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PLAY STATION SALES ! CHECK WIKIPEDIA FOR MORE !

The PlayStation 3's initial production cost is estimated to have been US$805.85 for the 20 GB model and US$840.35 for the 60 GB model;[55] however, they were priced at US$499 and US$599, respectively.[56] The high manufacturing costs meant that every unit was sold at a loss of approximately $250,[55] contributing to Sony's games division posting an operating loss of ¥232.3 billion (US$1.97 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2007.[57] In April 2007, soon after these results were published, Ken Kutaragi, the head of gaming at Sony, announced plans to retire. Various news agencies, including The Times[58] and The Wall Street Journal[59] reported that this was due to poor sales, whilst SCEI maintains that Kutaragi had been planning his retirement for six months prior to the announcement.[59]

Since the system's launch, production costs have been reduced significantly as a result of phasing out the EE chip[60] and falling hardware costs.[61][62] The cost of manufacturing Cell microprocessors has fallen dramatically as a result of moving to the 65 nm production process[63][62] and Blu-ray diodes being around $100 cheaper to manufacture.[61][64]

The cumulative reduction in production costs is as follows:

* Blu-ray (cost reduction: US$100)
* Cell B.E. (cost reduction: US$29 – US$40)
* EE removal (cost reduction: US$27)
* Chipset Modifications: Sony has removed a CXD9208GP, 2 RDRAM chips (US$5), and some passives and are planning on moving the RSX graphics chip from 90 nm to 65 nm production process and "the unification of separate smaller ICs — such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi — into single chip solutions and a change to a more specialized Southbridge." (cost reduction: unknown)

This brings the total cost reduction to at least $156 excluding the chipset modifications. Excluding the 65nm Cell B.E. change, the minimum cost reduction based on this approximation becomes $127.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]

On January 7, 2007, Sony met its goal of shipping 1 million units to North America.[73] Just over a week later, on January 16, 2007, Sony confirmed they had shipped 1 million units in Japan, bringing the worldwide total to over 2 million shipped.[74] As of April 1, 2007, approximately 5.5 million units had been shipped worldwide.[57]

In the worldwide marketplace, PlayStation 3 is currently behind its competitor systems, the Xbox 360 and the Wii, both overall and in monthly sales. In Japan the Wii outsold the PS3 by 3 to 1 in August, 4 to 1 in July, 6.5 to 1 in June, 5.6 to 1 in May and 4 to 1 in April;[75][76][77][78] likewise the PS3 sold 2.5 times more units in June than the Xbox 360. In Japan 2,800,576 Wiis have been sold in total, compared to 1,143,798 PS3s; however the Xbox 360, which was released almost a year earlier than its competitors has sold only 380,131 units.[79][80]

In North America, the PS3 was outsold 4.4 to 1 by the Wii and 2.2 to 1 by the Xbox 360 in June 2007, and sold the least units of any seventh generation console in the period January through April.[81] Additionally, the PS3 saw the largest drop in sales of the three systems, selling 37% less in April than the previous month; Sony has attributed the poor sales in April to a lack of new software for the console.[81] In many cases, the system has been outsold by its predecessor, the PlayStation 2.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA !

Indiana Jones + Tomb Raider for PLAY STATION3

CALGARY -- Blending the best of the Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider franchises, Uncharted introduces a new hero to the gaming world by the name of Nathan Drake.

If his first adventure is any indication, we'll soon be seeing a lot more of him.

Claiming to be a descendant of the explorer Sir Francis Drake, Nathan convinces a documentarian to pay for retrieval of his ancestor's coffin, as long as she captures it on film. When he pulls it from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, he discovers a coffin empty save for one thing: Francis Drake's personal diary, which contains a 400-year-old map to the fabled treasure of El Dorado.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Sony
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What follows is one of the most entertaining, engaging adventures you're likely to have on PlayStation 3 all year.

