Console Wars V

[DrSpike]

Yup.

£130 (or a bit more for a premium) is a steal for a 360 tbh. RB2 is going to cost more than that.

[asleepathewheel]

Infinite Undiscovery:

Ok-after the first hour or so, this game really picks up and is really fun. some of the achievements are incredibly annoying, I tried one about 15 times before getting it. almost through with first disk

[Asher]

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/09/29/microsofts-summer-of-arcade-proved-good-games-sell

Microsoft's Summer of Arcade proved good games sell

By Ben Kuchera | Published: September 29, 2008 - 10:00AM CT

Downloadable games have become the hotness in the past few weeks, and Microsoft has learned a valuable lesson from its "Summer of Arcade" promotion. The premise was simple: the company releases five weeks' worth of great games, hypes them with some prizes, and hopefully people get excited about Xbox Live all over again. Not surprisingly, it worked.

"Over the course of the five-week Summer of Arcade program there was a 58 percent increase in unique members purchasing titles, and August broke the monthly revenue high by 67 percent," Microsoft has announced. "August was also the first time that an Xbox LIVE Arcade game landed in the top 3 most-viewed pages on Xbox.com. The reason for all of this success? The games were really good."

No one is blowing smoke here, the titles—ranging from Bionic Commando: Rearmed to Castle Crashers—were all amazing. It's a pretty crazy run of games when something as solid as Galaga Legions is the worst of the pack. Microsoft deserves these great numbers; the act of holding back all the most anticipated titles until they could be released in a row was genius, although things seem a little cold now that the promotion is over.

This simple thought, that good games sell better than bad ones, shows just how sadly lackluster the releases on the consoles' digital distribution platforms normally are. We track the releases week after week, and it's a good week when there are one or two titles to get excited about across all three consoles; Microsoft's five-week run of always having something to look forward to was a breath of fresh air.

I hope Nintendo and Sony are taking notes, and with a slate of games, including Burnout Paradise and Wipeout HD, last Thursday it looks like the PS3 is also ready to make big moves. We can only hope for a "Winter of Arcade" that's just as good.

[DrSpike]

I hope they keep up a stream of good titles instead of returning to the Wii style shovelware they were releasing before.

[Asher]

For the third week in a row, the 360 has outsold the PS3 in Japan. Is the 360 doing well, or is the PS3 bombing?

Famitsu sales data:

DSL 60,000
Wii 26,000
PSP 25,000
PS2 11,000
360 10,000
PS3 8,300

[Asher]

Rumoured PS4 info already. Seems Sony wants to forget the PS3 happened and rush to PS4.

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2008/0929/kaigai469.htm

"Goto Hiroshige has received PSX4 spec info from Japanese developer sources who received preliminary spec from SCEI for developer feedback(whom Goto refuses to name due to NDA).

- SCEI has sent rough PSX4 spec to 3rd party developers for feed back. Based on the description, PSX4 is a Wii-tized PSX3, no more than 2X as powerful.
- SCEI wants to beat Xbox 3 to launch. 2011 is the deadline, or sooner.
- SCEI pulled all its engineers from IBM Texas, and there is no new CELL architecture being developed. PSX4 will use same CELL architecture with improvements.
- SCEI will dump XDR and use standard JEDEC memory type(GDDR3/DDR3) for main memory. "

The parts Goto phrases with "it is said that..."

* The number of CPU cores in PS4 is still undecided. SCE is waiting for feedbacks from game developers. The CPU design is not yet frozen and it's still in the research phase. However Goto often hears rumors that SCE is going to take a cautious route for PS4.
* There is a plan that PS4 uses a generic JEDEC-standard RAM for the cost reason. (According to Goto, if SCE really takes this plan, low-energy DDR3 will be the only possible choice for PS4 due to the effective cancellation of DDR4.) But SCE is evaluating DRAM 3D stacking or packaging in CPU.
* Currently few SCE engineers are at the STI Design Center.
* Some game developers think the Cell architecture has to be fundamentally modified to make its learning curve less steep.


