Re: Phone SOny and R* Give them Your info!!! [ intimidtr3 @ PlayStation.com, thanks everyone!]

Check out the liveblog for all the action!

TV Channels coming to the PS3? [sev1512, via PS3F]

Argh! Not accurate enough, for our tastes! Fortunately, we'll be able to more obsessively split hairs on the matter later this week, when NPD data is revealed, but for now we have some expertly sculpted spin to enjoy!

First up, the clear winner, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg. He says, in part, "These sales results add GTA IV to a long list of franchises that have switched over from Playstation to find a new home on Xbox 360 similar to what happened last year with titles like Madden and Guitar Hero." Greenberg, who seems pleased, tells Level Up that it's a trend he expects to continue.

Peter Dille, senior VP of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment, responds in kind. "If I had an installed base advantage of 3-1," he says "I wouldn't be crowing too much about a 60-40 sales advantage." Touche! Dille says that 60-40 split isn't such a big deal. Actually, it's a testament to PlayStation brand loyalty, Peter says, in a roundabout way! Regardless of the hard numbers, Dille manages to seem pleased too.

Mr. Croal breaks it down further, with some pre-April console install base numbers, for those interested. We expect better sales insight due Thursday, at which point there will be much slap fighting done across message boards and commenting threads. Don't miss it!

Scoop: GameStop Reveals That When It Comes to Grand Theft Auto IV, Xbox 360 Has a 2-1 Advantage Over Playstation 3 In First Week Sales [Level Up]

Pachter puts the PS3 slightly ahead of the Xbox 360, but the Wii is envisioned to outsell both combined. That may be largely due to Mario Kart Wii sales, but we suspect that a good portion of those Wii sold are simply due to rabid demand.

And, for the record, neither the PS3 or the 360 come close to Nintendo DS sales. In our fantasy world, Nintendo's statement about April's U.S. sales is simply the image above, in obscenely high resolution.

Pachter: Wii Outsold PS3 and Xbox 360 Combined in April [GameDaily]

I think MMOs are going to be a real strong selling point for the PS3 long term — there's going to be some great ones on the PS3. You're not going to find "The Agency" on the [Xbox] 360.

Game development is hot here [The Seattle Times via CVG]

I think there was some confusion as to what PS3 was initially — some of the third parties didn’t understand and they wanted to scale back a little and see how things went before they really put in their resources... But when I re-positioned the PS3 as a video games console at Tokyo Game Show I think everybody got that message loud and clear.

While removing backwards compatibility was shitty of Kaz, driving home the point that the PS3 is a game machine first and foremost was quite smart. That's why they pay him the big bucks!
Confusing [MCVUK] [Pic]

Every question posed and loose end dangled since Metal Gear first introduced stealth gaming to the world in 1987 finds closure here.... Even by the series stratospheric standards, MGS4 is a remarkable high point.... As a fan of the series I was expecting closure. What I wasn't expecting was the game's commitment to framing that closure with so many new ways to experience the series' 'evade or die' core values.

Hit the jump for another peek of the mag. The last line of the article posted after the jump *might* be considered a spoiler. So! If you are trying to stay spoiler-free, you might wanna avoid.

First Review [N4G Thanks, electroshockwave!]

On the internet, there's stuff saying "Hideo Kojima" isn't satisfied with the PS3. I'd like to talk about that today. I just got back from Paris and did 15 interviews and everyone asked me about it, did I say that. The meaning of what I said has totally been changed, made totally different. Today, I'd like to talk about that. Why did it turn into that? When I'm doing an interview, I answer in Japanese, and I can't control how the writer will interpret that into English... What I say is then translated in English, and the writer then changes that into their own words and writes that. So, right there, the meaning of what I say changes a lot.

Hit the jump for more.

I am Japanese, so I try to be modest. I'm an especially modest person. I dont wish to brag about it to say "I am the amazing Metal Gear guy" or to say "This is the best one", just like how Americans brag stuff like this... That's why i interview in Japanese, and Mr. Sai (translator) translates my side of the inteviews very well in English. Westerners do not have a tradition of modesty. And so, the statements are translated correctly, but the original meaning is totally different. And those statements are on a totally different website and the meaning totally changes. Regarding my recent comment about my disappointment with MGS4, the comments derived from the article "MGS4, Inside The Biggest PS3 Game" to the post "Hideo Disappointed with MGS4." It's become totally different. This was in English, and here's where it gets strange. Japanese readers then translated that in Japanese and put it on their websites, writing things like "Oh, the PS3 is dead." Then that spread through the internet and now people are writing things like "Hideo Kojima Is Making MGS4 on the PS3." This is no good... It's funny how others think "Did Hideo really say that?" then ask me, and my answer is obviously "No" but then... I guess I am responsible for all of the articles...

