Tag Archives: scea

SCEA has announced that it has seen a 70 percent growth in sales for PS3 when compared to October 2008, making it “the only console to experience significant growth year over year”.

According to a statement from Sony, October also marked the “highest month of revenue on record for the PlayStation Store, with downloads increasing 60 percent over October 2008.” To date, more than 650 million bits of content have been downloaded worldwide and there are more than 31 million registered users for PSN.

“Many believe a console race is a 100-meter dash, but it’s really a marathon. The PS3′s ten-year lifecycle is clear testament of Sony’s commitment to providing entertainment value to consumers,” said EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich. “PS3’s growth in recent months is a perfect example of how a new low price along with upcoming innovative, exclusive titles such as MAG, Gran Turismo 5 and God of War III, will act as large catalysts for driving the PS3′s install base even higher.

“Add in the robust offerings on the PlayStation Network and there’s no doubt that PS3′s success will continue well throughout 2010, and beyond.”

Sony received 17 nominations for the 2009 Spike Videogame Awards today which according to the company is “more than any other first or third party publisher”.

Siliconera‘s happened upon a new-ish (it was filed back in April) Sony patent that commandeers the rights to an interactive television interface not unlike that of Mystery Science Theater 3000. So basically, your avatar appears on-screen during a movie or TV show, leading to all sorts of wacky hijinks.

“For example, avatars displayed to a user, in response to user gestures in the real world, e.g. in response to manipulation of a game controller or other such expedient, may toss tomatoes that stick to the actor’s face or bounce off the actor’s face and roll along a table that appears in the movie or television show,” reads the patent.

Tomato-throwing? Yeesh – how juvenile. Count us in!

Also in the cards is a minigame that involves shooting spiders off actors faces, as well as ad-sponsored activities like, er, tossing Coca Cola cans at actors instead of tomatoes.

If anyone asks about the bruises, Keanu Reeves, you fell down the stairs. Got it? Yeah, that’s what we thought.

More through the link.

Is that a squad of Navy Seals in your pocket, or are you just happy to see us? Oh, you say SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 on the PSP’s been delayed until January 12, 2010? Hm. Well, this is awkward.

“It’s looking and playing great…some high value visual assets have only recently been made available to global marketing and we have decided to move the release and allow time to get the word out to everyone,” said senior producer Mark Rogers on the PlayStation Blog.

“I understand that this move is disappointing to some in the community, however as a result, you will be seeing a lot more of SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 in the following weeks! – stay tuned.”

So that’s that.

According to The Age, PSPgo managed to move only 1,000 units in Australia on its launch week.

Michael Ephraim, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, told the publication that first week sales were “not under 1000 but it’s slightly over 1000″ units.

“Clearly we haven’t done massive numbers but it’s not something that we’re concerned about … because there are still some issues that we need to work through,” added Ephraim.

More on GI.

Sony’s pumped about its September PS3 sales in the US. So much so, in fact, that boss Jack Tretton has claimed the company is changing the shape of “entertainment” as a whole.

“We are in the midst of one of the most exciting times for PlayStation as we continue to redefine entertainment experiences for consumers, both at home and on the go,” Tretton said, pointing to the price drop for the Playstation 3 and the release of the PSPgo.

“We’ve made unprecedented strides in digital and mobile entertainment with the availability of PSPgo.”

He added: “The best part is that we’ve only just begun an onslaught of relentless, rich content hitting throughout the fiscal year, including Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, God of War III, MAG, and ModNation Racers.”

“Relentless” is a great word. Get all the rest of the NPD news here. Thanks, Kotaku.

SCEA’s Jack Tretton’s told Forbes that Sony’s PS3 Slim gamble has paid off, with the console revamp resulting in “sky-rocketing sales… We couldn’t be happier with the numbers we’re seeing.”

Tretton added that he sees Sony as a greater risk-taker than Nintendo.

“We don’t have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience, we’re willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo,” he added.

Sony. Risk-taker. Rule-breaker. Watch the full thing through the link.

Retailers aren’t too fond of the PSP Go, and with good reason. After all, who needs crummy old brick-and-mortar when every game you could ever want lies at your fingertips? Joystiq cornered Sony with this pressing issue, and – shockingly enough – got a response.

Sony of America’s keeping retailers in its corner with a series of PSP “Game Cards,” which consist of download codes and – enticingly enough – some very revealing packaging. Yeah, Sony knows how we like it. Apparently, the cards are already in stores, with games like God of War: Chains of Olympus and Gran Turismo Portable representing the initial volley.

