Noo... I just bought the PSP-2000. I never bought the original because it was a bit pricey and chugged sluggishly on several games. The PSP-2000 with improved memory and sleeker build did much better. The new will have an improved LCD screen as reported in USA Today and a few other places.
The revamped PlayStation Portable with the improved liquid crystal display and a built-in microphone will go on sale Oct. 16 in Japan at the same price of the previous model 19,800 yen ($180), said Shawn Layden, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan.
That's not too bad actually. They are improving and replacing the older models. Something to be expected in the CE world.
Battlefield Hero's and time wasted to their beta key events.
If anyone has been following BF and their closed beta, which by the way, information is dribbled out to people - Their site has very little information other then to be released summer 08 and check for beta contests.
First things - If your going to have a beta key contest. Make it fair. World Wide. For everyone. Telling a north American consumer that the contest starts at XXX Stockholm time doesn't do anything for us. I'm sure the people in Stockholm know exactly what time the contest starts. - The rest of us have to look it up. And if your on a slow ass work computer that in itself is frustration. (Or, in the case of the last beta key contest which started at 10 am in the morning for those of us in north America - Well, I'm stretching things a bit, It started from 7am Eastern time right on to about 2 pm Eastern time, considering your location in North America. If you work for a living like and have no access to a computer during those hours, Your forced to sit out these contests or wait and hope it comes out some time this year)
Second - I applaud your trying to be creative with your contests - but enough is enough, Just Lotto the damn keys already. Making us put together a word from 9 different WebPages that couldn't have gone down faster if you had slash dotted them isn't fun. Seeing error with web page and 404 not found, Is reminiscent of the old radio station contests that would offer people money to do fairly embarrassing or painful things - Or as I like to call it, Who can NOT pee the longest. Win big money if your the last guy (Or Girl) with a ruptured bladder.
I'd like to point out something here - Your game while maybe be originally free to play - Will need to generate some revenue. This will most likely come from a paying source - Mainly parents or the people your irritating with this ridiculous contests. Right now, the only people winning these keys are kids or people who have the time to waste jumping through hoops. Me, I'll just go to your competition and play their FPS game - Who knows, I might even plunk down some cash right at the start just to own it. I'm sure Wal_mart or Ebgames won't make me do a dance contest, or humiliate myself singing a hit single at the cash register just to play the game. (Though, last time I checked Wal-Mart had Rock Band set up for people who were into that sort of thing)
Here's another thing to look at - With a parent like Electronic Arts [EA] giving the green for development - You might want to keep in mind that EA has cancelled MMO's with a far greater subscription base then this game will likely ever have - In fact, if you look at the history of Cancelled MMO's from EA (Earth and Beyond, Motor City Online, The Sims Online) You'll see that they have a finite lifespan, and driving away people who want to play the game, but won't because they've been forced to jump through an unlimited number of hoops will only hasten the demise of a product.
So Battle Field Hero's. You get a big wet raspberry from me when it comes to your beta contests.
Lastly - Consider this - Mythos, A free to play MMo (Fantasy based) Has been cancelled (Though it might show signs of life soon) And Dungeon Runners (another fantasy) lifespan is looking gloomy - The time is right for the marketing of this game, Getting the people rebounding from the previous two products won't be difficult, but not if you make trying to get into the game about as fun as a root canal with out sedative.
While I was still traveling back from E3, news of the Mythos beta going on hiatus for an unspecified period of time. This was announced on their Website.
This came just a few days after a press release from Flagship Studios that they were still open! This had impact of course, on their currently running MMOG, Hellgate London.
San Francisco, CA (July 14, 2008) -- Flagship Studios has announced today that despite rumors to the contrary, the company is still operating.
“It is with deep regret that I must announce that Flagship Studios has laid off most employees. However, the core management and founding team members are still at Flagship.” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The past five years have been an incredible experience for us, but unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain the size of the company any longer.”
Flagship Studios owns the rights to all its technology and IP, including Hellgate: London and Mythos. Due to the current situation, Flagship will not be taking any new subscribers for Hellgate: London, and all current subscriptions will not be billed.
The 3rd U.S. Circurt Court of Appeals upheld on Tuesday a 2007 lower-court decision that the Child Online Protection Act violated the First Amendment since it was not the most effective way to keep children from visiting adult websites.
Both courts also found that the standards for material that had to be hidden from open browsing were so loosely defined that any content not suitable for a four-year-old would have been hidden behind a age-verification firewall.
"Unlike COPA, filters permit adults to determine if and when they want to use them and do not subject speakers to criminal or civil penalties," the court wrote.
Now... we know that video games improve hand-eye coordination (Yes, there are lots of studies, including one on a group of young medical students), but improve your health? On the heels of the Wii Fit (which was the brain child of Shigeru Miyamoto - Mario, Donkey Kong), come Ubisoft's "My Weight Loss Coach" for the DS which just shipped, and they are about to ship a program to help people quit smoking.
Of course hundreds of us aging gamers (Mea Culpa!) bought the Nintendo DS with "Brain Age" as our excuse - even my mother has one!
Indie game developers are finding a market with the big Three of Console Games, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. According to this Analysis, the big three are finding innovative exclusive titles at a relatively low financial risk by going with Indies. Reaching out to the Indie developer helps them keep up with new talent, and helps them find titles beyond the expensive, but familiar franchises that dominate the market.
Encouraging developers and players to step away from the standard subscription model.
A couple of things before I get started here - I'm mostly familiar with EQ1, and Eq2, So this is where I'll be focusing my ideals - This isn't to say that these ideals couldn't work for any other company. He or she who is flexible survives, those who fail to adapt die.
In North America - Every MMO we play, along with a few normal games (Like Hellgate London) have a monthly subscription cost. These costs range from $10.00 to $50.00 a month in American dollars and cover your basic monthly subscription. For most of us in the America's, further perks are not available unless they are freely given as a monthly update.
First we hear about the use of the Nintento DS's WiFi capabilities at sporting stadiums for ordering food and drinks from the concession stands and obtaining game scores & playback, now the PSP get's a Google search function.
Sony Computer Entertainment America sent word today that with the next firmware upgrade (4.00), which will be available this week, the PSP will get Google Search added directly to the portable's XMB (XrossMediaBar). The search functionality will be listed as "Internet Search" under the Network category on XMB.
Neat idea, and something I'm going to have to try out.
Are we mainstream or are we mainstream? According to this Variety article, Paramount Pictures has signed Leonardo DiCaprio to star in a movie named "Atari" as it's founder, Nolan Bushnell.
Gamespot has more to say, and tells us that Bushnell has recently been pretty vocal about his feelings about the modern games industry. He has called current games "pure, unadulterated trash," Sony "arrogant and capricious," and added that he thought some titles on the market are "truly despicable."
The 64 dollar question is... "Will you watch this?"
The Shadow of Odyssey or The Shadow Odyssey – Sony Online Entertanment [SOE] hasn’t picked an actually title for it yet, and I can’t seem to get any concrete information.
So here is my list. Who knows some of these might actually happen. While I can say that I have almost as much experience in games and the fantasy genre as some of the developers out there, I don’t work for Sony. (Or sadly, Have any programming or design experience – yet anyway)
This is fairly long, I've attached the more tag so I don't completely run anyone else’s column right off the next few pages... Continue on, Said the spider to the fly...
