This week in video gaming news there are new releases and new revelations about games out on the market. Forza 3 has a bit of a physics mishap and Ballad of Gay Tony shakes the GTA community. Also, there is an interesting video showing what Sony could have done with the Eyetoy if the company just had the foresight.
The PS2 has just celebrated its ninth birthday in the United States, with it originally being released on Oct. 26, 2000. Sony has often spoken of a 10-year life cycle for the console so does this mean the Playstation 2 has but a year left before being put out to pasture? Not at all.
The games industry seems to have at last stopped the slide which has seen revenues drop six months in succession. While the increase was only slight, with the holiday season just around the corner, things are most definitely looking up. The PS3 won the hardware battle as expected, with only the DS preventing it from managing a clean sweep. Meanwhile, Halo 3: ODST sold massively well, racking up sales of over 1.5 million units.
A feature that is missing on the current iteration of the PS3 on the market is the lack in full PS2 backwards compatibility. The old launch models, which are not sold anymore, are the only PS3s that can play PS2 games. However, according to some leaked meeting notes between SEGA and SCEA, it seems Sony is planning on bringing backwards compatibility back along with a special import section in the PSN store.
July was a slow month in gaming with sales dropping for the past five months. However, August looks to be a new month with some indication of the holiday season finally creeping upon us. Almost all of the platforms increased in August from July, with the PS3 taking an exceptional leap. Unfortunately, the legendary PS2 continues its downward spiral.
The PS3 so far hasn’t really been the huge success Sony must have envisioned. It has failed to sell in the numbers needed to take it from last position in the home console market, losing out to the Xbox 360 and the Wii so far in its short life. But will the release of the PS3 Slim, which echoes the release of a slimline version of the PS2, mean the Playstation 3 can now outpace and outperform its predecessor?
Two of the most iconic PS2 games is set to hit the PS3 in a new and remastered way. Sony recently unveiled yesterday that God of War Collections will be released this holiday 2009, which will be completely PS3 enhanced from trophies to graphics. This will definitely be a hot holiday item for gamers.
Just a few months ago we all agreed that the video games industry seemed to be recession-proof, providing retail strength in the face of every other entertainment sector collapsing. But that clearly isn’t the case, and the Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, PS3, and PS2 all dropping in July according to NPD.
President Obama made a comment a few days ago using the Xbox as the whipping boy for problems with video games today. This comment has Microsoft riled-up resulting in a public response to President Obama’s comment. Interestingly enough, Microsoft claims that the Xbox 360 is the only console to have parental controls.
The signs have been there for the last few months but June finally saw conclusive evidence that the video games industry is not recession-proof. June saw sales fall year-on-year for the fourth month in a row and the largest year-on-year monthly decline since September 2000.
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