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Sony’s S2 PlayStation Tablet Looks Familiar
Sony’s S1 tablet looks like a beautiful piece of gear. We’re really digging the tapered, magazine-like edge to it. The S2, though? With the dual screens and touch interface? It looks like a fan mock-up of a 3DS Lite, albeit a very pretty one.
By Luke Plunkett Published April 26, 2011 -
Sony’s New PlayStation Tablet is a Sexy Beast
Today in Tokyo, Sony revealed that its latest PlayStation hardware, the 9.4 inch Sony S1. It’s the first tablet that is (officially) capable of playing PlayStation games, such as PlayStation 1 games or Sony-approved titles for mobile platforms. It is the first Sony tablet to carry the “PlayStation Certified” logo. The S1 is slated for…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 26, 2011 -
The Human Who Sleeps On PlayStation Magazines
Under Twitter user Bros’ mattress, there is a treasure trove of magazines – fifteen years of Dengeki PlayStation magazines to be exact. Bros started with the September 27, 1996 issue and hasn’t looked back. Bros has looked under the bed, though. In an age when paper is becoming increasingly meaningless, it’s comforting to note that…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 25, 2011 -
Digital Pioneer Who Established Sony Computer Entertainment Dies At 81
Norio Ohga, the former chairman of Sony who, in 1993, established Sony Computer Entertainment and paved the way for the PlayStation, died Saturday morning in Tokyo. He was 81. Ohga’s digital media vision had far reaching impact, not just for his company but for all electronics manufacturers. In video games, Sony and Nintendo had been…
By Owen Good Published April 23, 2011 -
It’s Time For Chrono Trigger To Become A PSone Classic
Looks like the enhanced PlayStation port of Square Enix’s seminal role-playing game Chrono Trigger is bound for the PlayStation 3 and PSP. The ESRB has just rated Chrono Trigger for those platforms, so expect the update of that JRPG favorite to show up as a PSone Classic on a PlayStation Store near you soon.
By Michael McWhertor Published April 22, 2011 -
How One Man Stopped Square-Enix From Letting Gamers Kill Yahweh
The attempt to include overt references to Judeo-Christian figures in the classic role-playing game Xenogears caused a few translators to quit — they feared a violent backlash — and prompted a change in the name of the game’s final boss, according to one of the people who brought the game to America. On this week’s…
By Drew Cohen Published April 22, 2011 -
Robbing A Convenience Store With A PlayStation Controller Is Doing It Wrong
A St. Petersburg, Florida man tried—and failed miserably—to rob a convenience store by subjecting the clerk to the business end of a PlayStation controller, reports Bay 9 News. His mistake? By performing said robbery in the presence of “a police officer who walked into the store in the middle of the robbery,” according to police.…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 19, 2011 -
Sony Bigwig Trash Talks Nintendo 3DS and Hurts Our Feelings
During an interview with Fortune Magazine, SCEA’s charming CEO Jack Tretton discussed the company’s business strategies…and then indulged in some nasty smack talk. “If you’re really going to sustain technology for a decade, you have to be cutting edge when you launch a platform,” Tretton explains to the business mag. Reasonable enough. But the Playstaion…
By Drew Cohen Published April 8, 2011 -
How the Playstation Helped Shape the Most Interesting iPad Game of the Year
It all started with a song, an instrumental created with a Playstation by Canadian musician Jim Guthrie, it seems. Speaking to NOW Magazine, Guthrie explains how he went from days creating music for Three Gut Records to working with a team of five on what would become iPad gaming darling Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery –…
By Brian Crecente Published April 4, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Joys Of A Console’s First Moments
Know what I tend to remember consoles by? Not their games, or controllers, or even hardware casings. I usually remember them for their boot-up jingles. As silly as that sounds, those first few seconds of animation and music really set the tone for what the platform holder hopes is to come, and more than any…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2011 -
PS3 Hacker Flees the Long Arm of Sony for South American Freedom
The saga of George “geohot” Hotz continues, hurtling deeper into absurdity with each growing unit of acceleration. He fought the law and lost—a judge demanded he hand over his PS3-hack relevant hard drives. His answer? I’m out, bitches. According to a court document filed by Sony in its noble, interminable battle to prevent people from…
By Sam Biddle Published March 23, 2011 -
Read The Humble Beginnings of Grand Theft Auto From 16 Years Ago
Grand Theft Auto, the controversial and violent video game series that has sold in excess of 100 million units, began its life as a simple design document in 1995, back when the game was still known as Race’n’Chase. Reading that design doc isn’t nearly as much fun as playing a Grand Theft Auto game, but…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 21, 2011 -
Kevin Butler, as You’ve Never Seen Him Before (NSFW)
Cat’s out of the bag, folks. Kevin Butler is not really PlayStation’s vice president of everything from First Person Shooter Relations to Rumor Confirmation. He is, in fact, the actor Jerry Lambert, who played quite the cringe-inducing straight man in the most recent episode of Showtime’s “Shameless” on Monday. KB, under the auspices of being…
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
PlayStation’s Top U.S. Exec Cleans Up Pro Poker Tour Event
That, folks, is a 10-6 unsuited. In poker jargon, that hand is known as “garbage.” But for Jack Tretton, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, they were the winning cards at a pro-am poker event earlier this week. Tretton was one of several executives entered in the World Poker Tour’s Silicon Valley Poker Challenge,…
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
An Arcade For Squatters Living In An Abandoned Skyscraper
There are 2,500 people living in The Centro Financiero Confinanzas, an unfinished skyscraper in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Despite being essentially squatters, they still have somewhere to play video games. The building, despite being incomplete, isn’t just a home to those 2,500 souls. It’s a city unto itself, complete with bars, dentists, stores and…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 16, 2011 -
Put The PSN In Your Pocket With An Official PlayStation App
Microsoft and Nintendo do not, for various reasons, want to release official applications on the iPhone or Android platforms. Sony, thankfully, has no such qualms. This is the Official PlayStation App, which has been available since January for Sony fans living in Europe. It’s only this week become available in Australia, though (Australia being an…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 15, 2011 -
Vagrant Story Brings A Riot To The PlayStation Store This Week
This week, PlayStation 3 owners in North America will be able to enjoy one of the greatest role-playing games of the PlayStation generation: Vagrant Story coming to the PlayStation Store as a “PSone Classic.” For those of you who haven’t played this SquareSoft great, Vagrant Story is a fantastic mix of dungeon crawling, puzzle-solving, rhythmic…
By Michael McWhertor Published February 28, 2011 -
Xenogears, A PlayStation Great, Becomes A PSone Classic
Well, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming, but the arrival of PlayStation role-playing game classic Xenogears as a downloadable PSone Classic is still welcome news. The official PlayStation.blog heralds the release of Square Enix’s turn-based RPG on the North American PlayStation Store tomorrow.
By Michael McWhertor Published February 21, 2011 -
Hey, Whatever Happened to Marcus, the PSP Mascot?
A Sony executive recently declared that Marcus Rivers, the smartass ‘tween flack for the PSP who debuted at E3 last year, delivered “positive sales effects,” for the handheld. Near as I can tell, that’s the first anyone’s heard of the little twerp in more than four months. Marcus still anchors the front of Sony’s official…
By Owen Good Published February 19, 2011