Lego is fearful that kids will began to dump their toys for video games and other electronic media
The toy company believes that the popularity of gaming consoles and interactive toys will leave it in the dust. In an effort to stem the changing tide, Lego has started working with Sony!
I remember growing up spending alot of my free-time after school, building things out of Lego and enjoying my little block toys, that I could smash and rebuild in a new form. -- But that was before the dawn of the new age of PlayStation.
Now Lego has decided to join forces with the same company that is threating to leave them in the dustbin with other old-school toys, and come up with a new age of Lego that can be control using your PlayStation controller, with neat little cameras, motors and sensors!
The experimental effort gives legos the ability to be controlled like many robots. Sony says the added functionality allowed for Lego toys to be more interactive while keeping them the same size.
"Lego is concerned about losing kids to video games," Ganta Kondo from Sony's research and development division tells PCWorld. "We want to keep the size small, but add interactive games."
PCWorld got to see an exclusive demo of the project. The demonstration saw two motorized legos racing each other using a wireless Playstation 3 controller. Sony believes that system could be used to create Lego battles where players would fight each other off using uniquely built Lego figures.
The project is still in the early stages of development. Sony reports that the toys currently suffer from poor battery life because of the tiny parts needed to control a Lego. The company says it has yet to decide when, and if, the project will ever reach consumers.
Sony showed off the project as part of its open house at Sony Labs in Tokyo. Along with the Lego project, Sony also showed off head-mounted video displays and Android-controlled home appliances at the open house.
There is rumors Sony is planning something 'similar' in style as what Microsoft has come clean with on their XBONE, but now Sony just might cancel plans following Xbox One backlash!
We all have read by now of what Microsoft is doing with your 'game disc'. Basically, it will have a ONE-TIME activation code, you insert disc, connects to the Cloud, registers said disc to your XBLive account, copies the whole disc to your XB1, you remove disc, put it on a shelf.
Now if you want to sell the game, too bad, disc is locked to you, no problem go to your nearest 'authorized' game store, not your little corner store nearby, but one of big boys like EB or GameStop, and they will have the power to access the Cloud, remove said disc from database, wipe it clean, and put it on their shelf for re-sell with a new RE-USED code, all for a very low fee and in exchange you will get some in-store credit to use to purchase some more DRM stuff for your all powerful Cloud XB1 console.
Ok, that is low-down on how XB1 works, but what is Sony plans for 'used games' and 'disc content control' for their new PlayStation 4, so far they only displayed the 'controller', and not even the system itself, but now rumors are flying around that Sony is planning on a 'used game' solution also for their system, it makes sense, they already said it 'copies the disc' to their HDD, they even throw in an extra processor just so you can 'Play Right-Away' while it is coping all the gigs of data in the background. Plus Sony has talked about there is 'pie-in-the-sky' also for the PS4, they even bought a Cloud-Game-Streaming company up last night to get the technology.
The story begins on this week's episode of GameTrailers' Bonus Round, in which host Geoff Keighley, discussing Xbox One's used games policy, says, "Sony, I think has been seen as this sort of white knight, so far, who's not going to restrict used games. Based on some of the things I'm hearing, I don't think that's entirely true."
On NeoGAF, user and supposed insider FamousMortimer, whose sources were spot on about the contents of February's PlayStation Meeting, elaborates on Keighley's statement.
"The jist of it is that Sony is listening to the backlash that Microsoft (MS) is getting and they are basing decisions off of this," he said. "I would assume MS is also, but I don't know that for sure. But I can say, for sure, that the past week's PR nightmare for MS has not been lost on Sony and they, in fact, do have a used game ‘solution' working and have been going back and forth for months on whether to use it. This past week is pushing them strongly into ‘Yeah, let's not use that.' "
In a separate post, he said, "I just heard on Friday that [the used games DRM] wasn't [coming]. I didn't want to come right out and post about it because leak-y individuals like myself are getting a bit too much attention. and I don't care about myself, but I'm not really looking to get my friends into trouble. But I've confirmed it with a second person so I got dumb and posted it."
So just to make sure Sony does 'back off' their plans for DRM, their fans and most likely alot of upset M$ fanboys have joined forces and taken action on Twitter in a cyber-war-attack on various Sony execs. and PR people with messages and hashtags with likes of #PS4NoDRM, #PS4UsedGames.
Condorstrike loves all things homebrew and now he's released a homebrew game for the PS3
Condorstrike, a well-known homebrew developer, has released a homebrew game for the PS3 named Pointman: The Akkadian Wars, which is released as a "proof-of-concept" due to the developer having to deal with real-life events, which is now the case for most of the scene developers.
HI GUYS, IT’S BEEN HARD FINDING TIME FOR THE PS3 WITH SO MUCH GOING ON AT WORK AND HOME, THAT’S THE REASON I DECIDED TO RELEASE THE POINTMAN BETA AS A (POC). WISH I HAD MORE TIME TO COMPLETE IT AND POLISH IT, ANOTHER REASON IS THAT THE PS4 IS AROUND THE CORNER, AND I’M ALSO MAKING A PC GAME.
