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ThreeSpeech feel the same as us about EU PSN; seeking answers
Our reaction to Sony's lackluster European PSN update was on of disappointment, to say the least. It seems that ThreeSpeech feel the same way. They have contacted SCEE in order to figure out exactly when Euro is going to stop being treated like second class citizens. Sadly, there has been no response as of yet. However this week plays host to the Leipzig Games Conference so you never know, Sony may release some content shown off at the show onto the Store. Like they did with E3. We're not holding our collective breath, though. Hopefully ThreeSpeech can get to the bottom of this situation soon.
ThreeSpeech reveals Warhawk UK pricing
Despite finally getting some of Sony's European release dates recently, we were still kept in the dark regarding a price and release date for the download version of Warhawk. ThreeSpeech has today revealed both of these things. Apparently the PSN version of Warhawk is being worked on very hard in order to be released simultaneously in all regions. From the sounds of it, however, we wouldn't be surprised if it eventually came out a week or two later. As for the price, Warhawk will be downloadable for £20. That's almost an exact translation from Dollars to Sterling. Has that ever happened before? The retail version will be £40, which is still a pretty good deal considering what's in the box. There's no word yet on the exact price in Euros. If the developers really do manage to get the game up on the PSN before the end of the month for all regions, then will you submit to impatience and download or wait a couple of weeks for the retail version? Tough call.
ThreeSpeech podcast producer makes a statement
While we didn't see anything wrong with the ThreeSpeech podcast (mostly because the reference went entirely over our heads), Jared Rea of Joystiq and the guys at Penny Arcade (they wrote a strip about them? Jealous.) are just a couple of people who did. Ben Furneaux, otherwise known as "The Man Who Said Those Things On That Podcast What People Didn't Like", has made a statement about what was said as an attempt to cool the fires of fanboydom that are licking at his feet.The statement can be found on his personal blog. In it he stands by the comments he made and suggests that most of the ill-will that was received after the podcast came from confusion about what relation the speakers had to Sony's PR machine. The answer, seemingly, is none. Does that make what was said any more acceptable? That's up to you. Though fanboys have got away with saying far worse. Be sure to read Ben's full statement. We assume the ThreeSpeech podcast will be continuing regardless of this entire debacle. Though if you're looking for an official straight-from-Sony podcast, then you'll probably need to wait for the PlayStation.Blog to start one. Which would not be a terrible idea.
ThreeSpeech podcast set to rival our own
As we celebrate our fifth podcast here at PS3Fanboy.com, other sites are only just starting out. Episode one of the ThreeSpeech podcast was released today. Set up by the guys who run the Red Rant podcast, this show promises debate on the latest ThreeSpeech headlines as well as all other things PS3 and PSP. This week Ben Furneaux, David Darke, Pete Cullen and Tom 'BetaBoy' Eccles start out with a very entertaining show covering the last 30 days of ThreeSpeech. PlayStation 1 games on the PSN, Sony vs God and Warhawk beta impressions are just a few of the topics covered. It's clear that these guys have prior experience with podcasts, so make sure you give it a listen. The show will be coming out monthly and we are looking forward to more in the future. Though if any more podcasts start popping up, we'll need to move further away from work just so that our commute is long enough to listen to them all. Seeing as how we work from home, that could prove very difficult.
Sony's Three Speech launches podcast, takes cheap shot at Major Nelson
Listening to the Three Speech podcast, we are reminded of the right and wrong way to do your man-of-the-people PR. As a professional shill, Major Nelson is arguably the most well known in our business, but at least the man doesn't make any qualms about it. From the very moment that you step into his domain, it is made abundantly clear that Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb works for Microsoft. The same, however, can not be said about Sony's "semi-official" blog, Three Speech. With dodgy language and a staff that refuses to attach themselves publicly to their editorial, the blog has been under scrutiny ever since it launched. Speaking of which, their podcast did just that today and aside from being an hour long train wreck, they had some choice words for their Microsoft counter-part, Major Nelson."Microsoft have got their significant other and I think the PlayStation offering, if you ask me, is far superior and a lot less slimy" said Ben Furneaux, who continued to refer to Nelson as the "unnamed blogger," despite writing for a blog that keeps their writers under wraps.Continuing, Furneaux claims that Sony is more "straight to the point" with their PR, saying that "When they [Sony] delay something, they go, 'Oh, whoops. We've delayed it. Sorry.' and they're just honest about it and everybody picks on them for being blatantly honest about it." Despite living in Europe, Furneaux must have completely missed the whole PlayStation 3 launch debacle. You know, the one where even Phil Harrison didn't know what was going on, despite Three Speech having reported it themselves. Hey, he could have written it even, as is the joy of anonymity in writing on Three Speech.After an hour of listening to a cast of Sony shills hype up a non-existant Final Fantasy VII remake, fumble over who made the Oddworld games (PROTIP: Oddworld did), pitch the PSP like used cars salesmen and ask themselves just what in the heck a Jumping Flash is, we came out even more bewildered over Three Speech.