Now I'm going to say what I really wanted to say, and this is what I told those 15 reporters:

Let's say this developer is making hardware, in this case a game, and that hardware is at the level of a car. And when looking at the specs, the developer claims the car is able to fly. Now there is no stopping when you say, "This is a car that can fly." When you claim that it can fly, the speculation grows from "oh so it can FLY?!!!" And the developer would set his goals higher. The specualtion is that if the car flies, then it should reach a MACH speed...but it doesnt stop there...it'd go beyond the specualtion of then "it should go into space!" with all the excitement around, and the developer would go deeply into making the car going into space... however, he'll come up to the public and say the car reaches the MACH speed, but it fails to go into the space. But he shouldn't give up, because for a car to even reach a mach speed and go into air is revolutionary. I wished to convey my thoughts like that, but I guess it didn't work very well.

Recently I've been thinking about not giving interviews. That's not my job. My job is making games... The next time I interview in America, I will just say "MGS4 is the best, the end." It's not cool for a Japanese to speak so blatantly, and I don't want to say that. But if I don't, things like this [above] can happen... If you look at MGS4, I think you'll understand... MGS4 isn't exactly my property, so I don't have a total control over it and sometimes I get confused with it. Some may be disappointed the way I say things, but I do release the game with confidence. In fact that what I have been doing, not just this PS3 game, but my previous PS2 titles. I always reached for the higher goal and I try to go for it... Things like this often happen with Japanese newspapers. Where they take only the choice quotes. They don't change what you say, but the meaning's different, and the meaning changes. I'm always careful while giving interviews. Even in my company, im learning a lot about media training, but I wanted to do more than just that and here i am with the interview, but if things like above keep happening, I won't do anymore interviews. I don't get paid for these interviews at all. [jokingly] I won't do them anymore! I've decided! I'll stop doing my podcast! Like that.

It's not like we were looking at some shit Babelfish translation of a Famitsu interview. It was from EDGE magazine, and you can read the original quotes and see the original magazine page here. Also, keep in mind, EDGE's comment that Kojima was "being modest" OR Fahey's original comments:

Personally I think the man is being a bit hard on himself, but that's what great minds do.

So there was certainly progress made, but not enough progress...or more specifically, not enough power for progress. Apparently the team overestimated what the PlayStation 3 was capable of.

Now Kojima is a well-known perfectionist, but it is a bit disturbing to see him voice his dissatisfaction with what is supposed to be the masterpiece of the franchise.

If you stick your foot in it and screw up, it's always easier to shift the blame, pull the You-Don't-Understand-Us-Japanese card or gloss over important details like, you know, reading. This wasn't a cultural misunderstanding or blowing things out of proportion, this was a PR disaster. Granted, maybe Kojima, after all these years, really isn't that savvy about dealing with the Western press. Maybe, he expects people to understand that he only uses double talk and metaphors — because those are much easier for everyone to grasp. When in Rome, don't do as the Romans do!

This really begs the question: We understand why Kojima might be humble about his own game (fair enough!), but why be "humble" or make excuses for the PLAYSTATION 3? Last we checked, Kojima doesn't work for Sony.
Kojima Addresses The Issue [Konami via PlayStation Boards Thanks, Re-I!]

We've been hearing a lot of chatter about how they botched a comparison video of Race Driver: GRID. In an attempt to show cooler crash physics on the 360, they used PS3's instead — easily identifiable by the controller map in the lower left corner. Doh!

Gametrailers took down the video after getting barbecued in the comment flamewar. But someone already YouTubed it and spliced in comments pointing out the negligence, or worse.

Anyway, here you go. Just shows that console comparison is absolutely the third rail discussion in our neck of the woods. And if you undertake it, everything has to be bulletproof, or you'll get ripped for looking like a shill.

GRID Playstation 3 vs Xbox 360 Comparison is Fishy [onaxis]

So, uh, here's your reading list. Komrade Kayce, please pass these out to the rest of the class. Thank you. Be prepared to discuss the nature of symbolism, specifically themes regarding coping with death, in "My PlayStation 2.5". Now, let me pour a mug from this thermos that is absolutely nothing but coffee and don't you little bastards dare suggest otherwise or spread rumors.

