Hasta La Gadget!

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony’s soon-to-be-announced PlayStation 4 will let gamers play PlayStation 3 games via Gaikai, which it acquired in 2012 for $380 million. The streaming technology will reportedly be detailed on Wednesday during the press event. This information comes from unnamed sources who are said to be familiar with what Sony is up to.

Although the PS4 will still play disc-basd games as well, according to the sources, the cloud-based game streaming will be the console’s biggest feature. Assuming this turns out to be true, there are both pros and cons to feature. On one hand, cloud-based games can be accessed anywhere without the hassle of toting around discs. Conversely, take a look at all the current PS3 games you have your shelf – do you really want to re-purchase all those as digital copies in order to play them on the next console?

That assumes, of course, that some type of discount or other service won’t be provided that reduces the cost of the titles or otherwise minimizes the financial burden. No information on what the digital games will be priced at was revealed, nor any details about how, precisely, Sony will go about having users stream PS3 games.

In addition to the cloud-based game streaming, the sources also said that we might see improved cameras with Move. The PlayStation event is set to take place in New York on Wednesday, so be sure to stay tuned for the latest information that surfaces. As with all info that comes from unnamed sources, take it in stride until Sony releases the final word on the matter.

[via Wall Street Journal]

PlayStation 4 will use Gaikai to stream PS3 games is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’re just a weekend and a couple days away from Sony’s big PlayStation event on February 20, and we have a guess at what the company might unveil. Yes, a PlayStation 4 could be in the cards, and we’ve already seen a leaked photo of the prototype controller, complete with a touchpad. However, there’s now a second photo that provides a bit more detail.

A member on the GameTrailers forum posted up a high-resolution image of the controller, where he claims he was the one that snapped the photo, although that has yet to be proven, so we remain skeptical as far as the goes. However, the controller looks to be the same one (or at least the same model) as the one we saw yesterday.

Thanks to the photo, we can see that there’s apparently a 3.5mm audio jack situated on the side of the controller, right below the “PS” logo/button. We’re guessing this for headsets, similar to how the Xbox 360 controller has its proprietary connector in the same location as well. The grips also appear to be longer as well.

The controller looks like it has concave analog sticks, and the same kind of buttons on previous PlayStation controllers. There’s also the small touchpad towards the top that may even be a small LCD touchscreen, but that is yet to be discovered. We’re keeping the salt nearby, and since this is simply just a prototype, it may not be the final version, so don’t get your hopes up if you like the look of this controller.

PlayStation 4 prototype controller makes a second appearance is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

What you see above is the next PlayStation’s controller, at least in some version of prototype, seemingly connected to a development unit for the next PlayStation (codenamed “Orbis“). The image popped up on Destructoid a few hours ago — we’ve spoken with development sources who confirmed it to be a recent version of the next PlayStation’s controller and a beta unit of the dev kit, though it’s not clear how much the pictured controller will match up with the final product (and the console will assuredly look quite different from the dev unit). Sony’s expected to show the PlayStation 3’s successor at a New York City event next Wednesday, February 20th, wherein a new version of the company’s classic DualShock controller is expected to be unveiled.

Corroborating reports, the pictured controller features a rectangular touchpad in between the standard d-pad and four-button setup, though it’s missing the rumored Share button. It’s also unclear if the blue light seen atop the controller serves a function — a stand-in for Move support, perhaps? — and our sources were unable to clarify. What looks like a speaker grill can be spotted just above a newly lowered PlayStation button, which seems to indicate some form of Wiimote-esque sound functionality built into the controller.

Update: A Sony rep tells us, “We can’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

[Photo credit: Destructoid]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Peripherals, HD, Sony

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Source: Destructoid

The Apple TV is a fairly simple product. It’s a standard set-top box that allows you to stream content and even beam content from an iOS device to your big-screen living room television. However, the founder of the Xbox gaming console, Nat Brown, says that if Apple wanted to, they could easily destroy the Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii.

In a blog post, Brown says that there are numerous problems with the Xbox platform that leaves the door wide open for Apple. Plus, Microsoft has been making it extremely difficult to develop games for the Xbox, and it doesn’t really cater to indie developers. The Apple TV, on the other hand, runs iOS, which allows for anyone to develop apps and games fairly easily, which has spawned a wealth of games for users to play.

Of course, the Apple TV isn’t catered as a gaming platform, although it’s only a matter of time before that could happen. You can actually beam iOS games to your living room TV using the set-top box, but the Apple TV itself isn’t a gaming console by any means. However, that could change with just a few more advanced features added on.

In the end, Brown notes that the past five years have been painful to watch, in regards to the Xbox, because Microsoft has essentially failed to innovate and capitalize on the potential of innovations, like the Kinect sensor. Brown also wishes that Microsoft adopted a similar model for game and app distribution that iOS and Android have been using in order to create huge and successful gaming ecosystems.

[via Business Insider]

Xbox founder says Apple TV could “simply kill” gaming consoles is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve featured a handful of videogame collections for sale, but this one takes the cake. eBay member videogames.museum is selling what amounts to uhm, a videogame museum. Hundreds of consoles, thousands of games and hundreds upon hundreds of accessories and promo items.

The collection includes more than 330 consoles, from the Atari 2600 to the current generation consoles and everything in-between, including rare variants as well as obscure flops like the Virtual Boy, the Gizmondo and the Nokia N-Gage. There are also more than 6,850 games; the seller claims that he has completed all the games from some franchises, including Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Sakura Wars and Super Robot Taisen. There are also controllers, action figures, magazines, strategy guides and countless other stuff.

If you still don’t appreciate just how insane this collection is, videogames.museum has this to say: “I spent the last two months of my life taking pictures and making lists, working about eight hours a day just in order to make an inventory and to figure out what I have. Even now after all the time spent checking things I’m not sure to have included all in the lists…” You can download that list as a pdf file. It is 135 pages long.

Videogames.museum is asking at least $550,000 (USD) for all of these goodies. He may also be persuaded to sell off the items per lot, but he’d really rather sell them as one package. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if he’ll gladly pay anyone who’ll get the N-Gage off his hands. You can check out a lot more pictures of the collection on his Imageshack account.

[via Geekologie]