Hasta La Gadget!

We can’t say this was unexpected, but Sony just pinged us to say that that Nazi PS3 ad is “totally fake” and was made without their approval — here’s the statement from the executive president of BBDO Chile, which made the ads:

This creative design did not involve and was never approved by Sony Computer Entertainment or Sony. This “mock campaign” was developed by BBDO Chile staff and was submitted to various creative competitions/festivals without prior notification or approval from SCE/Sony, and it is not representative of the views or advertising policies of SCE/Sony. BBDO Chile apologizes for using this creative concept without authorization or prior approval, and for its misrepresentation of the PlayStation brand and its values.

Settles that, we suppose — although we’re guessing BBDO Chile isn’t going to be Sony’s agency of record very much longer.

Filed under: Gaming

Sony says Nazi PS3 ad is a “mock campaign” and not real originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d think Sony’s ad teams would have learned to stay away from needlessly controversial imagery after that whole “White is coming” PSP debacle or even those “Take a Running Jump Here” ads, but… they haven’t. Check out these Chilean PlayStation 3 ads, which show a modern-day gamer giving a heart transplant to Joan of Arc and a blood transfusion to a Nazi. Yes, Sony has Godwin’d its own advertising. The Nazi in question is supposed to be Erwin Rommel, a highly decorated and respected German field marshal, but it’s not like Sony’s really riffing on that here, and making an ad with a swastika in it that relies on your audience to know the subtle nuances of WWII history just isn’t the smartest move in the world. It’s a pretty simple rule: if you make a video game ad with Nazis in it and it’s not about shooting the Nazis, you’ve screwed up. Let’s just stick with those creeptastic Japanese PS3 spots, okay?

P.S.- We’ll shut off comments in a heartbeat. Behave yourselves.

[Via Copyranter]

Continue reading Chilean PS3 ads show gamer giving blood transfusion to a Nazi

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Chilean PS3 ads show gamer giving blood transfusion to a Nazi originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In what has become the “hip cool thing to do” for consoles these days, the 250GB version of the PS3 Slim is up for pre-order in the UK before it’s been even confirmed by Sony for most of the world. Sadly, it’s just the boring old black version — so far the white PS3 Slim has only been seen making nice with Final Fantasy XIII in Japan — but at £285 (about $455 US) it is more than double the capacity for only 40 more “quid” than the original PS3 Slim. Pre-orders are available now, and Amazon says the console will ship on October 1. So the question is, do you jump in now, or do you wait for one of the myriad 250GB bundles headed for Europe? It’s the moral dilemma of our times.

[Via I4U]

Filed under: Gaming

250GB PS3 shows up for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk, ships on October 1 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not big into tracking sales figures but a million consoles sold is pretty notable. Especially when your 3 year-old console achieves that number in just 3 weeks. Of course, the sale bump is the result of the PS3 receiving a price adjustment, some minor cosmetic slimming, and internal tinkering that most notably decreased power draw (and noise). Good on ya Sony. But we’d love to see auction sales statistics for the same three weeks — we expect there was an appreciable uptick in demand for first gen consoles with hardware-based PS2 emulation, SACD playback, and 4x USB ports immediately after the PS3 Slim was announced, and its mysteries revealed.

Continue reading PS3 Slim sells 1 million units in 3 weeks, chin chin!

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PS3 Slim sells 1 million units in 3 weeks, chin chin! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is your name “harborneb?” It is? Then you might be out of a job. That’s the name attributed to the author of a Microsoft Word document sitting on SEGA America’s official FTP site at this very moment. The .doc file resides in SEGA’s otherwise benign “news” directory. Now, it’s very possible that the document could have been uploaded in jest as an Internet prank. But assuming it’s real, then these meeting minutes between SEGA and Sony on August 5th reveal quite a few tantalizing details. Chiefly, that Sony will be launching its PS3 motion controller in Japan in March of 2010, Spring elsewhere. There’s also discussion of PlayStation 2 emulation on the PS3 with a note that “SCEA wants to sell all PS2 titles on PSN (GTA Vice City/Sonic/etc).” Want more? Then hit up the read link and download the document yourself. Else, you’ll just have to hope for news from the Tokyo Game Show kicking off Thursday.

Update: The document has been pulled. We’ve added the full text after the break.

[Via Gamesindustry.biz, thanks DarKlar]

Read [Warning: FTP link]

Continue reading PS3 Motion Controller launching in March?

Filed under: Gaming

PS3 Motion Controller launching in March? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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