Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has been a huge success, particularly in Europe, but Sony has told GamesIndustry.biz that it expects LittleBigPlanet to outsell the first significant GT game to come out in over three years. (Sorry, Gran Turismo HD simply doesn’t count.) I don’t think anyone is doubting the success of LBP, but outselling Gran Turismo is no small task.
“We’re hoping sales will be higher than GT5 Prologue,” said SCEE prez David Reeves. Kaz Hirai also spoke at this week’s PlayStation Day, and was quite high on the game.
“These are genre-defining titles, something we’re very proud of, and just one facet of the rapidly growing world of PlayStation,” said Kaz Hirai, president of SCEA.
“[LittleBigPlanet] will completely revolutionise the way gamers interact with their games, especially through the community functions and the ability to interact with LittleBigPlanet lovers around the globe,” he added.
So, anyone want to place any bets? How many sales do you expect to see LBP sell in its first few months at retail?
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With Gran Turismo 5 Prologue now in gamers’ hands, Sony and Polyphony Digital have their sights set on really taking the online aspect of Gran Turismo to a whole new level. While online play was an important step forward, we’ve been playing Forza online for years. So what’s so different about their plan for Gran Turismo? How does social networking for car enthusiasts sound?
“Our goal is to become another medium for car companies, like magazines and TVs,” Taku Imasaki, the US senior producer for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, told Reuters. “We’re the perfect game for that and ideally we could become the MySpace or Facebook for auto enthusiasts.”
I know a few friends who would love something like that, but I’m not sure how a social network could sustain itself on a single game system. If that was expanded to work on PCs, then they might be onto something, but it’ll really come down to execution and hoping that people aren’t suffering from social networking fatigue.
Everyone loves free stuff, so just in time for the weekend comes several new free features for Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. Just pop the disc into your PS3, head to the online features section, and you’ll be able to download the new content.
The main addition is the ability to wander the course during online games while waiting for your turn. You can even taunt your opponents, so that should help spice things up online — especially since there’s still no voice chat feature to be found. (Although it’s being seriously considered, according to SCEA associate producer Chris Hinojosa-Miranda.) New items are going to be added as times goes on, but for now you’ll find soccer balls awaiting your feet in the lobbies.
The recent server issues have been ironed out, and they’ve promised more in the way of DLC news soon. Expect it to be the same two new characters and course Japan already got.
PlayStation Portable owners might recall the Japanese echochrome demo I posted about last month, which was a small sampling of what to expect from the MC Escher style game. If you didn’t feel comfortable downloading the file or couldn’t deal with the Japanese, you’ll have a chance to finally try the game out tomorrow when a demo is released on the PlayStation Store for PC.
Don’t expect anything different from the Japanese demo, though. As SCEA’s Scott Goryl put it succinctly, “Yes, this is the same demo that was available on the Japanese Store. Except, well, you know, with English.”
The full game will contain 56 levels (which are different from the 56 levels you’ll find in the PS3 version). For now, you’ll have to enjoy the trailer above and wait a littel longer.
Of the three current-gen systems, the PlayStation 3 just barely came in last for US sales in March. It might as well have been a tie, given the number of units sold separating the two (5,000). But the way SCEA prez Jack Tretton looks at it, March was a successful month and was a major improvement over March 2007. And despite the traditionally slow month that March usually is and the ongoing economic mess the country is going through, people still felt compelled to pick up a PS3.
“Our sales momentum continues to defy what is traditionally a sluggish sales month. PS3 continued the strong momentum with a year-over-year sales growth of over 98%. It is proof that, in these economically challenging times, consumers recognize the long-term value of our platforms and the tremendous heritage of our brand in delivering the best entertainment experience,” Tretton said.
Considering the poor sales PS3 was experiencing this time last year, it’s not really saying anything to point out how much better the system is selling now. But as I said in the Microsoft spin story, the sales over the next two months – with the competition to be the definitive Grand Theft Auto IV machine – will be revealing, to say the least.via PS3 Fanboy
After a truly impressive run atop the charts, Call of Duty 4 has finally been dethroned from the #1 software spot in the latest NPDs. While that was to be expected with the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it wasn’t expected that the game would drop all the way to #9. That’s indicative of the surplus of games released in March; CoD4 only saw a drop of just under 60,000 units. Last month its 237,000 units would have been good enough for #4 on the charts.
