Sony to unveil new PlayStation Portable at E3?
Sony is expected to reveal a new PlayStation Portable game handheld at the upcoming E3 trade show in Los Angeles, according to published reports.
Sony certainly needs to do something. The Nintendo DS consistently outsells the PSP by 2 to 1 on a worldwide basis, with the DS topping 100 million units worldwide to Sony’s 50 million units sold.
The pressure is on even more than usual since Nintendo launched its DSi, the third version of… Continue Reading
Will the game industry slow, or is it just getting started?
I’m giving a speech today in Berlin, Germany at the Quo Vadis game conference. I was asked to talk about the state of the game industry and the prospects for game startups. Here’s an abridged version of the speech for those who want an overview of investment in games.
I love games. I played the original Pong when it first came out. I played Wing Commander in the early 1990s until my right arm became too… Continue Reading
So much for recession-proof: U.S. video game sales take a 17 percent dip in March
U.S. video game sales have held up in the recession, until now. Sales of console games, hardware and accessories fell 17 percent in March to $1.43 billion from $1.72 billion a year ago, according to market researcher NPD Group.
So much for the talk that games are recession-proof. The March results are a big contrast to February, when game sales rose 10 percent, and January, when sales were up 13 percent.
Despite the drop in March, NPD… Continue Reading
Marketing whiz tries to juice Sony’s PlayStation business in Europe
Sony has played executive musical chairs in its game division once again. Andrew House, until recently the chief marketing officer for all of Sony, has been appointed president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
The move is a big one — Europe is a key battleground in the console war. Nintendo and Sony dominate in Japan. Nintendo and Microsoft lead in the U.S. But Europe has always been up for grabs in this generation of console competition,… Continue Reading
YouTube, Sony partnering for streaming films?
Short-form video site YouTube and Sony Pictures are rumored to be in negotiations for a new content deal. Sources close to the talks have told CNet the agreement could make full-length films like Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man” and the 1998 remake “Godzilla” available for free on YouTube.
Although YouTube has ruled the roost in short-form online video, the site has always been light on full-length content. After its 2006 purchase by Google, YouTube became the go-to destination… Continue Reading
Graham Hopper expands Disney’s video game kingdom
Graham Hopper, executive vice president and general manager of Disney Interactive Studios, gets to see a broad swatch of the video game business, since his video game titles range from hardcore titles such as the upcoming racing game Split/Second to the Toy Story game for the Wii that will accompany the release of Pixar’s next big film. Disney is in the midst of tripling its investments in video games and Hopper now oversees 1,200 employees… Continue Reading
Sony cuts price of aging PlayStation 2 to $99
In a move that could spur demand at the low end of the video game market, Sony cut the price of its PlayStation 2 console from $129 to $99.
The decision comes as a bit of a surprise since Sony was widely rumored to be considering a price cut for the $399 PlayStation 3, which has been lagging in sales behind the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. The PS 2 cut will take effect tomorrow,… Continue Reading
Sony Online hopes to capture family market with Free Realms
John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, hasjust delivered a keynote address for GamesBeat 2009 that covers the history of SOE, and its bold new strategy to expand in the market.
He begins by telling the story of his earliest experience playing an online game through early online service GEnie – and getting a bill for $600 at the end of the month.
“As I got excited by online gaming, I was able to get my company,… Continue Reading
Game Developers Conference preview
The Game Developers Conference kicks off Monday with a week-long series of events in San Francisco.
The main conference runs Wednesday through Friday, but a bunch of summits run Monday and Tuesday. Attendance is expected to be down slightly from last year’s 18,000, according to Meggan Scavio, director of the GDC, in an interview with the Associated Press. The event should be a mix of celebration and gloom. While the larger economy is shrinking, U.S. sales… Continue Reading
February U.S. game sales slow to 10 percent, but growth rate still up
The game industry is humming along. The U.S. video game industry grew 10 percent in February, slower than a month before but still enviable considering the weakness in the rest of the economy.
The sales of console games and hardware grew 10 percent to $1.47 billion in February from $1.34 billion a year earlier according to NPD Group, a market researcher. In all of 2008, the industry grew 19 percent.
Sales in January were up 13 percent…. Continue Reading
Discovery’s Patent Lawsuit Could Reveal Kindle Sales
Sony and Amazon fighting over eBook patents? Sure, just about anyone could imagine that. But Discovery Communications (the media company behind Discovery Channel and Animal Planet) suing Amazon over the Kindle’s patents just seems odd.