On another note, does anyone have any useful or economical suggestions for doing console video-game footage captures onto a Macintosh (with no RCA video board input)? I've tried the Pinnacle "Dazzle" video transfer for Mac. It's a piece of shit. Can't even get a signal. This question is germane to something Adam Barenblat and I hope to deliver next weekend.

My PlayStation 2.5
EA Takes Out $1 Billion Loan For Take-Two Acquisition
Call of Duty 5 Already Playable
echochrome Review: Poppin', Lockin' and Thinkin'
Gran Turismo: 50 Million Served
Rumor: Microsoft May Debut New Xbox 360 Motion Controller Next Week
Battle of the Bands Review: Musical Smackdown
Wii Nintendo Channel Video Walkthrough
Analyst: Record GTA Sales Change Nothing For EA's "80/20" Take-Two Bid
A 70-year-old's Take on GTA IV
Sony PlayStation Day London '08 Roundup
Boom Blox Review: Explosive Casual Play
Target: Terror Review: 90s Arcade Action
Spongebob Savior: Will Kid-Friendly Licenses Save THQ?
The Only Mother's Day GTA Ad You'll Ever See (I Hope)
What's Worse: RRoD or GTA IV Lockup?
Capcom's Sushi Muse?

I think that PS3, PS2 and PSP are all entertainment platforms so I feel that our competition is not Microsoft or Nintendo, but basically any form of entertainment that is competing for the consumers' attention.

So we need to make sure we offer the most compelling entertainment - not videogame entertainment but in entertainment in general. I can't speak for their strategy but I like to think that we've got a very well balanced portfolio with PS3, PSP and you can't discount the PS2.

Hirai: 'We're not competing with Microsoft or Nintendo' [MCV]

After navigating the PlayStation support line's various menus and advertisements, I got on the line with a support specialist I will call Denise, mainly because I completely forgot to write down her real name. Denise had never encountered this particular issue before, so she put me on hold to research a bit in between restoring the system's default setting and performing a hard reset. The verdict? My poor little PS3 is dead.

Not all the way dead, mind you. I can still play PlayStation 2 games and access the PSN. It seems as if the Blu-ray portion of the drive just gave up the ghost, turning the system into something of a PlayStation 2.5. It could be as simple as dust on the lens, but the PS3's Blu-ray workings are situated in a place where compressed air fears to tread. I could open the system and futz around inside, but...no. Electronics have been known to spontaneously catch on fire when I even consider touching them, just to save themselves from the horror my giant snausage fingers would inflict upon them.

So it's back to repair for my shiny black system, eventually. I am currently playing through Mana Khemia for the PS2 on it, and while I have a fully functioning memory card adapter there is no way I can go back to playing this on my composite-connected PS2 after starting it on my HDMI PS3. The whole thing will run me $149, but it sure beats just buying a new one.

The ultimate irony here is that right next to my PlayStation 3 sits my launch Xbox 360, it's glowing green light mocking my plight. Truly I must live in some sort of bizarro world when the world's most unreliable video game console lasts longer than what I often considered the most solid piece of video game hardware to come out in years. If I had to guess, I'd say the PS3 committed suicide after too many viewings of A Knight's Tale on Blu-ray. I shall be more careful of my viewing habits in the future.

echochrome, with its simple black and white line-work aesthetic is certainly lacking in the expected visual fireworks common in most modern games, as promised. But does it feature the proportionate gameplay of its inspiration?

Loved
The Concept: echochrome does a great job of delivering on its promise of innovative gameplay, as mind-bending puzzles increase in complexity, requiring creative thinking, patience and, occasionally, some quick reflexes. The stock puzzles are clever and often continue to surprise the player with new solutions that require an ever changing perspective.
The Graphics: Yes, the game is light on polygon pushing power and some increased visual depth wouldn't hurt, but it's still pleasant to look at. It's a welcome change from the standard puzzle fare, free from overused primary colors and tired color matching gameplay.
The Music: There's little in the way of interesting sound effects, outside of footsteps and a vague reminder that time is passing while you sort out each solution. The game's soundtrack is appropriately bare, a string quartet and voice providing a calming backdrop.
The Level Editor: After you've completed echochrome's stock set of 56 levels, you can create your own. The interface is a bit clunky, a bit challenging to wrap one's brain around—designing in a 3D space won't come easy to some—but the Canvas mode (and the ability to share puzzles) helps extend the game's shelf life. We'd find it hard to justify picking up both the PS3 and PSP versions, under the assumption that someone out there will go to the trouble of recreating the platform exclusive puzzles in the built-in level editor.

