Category Archives: sony

Fat Princess Takes The Cake, Voice Chat Coming [Fat Princess]

Friday, December 12th, 2008
Posted by Jim Reilly from Kotaku.

Among the other PSN titles I got to check out this week was Fat Princess. Games such as this should be covered with disclaimers saying: “Warning! This Game Will Make You Grin Like An Idiot.”

Fat Princess is a medieval-themed co-op game that pits two teams together in an all out war to rescue each others princess from the opposing side’s castle. Interestingly enough, however, is that you can feed cake to your prisoner, causing the other team trouble and grief due to her increased weight. Does the 16 vs 16 player mutliplayer work? Or will it be chaotic as ever?

What you’ll notice first is the great visual style this game has. The half-cell shaded, half-drawn look really pops on the screen.

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Filed in Fat Princess, Gaming, Impressions, playstation network, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

Sony Responds To November NPD Sales, Seems Pleased [Corporate Gloating]

Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Posted by Michael McWhertor from Kotaku.

The PlayStation family didn’t have an ideal November, but Sony’s not letting an across-the-board decline bring it down. Nope, we’re only five words into the company’s NPD response before it throws it out there. “Momentum.”

True, year-to-date the PlayStation 3 has been improving, moving a total of 2.8 million consoles this year, so just looking at one month doesn’t paint an accurate picture. And the whole PlayStation brand moved more than a million hardware units in November. And $663 million in a month isn’t bad. So there’s that!

But we’re guessing that someone’s going to take issue with the claim that the PlayStation 3 had an “unmatched holiday line-up of blockbuster first and third-party titles.” Yes, 3,552,456 games sold on the platform in November is good, but “unmatched”?

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Filed in Gaming, PS3, PSP, PlayStation 3, Playstation 2, Ps2, corporate gloating, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

Sony shows off stylish Hana-Akari solar-powered lamp prototype


Posted by Donald Melanson from Engadget.

We’ve seen a few attempts to turn solar cells into something a tad more fashionable, but this new so-called Hana-Akari prototype from Sony goes quite a bit further than most, with it employing a newfangled “dye-sensitized” technique to spruce up the otherwise drab solar cells. Apparently, Sony not only sees those being used to power the lamp itself (which appears to use LED lights), but other devices as well, although it seems to be keeping expectations somewhat in check by only showing it with a small fan. As you might have guessed, there’s no indication of a release date for any actual products just yet, or a price for that matter, but Sony says that the dye-sensitized process itself is both cheap and effective.

[Via BoingBoing Gadgets]

Filed under:

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Filed in Computers, SolarPower, SolarPowered, dye-sensitized, hana-akari, prototype, solar, solar power, solar-powered, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

LittleBigPlanet Free Christmas DLC Is A Two-Parter [Littlebigplanet]


Posted by Mike Fahey from Kotaku.

Sony and Media Molecule continue to deliver free holiday fun for LittleBigPlanet with this week’s release of half of a Santa Claus outfit, with the rest of the costume due out next week.

Today players will be able to download the first half of the Santa suit, consisting of Santa’s shirt, boots, and pants. Then next week on the 18th, Sony will release the hat and beard that complete the ensemble. I suppose they could have done it the other way around, but that would have lead to an epidemic of naked Santa’s running about all over the place, and no one wants to see that.

Click here to read more.

Filed in Gaming, News, PS3, Santa's Sackboy, littlebigplanet, media molecule, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

White Knight Chronicles Gets Manga Preview [White Knight Chronicles]


Posted by Mike Fahey from Kotaku.

The official Japanese website for Level-5’s PlayStation 3 RPG White Knight Chronicles has updated with a manga ebook prequel set 10,000 years before the events in the game.

Unfortunately the manga, titled “White Knight Chronicles Episode 0: Dogma War Chronicle”, is completely in Japanese, one of the many languages I have yet to master, so I must go by what the folks at the Anime News Network have to say about it. It apparently tells the story of another White Knight from long ago, living in an era fraught with war and chaos. The story was overseen by Takashi Ikeda, with Yūko Satō performing art duties.

Click here to read more.

Filed in Gaming, Japan, Level 5, Manga, News, White knight chronicles, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

Echochrome Gets Trophy Support And 1,000 New Stages [Echochrome]


Posted by Mike Fahey from Kotaku.

