Jamie Le Souëf

Ray Maguire, Sony Computer Entertainment UK’s head, recently spilled the beans on an upcoming feature the PlayStation 3 will be getting - in-game communication. Presumably this means being able to have a private chat with friends while playing a game, similar to what you can do on Xbox Live.

Speaking with MCV on the PlayStation 3 reaching one million units at retail in the UK - a mark surpassed faster than either the PlayStation or PlayStation 2 - Maguire stated, “Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer, firmware update 2.4 and the strongest line-up of games through our third party partners and our own studios. I’d personally like to thank our trade and business partners for helping us on the start of the PS3 journey.”

Now it’s unclear whether or not in-game communication is directly a part of firmware v2.4 or if he was referring to two separate items. Hopefully v2.4 will include in-game XMB support, and that will be what enables you to chat with friends while in-game.

The folks over at Gizmodo have an interesting read about what to do now that that Sony’s blu-ray is now the crowned HD media format. Generally speaking I find most of Gizmodo’s articles to be heavily one sided and not really worth paying much attention to, but this one I tend to agree with.

Here are the finer points, you can read the full article here

1. Get the Spec In Order
   Now that Blu-ray is fully in the spotlight, it’s got to get its act together spec-wise. You may recall that we lambasted many Blu-ray supporters for only building 1.0 spec players, including the $1000+ home-theater flagships from Sony and Pioneer. Except for Panasonic’s DMP-BD30 and the PlayStation 3 with up-to-date firmware, no current Blu-ray player can even handle the 1.1 spec with picture-in-picture, already appearing in certain Blu-ray discs (and quite the handful of HD DVD titles-but we’ll get to that).
2. Finalize the Video Library
   We only need dual-format players as long as the library is split down HD DVD and Blu-ray lines. We are waiting for Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks to jump to Blu, and even once they do, it’s not a certainty that they can simply re-release everything currently out on HD DVD. Universal claims 150 titles-surely the Bournes will go Blu as soon as Uni does, but how long do I have to wait for a Blu-ray of The Big Lebowski? Hell, it’s almost worth scooping up an ultracheap HD DVD player now just to enjoy that one movie alone, 47 or 48 times in a row. At any rate, some speculation suggests that the remaining HD DVD studios may not even come around until summer or fall, depending on weird smoke-filled-backroom negotiations with Toshiba.
3. Bring On the Old-Fashioned Electronics Store Competition
   Sony’s more affordable new Blu-ray player will hit the market this summer for $400. Nothing built by Sony or anyone else should be considered before then, the one exception being the PS3. But even the Sony standalone at $400 is expensive, especially for a player whose capabilities are more or less the same as Toshiba’s HD-A30 HD DVD player, now (in a price nose dive) selling for around $130. Only when Panasonic, Samsung and LG announce their own Blu-ray 2.0 players, will true competition finally exist. (Pioneer will launch a 2.0 player too, but it probably won’t get involved in a price war.) It surely wouldn’t be long after that that we see a full-spec Blu-ray player for $200 or maybe even less. Our bet is Christmas, since Sony doesn’t seem like it will have anything on the market until “summer” and no one else is talking about their next Blu play.

Again, you can read the full article here, defiantly worth a look for those in the market for a blu-ray player.

Sony has announced plans that it is releasing a PlayStation 3 bundle for the release of Metal Gear Solid 4. It will include an 80GB system, the game and one Dual Shock 3 controller for $499.

It is assumed that this bundle will hit on or around June 12th coinciding with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4.

Doing the math it seems it’s a great bundle, purchasing the bundle is set to save your around $115 USD

$499 - PS3
$55 - Dual Shock 3
$60 - Metal Gear Solid 4
Total $615

Sony’s has also annoucned a new God of War PSP Entertainment Pack, which includes a red PSP, the God of War: Chains of Olympus game, Superbad on UMD, and a voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops for (free) for $200 USD

Comments welcome

Sony’s been relatively mum on its Slingbox-like PlayTV add-on for the PlayStation 3 since it announced it last fall, but it’s now finally starting to show it off for all to see and, thanks to the BBC’s dot.life blog, we now have a pretty good idea of what European PS3 users can expect.

Check out the video over at Engadget

Since the price drop and lead up to Christmas, Sony’s Playstation 3 is gaining some massive momentum.

The weekly sales snapshot has the PS3 leading the Xbox 360 by 3,375 (417,534 to 414,159 respectively). Some might say that is a tiny lead and they would be right, but remember that the PS3 has been out for roughly 1/2 the time the xBox has and still punches a $300 premium over the Xbox (Australian Price) - not a bad feat!

Figures also show that the PS3 now has the lead in sales based on release time with the Xbox selling 5,570,349 units in it’s first 52 weeks and the PS3 selling 5,617,494 units (47,145 more units for those playing at home) (Source)

Again, add the handy cap of the higher price tag - even after the price drop and it really shows the Ps3 is starting to move in the right direction.

The fight is defiantly between Sony and Microsoft for now as Nintendo is eclipsing both in terms of Sales in first year - 14,292,627.

But will the Wii bubble pop? That’s a question for another post.

Pleas feel free to comment.