WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2009 Collector’s Edition Exclusive to PS3
Well, here’s something you don’t see everyday: A multi-platform game with a special edition that’s exclusive to only one of them. But that seems to be precisely what’s happening with WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2009, as THQ seems to be putting the native Blu-ray capabilities of the PlayStation 3 to some use:The WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 collector’s edition for the PLAYSTATION 3 system features a copy of the game and a disc with exclusive Blu-ray content. Included on the disc is a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the videogame, as well as more than two hours of WWE footage from a variety of popular SmackDown vs. Raw cross-brand matches from 2008. The content is delivered in a unique steel cage package for North America, while fans in Europe and Asia Pacific regions will see their items encased within a miniature ring.
“The WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 collector’s edition for the PLAYSTATION 3 system is a tremendous opportunity for us to collaborate with our partners to produce a unique offering for our fans,” said Bob Aniello, senior vice president, worldwide marketing, THQ. “In addition to the great WWE video features, the videogame documentary will allow fans to see all of the work that goes into making their favorite fighting videogame franchise.” — Press ReleaseNot a bad deal… if you’re a PlayStation 3 owner. It’s a little disappointing that they couldn’t have figured out some way to get that stuff into the hands of Wii and Xbox 360 owners. Like maybe a regular DVD?
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Sony ‘Madly Working’ to Release Open Home Beta in Next Few Weeks
It’s almost hard to imagine that a program that will cost users nothing to use would take so long to develop. And yet, here we are, as the odyssey to PlayStation’s Home continues. But for how much longer?”Sorry, you don’t have too long to wait compared to the length of the project so far, but I know the lack of a date is annoying. If it helps, v1.0 is in internal testing and will hit the closed beta in the coming weeks as will more testers by invitation.” — ‘Ted the Dog,’ Forum Moderator for the official European PlayStation messageboards, via PlayStation UniverseWell, that’s good to know. In addition, this statement was given at the Gamer 3.0 conference in London this morning:”At Tokyo Game Show it was announced that PlayStation Home will be hitting what we’re calling an open beta by the end of the year, which means it will be available to everybody. And the latest is, it’s going very well. The guys are madly working to make sure that date is hit, and it’s going very well.” — Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Jamie MacDonald, via VideoGamer.comAnd now, all eyes fall on Sony as people start dialing Vegas to lay odds on if they can make this estimated release or not.
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Media: New "Helghan" Killzone 2 Trailer
Killzone2 - helghan - PlayStation 3Uploaded by sonyplaystation3
Sony is already looking past this holiday season and trying to gain some exposure for its lineup in 2009. Enter Killzone 2, the sequel to the PS2 original that impressed some and left others wanting more.
The trailer above was just released under the title “Helghan” and feels pretty cinematic. PS3 owners have something to look forward to this coming February.
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Sony ‘Hasn’t Fallen Behind’ in Social Gaming
With the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band grabbing headline after headline, and the Wii just being the Wii, the question is: Has Sony fallen behind in the arena of social gaming?
They don’t think so.”I wouldn’t say we fell behind. SingStar and Buzz and EyeToy are still hugely successful.
“I personally am really pleased to see the success of Wii Sports and Wii Play and Guitar Hero and Rock Band in a sense that it’s expanding the market for everybody and it’s expanding the appeal of video games.”
“I think we’re incredibly well positioned (to take advantage of social gaming) in the sense that we kind of, it would be a bit arrogant of me to say we invented, but we were an early pioneer certainly and we continue to be very successful in that space.
“I think with things like LittleBigPlanet, with PlayStation Home, with the continuing success of SingStar and Buzz! on PS3 and the things that we’ve done to the experiences that take advantage of the connectivity of the PS3, the rich media capabilities, I think personally we’re very well placed.” — Jamie MacDonald, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, to VideoGamer.comNot that the aforementioned titles’ popularity with the media doesn’t bother him a little…”I’d be lying if I said that I don’t occasionally get a little irritated when the media has so much focus on Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I wouldn’t be human. But then that’s just me being a human. But actually when I think about it, it’s great because that means more people are into that kind of living room experience. SingStar appeals to a very different kind of audience to Guitar Hero, as does LittleBigPlanet, so I think there’s enough space for everyone to be honest.”That said, is there room for three at this dance?”I can’t speak at all about their strategy. But they’ve been very successful with social titles which, how can I put this, owe quite a lot to what had gone before. But they have done it in a very special way and really well and have been very successful. And I think there’s absolutely plenty of space in the marketplace for Nintendo and ourselves and Microsoft.”And they jammed happily ever after. The end.
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Sonic Will Not Be Unleashed on PS2 in Japan
As we all know by now, SEGA’s latest potential return to glory/trainwreck (pulling for the former), Sonic Unleashed, is due to arrive on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, the Wii, and the PlayStation 2. A peculiar thing, though; that last part is not entirely true…Sega of Japan plans to release Sonic: World Adventure (renamed to better fit Sonic’s journey around the Earth and downplay the Werehog thing?) only on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. The PlayStation 2 port will be completed before Sonic: World Adventure launches in Japan so this begs the question why is Sega passing on it? It’s not like Sega Japan is abandoning the PlayStation 2 entirely. Thunderforce VI comes out on Thursday in Japan and unless Sega has anything secretly planned it will be the final PlayStation 2 game published by Sega in the region. — SiliconeraAs I see it, there are two trains of thought in observing this. The first is that perhaps Sonic is more popular abroad than in his native Japan, and so it makes more sense for SEGA to invest in a PlayStation 2 release, as more people would buy it. The other, which can go hand-in-hand with the first, is that maybe the PlayStation 2 has finally reached a point in Japan where SEGA no longer sees it as a viable platform.
