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Hirai talks about PlayStation future

Patrick Goss — 1210233952

Sony Computer Entertainment head Kaz Hirai has confirmed that the company is looking into disc-free network gaming for future generations, but insisted that the global infrastructure is not yet in place.

With the PlayStation 3 finally beginning to look like the gaming powerhouse its legacy suggested it would be, Hirai is keen to promote the current flagship PlayStation model.

Future tech

But Hirai is mindful of the future, and the oft-talked about gaming purely thorugh online and not needing a physical disc, something he believes is not currently possible with the disparity in network speeds across the world.

"It's something we would look at. We have had a lot of discussion internally about where the road map will take us," Hirai told the BBC.

"[With network gaming] we're also dependent on the network infrastructure available in all the territories we do business in.

"Some have faster broadband access than others. When you consider that content that plays on PlayStation 3 can go as high as 50GB it's going to be very difficult to deliver 50GB to consumers in some parts of the world in a timely fashion."

PlayStation 4

Hirai also talked about the likely timeline for the next incarnation of PlayStation but confessed to not knowing what it would be capable of.

"It's very difficult to say at this point in time," added Hirai.

"We need to take a look at advances in technology in various areas, such as semiconductors, graphics chips, output devices, mainly TV and monitors, to see where we would like to benchmark our next generation product."

11 signs you're no longer a hard-core gamer

Dean Evans — 1209119890

You used to play videogames all night. Your Quake prowess was unmatched; your skills at Command & Conquer unparalleled. You have a gaming history that stretches back beyond the PlayStation generation to the SNES, Megadrive, Amiga and ZX Spectrum. You were there at the dawn of gaming.

Tick-tock... Time passes. You've quietly come to realise that you're not the hard-core gamer you used to be. Even your Xbox 360 Gamertag seems far too 'sensible'. How do you know that a mid-life gaming crisis is setting in? Watch out for these warning signs…

You prefer playing against the computer

Online gaming against real people has become depressing – it exposes your faded, spoon-sharp reflexes and you abhor the trash-talk from 12-year old fanboys. You prefer playing offline against the computer because a game's algorithms are slightly more predictable. And, once you master the scripted patterns of play, you stand a real chance of being good… of actually winning. And that feels great, doesn't it? Ranking second-bottom on a multiplayer leader board doesn't.

You only play when your girlfriend is out

Because you only have one high-def TV and to play videogames on it while she's at home is 'selfish' and not something the two of you can do 'together'.

You believe that winning isn't everything

It's the taking part that counts. Obviously. And that's not because you're not good at games. You are. But you've found that there's more to life than spending five hours every night killing all of the Templars in Assassin’s Creed. The fact that you can't find the last three Templars is irrelevant.

It's been days, not hours since you last switched on your console

Because things keep getting in the way: TV, movies, books, going out to restaurants, shopping, going down the pub, DIY, dinner parties, the gym, more DIY, your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend [delete as applicable]… oh, and having a job.

You’re the oldest person trading in games at GameStation

So you lie about why you’re there. "It’s, ahem, my son's birthday. I'd like to trade these in for Guitar Hero please…"

You like your Xbox 360 and your PS3 equally

Being a more 'mature' gamer means you have more disposable income, so you can afford the luxury of owning a PS3 and an Xbox 360. So you've become the gaming equivalent of the United Nations, calming accepting the virtues of both consoles to the deaf ears of Xbox zealots and Sony fanboys (who simply ignore you and carry on their slanging match regardless). Because when you stare at those side-by-side game comparison shots on CVG, you can't see the difference. Maybe the PS3 palette is lighter… maybe… Of course, your eyesight could be failing…

You fondly remember a ‘golden age’ of gaming

You lament the current glut of videogame sequels and often talk fondly of an innovative 'golden age' of gaming. You remember Manic Miner, good ‘ol Chuckie Egg and the Ultimate games on the ZX Spectrum. You played Sensible Soccer the first time around on the Amiga, Elite on your mate’s BBC B, and finished Sonic The Hedgehog on the Megadrive. Happy days… But when modernised versions of these gaming classics turn up on Xbox Live, your excitement quickly evaporates. You quickly realise that, by today’s standards, those cherished oldies are now shallow, repetitive and not much fun.