Smash Bros. was of course the big name in March. 2.7 million copies were sold, which blows away the #2 game, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, which had a solid month with 752,300 units sold. That’s followed by Army of Two at 606,100, and then of course Wii Play, which was bound to sell quite a few copies after the Wii had such a monster month. It sold 409,800 copies.
One impressive figure is that the PSP – normally absent from this list each and every month – had two games on the list, at numbers five and six, no less. God of War: Chains of Olympus edged out Crisis Core for the top PSP spot, but it’s encouraging to see that good PSP games can sell.
Finally. It seemed like this day would never come, but you can finally head to the PlayStation Store and – right now – download Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for $40. As of this moment, PSN seems to be handling the load well enough; the download is going fairly quickly for me considering it’s 1.9GB. If it manages to hold up for the rest of the day, I think that’d be a pretty big knock on Xbox Live for it struggling when a major download is released. It’s a win-win for Sony fanboys.
Earlier this week, two developers from Polyphony Digital participated in a chat with members of the PlayStation forums. While they didn’t go into much detail on any of the subjects thanks to time restraints, they did reveal hit upon a lot of key points – like the omission of all movies from the PSN version of the game. They can all be downloaded from the PlayStation Store, though, with the exception of “Beyond the Apex” which is the one difference between the Blu-ray and PSN versions of the game in terms of content.
You can check out the full transcript of the chat here.
If you’ve heard the rumors that the PlayStation Store would become region locked following its redesign, you needn’t worry – Sony has promised this isn’t the case. Currently, if you sign up for a PlayStation Network account and aren’t entirely honest about your current location, you’ll find yourself able to access a foreign PlayStation Store, thereby granting you access to great things like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue earlier than you otherwise would. Not that I’m endorsing going out and doing it right now, or anything. Definitely not at all.
Naturally, the suspicious was that this new PlayStation Store update would patch up this loophole, but that’s not the case. According to Eurogamer, SCEA has stated that “no changes to the store will be made as part of this revamp relating to region locking.”
I’m actually surprised Sony hasn’t patched this yet – not that I’m complaining. Hit the thumbnails below to see some new screenshots of the redesigned PlayStation Store.
SCEA has announced that they start shutting down the servers for some of their PSP and PS2 games and that said servers will all go offline by June 30.
Here is the full list:
PSP
Lemmings
World Tour Soccer 2
PS2
Amplitude
Destruction Derby Arenas
Everybody’s Golf
EyeToy Chat
F1 ‘04
Jak X
Lemmings PS2
My Street
Syphon Filter Omega Strain
This is Football 2004
This is Football 2005
Twisted Metal: Black Online
As you can see, the majority of the list is mostly PS2 games, and the only two games which will not continue to work after the servers shut down are the EyeToy Chat capabilities and Twisted Metal Black Online. This is because neither have offline modes. Via: dbTechno
Mr. Gran Turismo, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi, said vehicle damage was coming “very, very soon” and at least I just assumed he meant it would be coming with the full version of Gran Turismo 5 next year. Turns out it’ll be even sooner than that – Gran Turismo 5 Prologue isn’t even out worldwide yet, and there’s a “major update” planned for later this year that will add, among other things, vehicle damage.
In an interview with CVG, Yamauchi said the update will also enhance Prologue’s online modes and will add “community building features,” whatever those might be.
Those sound like some nice additions, but it really furthers the theory that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue really is an incomplete game. Assuming those additions are free, though, GT5 Prologue should be a fine holdover for the real GT5.
