The Game Druid

I’ve said this a million times, Wii IS next gen! Recently a Reuters report came out saying that the Wii out sould the PS3 despite its 700% increase in sales, in Japan though. In a piece headlined “Sony PS3 catching up to Wii in Japanese sales,” Reuters’ Tokyo branch covers the horse race, writing that the Wii “once again outsold Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 in Japan in June, but its lead is fading.” While technically accurate if referring to monthly sales – the Wii only outsold the PS3 by a margin of 1.7 to 1 last month, a dip from the 6 to 1 margin of the previous month – the bigger picture isn’t so clear.

so this is totally turning out to be 2 console race (sorry 360 ), anyway, i wonder whats gonna happen next, cuz I don’t see any game on the PS3 coming soon which will create a boom like MGS 4.. and no GT5 doesn’t count.

Well we have just downloaded the new firmware update 2.40 for the Sony PlayStation 3, and here are a few thoughts:

1) The friend’s category has been redesigned and has now been upped to support 100 (yes..big deal)

2) The long awaited “Trophy” feature has now been added, depending if the game supports this feature you can now “Collect Trophies” for that game. If you wish to see your friend’s trophies, go to their profile and to view your own go to “Game” the “Trophy Collection”.

3) In game chat has been given a major boost, by being able to exchange messages with friends and family during gameplay. This is achieved by pressing the “PS” button and using the functions from the “XMB” (XrossMediaBar), you can also search the Internet from the XMB screen via a google bar which is now incorporated. Although the search results take a little time to show up, but that is also due to the internet problems I’ve been having over the last 2 days.

Anyway to cap it off, here’s some more dope…The following first-party games are also slated to offer Trophy support:

• BUZZ! Quiz TV
• LittleBigPlanet
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift
• NBA 09 - PS3
• PAIN*
• PixelJunk Eden
• Resistance 2
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
• Warhawk*

*Requires a game update to be downloaded and installed.

Cheers

The Game Druid

To the surprise of no one, Google is now offering software that streams video, photos, and music from your PC to your television.

“In the old days, we used to watch a simple device called a television. Nowadays, all the stuff worth watching and listening to tends to be stored on or accessed through a computer,” writes software engineer David Garcia on the Google Desktop blog. “To help remedy this, we are pleased to release the Google Media Server.”

The Google Media Server is a free Windows app that sends media files to your TV via the Playstation 3 and other Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) devices. It works in tandem with Google Desktop, the desktop search tool that also runs various and sundry software widgets known as Google Gadgets.

With help from the Google Media Server, your TV can access videos, music, and photos stored on your PC, and naturally, it can tap straight into YouTube, the video-sharing site where Google hopes to serve an enormous number of advertisements.

Google is already streaming YouTube videos into living room via third-party devices like Apple TV and HP’s Media Smart TV. And now it’s reaching out for the Playstation 3 crowd.

But this is just a Google beta. And it may go nowhere. Judging from the Google Media Server discussion forums, the new app is hardly ready for prime time.

Sony is reportedly working on a new PlayStation 3 controller it seems - the third controller to appear for the Blu-Ray playing games console after the original SixAxis controller and later DualShock. The new controller is expected to break apart in some form, creating two halves which can be held and wielded independantly.

For those of you continuing to have Grand Theft Auto IV lockups on your PS3 even after the May 7th Rockstar patch… tough noogies. The latest 2.35 firmware won’t specifically help. Sony says that the “minor update” will “improve stability of some PS3 titles” — then clarifies that GTA IV is not part of the vagary. Nevertheless, Sony does say that they “have a identified a solution that should resolve the issue.” So buck up Niko and get on the horn with Sony for help, God know the police won’t.

As the GTA IV is just days away, everyone is trying to guess how the new title will shift the numbers in the everlasting battle of gaming consoles.

GTA IV is set to be released for PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 29 and, according to some analysts, the game will be one of the biggest events in the entertainment industry in terms of sales.

Meanwhile, Microsoft and Sony are engaged in a marketing battle, each console maker trying to convince the customers that its platform is better for playing the iconic game.

The game is expected to gain $400 million in sales in its first day of availability. Microsoft’s main argument to lure gamers to buy Xbox 360 and GTA IV is the exclusive content that will be available later this year.

But there are analysts who think that Sony’s PS3 will be the ultimate winner. For example, speaking for Reuters, Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, has predicted that the game will directly spur sales of 2 million additional PS3s in 2008, versus 1 million Xbox 360s.

In a comment for Tech News World, Pamela Tufegdzic, an analyst at iSuppli, said that GTA IV definitely will boost PS3 sales and she offered an explanation. The PS 2 owners will be probably eager to upgrade their consoles in order to play the new title.

In fact, GTA is one of the titles that helped Sony sell its PlayStation 2.

Putting aside the gaming consoles battle, there is one sure winner: the retailers. Some of them are already planning to extend to programs of their stores to match the buying gaming madness that will start on Tuesday.

Amazon is being bribed by Sony to promote Grand Theft Auto IV for the Playstation 3, specifically. “Play GTA IV in all its glory on the Playstation 3” is the exact quote. Before, this used to toggle between the Xbox 360, but the update confirmed that it was a paid campaign by Sony. What’s more interesting is that it seems like Microsoft wants to rebel “next week”.

Video game retailers don’t often take explicit sides in the console wars, and why should they? A retailer makes largely the same money selling a copy of a PS3 game as selling the same game on the Xbox 360. So it struck us as a little odd that Amazon is currently promoting the questionable proposition that Grand Theft Auto IV is “meant to be played on the PS3″ on the front page of its Video Games section.