Speculations by Goto

* Cores in PS4's CPU will be 10+. If it's at 45nm it will be 150mm2 or smaller. The performance jump over PS3 will be 2.x times at best.
* SCE has to pursue low development cost and low manufacturing cost like Wii. So PS4 will be released in 2011 unlike previous speculations that this hardware generation allows incremental hardware/software updates in a longer span than the previous generation. The only option that makes the 2011 launch possible is to refine the current architecture.
* SCE has to stick to the Cell architecture because of the already spent development cost. The local store architecture removes the need of a coherency mechanism that hinders adding CPU cores. Also SCE predicted most of future workload will be stream processing that deals with hardly recycled data where the merit of a cache is no more than a read-ahead buffer. A portable memory space in LS suits distributed computing. It's natural that SCE tries to expand the Cell architecture in the PS4 generation since scalability is Cell's strength. After mentioning the rumor about the STI Design Center and the possibility that SCE abandons the Cell architecture, Goto speculates SCE engineers will return to Cell development after completing the research to decide the PS4 concept.
* PS4's software assets will be inherited from PS3. Though it is said that some game developers think the steep learning curve is inherent in the Cell architecture, more fine-grain software objects and more CPU cores can make the current issues less troublesome.
* Though it seems SCE is contemplating a modest PS4 plan not to repeat the PS3 launch missteps, a too modest hardware spec for PS4 can't differentiate it from the current generation and may lead to a launch failure like PS3. If it's as modest as alleged, it's important to add appealing features not in the hardware spec just like Wii.

Of course, this is only rumour.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher
For the third week in a row, the 360 has outsold the PS3 in Japan. Is the 360 doing well, or is the PS3 bombing?

Famitsu sales data:

DSL 60,000
Wii 26,000
PSP 25,000
PS2 11,000
360 10,000
PS3 8,300

Neither - the 360 and PS3 are bombing compared to the Wii.

[Asher]

There are more people buying 12 year old girls underwear in Japan than 12 year old girls. 'nuff said.

[Felch]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Neither - the 360 and PS3 are bombing compared to the Wii.

And the DS lite more than 2:1 over the Wii.

Nintendo is back in the groove.

[Asher]

They're certainly making a killing in profit, which is great for them.

As a gamer, I'm still as unimpressed as I was in the Gamecube/GBA days.

[DrSpike]

I'm shocked, shocked.

[Asher]

Carnival Fun Faire IS GOTY!!!!

[Nikolai]

Just read that Nintendo has announced Nintendo DSI:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6198455...atestheadlines;title;1

Third iteration of DS console to be released in Japan on November 1; features bigger screen, SD memory slot, two cameras.

In another one of those 'worst-kept secret' moments, Nintendo has today confirmed the rumours that it would be updating its DS handheld. Announced in Japan this morning, the Nintendo DSi will boast a slimmer design, bigger screen sizes, two cameras, and new image and music players. It will also lose the GBA cart slot, but in turn adds an SD memory slot for storing music, images and downloadable content.

The chassis of the new console measures in at 2.6mm less than the DS Lite--making it 12 percent thinner than its forbear. In turn, the screens have become larger at 3.25 inches, 17 percent bigger than the original 3-inch LCDs. As for the new additions to the console, Nintendo has packed a 3-megapixel camera on the exterior of the case, with another lower-resolution camera on the interior hinge. The cameras integrate with new multimedia features for the DS, with images and music stored to SD card via the new slot, and software on the console to play multimedia content. A new Internet browser will also be installed on the machine, allowing people to browse the Web and the DSi Shop to download games and applications to SD cards.

The DSi will launch in Japan on November 1 2008 for ¥18,900 ($179, £101). International releases will follow in 2009, but Nintendo Europe would not confirm the rumour on GamesIndustry.biz that the console would launch next spring in the rest of the world.

Nintendo also has announced their solution to the storage problem: From spring 2009, it will be possible to store and play games from an SD card.

[Felch]

Originally posted by Asher
They're certainly making a killing in profit, which is great for them.

As a gamer, I'm still as unimpressed as I was in the Gamecube/GBA days.

Sony might be making the masterpieces of the gaming world, but that won't matter if their sales stay ****ty.

[Asher]

The problem with Sony is they are not making masterpieces of the gaming world (that may change with LBP), nor are they selling units.

MS is somewhere in the middle. It's got high sales (but not Wii levels) with the highest rated game library.