice it how you may, there will be one definite winner in the next-gen marketplace; (drum roll) that winner is IBM. Regardless of which console a consumer ultimately chooses, IBM will be getting a cut of the profits. IBM developed the processor in the Wii and Xbox 360 and IBM also has their name on Cell, along with Sony and Toshiba. Owning the processor trifecta is more than enough to make up for losing Apple's business to Intel. No other company stands to win regardless of which console takes the top spot. Even ATI, whose chip is in the Wii and 360, could stand to take a back seat to Nvidia if the previous generation's sales numbers repeat themselves. No matter what turns out, we already know IBM won the console wars. Now that's settled, we should start arguing over which IBM chip will win. [Thanks, Gamer Jay]
