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Sony Appoints Kaz Hirai as President and CEO

Sam Naylor — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:30:18 +0000

More CEO news, this time being Kazuo Hirai- who has been moved up the chain to President and CEO of Sony.

Filling the boots of Sir Howard Stringer, Hirai will move up from being head of Sony’s Computer Entertainment division to the position of President and CEO. Stringer will move to a new position as Chairman of the board.

Kazuo Hirai did a bit of brown-nosing on his way up, of course:

Challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position.

Hirai will officially start his new job on the 1st of April. Commence fool’s day jokes now.

Dead Island Infects PS Home With Exclusive Content

Chris Carlson — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:28:10 +0000

Deep Silver and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced today that shortly before its release Dead Island will also appear on PlayStation Home. Players will get an exclusive opportunity to further deepen their Dead Island experience through Home’s Total Game Integration campaign.

Just like the co-op mode in Dead Island this mini game can be played with up to 4 players in different play styles. There are 10 mini-game challenges associated with the game and users who complete all 10 will be awarded with an exclusive in-game weapon “Exploding Meat”.

Players can also have their photo taken with a zombie or take a zombie survival survey where they can prove their knowledge of the undead and earn 4 free PlayStation Home rewards.

Certain items will only be obtained through this PlayStation Home event. Each week will introduce more levels and unlockable content including a premium PlayStation Home reward “Exploding Zombie Outfit” for players that pre-order Dead Island directly from Home Square and the aforementioned “Exploding Meat”, a powerful weapon for use in Dead Island that can only be acquired by surviving the PlayStation Home onslaught.

PlayStation Home users will also be able to pre-order Dead Island through a themed kiosk directly from the Home Square.

Kaz Hirai (President of Sony Computer Entertainment) Steps Aside

Justin McCullough — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:00:48 +0000

Effective September 1st of this year, Kaz Hirai – the previous CEO and president of Sony Computer Entertainment International – has stepped aside to usher in a new era for the company. One led by the former SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) president and CEO Andrew House.

Mr. Hirai will still be involved with the company, and will take on a new role as the SCEI chairman. The current chairman Akira Sato will retire from the role effective August 31, 2011.

Playstation creator Ken Kutaragi has stepped down from the honorary chairman position with SCEI as of yesterday, and will remain in a senior technology advisory role within Sony.

SCEE executive vice-president and co-COO Jim Ryan will take over the void left by Andrew House as the SCEE president and CEO of the Europe division.

“In fiscal 2010, we achieved profitability for the first time in five years as a result of group-wide united efforts, including continuous cost reduction for PS3 in which I first took the initiative after assuming President of SCEI in December 2006,” said Kaz Hirai.

“We are facing new challenges this year, such as the successful launch of PlayStation Vita and further growth of PS3 platform as well as expansion of non-gaming business. I’m confident that the skills and expertise Andy has gained over two decades working for Sony and SCE Group will contribute enormously in leading the PlayStation business and to bring new initiatives in managing the business in the networked era.”

“Since returning to SCE two years ago, I have focused on further expanding our business in the European/PAL territories and regaining our market leadership there,” said Mr. House on his new position.

“It is both an honour and a privilege to be named as President and Group CEO at SCEI. I believe there is huge potential for further growth of our business globally, and I’m looking forward to working with everyone in the SCE Group and with other groups in Sony to help achieve this potential by pursuing the creation of brand new user experiences.”

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the great support from third party game developers and publishers and particularly to the wonderful creators all over the world,” said Akira Sato on his retirement.

“Without the great content from a wide spectrum of genres made by third party game developers and publishers, as well as SCE Worldwide Studios, PlayStation would not be where it is now.”

So do you guys see this as a huge game-changer for Sony that will lead us into a new era? Or just more of this “corporate suit-speak” bullshit that means nothing to us because a few people moved around in a company?

