A month ago, the CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, complained about the high cost of Sony’s PlayStation 3. Kotick’s threat to Sony, to lower the price of the PS3 or Activision stops making games for the console, is covered here.
Yesterday, in an investor call, Sony CEO Nobuyuki Oneda revealed that manufacturing costs of the PS3 are down by 70%.
Sony reported the company’s first annual loss in 14 years when it released its fiscal first quarter earnings yesterday. Further, the company is projecting over a $1 billion loss through March 2010. Sony may be blaming poor sales on the state of the economy, but people like Bobby Kotick would be sure to argue the price of the PS3 is to blame.
Why does Sony’s PS3 cost so much?
The cost of manufacturing each console is roughly $800. The price to buy a PS3? $399. While it may be the highest priced console against its competitors, Microsoft’s Xbox and the Nintendo Wii, Sony is taking a hit for every PS3 sold.
Sony saw some relief in January when it announced that the cost of manufacturing had dropped by 35% to $450. Though a 70% drop in cost seems to be just what the company needs, which would allow, as rumored, Sony to drop the price of the PS3. But will Sony really want to eat into its new profits, especially after a first quarter in the red and a poor outlook for the rest of the fiscal year?
CNET has a source claiming that Microsoft may decide to make life easier for Netbook users anxious to upgrade to Windows 7.
Since debuting its new operating system last fall, Microsoft has often advertised Win 7 on Netbooks. But for owners of machines that are missing CD/DVD drives, installing the operating system is no small feat.
The solution?
Windows 7 operating system loaded and sold on a flash drive, allowing usually disadvantaged Netbook users to easily upgrade their machines.
Sprint is gearing up for the big release of their latest iteration of the palm phone, the Palm Pre. Hitting the shelves June 6, Sprint is expecting the smart phone to sell well. In fact they are expecting the smart phone to sell out.
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has stated that they are worried about keeping up with the demand for the new Palm Pre. At a recent tech conference Dan Hesse said “We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for awhile.” He also went on to say “We won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.”
It’s rumored that Sprint has less than 400,000 units of the smart phone available for its launch. That is a pretty small number for a major launch, and that is the primary reason why people are expecting a sell out.
Despite the fact Modern Warfare 2 has not been released yet, the Call of Duty 7 rumors have already begun to spread. Yesterday TVGB heard from a reliable source that Activision is trying to license music that sounds like it’s out of the Vietnam era; leading some to believe that the next COD game could be based in Vietnam.
Another reason some are assuming COD 7 will be in Vietnam is due to that fact that the franchise has taken a step back from doing WW II style games. World at War producer Noah Heller, has stated they “are showing the final battles of the Pacific and the European Theatre and that lets us put a close to the war. I’m sure game companies will be making World War II games for years to come and World War II is a very classic war. But we’re happy that we put the war to bed.”
Modern Warfare 2 is expected for release November 10, 2009. As far as COD 7 goes we will have to wait and see.
Stop the presses! Square Enix has launched a new site for a new game. What game you ask? Well we don’t exactly know, due to the fact they are not telling us. This is without a doubt, a tease on the part of Square Enix. They even went so far as to include the word “mystery” in the URL.
When you visit the site what you will be seeing is an image of a futuristic style city, that seems to be in the middle of a war. Text appears on the screen in the form of a JFK Quote “The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.” FYI, take advantage of the mute button on the page because the sound is ridiculously loud.
What can it mean? From here all we can do is wait and see.
XBL has just added another leg to the rumor of a Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 re-release. Last month the ESRB rating for MVC added PS3 and Xbox 360 to its list of platforms, leading some to expect a re-release for the consoles. Today, MVC achievements popped up - reinforcing that rumor.
Whether we will be seeing this title for PS3, Xbox 360, or just XBLA does not matter to me. As long as we get to see it. Until we hear an official announcement we will file this under the rumor section.
MVC was hands down one of the great fighting titles. It brought the Marvel Universe into the arcade, and pitted them against Capcom’s most cherished characters. This was one of my favorite fighting games, and I am personally crossing my fingers for this re-release.
With as much success as Resident Evil 5 has had, it seems we can expect another installment in the famed Survival Horror series for sure! The only question is when? When Resident Evil Code Veronica was released we had to wait five years for Resident Evil 4, and then four years for Resident Evil 5. Safe to say we will have a similar span of time to wait for Resident Evil 6, right? Nope, try Eight years!
In an interview with FiveFWD, Resident Evil producer Masachika Kawata said “it could take anywhere up to eight years, but hopefully only four.” If Capcom does confirm they will be doing Resident Evil 6, my fingers are crossed for four. Eight Years is a long time, and the fan boy in me can’t wait that long!
Details on the new PSP have emerged, and they can only be considered speculation at this point. Sony has kept information on the PSP revamp air tight. Although PSP-4000, and PSP 2 have been kicked around we don’t even have a name for this thing yet.
According to a mystery developer (cue scary music) who has been speaking with EuroGamer, the PSP reboot is going to be a pretty radical change from its predecessor. It will be featuring a sliding screen that will only allow you to play shoulder buttons when closed. Games like Loco Roco have been rumored by the same source to be shoulder button playable. Lastly, this source has claimed that the UMD drive is history! A bulky part of the original PSP, with the UMD gone we should be seeing a smaller compact unit, unless Sony decides to put an 8-track player in it.
Sony has refused to comment about this, so for now we will be filing this under the rumor section.
I can’t think of a better way to finish out the week then with a possible leaked trailer.
The Internet is buzzing today with what could quite possibly be the trailer for Dead Rising 2. A shaky cam style video of what looks like a leaked trailer popped up on YouTube today and it just may be legit. The trailer looks like a Las Vegas setting for the sequel just without all the gambling and fun (due to the Zombies).
Blue Castle is currently developing Dead Rising 2 and there is no release date yet, but if this trailer is legit we may be getting one soon.
According to multiple IGN sources the Nintendo DSi will be available on the North American market the first half of 2009. Apparently a number of sources in communication with IGN have claimed that the DSi will be released April 4th 2009, and will be selling for $179.99.
Contrary to what we had heard from Nintendo in 2008, in which a North American release date was projected for Summer 2009, this date is much earlier in the year. The sources are said to be close to Nintendo, and reliable according to Matt Casamassina with IGN. Matt is reliable as well as he has been backed by G4. Raymond Padilla (a writer for the feed) was quoted as saying “Brother Matt (am I the only one that calls him that?) has been covering Nintendo for more than a decade; his sources are plentiful and often reliable. Given his history and track record, there’s a good chance that the rumor is true.”
Although an April 4th release date seems unlikely, due to the fact that the DS is still doing very well in sales, the sources seem reliable. I personally won’t be getting my hopes up until I hear an official statement from Nintendo, which we will probably be getting soon since this rumor is spreading like wild fire.
