Tag Archives | Sony

PSP Go Retailer Backlash Begins

Posted by Jared Newman on September 16, 2009 at 11:57 am

When the PSP Go launches next month, the Netherlands’ largest video game retailer won’t be selling it, according to Eurogamer.

Nedgame says the biggest reason it won’t carry the PSP Go is the price of 249 euros ($250 in the United States), which isn’t justifiable when the existing PSP-3000 costs 169 euros ($130 here). The retailer also knocked the PSP Go’s smaller screen size, at 3.8 inches compared to 4.3 inches.

But there’s another, more obvious reason behind the decision. Because the PSP Go has no optical media slot and the games are download-only, Nedgame would essentially be digging its own grave by selling the handheld. Sure, the retailer could sell game vouchers, as GameStop does with the download-only Patapon 2, but no physical media means no used game sales. I’m not familiar with Nedgame, but at least in the United States, used games generate monster profits for Gamestop.

Meanwhile, Eurogamer’s Spanish-language Web site is reporting a rumor that several retailers in Spain won’t support the PSP Go for similar reasons.

GameStop is selling pre-orders for the PSP Go, so it seems the retailer is willing to support it. However, after the handheld launches on October 1, it should be interesting to see how well GameStop promotes the PSP Go, and how the retailer treats downloadable titles. We could see more incentives for buying games in the store, such as the early demos offered for Patapon 2. I’d like to see frequent buyer discounts and some way to let shoppers come in, try the title out and then buy it using an in-store kiosk.

Whatever happens, I don’t think banning the PSP Go from store shelves is a good idea. Customers who want it will ultimately find a way, and retailers will have burned bridges.

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Calling It: 2009 is the Year of the Playstation 3

Posted by Jared Newman on September 11, 2009 at 4:50 pm

Even with the reduced-price PS3 Slim arriving at the tail end of August, Sony’s console gained considerable ground on the Xbox 360 and the Wii according to the NPD Group, coming in just behind the former by 5,400 sales, and the latter by 67,400 sales. Indeed, the stage is set for the PS3 to top both the Wii and the Xbox 360 in September.

So let’s make the declaration, shall we? 2009 is the Year of the Playstation 3. Nintendo and Microsoft fanboys, delay your vitriol while we qualify this.

The “Year of the Playstation 3” has become somewhat of a punchline in the gaming press. According to numerous accounts, 2008 was supposed to be the PS3’s year, except that the console never dug itself out of last place in North America, and had no signs of doing so. (To be fair, Sony’s doing just fine overseas, as PC World’s Matt Peckham wrote last month.)

At the start of this year, when some were bold enough to back Sony again, chuckling ensued. But now, things are looking up. It’s already September, so there’s a lot of catching up to do and little time. Come the end of the year, Sony may still be on the bottom of the heap in annual sales, but it’ll have something its competitors don’t: Momentum.

Yes, I said “momentum,” the buzzword Sony’s PR team kept using to describe the Playstation brand even as it languished through the end of last year. No joke, Sony has it now, thanks entirely to the PS3 Slim and the price cut it brought along. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 seems to be stagnating with a pseudo-price cut, waiting for Project Natal to tap the casual audience. Same goes for the Wii, which desperately needs something to spark interest and stop the shedding of year-over-year sales.

Sony, on the other hand, has nowhere to go but up, and a cheaper, slimmer console is the best way to begin the ascent. Come 2010, the console wars will look a lot different.

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Video Streaming Box Announcements of the Week

Posted by Dave Z on September 10, 2009 at 3:23 pm

Netgear Entertainer Live ($150)

netgear-live-eva2000

The new Netgear Entertainer Live (EVA2000) was originally announced as a VuNow platform device at Netgear’s CES press conference back in January. At that time, I saw the unnamed Netgear product demo-ed using VuNow’s non-distinctive hardware, but has since been repackaged with some left over Netgear router enclosures. In addition to YouTube and CinemaNow VOD access, and unlikeRoku’s similar small box solution, the EVA 2000 is also capable of streaming a wide variety of local media. PlayOn is supported (and offered at a discount), but that PC-based software hack is only interesting until Hulu drops the hammer (technically or legally). However, this $150 box should gain a bit more traction thanVerismo’s VuNow with the Netgear brand and retail relationships.