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Motorstorm: Pacific Rift to Receive Weekly DLC, Some of Which is Free
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift seems to be taking a cue of sorts from Burnout Paradise, as Game Director Nigel Kershaw has confirmed that they will be delivering weekly DLC to users. And the best part? “A lot of it is free.”The game’s just hit US stores today, so it’s rest time for the team, before getting to work on DLC. “Once we’re all rested its back to the development bunker to finish off the DLC we have lined up for you guys in the coming months. We’ve got a pile of stuff waiting in the wings, and, you’ll be glad to know, a lot of it is free,” said Kershaw.
“We’re going to try and give you something new to play with every week, and we’ve also got some major packs in development that should be on the store after Christmas,” he added. — CVGSounds good, and it just might keep some people from running down to GameStop to trade it in when the weekend is out.
Here’s one more trailer to whet the ol’ taste buds:
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‘We Have a Business to Run’ Says Sony of PS3 Price Cuts
Though the price cut of the Xbox 360 has done wonders to boost sales for Microsoft, Sony remains undaunted by the progress made by its competitors, and has reaffirmed that it isn’t looking to cut its price back anytime soon.”Well the pressure comes from the consumers obviously and so therefore there’s always pressure on price, but you know we have a business to run, and we have to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the shareholders as well.
“At the moment there’s a marketplace for PS3 and I think for this particular Christmas, with the kind of quality of games we’re seeing coming out this Christmas, I don’t think the price of the console is going to be an issue at all.”
“It’s obviously selling extremely well in the UK and it’s the third largest single territory in the world. In the UK it’s absolutely on line. Obviously actual sell through is always relevant to price point. Now the price point we’re at, with the features we’ve got, that we obviously have to charge for, it’s absolutely on target.” — Sony Computer Entertainment Managing Director Ray Maguire, to VideoGamer.comI guess when it costs as much to make a unit as it does with the PlayStation 3, one might be content with sales that are essentially “good enough.”
Just out of curiousity, do you think Sony’s on the right pricing track, with their “more value for the same price” tactic? Or should they get down and dirty and start competing with the others on more equal pricing terms?
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Activision "Expressly Prohibits" You to Use Other Instruments with Guitar Hero World Tour
Sure, Activision may have made Guitar Hero World Tour compatible with other games’ instruments, but dammit, that doesn’t mean they have to like it, or that they approve of it. “*Guitar Hero World Tour Game is compatible with Guitar Hero guitar controllers for the Xbox 360.”"If used with guitar peripherals, only Guitar Hero peripherals are supported by Activision.”"Activision authorizes use of this Guitar Hero Game only in combination with Guitar Hero controllers provided by Activision or standard gamepad controllers provided with the game console or other Activision licensed controllers. Any other use is expressly prohibited. No other license, express or implied, is granted.” — Guitar Hero World Tour box, via MTV MultiplayerActually, according to MTV, this legal jargon is probably not as sinister as it seems, and Activision is probably not going to call the feds and RIAA lawyers on you for enjoying the game with your instrument of choice. Rather, it seems that it may just be to avoid any legal entanglements should someone choose to play one man’s tracks with another man’s ax. Or something.
MTV’s Rock Band isn’t much better, simply noting that theirs is “compatible with most music game controllers.” Which is fair enough, since there are third party manufacturers like Logitech getting into the business of guitar trickery.
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Saints Row 3 Already in Development, Looking for a New Direction
Play recently got the chance to talk to Saints Row 2 Associate Producer Dan Sutton about the latest from THQ and Volition, and in so doing, revealed that Saints Row 3 is on the way:Play: The last game had a very ‘open’ ending. Can we expect something similar with SR2?
Sutton: Well, we knew a lot of people were upset with the last one because they were playing it and it was like “oh gosh, I’ve got to wait for the next one”, but in SR2 we tie-up a lot of loose ends. I think we tie it up deliberately. We’ve already started work on Saints Row 3, and we have a new direction we want to go in with that which we of course can’t talk about. We wrap up a lot in this one. There’s no frustration.
Play: So… Saints Row 3 will take a very new direction?
Sutton: I think so, yes. — PlayHmm, a “very” new direction? I wonder what that might entail. Something less “gangsta,” as Kotaku suggests? Would that even work? I mean, would a Saints Row game without gangsta elements appeal to Saints Row fans? Inquiring minds want to know!
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Qore Subscribers Go Home in November
As the song goes, “Take me down to the Paradise City, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty… oh won’t you please take me Home?” Well, as alluded to yesterday, it seems that Sony is going to do just that for Qore subscribers in November:Veronica Belmont will take us Home in the next issue of Qore. No, she’s not taking us to her house, you silly people; she’s going to show us what’s up with PlayStation Home. That’s much more exciting, isn’t it?
If being shown Home, just so happens to not appease you enough … then how does getting into the closed beta sound? Yeah, the November issue of Qore will also give both annual subscribers and one-off purchasers an invite into the Home closed beta to sweeten the pot. Qore’s new issue will hit early next month. — PS3 FanboySo, with the time finally drawing near, who’s actually interested in giving Home a shot? Or has Sony taken too long, and your interest has moved on to other things?
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