Universe’s Tech Blog

Sony has admitted that some games designed for older PlayStation consoles are not working properly on the newly released PlayStation 3 (PS3).

The PS3 was supposed to be “backwards compatible”, meaning it should run games written for PlayStation and PlayStation 2.

Sony said that the audio features do not work on some titles, while others have problems with the graphics.

It has offered to fix the PS3 problems via online upgrades for consoles.

Limited numbers

“We are aware that a select number of titles have compatibility issues but these problems will be fixed with a software upgrade that will be available in the near future,” a Sony spokesman told the BBC News website.

Japanese newspaper Sankei has reported that the problems affect about 200 games sold for the original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. Sony has declined to give numbers.

Games affected are believed to include Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy.

Glitches of this nature are quite common when new consoles are released. Microsoft received complaints about scratched disks when it launched the Xbox, and other consoles have had compatibility issues.

The console is described by the firm as its most important strategic product of this year, and it is intended to go head-to-head with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s upcoming Wii console.

The PlayStation 3 was originally supposed to go on sale in early 2006, but production problems and shortages of key components forced a delay. The European launch of the console has been pushed back to March 2007.

This has also meant that there are only 100,000 consoles for gamers in Japan.

Sony said 400,000 will be available for the US launch on 17 November. Despite the shortages, Sony said it was confident of shipping six million PS3s by the end of March 2007.

Introducing Nintendo Wii…
Nintendo’s new generation console, which was formerly codenamed Revolution, is now simply named Wii. For the record, it’s pronounced like “we,” despite the different and deliberately odd spelling. Nintendo announced the official name of Wii on April 27, 2006. The announcement can be read by clicking right here. The official Wii announcement trailer can be downloaded right here.

The Wii brand is designed to accentuate the console’s unique controller (as represented by the ‘ii’ in the title) and its ability to bring gamers of all types together, hence the name “we.”

The Wii system is the fruit of a new Nintendo philosophy that is determined to emphasize original and fresh gameplay endeavors over dramatically enhanced graphic presentations. Whereas both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are designed from the ground up to deliver more detailed, high-definition graphics, Wii’s biggest innovation lies with a potentially revolutionary new controller and not raw horsepower. It is this controller, dubbed the Wii remote (or Wii-mote for short), which truly distinguishes the Big N’s new platform from its competitors.

Technical Breakdown
The Wii system has been designed to be “small, quiet and affordable,” according to Nintendo. The machine, available at launch in glossy white, is just 8.5 inches long, 6 inches wide and less than two inches thick (the exact dimensions are 157mm x 215.4mm x 44mm.) The Big N is fond of comparing the system to the size of roughly three stacked DVDs. Wii can be placed horizontally or vertically. The console is roughly twice as powerful as a GameCube, putting it in horsepower territory beyond Xbox, but well shy of Xbox 360. Tech specs do not tell the whole story, which is probably why Nintendo itself has chosen not to provide intricate breakdowns for Wii’s CPU and GPU. Bearing that in mind, here’s everything we know about the console’s internal makeup:

729 MHz IBM PowerPC “Broadway” CPU 243 MHz ATI “Hollywood” GPU
24MBs “main” 1T-SRAM 64MBs other 1T-SRAM
512MBs internal flash memory 3MBs texture memory on GPU
Built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi capability One SD memory card bay
AV multi-port: S-video, composite, component Analog (left/right) audio / DPLII
Four GameCube controller ports Two GameCube Memory Pak slots
Two USB 2.0 ports Compatible with up to four wireless Wii-motes
Self-loading media drive Accepts 12cm Wii and 8cm GCN discs; no DVD movies

The specs are good and fine, but they do little to paint Nintendo’s full plan for Wii. The Big N hopes its new platform will captivate the elusive non-gamer market. To do this, Wii will come packed with a number of extra features - some of which branch out of games-only territory.

In a brief statement just released by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) it’s been announced that they and Ziff Davis Group have agreed to terminate production of the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine - otherwise known as OPM - with the release of the January issue. Peter Dille, SVP of marketing for SCEA had this to say about the raw-deal:

“A key element of the OPM magazine was the playable PlayStation disc packed in with every magazine. With the launch of the PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system and its full network and Web capabilities, we are focused on delivering content via the PlayStation Network and PlayStation.com website, not discs,” - “While we have enjoyed a very good run with the printed version of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, we feel it is important to shift assets online to meet the needs of today’s PlayStation consumer. This is a natural evolution of our content delivery strategy.”