LG BD390 Blu-ray Player with Vudu ($400)

lg-BD390-vudu

Vudu continues to execute on their hardware diversification strategy as LG announces a network upgrade to their existing 802.11n-capable Blu-ray player. The smooth Vudu experience and extensive HD video-on-demand library joins Netflix on YouTube on the well-regarded connected BD390. While the $400 MSRP may seem a bit steep for what it offers and compared to the Sony unit below, this box can be found online for significantly less. We’re hopeful of taking a look at a review loaner in the near future.

Sony BDP-N460 Blu-ray Player with Bravia VOD (~$250)

sony-bdp-n460

Sony just unveiled a new Bravia-connected device at CEDIA. The BDP-N460 Blu-ray Player will be available in October “for about $250″ and features “Bravia” Internet services, including video-on-demand, YouTube, Slacker, and Netflix streaming. While it doesn’t incorporate the type of wireless connectivity found in the LG BD390 above, Sony’s upcoming model sure looks aggressively priced to boost holiday sales.

(This post republished from Zatz Not Funny.)

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TV in 3D: To Be or Not to Be?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 2, 2009 at 8:08 am

Sony 3D I’m not at the IFA consumer-electronics exhibition in Berlin this week, but Sony Chairman Sir Howard Stringer is–and the Financial Times is reporting that he’s going to announce an ambitious initiative to build 3D products–everything from HDTVs to laptops. It’s the latest bit of 3D boosterism from an entertainment and electronics industry that’s increasingly gaga for the technology.

Me, I’m instinctively skeptical of anything that’s in 3D except the real world–the effect fails to work for me as often as it succeeds, and the glasses give me a headache. (I blame the fact that I wear glasses anyhow, and must jam the 3D ones over my normal specs.) I’ll believe it’s the next best thing when it stays popular for more than, oh, nine months.

But let’s use this as an excuse for a T-Poll:

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Sony Adds a Little Chrome to the VAIO

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 1, 2009 at 10:29 am

Sony Chrome If you buy a new Sony VAIO computer, you’re going to get a new browser. No, Internet Explorer isn’t going anywhere. But Financial Times is reporting that Sony has signed a deal to preinstall Google’s Chrome on its PCs. Chrome-equipped machines are making their way to customers even as we speak.

I’m not sure whether Chrome is now the default browser on new Sony computers–the FT doesn’t explicitly say so, although Download Squad does–but it’s an interesting development. For years, Microsoft has benefited hugely from the fact that IE is the default browser shipped on most of the world’s personal computers. Some folks discover IE this way and continue to use it because they like it; many others keep on running it out of sheer inertia.

Sony is only one manufacturer, but the FT reports that Google says it’s working on similar arrangements with other companies. What if it were able to strike deals with, say, HP, Dell, and Acer? Maybe by cutting them in on the advertising revenue it gets from searches performed with Chrome’s toolbar and default homepage?

For a browser that’s nearly a year old and which is backed by the most powerful company on the Web, Chrome has failed to catch show explosive growth–Ars Technica says that around two or three percent of Internet users run it. (The Technologizer community is apparently a lot fonder of Chrome than the Internet at large–about eight percent of you visit the site via Chrome.) It’s still not entirely clear to me whether Google sees Chrome as a side project, a prank, or a core component of its mission. And it can’t pummel IE into submission until it’s caught up with Firefox (which, according to a new report, is used by more than 23% of all Internet users). But if any browser company is in a position to nudge IE out of its position as the world’s default browser, it’s Chrome.

Meanwhile, I kind of like the system Microsoft came up with to pacify Europe’s concerns over IE: a ballot screen that lets Windows 7 users pick whatever browser they prefer. Wouldn’t it be cool if Chrome, Firefox, Flock, IE, Opera, Rockmelt, Safari, and any other worthwhile browser that came along all got an equal shot at being the world’s most popular browser–based on quality alone?

