One of Sony’s big advantages with the PSN is the ability to play online for free. At an recent Media/Investor Conference, the company revealed that it would look to extend a subscription model to the PSN. The internets got all up in arms that the PSN would soon go the way of Xbox Live, forcing your to pony up heard earned cash to play online. Fortunately, that isn’t the case. Speaking to VG247, Kaz Hirai set the record straight:
SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral and PlayStation Network. Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services.
There you have it. You’ll continue to be able to play online for free. The subscription model is probably referring to features like Qore, where you can get extra content for opening your wallet. I have a feeling most people will opt to pay nothing and roll with the PSN as-is. I’ll wait and see what these premium content and services are before making a decision, but I already subscribe to Qore, so who knows.
Leaked pictures last week turned out to be true. In an effort to not be left out in the cold, the PS3 is getting Facebook integration “soon.” Sony posted a little walk-through of firmware v3.10 last night. Still no cross-game voice chat. And for fuck’s sake, Sony, can we please get auto synchronization for Trophies? Anyway, how do you all feel about the update?
The 6th, and latest offering in the Jak and Daxter series. Even though it’s the 6th game in the series, this game’s events carry-on the story from the ending of Jak 3. The world is running out of Eco, so Jak, Daxter, and Keira must go to the Brink to find some more. In their quest, they discover a mysterious orb that points to all Eco sources. This orb is then lost in a scuffle with Sky Pirates. Along the way they must first fend off, then later, team up with said Sky Pirates to recover the orb, and discover a new Eco source to save the now unstable planet. This installment allows for all the usual Eco powers, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and the unstable and mysterious Dark Eco. There is no Dark/Light Jak in this game, due to the unstable source of the Eco that is used.
Sony has announced the God of War III “Ultimate Edition” details – and it looks like an extremely manly collector’s edition indeed.
For the low price of $99, you get:
Limited Edition Art Book
Combat Challenge Arena
Exclusive Kratos Skin
God of War Documentary
God of War Trilogy Soundtrack
God of War: Blood and Metal EP
Seems like a good enough of a deal, although I don’t know how well the sculpted Pandora’s Box the entire thing comes in will match my decor. For a hundred bones, I’m not sure it’s entirely worth it, but then again it is God of War we’re talking about. Between this and the God of War Collection coming out in the near future, I’m about ready to kick the shit out of some demons. March can’t come soon enough.
It took Sony a while to realize that price matters. After finally slashing the price of the PS3 to $299, they came out on top in console sales for the month of September, selling 491.8K units. The Wii sold 462.8K and the Xbox 360 sold 352.6K, while the Nintendo DS topped the overall hardware charts, again, moving 524.2K units according to this month’s NPD sales data.
With a good price, a solid marketing campaign, and a blockbuster title like Uncharted 2, Sony should see a pretty solid Holiday season. It’s just a shame it took them this long to bring the PS3 pricing in line with the competition and what the market demanded.
Now, let’s all put our fanboy hats down and enjoy the games. I’m going to go finish Uncharted 2 and spend a lot of time in Pandora with Borderlands.
Sony today confirmed what we already knew: a 250GB PS3 will be coming to North America. What we didn’t know was the ship date and price, which are November 3rd and $349.99, respectively.
The new system will be exactly the same as the current PS3 Slim but with a bigger hard drive. If you’re a big fan of downloading all kinds of stuff, go for it. It’s well worth the extra $50 to get more than double the storage space. It’ll cost you more to buy a bigger hard drive and install it yourself.
We’ll see how Sony fares this Holiday season with, yet again, the highest priced console on the market.
That’s right. The most requested feature by Playstation 3 owners, the addition of cross-game chat, could be coming as early as the next firmware update. While cross-game chat has been available for a long time on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 owners have had to do without this feature.
Not to be outdone by Microsoft, Sony announced today that you can now buy PSN content from Amazon. Right now, only around 200 pieces of content are available for purchase. When new content will be added is anyone’s guess, as we were unable to reach Sony for comment at press time.
Just like the Xbox 360 counterpart, your purchase from Amazon will yield a download code that you can enter on your PS3 or PSP to download whatever you want to purchase.
I’m a big fan of this system, especially when you get Amazon gift cards or use Coinstar to get credit with Amazon. Will make it easier than finding PSN cards, as long as content is available on both the PSN and Amazon at the same time. If Sony has a delay in getting content to Amazon from the release date on the PSN, consumers may just skip the program altogether. We’ll have to see as time goes on how well this pans out.
With the launch of the PSP Go today, Sony has gone ahead and release firmware v6.10 for the system. Whether you’re rocking the old school PSP or the new PSP Go, fire up your internet connection and grab the new firmware. Most notably, you’ll be able to tether your cell phone to your PSP Go with Bluetooth to get internet access when you can’t find a WiFi connection. Pretty cool, as long as you pay extra for a tethering plan or have a phone that supports it (sorry US iPhone users at the moment).
Media Go, the PC based application which allows you to access the PlayStation Store and sync music, movies, and photos to your PSP is being updated as well. An all new interface is being added to make it easier to browse all the goods to download. Since Sony is promising and explosion of content for the PSP Go, being able to browse easily is key. Now if only they’d release this for the Mac…
Lastly, Sony is introducing SensMe channels which scan all music added via Media Go to and put them into one of 12 categories (such as “Relax” or “Newly Added”). Some people may find it worthwhile, but I don’t see myself using SensMe on my PSP.
It’s not the 2009 release many had hoped for, but it’s still right around the corner. At the Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced that Gran Turismo 5 would be coming to Japan in March 2010. No date has been set for North America or Europe, but Sony assures us we’ll here soon on a Western release date.
We know the driving mechanics will be great, but I’m interested to see how much you’ll be able to tweak the cars and how the career mode will work. In GT5 Prologue and the recent Gran Turismo for PSP, both were severely limited. I want to buy turbo kits and change my transmission gear ratios while going through a fluid career mode, not just Arcade.
Stay tuned for more information on when GT5 will hit Western shores. My guess is Summer or Fall 2010.
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