Scott Steinberg who is head of marketing with SCEA says that the company has been surprised by the demand for the 80Gb SKU for the PS3. With the different ranges of pricing and SKUs, Sony is a bit shocked that there has been a shortage of the 80 GB PS3.Speaking in an interview, Steinberg had this to say:
“Our strategy at the end of the year was to offer up a $399 40 GB, which we thought was the magic price for a Blu-ray machine and then a $499 80 GB. What we were surprised to see is that $100 really didn’t matter to a certain customer. Our sales were fairly equitable according to TRST and our internal numbers through the holidays and even into January; we’re pretty dry on the 80 GB as a result of us underestimating the demand for the 80 GB and thinking that most folks, because the price message was such a big part of the pundits and the analysts decrying the differences between the 360 and the PS3, [would prefer the 40 GB]. Reality is the price wasn’t that big of a deal and $499 sold a lot more than we thought, so the 80 GB got dry at retail not due to us artificially compressing it but the demand became greater than we thought. So you’ll see us replenish these in the marketplace. We’re still committed to our current strategy and there is much to do about nothing, I think is the way to think about it.”
Fantastic - this means that the rumors of Sony phasing out that particular PS3 can now be put to rest. Personally I was worried that I would not be able to get my hands on the 80GB when I finally got around to purchasing a PS3, but considering the fact that they plan on putting more on store shelves, my worries have now subsided. Granted, I originally wanted the 60GB but thanks to a domestic partner who shuffles his feet when it comes to what he deems “unneeded spending” that ship has basically sailed. However, the thought of an 80GB PS3 is fine with me, because the bigger the better I always say.
The PlayStation Store is getting revamped, and rather than take it offline temporarily, Sony will allow you to continue to access the store while changes are made. The only caveat to the previously announced redesign is that there won’t be any content added to the store for the next two weeks. Bummer.
But, on the bright side, when the Store reemerges on the other side, you’ll find (among other stuff) Gran Turismo 5 Prologue staring you in the face. And if you’re anything like me, you already know you won’t be able to resist.
Once the new redesign is complete, a firmware download will be released that you’ll have to download before you get to downloadin’.
We’ll have more on the changes in the coming days, courtesy of PlayStation.Blog.
You might see Gran Turismo 5 Prologue as a glorified demo, as many do, but if you want any new Gran Turismo action it’s going to be your only option for at least another year. As Eurogamer points out, associate producer Chris Hinojosa-Miranda replied to a comment on PlayStation.Blog claiming that Gran Turismo 5 is “still about a year away.”
On the bright side, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi has revealed that we should expect vehicle deformation in his games “very, very soon.” It’s about time.
“We really, really want to put damage onto our vehicles,” he told GamerTV. “We’ve had a lot of discussions with the manufacturers and, although at the beginning they hated the idea of deformation, now they’re slowly coming around to it.
“We’ve still got a few to convince, but we will. Expect deformation in the very near future: very, very soon.”
Yamauchi is well known for his unapologetic obsession with perfection, so I’d expect the wait on vehicle deformation in the Gran Turismo series to be worth it.
Apparently, Sony’s really excited about the upcoming Warhawk expansion that bring a few new tools, paint schemes, and other additions to the PS3 game. In fact, they’ve just released this new trailer for version 1.3 to outline two new gadgets: the Bio-field generator and the Mechanic’s Field Wrench. At a glance, they seem kind of…familiar. The bio-field generator creates a small area where your teammates are healed and your enemies are damaged (which is similar to the field generators in Halo 3); and the mechanic’s field wrench has you whacking on vehicles to repair them (which seems pretty reminiscent of Team Fortress 2). Of course, neither of those games feature quite as many flying death machines, so it’ll probably be a different experience to use them in Warhawk.
Konami has announced that Silent Hill Origins for the PS2 shipped to retail stores in North America yesterday. Originally to be released in May, they pulled a fast one on us and never sent word that the date had been changed. Nice surprise though isn’t it?
Featuring enhanced visuals for the PS2, Silent Hill Origins tells the tale of Travis Grady, a lone truck driver making a routine delivery when he makes an unfortunate detour to the mysterious town of Silent Hill. Players must help Travis escape the city’s horrific inhabitants and unravel the mystery of the strange hallucinations from Travis’ past, visions that have plagued him since childhood. Throughout the game, Travis can use his fists, his wits and an array of weapons including a meat cleaver, pool cue and sledgehammer to fight his way through the nightmarish world of Silent Hill and face more than one possible ending.