On a mysterious Pacific island, fortune hunter Drake tries to track down this priceless treasure while evading mercenaries out to kill him. And that involves a game that seamlessly blends action, adventure and puzzle-solving. Halfway between a 3-D adventure platformer and a third-person shooter, it requires you to use your running-jumping-swinging skills to solve environmental puzzles in order to get to the next spot. Sometimes it's as obvious as swinging from a vine to a ledge. Other times, it can be a frustrating exercise until you finally notice the clue that helps you on your way.

There are some excellent production values, beyond good graphics and audio. As video gaming continues to morph itself closer to cinema, we find in Uncharted some smart dialogue, a strong story, great action and likable characters - elements you'd find in any great Hollywood adventure flick. When some of the puzzle-solving gets tedious, when you have to traverse yet another cliff face by hanging off ledges, the desire to see the story unfold keeps you going.

This is suddenly getting to be a very good year for video gaming, one in which Uncharted: Drake's Fortune could easily be overlooked among such winners as Guitar Hero 3, Halo 3, Heavenly Sword and Call of Duty 4.

In any other year, Uncharted would be the one I'd tell you to hunt down and play right away; you won't be disappointed if you do.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Platform: PlayStation 3

Rated: Teen

Rating: Four-and-a-half stars out of five

MORE ON: SONY PS3 NEWS!

NINTENDO DS sold 21 MILLIONS

Nintendo announced today that it has sold 21 million DS units world-wide in less than two years, and gave new insight into its expectations for the next-gen Wii console.
Broken down, that equals roughly one DS sold every two minutes.


The DS: soon to be renamed the "Nintendo Cash Cow"
Nintendo also today released their consolidated financial report, which revealed a few interesting predictions about Nintendo's hopes for the Wii: the company expects to sell 6 million Wii consoles by next March, as well as 17 million Wii games.

But ahead of the Wii's holiday launch, the DS's strong sales are already highlighting Nintendo's unique marketing strategy. "We attribute this success," said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior VP of marketing and corporate communications, "to Nintendo's overall strategy of offering something for everyone, from five-year-olds caring for their Nintendogs to 65-year-olds tuning their mental agility with Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day."

Launched in November of 2004, the Nintendo DS has become a popular choice amongst gamers. That's especially true in Japan, where used DSs were recently considered more valuable than a new Sony PSP or Microsoft Xbox 360. The recently released DS Lite, which features a smaller form-factor and brighter screens, is also proving hugely popular world wide.

BioShock ! THE GAME OF GAMES !

When it comes to high profile games, the weight of expectation can do one of two things to it - Cause it to sink under the weight of its own initial promise, or to ride it like a wave to become the classic that everyone was hoping for during its development cycle.

As far as BioShock goes, that weight of expectation really couldn't get much heavier. For starters, the developers of this game are broadly based around the team who worked on the cult classic, and much venerated, System Shock 2. Couple that with the general feeling of hype and anticipation that has built up around this title across various online communities, particularly over the past few months, and you have a game that will be branded a failure by gamers if it proves to be anything other than 2007's game of the year. That's a pretty big ask for any first-person shooter, no matter how classy its origins or intentions.


For all its delusions of grandeur (to use a rather harsh term) BioShock is, at the end of the day, a first-person shooter. That in itself might be enough to turn some people off of this game as 'just another FPS', and to be honest I can't argue with that line of thought. Although BioShock looks to take the genre to some new places in certain senses, if first-person shooters aren't your thing then I don't see BioShock being different enough to grab your attention.

If you're still reading after that opening paragraph of this section, it's safe to assume that the FPS is still your cup of tea - Welcome to the review!

Once you fire up the game, it takes very little time for you to be hurled headlong into 'Rapture', the world in which BioShock is set. The game begins with a brief introduction as to when and where you are (1960, in case you're wondering), but the next thing you know the plane upon which your character is travelling is plunged as a flaming wreck into the Mid-Atlantic. From here, it's a case of swimming for your life to the conveniently placed monolithic structure in the middle of the ocean - A building which leads to a door, which leads to a capsule, which leads deep under the sea... To Rapture, the creation of a man known as Andrew Ryan.