The release goes on to explain that the DVD content will now become available exclusively through the newly unveiled Playstation Site and the Playstation network via the PS3.

This is absolutely a raw deal for the Ziff group and for Playstation fans but the bigger question is what does this mean for other “official” magazines? One could presume the UK version will soon go as well. It’s an odd move on Sony’s part to kill an official print resource supporting their newly minted platform especially in light of Microsoft’s recent move to make Computer Gaming World into Games for Windows.

Joe Dodson, of Game-Revolution, comments, “Makes sense to me, there’s no reason to go to a store and buy a magazine when you can just read it on your game console.” but then goes on to say, “I can’t imagine reading reviews for PS3 games on my PS3.” Well put. I can’t imagine it either. Now, we may know OPM’s reviews were hardly unbiased but this definitely sounds a shift in strategy that should be noted.

Meanwhile, what a Merry Xmas that will be for the staff. Hope they at least got a parting PS3!

Xbox 360’s HD-DVD Addon Opened and tested on XP, Vista, Mac OSX
>> The guys over at uneasysilence.com talk about how to use the Xbox360 HD-DVD addon on a PC. In case you missed the news Saturday on xbox-scene, Toshiba drivers have been released on net net that will allow Windows XP to recognize the Xbox360 HD-DVD addon if you connect it via USB with your PC.
The guys over at 360insider.net even say Windows Vista has the drivers built-in. Apparently the drive will be recognized and automatically installed on Windows Vista.
To test if you can not just read the content (fileview) of HD-DVD discs but also play HD-DVD movies, uneasysilence.com installed WinDVD 8 that has support to playback HD-DVD movies on Windows (update: apparently only the japanese version of WinDVD can playback HD-DVD atm). The HD-DVD movies played just fine on their Windows XP using the $200 Xbox360 HD-DVD Addon.
They also connected the addon with Mac OSX … it was automatically recognized, and when a DVD disc was inserted the “DVD Player” application included in the OS started doing its thing. However they could not test HD-DVD movies as Mac OSX has no player for these discs yet.

They also opened on the Xbox360 HD-DVD Xbox 360 Addon. It looks like the drive found in the case, made by Toshiba, uses a non-standard plug (update: apparently it is a standard laptop CD/DVD drive connector (mini ATAPI) which can easily be converted to IDE, sry for the mistake).

Click the title!

Sony Corp.’s (6758.T) new PlayStation 3 game console has problems when playing about 200 software games from previous versions of the machine, the Sankei daily reported on Tuesday.

Sony started selling the latest version of its blockbuster game console in Japan on Saturday, and video game magazine publisher Enterbrain has said it sold 88,400 units of the console in the first two days after the launch, leaving most stores without any stock.

The PS3 should be able to load and run games designed for earlier PlayStation models, but the paper said some sound and screen problems have been reported when these games were played on the new console.

Officials at Sony’s game division were not immediately available for comment.

Sony is going up against Microsoft Corp.’s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)
Xbox 360, on sale for the past year, and Nintendo Co.’s (7974.OS) Wii, which will hit U.S. stores next week.

Sony was able to ship only 100,000 units for the launch after a glitch in blue laser diode production disrupted its output plans. It plans to have the PS3 on shelves in North America on November 17, followed by a European launch in March.

We were a bit skeptical when we first heard of the possibility of a “premium Wii” with DVD playback coming to Japan next year — why would Nintendo announce such a console now and risk cannibalizing their sales? Well, Nintendo, who just confirmed just such a console for both Japan and North America in 2007, is spinning it exactly so: “If DVD movie playback is so important, people can wait for the later model next year. For most consumers it’ll be about the games, so they’ll likely not want to wait to purchase the new system.” That way nobody is bitter about a 3x sexy console mere months after the original… not like that ever happens. As much as we’d love to gripe about the current absence of this fairly common-sensical feature, and though we still can’t figure out why Nintendo didn’t at least figure this out as a firmware-update (they’re still citing cost concerns for the current exclusion), we can’t really see this standing in the way of most Nintendo fanboys and their unabated Wii lust. We suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

NEW YORK (International Business Times) - Anticipation is growing as Sony and Nintendo prepare for the North American releases of their latest gaming consoles. With Microsoft already set with the Xbox 360, and a strong offering from Nintendo, some experts believe that Sony will lose its tight grip on the worldwide gaming market.

