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Posts Tagged ‘ PlayStation 3 ’

PlayStation 3 on target for best-selling year yet

By Fei on December 23, 2010

By Martyn Williams

December 23, 2010

TOKYO – Sony’s PlayStation 3 remains on course for record sales this year, the head of Sony’s games business said on Wednesday.

The console has been selling well and is on target to match Sony’s sales target of 15 million consoles for the fiscal year from April 2010 to March 2011, said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment.

If Sony achieves its sales target, it will also push the total number of PlayStation 3 consoles sold since launch in 2006 to just over 50 million.

As of Sept. 30, cumulative global sales were at 41.6 million. Sales of the console typically peak in the year-end period between December and January.

The PlayStation 3, long a loss-making product, finally turned profitable last year when Sony launched a new model that cost less to make. Progress in chip-making technology allowed Sony to consolidate components, making the new model more compact and even allowing the company to lower the price and still make a profit. When the PlayStation 3 first launched Sony was relying on future sales of games to cover its losses on the hardware.

Sales have been buoyed in recent weeks by the launch of the Move motion controller system.

The Move is a wireless controller that includes a motion sensor and has a distinctive, glowing ball at one end. A camera unit connected to the console tracks the controller and combines this with data from the motion sensor to track where it is in three dimensions.

Sony sold 4.1 million of the Move controllers between launch in September and the end of November.

Around 80 percent of all PlayStation 3 consoles are connected to the Internet and many of those were recently updated to add support for 3D games and Blu-ray Discs, said Hirai.

Sony is hoping to attract console owners to a range of network services that offer premium content. The PlayStation Store already offers downloadable games and a video-on-demand service in many major markets.

On Wednesday, Sony launched a music streaming service for users in the U.K. and Ireland. “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” will be expanded to PlayStation 3 and other Sony networked consumer electronics products in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, New Zealand and the U.S. next year.

Leave Your PlayStation 3 Off or Else, Warns Sony

By Fei on March 3, 2010

By Matt Peckham
March 3, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO – It’s probably just a 24 hour bug, but you’ll want to leave your glitchy PS3s off in the meantime, just in case, says Sony.

In an update posted to the company’s international Twitter feeds and official PlayStation blogs at roughly 9:15am PT, Sony wrote that it hopes to resolve an issue preventing gamers from playing games or connecting to its PlayStation Network, but advises that “you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality.”
Those “functionality errors” could include properly recording trophies obtained by completing specific goals in games, as well as “not being able to restore certain data,” though it’s unclear what Sony means by the latter.

The issue, which manifested as clocks turned from February 28 to March 1, affects older “fat” PS3s only (“slims” are unaffected) and manifests as a time reset to 12/31/99 when you power the system on. Attempting to play certain games offline brings up an error message, as does signing into Sony’s PlayStation Network.

Some users have also reported that they can’t access streaming videos, such as those downloaded from online video rental service Netflix.

Use Your Console Gamepad With Your PC

By Fei on January 28, 2010

By Patrick Miller
January 28, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO – Mario can’t rescue the princess without his Fire Flower. Mega Man can’t beat Dr. Wily without his Mega Buster. If you’re going to save the world, you need the proper equipment–and a keyboard and mouse just won’t cut it. Fortunately, you can get pretty much any mainstream console gamepad working on a PC, so you won’t have to shell out megabucks for an X-Arcade TankStick to bring back your gaming glory days.

Current Controllers: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii

First off, if you haven’t tried using your Wiimote on your PC, you’re missing out. We’ve got a how-to on using your Wiimote with your PC already, but the abbreviated version is: Get GlovePIE.

Xbox 360 controllers also aren’t too tricky to get working, since they’re made by Microsoft. If you have one with a USB cable already, it should work when you plug it in, but if you’d rather not be tethered to your PC you’ll need to grab an Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver ($25), which will let you use up to four Xbox 360 gamepads and headsets at a time so you can brawl with your buddies.

