As we had to learn at this years CES, TV and the Internet are two converging technologies. Just like Sir Howard Stringer predicts in his 7 Industry Imperatives, it is no longer enough to have a TV to watch TV and an Internet-enabled computer to read news and do business, customers want to be able to do one with the other and vice versa.
Well, I guess as PS3 owners we already know what this is all about as the PS3 seemlessly integrates both technologies not in the TV, but in the even more powerful entertainment box called PS3.
Now, Yahoo, the provider of such successful services like Yahoo Gadgets and the online photo community Flickr, has just announced the availability of the Yahoo TV Widgets. TV Widgets basically move the concept of the rather PC focused Yahoo Widgets to your TV. So, in addition of watching TV you can easily access all kinds of channels appropriately rendered for your TV screen. Initial partners in crime are Samsung and Sony.
Even though this new product is targeted to TVs in the first place, why isn't Sony going to use the same kind of technology on the PS3 natively? This could be even done as part of "Life with Playstation". Another option would be to integrate the widgets as part of the XMB, similar as the currently available info service.
Anyway, with or without using Yahoo TV Widgets, it would be great to have such an extensible platform on PS3 as well and the Yahoo TV Widgets seem to be an easy win for Sony as all the required technologies are already part of the PS3 toolbox.
It has been discussed lately that Sony is going to shut down major divisions during the next month. Speculations have even gone so far that the still money-loosing Playstation business unit is one of those obsolete business units. As ridiculus this may sound, let's just think about it for a minute.
In difficult times it is more than natural and understandable that companies are rethinking their strategies and latest business decisions. Sony is no different. Those difficult times are also a chance for those companies that can adapt to the new conditions. Would it be the right choice in that regard to close the Playstation business?
You might have watched Sir Howard Stringers CES keynote from beginning to end and you came across his "7 Imperatives to Create the Ultimate User Experience" or the CES 7 how he called them. Those imperatives are obviously driving his decision making when it comes to future product strategies. Let's look at these imperatives for a moment.
Embrace the Fusion of Industries As Stringer said it is a fact that the lines between the consumer electronics, IT and the entertainment industry are blurring and it is critical to accept this change. Consumers want devices that integrate seemlessly across the mentioned industries.
Adopt a Service-Enhanced Philosphy Devices without services are no longer enough. Consumers buy the products that come with the better service. Simple as that.
Be Multi-Functional Or in other words single purpose device are becoming obsolete.
Support Open Technologies I guess that goes without saying: proprietary technologies are no longer accepted by consumers. Consumers hate to be tied into one specific service due to a closed product.
Advance the Shared Experience Go for online communities, Web 2.0 style.
Create New Value Chains Well, it's no longer enough to just sell "a product". In a perfect world the product opens way to other new products and services. Perfect example is HD as it opens a hugh field of product and service opportunities for the industry.
Go Green Products carbon footprint matters.
If Stringer is serious in what he is saying he should obviously respect those imperatives in what he is doing. In that regard let's take a look at the Playstation business. I guess it is easy to say that both the PSP and even more the PS3 is already aligned with those imperatives probably with the exception of number 7.
Beside the fact that the PS3 is still consuming too much energy, the PS3 is the multi-functional device Stringer is talking about. By supporting open technologies the PS3 is the most extensible console these days, supporting a hugh variety of media formats.
With services like the PSN, Home and games like LittleBigPlanet, communities are moving into the center of gameplay and finally create new value chains that are extending the traditional video game business.
Wouldn't it be ridiculus to shut down the Playstation business?
As the original review has been done almost 2 years ago and this page is still getting some considerable external traffic I have decided to update the review simply to reflect the fact that the PS3 is no longer what it used to be. Meanwhile we had about 25 minor and major firmware updates adding a lot of new features and fixing some of the most cumbersome limitations. So keep this in mind while reading the review.
Do me a favor and watch at least those first 7-8 minutes of the Sony keynote at CES 09. An amazing Tom Hanks that shows what a good presentation could eventually be. And Tom, it's Bluray and not Bluetooth, which is of course another great technology that's coming with your PS3. Enjoy ...
I love to find special editions of Playstation games online and I am usually looking for those rare media kits that SCE or other publishers distribute in front of any critical release. As a normal gamer you usually don't have access to those media kits as they get send out to the major online and offline press. I guess a blog like this one doesn't count ;-)
Anyway, as usual ebay is your friend in such matters and I found one of the newer media kits right there. Mororstorm Pacific Rift for unbeatable EUR 7,00!!! I guess the other biders had the same impression that I had: the kit would come without the actual game disc. I was even more excited to find out that the game disc was of course included within the package.