As for Sony of Europe, well, game cards aren’t in the, er, cards. For now, anyway.

“We don’t have any plans for vouchers/gift cards like this,” Sony of Europe said. “At the moment we are only selling the PSN vouchers of £20 and £50 for the UK.”

More through the link.

You know the PSPgo Rewards program SCEE announced yesterday? The one that gives three free games to punters upgrading from current gen PSPs to a PSPgo? Yeah; you’re not getting it, Americans.

“We have a dual platform strategy,” an SCEA rep told IGN. “PSPgo is the latest offering in our portable entertainment products targeted for the digitally savvy and early adopters who are looking for an easy way to experience entertainment and a wide variety of digital content.

“We will continue to be committed to our existing PSP users by offering over 16,000 pieces of digital content including games, mini’s, movies, television shows and SensMe, the new music application as well as UMDs.”

Unlucky. Move to Europe, or something. It’s awesome.

Sony has pulled its offending commercials featuring the Nigerian millionaire bit, and have replaced them with an edited version, according to Kotaku.

Issuing an apology on the official PlayStation website, Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications at SCEA, stated:

“It has come to our attention that a recent TV advertisement for PlayStation may have offended some members of the Nigerian community. We never intended to create a situation that would upset anyone, and we have taken action to immediately remove the advertisement from the air. We apologize to anyone this may have offended.”

The new line reads: “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. That’s how World War I got started.”

Below the break is a video of the new advert.

More »

SCEA president Jack Tretton has spoken out on the PS3 Slim and the PS3 price-cut  in a video interview with the US PS Blog for the first time.

“We’re extremely pleased that we’ve been able to meet production efficiencies that have allowed us to pass on those savings onto consumers,” said Tretton.

“As you know, the original Playstation and the PlayStation 2, we announced revisions of the hardware in the third and fourth years, we’re very pleased that, short of it’s third birthday, the Playstation 3 has achieved tremendous milestones which have allowed us to bring out this new form factor and pass those savings onto consumers, giving them the opportunity to buy this state of the art gaming system at half the price it originally debuted at in October 2006.”

The video is after the jump. Both the price-cut and Slim were announced tonight after months of speculation.

Thanks, Wonderwall Web.

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Sony’s responded to tonight’s NPD figures by saying PS3 is “just getting warmed up” and pointing out differences between its console, 360 Arcade and Wii.

“When you compare all the features against other industry offerings, there is no doubt that the PlayStation 3 provides the most complete entertainment system on the market today – right out of the box,” said the firm in a statement.

“Not only are consumers provided a best-in-class Blu-ray player that comes with 80 GB of storage for photos and music, built-in Wi Fi, and thousands of innovative games that appeal to hardcore gamers and families alike, the PS3 offers future-proof technology and free access to rich and ever-evolving PlayStation Network content and services.”

A handy chart was provided to point all this out. Look:

There’s no mention of the NPD figures at all in the PR. Get the full thing after the break.

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Sony Computer Entertainment America has confirmed that Fat Princess will finally a get a release worldwide this Thursday. Managing Producer for SCEA, Deborah Mars, made the announcement on the US PS Blog.

“Without further ado, we’re proud to announce that Fat Princess will make her royal appearance on the PlayStation Network this Thursday, July 30th for $14.99,” said Mars.

“Fat Princess will be released simultaneously worldwide in N. America, Europe and Asia. A Japan release is also in the works, and we’ll have more information on that in weeks to come.”

There you have it. More info at the link, where there is even a video interview with Titan Studios’ Chris Millar and Craig Leigh.

Eric Lempel, SCEA’s director of PSN operations, has said that the service is no longer playing catch up with Xbox Live.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of ‘catch up’ [with XBL] any more. In some cases, I think we’ve got more, and we’ve got some other things they don’t have,” he told Industry Gamers.

“In terms of strengths, of course we’re still free, and we’re giving you a lot for free. It’s not just free online gaming, but we’ve got PlayStation Home, which is a massive community and application that’s totally free to use. I think there’s a lot we’re doing that in some cases they’re not doing, and I don’t see a lot of things they’re doing that we’re not.”

Lempel also elaborated that Sony did not want to go the Apple route with various software options, especially for PSP.