You avoid playing on the Wii because it’s too much effort

There's no denying that the Nintendo Wii is a revolutionary games machine but… well, it does require a lot of effort. Aren't there times when you just want to slouch into a comfy sofa with a traditional joypad? Times when you can't be arsed with all that wiimote waving and waggling? It's way too energetic – a 20 minute bowling session in Wii Sports is almost akin to a full workout.

Your FPS experience consists of spawn, run, die... spawn, run, die... spawn…

The reflexes that served you so well in GoldenEye and Quake seem to be two seconds slower than everybody else these days. You think 'fire', 'jump', 'spin', 'run', 'collect spinny power-up', but your fingers press 'fire' (and pause), 'fire' (and pause), 'spin' and… no, I actually meant 'jump', and – oh, I’m dead. Either you're slowing down, or today's hard-core gamerati are faster than you ever were.

You find the idea of videogames based on board games perfectly acceptable

Anyone for a game of Carcassonne tonight? The wife's out until 10pm and I'll be online after I've had my dinner…

You've pre-ordered GTA IV but don't mind if it doesn't turn up on launch day

Wednesday's just fine. Really. You're a bit busy at the moment, anyway. In fact, you probably won't get a chance to play GTA IV until the weekend. You're also not bothered by the prospect of downloading the DLC for GTA IV either. You'll never finish the main game anyway.

Sony delays PS3 Home experience yet again

J Mark Lytle — 1208851838

PS3 owners waiting for the PlayStation Home online virtual world announced by Sony last March will need a little more patience, after the Japanese arm announced a further delay today.

Home was originally scheduled to hit the download servers as a PS3 add-on in late 2007, but that date was soon pushed back to this spring. Today’s press release moves the final release out of sight by extending the beta-testing phase.

Not quite ready

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCEI) CEO and president Kaz Hirai explained, “We understand that we are asking PS3… users to wait a bit longer, but we… need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today.”

Some time in the autumn SCEI will begin an open beta test, which will allow a limited number of testers to sign up for access to the Home virtuality through their PS3 consoles.

Before that, Sony plans to expand the more restricted closed beta phase of testing - but only to invited guests - this summer. That extended timeframe suggests nothing fully public is likely until 2009 at the earliest.

Cat out of bag as PS3 movie plans revealed

Don Reisinger — 1208838746

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s PlayTV news, we hear that Sony finally has concrete plans for delivering a video service to the PlayStation 3.

According to reports, a group of movie studio executives who have asked to remain anonymous, told reporters on Monday that Sony has started talks to bring movies, television shows and other video programming to its wildly anticipated PlayStation 3 store.

Hints keep flying

And although the company chose not to respond to the reports, last week on the PlayStation blog, a Sony representative did say that video would be coming to the console soon.

“Ultimately the goal of the PlayStation Network service will be to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies and gaming content you want. More on this very soon,” Sony's Peter Dille wrote on Sony’s blog.

Sony’s decision to bring video to its PlayStation store has been expected for years. Since 2006 the company has said that it wants to bring video to its console and considering the fact that Microsoft has been quite successful in offering a similar service on its Xbox Live Marketplace, Sony wants to capitalise on the market before it’s too late.

Movies and more coming to the PS3?

Don Reisinger — 1208403239

Sony broke its usual silence over plans for the PlayStation 3 on Tuesday, with the announcement from senior vice president Peter Dille that movies and TV shows could be coming to the platform in the near future.

In a blog post on the company's US PlayStation site, Dille acknowledged that people have been asking for more from the company's PlayStation network. He said that he believes they will be satisfied when everything is rolled out.

Rumblings may become reality

"Many of you have been hearing rumblings about a video service that will allow you to download full-length TV shows and movies via PlayStation Network for North America," the exec said.

"While I don't have any new announcements here for the PlayStation Nation, it's already been confirmed that we'll be offering a video service for PS3 in a way that separates the service from others you've seen or used.

"Ultimately the goal of the PlayStation Network service will be to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies, and gaming content you want. More on this very soon," he teased.

Sony did not comment on Dille's statement and there is currently no word on whether or not the video service will be available in Europe. But judging by the company's willingness to speak freely about the future of its PlayStation Network, it seems certain that more details will emerge very soon.