Dates for upcoming European PSN releases and Motorstorm patch
The European PSN Store is a bit of a tragic tale, as we're sure you've noticed. According to Three Speech, however, that's about to change with two new games available to download before the end of the month. None of that Midway rehash rubbish, either. These are full, specially made for PSN, titles. Ok, I've kept you in suspense long enough, check out the list below. Calling All Cars - 22nd of June (£4.99) Super Stardust HD - 29th of June (£4.99) Not too shabby, eh? While our US cousins have had Calling All Cars for a month now, Super Stardust HD should be a worldwide release. If you're as impatient for these games as we are then you might also like to know that this coming friday, the 15th, sees the release of the highly anticipated Motorstorm patch. Looks like Sony are finally pulling their finger out with their PSN releases. Let's just hope it continues beyond the end of June.
European PS3 owners give Sony important feedback
ThreeSpeech recently asked European PS3 owners how they Sony did for their recent March launch, asking if there were any surprises, good or bad, what gamers liked and didn't like about the system, and finally inquiring if they would recommend the system to friends. So far, over 130 comments have been posted and most responses are similar to what we've already heard over here. We want games! Comments suggest the PlayStation Store needs additional content and more frequent updates. While impressions of Motorstorm and Resistance are very positive, it seems everyone is still clamoring for a system-killer title. Lair, Heavenly Sword and Ninja Gaiden seem to be on many European PS3 wish lists, as well as the Sony online community Home. Although currently, North American PS3 owners are receiving almost weekly updates to the PlayStation Store, it wasn't until late February that the updates started to pick up. So perhaps in a few weeks, three months after the European launch to be exact, content will start to arrive at a more steady and constant pace. And as for that one game, destined to sell PS3 systems along with it, be patient. As recent impressions from the Sony Gamer's Day imply, we may soon have more than just one system-killer title to choose from. [Via PSXExtreme]
David Jaffe interview, more downloadable games coming
David Jaffe, the revered designer of God of War and the more recent, Calling All Cars, delivers some interesting banter via an interview with Three Speech. He says the difficulty of developing a title like Calling All Cars was the inability to rely "on old tricks" to alleviate the obviousness in areas with weaker game play. In regards to arcade titles, he says "if [the] core gaming isn't working, you have nowhere to hide." Near the tail-end of the interview, when asked if he has any more ideas planned for more downloadable games, Jaffe says his team is "in the design phase with two and three." Hmmm ... Calling All Cars 2 and 3? Or maybe a redesigned remake of the original Twisted Metal? Hey, we'd buy it.
