Technology Blogged, News » Playstation

Sony cuts PS3 prices internationally, wants you to buy them

Jakk — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:06:34 +0000

Sony’s Playstation 3 has always been the more expensive choice whilst sitting alongside the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, so it makes sense that Sony are cutting the prices of their consoles from €299 to €249 in Europe, with other cuts in the UK following suit soon. Other places to see a price slash include Japan and the US, and overall the price slash is around 5% in total. Overall this should help increase market demand for Sony’s game console for the foreseeable future and with it having Blu-Ray capability and a good media interface, the uses for the Playstation 3 are very high indeed.

Source: IT Pro Portal

Playstation Vita could hit UK November

Jakk — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:01:01 +0000

The Playstation Vita certainly does look like quite the machine, and according to UK online retailer Shopto it could be with you by November the 4th, well ahead of Christmas bringing in line our thoughts that Sony wants to push for as many sales as possible with the build up to Christmas. As previously covered by our source (link, below) Shopto is promising its customers an exact delivery date for the as of yet unobtainable product by the 4th of November 2011, and should customers not receive their device by then, the retailer promises to credit their accounts with £3. If you are interested, you’ll be wanting to go here to see what we’re talking about.

[Source]

PSN Update: Online Services To Resume Within Days

Jakk — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:04:12 +0000

The latest technology news across the world hitting the headlines has been unreservedly about Sony and the Playstation Network hacking, all of which has been bad news. Right now though, on May the 8th, I can pass on some rather good news to all users out there interested.

Yes finally Sony has given a rough guesstimate as to when users will be able to mingle online again, after an an open letter to the 77 million PSN users affected by the breach and the PSN hacking. In the letter, Sony President and CEO Sir Howard Stringer apologised for the entire incident and said that the company was working with the best in the industry to find the perpetrators and secure the system.

Stringer went on to say that the services will be coming back online in the next couple of days but did not set a date for the re-launch. Happy days, huh?

Sony Points Finger At Anonymous For PSN Hacking

Jakk — Thu, 05 May 2011 09:51:31 +0000

Got a Playstation 3? Well then i’ll bet you haven’t been able to play on the Playstation Network for over a week. This is because Sony’s system got hacked and the breach of the PlayStation Network, in which 77 million users’ names, user names, addresses, email addresses, birth dates, and hashed passwords were stolen, still hasn’t come to a valid conclusion.

On the hacking, Sony is claiming to have found a key file in which it points to Anonymous Hacktivists, backing up a video published by Anonymous on Youtube dated April 13th stating they would take revenge on Sony for prosecuting Playstation jail-breaker George Hotz.

Kazup Hirai, the chairman of Sony Systems sent off a letter to the US Congressional committee, which mentioned that a file linked to these attacks was discovered by the investigators working on the high profile case, and that the file contains the name “Anonymous”, with the phrase “We are Legion”.

Playstation Network Update: It’s Still Broken

Jakk — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:48:46 +0000

Over the whole easter break i’ll bet thousands of our loyal readers tried to log in to the Playstation Network but to no avail (I say bet, but the comments say it all) and unfortunately the network is still down, a whole five days after it started. Luckily for anbody insterested however Sony have commented on the issue, and have said in a press statement that:

“We will announce through our websites as soon as there are any updates. We are currently investigating to determine the cause of this outage and are working to restore and maintain the services. Since this is an overall security related issue, we will not be providing further commentary for this case,”

Currently there have been no further updates on this issue which has affected literally millions of people, however we hope it gets sorted soon before people start to cannibalize or something.

HOT: Playstation Phone Hands On Video

Jakk — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:00:02 +0000

By now i’m betting that anybody even looking at this has heard about the as of yet unannounced and highly anticipated Playstation Phone; but just how many of you really know what it looks like in the hand?

Well now you can; below is a real video showcasing the mysterious Playstation Phone and man does it look shiny. Oh, and apologies for the horrible Audio. Enjoy!

No next-gen gaming consoles until 2012?

Jakk — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:45:05 +0000

Console life spans have always been rather short, living a maximum of 6 years until they are eventually replaced – the Nintendo Gamecube was replaced with the Wii after 5 years of shelf life, the Xbox with the Xbox 360 after just 4 years and the PS2 with the PS3 after 6 years.