What most of those Sony media kits have in common are the special packaging. In this case it is a rubber bag that looks like a tire cover including the original beach sand. I am not kidding ;-) In addition it comes with an Motorstorm event flyer, the actual event ticket, a nice photo kit on a lanyard, a poster, a sticker and a wristband which I is not on the picture. Beside the game disc that has the official retail version of the game the kit comes with a media disc that as all you need as an writer including the original Motorstorm font ;-)
Even though I like the idea of having such an exclusive, I am pretty sure that a special edition like this would be welcome by many other gamers.
I guess it's time for another Bluray reality check in terms of its market penetration. Being in the third year after its launch, Bluray has achieved a lot even though there was this consumer unfriendly format war between Bluray and HD-DVD.
At this years CES the Bluray consortium released the latest figures during their official press conference which go something like this:
... since inception, in roughly two-and-a-half years on the market, Blu-ray has sold over 10.7 million players in the United States market. This number includes PS3 systems that make up approximately 65% of the players reported with standalone players making up the remaining 35%. PC drives are not included in these numbers. By contrast, DVD, widely acclaimed as the most successful consumer electronics format ever launched, had only sold 5.4 million players by the end if the format's third year on the market. Clearly, Blu-ray is heavily outpacing DVD adoption.
So, in other words compared to the DVD, Bluray is currently on the fast track to catch up with the already available distribution formats. What hasn't been mentioned here is of course the fact that the whole industry changed in terms of how often people watch videos and so forth, but anyhow, this is a great development. So let's go on ...
Perhaps more impressively, Blu-ray is now installed in over 8% of all US households. After three years on the market, DVD had found its way into slightly over 4% of US households, CD was in less than 2% and HDTV in 1% of homes during the same period. On the software front, Blu-ray had a record year. 5.6 million Blu-ray movies were sold in 2007 compared to 24.9 million in 2008. The 4th quarter was instrumental in Blu-ray's success in 2008: 2.3 million copies were sold in October, 3 million in November and a whopping 8 million copies in December alone.
Again, this looks very promissing, but we need to keep in mind that those are holiday season figures first of all and just compare this to the 1.7 billion DVD discs last year, which shows a little bit of what's still ahead of Bluray. What's interesting though is the fact that opposite to Bluray, DVD sales are currently going down, which is not only caused by the rival HD format, but also due to the general market conditions. It is a clear plus for Bluray though as it is a massivly growing market.
Personally I still think that Blurays are way to expensive to become a mass market at the moment. To see what impact the current street price has on sales just look at recent sales activities here in Europe when Bluray discs went on sale temporarily at a major retailer as well as on Amazon for just EUR 14,95. I have never seen so many people standing in the Bluray aisle. At the same time the most recent video releases have been advertised on Bluray instead of DVD.
So, despite all the online distribution hype that is currently lead by companies like Microsoft, we sure will have an offline distribution format and that's going to be Bluray. At the moment all published figures are pointing into the same direction and 2009 obviously seems to be the year when Bluray arrives in many more households.
We all know Sucker Punch for their great Sly the Raccoon series on PS2 and it was more than expected that something was coming from them on PS3. It must have been 3 years ago when the guys finally released first bits of information about their new IP InFamous, that's suppose to come out this fall exclusive on PS3. Like with every new game title it's always kind of risky what people are saying about the new game especially if you are already known for a great series that had so many fans.
The way this unveiling works is always pretty much the same: you show early pieces of work during those gaming events like E3, GDC or GC and the closer you get to the actual release more and more of the gameplay and some of the background story will be revealed.
Personally I was very much interested in what Sucker Punch has created for us, being one of original Sly fans. As it turned out it was a 180 degrees turn from the cute raccoon into an open and dark sandbox game. Ok, not a problem. Next thing I probably noticed was the visual style of InFamous which obviously is not overly realistic but tries to use the new next gen capabilities wherever possible.
What really confuses me a lot with this title is the gameplay we have seen so far and I am really asking myself if the game is just about killing people and blowing up stuff or if we only haven't seen those "other" gameplay sections. Not that I am against violence inside games, but from all I have seen about the game it is close to 99% of what the game is. It just looks really boring too me. Could it be that the folks from Sucker Punch are just showing this because of the cool effects? If this is the case I think they are just overdoing it as people get the wrong impression.