Like most huge underwater cities in science fiction, Rapture has been built as one man's utopia - A world for the brightest minds in science and art, and the hardest working men and women wishing to escape from the oppression of capitalism, religion, communism and the like. This freedom from the normal constraints of humanity has led to numerous scientific breakthroughs, giving the people of Rapture access to what are known as 'Plasmids' - Serum which can rewrite a person's genetic code to give them, to put it bluntly, super powers. Need to perform telekinesis, or shoot lighting from your hands? Buy yourself the relevant Plasmid, and enjoy your new abilities to your heart's content.

At least, that was the plan, but again, as with all of the best (and indeed cheesiest) science fiction, life is never that simple. As you soon learn upon reaching Rapture itself, the use of Plasmids has had horrific side-effects on the populace, causing anxiety, paranoia and above all, violence. After being thrown into this nightmare scenario, you have no choice but to learn the 'rules' (and I use that term loosely) of this new world, helped along your way by a young Irish fellow named Atlas. But exactly why has everything deteriorated so quickly in Rapture? What is driving the chaos? Who are these young girls wandering the city with huge, terrifying protectors? As you wander around this huge city, the answers slowly begin to present themselves...

After an introduction to Rapture that oozes reminders of that initial train journey in Half-Life, BioShock throws almost non-stop action at you from that moment onwards. Within minutes of leaving the capsule that has taken you down into the bowels of Rapture you'll find yourself needing to defend yourself against so-called 'Splicers' - Inhabitants of the city ravaged by over-use of Plasmids, and not long after that you'll need to take the plunge and become a Plasmid user yourself. A few Plasmid and weapon upgrades later, you'll wind up facing your first 'Big Daddy' - A terrifying creature whose sole purpose in life is to protect its 'Little Sister', those seemingly innocent girls we mentioned earlier who aren't at all what they first seem.

To differentiate itself from the slew of other first-person shooters on the market, BioShock has a couple of claims to fame in its arsenal. The first one is obvious - The presence of Plasmids alongside conventional weapons gives for far more variety when it comes to how you deal with your various opponents in the game, with sensible usage of the two required to progress at a reasonable rate. As you can only 'carry' a limited number of Plasmids at any one time (while others can be stored in your 'gene bank', where they can be switched around at kiosk littering the game's corridors), there is a certain amount of tactical awareness required to make sure you equip yourself with Plasmids that suit your playing style or the tasks assigned to you. This soon becomes second nature as you find a playing style that you're comfortable with, and there will most likely come a point where you find at least one or two Plasmids that become a staple part of your BioShock experience, be it the ability to freeze or electrocute enemies so that you can finish them off with conventional arms through to the use of telekinesis to catch and throw objects. Needless to say, all of these abilities have advantages and disadvantages, which need to be weighed up dependant on various scenarios.

As you progress, things only become more complicated with regard to building up an arsenal of abilities to match your playing style - Aside from Plasmids, you also encounter various other upgrades in a number of disciplines, which are again limited in the number you can actively use at any one time. These range from upgrades to help your hacking skills (more on that later), to the ability to give a small electric shock to your enemies when they manage to land a blow on you. Again, this adds to the more tactical aspects of the game, as juggling these upgrades becomes ever more complex.

Indeed, choosing the path to follow for yourself (aside from the actual base storyline, which is fixed as you might expect) is a real hallmark of this game. Beyond choosing your weaponry and upgrades, one of the biggest choices of all comes each time you face up to a Big Daddy. Once this huge, underwater suit-clad giant has been defeated, you're left with a defenceless, scared Little Sister to deal with. Little Sisters are valuable because they contain a concentration of 'Adam' - In essence, they are the source of points which you can spend on Plasmid upgrades and the like. But, at this point you are left with two options - Harvest the Little Sister for the maximum amount of Eve, or rescue her, turning her back into a normal little girl, but receiving far less Adam in the process. The choice you make at this juncture will change certain elements of the game quite heavily, while also potentially adding replay value - Play the game through once as a nice guy and rescue all the girls, then again as the self-centred type who will happily harvest them all for Adam aplenty.

