SONY: Unoriginal Double-talkers & a Leaked Keynote?

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:28:58 GMT

First thing's first.... here's what happened yesterday:

News from March 1st, 2007:

Rumor: Sony To Unveil PlayStation Home
Sony, when contacted earlier today, said they do not comment on rumors or speculation.
Playstation Home sounds like it could be an interesting, lo-fi, killer app, as described by our source.

"Basically, you get to make an avatar for your console (like a Mii) and this avatar has a room. As you play games and accomplish certain tasks, you will receive items with which to adorn the room that are specific to the game (achievements). The kicker is that this is going to be a new requirement for every PS3 game..."

(Source: KOTAKU)

So, could it be true? Could SONY be so scared of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii that they have to resort to stealing ideas from them? The very companies that SONY refusees to acknowledge as 'competition'? Stealing these ideas sounds like a feeble attempt at convincing consumers that the PlayStation 3 is worth the $599 price tag.... no, SONY can't possibly be stealing these ideas.... Oh, wait.. there's another article.....

Followup later that day:

Sony Blackballs Kotaku (UPDATED)

"Brian, This is an email I was really hoping I would never have to write, but it is what it is. When I came on board here at Sony, I made every effort to be as inclusive as possible to media and the blogging community in an effort to improve previously damaged relationships. This included getting people access to executives, opening our events to more individuals and personally responding as quickly as possible to inquiries. This was done in good faith with the thought that the people I was working with would operate with the same integrity and courtesy I think I demonstrated when I was a reporter. Basically, I went out on a limb for a lot of people -- people SCEA PR and SCEA management had written off. I caught a lot of flack for it from folks, but I felt strongly it was the right thing to do.
I am very disappointed that after trying to work with you as closely as possible and provide you and your team with access and information, you chose to report on this rumor.... I can't defend outlets that can't work cooperatively with us.

So, it is for this reason, that we will be canceling all further interviews for Kotaku staff at GDC and will be dis-inviting you to our media event next Tuesday. Until we can find a way to work better together, information provided to your site will only be that found in the public forum.

Again, I take absolutely no joy in sending you this note, but given the situation you have put me into, I have no choice."

Dave Karraker
Sr. Director, Corporate Communications
Sony Computer Entertainment America

(Source: KOTAKU)

Wow, imagine that; a journalist doing his job. I guess SONY didn't realize that talking to a journalist may actually lead to information being posted on a news site. If SONY’s blatant rip-off of the Mii / achievement concept was nothing more that a mere industry rumor, there would be no reason for the Sr. Director of Corporate Communications to write that email.

This reminds me of the whole SONY vs. Immersion fiasco. You know which fiasco I’m talking about right? The fiasco where a jury awarded Immersion $82 million in damages after deciding that the Dual Shock controller and 40+ PlayStation games infringed Immersion's patents… Yeah, the whole reason the PlayStation 3 controllers don’t have a rumble feature…

Breaking: Sony Settles With Immersion, Enters Into Business Agreement

"Force feedback specialists Immersion Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) have announced that the two companies have decided to settle their patent litigation at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The two companies have "entered into a new business agreement to explore the inclusion of Immersion technology in PlayStation format products."

(Source: GameDaily Biz)

WTF?!?? Why would they care about rumble? Didn't they call rumble "a last-gen feature"? Wait a second... let me get my quotes straight...

"I believe that the Sixaxis controller offers game designers and developers far more opportunity for future innovation than rumble ever did. Now, rumble I think was the last generation feature; it’s not the next-generation feature. I think motion sensitivity is. And we don’t see the need to do that. Having said that, there will be specific game function controllers, potentially like steering wheels that do include vibration or feedback function — not from us but from third parties" - Phil Harrison (Vice President of SCEE)

Yeah, that's what I thought... it's definitely doubletalk. Kind of like the how the Emotion Engine was so revolutionary, and was such a huge talking point while the PS3 was in development, as well as during the launch of the console.... now they're removing the Emotion Engine chips from all North American / Japanese conoles to reduce costs. uuggghhh.. I'm so tired of SONY trying to spoon-feed consumers crap... here's the 'leaked' keynote speech regarding the demise of the Emotion Engine and other garbage, so you can read it for yourself:

Details from Phil Harrison- Sony Computer Worldwide Studios
Keynote at GDC March 7th 2007:

Anouncements:

Firmware update available on the 8th for North America/Japan and Asia. European PS3's will be preloaded with this latest update.

Features of this latest firmware include:

More refined PS Store frontend
Playstation Network integrity enhanced
Wallpapers from pictures
Ability to change background colours
Sony Connect Store for music and movies added to the PS Store. Hundreds of trailers/full films/song videos and mps3's available for download.
Playstation Card option in PS Store enabled.
Playstation Lifestyle- Similar to my space/youtube. User generated content and experiences are the key.
+ more.

Removal of Emotion Engine chips in PS3's in NA and Japan to follow in April. Reason for this is to reduce costs and focus on enhanced opportunities via software. Benefits include the ability to upscale selected PSone/PS2 games to 1080i/720p.

Lots of development talk.
Release dates for key games. Warhawk in June/July 2007. Heavenly Sword delayed. Killzone and MGS4 in late 2007.

New content on PS Store available on the 8th:

Tekken 6 trailer
Lair demo & trailer
Rainbow Six Vegas demo
EA: Skate trailer
Battlefield Bad Company trailer
Warhawk demo
Virtua Fighter 5 demo
Virtua Tennis 3 demo & trailer
GRAW 2: trailer
Mortal Kombat 2 game
Killzone trailer

Killzone demo for May.

More details. Stay tuned on the 7th.
(Source: Neoseeker.com)

- Jay

It's Dead Jim....

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 14:38:05 GMT

I thought this was amusing.... and dare I say it... It's about damn time!

Who the hell wants to buy a UMD movie for $29.99 when they just bought the DVD version for $7 - $19!?!??

Apparently nobody!

"This should not be coming as a huge surprise, but the demise of Sony’s UMD format for movies is going away faster than the Mini Disc got shelved for music. This week Sony quietly announced a new entertainment pak called the Memory Stick Entertainment Packs (MSEP) that contained movies on a Sony Memory stick, and many paused to wonder what that meant for the UMD. And now it is official."

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

"Sales of movies on the PSP’s once-hot proprietary format have slowed to a trickle, causing several major movie studios to cease supporting it. In March, the Hollywood Reporter ran an article claiming that the home-entertainment divisions of Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures have “completely stopped” releasing films on the format, and other studios have been cutting back their release slates.

Perhaps more disturbing for Sony were unconfirmed reports that retail colossi Wal-Mart and Best Buy were scaling back UMD displays in their stores. This week, speculation turned into reality when Target decided to discontinue stocking UMDs entirely. A manager at a San Francisco Bay Area Target outlet told GameSpot, “We no longer carry PSP movies. We stopped carrying them nationwide.”

Source: Gamespot

Beta Max, Mini Disc, UMD... c'mon Blu-Ray!
Let's all cross our fingers that SONY's track record reamains a perfect one and we see the Blue-Ray format follow its predecessors.

- Jay

The FNG-Spot: SONY

SONY: Unoriginal Double-talkers & a Leaked Keynote?

It's Dead Jim....