It just goes to show how passionate we as gamers are; that you guys actually want to read this. And I’ll prove it to you. Do you know who the CEO of Coca-Cola is? What about CBS or Fox? If I laid out a few names and told you would you be able to pick out which one is right? I honestly have no idea who the CEO’s of those companies are, but I can tell you Andrew House is the new Sony Computer Entertainment International CEO, Satoru Iwata is with Nintendo, and Microsoft has Steve Ballmer. I guess we’ll have to see how this move pans out.

Activision and Sony Could be Forced to Cease Investment in UK Games Economy

Sam Naylor — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:21:21 +0000

More news from the UK games industry has hit our inbox this morning, with the news that the removal of tax relief for the UK games industry could cause both Activision Blizzard and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to think much more carefully about investing in the UK games economy.

“The UK video games industry is not competing on a level playing field,” said Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA. “Our key competitors have tax breaks for video games production. No such tax break exists in the UK. TIGA’s Games Tax Relief would put the UK on a level playing field. If Games Tax Relief is introduced then the UK will be open for business for the crucial knowledge industry of video game development. Games Tax Relief will stimulate investment, business growth and the creation of highly skilled jobs. Without Games Tax Relief, the UK faces a serious risk of losing out on millions of pounds of investment.”

Activision has spoken up on the subject, with head honcho Bobby Kotick saying that “For us to continue to invest in the UK there needs to be an incentive provided for us to do so… The talent pool in the UK is among the best in the world for what we do. But we really need to see some more incentives. We are seeing great incentives in Canada, Singapore and eastern bloc countries.”

Sony have echoed this statement: “The existing plans will continue but any further new developments would have to be looked at. Maybe something that was planned for the UK would go abroad now,” said Ray Maguire, Sony Computer Entertainment’s UK managing director.

Activision employs over 700 people in the UK, and Sony over 1,200. Without proper relief for the games industry in the UK we could see a lot of those jobs lost for cheaper ones in countries that do have tax relief, most notably Canada.

Buy a PSP Go, Get 10 Free Games in UK (3 in US)

Sam Naylor — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:16:49 +0000

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe are desperately trying to kickstart sales of the PSP Go by offering ten free games to anyone who purchases a PSP Go from the 9th of June. The promo is available to anyone who purchased a PSP Go after April 1 as well, however. The offer will last for “a limited time.”

The ten games you’ll be getting are as follows:

* Assassins Creed: BloodlinesTM (Ubisoft)
* Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar Games)
* Gran TurismoTM (SCE WWS)
* James Cameron’s AVATARTM: The Game (Ubisoft)
* LittleBigPlanetTM (SCE WWS)
* MotorStorm® Arctic Edge (SCE WWS)
* NEED FOR SPEED SHIFT (EA)
* Pursuit ForceTM: Extreme Justice (SCE WWS)
* 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaTM (EA)
* WipEout® Pure (SCE WWS)

Not a bad selection, but really for the price of the PSP Go you’d expect it. I never thought Sony would ever be able to sell the system at the ridiculous price point.

To get hold of the games Sony sets out the slightly-overcomplicated process as follows:

The process is simple. First, unwrap your shiny new PSPgo and connect to PlayStation®Network . Then launch PlayStation Store to download the new PSPgo theme. We’ll then email you a voucher code so you can start downloading your ten free games and enjoy!

If you can read past the PR speak, it’s not that bad, but it still seems silly to have to download a theme to get a code to download the games.

UPDATE It appears that American readers will be able to get three free games with their PSP Go.

Europe Gets Heavy Rain Demo February 11th, US Same Day?

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:46:57 +0000

The Heavy Rain demo that likely kept Sony and Quantic Dream developers tossing and turning at night, as they tried to find the right mix of gameplay that best summed up what the game is about, has finally received a release date confirmation of February 11th on the EU PlayStation Store.

Mike Kebby, a member of the Sony PlayStation Store management team, confirmed the above information in a post on the Official EU PlayStation Blog, and though a US demo date has not been mentioned as of yet, many are speculating that it will hit the same time as the US (Feb 23rd) and EU (Feb 26th) release dates for the full game are only three days apart.