Hated
Semi-sloppy Rules: While some of echochrome's puzzle world rules are rock solid—falling through a black hole sends you straight down, hiding edges lets your move from path to path, regardless of each paths 3D location—some feel fudged. It's difficult to determine where you'll land when stepping upon a level's white bounce pads, adding some unnecessary and unwelcome challenge—especially when the mannequin gets hitched on something invisible and flails wildly in mid-air. Similarly, landing the mannequin on platforms below when falling through holes can have unexpected results.
Finicky Controls And Edges: Lining up edges sometimes doesn't work as expected. The avatar will obey boundaries that often appear to have disappeared and the "snap" function, performed with the square button and intended to help the player line up possible edge joins, is rarely helpful. Floaty analog controls and precision perspective changes with the D-pad don't help matters.
Oh, There's A Time Limit?: echochrome's minimal design can go too far, with vague game mode titles, a time limit you won't know about until it's too late—the clock isn't visible by default—and interface choices that are puzzling in a bad way.

echochrome is a great example of a game that takes a simple concept and extrapolates a fascinating suite of puzzles built around that concept. It can be at times both relaxing and exciting as one attempts to best each level's time limit or, after solving a puzzle, one's personal best. echochrome's other strongest suit may be that it provides modern gamers with the type of game that simply wouldn't be able to succeed at traditional retail, helping to further justify the existence and promise of digital distribution. It may not be the next Rubik's Cube or Go or Tetris in terms of near eternal replayability, but it's still a fascinating little gem of a title that, at only $10, should be played and enjoyed by anyone who owns a PlayStation 3 or PSP.

echochrome was developed by Sony Japan Studio, published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Retails for $9.99. Available on PlayStation 3 and PSP. Played "Atelier" mode to completion, played "Freeform" mode for 2 hours. Tested level creation and distribution.

Check out the jump for details on some of the screens taking from the Crossroads and Urban Wasteland maps. I can't wait till this game hits, looks like it's going to be a total blast.

On the Crossroads map:

Three on one? All’s fair in love and war.

I’m a huge fan of architecture and the way cities look. I took a trip to New York City a couple weeks ago and came home with more pictures of random buildings and streets than I did of the actual thing I went there to see.

So, there’s a lot for me to like in this one screen. The way that the tile gives way to basic dirt, the street lamps, and the brick work are all pushing my buttons over here. It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

Do you see that lion in the background, just to the left of center?

If you wanted to, you could travel all the way over there. Same thing with the tall building in the center, and the rooftops to the left, front, and center.

Two more bits. First, if you have a proper weapon, you can snipe from this position and pick people off from across the map. Second, do you see the birds flying in the air? You can shoot them. We don’t encourage that sort of thing, and you’re really better off shooting at the enemy, but hey... you can shoot them.

This is an image from the same angle as the post from the other day, but a bit lower to the ground and more detailed. You can see some things that were blocked or covered before. The bicycle, the garbage bags (there are two), and the fuel can, for example. There’s even a transformer on the electrical tower.

For those of you who don’t speak French, “Bain pour hommes" translates to, “Men’s Bath.”

On the Urban Wasteland map:

This is a shot from Urban Wasteland. We can get a good look at the wrecked building, and can probably figure out some decent working strategies for this specific point. There are pretty clearly four levels at work here— the beginning of the stairs (off-screen), the first landing, the second landing (off-screen to the left and top), and then the walkway in the top right.

It seems like it’d be pretty easy to pick people off from any level of the staircase, which means that you’ve got to stay on your toes when ascending or descending. The real question is what’s in the rooms that the staircase comes from and goes to?

Gold Fever Hits an All Time High With the Upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company Single-Player and Multi-Player Demo

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—You've been drafted to 'B' Company! DICE, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that a demo for its highly anticipated summer release, Battlefield: Bad Company™ will be available on Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace1 and PLAYSTATION® Store1 on June 5. Players will land on the battlefield as part of the 'B' or Bad Company, a wayward band of soldiers more interested in the pursuit of gold and personal financial gain than following the rules. Gamers will get a sneak peek at how tactical destruction changes the way shooters are played, both offline and online in the single player and multiplayer demo.