And so naturally one would presume that history should repeat itself, with Nintendo bringing out their next gen console first, followed by MS and then Sony.

However, THQ CEO Brian Farrell said new gaming systems just aren’t needed yet. “One of the things I like about this generation is we are still very early and there’s still a lot of room for growth … as we move down those price curves,” Farrell said. “Those engines have a lot of steam left in them. We think it could be seven or eight years before new machines start to roll out.”

Also, gaming developers are still just tapping into the scope of what these new consoles can do – one developer managed to break into the talents of the current generation with COD: Modern warfare 2, a game which is utterly brilliant.

Nintendo have talked about their next gen console, and in a statement to Forbes Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said “We are always preparing for the next hardware,” Iwata told the magazine. “We are under development. … But the hardware is a kind of box that consumers reluctantly buy in order to play our games.”

Reluctantly buy? Thats not the world i’d use, but on a whole I suppose you have to buy the box to be able to put things inside it.

So with the Nintendo Zii, Xbox 720 and PS4 gossip being thrown around forums, you might be disapointed to learn that you’ll have to wait up until 3 years to see the next gen.

These latest consoles are nearing their peak stage now, and are currently experiencing huge growth. The big question for me however, and I am sure the big question for a lot of you, is whether MS’s 360 can last as long as the PS3 < because it has no Blu-ray player, a far worse media center, expensive internet that over the duration of a year makes it more expensive than a PS3 and a company branch (Xbox branch) that seem to pretend to be deaf whenever I ring CS.

How do you guys feel about the next gen of consoles, when should they be released?

PS4 Concept: True innovation

Jakk — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:29:37 +0000

A while ago Sony released the PS3 slim which got mixed reviews. Many people talked about the reduced fan noise and it operating faster on the menu, whilst other people talked about the ‘below-budget’ materials used in the design and referring to the texture of the PS3 as ‘taken from a Nintendo 64′.

Introducing the Playstation 4 Concept from designer Tai Chiem. Now, we may be a while away from even contemplating the release of such a console, but Tai Chiem does think otherwise and I thought what they hay when given an opportunity to write about it.

For me Sony’s first game console the Playstation was inspiring. After playing on one straight from a Nintendo 64 the graphics were immense as was the gameplay, the games may not have been as fun (Mario Kart 64) but hell the Playstation took the world by storm.

Then the Playstation 2 was released and I bought one almost immediately (although I didn’t queue up and camp outside a shop). It was brilliant and played my favourite DVD’s! I even sold my DVD player to cover the cost a little bit.

Then came the XBOX – This alien console was new to me and an invader, to me nothing was better than the PS2 and I didn’t want to believe the reviews. The reviews were true it was simply a better console.

And now we are all square, with the PS3 and the XBOX 360 being ‘as good’ as each other (both have good points). I prefer the PS3 just because it has a blu-ray player and a free network, but also because it does not feel like a hollow cheap thing to pick up I (no offense MS XBOX fan boys).

And so here we are with a new concept. And my is it strange. It draws on inspiration from a minimalist design and the console itself (the circular black thing) looks like the eye from big brother which ‘constantly watches’ :O.

The controller however has no faults – I mean look at it, it has the exact same layout PS users have come to love and admire and this concept has modernised it. I would particularly love the PS button and the like to be touch sensitive.

I doubt there would be much of a safety issue with the console being glass – they certainly would not use standard glass they would use super hardened stuff developed by NASA or something .

I do not think this design will ever hit shelves in the future. At the moment I’m sure its a case of hardware not housing, but the glass is a nice touch even if the ‘all seeing eye’ type center console is a bit weird. Take a look below for a size guide against a 37” television;

Nicely sized isn’t it? a little bit dinky and as it is see through and incredibly thin it would be classed as space saving. I have an idea for it though – wouldn’t it look absoloutely fantastic on a wall like televisions are put up? Imagine it sitting landscape orientated below your LCD television .

The controllers could also have their own little metal plate which attaches to the wall (rectangular) and the controllers could have magnets in them as to stick (keeps the minimalist design and saves space) – also with the new and soon ‘could’ be more advanced wireless charging mats the rectangular metal plate could have the same technology.

The console will also preview game trailers and demos on the glass space which looks blank when the console is off.

So there we are – no hardware specs I am afraid as none have been released – a nice thought from Tai Chiem though *thumbs up from Technology Blogged*.