[Source: EU PlayStation Blog]

GameDaily: “Epic Fail” LBP Scores “Sucky” 9.0

Chad Lakkis — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:23:50 +0000

Does anyone remember the GameDaily “Epic Fail: Games that will Probably Suck” list, because I sure as hell do. In fact, I probably went a little overboard in my response to their calling LittleBigPlanet a “glorified version of PowerPoint” with a future full of “crap content”.

Well, I guess that old PowerPoint presentation finally won them over, because they gave the Media Molecule IP a 9.0 “Excellent” score. Here’s a snippet of what they had to say:

“Until recently, we had trouble enjoying Sony’s ambitious PlayStation 3 video game, LittleBigPlanet. Its mascot, the adorable Sackboy, was shoved down our throats, and the level editor failed to thrill … Now our heads are full of grinning Sackboys, previously completed levels and our own designs. We’re hooked.”

“Buy LittleBigPlanet or we’ll kick you in your Sackboy.”

See, with a little less crystal ball gazing and a little more hands-on play time, even GameDaily was able to realize the “epic fail” error of their ways. I’m not sure threatening to kick people in their “Sackboy” will get them back in the good graces of MM, but it may be a good way to work off all that crow they must be eating right about now.

Sony Scoop on MAG, Resistance PSP, Infamous, and Socom Confrontation Trophies

Chad Lakkis — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:08:43 +0000

A trusted source has let Ripten in on some information regarding the status of several high profile Sony titles on the horizon, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to take a break from my LittleBigPlanet fun-fest and fill you all in.

For starters, all you third person military shooter fans out there will be happy to hear that, after months of play testing, Socom Confrontation will be getting the patch treatment as well as some eagerly anticipated trophies very soon.

And remember that MAG title we all got a glimpse at during Sony’s E3 press conference? You know, the “massive action game” capable of supporting up to 256 players. Well, the word is that the pre-alpha is already being play tested, and the game should be nearing its alpha stage of testing soon.

That brings us to the new IP from Sucker Punch, makers of Sly Cooper. Yes, we’re talking about the super hero action game titled Infamous. No specifics were revealed in terms of gameplay, but we’ve been told that testing has begun on this title as well.

Finally, our source tells us that the Resistance PSP title is being play tested with less than favorable feedback thus far. We’re pretty sure that Sony’s portable fanboy division won’t be happy to hear this, but it’s still early — and regardless of how it fares — its console big brother, Resistance 2, is primed to kick some serious ass.

LittleBigPlanet Patch Removes Offensive Qur’an Lyrics, 57MB Download on PSN Now

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:24:54 +0000

Many of us believed that the recent delay of Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet was meant to allow for a recall, reprinting, and redistribution of the game after what some deemed to be offensive lyrics were brought to the attention of Sony.

While this may still be the case, it is also possible that the move to recall the game was nothing more than Sony’s way to ensure the impending LBP patch would be approved and accessible on PSN before the exclusive PlayStation 3 title hit stores.

Assuming you are one of the ~~foolish~~ fortunate individuals who bid their bi-weekly paycheck on Ebay for a copy of Sackboy’s debut IP, you can log into PSN and download the 57MB patch right now. Everyone else will benefit from the automatic update on November 5th.

Source: Neogaff (via CVG)

[UPDATE] – After speaking with our own Patrick Steen, who is playing the US release of the game, we have confirmation that the patch currently only applies to the EU version and that a US patch has yet to be released.

[UPDATE 10/26/08] – The US patch is now available for download.

Metacritic Founder Talks About LittleBigPlanet Low User Score, Fanboys, and the Site’s Future

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:05:11 +0000

After reading about the suspiciously low Metacritic user score of 6.3 for Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, I decided to dig into the story a little deeper. For those unfamiliar with the situation, allow me to fill you in.