Stalwart Sony fans will have to install a driver for their PS3 pad–although the pad is automatically detected when you plug it in via USB, it won’t work. You can find different homebrew drivers out there, but the most feature-heavy version comes from MotioninJoy, which supports both Sixaxis and DualShock 3 gamepads for Windows XP/Vista/7 (32-bit and 64-bit). MotioninJoy’s instructions are a little tricky to follow, but here are the basic steps:

- Download and install the MotioninJoy package.
- Restart your PC, and press F8 during startup (after the BIOS is done loading, but before Windows starts) to open the Advanced Boot Options menu, and pick Disable Driver Signature Enforcement. (Doing this could potentially open up your PC to a security risk, so don’t make it a habit.)
- Plug your PS3 pad in.
- Once you’re done booting up, open the MotioninJoy folder in your Start Menu, right-click on Install MotioninJoy Driver, and choose Run As Administrator.
- Open the DS3 Tool app from the MotioninJoy folder and start configuring your PS3 gamepad. Bluetooth support is still a little bit shaky, but USB should work fine.

Classic Gamepads: PS2, SNES, Genesis, and Beyond

If you’re looking to get your Playstation/Playstation 2 controller working, your best bet is a Playstation-to-USB converter, but if you pick the wrong converter you might notice lag or compatibility issues. The Stepmania.com Wiki has a good listing of these converters (as well as GameCube-to-USB converters), though it’s written specifically with Dance Dance Revolution fans in mind.

Just don’t grab one without reading a few reviews first. Generally, these will either have manufacturer-supplied drivers included on a disc or for download, and they’ll be usable with any HID-compliant game software.

Even the grizzled gamers who just can’t bring themselves to play an NES game with a Playstation pad have options. Though a handful of companies make updated versions of classic pads with dimensions similar to the originals, RetroZone caught my eye because it offers adapters for NES, SNES, N64, Atari, Vectrex, and Sega Genesis pads as well as converted NES/SNES USB pads if you don’t have your old gear any more. The adapters typically run for about $22, while the pads are in the $35 range.

But what about gamepads for truly vintage legacy games (which might not support HID devices)? No gamepad how-to would be complete without a link to JoyToKey, a freeware utility that lets you take inputs from any USB gamepad and map them to keyboard inputs, so older PC games won’t be left out from the action.

All you have to do is download JoyToKey, install it, plug in the gamepads you want to use, and assign each button to your desired keyboard input. It takes a little trial and error (the buttons are typically named unhelpful things like Button 1 and Button 2 instead of X and Y or Square and Triangle), so be prepared to spend a few minutes testing it.

PlayStation 3 ‘Arc’ Motion Controller Shipping Fall 2010

By Fei on January 22, 2010

By Matt Peckham
January 22, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO – After September 22 but before December 21, that’s when you’ll see the PlayStation 3′s spiffy new motion controller on store shelves, says Sony. In a press release issued late last night, the company revealed its wand-based motion control peripheral for the PS3 would ship this fall in Japan, North America, and Europe with ready-to-play software. (Note to Sony: It’s just ‘software’, ‘software titles’ is technically double-dipping.)

“We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users, ” said Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai in the press statement.

“We will continue to work to have a comprehensive portfolio of attractive and innovative games for the Motion Controller, not only from SCE Worldwide Studios but also from the third party developers and publishers, whom we have been working closely with. We look forward to soon unveiling the exciting software line-up that further expands and defines the PS3 platform as the ultimate entertainment system for the home.”

Microsoft’s ‘no controller’ motion sensing alternative, dubbed Project Natal, is due to ship by the end of the year, probably in November, placing it head-to-head with Sony’s product.
As expected, you’ll need the PlayStation Eye camera to use the double-wand system. The Eye’s been available for years, of course, and retails for $40 today. It’s also arguably the most underutilized, prematurely released official Sony peripheral in existence, so unless you’re hip to play Eye of Judgment (a totally decent card game, by the way) I’d wait to pick one up until they’re discounting it later this year, or, you know, bundling it with the PlayStation Arc.
Hold up, the PlayStation Arc? What the heck’s that?

If you buy VG247′s claim, raised ‘on good authority’, a Sony insider says that’s what the motion controller’s actually named. You know, Arc. Like the plasma bolts spit from a Tesla Coil.
Interestingly, Sony says–my emphasis–that it will “vigorously promote the Motion Controller as the de facto controller of the PS3 platform along with the DUALSHOCK series controller.”

Translation: The Arc–I mean Tentatively Labeled Motion Controller Wand Duo PlayStation Accessory Thingy–gets to ride up front with the big boys. No lounging in the backseat or huddling in the trunk with neglected peripherals like the Eye, or the forlorn SIXAXIS accelerometer.