PS3's Cell processor to go on sale separately

J Mark Lytle — 1207208873

It's usually difficult to see Sony's PlayStation 3 as anything like a bargain, but new plans by IBM to market the Cell processor that lies at its heart suggest PS3 owners may be getting stupendous value for money.

Starting in August, IBM Japan will begin sales of a Cell-powered expansion board for high-end PCs that are used in weather forecasting, medical imaging and other processor-intensive applications.

VFM from Blu-ray too

Early reports say that each board will cost ¥880,000 (£4,327), which makes the current UK price of around £300 for a 40GB PS3 seem positively puny, especially when considering the Blu-ray player in each console as well.

Although comparing consumer products with such industrial devices is really an oranges vs apples scenario, the price difference clearly makes some of the PS3 applications we've seen in the past look a lot less frivolous.

Is a PSP 3000 imminent?

Rob Mead — 1206964421

There’s been a flurry of excitement on PSP fansites in the past few days after a PSP 3000 placeholder image was discovered on Sony’s online instruction site.

Despite the link being at best tenuous, speculation quickly gathered pace on various forums centring on whether Sony was preparing to bring out a next-gen handheld to replace the PSP Slim, also known as the PSP-2000.

Some posters even began conjecturing over what features a new PSP might have, with the usual suspects such as built-in disk space, a camera, Bluetooth and 802.11n wireless functionality and even an all-new ‘PSP-phone’ type of device all touted.

Battery hack fixed

Some less optimistic posters have suggested that the 3000 will be exactly the same as the current 2000 model only with the Pandora battery hack fixed.

While it does seem certain that Sony will eventually replace the Slim model, it seems highly unlikely that the company would wish to do so barely seven months into its lifecycle.

Almost as if confirming this, the mysterious PSP-3000 placeholder image appears to have disappeared from the Sony site.

TechRadar contacted Sony Computer Entertainment Europe today and we were immediately served with a 'we do not comment on rumour or speculation'.

Games industry braced for biggest month of all time

James Rivington — 1206549007

The games industry could be about to enjoy its most lucrative mid-year sales period of all time. The launch of two of the most highly anticipated games in the history of the industry is expected to spark a domino effect that will lead to lots of new consoles being bought.

On 27 April the long-awaited Mario Kart Wii will finally be launched in North America for Nintendo’s Wii console. The game will have already come out by then in Europe and Japan. And 29 April will see the worldwide launch of perhaps the hottest title of 2008: Grand Theft Auto IV.

GTA IV will come out for both the Xbox 360 and PS3, and that means all three consoles are getting a hot new game in time to kick off the spring.

PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii set for sales boom

This is no ordinary launch period, either. Both the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 have been plagued by a perceived lack of quality titles over the last year. Gamers all over the world have been constantly complaining that there are not enough decent games to play on their new consoles.

So that magic week at the end of April will finally give Wii and PS3 gamers the boost they are looking for. Which means that a generous number of PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 gamers will be going out and buying one of the two games.

What’s more, the launch of these two colossal titles is also likely to enormously boost sales of the consoles themselves. With GTA IV, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2 all coming out this year, there’s never been a better time to buy a Sony PS3.

Likewise, recent price cuts have seen Xbox 360 prices crash to an all-time low. You can now pick up an Arcade model for just £150 so there’s never been a better time to buy a 360.

And to complete the line-up, the release of all-time favourite Mario Kart on the Wii means that gamers have an even bigger reason to buy that console as well.

Come the end of April, the chiming of money entering the registers in games stores will be ringing out.

PlayStation 3 vs Xbox 360

“I'd expect GTA to boost sales of the Xbox 360 as it's the cheapest way to get your hands on the game, although it'll depend on how effectively Microsoft and Rockstar advertise it,” says Jon Hicks, editor of the Official Xbox 360 Magazine.

“GTA is strongly associated with PlayStation, and I'd expect heavy promotion from Microsoft to emphasise its presence on Xbox 360, and advertise the exclusive downloadable content that Xbox will get later this year.

“[Grand Theft Auto is definitely] going to drive sales of new consoles, and it'll be interesting to see how many consumers go for PS3 because they're used to experiencing GTA on PlayStation, or Xbox 360 because it's cheaper and has more games - it'll depend on how effectively Microsoft markets Xbox 360 at this time.