Metacritic, who by and large is considered the main source for aggregated scoring on the web, offers two score flavors (one for critics and one for users). This is the case across most sites. The problem is, when you are considered the “go to” resource for pretty much anything, there’s a chance that people will make a big deal out of something on your site that they would normally overlook on another.

That said, this specific instance pertains to the scores currently presented on Metacritic for the LittleBigPlanet game. The first, a 9.5 at the time of this article, represents the aggregated score based on several well accepted gaming review sites such as GamePro, IGN, and EuroGamer. The second, more controversial score, is a 6.3, and is compiled via the average score given by a pool of 2,225 user votes.

Gaming news site N4G, which pulls related news from various websites around the web, features a blog post titled “Fanboys pull LittleBigPlanet’s Metacritic score down”, discussing this very topic. Reading some of the furious responses to the score piqued my interest, so I visited the Metacritic site to see first hand what all the fuss was about. Clicking on the “Read user comments” link near the overall user score brings you to the bottom of the page, where the following statement by Marc Doyle, the sites founder, awaits:

“My advice for our faithful users is to focus your attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game. This is a gaming community, and if people want to stuff the ballot box, there’s not much I can do at this point. When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won’t happen. We’ll post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game’s release. As always, thanks for using the site.”

This prompted me to contact Marc directly in order to get a more complete picture of the situation from his end. Specifically, I felt that gamers would want some clarity regarding the portion of his comment stating that most of the user reviews submitted for LBP were made “before said users [had] played the game.”

Firstly, I wanted to know if he would consider eliminating user reviews submitted before the full release of the game, i.e. reviews clearly submitted based on the open beta alone, or even worse, no experience with the game at all, to which he responded:

” … we won’t be clearing those old scores from LBP when it launches, but we will only post reviews from people who have clearly played the game. All the reviews from fanboys and haters who haven’t played it will just be left out. That is true for all products on Metacritic. Humans actually read all of those user reviews (so we can delete profanity, spoilers, etc.), and those humans are told not to post reviews from people who clearly haven’t played the game.”

He then added that the burden of proof they demand from users submitting reviews prior to a game’s release date is be much higher than those doing so after the fact.

Slightly confused, I asked Marc for some clarification as to how the game could have such a low score, if his team was manually looking over each user review submitted. He stated:

“All the [numeric] scores “count” in the overall user average and total votes tally, but we only post a subset of those as [written] user reviews.”

When talking about the future of the site, as well as other things they are doing to help eliminate this type of fanboy nonsense in the future, Marc had the following to say:

“There will be a Metacritic re-design in the future (can’t say exactly when), and as a part of that process, we’re going to beef up our user registration and community functions so that “stuffing the ballot box” won’t be nearly as easy.

The original idea behind allowing users to write user reviews (and vote on them) was to allow those people (like me) who see advanced screenings of movies and sometimes play games ahead of their true release date to write reviews and have them posted on Metcritic. That’s still the case now.

Over the years, people have, by and large, not exploited the fact that you can vote early. Only recently have people started voting en masse for (and against) games like they’ve done with LBP.

Metacritic’s primary “product” is the Metascore, which is the weighted average of scores from professional critics. We include user reviews for obvious reasons, but because that score can never be 100% reliable, it’s given secondary importance on the site. For example, you can’t sort or search by user scores for any products. That will likely change with the redesign.”

Marc obviously has a solid understanding of the space, its evolution, and the challenges that lie ahead. The fact of matter though, is that currently, anyone can visit Metacritic and leave an abnormally low user score, skewing the average, without necessarily saying anything of value at all. I asked him if this was something the site would be revisiting in the immediate future.

” … nothing should change in this regard until we do the redesign. That tally will remain a raw tally, and only the printed user reviews will be “vetted” as useful reviews from people that we think actually played the game … “

He closed the topic by adding that the specifics of “whatever [they] do with the voting system moving forward [have] yet to be established.”

With October 27th just around the corner, LittleBigPlanet is four LittleBigDays away from being officially released. So while the current 6.3 Metacritic user score has been getting most of the attention on the net, I (like Marc himself), kindly ask that you shift your focus to the 95 out of a 100 Metacritic score the game is receiving from the mainstream media. Everything else will sort itself out in due time.