Although Sony plans to launch its Playstation 3 console in North America on November 17, with Nintendo following shortly after, Microsoft already launched its next-generation console last November. The unchallenged twelve-month advantage has given the software maker a sizeable lead.

“The winner in the next-generation console battle is likely to be the Xbox 360, which is the leader in North America, the world’s biggest market,” said Yoshiyuki Kinoshita, research analyst for Merrill Lynch.

“We forecast respective market shares at end-FY3/11 of Xbox 360 [at] 39 percent, PS3 [at] 34 percent and Wii [at] 27 percent, thus overturning Sony’s domination of the market with its PS2-based share of 69 percent, and doubling Microsoft and Nintendo’s respective market shares.”

The firm further predicts that in Japan, Sony will take the lead with a 57 percent market share, while Nintendo will take the bulk of the rest at 39 percent of the market. Figures for Xbox were not supplied.

In North America, Microsoft will hold the lead with 50 percent of while Sony and Nintendo will follow with 27 and 23 percent, respectively.

“In the next-gen console market, we see the end of any common global dominant platform,” Kinoshita concludes.

Click the title to go to the website…

A year ago I wouldn’t even believe this rumor as a possibility, but there’s always the fact that Microsoft stole Rare away from Nintendo. Capcom already pumped out Dead Rising, and plans to kick ass with Lost Planet soon — not to mention their solid background of Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Mega Man, and Street Fighter games — so the stakes could be high if this rumor were to come true.

I doubt Microsoft could pull off exclusivity to Capcom’s games even if they owned them, but I didn’t think a Britney Spears sex tape was ever going to happen either. Devil May Cry on the 360 would definitely be nice though, I’m all for it.

Video game magazine publisher Enterbrain has released the first figures regarding the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 3 console. According to those numbers, the PS3 sold 88,400 units in the first 2 days following its launch. This figure means that almost all retailers sold out and that Sony had a strong start in its PlayStation 3 campaign, ahead of the critical for the company U.S. launch of the PS3, on November 17.

The Cell-powered console was greeted with much enthusiasm by Japanese consumers as many queued for hours in order to guarantee they could get their hands on the limited supply. Amidst accusations that homeless people were paid to queue overnight by wealthy businessmen and claims that most consoles sold are now being offered on auction site eBay, the fact remains that PS3 was the headline event this weekend in Japan.

The figures released also claim that 54,600, or 62 per cent, of the units sold were of the advanced (60 GB) model. Additionally we are informed that the best selling titles for the console over the launch weekend were Namco Bandai’s Ridge Racer 7 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight, selling 27,000 and 20,000 copies respectively. The interesting fact is that the figures suggest that about 7,000 PS3 units were bought without any games.

The U.S. launch will feature about 400,000 units and is bound to offer more convincing figures and better data for us to begin drawing conclusions regarding the future of Sony’s next-generation offering.

Bungie has vowed to make this week special for Halo fans as it will mark the 5th anniversary of the launch of Halo for the original XBox. The developer promises more Halo 3 news and even announcements to celebrate the occasion.

Following the bad news of the postponement of the Halo movie, due to financial problems, Halo fans were happy to find out some new multiplayer details last week as revealed by the French Official XBox Magazine. That story revealed three new multiplayer modes, Ninjaball (in which players have to hold on to a ball), TankFlag (in which a tank carries the flag) and Elimination (a mode which will be played by 16 players and in which you will have to eliminate 5 opposing team members in order to triumph). The same story also revealed new weapons including such technological wonders as the Spartan Laser and the quirky, if slightly phallic, Man-Canon.

Having had all that information, including the treat of watching an editorial team playing Halo 3 MP but having no in-game images, we are now promised by Bungie more Halo 3 goodness this week. Before all that we are also told that Bungie is gauging female gamer reaction to its plans to add a female voice as a custom option for the Spartan character. We are happy to hear Bungie will create the female voice avoiding all female stereotypes and will make sure that it cannot be viewed as patronizing. If you have any comments to make regarding the presence of a female voice option in Halo 3 please visit the Official Halo 3 Forums.