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Okay, Sony, Now You’re Definitely Competing With the iPhone

Posted by Jared Newman on August 31, 2009 at 4:40 pm

Remember in March, when Sony Senior Marketing Vice President Peter Dille dismissed the iPhone? “The iPhone games and apps are largely diversionary, whereas we’re a gaming company and we make games for people who want to carry a gaming device and play a game that offers a satisfying 20+ hours of gameplay,” he said in an interview with GameDaily.

I’d love to hear what Dille thinks now that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is coming to the iPhone. The game, originally released for Nintendo DS in March, was announced for Sony’s PSP in June and will arrive on October 20. The iPhone version is scheduled for release some time this fall, 1UP reports.

This is the inverse of Sony’s recent announcement of PSP Minis, a set of small-scale, inexpensive games targeted at the upcoming PSP Go. While that move represented an attack on the iPhone’s cheap gaming marketplace (though Sony wouldn’t admit it), GTA’s migration to the iPhone is a counter-assault on the PSP’s 20-hour experience.

The announcement partly suggests that game developers and publishers are getting confident in the iPhone as a serious gaming platform. More importantly, if the iPhone version of GTA proves equal to its PSP and Nintendo DS counterparts, it opens the door for more ports of dedicated handheld console games.

I’m not simply talking about a paring down of big franchise games, such as Assassin’s Creed and Metal Gear Solid, because that’s already happening. What I’m wondering is, how long will it be before the same handheld video game is simultaneously announced and released for Nintendo DS, PSP and iPhone?

And if that happens, how long will it be before Sony finally acknowledges that there’s a third enemy in its midst?

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Building a Kindle Killer. Or Several of Them

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 28, 2009 at 3:46 pm

Sony vs. Kindle Slates Farhad Manjoo has a good story up about how Sony in particular and e-reader makers in general can build an e-book device that’s better and more popular than Amazon’s Kindle. One graf that left me mentally applauding:

I’d counsel Amazon’s competitors to embrace openness even more. In particular, they’d be wise to let people trade eBooks. They could do this even while maintaining copy protection—you could authorize your friend to read your copy of The Da Vinci Code for three weeks, and while he’s got it, your copy would be rendered unusable. (I’d prefer if eBooks came with no copy protection—as is the case with most online music—but many in the publishing industry would never go for that.) Kindle’s rivals could also get together to create a huge, single ePub bookstore. Publishers would have a big incentive to feed this store with all their books—if they provide books only to Amazon, they’d be helping to create a monopolist in their industry, and that’s never good for business.

Manjoo says he hopes that Sony and/or other players provide Amazon.com with intense competition. So do I, for the same reason–I don ‘t want Amazon or Google or anyone else to dominate electronic books any more than I’d have been happy if Random House (say) had cornered the market on dead-tree tomes. Right now, Sony seems like the best hope for a strong Amazon alternative (Plastic Logic is a fairly promising dark horse). The upcoming Sony Reader Daily Edition leaves me cautiously optimistic, but I’d love to see more companies leap into the action…

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Sony’s E-Reader Finally Goes Wireless

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 25, 2009 at 9:23 am

Until now, discussions of the e-book rivalry between Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader have had to point out that Sony’s gadget lacked the wireless connectivity that was probably the Kindle’s best feature. No longer: At a press event at the New York Public Library, Sony announced the Reader Daily Edition, its first e-reader that lets you buy books via wireless broadband. The carrier in this case is AT&T (the Kindle uses Sprint) and the Daily Edition will ship in December for $399. (Two cheaper Sony e-reader models, sans wireless, are available now.)

Sony E-Reader

The Daily Edition will be $100 more than the comparable Kindle; without trying it, it’s hard to gauge whether it’s worth the extra bucks. (It does have a touch-screen interface rather than the Kindle’s somewhat clunky buttons and tiny joystick.) And over the long haul, Sony’s support for the open EPub e-book standard could be a major advantage over Amazon’s use of its proprietary format.