LittleBigPlanet Mini Billboards Being Sold on Ebay

Chad Lakkis — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:15:26 +0000

Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet is proving that little is not only the new big (as the mini billboard shown above cleverly states), it’s also the new entrepreneurial cash cow.

While early copies of the game have been selling on Ebay for upwards of $150, the demand for everything Sackboy doesn’t end there. Miniature LittleBigPlanet billboards (which I must admit look pretty cool) are surfacing on Ebay with starting bids of around $35.

This is not good people. I’m afraid that the rush of attention may eventually overwhelm a young Sackboy, causing him to become emotionally withdrawn in his later years. Do you really want to see a reality TV show thirty years from now staring an overweight and drug addicted Sackman, sitting on a couch, sharing child star stories with Gary Coleman and Corey Haim? I didn’t think so.

Check out a few more of the LBP billboards after the jump.

Sony LBP Delay Not Favoritism, Just Business

Chad Lakkis — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:01:57 +0000

LittleBigResistance: Delay of Sackboy

The recent controversy surrounding Sony’s decision to delay the release of LittleBigPlanet, over a Qur’an reference made in one of the tracks, has many gamers flexing their memory muscle in an attempt to illustrate a double standard.

The belief is that Sony’s 2006 decision to essentially ignore the Church of England’s request asking for the removal of the Manchester Cathedral from their Resistance: Fall of man game, paired with the company’s recent willingness to comply to the perceived wishes of a Muslim community, demonstrates favoritism.

Several prime examples appear as comments appended to Kotaku’s recent post regarding the recall. Here are excerpts from a few of my favorites:

“Where’s the balls you had when it came to standing up to the Church of England, Sony?? Fuck you and your double standard, you bastards.” - Lachoy

“Sony, clearly, not willing to lift a finger to defend Western values or preserve our sensibilities, but willing to bend over backward to appease Islamic twits. They take our market for granted.” - rateoforange

To all those bringing up the Church of Manchester incident as a valid analogy: where the fuck have you been for the past 15 years? Stop thinking in absolute terms: “Christians are OK with it, so Muslims should be too.” Yes, there is a double standard here, and no, it’s not the end of the world. - Antiterra

This got me thinking about the two scenarios from a pure business standpoint. Armed with only an opinion, my belief is that Sony isn’t demonstrating favoritism, rather they are making what they believe to be sound business decisions based on a bottom line mentality.

While opinions are nice, I realized that any level of convincing was going to require more than a hunch. I needed proof that the cost of a potential Cathedral replacement would drastically exceed those associated with the recent LittleBigPlanet delay.

Our own Dan Landis, who followed the 2006 Cathedral incident closer than I, was quick to point out one glaring difference: the Church’s complaint was brought to the attention of Sony after the game had already been released for several months. However, for the sake of illustrating my point, we’ll assume both concerns were voiced prior to each game’s release.

The first thing I wanted to figure out was how much it would cost for a team of developers, in terms of salary, to make a new level to replace the Cathedral, had Sony decided to pull it from the game. In order to do that, I needed a rough development time frame. The best answer I found appeared in a June 2006 GameSpot interview with Insomniac CEO, Ted Price.

GameSpot: How long has the game been in development?

Ted Price: We’ve been in production on Resistance: Fall of Man for several months now and were in preproduction for a long time before that. How’s that for a vague answer?

Alright Ted, I’ll go with it. Let’s assume “several months” adds up to six, and “a long time before that” represents about two years. Combine those numbers with the six months time separating the interview and the game’s release and you get three years.

Next, I needed to get some gaming related salary information. I came across a website which outlined ballpark salaries for the most common gaming industry positions utilizing data submitted via a Game Makers Salary Survey. Insomniac’s official site lists the company at one hundred and eighty plus employees strong, so I took a reasonable chunk of that head count and created decent sized team with the basic structure and pay scale outlined in the survey.