For more on the PS2 version of the highly popular Silent Hill Origins, click here.
Take a look at any game on PlayStation 3, and it’s hard to deny that Warhawk has been treated to the most extensive post-launch support on the system. Whether in the form of patches or add-on packs, Warhawk has been significantly improved and fleshed out since it was released last August. 1UP learned at GDC that game director Dylan Jobe and his team have no intention of ceasing that support, so long as players want it.
“As long as the community exists and as long as there is an appetite for playing the game and new content, that’s good for us and we want to try to do split deliveries — you can always get free stuff and you always have to option to buy certain content,” said Jobe.
Those of you who remember the game from earlier in its development cycle will know that the game was originally planned to be a full release, with both single- and multiplayer components. However, the single-player portion was scrapped and we got a multiplayer-only title for the discounted price of $40. While Jobe explained, “We made a strategic decision to go multiplayer only and I would be against doing a set of single-player expansion packs for Warhawk,” he did say that “if we look at doing single-player in the future [it would be] related to a new product.” So the potential for a Warhawk single-player experience isn’t out of the question, but don’t expect to see it released as DLC for the current game.
He revealed that developer Incognito would be interested in doing more with Warhawk beyond the current game, saying, “if there is an opportunity that presents itself for us to further the franchise then we’ll definitely take advantage of it.”
It took forever for the PlayStation Store for PSPs to even appear, and it’s far from perfect. Having to use your PC to browse to the Store and then connect your PSP via USB is hardly convenient; with Wi-Fi a major feature for the system, why can’t you use the system’s built-in browser to access the Store?
During a session at GDC, SCEA’s Chris Eden revealed that Sony is working on allowing PSP owners to access the Store without the hurdle of using a PC. So long as you have Wi-Fi access, you’ll be able to browse to the Store and purchase content to download to your memory stick.
There’s no release date as of yet, but it’s nice to know that it’s in the works. Even if it is, you know, the most blatantly obvious development for the Store to make.
Patapon definitely falls under the category of quirky games, whether it’s due to its art style or foundation, or both. The game doesn’t quite fit into any one genre, as it’s a hybrid music-platformer-God game-strategy type of deal. (Not too many games can fall under that particular umbrella.) Developed by the same team behind LocoRoco, this is another PSP game that sports an interesting art style with cute characters and music where you don’t quite have direct control over the action on-screen. At least, not in the traditional sense. You issue commands through a series of face button presses – which each cause a unique drum beat – that direct your patapons to move forward, backward, attack, etc.
We’ve got four new trailers up, including several boss fights. Above you can see the ‘Dragon Boss’ trailer. The other three can be seen hitting the links below.
Lighthouse Interactive have announced that it has acquired full publishing rights for the PS2 and PSP platforms in North America. Formally only publishing PC games, they have now officially crossed over to the console and handheld darkside.
Steve Wall, Co-founder and Vice President of Lighthouse Interactive had this to say about the new publishing deal with Sony.
“We are very excited to announce these licenses as this is the latest step in Lighthouse’s growth strategy”. He went on to add: “Sony continues to strongly support their platforms and their efforts have paid major dividends for both these and their PlayStation 3 console as they continue to strengthen and increase their install base. We believe in these platforms and look forward to working with Sony to bring a number of exciting and innovative titles to North America.”
Lighthouse specializes in RPG, simulation and strategy titles, with game such as Avencast, Darkness Within, Ship Simulator, and SunAge. The seem to be a great company, and Gaming Today wishes them nothing but success with their latest endeavor.
As someone that’s waiting very impatiently for a truly killer PlayStation Portable game for quite a while, I’m (sadly) excited even by the release of the game’s official boxart. Sure, it’s not quite as good as the trailer that Jonathan shared yesterday, but it’s another step closer to having the UMD spin away in my PSP.
If you need something more, why not go back and download the game’s trailer from last E3? March 4 can’t possibly come soon enough.
And if you’re wondering why it’s so big, it’s because I didn’t have the heart to shrink it.
Lighthouse Interactive have announced that it has acquired full publishing rights for the PS2 and PSP platforms in North America. Formally only publishing 