In any event, it’s nice to see that Sony is responding to the Kindle’s dominance of a market it pioneered by redoubling its efforts. Next year should bring lots of e-book developments–such as the release of the Plastic Logic reader–but for now, it’s an Amazon-vs.-Sony war, and they’re both going great guns.

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Yes, Sony, You Are Competing With the iPhone

Posted by Jared Newman on August 19, 2009 at 5:29 pm

Sony continues to insist that it’s not competing with the iPhone on gaming, even though the opposite is increasingly becoming true.

Tucked into Sony’s impressively newsworthy GamesCom press conference yesterday was an announcement for “PSP Minis,” a line of low-price, small-scale video games aimed at the upcoming PSP Go handheld. The list of planned games, including Air Hockey, Bowling and Pac-Man Championship Edition, sound a lot like what you’d find in the iPhone’s App Store.

This is a major about-face for Sony. In March, the company’s marketing VP Peter Dille derided the iPhone as a “separate business” that hosts “largely diversionary” games. He further explained that Sony is a gaming company that makes handheld games with 20-hour experiences. I guess Sony realized there’s also room for cheap and simple.

Still, the company won’t admit that it’s taking Apple on with PSP Minis. Here’s Gamasutra’s Leigh Alexander on follow-up with Playstation Network operations director Eric Lempel, who says Sony isn’t after Apple’s market share.

“It’s totally different,” Lempel told Gamasutra. “… It’s not open to users; these are professional developers, it’s not like what you’re seeing on that other platform.”

Someone needs to remind Sony’s handlers that “competition” doesn’t mean “approaching the market in the exact same way, warts and all.” This should be an opportunity for Sony to say “Yes, we are competing with Apple for handheld gamers’ money, and here’s how we’re going to take it.” Instead, Lempel seems unwilling to confront the truth head-on.

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Five Questions About the PS3 Slim

Posted by Jared Newman on August 18, 2009 at 12:10 pm

ps3slim I’m taking a page from Harry here, as I know he likes prodding on upcoming products when their makers intentionally ignore salient questions. With Sony finally revealing a 36 percent lighter, 33 percent smaller, 40 GB roomier and $100 cheaper Playstation 3 today, I’m left with a few queries of my own.

What will become of the Playstation 3 Big?

Yes, I think it should be called the Playstation 3 Big, for as long as it exists. For now, the existing 80 GB model will be sold for $300, and the 160 GB model is reportedly going for $400. If the Slim is slated for an August 24 launch, as expected, will we eventually be able to scoop up the remaining Bigs for a discount? How about as a bundle with some software?

Will Sony send out more value comparisons?

Sony lost the early gamble on releasing a powerful but pricey gaming console, ultimately forcing the PR machine into action. It must feel good to finally be competitive on pricing, so I’m interested to see how Sony will flaunt it going into the holiday season. Finally, fresh ammunition for the console wars.

What are we looking at for bundles?

Right now, you can get an 80 GB Playstation 3 with LittleBigPlanet (a $60 value) and Wall-E on Blu-ray (a $20 value) for $400. That’s not a bad deal if you’re interested in the game and the movie (I am). When the Slim hits stores, will buyers get any discounts on pack-in games?

Why hate on Linux?

For most users, the PS3 slim will have the same functionality as the old model, but homebrew developers and Linux Lovers will be disappointed to see the removal of the “Install Other OS” feature. This allowed users to run other operating systems on the console, turning the PS3 into a personal computer or hub for homemade applications. I wonder what the harm was in leaving this feature on board.

The PSP Go is only $50 Cheaper?

Okay, that’s not really a question, and it doesn’t pertain to the PS3 Slim, but it’s a puzzler in light of Playstation’s rebirth as the value brand. Since I’m all about bundles, how about enticing consumers to buy both the slimmer console and the tinier handheld? I hear they work wonderfully together, after all.

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