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Overheard at E3, Sony telling Microsoft "Wii Have a Problem." What could this possibly mean to these video game console Gods. Playstation, what the fruit-loops is Playstation Plus? Is it a rip off of Xbox Live to consume money from your players and 6 things you didn't know about the upcoming sci-fi shooter "Singularity".


All this and more on today's gaming headlines.





Overheard at E3: Sony Tells Microsoft, “Wii Have a Problem.” 

Video game production makes for an massive global business. But in the next couple of years it is set to sky rocket and expand up to three times the size of the recorded music market by 2014. As online, mobile and casual gaming expands, so does consumer spending in the industry.

This is good news for the three biggest video game device makers: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Each of them suffered in 2009 as U.S. sales fell due to the rough economic times. and this year hasn't looked much better so far. April marked the fourth worst month on record for video game sales in the U.S.
Much of that hit came from hard-core gamers ignoring new titles. They were too busy focusing on multiplayer online battles from existing games such as "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. (You hear that, ignorant hard-core gamers who would rather play 1 game when there are multiple games coming off the market. Tsk.)

So in order to generate future sales, the Big 3 honcho's have to turn the entirely new customers... the kind of people who never would have thought about playing video games before Nintendo launched the Wii. 

Catching-up with Wii 
The current generation of consoles were launched at the annual E3 show in 2005. And at this year's E3, they didn't showcase any completely new ideas. Instead, they designed new features to extend and broaden the old model's appeal. 
     
       -Microsoft, launched a marketing blitz for it's new motion detecting Kinect controller for Xbox 360.
       -Sony, meanwhile,revealed games that exploit the capabilities of its new Move motion controller and new 3D features in the PlayStation 3. 
       -Nintendo showed off its own 3D version of the DS handheld console that works without special glasses.


of the three, Nintendo is definitely the one to beat. so far, it has sold 70 million consoles worldwide. That's twice as much as the Playstation 3 and 30 million more than the Xbox 360. and even now, going on four years later, the competition is still playing catch-up. 


WTFPLAYSTATIONPLUS?!

The annual gaming conference, Electronic Entertainment Expo. (E3) , ended on June 17th . At the world’s premiere show for computer and video games related products, Sony, unveiled many new items. Among them is PlayStaion Plus that Sony launched in its E3 keynote. Like always the new PlayStation Plus Features enthralled the game lovers but it also had them confused about some of the aspects related to the product.

Sony launched its new PlayStation Plus at its E3 keynote. The product had many of the inquisitors confused. The most confusing aspect was the question that what exactly came with the purchase of the service. 

Susan Panico, Sr. Director of the PlayStation Network, tried to alleviate the confusions by posting her clarifications on the PlayStation Blog. The PlayStation Plus is scheduled to be officially launched on June 29th . 

Some of the important offerings that PlayStation Plus provides are full access to the PlayStation Network game WipEout HD; PSP minis; PS One classics like Fieldrunners, Age of Zombies, Rally Cross; and a game trial of Infamous. A free monthly episode of Qore will also be provided by the service. 

Panico also mooted the point that the current PlayStation Network (PSN) would remain a free service. The PlayStation Plus subscribers will get PlayStation Plus features like exclusive games, store discounts, exclusive demo selections, betas, and early purchases in addition to the existing PSN features. PlayStation Plus subscribers would also get full game trials and automatic downloads.
The full game trial is slated to last for an hour unless otherwise stated. If players get through several levels of a trial game in that hour and decides to buy, the purchased game picks up where the player left off in the trial.

The killer feature of PlayStation Plus is the Automatic Download application. Through this feature the player can set their PS3 to wake up at any time of the day or night to download updates automatically. The actual installation of updates, though, has to be done manually.

Games exclusive to PlayStation Plus will be downloadable for the entire month and new games will replace them. Once the user downloads the free games, they are available to players as long as they remain PlayStation Plus members. Discounts at the PlayStation stores would range from 20% to 70% and a non renewal of the membership would not affect the user and he will be able to keep their purchases made with discounts.

The pricing is $49.99 for a year and $17.99 for three months of service. Sony will also give buyers of the year package an extra three months for 15 months total.


Six things you didn't know about "Singularity"

The oft-delayed sci-fi shooter Activision's Singularity is almost ready for primetime. Due out next week, this first-person action thriller -- for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PCs -- is set in an alternate 2010, where players take on the role of a U.S. Air Force pilot investigating a horrific Cold War-era Soviet secret.

But you might already know all this. Instead, the following are a few things you might not be aware of, that was revealed by Jeff Poffenbarger, senior producer on the game at Raven Software.

In the eyes of the beholder: The game's original development started with the player in a third-person view. We moved to a first-person view because we felt it created a more immersive user experience.

Be a control freak: Enhanced weapons that allow you to control bullets and grenades. We really wanted to bring something different to the game in terms of weapons and allowing the users to control the actual projectile was one of those things.

What possessed you to do that?: Compelling multiplayer that allows you to control creatures or soldiers. My personal favorite is using the Phase Tick, a bug like creature in the game, to possess enemy soldiers.

TMD? TMI!: The TMD (time manipulation device) can be used to alter environments AND creatures. For example, you can "age" a Phase Tick and it will attack other Phase Ticks. You can also "revert" a soldier, causing it to turn into a reverted human and attack other soldiers.

The end is nigh: The single player portion of the game has multiple endings based upon decisions you make at the end of the game.

Future proof: The story was written by Marc Guggenheim, an Executive Producer on the television show "FlashForward."

  

Posted by Lance Friday, June 25, 2010

5 comments

  1. Playstation plus is now officially a bootleg Xbox Live. When are they ever going to get creative. Cheaper though so that's one good thing.

     
  2. Anonymous Says:
  3. Dude that first pic was hot.

     
  4. The first time I saw Singularity was in a Gameinformer and it reminded me a lot like Wolfenstein and that game didn't really do so well with the audience so hopefully it won't follow Wolfenstein's footsteps. Playstation Plus seems promising and I don't think it's a bootleg Xbox Live because Playstation's multiplayer has always been free and that is one good thing that Playstation seems to offer their players. Although, I guess it's starts becoming like Xbox Live due to the whole membership ordeal and additional content Sony is trying to offer. Last and not the lease, Nintendo Wii? I would have never though the Wii would out sell Sony and Microsoft but I guess due to all the soccer moms and the technologically unsavvy people the Wii is pretty much a remote control with video game capabilities. No wonder it's going so well. Plus with the whole weight loss because I used the Wii it would surely add more to Nintendo's customer hit list.

     
  5. Francophone Says:
  6. À mon avis je pense que Sony gagnera en raison de la chose 3D entière. Tout le monde le veut et il deviendra probablement un de la principale nouvelle génération. Xbox et Nintendo devront alors sauter à cloche-pied le chariot de bande dû aux ventes de 3D.

     
  7. Rob_Keyes Says:
  8. Holy CRAP. This site is top notch, I have been following this site for quite some time now and I wish there were more features like a podcast or video feed but I think you guys are just starting which is one of the reasons I enjoy reading your site. It's fresh and entertaining. Good luck! you guys have a long way to go with all the other gaming sites out there but with these kinds of information you might just have cut your work in half. Oh, and I have also noticed the number of visitors and readers coming in are escalating. Good Job Guys!!

     

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