Sony is expanding the world of PSN puzzler Echochrome once again, with a new patch today that not only adds trophy support, but also unlocks 1,000 user-generated levels to Freeform play.

Fans of the M.C. Escher-inspired puzzle platformer have been clamoring for trophy support ever since there was trophy support, so that feature alone is exciting enough, but the big news here really is the 1,000 new user-generated levels being added to the game. Up until now, user-generated levels have been being released in batches of 10 at a time. This massive batch of new levels is available by simply entering Freeform play, during which the new additions will come up at random.

Click here to read more.

Filed in Gaming, News, Patch, echochrome, psn, sony, trophies | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

PSP Military M-65 Jacket Made For The Sony Army [Fashion]

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Posted by Michael McWhertor from Kotaku.

Believe it or not, that’s a PlayStation Portable jacket you’re looking at, knocked up in the classic M-65 military style, all the rage with the streetwear wearing kids these days. How can you get one?

Oh, you can’t. Not unless you’re going to the Asia Game Show 2008 in Hong Kong this month. Even then, it’s not for sale, just so you can covet it further. According to Hypebeast, it’s only available via a special drawing. And on top of that, you’re really just getting some PSP and CLOT embroidery. Surely it’s a quality garment, but we’d think going to all that effort is probably not worth it.

We’d say try your luck with Triumvir’s Street Fighter-inspired M-65 or visit your local surplus store for your kicks.

CLOT x PSP Military M65 Jacket [Hypebeast]


Filed in Clot, Clothing, Fashion, Gaming, PSP, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

Microsoft Expects They Doubled Playstation Sales in November [Xbox 360]


Posted by Brian Crecente from Kotaku.

With a casual-friendly interface, a low-priced console and a bevy of games, Microsoft believes that their Xbox 360 may have more than doubled Playstation sales last month, Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360 said today.

And we won’t’ have long to wait to see if they are right, official NPD numbers are expected tomorrow.

“The PS3 is a third player, they are at risk of reaching a single digit market share,” Greenberg added. “They are a premium priced product in a tough economic time. They have a tough position to try and sell a product.

“The window of time when they were the cheapest Blu-ray player, those days have passed now.”

Greenberg says that the key to success in a three console market is to differentiate your console, something he believes Microsoft has managed to do while Sony hasn’t.

“The type of experience we are delivering is very different than the Wii,” he said.

Click here to read more.

Filed in Gaming, Industry, Microsoft, Nintendo, Npd, PS3, Sales, Wii, XBox 360, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

Sony’s 240Hz BRAVIA KDL-52XBR7 HDTV reviewed: extra Hz not worth the $


Posted by Darren Murph from Engadget.

Here it is, the review you’ve been waiting for. Are all those Hz worth all those dollars? If you believe CNET, the answer is “sadly, no.” The 52-inch KDL-52XBR7 was all the rage upon its arrival, promising slick visuals and a dejudder processor that would wow, stun and awe. Unfortunately, it seems the set hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations, as the deep black levels, accurate color temperature and color decoding, comprehensive complement of inputs and beautiful body weren’t enough to overcome the breathtaking $4,200 price tag. Furthermore, the 240Hz refresh rate was found to offer “only minor improvements to picture quality,” proving our fears of it being more about marketing than performance absolutely correct. Bottom line?

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Filed in 240hz, Computers, KDL-52XBR7, LcdHdtv, bravia, hdtv, lcd hdtv, review, reviewed, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off

And The Home Marketing Onslaught Begins… [Home]


Posted by Luke Plunkett from Kotaku.

We always knew Home was going to be heavy on advertising and corporate sponsorship. But this heavy this soon? It’s a little unexpected.

Contained within the press release nailing down the service’s launch were a number of sponsorship/marketing announcements. For games, for movies, for…contemporary French furniture.

Here’s a rundown of Home’s first batch of corporate tie-ins:

GAMES: We’ve seen a number of these before. But in addition to the Far Cry, Uncharted and Warhawk spaces there’ll also be MotorStorm and SOCOM themed areas. And that’s just the start. EA, Sega, Atari, Ubisoft and Midway will also be contributing “engaging environments” for Home in the near future

MEDIA: British tech site Hexus TV and gaming site Eurogamer will be part of the PAL launch, both outlets providing video content for Home’s various theatres and screens.

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Filed in Gaming, Home, Marketing, News, Original, PS3, sony | | Link inside C.I.A.G. | Comments Off