Snakeball, Super Stardust HD en route to PSN
Sony has officially announced the impending arrival of two more PlayStation Network titles, each of them boasting hyper-rainbow visuals that are likely to induce a mental state similar to that following ingestion of a hallucinogenic substance. Not that we have any experience with that sort of thing. We do have some familiarity with Snake though, which you may remember as that slithering self-extension exercise available on every electronic device known to man. In Snakeball, you pilot a "bizarre hoversnake" across an "outlandishly dazzling disco floor," all the while devouring delicious spheres, blasting other players and whacking them with your bizarre hoversnake tail. The game supports online multiplayer, as well as the newly announced PlayStation Eye camera, ideal for plastering a face over your bizarre hoversnake pilot. Three Speech expects the game to arrive in July. %Gallery-2812% Super Stardust HD, to which the Sony blog gives a 15 June release date in Europe, is an arcade shooter built around the high concept of blasting defenseless asteroids to smithereens. A two-player co-op mode (it's unclear if this is local, online, or both), online rankings, 1080p resolution and a "seriously catchy soundtrack" are mentioned in the game's list of features. No word yet on what it costs to shoot at space rocks or pilot bizarre hoversnakes. %Gallery-2813%
Three Speech presses Harrison about PS3 porn
We still can't make heads or tails of the anonymous writers at the "semi-official" Sony blog Three Speech. In an interview with Phil Harrison, which took place at GDC, they laid on the porn questions with the Sony bigwig pretty thick. It appears the "semi-official" blog was trying to semi-irritate Harrison.The interviewer asks if Home will allow for "adult content" between the avatars? Harrison dismisses that. Then the interviewer presses by asking if players will be allowed to upload porn and invite people into their private space to watch. Harrison tries to end the line of questioning, "I'm disappointed that you would use those as the first questions. I think Home should be used for a much wider and more beneficial scope than that, but I think that people can express their creativity inside Home in a wide variety of ways and it's not necessarily for us to dictate what that should be. However, if somebody feels uncomfortable about an encounter on Home, it's very easy for them to ban that person from their friends list"Well, the semi-official blog certainly got away with asking some very off-message questions. Although, for all we know, it's some strange twist in Sony's European PS3 marketing to plant the idea of porn in people's minds. We do know that a majority of Three Speech's information is Euro based, but our requests for the name of their editor and a list of their writers have been ignored. We still have no idea who Three Speech is and what they represent. These porn questions would certainly not be the most bizarre tactic we've seen implemented in the European campaign.
ThreeSpeech at ThreeRooms... some bits of info here and there
This is basically a big PR move with Sony and ThreeSpeech and this Tom Kiss fellow took a lot of very nice pictures for us to gawk at. What a swanky pad! We'd love to sit around and play games at ThreeRooms. Without further ado, we present the knowledge gained at this event. Phil Harrison took a picture of everyone in a room, popped the memory stick into a PS3, turned on HOME, and in a matter of seconds, he had placed the picture into a frame and it was sitting on a shelf in his personal HOME-space. Pretty neat. In another room, he put up a Bravia TV (figures it's a Bravia, huh?) and made a Casino Royale trailer play on it, with proximity-related audio. Oh, then he picked up the TV and threw it down a set of stairs. Not in real life... that would make Nick angry. Tom Kiss took some video of Phil and three other guys playing LittleBigPlanet. It's still cute. The lobby size of 64 users in HOME is likely to not change, since that's pretty crowded when text bubbles are popping up everywhere. Here's a biggie: Remote Play from any wireless hotspot in the world will be available with the 1.6 firmware update. That means anywhere you go with a wireless connection, you can get any video, music, or photos from your PlayStation 3 right onto your PSP. Oh, that's hot. That's about it. Check out Tom Kiss's (kisses? oh, someone please smirk) article and scope out his pictures and videos
Sony dismisses European launch rumors, but...
Okay, so, this is going to be a shot in the dark and most likely 100% wrong, but we've got an idea to present. First, though, the news. ThreeSpeech has been circulating some rumors regarding the European PS3 launch -- the actual date, firmware updates, add-ons, etc. The firmware update rumor is the most interesting (and most viable): the update would allow multi-tasking and the Remote Play option (or... increased functionality of that option). Multi-tasking would be great. Waiting for those downloads is a pain. Also of note is the idea that only the 60GB version will be available at GPB 425 or less. To all of these, Sony has dismissed as speculation or declined to comment. Take your pick.What's the idea? It's true. Maybe not all of it, but the multi-tasking and the availability seem likely. Why? Well, ThreeSpeech gets a lot of crap for the "semi-official" nonsense, but think about this: if they are affiliated with Sony, would Sony have the guts to leak info, deny it, then "surprise" people when it's actually true (and good news, for a change)? Maybe. Maybe not. Cash in your two cents, we'll see what happens!
ThreeSpeech event news unveiled -- straight from Ben/Sony to you!