Even simple tasks offer you several different options to juggle - For example, take coming across one of the electronic sentries that are dotted around Rapture. On one hand, a swift grenade will destroy the sentry easily and put it out of commission. Or, you could try temporarily deactivating it with a bolt of electricity from the relevant Plasmid, and then finishing it off with a hail of bullets. Thirdly, you could deactivate it in the same manner, then race in close up to try and hack the device. At this point, you can pay money or use an autohacking tool (if you've picked one up or bought one on your travels) to hack the device, so that it will then work for you, attacking any of your opponents, or you can hack it the good old-fashioned way - Manually. Choosing this option takes you to a Pipe Dreams-esque sub-game, where you have to complete the puzzle presented to you in time. It's an interesting little distraction from the constant shooting action, and the fact that you don't have to hack devices if you don't fancy tackling this puzzle-based element says it all about the open-ended gameplay BioShock offers. Speaking of sub-games, as you progress you also get to pick up a research camera - This will be somewhat familiar to anyone who has ever played Dead Rising on the Xbox 360, as it allows you to take pictures of Splicers and your opponents in general, which will then be rated and used towards unlocking bonuses to help you defeat the enemies you snap. Another nice little aside to add to the fun factor as you explore Rapture.

Aside from simple game mechanics, BioShock is clearly heavily focused on telling the story of Rapture, and in a suitably atmospheric/creepy atmosphere to boot. This is done in many ways, from the cries of anguished Splicers to promotional posters on the walls, and scrawled graffiti through to audio tapes left lying around the city. Indeed, the last of these is possible the weakest link in the BioShock experience - Although the voice acting and storytelling from these recordings is good in its own right, the whole concept of residents of Rapture leaving said recordings strewn around feels rather forced.

Overall though, the world of Rapture is certainly an immersive one, and the granularity in your choices with regard to weaponry and how you handle certain situations puts it a cut-above many a more generic first-person shooter. Add to that the unique feel of using Plasmids to aid you on your travels, and the basic puzzle element of the hacking sub-game, and you have a surprising amount of depth to enjoy. Thankfully, even the basic moving and shooting side of the game is well polished, with exploring Rapture and switching quickly between weapons and Plasmids quickly becoming second nature. The AI isn't always great, but is often good enough to offer at least something of a challenge later in the game.

Graphics

After exploring the city of Rapture for a while, only one words springs to mind - Sumptuous. Even ignoring the actual graphical quality itself, the imagination behind the artwork and design of the game is difficult to ignore. While the 1940s/1950s style practiced by BioShock has been done to death in science fiction, 2K Games have somehow managed to pull off making it look both fresh and relevant, while also working hard to make sure that every aspect of the game fits into this world stuck in time - Even the brief videos which show when you pick up a new Plasmid take great pleasure in presenting themselves in a tongue-in-cheek 1950s advertising style. Everything from the architecture to the way Splicers are dressed fits perfectly, and it's that kind of attention to detail that helps to immerse you so thoroughly in the game world.

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Of course, if all this wasn't backed up with decent graphics quality it would all go to waste, but thankfully that isn't the case here. 2K Games have leveraged Epic's Unreal Engine 3 here, utilising all it has to offer to make for a really quite beautiful gaming experience. Even with a DirectX 9 graphics board, the game looks stunning, with DirectX 10 functionality offering some additional improvements to water, smoke and shadow effects. As long as you have a relatively powerful GPU though, you can't help but be impressed with the various effects on show - The first seconds when Rapture is revealed to you are a definite 'wow' moment that will stick in your mind for some time. Meanwhile, all of the characters in-game are well-rounded enough visually without ever being overly recognisable, aside from Big Daddies, who are of course the pinnacle of an instantly recognisable (and not to mention creepy) individual within the game world.

Of course, it isn't all perfect from a graphical point of view. The biggest gripe at present is the lack of anti-aliasing in-game, although this is currently working for GeForce 8 series users under Windows XP - Hopefully future drivers will fix this, as the game is sorely in need of AA in places. That aside, my only other complaint is that BioShock seems to have been struck by the 'shiny factor' that we've seen in so many titles since DirectX 9 became prevalent. While some things in-game need to be shiny, on some surfaces it either looks over done or just plain unnecessarily. It isn't hugely distracting most of the time, but it's certainly noticeable on occasion.



