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Taking a cue from Nintendo’s Wii U, Sony’s PlayStation 3 is getting digital versions of some games delivered at the same time as their physical counterparts starting next week with Resident Evil 6 and NBA 2K13. via “PSN Day 1 Digital.” Unlike Nintendo’s initiative, however, Sony’s is third-party focused — not one game on its initial list of eight titles is published by any of Sony’s international publishing studios.

It’s unclear whether this is a full-on initiative for Sony’s PlayStation 3 or a promotion for October alone, but Sony’s PlayStation blog calls PSN Day 1 Digital “a new program,” which indicates it’s something more than just a one month promo — all the same, we’ve asked Sony for more info. Beyond just offering a smattering of games digitally at launch, PSN Day 1 Digital allows for pre-orders, and even offers a 10 percent discount on 007: Legends should you pre-order as a PlayStation Plus member. Head past the break for the full list of titles.

Continue reading Sony’s PlayStation 3 getting ‘PSN Day 1 Digital’ to launch games digitally alongside retail

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Sony’s PlayStation 3 getting ‘PSN Day 1 Digital’ to launch games digitally alongside retail originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was just a few days ago when the new, improved slimmer PS3 model was announced at the Tokyo Game Show, and we are pleased to announce that it is finally available for purchase. You can check out the official unboxing video above, and just in case your memory needs a jog, here are some details of the new PS3. For starters, it will come in two capacities – 250GB and 500GB, where the former has arrived in the form of the UNCHARTED 3 Game of the Year Edition Bundle. Needless to say, that would mean Sony has thrown in the UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception Game of the Year Edition game, a voucher worth over $30 towards Dust 514 bonus digital content, as well as another voucher that you can use to enjoy a free 30 day membership of PlayStation Plus

Fret not for the longevity of this particular console as Sony has reassured the masses that they will be sticking to the 10-year development cycle at the minimum, and the PS3 should be supported all the way through to 2015 without a new model being released to upset the apple cart.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sony PS3 supported until 2015 at least, New Sony PS3 (2012) announced at Tokyo Game Show ,

These days, we have a better idea of what the Wii U is packing under the hood. While there are some aspects of the Wii U that are clearly better than the Xbox 360 or PS3, the CPU isn’t one of them. We don’t know everything about the Wii U’s CPU just yet (clock speed, for instance, is still a mystery), but we do know that it comes from IBM and features three Power PC cores.

That underwhelming CPU is giving one Wii U launch developer some trouble. During the Tokyo Game Show, Eurogamer sat down with Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper producer Akihiro Suzuki, who says that the Wii U’s CPU tends to have some issues when there are multiple characters on screen, which is pretty much always the case when playing a Dynasty Warriors game. “One of the weaknesses of the Wii U compared to PS3 and Xbox 360 is the CPU power is a little bit less,” Suzuki said. “So for games in the Warriors series, including Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi, when you have a lot of enemies coming at you at once, the performance tends to be affected because of the CPU.”

Suzuki followed up by saying that dealing with those performance issues can be “a challenge,” but did also point out that as far as sheer graphics power is concerned, the Wii U has the 360 and PS3 beat. Not only does the Wii U feature what is believed to be a custom AMD 7 series GPU, but it’s been confirmed to house 1GB of RAM that is dedicated to games, which is twice the amount the 360 and PS3 can boast. This means games which are more GPU-intensive will shine on Wii U, while those that require some significant CPU power risk falling flat.

It’s important to keep in mind that as time goes on, developers will figure out how to squeeze the most power out of the Wii U’s CPU. All you need to do is look at this generation to see that much is true – compare titles like The Last of Us or Uncharted 3 to games that launched at the beginning of the generation, and you’ll surely notice a sizable boost in overall quality. It seems safe to assume that we can expect a similar progression with games on Wii U, so this is just probably one of those launch hurdles that most developers have to deal with. Check our story timeline below for more on the Wii U!