A while back we talked about Ben, that lucky guy who got to attend the ThreeSpeech event out in London, thanks to Sony and apparently some divine powers. What did he find out? Well, if he were allowed to question Phil Harrison ruthlessly rather than a tight 15-minute Q&A shared with everyone else, probably a lot more. A short list to summarize: Sony currently has no plans to allow homebrewers access to the RSX graphics chip. Don't hold your breath for any sort of VGA cables. You weren't? Okay. As we've reported, Gran Turismo HD will be free to download in Japan on December 24th. More free content will follow -- so that's cool. Just send it stateside, Sony! And... Europe-side? The Remote Play feature is going to allow acces to your PS3 from you PSP via any WiFi spot on the planet. I personally thought it was just the PS3's wireless that the PSP would read -- so to me, this is great news. Phil Harrison's favorite non-Sony game is Nintendogs, which interestingly enough got a perfect 40 score in Famitsu -- a coveted score indeed. Just a little fun fact. We were promised some insight as to how Lair was shaping up. Poor Ben. Poor us! Lair wasn't available for play. Why? Since Ben is a smooth individual, he flirted around and found out that the current build of Lair is extremely unstable. To quote the lady he spoke with, "The problem is there's something very wrong with Lair." Oh no! I'm going to go ahead and speculate they've been working on it since the Tokyo Game Show and have too many loose codes hanging around that would seize the game -- or didn't get to complete some graphic models that are fairly integral to the game (like, oh, dragons). Whatever! In any case, check out Ben's experience. It sounded like a blast... now I just have to find a damn PS3 now that finals are over! Hooray for college.[thank you very much for the news, Ben! Seriously!]
Got questions for Phil Harrison? Let your voice be heard!
Ben Furneaux is lucky. He gets to take an all-expenses paid trip to London courtesy of Sony and ThreeSpeech to attend a meet and greet event. He will meet Phil Harrison, and he will greet Phil with some hard-hitting questions submitted by you! Hopefully! Ben also gets to check out unreleased titles in their latest build, such as Lair and Motorstorm. If you want to know anything about those games, let him know on his blog in advance and he'll get back to us. Hopefully! Personally, I just want to know if the games are fun -- I don't care about graphics or SIXAXIS functionality or if Phil Harrison's teeth are straight -- I just want the games to be fun. Anyway, comment on his blog your questions or concerns -- or here. Whatever. It's your comment.
Phil Harrison says: PS3 will be well-rounded (and very shiny)
The new, semi-official Sony site Three Speech has lifted up some comments from Sony's Phil Harrison regarding the PS3 and its launch title library -- and B3YOND, er, beyond. What'd Phil say? In response to a question asking about which title Sony is relying on to sell the PS3, he said "a lot of people talked about the 'killer app' and actually it's the killer catalogue you want. It's not about having a single title like a Mario or a Sonic on which you rest the entire platform personality on. It's about having a wide catalogue that satisfies a number of different consumer tastes and styles." Yes, it so is.When asked about what changes the PS3 will spark in the gaming industry (PSX, sorry, PSOne brought 3-D, PS2 brought free-roaming games like GTAIII), Phil actually didn't go the graphics route -- instead, he cited artificial intelligence and physics as well as the whole push to this 1080p HD thing. Asking first about the best use of the SIXAXIS so far and then if rumble is gone forever, Phil didn't cite a "best use" for the SIXAXIS, but said what he liked. As far as rumble is concerned, it's probably gone. Sorry, mates, let's leave that to a third-party mod and software developer support.Interestingly, Phil Harrison said that Sony is working on a way for you to record your own gameplay footage, save it to the hard drive, then upload it onto the web. That's pretty cool, especially if you really like to show off your madd skillz.Firmware updates? Will they be few and far between or a weekly plague like Windows updates (sorry, but I'm sick of that little icon popping up each time I boot up)? Phil says they are focusing on the day one update and will probably have another one in time for the European launch.There are a couple more questions that yield surprising and interesting answers, but you'll have to check out Three Speech for yourself. Or you could get the full interview in the upcoming Official Playstation Magazine, on sale November 15th.[via Three Speech]