One final piece of kudos has to be handed to 2K Games on account of the lighting used within the game. We all remember Doom 3 and its overly dark, flashlight-heavy corridors, which were all designed in the name of atmosphere. However, BioShock finds no need for the player to carry a flashlight, yet still provides a moody, atmospheric and sometimes downright scary scenario without relying on any of the predictable shock tactics of id Software's creation.

Audio

While the quality of audio and voice acting is often a secondary consideration for even high-profile game titles, this really isn't the case with BioShock, as 2K Games have set out to make the audible experience of the game at least as important as its visual impact. On this front, BioShock is nothing short of a tremendous success - Coupled with the overall tense atmosphere of the game, every deranged cry from a splicer and each sound of something being knocked over nearby can really ramp up the tension, and if you don't keep your cool you can soon find yourself spinning around at every little sound, convinced you're about to run into a bunch of Splicers intent on doing you some serious damage. Above and beyond that, sound actually becomes an important part of gameplay, as you find yourself listening for the whirr of security cameras and trying to pin-point exactly where that Big Daddy or Splicer you can hear is located.

Voice acting throughout the game is also good, treading the thin line between sounding genuine and over-acting very nicely. Again, it's the mentally anguished cries of the Splicers that add much to the game's tension, hearing them lament their lives adding both pathos and creepiness to the otherwise abandoned corridors of Rapture. I know that some have expressed frustration with Atlas, the Irishman who helps you through the game via a radio link, but personally I didn't find that it detracted from the game at all at any point. Again, an excellent lesson in how to create a first-person shooter with real atmosphere.

Conclusion

So, BioShock is here, and the hype is turning into actual experience with the game itself. Can it possibly live up to the pre-release hysteria? The answer is, of course, no - No game will ever turn out as good as you envision it in your mind's eye.

But does that make it a disappointment? Absolutely not. BioShock may still be a humble first-person shooter, but boy does it do it well. It has a story that captivates, an atmosphere that is largely second to none, and the whole gameplay experience oozes polish from the graphics and audio down to the control scheme whether you're using keyboard and mouse or an Xbox 360 controller.

SOURCE : EliteBastards.com

NINTENDO SALES OUTBURST !

Yesterday, Nintendo overtook Canon to become the second most valuable company in Japan, with a current market value of 8.39 trillion yen (a phenomenal £36.4 billion).

Whilst the number one company - Toyota - has a value of over three times Nintendo's, this still represents an astonishing return to form, considering Nintendo make only games consoles, and are up against some of the biggest and most famous companies in the world.

It is not so long ago, with the sale of Rare, with the failure of the Gamecube, with the threat of the PSP looming, with Microsoft banging on the door of the console market, with the DS seemingly a gimmick, that Nintendo seemed to be in waters that were a bit too deep for them to handle.

(more at dsgaming.co.uk)

Sony pleased by recent PS3 sales climb

Sony has responded to this month's NPD reports on sales. "We were obviously very pleased to see that PS3 sales increased with 159K units sold at retail for the month of July, which puts us up 61% over June numbers." Impressive! Although the PS3 didn't outsell the Xbox 360, it got close (the Xbox 360 sold 180k).

The sales increase is most likely spurred by the recent price drop, but also the upcoming library of games that will be arriving on the PS3. However, it seems unlikely that Europe will receive a price drop. In a statement to Next-Gen, the always outspoken David Reeves admitted that a price drop so early in the game would be like admitting defeat. "Had we gone down in price in July, that's three months after we launched PS3. It'd be kind of like saying, 'hey, we failed.' But we didn't. We've been selling through much more than we ever thought we would be, even in Germany. If [a price cut is] what they want to do in the US, fine... But we don't need to do it in Europe."

With games like Warhawk and Heavenly Sword available in the coming weeks, it'll be interesting to see how Sony's next-gen platform fares. Until then, Sony can enjoy the still-incredible sales of PS2 hardware and software.

Source: PS fanboy !