Playstation Fan Force

A while back, Valve's Tom Leonard and Gabe Newell had some choice words for the PS3's intricate and complex hardware, citing a hatred of the system as a development platform.  Although some rumors had surfaced that suggested Valve's change of heart, it seems these are no longer credible. 

Gabe Newell re-confirmed that the company would not be developing for the PS3 in the near future.  In a recent interview with GTTV, Newell was questioned about whether Valve would consider developing for the PS3.  His response was, simply “No. Not in any real way." 

As you might remember, Tom Leonard's view of the PS3 was a bit more colorful.  "The PC and the 360 are just more straightforward,” Leonard said. “We can focus on what we want to do, which is make game experiences, instead of sweating bullets over obscure architectural decisions they make with Sony's platform.”

So, while talented game developers are giving us outstanding hits like Gran Turismo 5, God of War III, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2, inFamous, and the Resistance series, Valve would much rather take the easy route and ignore developing for a system whose sales numbers are swelling continuously.

Fair enough.

Sony's business tactics have been changing favorably over the past few months.  Not only has downloadable PSN content been steady and strong (with the addition of some healthy PS1 titles), but the 2.00 firmware update and the cheaper PS3 Slim are really driving up sales.

According to Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Morgan, PS3 sales have surged over 73% since Sony bit off a huge chunk of the PS3's price tag and introduced the Slim.  That number is expected to soar even higher, even above 100% in the coming months.  From a business standpoint, this is pretty obvious.  We are only a few months away from Christmas, and the launch of the Slim (coupled with Sony's smartass new marketing scheme) could be the linchpin the company needs to gain a bigger foothold on the gaming industry. 

Naturally, X-Box 360 hardware continues to outsell the PS3, and the introduction of a 250 GB Modern Warfare 2 hardware bundle will be Sony's greatest challenge.  However, things have changed in households since the the chaotic confusion we saw in the fall of 2008.  Blu-Ray disc sales have swelled, and there are more Blu-Ray players in homes than ever before, still driven strongly by PS3 sales.  With the economy gradually returning to somewhat stable ground, it is very likely that Sony will be enjoying a rich Christmas season.  This will only continue in 2010 with the release of killer apps like Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and God of War III.

There's a fascinating set of rumors going around that center on Sega, and the company's plans for the PSN Store.  According to www.objectif-sega.com (a predominantely French website), Sega has unveiled plans to bring select Dreamcast games to the PSN Store for download.  Veteran gamers remember the Dreamcast as Sega's final console release before abandoning the hardware race altogether.  That means classics like Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Virtua Fighter 3 and more may soon be heading to a PS3 near you.

Another rumor consists of Sony's supposed desire to start adding PS2 games to the PSN for dowload as well.  Interesting, given the popular rumor of full backward compatibility via firmware update for all PS3s.  Could this be another step in that direction?  Here's to hoping!

After a string of leaked spy photos and half-denials by Sony's top dogs, the company has now openly admitted that the cat is out of the bag.  The PS3 Slim was announced at a news conference in Tokyo Japan today complete with a floor model to boot.  Although the Dual Shock 3 controller remains the same, the console has definitely received the drastic facelift that most of us spotted months ago when production photos were leaked onto the internet, spreading rumors like wildfire and ruffling Sony's feathers.  The new PS3 will debut with a 120 Gig hard drive, WiFi and BlueTooth and of course, Blu-Ray, and will run U.S. buyers about $299.99 when it goes on sale on September 1st of this year. 

As an added note, current-gen PS3 systems will see an immediate price drop today to $299.99, making me wonder what the point of a PS3 Slim really is.  Sure, money isn't everything, but judging from the comparisons, the only difference here seems to the size and weight of the system, and an upgraded hard drive.  It still remains to be seen whether the rumored backwards compatibility update will effect PS3 Slim systems, but we're keeping our ear to the ground in hopes that all the machines will soon receive the upgrade.  More as this story develops.

Like there was ever any doubt!

Anyone wondering about the state of the X-Box 360's reliability versus the PS3 may want to check the latest hardware stats.  According to a survey published in Game Informer, the failure rate for X-Box 360 systems now stands at a whopping 54.2%.  By contrast, the PS3 stands at 10.6%, with the Wii close behind at 6.8%.  If things weren't bad enough, the percentage of buyers who suffered a second X-Box 360 failure now stands at an unfathomable 41.2%. 

Granted, these numbers are all estimates based on survey readings, but the results are astounding.  X-Box 360 owners are responsible for this information, which, depending on how you look at it, may be the most or least reliable evidence as to current X-Box 360 quality ratings.  Nevertheless, this news does not bode well for a console whose failure rate once stood at a comparatively favorable 34% failure rate.  On a personal note, my wife's co-worker recently lamented that she and her boyfriend have gone through 4 separate X-Box 360 failures in a row, with their current repaired system hanging in at a mere 6 months.  Is Microsoft doing enough?  Despite all the success of the 360 console, how much abuse can X-Box fans truly take before enough is enough?

Well, it looks like M.A.G. will finally be hitting the shelves on January 26th of 2010.  Sony has finally given the official announcement, which means that FPS players around the world should start sharpening their swords with COD4, CounterStrike, Killzone 2, or whatever your particular shootin' game of choice is.  See you all online!