“Beyond that, though, I don't think now is a particularly good time to watch the fight between the two platforms. The long-delayed adoption of PS3 is going to be helped by GTA and major exclusives Gran Turismo and Metal Gear Solid 4 in the next few months, and I expect the price cut will nudge Xbox 360 sales a bit higher, but new releases are thin on the ground over summer - the real battleground is Christmas.

“Basically, we're going to see a massive, massive spike due to GTA, a slightly smaller PS3-only one with GT5 and MGS, and then it's all going to go a bit quiet over summer. Assuming that we don't plunge into recession and everybody stays home and plays games instead of going on holiday. Historically the game business does all its money over Christmas, it's almost unheard of that a seismic event like GTA comes along at a time like this.”

Nintendo Wii to get big boost

Chris Hicks at our sister gaming site CVG, says that Mario Kart Wii will give a similar boost to the Wii economy.

“Mario Kart is the biggest title on the Wii this year and most important title for Nintendo gamers and fans,” he said.

“The Wii has been criticised by some gamers for neglecting them in favour of the casual gamer market, so the return of a fan favourite like Mario Kart is a chance for Nintendo to win them back over, especially after the lukewarm reception of the GameCube version.

“The game is also a huge test as to whether a game can appeal to both casual Wii players and Nintendo fans, given that the game supports two control modes – the racing wheel peripheral for casual gamers, and the classic controller for the fans.

“If Nintendo can make a game that both hardcore players and casual gamers love, then they can pretty much tie up the market.”

Sony upgrades PS3 to full Blu-ray 2.0

J Mark Lytle — 1206418426

We've known about it since last week, and now it's finally here - Sony's firmware update for the PlayStation 3 arrived a few minutes ago to bring the full Blu-ray experience to the PS3.

As expected, BD-Live features on interactive Blu-ray movies will now work with the PS3 and the ability to resume playing a disk from where it was left off has been added.

No portable copy

The full hand of minor upgrades that we discussed last week are all present and correct, although there's no sign of the rumoured ability to copy Blu-ray films to a PSP.

We've tested the upgrade at our Tokyo office and can confirm that it works, so let us know if your mileage varies at all.

PlayStation 3 to get big firmware update this month

James Rivington — 1206012148

Sony has announced that it will significantly boost the PS3’s video playback features at the end of March. It’s great news for PlayStation 3 gamers, who might have been disappointed with last weeks’ very pithy 2.17 firmware update which added no new features at all.

The new v2.2 firmware update certainly goes a long way towards enhancing the PS3’s credentials in the world of all-round media hubs.

For a start, the new firmware will make the PS3 BD Profile 2.0 compliant, meaning that it will be able to make use of the BD Live features that new Blu-ray movies come with. BD Live lets a player check online every time a disc is inserted to find updated content to download. This can be things like movie trailers and special features like directors commentaries. This extra content will be compatible with picture-in-picture viewing.

New PS3 firmware

That’s not all, either. While a previous PS3 firmware update added the ability to create new music playlists, you will now be able to transfer those playlists to your PSP handheld.

DivX video playback was added last year, but until now, any individual files over 2GB were not recognised by the PS3. This has now been changed, and these files will now be playable like any other.

Bizarrely, one feature that the PS3 has always lacked was a ‘resume play’ option for DVD and Blu-ray discs. This, too, has now been changed. So now whenever you stop a DVD or BD, even if you remove it from the player, the next time you insert it you’ll have the option of starting from where you left off.

Regular updates keep gamers happy

You will also now be able to use your PSP as a remote control to play back your music files on your PS3 without turning on the TV. And the last main addition is an update to the PS3’s web browser. It’ll now display pages much quicker, and it'll be much easier to download and save files from web pages.

Sony says there will be a few more tweaks and upgrades too, but is refusing to spill the beans until the end of the month.

"With Blu-ray established as the high-definition optical disc standard, more consumers are ready to jump in and take advantage of everything the format offers," said Scott Steinberg, SCEA’s vice president of product marketing.

"Whether you want to download movie extras, send ringtones to your phone, or play interactive games, BD-LIVE will offer exciting new ways to enjoy a Blu-ray movie. With these regular firmware updates and future-proofed technology, SCEA is making the 10-year lifecycle of PS3 possible."

What features do you want to see in the next PS3 firmware update?