TurkmenPost

When Sony revealed the PlayStation 3 controller would be able to sense certain types of motion, skeptics scoffed. That’s because Nintendo announced last September that its recently rechristened Wii console would also have motion-sensing controls, leading many to believe that Sony had added the functionality at the last minute as a gimmick. A report in the New York Times didn’t help, as it said that some of Sony’s own developers were not given the PS3 controller’s tilt-sensitive controller until just weeks prior to its unveiling at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006 in May.

Now, Sony has come out swinging. In this week’s edition of German magazine Der Spiegel, Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios, aggressively denied his company appropriated the motion-sensing idea from Nintendo. "In a certain way, I understand why people would say [such things], but it is stupid, if you’ll forgive me saying so," said Harrison.

Harrison went on to say that the PS3’s motion-sensitive controller had been in the works for some time. "We have already worked on it a long time, and Nintendo almost certainly has done likewise with something similar," he said. "It is perfectly natural for two companies to work on [nearly] identical devices. It’s like that with technology." He reiterated that the PlayStation 2’s Dual Shock controller is the "de facto-industry standard for video games…We define the standard for the man-machine interface for playing games."

Besides defending the PS3, Harrison took time to evangelize the device, which will launch worldwide this November. In particular, he said the Linux-based operating system on the console’s hard drive will have enough processing power and nongaming functionalities to render traditional PCs–most of which use a form of Microsoft’s Windows OS–moot in the home. "We believe that the PS3 will be the place where our users play games, watch films, browse the Web, and use other [home] computer functions," said Harrison. "The PlayStation 3 is a computer. We do not need the PC."

via gamespot.

A tipster just sent word on what a Nintendo rep said about the Wii. Some of it is rather obvious, some of it is surprising. Really surprising.

•The promotional material that the rep had with her only contained white consoles and peripherals. The Wii Classic controller was included, as well as the Zapper, as possible peripherals to be utilized at launch.
•There is concern about stores using halogen lighting. Tons of halogen spotlights scattered about may give everything a much warmer and more ambient feel. However, this particular type of lighting can throw off the aiming of the Wii controller when the lights are angled down through the path of the signal. So for people with halogen track-lighting in front of the TV, this could be a problem.
•Nintendo is aiming for an October launch. Since a number of big-ticket crossplatform titles like Madden will be coming out at that time, Nintendo doesn’t want to miss them. Apparently the company wants to beat Sony out the gate, and get some buzz going about their non-traditional controller in the meantime.

For most this won’t matter, but potential Wii customers with halogen lights in their living room could very well be effed. And with halogen illuminating more and more homes, this might turn into a minor prob for Nintendo.

via kotaku.

The bad news about Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3 console continues to flow in. One of the first bad things we heard about the console was about a year ago when Sony’s president Ken Kutaragi claimed the PlayStation 3 would be expensive.

I remember some sites stating that this may be a trick to fool Microsoft but later it turned out the PlayStation 3 will in fact be launched for $499 or even $599 if you want one with a 60GB hard disk, HDMI support, Wi-Fi and Memory Stick, SD and CompactFlash card support

The cheapest Xbox 360 only costs $299 and the Premiul model with a HDD retails for $399. Additionally, according to some rumours Microsoft is planning to drop the prices to respectively $219 and $299 in October.

If this is true the PlayStation 3 will be very hard to sell. The PS3 has the advantage of having a Blu-ray player but by the time the PS3 is on the market Microsoft will have launched its HD DVD add-on drive. The price of this HD DVD drive isn’t officially announced yet but according to some rumours it may be close to $100.

At this week’s E3 show Microsoft said it thinks the PlayStation 3 will be way too expensive, pointing out consumers will be able to buy both the Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii console for the price of a PlayStation 3.

About a year ago Sony defended the PlayStation 3 by stating the PS3 is "a box made of future technology opposed to Xbox 1.5, which seems to be a combination of things available today." However, this week The Inquirer talked with several game developers and heard they aren’t really impressed by the performance of the PlayStation 3. The performance isn’t really there yet in many cases and they say that both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 don’t have enough horsepower to run state-of-the-art PC games like Crysis. Game developers say they are disappointed because they aren’t able to do what they’ve planned to do.

However, Sony’s president Ken Kutaragi is still confident they will reach their shipment targets and he even points out the console is "probably too cheap".

In the meantime, Microsoft owns 100 percent of the next-generation console market and it’s up to Sony and Nintendo to steal marketshare from the Xbox 360 console.

via dvhardware.

The parents of a 13-year-old Chinese boy who they say jumped to his death from a tall building after playing one of the popular "Warcraft" online games for 36 hours straight are suing its Chinese distributor, a news report said Friday.

Zhang Xiaoyi died on Dec. 27, 2004, leaving behind a suicide note saying he wanted "to join the heroes of the game he worshipped," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

It said Zhang’s parents, who live in Tianjin, just east of Beijing, are seeking 100,000 yuan ($12,500) from Aomeisoft, the Chinese distributor of "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans."

The suit says Aomeisoft failed to include a warning that the game’s U.S. maker rates it as suitable only for players above age 13, according to Xinhua.

The Warcraft games are made by Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of Paris-based Vivendi Universal SA. Xinhua said a Tianjin court rejected a claim by the parents against the game maker.

The vice president of Aomeisoft, Bai Jie, told The Associated Press that he saw news reports about the lawsuit but that the company hasn’t received any official court notice.

Bai said Zhang’s parents were suing the wrong company, because Aomeisoft was set up in August, eight months after his death. Bai said he didn’t know which distributor sold the game in 2004.

China has 111 million Internet users, second only to the United States. It is one of the world’s biggest markets for online games, with tens of millions of players, many of whom hunker down for hours in front of PCs in public Internet cafes.

But the government has expressed concern about the violence and sexual content of some games. It has imposed curfews and time limits on children in Internet cafes and banned them near schools.

Also Friday, a newspaper said the Beijing city government has launched a review of the Chinese capital’s 1,007 licensed Internet cafes to ensure they are complying with rules on admitting minors.

Violators could lose their licenses, the China Daily said.

The Associated Press.

For years, Hollywood has talked about the supposed convergence of films and video games. And for years, the primary results have been low-budget movies based on games, and uninspired games based on films.

On Tuesday, Blizzard Entertainment, a leading game developer, hopes to reverse that trend as it plans to announces a deal with Legendary Pictures, a major Warner Brothers affiliate, to make a big-budget "Lord of the Rings"-style live-action film based on Blizzard’s wildly popular Warcraft series.

The Warcraft franchise began with a relatively simple real-time strategy game in 1994, but the latest installment, the online role-playing game World of Warcraft, has become the most successful video game in the world. World of Warcraft now has more than six million paying subscribers and is on track to generate more than $1 billion in subscription revenue this year.

Tuesday’s announcement would come as the video game industry descends on Los Angeles for its top annual convention, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Later this week, Blizzard is expected to announce details about an expansion pack for World of Warcraft, called the Burning Crusade.

Many details of the film deal remained unsettled or undisclosed on Monday, including the choice of director, cast, the planned release date and the exact budget (rarely a firm number in the movie business anyway). But Blizzard and Legendary appeared united in wanting the project to be a major departure from Hollywood’s undistinguished record in turning games into films.

Formed last year with $500 million in financing from a consortium of Wall Street investors, Legendary signed a deal with Warner Brothers to co-produce and jointly finance at least 25 films over five years. Legendary’s first film, "Batman Begins," directed by Christopher Nolan, was released last year to mostly favorable reviews. Other Legendary projects include the coming "Superman Returns" and M. Night Shyamalan’s "Lady in the Water."

via NYT.