“Right now our free catalog consists of demos, wallpapers, themes and videos about games. I don’t think we want to degrade the experience you get from a PSP. Because [iPhone] is not a gaming-centric device, I think a user picks it up and says, ‘This is kind of dumb, but I don’t care because I know this device wasn’t intended for games’…. we don’t want to see a bunch of little things that don’t quite make sense or provide a good experience because I think that takes away from what the device is intended for.”

Just for reference purposes only, the amount of people that purchased an iPhone amounted to 3.79 million in quarter one of 2009 alone, which represented 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Thanks, GI.biz.

SCEA’s applied for a trademark for Echoshift, as you can see here.

What is it? We don’t know. An Echochrome sequel, or something?

Thanks, superannuation.

SCEA has responded to ActiBlzz’s threats to stop supporting the company’s hardware if it does not cut the price on PS3.

“PlayStation has tremendous momentum coming out of E3, and we are seeing positive growth with more than 350 titles slated to hit across all our platforms, including many anticipated games from our publishing partners,” said a SCEA rep in an official statement.

“We enjoy healthy business relationships with and greatly value our publishing partners and are working closely with them to deliver the best entertainment experience.”

Earlier today, a representative from SCEE stated that while the company “respects our third-parties’ opinions”, it would refuse to comment any further on the statement.

Sony boss Jack Tretton’s had a bit of a boohoo to CNBC about the fact his E3 press conference got spunked all over the internet before he got anywhere near the LA stage.

“People don’t respect confidentiality in this industry,” says Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. “It’s tough enough to keep a secret within your own company, much less when you speak to third parties.”

He added: “This is an industry that has trouble focusing on today,” he says “We want to constantly talk about tomorrow.… You have to prepare for people to know things in advance. The frustrating thing is they only know a part of the story and that opens up a lot of conjecture and misinformation that ultimately waters down the reality when you roll it out.”

Full thing through there.

SCEA ignored the fact PS3 only sold 127,000 units in the US last month in its post-NPD press release, focussing instead on the console’s upcoming slate.

“We’re revving up the new fiscal year with a broad tent of content and services across our platforms with envelope-pushing PS3 games like inFAMOUS, MAG, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves,” said US comms boss Patrick Seybold.

He added: “We often hear from our customers that they’re surprised by everything the PS3 does in addition to what they purchased the device for – including features like DLNA, free access to Wi-Fi and internet browser In some ways, this serves as a reminder that there’s more we can do to relay the full breadth and power of the PS3.

“We know our consumers have varying entertainment lifestyles from the Blu-ray movie fanatic to photo enthusiast, so we’ve outlined our most aggressive marketing plans to help showcase this tremendous value proposition to all our consumers.

“We’ve got a proven history in delivering the best entertainment experience and there is no doubt the PlayStation brand is staged for another big year.”

Thanks, GI.

SCEA’s Peter Dille has told Gamasutra the PSP’s got a big piracy problem. Like you didn’t know.

“I’m convinced and we’re convinced that piracy has taken out a big chunk of our software sales on PSP,” Dille told Gamasutra.

“It’s been a problem that the industry has to address together; it’s one that I think the industry takes very seriously, but we need to do something to address this because it’s criminal what’s going on, quite frankly.

“It’s not good for us, but it’s not good for the development community,” he added. “We can look at data from BitTorrent sites from the day Resistance: Retribution goes on sale and see how many copies are being downloaded illegally, and it’s frankly sickening.”

Full interview through there. Thanks, Eurogamer.

Sony has told VG247 that it’s “captured the hardcore” with PS3, and while it will serve that central user with titles such as Heavy Rain and God of War III later this year, it plans on pushing further into the casual space with the console.

“There’s certainly a line-up of very strong family-friendly titles that we’re looking at for PS3 in our continuing effort to appeal to that casual consumer,” said SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller, speaking at GDC.

“We’ve captured the hardcore. The install base we have now tells us that the hardcore’s purchased. We’re moving on now to continue to support them with a tremendous line-up of games, but also look at softer brands that maybe we had with PS2 franchises we’re bringing over to PS3, or new IP.”

Koller told us to look to the past for hints to PS3′s future.

“Think of some of the latter-half PS2 franchises,” he said.

E3′s not that far away, is it?

SCEA’s about to hold a pre-E3 preview in the US, showing off some of its biggest stuff to “some media outlets”.

Line-up includes:

• Heavy Rain
• White Knight Chronicles
• MotorStorm Arctic Edge
• Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier
• SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

There’s more on the PS Blog. No confirmation yet of a similar European deal.