Pointman: the Akkadian Wars - The game is a throwback to 80′s and 90′s styling and music, all of it was built for you guys as a proof of concept that with some time and creativity cool things can be accomplished. This game will run in CFWs 3.55 and 4.xx. There will be bugs! Powerups are mostly disabled, and there’s a glitch on some textures loading, but it’s rare. I do a small homage to the scene in the credits, but you’ll have to finish the level first, good luck with that…lol, forget about HARD mode, even I can’t finish it, so use EASY.
If you let the MAIN MENU run, you’ll get to see the story, 80′s style.
Basically, avoid the Aliens and drive the ship or mech until you’ve covered the map sectors, scan artifacts if possible, and grab powerups, but then again, they’re disabled.
CHANGELOG:
POINTMAN (POC) BETA V0.987:
SINCE THIS IS A POC ALL I CAN SAY IS, HOPE YOU ENJOY IT… CAW!
After the 'viral video' last week that Sony claimed was 'fake', they have now on the eve of the Microsoft #xboxreveal their own 'viral teaser' with blured images of the Dual-Eye and corner of the PS4
Today the official SonyPlayStation YouTube channel launched this new teaser for the upcoming PlayStation 4 console:
Watch our world exclusive teaser video and See it First at E3 June 10th 2013. Make sure you are the first to see it first. Sign up: http://eu.playstation.com/PS4
You can see angled 'corner' of the PS4 console, the Dual-Eye of course, the controller like always, and then ends with black blured image of the new PS4 standing upright.
Sony: 'Unlike PS3, we are not planning a major loss to be incurred with the launch of PS4'
Sony is finally laughing its way to the 'bank', after new management has turned around the company into a lean, profitable machine. -- Of course not developing the CELL like for the PS3 sure did help!
We all can easy see that by going stock off-the-shelf PC gaming cpu/gpu combo for their next PlayStation, it would be alot more profitable for Sony then before with their costly in-house development of the CELL processor design used in the very internally all in-house customized PS3 design.
Of course selling off their office buildings and cutting staff, and closing down many studios, did help finally put Sony into the black this fiscal year, but missing from this year report was any 'forecast' on how the Playstation 4 will do in the marketplace, I guess they don't want to go Nintendo's route and end up badly missing their 'sales target'.
"Unlike PS3, we are not planning a major loss to be incurred with the launch of PS4," said Sony CFO Masaru Kato during an earnings call that ended moments ago.
"At the time we developed PS3, we made a lot of in-house investments to develop the chip, the Cell chip. Development of the chip saw the silicon processing and all the facilities invested by us ourselves. But this time, yes we have a team working on chip development, but we already have existing technology to incorporate and also product investment and all the facilities will now be invested by our partners, other foundries, so we don't have to make all the investment in-house."
Sony didn't offer a sales forecast for PS4 for the year ending 31st March 2014, nor did anyone ask - the fools!
Sony turned a profit a year after a record loss - not a bad result for Kaz Hirai's first year in charge. He didn't necessarily work miracles, but he did reorganise and streamline the company, cutting thousands of jobs and getting back to black by selling expensive office buildings in Japan and America, plus Sony's stakes in DeNA and M3 holdings. Doing so enabled Sony to splash out and acquire Gaikai last summer.
Sony's annual profit was 43 billion yen ($458 million) - roughly what was expected.
In the Game segment, sales were down 12.2 per cent and operating income down 94 per cent to $18 million, whoopsie daisy.
Combined PS3 and PS2 sales were down to 16.5 million from 18 million the year before, whereas combined PSP and Vita sales raised a whisker to 7 million from 6.8 million the year before. But a PS Vita price cut in Japan undermined the extra sales, bringing in less money for Sony.
In the year ahead, "Sales are expected to increase significantly," Kato said, "primarily due to the planned introduction of the PlayStation 4 in the fiscal year ending 31st March 2014.
"Operating income," however, "is expected to be essentially flat year-on-year primarily due to an increase in research and development expenses and marketing expenses related to the introduction of the PS4, offset by the impact of the above-mentioned increase in sales."
Sony expects PS3 to sell 10 million units this financial year - a figure I can confidently report because PS2 sales have been removed from the year-ahead forecast.
Sony believes a combined 5 million PSP and PS Vita units will be sold this financial year, which is considerably down on this year - not a good sign for Vita.
Nevertheless, smartphone sales were up for Sony, and continuing to turn those around, plus transforming TV sales, was described as "a must" for the company this year. The other segments are relatively stable by comparison.
The trick is will Sony's transformation into a lean, mean, profitable machine will be able to last thruout the next-gen console war this holiday season.
0 Replies
|
308 Views
Rumor: Sony has used game ‘solution’ for PS4
Pointman: The Akkadian Wars (Beta) - Homebrew Game Released for PS3 by Condorstrike