The estimate I reached for one month of development time, from a pure salary perspective, totaled $250,000. Taking that number and multiplying it by three years time adds up to $9 million in total cost. Whether this number is accurate or not, it is in line with the quote given by Epic VP, Mark Rein, in a 2007 Wired Game|Life interview regarding the estimated cost to produce Gears of War.

“We spent less than $10 million to make Gears of War. Somewhere between nine and ten million dollars.”

Granted, this may be a low estimate, but it will serve its purpose. Compiling everything I gathered, the hypothetical Resistance replacement level would cost $500,000 with a two month cap on development time.

Assuming the Cathedral itself took about the same time to create, that would be a total loss of $1 million to appease the Church of England. Therefore, had the request been made one week prior to the game’s release, it’s my belief, based on the business reality outlined above, that the change would not have been made.

LittleBigPlanet’s delay consists of an audio track modification, recalled product, and a reprint of the game. Using a baseline of one million copies, at a printing rate of 10 cents per unit (estimated and discounted based on a rate offered to consumers for a similar service), brings the total cost for reprinting to $100,000. Adding a generous amount for product recall and audio rework yields a result less than one-fifth the amount predicted for Resistance.

So while the LittleBigPlanet delay is complex in its own right, I hope the information provided here helps at least a few gamers consider business logic, not favoritism, as a deciding factor.

Afterthought: Do you think that Sony is at fault for playing favorites here, or do you think the entire thing is getting blow out of proportion? Does the game’s delay effect your decision to buy/not buy the game? Share your thoughts below.

Eight Days: The Lost Development Footage

Patrick Steen — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:05:37 +0000

Remember Eight Days? Sony London’s cover shooter that was making waves in 2005? Come early 2008 we believed the game was entering full production. Come mid-2008, the game was cancelled and later replaced with…EyePet. Now all that’s left of Eight Days is the lost development footage found floating on youtube.

The game’s supposed Animation Director has uploaded a test level demonstrating the game character’s basic navigation. The animation system is clearly impressive, being fluid yet responsive and even displaying similarities to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Sadly, this developer was none too pleased with the game’s cancellation:

The London studio decided to shift its focus from ‘hard core’ games to ‘lifestyle’ games and [...] Eight Days did not fit into the budget for the next financial year.

To be honest, it would have been easier to accept it’s cancellation if the game wasn’t very good.

Sigh.

[youtube width="480" height="378"]http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=KqKGyU2s1R8[/youtube]

LittleBigPaycheck: Earn Sackboys of Cash for User-Created LBP Content … Eventually

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:15:19 +0000

It appears that you will have the opportunity to earn a few bucks via the sale of your user-created LittleBigPlanet content — assuming the stuff you create actually sells. David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, was quoted saying:

“What we’re trying to do with LittleBigPlanet is almost iTunes meets eBay in the sense that once an individual or a developer has qualified by producing certain levels or certain add-ons, they will then be able in the future to exchange these and make money out of them … Eventually, it’s feasible that you might well see the first LittleBigPlanet millionaire!”

The key words of course being “future” and “eventually”. In an apparent effort to prevent consumer confusion, Sony issued a follow up statement to the one above, stating:

“SCEE and Media Molecule can guarantee that all consumer-generated content will be free at launch.”

So, while the notion of profiting from something you enjoy sounds great, it appears you won’t be stuffing your Sackboy with cash right away.

Sources: ps3fanboy.com, eurogamer.net

New Killzone 2 Footage and Screenshots

Patrick Steen — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:17:30 +0000

Although Guerilla Game’s love child has been delayed until 2009, most likely to avoid big name titles like Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2, SCEE’s Playstation day brought us the rare treat of real Killzone 2 gameplay footage.

First off, how about a spangley new trailer?

What we really want is a full run through of the playable demo, and so we can share Jeuxvideo’s off-screen footage with you here.

