Archives for sony category
Sometimes we do crazy things — in this case, it’s something crazy for you, dear reader. You see, when PS3 Attitude reported users who had run into freezes or other bouts of unsatisfactory performance from their PS3 could report the issue to Sony thanks to firmware 3.10, directly through their console, we thought it was something we’d try to recreate on our own. After scratching our noggin for a few minutes, trying to come up with the best way to put our PS3 into danger, we figured a swift and hard power-down via the back toggle switch on the console would be the best bet to trigger this supposed new error report system. Lo and behold, we received the message you see above.
So that’s new, right? After winning that battle in the war of trying to break our PS3, we then decided to pick up our console and shake it like some kind of crazed British nanny, but that did not get us the results we were looking for. As such, we contacted Sony and a spokesperson told us that, yes, firmware 3.10 does add a feature to the console where users can report issues following console freezes and the like. So, now you know!
Firmware 3.10 lets PS3 users report errors directly to Sony originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 11:00pm by David Hinkle
Filed Under: Firmware, Firmware Update, firmware-3.10, sony
“They support the living sh*t out of it, and they support it really well,” Capybara’s Nathan Vella told Gamasutra when talking about Sony’s free PhyreEngine. “Any of the parts that are inside Phyre that we didn’t know how to fix or we had an issue with, they would fix it for us in a day. Overall, I think Sony’s doing a lot of right stuff for small independent developers.”
Vella’s praise echoes similar sentiments from other PSN developers, like Shatter’s Mario Wynands. In addition to free development tools, Vella noted other benefits by partnering with Sony. Critter Crunch was promoted heavily on the PlayStation Network via the PlayStation.Blog, Pulse and banners on the PlayStation Store. Most importantly, though, Sony “treated us like we weren’t a small nobody developer from Toronto.”
In spite of Sony’s best intentions, though, Vella notes that sales aren’t quite where they should be on the PSN. “It’s still a fraction of what XBLA is doing, and we know that,” he admitted. “But that’s okay for us because they let us do what we wanted to do.” Apparently what they want to do now is work on a zombie game.
Critter Crunch dev praises Sony’s support of indie games originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 6:30pm by Andrew Yoon
Filed Under: Playstation Network, capybara, critter-crunch, indie-games, nathan-vella, phyreengine, psn, sony
In a recent interview with Boomtown, Bill Roper spoke his mind on everything from Hellgate: London hate to Champions Online’s launch and future. In fact, the man spoke quite candidly on all topics, particularly that of Cryptic’s missteps with their second superhero MMO as well as their successes.
Of particular note, there’s a mention of how Champions Online will handle DC Universe Online’s 2010 launch given that the superhero MMO market hasn’t really expanded of late. Curiously, Roper says he feels that the Xbox 360 version will help to vastly expand Champions’ user base. There’s a chance Cryptic could be pushing to get into the console market by or before SOE releases their superhero MMO. Although given the headaches Cryptic has expressed at getting an MMO on Microsoft’s console, we get the feeling much of the developer’s focus is presently on Star Trek Online and continued live game support.
Filed under: Interviews, New titles, News items, Champions Online
Bill Roper on Champions Online’s launch, current state and future originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 6:00pm by Kyle Horner
Filed Under: atari, bill-roper, champions-online, cryptic, cryptic-studios, dc-universe-online, dcuo, soe, sony, sony-online-entertainment, star-trek-online, sto
Though yesterday’s Sony investor’s conference featured a concerning reference to the PSN’s “new revenue stream from subscription,” another slide from the presentation seems to indicate that the platform is already making money hand over fist. According to the slide (seen above), the company has set a lofty goal for the current fiscal year: It expects the PSN to bring in ¥50 billion (roughly $561 million) in revenue by the end of FY 2009. That’s three times the amount of cash collected by the platform in the last fiscal year.
Exactly how Sony plans to boost its revenues so drastically is outlined by other statistics on the slide. According to the company’s calculations, the PSN currently has 33 million registered users, 1.4 million of which visit the PlayStation Store on a daily basis. We fall into the latter group — but only because we can’t stop window shopping for celebrities we can fling into oncoming traffic. We confess: It’s one of our dirtiest, guiltiest pleasures.
Source – “Media / Investor Conference – November 19th 2009″ [PDF]
Sony expects PSN to pull in 50 billion yen in FY 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 1:00pm by Griffin McElroy
Filed Under: Revenue, conference, finance, fy-2009, playstation-store, presentation, psn, sony
In an
AP interview, Sony executive VP Kaz Hirai declared the upcoming
Sony Online Service, which adds PSN-like features (possibly including game, music and movie downloads) to a wide variety of Sony devices, a major selling point. “That’s the kind of combination that I think is not seen anywhere else,” Hirai said. “That I think is where our core competence lies, and that’s a differentiator for Sony.”
Additionally, Hirai told Business Week that Sony hopes to get the service into other devices next year and, “Earlier in the year would be a lot more preferable.” In the interview, Hirai said that the Sony Online Service would take the iTunes-like approach of registering users as soon as the device is powered on, to register their accounts immediately. Once invested in such an account, the implication is that users will be more likely to continue purchasing media on that same account and buy more Sony devices to get additional use out of it — much like iTunes users are driven to continue buying iPods to play iTunes Store’s AAC-format music.
Hirai also looked to social networking elements, along with the cross-device connectivity, to push Sony’s future offerings. “What are your friends watching right now? There’s a screen that says all the programming that’s available. It highlights all the things that your friends are watching, for example. It’s a community experience.”
As for sharing the actual content (not just the experience), Hirai wasn’t so sure. He concluded that the “debate is still going on” about how many devices will be able to share content.
Sony Online Service aims to achieve brand loyalty originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 10:01am by JC Fletcher
Filed Under: convergence, kaz-hirai, kazhirai, psn, sony, sony-online-service
