PlayStation 4

Advanced sales for Sony Corp.’s MAG for the Playstation 3 increased at retailer Amazon.com post release of the beta demo to the Playstation Network.
On Tues., MAG held a 47 percent sales increase to rank at No. 200 in Amazon’s Video Games division.

Sony on Jan. 4 released the MAG Beta demo to PSN. The demo includes the 64-player Sabotage and 256-player Domination mode. Developed by Zipper Interactive, MAG is a 256-player massive online multiplayer shooter.

The title will include online teams and three distinct PMCs to choose from.

Amazon is offering a $10 Video Games Credit and pre-order bonus with each advanced purchase.

The title holds a sale price of $56.99.

TechRadar’s latest poll suggests that twice as many readers would like to get their hands on a PlayStation 4 than they would the next iteration of the Xbox – although neither console was the top result, as we asked which future gadget you would like to get your hands on.

With nearly 3,000 votes cast, it was gaming machines that picked up the big votes, with 35 per cent opting for a next-next-gen console.

But top, with 22 per cent of the vote, was the ‘pen that’s also a flying car’ option that we put in as a joke.

Bunch of realists

Leaving that option aside, the other votes are still illuminating (and not least that anyone would NOT want a pen that’s a flying car).

With the PlayStation 4 a creditable second (and a lot more feasible than the pen) polling a fifth of all votes, it was nearly double its rival the Xbox 720 – which picked up 11 per cent.

That was still good enough for third place, unlike the Wii 2’s four per cent of the vote – suggesting that our readers are hard-core gamers rather than casual ones.

For gamers it’s a little early to start thinking about the PlayStation 4 as for many the PS3 Slim was the real introduction of the console at an acceptable price point and more manageable size. But Sony has to consider what console will replace it even if that is three or more years away.

Industry watchers are always speculating as to what is happening internally at the games divisions for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. The latest rumors and speculation suggest Sony may not use the Cell processor in the PS4. That information comes courtesy of Hiroshige Goto, technology writer for Japanese publication Impress Watch.

It is thought Sony is considering alternatives to Cell due to feedback it received from developers about the PS3 architecture. It was clear to see that producing games for PS3 was a struggle to begin with due to the new challenges the architecture posed. Early games clearly looked better and ran faster on the Xbox 360, which had a more friendly architecture. Goto had previously informed his readers that Sony were looking at Intel’s Larrabee as an alternative or a modified Cell solution which introduced an SPU2 for hardware caching. This would allow programmers to treat the Cell more like a typical PC processor.

Now Goto is saying that Larrabee has been dismissed as a poor performer for both processing and power consumption. Instead the modified Cell is still under consideration, but next to a more mainstream multicore processor setup.

Gamers need not worry about saving up for a new console just yet. Goto also believes we won’t see anything from Microsoft or Sony before 2012 and that we should expect the PSP2 before then from Sony.

Read more at Andriasang

So many major franchises will see new installments in 2010 and while one of them won’t be Grand Theft Auto, we should certainly expect to see early details at some point.

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich believes we could see this info and media at E3 in June. In speaking to Game Informer, Divnich says he expects to hear about the latest and greatest from Rockstar and Take-Two in about six months, which means you can certainly expect a lot of build-up to that event if this is true. However, he doesn’t think we’ll see “any playable stuff” and that essentially, we should just expect a “teaser” of some sort, but for GTA fans, that’s plenty good enough. Divnich agrees with other analysts in saying this new GTA will certainly release in 2011 and adds an interesting bit of commentary regarding potential exclusivity deals:

“I don’t foresee Microsoft or Sony attempting to obtain any type of exclusivity with the next Grand Theft Auto. Microsoft paid a lot of money for exclusivity on the downloadable content for GTA IV, which unfortunately did little to move consoles for Microsoft. Back in 2004, Grand Theft Auto was a huge brand, but only relative to the other brands that existed at the time. While the GTA brand is certainly bigger now than it was five years ago, others have emerged to reach similar levels of success, such as Call of Duty or Guitar Hero. In other words, if Sony gets an exclusive deal on GTA V, it would do little to disrupt Microsoft’s ability to move hardware, and vice versa.”

Yeah, it seems exceedingly unlikely that after the multiplatform GTAIV, Take-Two would suddenly decide to go exclusive with GTAV. Even a timed exclusive deal could only hurt sales for them and besides, with the PS3 and Xbox 360 user bases so similar these days, it makes almost no sense for third-parties to go exclusive. Well, it might if the designer believes he can only create his vision on the PS3 because the 360 can’t quite handle it…

So many major franchises will see new installments in 2010 and while one of them won’t be Grand Theft Auto, we should certainly expect to see early details at some point.

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich believes we could see this info and media at E3 in June. In speaking to Game Informer, Divnich says he expects to hear about the latest and greatest from Rockstar and Take-Two in about six months, which means you can certainly expect a lot of build-up to that event if this is true. However, he doesn’t think we’ll see “any playable stuff” and that essentially, we should just expect a “teaser” of some sort, but for GTA fans, that’s plenty good enough. Divnich agrees with other analysts in saying this new GTA will certainly release in 2011 and adds an interesting bit of commentary regarding potential exclusivity deals:

“I don’t foresee Microsoft or Sony attempting to obtain any type of exclusivity with the next Grand Theft Auto. Microsoft paid a lot of money for exclusivity on the downloadable content for GTA IV, which unfortunately did little to move consoles for Microsoft. Back in 2004, Grand Theft Auto was a huge brand, but only relative to the other brands that existed at the time. While the GTA brand is certainly bigger now than it was five years ago, others have emerged to reach similar levels of success, such as Call of Duty or Guitar Hero. In other words, if Sony gets an exclusive deal on GTA V, it would do little to disrupt Microsoft’s ability to move hardware, and vice versa.”