If you want to gawk at some 720p gameplay footage, Gamersyde will fulfil your needs at this link.

Mirror’s Edge Gameplay Video

Roly Reyes — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:22:34 +0000

Just concept art– but check below for gameplay footage.

Yesterday, at Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe’s Playstation Day Thingy, DICE showed off the first bit of real-time gameplay from Mirror’s Edge.

The best way to describe it I think would be as a first person take on the Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed school of platforming, Freerunning/Parkour, if you will.

While playing through Assassin’s Creed, it wasn’t the story or the annoying lack of variety in objectives that kept me playing through until the end. It was the paradigm-shifting evolution in platforming that it introduced. The feeling of freedom by virtue of really being able to go anywhere and climb anything within the set space that was given to me is something that even Grand Theft Auto IV isn’t capable of.

The footage released yesterday, found here in HD, unequivocally put it near the top of my most anticipated games of the year.

[youtube width="480" height="378"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg7-DDnRpXk&fmt=18[/youtube]

As stated in the video, it’s all real-time and all gameplay. It looks so seamless and functional that the wait for a demo or even a solid release date is pretty unbearable. Thus far, all we have is a late ’08 guesstimation for PC, PS3, and 360.

Thanks to Kotaku for the concept art.

PS3 Lifetime Sales Match Xbox 360 in France

Patrick Steen — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:27:50 +0000

Sacre Bleu! We’re sinking!

December was the last we heard of the lifetime sales of the next generation of consoles in France. We were given the figures 270,000 for the Playstation 3 and 500,000 for the Xbox 360. According to the French newspaper Les Echoes, the Playstation 3′s lifetime sales have since doubled.

Microsoft announced in December that they had sold 500,000 Xbox 360s in France since the console was released, and Jeux France filled in the gaps for the PS3 and Wii, placing them at 270,000 and 1,100,000 units sold respectively.

It is now been divulged that Jeux France’s estimate for PS3 sales were either inaccurate, or that the PS3 has sold more than the same amount in the holiday period.

According to Les Echoes, who reported Microsoft’s sales announcement, the PS3 has sold 563,000 units, compared to the Xbox 360′s 589,000 as of this month. Although the Xbox 360 leads in these numbers, Microsoft’s console was released over a year before Sony’s offering. These numbers are supposedly from the Gfk Institute, suggesting that Sony’s price drop considerably narrowed the gap during the holiday season.

It’s surprising that this could happen so soon, but with a statement from SCEE’s vice president George Fornay, this jump in sales is explained:

By selling, on average, three times more PS3 than Xbox 360 a week, it took precedence over Microsoft

Always defiant, Microsoft responds with the fact that the Xbox 360 still leads in lifetime sales:

Sony is in catch-up mode, but we are still the market leader, according to our data, even in France.

After the price drop, Europe has really taken to the Playstation 3, barring the UK, and with sales like they are in France, Les Echoes claims that the PS3 will double the Xbox 360′s sales in the coming weeks. I’m not so sure about that.

Source: Xbox Mag

The Club Demo on European Playstation Store

Patrick Steen — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:40:56 +0000

That’s right. No rest for the wicked during the holiday period. At least not in Euro land. There’s been a mini update with a surprise appearance.

The US Store is taking a break this week and a well deserved one, since last weeks update was bursting. But to keep us impatient folks happy SCEE have provided three gifts on the European Playstation Store:

Snakeball Demo (free)
The Club demo (free)
Super Stardust HD demo (and free Upgrade)

It’s about time we saw a Super Stardust HD demo. Being one of the best PSN games, it’ll now have a chance to sell itself. In addition, if you already have the full game, then downloading the demo will upgrade it to join the rumbling ranks and Custom Soundtrack supporters. Hopefully this is a sign that the clan support update that we spied a couple of weeks ago will be on its way soon.

Seeing The Club was a surprise, especially since it’s landed in Europe and on the Playstation 3 first. Weighing in at 1.7GB, it’s quite beefy. How juicy it is, we’ll let you know.