Players can also gain early access to the demo by pre-ordering the game through participating retailers in North America and Europe. More details on this special pre-order campaign can be found at http://www.battlefield.com/badcompany.

Players who missed their opportunity to participate in the closed beta get a second chance to experience the intense multiplayer Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map while the single player portion starts gamers at the beginning of their 'B' company career. The single player portion of the demo sets the stage for players as they're introduced to the humorous and sometimes irreverent set of characters that make up the 'B' company. As gamers embark on their quest for gold, they'll experience the same classic Battlefield gameplay including access to numerous vehicles, weapons and open maps as well as the new tactical destruction that only Battlefield: Bad Company can deliver.

In stores on June 25 in North America and June 27 in Europe, Battlefield: Bad Company is developed by Sweden-based developer DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment, www.dice.se). The game will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and is rated "T" by the ESRB and "16+" by PEGI.

I know a lot of folks enjoy watching the console wars and we would never underestimate our competition. But answer to your question specifically, didn't Sony promise all of this last year including Home as well? We have been fighting Sony's promises from the day we entered the market and if you remember at that time it was all about PS2 being an online cybercity with partner announcements from the likes of RealNetworks and AOL. Then three years ago at E3 they showed what PS3 games would supposedly look like with the Killzone 2 video, that we are now learning will ship four years later. That means that we will have shipped Gears of War and Gears of War 2 before they can even get Killzone out the door. Think back to GDC 2007 when Sony promised to leap ahead in online with the Sony Home unveil. Here we are two years later and multiple delays for a product that has appears to have little to no buzz. Where are the achievements? The friends list integration across all games? Where is the long-promised video store? Where are all the other products using and networking with their CELL chip? How come Blu-ray did not result in better games? What happened with Sixaxis and rumble? Where is the complete 1080p game library we were promised? If Blu-ray as they said would be such a catalyst to PS3 console sales, then why have PS3 sales over the past couple months not seen any lift since the format victory?

The reality is that Xbox 360 is leading this generation with a larger installed base, more than 2xs the games library, the most exclusives along with the leading online service and community. While we have not yet announced all of our plans for the full year, I am confident that we will extend our lead over the PS3 in 2008. Today Xbox 360 has a 5-million-unit console sales lead on a global basis based on most recently public reported data from both companies. This includes more than double the installed base in the US according to actual NPD sell-through and over a 1-million-unit lead across Europe also based on reported sell-through from Chart Track and GfK.

The days of Sony snowing the consumers and the press are over, I think the pressure is now really on them more than ever to deliver on all of these promises.

We had hit reactions and even some death animations for the wildlife in the game but we chose to remove it. It was flagged as a potential issue by the ESRB and it seemed like a small concession to make in order to maintain our "Teen" rating. It may have also affected the rating in Europe.

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY NAUGHTY DOG'S EVAN WELLS: PART ONE [Three Speech, via Game|Life]

Motorstorm? Loved it. Probably loved it more than you did, as I played through the entire thing, sticking up for it during the public picking apart of it's graphical promise. "It doesn't look like that E3 2005 footage!" they said. "La la la! I can't hear you! Vrrooom!!" I said. Motorstorm 2? I'm concerned. I keep looking at that ever present "pre-alpha 40% complete" reminder, but, man, does that water look less interactive than I'd hoped—even though the cooling properties are nifty. Still, monster trucks! And that lens flare? Just like the real thing. Whaddya think?

Motorstorm 2 'SCEE Gamers Day' HD [GameVideos]

ESRB Game Ratings

Games and Demos
Haze demo
The Bourne Conspiracy demo
GRID demo
SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2 demo for PSP

Add-ons and Expansions
PixelJunk Monsters Encore expansion ($5.99)
Guitar Hero III "Muse Track Pack" ($6.25) - "Exo-Politics", "Stockholm Syndrome" and "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse
Rock Band tracks ($1.99 each) - "Date with the Night" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "It Hurts" by Angels & Airwaves and "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" by Fall Out Boy
Rock Band "Scene Pack" ($5.49)

Game Videos
WipEout HD trailer
Mirror's Edge trailer
Mercenaries 2 "Payback" trailer
Overlord: Raising Hell trailer
The Wheelman trailer
TNA Impact! "Gamer's Day" trailer
PlayStation 3 "What You Need" video

Movie and Television Trailers
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull teaser trailer
The Love Guru trailer
Iron Man trailer

Wallpapers and Themes
PixelJunk Monsters wallpapers
PixelJunk Monsters theme
Sports theme

"In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we're concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first - instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming."