I am really hoping that InFamous has more to offer than what we have seen so far. If not I am really questioning the success of this new IP both short and longterm. For me it is simple not enough to create a violent sandbox game these days. There are already way too many out there and most of them are not selling very well.
What impression does Infamous leave on your end? Anyway, I am keeping my fingers crossed and being off now playing a Sly game, the one with the 3D glasses ...
I guess you guys can tell by the number of recent updates here that I am still on vacation. I really love this time of the year. Anyway, let's get back to business ;-) Yesterday Sony, namely Kaz Hirai, made a few announcements at CES 2009 that I would like to comment here.
First of all the good news about LittleBigPlanet, which obviously found already 1.3 million buyers worldwide, which includes of course the respective hardware bundles. Not that those are MGS like figures, but given the fact that LBP is a brand new IP I think this is quite an achievement for Media Molecule and Sony of course. Yes, it required a lot of marketing and in some cases price reductions on the retail side, but just keep in mind that this is a key product for Sony that eventually will define the image of the PS3 for the future. We already had a few suspected major IPs for the PS3, namely Heavenly Sword and Lair, that didn't do so well. LittleBigPlanet obviously doesn't share the same fade. As a big fan of the game I am really looking forward to see what Media Molecule is working on for their next release.
Then lets move over to Home. With yesterdays release of the Red Bull Air Race and the announcement of the EA Sports Complex it looks like we are sooner than later see what it means to have an additional platform with Home. EA Sports Complex is a huge venue that allows EA to showcase a lot of their sports related IPs as well as providing some essential mini games visitors on site.
And I am pretty sure that EA is only the first of a list of companies to show up in Home. Interesting side note: it was former archenemy Peter Moore who actually unveiled the new Home support:
We're proud to support the PlayStation Home Beta with a very robust offering from EA SPORTS. As part of our continued commitment to the connected experience and the digitization of our business, the EA SPORTS Complex is a rich new online environment that presents a compelling and immersive social gaming experience for the global sports audience.
This place seems to be so attractive for gaming companies that they can simply not ignore it. The Red Bull Air Race is another perfect example. The way how sponsering and gaming have been melted into a nice little mini game shows the potential of Home again. I am pretty sure that we will see many more of those marketing financed games in Home in the future. In a few weeks a lot of those people who currently ignore Home because of the lag of content will come back. Not being one of those typical online gamers either, I almost lost my resistance completely.
And regarding those downloads in Home, it is amazing to see how good this business model obviously works. With currently no tangible stuff to buy, people obviously spend already more than 1 million Dollars inside Home which we have to relate to the 3 million users that have downloaded Home already. Micro payments are obviously the magic bullet here. This basically mirrors the success of the PSN.
Not having seen the full picture of what Home eventually will be in the near future, I am pretty sure that both, Microsoft and Nintendo, are watching closely what Sony is doing here. You can definitely blame Sony to some extend that they have copied a lot of stuff Microsoft has done in the past when it comes to online gaming, but first of all, Sony just replicated the good stuff and second, they provided something with Home that neither Microsoft nor Nintendo can currently counter. Be sure that both are already working on something similar but Sony has a huge advantage here by being able to define what this platform will look like. Compared to Home, features like achievements and gamerscore are really peanuts.
I want to close with some comments on another platform Sony has silently established on PS3 again not showing their full potential: Life with Playstation. Let's forget about the strange for a second, but what Sony did by extending Folding@Home into a platform that can host several services, is something like Google Gadgets on PS3. I would love to see Sony opening this platform for a lot more location-based service. Not sure what's in the pipeline, but according to their annoucement there is something coming in the near future. What comes to my mind while thinking about this: why isn't Sony even joining forces with Google and bringing Google Earth onto PS3. Sure, their is some risk (hacking) attached to such an open platform, but how cool whould that be, to use Google Earth on your TV in 1080p.
One comment though again on the lousy startup speed of both Home and Life with Playstation. Sony, go and get this fixed somehow as it is not acceptable to wait more than 30 secs for such service. It is even more ridiculous that you actually have to confirm the connection to the Home service. Why do you think I got here? I don't really care what the possible solutions are, but both services must be available instantly when I need them.