On the bright side, this tussle might finally force Amazon to drop the cloak and dagger routine over the Kindle’s sales figures.
The news comes as Discovery’s legal team filed suit with the U.S. District Court claiming that Amazon’s Kindle, Kindle 2,… Continue Reading
Sony’s PlayStation 3 blockbuster: Killzone 2 lives up to the hype
Just when we thought the Nintendo Wii had won the video game console war, along comes Sony’s Killzone 2.
In 2005, Sony whet our appetite for the PlayStation 3 (which debuted in 2006, without Killzone 2) by showing off a demo of a then-distant game. It was a beautiful cinematic shot of the opening scene of the sci-fi game, with outstanding graphics and grueling first-person combat. It was so good that the game press launched a… Continue Reading
Will the Wii jump into the TV set-top box game?
In an interview with Variety magazine, Lionsgate president Curt Marvis let slip that the Wii presents a major opportunity for Hollywood studios to distribute movies and television shows — and that this might be a reality before the year is out. While it isn’t written in stone, someone of Marvis’ stature probably isn’t just blowing smoke.
There are other indications a Hollywood-Wii deal might be in the works: Nintendo has already started developing a video-on-demand service… Continue Reading
Sony cuts deal with NBC Universal for film/TV shows on PlayStation Network
Sony’s PlayStation Network is getting a boost today as the company announces its deal to add movies and TV shows from NBC Universal to its nascent online video store.
This development follows the addition of MTV Networks programming last month and will help keep the Sony platforms — PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable — competitive with Microsoft’s Xbox Live video marketplace.
With the new content, there are now more than 1,400 movies and 4,500 TV episodes available… Continue Reading
Wireless media delivery co. Digital Fountain sells to Qualcomm
Digital Fountain, a company specializing in sending media over wireless networks — especially streaming video — just sold to San Deigo goliath Qualcomm. It’s unclear whether the flagging economy played a role, but the Fremont, Calif. company may have been running short on funds. It had raised a total of $45 million over several rounds of funding since its inception in 1999, most recently pulling in $5 million in a fifth pass in 2004. Past… Continue Reading
Sony’s game leadership goes full circle
Sony chief executive Howard Stringer shook up the ranks today with a management reorganization. He took over the president’s job held by Ryoji Chubachi and instituted other changes. The idea was to give Stringer more power to change things inside Sony, which is losing money and laying off a lot of people.
But Stringer has taken his top game executive, Kaz Hirai, and given him a promotion so he oversees not only the PlayStation business but… Continue Reading
Might Blu-ray be able to save itself yet?
Any way you slice it, Blu-ray is not the future of watching movies at home.
Eventually, distribution over the Internet is going to completely overtake any physical format, just as it has done with music. But that doesn’t mean Blu-ray can’t be a nice holdover until that future is fully realized. Unfortunately, up until now, the bodies behind the Blu-ray format have made it rather difficult for the format to truly take off. And just now… Continue Reading
Sony’s PlayStation Network passes 20 million registered users
Sony just announced that its PlayStation Network has now surpassed 20 million registered users.
The PSN is the online gaming network for Sony’s PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable game devices, where players can socialize or play online games for free. By contrast, Microsoft charges $50 a year for game play on its Xbox Live online game network, which, at last count, had 17 million active players.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that Sony has more players than Microsoft…. Continue Reading
Sony shows off line-up for PlayStation Portable
Sony announced today a bunch of new titles for its PlayStation Portable handheld game player as well as a new lilac-colored model aimed at female gamers.
The announcements of new games show that Sony is still fighting an uphill battle with the Nintendo DS, which has sold more than 90 million units compared to the PSP’s 45 million or so. The Japanese company announced the news at its annual retailer and publisher conference, Destination PlayStation, in… Continue Reading
GamesBeat 09: More great speakers lined up
As the March 24 GamesBeat 2009 games conference draws near, we’re unveiling a new list of speakers. We’re proud to say that some of the biggest names in the gaming world are joining us for the program. Tickets are still available.
Chris Taylor (right), founder of Gas Powered Games, will share the stage with me as co-emcee of the event. We picked Taylor because he has been an advocate for creativity in games and because he’s one… Continue Reading