Yeah, it seems exceedingly unlikely that after the multiplatform GTAIV, Take-Two would suddenly decide to go exclusive with GTAV. Even a timed exclusive deal could only hurt sales for them and besides, with the PS3 and Xbox 360 user bases so similar these days, it makes almost no sense for third-parties to go exclusive. Well, it might if the designer believes he can only create his vision on the PS3 because the 360 can’t quite handle it…

Game delays are not normally seen as a good thing, especially as far as the publishers are concerned. The latter group will purposely push a title if they don’t believe the estimated release window is optimal, but if the designer falls behind schedule, that’s when the relationship gets shaky.

But it certainly helps to have a publisher who is utterly and completely confident in the developer, so when the developer says, “hey, we need more time,” the intended distributors just say, “sure, you got it.” This apparently happened when Rocksteady Studios asked for three more months before launching Batman: Arkham Asylum. Warner Bros. and Eidos didn’t balk at the question at all and they freely granted the extra time. In speaking to Kotaku, Batman game director Sefton Hill said the publishers were “100% behind” the idea:

“We discussed it with Warner Brothers and Eidos and said, ‘Look, we believe we have a really good game here.’ What we all agreed to do at the outset was put the time in and make sure we deliver a game worthy of Batman. … [We] said what we really need to do here is spend this additional three months to make sure we tidy the game and deliver the game that we all set out to do. To give Eidos and Warner a lot of credit, they backed that 100%.”

The delay only turned out to be two months in length and gamers ended up with one of the best experiences of 2009. The idea that they pushed the game in order to rake in extra sales is untrue; they were “still working on it like crazy,” according to Hill. They were trying to finalize certain aspects of the project, like the game’s fluidity; you never see any loading screens when playing, do you? They also worked hard to make sure the frame rate was solid, too. Now, you can bet this bit of polish is likely what vaulted the game into the generation’s elite – and sales were excellent, too – so perhaps this little story will allow publishers to be more lenient with devs in the future.

Game delays are not normally seen as a good thing, especially as far as the publishers are concerned. The latter group will purposely push a title if they don’t believe the estimated release window is optimal, but if the designer falls behind schedule, that’s when the relationship gets shaky.

But it certainly helps to have a publisher who is utterly and completely confident in the developer, so when the developer says, “hey, we need more time,” the intended distributors just say, “sure, you got it.” This apparently happened when Rocksteady Studios asked for three more months before launching Batman: Arkham Asylum. Warner Bros. and Eidos didn’t balk at the question at all and they freely granted the extra time. In speaking to Kotaku, Batman game director Sefton Hill said the publishers were “100% behind” the idea:

“We discussed it with Warner Brothers and Eidos and said, ‘Look, we believe we have a really good game here.’ What we all agreed to do at the outset was put the time in and make sure we deliver a game worthy of Batman. … [We] said what we really need to do here is spend this additional three months to make sure we tidy the game and deliver the game that we all set out to do. To give Eidos and Warner a lot of credit, they backed that 100%.”

The delay only turned out to be two months in length and gamers ended up with one of the best experiences of 2009. The idea that they pushed the game in order to rake in extra sales is untrue; they were “still working on it like crazy,” according to Hill. They were trying to finalize certain aspects of the project, like the game’s fluidity; you never see any loading screens when playing, do you? They also worked hard to make sure the frame rate was solid, too. Now, you can bet this bit of polish is likely what vaulted the game into the generation’s elite – and sales were excellent, too – so perhaps this little story will allow publishers to be more lenient with devs in the future.

Estimates are always good but it’s better to have the official numbers. And not surprisingly, Final Fantasy XIII has caused PlayStation 3 sales in Japan to surge.

Square-Enix shipped nearly 2 million copies of the hotly anticipated RPG in the Land of the Rising Sun and according to early figures, more than half of those shipped units sold in the first 24 hours. Furthermore, because the game is only available for the PS3 in Japan, everyone expected FFXIII to put PS3 sales through the roof. Now, according to Joystiq citing the most recent Media Create statistics, we learn that FFXIII has topped the 1.5 million mark (1,501,964), which is more than double the life-to-date totals of the next-closest PS3 title in terms of sales (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots). It only took four days to top the total of MGS4 sales so far! And as far as PS3 sales go- the week before FFXIII’s release, Sony sold 75,086 units in Japan and after the release, sales leaped to 237,086, which translates to a 216% spike. Remember, you likely won’t be seeing a similar ratio in North America, primarily because FFXIII will be available for both the PS3 and Xbox 360, meaning those who only own the latter console won’t have to purchase the PS3 to play Square-Enix’s latest and greatest. Some don’t like that idea but at least it’s an exclusive in Japan, and Sony should appreciate that.

The idea that at some point around half of all PS3 owners in Japan will own FFXIII is just downright mind-boggling. That kind of widespread popularity is totally insane.

We know many of you have bitten your nails down to the quick and lost countless nights’ sleep fretting about whether or not your PS3 will support the just-ratified 3D Blu-ray standard.

Well, you’re about to get your back-scratchers back, because it will. You won’t need to do anything to their consoles, either – all you’ll need is a 3D-compatible display.

It might seem odd that it’s so easy, but it’ll work because the 3D spec is only an extension to the existing format. So if you don’t have the 3D display, the new discs will still play in good old 2D.

And when you do finally upgrade to something that can display the discs properly, you’ll find that they play in glorious 1080p Full HD. Lovely!