Hasta La Gadget!

Sony isn’t sharing exact numbers, but Sony Computer Entertainment America VP of marketing, handhelds and home consoles John Koller teased that “almost all” PlayStation Vita owners are also PlayStation 3 owners. We were discussing the potential crossover between Vita and PS3 — the obvious comparison to Nintendo’s latest offering, the Wii U, and its tablet controller. The Vita and the PS3 are capable of producing similar functionality, and, if anything, with higher fidelity, as the Vita is a standalone console.

Koller says Sony invites the comparison. “We tell our PlayStation fans all the time that what the Wii U is offering is something that Vita and PS3 can do quite easily,” he says. It’s not just about the functionality, however, it’s about whether implementing that functionality makes any sense. “It’s dependent on the content. So we need to make sure the content isn’t force fed. And, to us, making sure that the gamer receives the right type of experience is what’s most important. So we’re gonna pick our spots, but that technology does certainly exist here.”

It wouldn’t be hard to imagine Sony bundling the Vita and its new PS3 model together for holiday sales, pushing up against this holiday’s Wii U launch. Koller says not just yet, though. “As we look at the lineup, there are gonna be some opportunities to do that. Whether we want to bundle the hardware together remains to be seen,” he explains. It sounds like we’ll be hearing more on that front in the future, as “retails asks for it all the time,” Koller says. For now, however, he’s happy knowing that the vast majority of Vita owners are already prepared for cross-functionality between the two consoles. “In the meantime, you look at the Vita consumer and a very high percentage — almost all of them — own a PS3. So you see that crossover works.”

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Of PlayStation Vita owners, ‘almost all’ own PlayStation 3 as well originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fox embraced a radical thought when it outlined its Digital HD initiative earlier this month: customers are more likely to buy digital movies if the content isn’t artificially delayed and priced to match the releases on conventional discs. The studio is about to see if that gamble on common sense pays off. As of today, you’ll find 600-plus Fox movies ready to buy or rent in HD across every major digital video store in the US, with many downloads cleared to arrive ahead of their physical counterparts at lower prices that reflect a disc-free reality. The media giant has also decided to play nicely with Google after a longstanding absence, putting its movies and TV shows on Google Play Movies and YouTube. Its tentpole movie release Prometheus is unsurprisingly being used as the prime incentive to try Digital HD; the title is available online three weeks before the Blu-ray launch at a more reasonable $15 price. The sci-fi thriller is even Fox’s first movie destined for UltraViolet cloud lockers. Only Americans will have expanded access to movies and TV at first, but it shouldn’t be too long before many countries can be creeped out by Michael Fassbender’s android — including on their Android devices.

Continue reading Fox kicks off its Digital HD initiative by joining Google Play and YouTube, offering movies early

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, Internet, HD

Fox kicks off its Digital HD initiative by joining Google Play and YouTube, offering movies early originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been sat impatiently tapping your fingers on the desk waiting for that extra PlayStation Plus storage, then you might want to give that hand a break. According to the PlayStation blog, it’s coming, and soon. The capacity bump will come in PS3 system update v4.25, and once installed, you’ll just need to head over to the Saved Data Utility under the XMB’s Game column to see it. Our friends over at Joystiq have pushed Sony for a more concrete time on the update’s release, but if you’ve already maxed out that current 150MB, there’s light at the end of the cloud tunnel.

Filed under: Gaming

PlayStation Plus cloud storage boost landing ‘soon’ with system update v4.25 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were intrigued about that Wonderbook PlayStation peripheral we saw back at E3, then your curious wait may soon be over. As of November 13th, you’ll be able to get your wizardy hands on the accessory for the reasonably magic price of $39.99. This is for the book alone, but there’s also a bundle for $79 that includes the Book of Spells game (in collaboration with J.K. Rowling) a Move motion controller and the PlayStation Eye camera. Three other forthcoming titles get a mention too, Diggs: Nightcrawler, BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs and experiences from Disney, set for release some time in 2013. In the meantime, better start saving up the Galleons.

Filed under: Gaming

PlayStation Wonderbook starts augmenting your reality in November from $39 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Sep 2012 07:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With this year’s National Football League season almost ready to kick off (not taking pre-season games into consideration, of course), DirecTV’s properly preparing itself on all entertainment cylinders. The satellite provider announced earlier today that the well-known Sunday Ticket package will be returning to the PlayStation 3 on September 4th via a PS Store update, allowing current subscribers to stream full-HD games directly to Sony’s renowned console. As for those without any current attachments to DirecTV, however, there is an option out there — one which costs a familiar $300 per NFL season. We’ve still got a few days until the madness gets started, which should be plenty of time to get approval from your better half to snag the action-packed ticket.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD

DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket returns to PS3 in time for the upcoming football season originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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