One piece of news that came out this week was that Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform. That change in attitude is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years. The argument is that the PS 3 will show its strength as developers learn how to make games for it. But developers know they can staff four or five Wii teams with the same number of people it takes to make one PS 3 game.
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Sony said it sold 75,000 PS3s on the week of October 29 and 100,000 more units the following week in the US, prompted by the price cut of the 80GB model and the launch of the 40GB model.
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Jack Tretton, President of Sony Computer Entertainment America has now confirmed that the new 40GB PlayStation 3 will make it's way to the U.S. on November 2 for a retail price of USD 400. Tretton also confirmed that the 80GB version will be getting a $100 price cut, dropping it from USD 600 to 500. No word on Spiderman 3 being bundled or if the 40GB will have white ceramic version yet.
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Sales of the PlayStation 3 could see a rise of up to 10 per cent in the wake of Toshiba's pull-out from the next generation DVD war as a result of educated consumers who have been waiting for the format war to end. That's according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who also told GamesIndustry.biz that as well as the short term boost, the long term effect will be even more positive.
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On 11/24 at 8:00am (running through 11:59pm on 11/25), the 80GB PS3 ($499) will come with 10 FREE Blu-ray movies instantly. You choose any 10 BD titles under $30 within the store and they will override the prices to zero. For those stores that carry BD already, additional titles are being sent in for the sale. For those that do not have BD in their store (a small minority) product will be sent to each store specifically for this sale. Oh, and you still get your 5 FREE movies by mail.
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Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that PS3 users will have to “wait a bit longer” to get a taste of virtual world PlayStation Home, with an open beta not expected to begin until fall 2008. In a statement the company said that it will be extending Home’s closed beta and inviting a number of new PlayStation 3 registrants to participate through summer 2008. Following completion of the extended closed beta test, the Home open beta service will commence in fall 2008.
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From Friday, November 23, 2007 to December 31, 2007, Sony sold 1.2 million PlayStation 3 units in North America, as well as 1.4 million PlayStation Portable. Note that this includes a week and a couple of days from the November NPD, and is still missing almost a week from January.
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"One aspect of the Store that's been hinted about by reliable publications, like the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, is Sony's download service, one that president Howard Stringer may be talking about when he refers to the "expansion" of the PlayStation Network. It may be Sony's best bet in fending off Apple's iTunes for movie and television distribution. And it may be closer than we thought."
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"Sources have indicated to GamesIndustry.biz that the head of Sony Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison, who will leave the company at the end of this week, is to join Atari in the near future."
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Things have gone from bad to worse for HD DVD in the space of one week. Wal-Mart announced Friday morning that it, too, has chosen a side in the battle for high-definition video supremacy: by June it will only stock Blu-ray Disc players. A buyer in Wal-Mart's video division wrote this morning on her Wal-Mart Checkout blog that the retail giant had made the decision following Netflix and Best Buy's high-profile announcements that they will exclusively stock Blu-ray products.
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