Console World

Sony announced today that its Motion Controller for the Playstation 3 won’t hit the stores this Spring, but will be available this Fall for all territories.

Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc:

We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users, ” said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

…

We will continue to work to have a comprehensive portfolio of attractive and innovative games for the Motion Controller, not only from SCE Worldwide Studios but also from the third party developers and publishers, whom we have been working closely with. We look forward to soon unveiling the exciting software line-up that further expands and defines the PS3 platform as the ultimate entertainment system for the home.

Sony still has to confirm the name of the motion controller but recent comments by Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello hint that it is going to be called “Gem”.

To quote IGN:

At last year’s Tokyo Game Show, Sony also revealed a list of several titles that will incorporate the motion wand, including Resident Evil 5 (Gold Edition), LittleBigPlanet Motion, and Ape Escape PS3.

Resident Evil 5 (Gold Edition) is currently scheduled for release this March in Japan, but it may also be delayed now, too. We contacted Capcom for an update.

I wonder how “Gem” will work. Stay tuned for more updates!

Source: IGN

According to Erik Brudvig, from IGN, Deep Silver will be publishing a Risen, a massive open-world role-playing game, in North America on Xbox 360.
For those interested in the game, it is already available on the PC platform.

To quote:

Risen joins the ranks of Mass Effect 2 and Divinity II: Ego Draconis as epic RPGs to come out of the gate for Xbox 360 in early 2010. This one features over 60 hours of gameplay in a medieval fantasy setting. Players will naturally make decisions, battle nasty creatures, and venture throughout the “forbidden isle.”

The game is being adapted for Xbox 360, including a reworking of the controls, so expect some impressions on how well the conversion goes just as soon as we here at IGN can get our hands on it. Until then, be sure to read our review of the PC version for more details.

Here’s the trailer:

Source: IGN

Last Friday, Jeremy Dunham has published the statistics for MAG Beta 5.0 on the MAG blog and for those who haven’t seen them, you read them now.

MAG Beta 5.0 Statistics:

• Before the end of the beta on January 10, there were well over a million downloads (860,000 in North America alone) of the MAG beta client worldwide.
• Of the 619,000+ people who gained at least one point of experience, 52,846 of them qualified for Squad Leader, 10,249 people qualified for Platoon Leader, 3,181 warriors made it all the way to OIC, and a mere 143 diehard soldiers made it to the level 60 experience cap.
• The breakdown of PMC preference ended up like this: Valor – 38.7%, Raven – 37.2%, SVER – 24.1%
• Who won the Beta 5.0 Shadow War? Despite their smaller numbers, SVER took the Sabotage war – barely edging out Raven. Meanwhile, Valor took the Domination title; narrowly escaping a loss to Raven’s flock.
• More than 225 years worth of battles were played out over the week — with an average of 3.2 hours played per person.
• For the third beta period in a row, of all PSN users who participated in our testing phase, chennault2424 was the most prolific – he earned nearly 110,000 XP; making his grand total for the last three testing periods in excess of 360,000 experience points.
• Though chennault was the top guy, the remaining Top 5 list of players included My_Digital_Enemy, gomi-bukuro (jp), basquasher (jp), and Behike (jp).

These statistics made me want it even more. Too bad I’ll need to wait until it hits the shelves on January 26.

Source: MAG Blog

Today Sony Associate Product Manager, Cristian Cardona, has published on the playstation blog the Heavy Rain US packfront.

Here’s what it looks like:

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US market research firm Nielsen, has released statistics which illustrate that the importance of female game players is increasing.

According to the published statistics, 52% of the PSP owners are female and so do the 49% of the wii owners.
Also, 45% of active gamers (play at least one hour per week) are female as well.

A September 2009 survey by fellow market research company the NPD Group found that 44 per cent of US-based current generation console users were female.

Nielsen also said that 73 per cent of US households own a device they specifically use for gaming. 54 per cent own either a home game console or handheld system.

Apart from that, the company ranked the top game consoles by share of total usage minutes:
Xbox 360 – 23.1%
PS2 – 20.4%
Wii – 19.0%

Source: Edge-Online

MAG – Massive Action Game PS3 Beta officially starts today!

You may have downloaded it already but in case you didn’t, you can still do it.

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Yup. We did this. Us, apparently. All 800,000 of us.

SEGA just won’t cut the garbage with their hero Sonic the Hedgehog. Remember how you bought Sonic Unleashed, and hated it? Well, in buying Sonic Unleashed, you added your name to a list of over 800,000 people who bought the game. SEGA liked those numbers. Thus, Sonic Unleashed 2 is born. Continue reading

Homebrew coder N0ePDA_PSP has released the first version of PSPTunnel, a homebrew game inspired by the classic retro game “Tunnel” for the Playstation Portable.

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As you may remember, Datel claimed they could hack the PSP 3000 with a Pandora-like battery. Though it hasn’t been proved to be fake, many didn’t believe it actually worked.
However, this one is real.

According to wololo (developer of Wagic the Homebrew), Action Replay works on his PSP 2000 and his PSP Go.

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Developers Xenogears and becus25 are back with a new update to their CFW Enabler for PSP 2000v3 & 3000.

What do I need?
- A PSP (Model 2000 or 3000)
- Firmware version 5.03.
- ChickHen R2 (at least MHUSpeed is recommended).

What should I do to upgrade?
There are two ways:
- If you have a version between 3.10 and 3.51 can use the update via network, but first you must download the program NetUpdate CFWEnabler Fixer 1.01 “and install it.
and then in the xmb go to the “Network Update”
- If you have version 3.60 you can use the Network Update directly from the XMB.

- If you have another version:
Install the program as follows and sobreesecribe. No matter which version you have before (even if you have another custom firmware).

Clarification of version 3.70:
The version 3.70 does not bring the game support than 5.03 because it is better to respect the dates in the current market. When you pass these dates take out a version with the support. Sorry for the inconvenience, but programmers need to eat …

• Improved uninstalling system.
• Improved the internal patching.
• Fixed internal errors.
• Code restructured.
• Patch MHUSpeed.
• Menu of change of custom.
• Mac switch menu customized.
• Menu MHUFS.