Wii U’s slow CPU “a challenge” for one launch developer is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Call it the “SuperSlim,” the “Ultrasvelte,” or the “LipoStation 3” — just as long as “it stays positive,” says Sony Computer Entertainment America VP of marketing, handhelds and home consoles John Koller. The new, even thinner version of the PlayStation 3 doesn’t have a new name to distinguish itself from the myriad other PS3 models. Like Apple’s third iPad iteration, the third iteration of the PlayStation 3 is simply, “The PlayStation 3.” And like the second PS3 console, Koller says the new model is Sony’s new standard, with previous models going the way of the Puerto Rican shrew (poor little guy is totally extinct).

The new PS3 comes in two models for North America, 250GB and 500GB, which Koller says is a result of North American consumers being more “digitally inclined” than other territories. “We have to provide the hard drive size and the opportunity for them to be able to, out of the box, utilize that content,” he argues. But this philosophy may be flawed — one of Sony’s main competitor’s, Nintendo, is applying the same logic to its Wii U, albeit with starkly different results. Nintendo argues that it doesn’t want to pass the rapidly declining cost of memory on to the consumer, so you’ll be able to attach any form of external memory to its console. That functionality also exists in the PS3 — Flash memory via USB or a full-on internal HDD replacement — but Koller says consumers are more inclined to purchase additional consoles rather than replacing internal storage. “When you look at some of the earlier chassis, and the really early adopters — the 20GB, and the 60GB — that consumer had a choice. They could either go out and buy another hard drive — and it’s an easy install, so we make it easy for the consumer if they want to take a hard drive off the shelf and plug it in, they can do that. They had a choice of doing that, or purchasing another PlayStation 3. And what’s been happening is we’re seeing a lot of adoption of second consoles in-house,” Koller says.

That philosophy is why Europe’s the only territory getting a 12GB Flash-based PlayStation 3. Sure, consumers can expand the system’s memory with Flash — the new model allows for internal memory expansion as well — but that doesn’t line up with SCEA’s goals in its territory. “The smaller Flash drive isn’t coming to North America, and a lot of that reason is the digital consumer,” Koller says. “We really want to make sure, out of the box, that there is an option for them to be able to download that content. That is really critical for us, very very important.”

Continue reading Sony explains missing PlayStation 3 price drop on old models, EU exclusivity of Flash memory version

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Sony explains missing PlayStation 3 price drop on old models, EU exclusivity of Flash memory version originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When it comes to the current generation video game consoles, which camp do you support? Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, or the Sony PS3? Well, some of us do not really care just which platform one purchases, as long as the games on it are worth playing, and others have all three without getting bogged down by things like fanboy-ism. Well, for folks who are thinking about picking up a Sony PS3, you might want to hold off your purchase for a little while longer, as at the Tokyo Game Show earlier this morning, Sony announced the availability of the new Sony PS3 which comes in a slimmer form factor, where you can choose from two capacities – namely 250GB and 500GB.

The external cosmetics make it easy for you to tell whether you have the new PS3 or not, as it comes in a smaller and more streamlined design, which will surely be more than decent to look at in any living room. In fact, Sony has sent the previous PS3 to the fat house by reducing its form factor by around 20% in size, resulting in it ending up as 25% lighter compared to its predecessor.

Of course, the two models will not just be released like that without any fanfare. In fact, the 250GB PS3 will be available later this month (on September 25th to be exact) for $269.99 a pop, where it will also carry along with it a limited edition bundle that will boast of UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception: Game of the Year Edition as well as a voucher that carries over $30 worth of bonus digital content for the highly acclaimed digital title, DUST 514. In total, this particular bundle would offer more than $70 in total combined value.

As for folks who feel that they obviously will not be able to do much with 250GB of storage space, there is always the new 500GB PS3 model that should be able to cater to your storage needs, where it too, will come in a limited edition bundle, although you will have to exercise additional patience as the release date is October 30th in conjunction with the release of Assassin’s Creed III, yet another more of less guaranteed blockbuster title for the PS3 platform.

Press Release

[ Sony unveils super slim PS3 at Tokyo Game Show copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]