Reeves: Home was too ambitious [CVG]

License clash between Sony and Formula 1 Boss means no F1 games [TG Daily, via Gameplayer]

There is commercial pressure from Sony who want us to create a viable business product but we're more after the critical acclaim. I think there's less pressure now because when we were an independent developer we had the pressure of paying the wages every month. Now we don't have to worry about the next game or what we're going to be doing.

There'll be two singleplayer campaigns to play through, one presumably "good", the other based on a scenario where Sauron actually gets his hands on the One Ring. As for multiplayer, while there'll be 150 characters on-screen, it'll support only 16 players online at any time, though it will also feature four-player co-op play, including - awesomely - four-player splitscreen co-op on the same console. Game's due sometime in the fall, and will be hitting the 360, PS3 and PC.

I was originally a little sceptical about this whole thing, but 150 guys duking it out on a battlefield (ie sections of Helm's Deep) might - if they can get the level design right - totally nail that LotR "big battle" feel.

UPDATE - Pandemic got in touch with us this morning to let us know that despite the original IGN piece reporting the game would support 8-player online multiplayer, it will in fact support 16. Which should be much more to your liking.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Announced [IGN]

'My SingStar Online will hit the web this year,' says Bozek [PS3 Fanboy]

Yeah, I just wish it [Home] would ship. I [previously] questioned it a little bit, whether I'd want to wander around there. Phil Harrison showed me a demo — it's very cool, but let's go already. And so I'm disappointed that it's been pushed back a little bit again. But I really hope it gets going and becomes that portal to the PlayStation Network and we can utilise it. But boy, I just wish we'd get going.

But even if you talk to Guerilla, Namco, Square Enix, they all do it in English to begin with and then think about localisation later. You're absolutely right, we should do it at the beginning. But they look at it like, 'How much can I get for a Dutch version of the game?' With PlayStation Store we could probably go in the UK almost day and date. But then what are the Germans and the French going to say to me? That I'm Anglo-centric.

"Misleading" PC World PS3 Ad Pulled [Next-Gen]

We launched with 60GB and to reduce the price we went to 40GB. We're not sure we want to stay with that configuration of hard drive, and I think what you're going to see in the future is maybe consumers can choose

The PlayStation will stay the same, but consumers can choose whichever size of hard drive they want. They can now, or course, because it's not a proprietary hard drive.

It might be that we will offer the possibility for people to have a bigger hard drive, but they have that option now. But it does not mean that we have anything in the works to introduce a different model or bigger hard drive built in.

HAZE lifts on PSN demo tomorrow [PlayStation.blog]

Kaz adds that he's "very confident" that at the end of the PS3 decade "we will have the install base that we're looking for and that is to be obviously in the leadership position." By then, we should be crystal clear on how things shook out. But as for the PlayStation 4? It's hazy.

"Very difficult to say," says Kaz. There's a great deal to consider, before the Sony engineers run off and start crafting the PS4, the DualShock 4, the next EyeToy.

"We need to take a look at advances in technology in various areas, such as semiconductors, graphics chips, output devices, mainly TV and monitors, to see where we would like to benchmark our next generation product" he says. We're sure they're F5ing Gizmodo like execs possessed!

Let's just hope that controller vibration doesn't become passe technology again. We're not sure we could handle another blow like that.

PlayStation 'will reclaim lead' [BBC]

Rockstar Games just confirmed that they have released a patch for the Playstation 3 version of GTA IV which was causing issues with online play.

Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents Gamespy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up. We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible. This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

Looks like Microsoft's prep work for the game mostly paid off.

• Well I think you probably will see it, it's just that a deal obviously was struck between Microsoft and Take 2 to do that, and if that's what they want to do, I think that's the last shot they have.
• All I'm saying is that I think that when we look ahead I think we honestly have a better line-up on PS3 than they probably do on Xbox. They've had two or three Christmases now, I can't remember how many, you know, but I think we've got a really good one coming up. Not just Christmas but in the summer as well.
• It's [GTA IV] obviously the biggest title that PS3 has ever seen. It's spiked sales and we're very happy with the way the bundle has sold and we're very happy with the way that software has gone as well.