Well, this was a pretty nice start into 2009 and I can already see that 2009 will definitely become a major breakthrough for Sony. Best of luck and happy new year 2009.
So far I restained myself successfully from LittleBigPlanet create mode as I still had a couple of levels to play and stuff to collect in the already played levels. Next thing I did was checking out some community levels just to get a feeling of what is possible with LBP.
Then I started with my first tutorials, which I really liked because of their hands on lessons combined with helpful videos. Great concept as so many things in LBP. When I finally finished all the tutorials I had a kind of idea how the create mode works and what you can actually do with all the stuff that's provided to you.
Next big hurdle you have to get across is really a good idea what to actually do with all of that. I guess there are only a few people that would start with a complete level right away. What I can highly recomment to everyone not being a natural born level designer, pick yourself one or two of the more complex objects from LBP and try to rebuild them yourself. The point here is not just copying ideas its really about finding out how LBP really works. Even though LBP is powered by a physics engine that let's you to some extend predict what's happening, there are a couple of laws in LBP you don't find in real life. For instance my first object was a moving walkway, like the once the find in airports and other huge buildings. Using a combination of emitters, magnetic switches, rubber wheels and motor bolts I was finally able to create this object and guess what, I almost felt like the 8 year old boy I was when I played the last time with my Lego blocks. Just amazing.
Being actually the first release of what's going to become a platform longterm, LBP is already pretty much complete and stable. The UI they put on top of the physics engine is getting so close to what I call intuative like almost nothing before. Compare that to what the iPhone did to mobiles. Almost the same quantum leap. It's not hard to imagine that even casual gamers (I hate that word) are able to do something in that mode. The amazing thing is, it's not only the final piece of work that matters, it's how you get there. Trail and error until you have a successful working device. As I said, just like in the good old Lego days. I am just wondering way Lego never came up with an idea like this. They currently must feel stupid looking at LBP.
Again, as I said, LBP is already kind of stable and complete, but you feel after a while that there are already a few things that are missing. To actually build certain 2 player cooperative levels it's kind of mandatory to create puzzles that are not possible with the current objects and devices within your tool bag. Things like AND - OR - logical devices are needed to implement certain logics and even though those are not available out-of-the-box, guess what, the cmmunity build them for you. Just search for "Netty's Logic Lesson" to get an idea what I am talking about. To show you what's ultimately possible with those components try out the LittleBigCalculator level and make sure you check out the whole machinary using the provided Jetpack. It's not too optimistic to expect some of that stuff coming in one of the next LBP updates.
To sum it up, in my mind LBP has more potential than any other original franchise on PS3 and any other console. It's hard to believe that LBP even though it is following a 2D approach is going to become boring after a while, because it is more of a platform than a concrete game. Just check out for instance the Metal Gear downloadable content which adds once again a new experience to LBP, which is only an example. As I mentioned before in my Home post, Sony should really think about merging both platforms to some extend as the community aspect of Home and the create mode of LBP can really go together.
Duh? Well, even though I can't agree more with Sony's latest marketing twist, I guess there's no way that this is going to reach consumers as intended. It's kind of difficult to do such rational based marketing campaigns for goods like a console or a cell phone as people tend to either ignore the facts or they are so attracted by the low entry price.
Everyone being open to such arguments already made those math themselves and eventually bought already a PS3 just because of the better price - performance ration or just because the PS3 can do things the 360 is not even possible to do with the most clever upgrades and add-ons.
Again, nice point from Sony but this is not going to prevent them from issuing a price reduction real soon. A couple more month with stronger 360 sales will eventually convince them. I am pretty sure that Sony is going to decide what to do after analyzing the next 2-3 month.
And yes, the PS3 offers more bang for the buck ...
It has been discussed lately that 
I guess it's time for another Bluray reality check in terms of its market penetration. Being in the third year after its launch, Bluray has achieved a lot even though there was this consumer unfriendly format war between Bluray and HD-DVD.
I guess you guys can tell by the number of recent updates here that I am still on vacation. I really love this time of the year. Anyway, let's get back to business ;-) Yesterday Sony, namely Kaz Hirai, made a few announcements at CES 2009 that I would like to comment here. 
We're proud to support the PlayStation Home Beta with a very robust offering from EA SPORTS. As part of our continued commitment to the connected experience and the digitization of our business, the EA SPORTS Complex is a rich new online environment that presents a compelling and immersive social gaming experience for the global sports audience.
